Stet NewsFor you today, why nonprofit organizations are nervous, a new county clerk, remembering a man who made his mark and what we learned from retiring Palm Beach Post columnist Frank Cerabino.
🔬 Nonprofit spending under scrutiny
Local agencies that count on Palm Beach County Commission support to help young people are alarmed that the commission may reduce or eliminate its $3.1 million annual contribution to nonprofits.
Why it matters: The money aims to help at-risk youngsters build productive lives. County officials say nonprofits already providing such services can provide them more efficiently than the government. But with federal and state cuts hitting nonprofit groups and Florida DOGE auditors combing through county records, such spending is under fire.
Catch up quick: Commissioners delayed a decision July 8 on distributing the money at the request of Commissioner Sara Baxter, who questioned whether the county’s contribution duplicated spending by another taxing body, the Children’s Services Council.
What they’re saying: “My goal is to fully support Governor DeSantis’ goal for the DOGE team to cut waste, fraud and abuse from county spending, which could include some nonprofits,” Baxter, a Republican, said in a statement.
Zoom in: Armed with spreadsheets detailing how much money the nonprofit agencies get from public sources, commissioners will be asked to decide Aug. 26.
- Among proposed recipients: Aid to Victims of Domestic Violence ($260,000), Compass ($306,000), Center for Child Counseling ($652,000), Milagro Foundation ($226,000) and Girl Scouts of Southeast Florida ($46,000).
Zoom out: Also on the agenda is the county’s Community Services Department plan to award $8.9 million in grants to nonprofits for mental health, substance abuse and housing programs.
- Among proposed recipients: South County Mental Health Center ($1.87 million), The Lord’s Place ($410,000), Alzheimer’s Community Care ($561,000) and Vita Nova Village ($94,500).
What’s next: The meeting is at 9:30 am Aug. 26. At its meeting today, the commission will consider spending $2.48 million in opioid settlement money.
Keep reading the story at StetNews.org.
— Jane Musgrave
👋 Meet your new clerk: Mike Caruso
State Rep. Mike Caruso, R-West Palm Beach, was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday to replace Joe Abruzzo as Palm Beach County clerk and comptroller.
Why it matters: Caruso was the second person appointed to the post in less than a week and will begin work today — the same day Abruzzo moves into his $425,000 job as county administrator. To comply with state law, Caruso was to be sworn in at 12:01 a.m. via Zoom by Chief Palm Beach County Judge Glenn Kelley.
Catch up quick: Shannon Ramsey-Cheesman, chief deputy of the office and a 2020 candidate for the post, had been tapped by Kelley last week as Abruzzo’s temporary replacement. Because of DeSantis’ quick action, she won’t head the office even briefly.
Zoom in: Caruso, a certified public accountant, resigned his House seat on Monday. He had been a loyal DeSantis supporter during recent GOP skirmishes. He was barred by term limits from running for reelection when his term expires in November 2026.
Next up: A special election will be held to fill Caruso’s House seat. His wife, Tracy, has already been campaigning to replace him.
Keep reading about Caruso’s appointment at StetNews.org.
– Jane Musgrave
A posthumous honor for Marty Perry
For 50 years, zoning attorney Marty Perry made his mark just about every month at some Palm Beach County zoning or commission meeting, pushing developer petitions with a unique style that at times seemed like performance art.
Topping out at 5-feet-5, he commanded attention whenever he stepped to the podium, tapping his superpowers of persuasion with his signature voice, a crisp baritone that rivaled James Earl Jones.
Perry died Oct. 6, 2024, at age 85 of kidney disease. But last month, he made one final permanent mark on the county: A meeting room in the heart of government zoning offices was dedicated in his honor.
Catch up quick: The plaque on the newly named “F. Martin ‘Marty’ Perry Conference Room” mentions his work under contract as the county’s first zoning attorney in the early 1970s, at the dawn of an era of transformative growth.
Yes, but: It also recognizes his more well-known role as a “community leader,” a label meant to highlight his transformative impact as a widely sought and respected land use lawyer with an encyclopedic knowledge of the county’s labyrinthine growth management rules.
What they’re saying: “He was a go-to problem solver for any issues that felt too complex to untangle,” Commissioner Gregg Weiss said at the July 24 dedication ceremony. “And when things got tricky – and in land use they always do – the advice was always the same: Call Marty. Because he’s not only read the fine print. He probably wrote it.”
Read more about the life and achievements of Marty Perry at StetNews.org.
— Joe Capozzi
🍊 The Juice
🚙 Get a new Florida driver’s license? You may not be able to vote. Since August 2024, anyone who has renewed a license has received a new number, a number often used to verify a voter’s identity. But the new number is not matching the old voter ID. All Voting is Local, a voting-rights group, is raising the issue. (Sun Sentinel $$$)
💰 A $47 million foreclosure ruling went against Brian Tuttle, threatening the Main Street at Tuttle Royale in Royal Palm Beach. The 38-acre section of the 200-acre Tuttle Royale called for 400,000 square feet of retail, 401 apartments, a 125-room hotel and 82,875 square feet of offices. The property is slated for court auction on Sept. 24. (South Florida Business Journal $$$)
✝️ Father Frank O’Loughlin, 83, founder of the Guatemalan Maya Center in Lake Worth Beach, picked Alligator Alcatraz to say Mass Saturday to celebrate his diamond jubilee for 60 years in the priesthood. “We have been invited, Lord, to participate in the great crime of our times. … You send us to be your face, your countenance, your visibility in the company of the heroes who have come to take asylum among us. So, maintain some confidence in one another as you charge us to go forth from here and be the face of your power and presence in the unfortunate episode through which this country is suffering.” (Joe Capozzi’s Lake Worth Beach Independent)
📲 Passengers who ride South Florida public transit, including Tri-Rail and buses in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties can buy tickets with a single smartphone app, called SoFloGo. (The Palm Beach Post $$$)
🚧 The Florida East Coast Railway is planning to close three rail crossings in Palm Beach Gardens for about three days each this month. The closures are: Donald Ross Road, 6 pm Aug. 20 to midnight Aug. 23; Northlake Boulevard, 6 pm Aug. 23 to midnight Aug. 26; and Burns Road, 6 pm Aug. 26 to midnight Aug. 28. (Palm Beach Gardens city website)
👮🏼♂️ Jupiter Police Chief Michael Barbera said he will retire Oct. 3 after 29 years with the department. (Town of Jupiter)
📫 Watch the mail this week. The Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s Office reports it will send tax notices Thursday.
💉 Should you get a flu shot? The St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Poynter Institute has a fact check. (Poynter)
📻 “Top of Mind Florida,” the podcast by Michael Williams and Brian Crowley, welcomes Palm Beach Gardens attorney Philip DiComo, who shares what people tell him about public media. (Listen here. Watch after 2 pm here)
561NSIDER: ✏️ 5 things to know about the departing Frank Cerabino
Gannett, the parent company of The Palm Beach Post, has agreed to buy out the paper’s longtime local news columnist, Frank Cerabino, Stet News reported last week.
Others deciding to leave: The Post’s interim opinion page editor and former executive editor, Rick Christie; the Palm Beach Daily News’ executive editor, Carol Rose; longtime investigations editor, Holly Baltz; and part-time editors Greg Stepanich and Lou Ann Frala.
Why it matters: Their departures represent about 10% of the workforce at The Post and Daily News and a large proportion of the newspaper’s institutional memory.
Then-Managing Editor Tom O’Hara gave Cerabino a column in 1991.
What he’s saying: “It was a no-brainer,” O’Hara, now retired, wrote to Stet News upon hearing of Cerabino’s announcement last week that he would retire. “Frank is skeptical and cynical. He’s an excellent reporter and a fine writer. He’s not afraid to piss off anyone and he’s always fair. And, of course, he’s so damn funny.
- “Hiring Frank and making him the local columnist is probably the highlight of my management career at The Post.”
Here are five things Stet News learned in talking with Frank Cerabino:
- He spoke to, and wrote often about, President Donald Trump, both after his first presidency and long before. “He was always trying to get me to write something nice about him, which, I’m glad to say, I never did,” Cerabino told Stet News.
- He never stopped reporting. Aside from backing his opinion column with detailed reporting, Cerabino would devote weeks to major assignments, such as the thorough accounting of Palm Beach County’s role in the 2000 presidential election, published just a month after the U.S. Supreme Court stopped Florida’s recount.
- He received large amounts of hate mail but viewed criticism as a positive. “You’re writing to get people to pay attention to an issue and your take on it,” he said. Readers would vie to be in his occasional mailbag column, “Notes from Hell,” by being the person, he said, “who told me off in the most creative way.”
- His attempt at a video column, “Street Level,” never took off. Among surviving videos: A trip to Lake Worth Beach to talk to day drinkers and to Riviera Beach to talk to residents about saggy pants.
- After years of churning out three, four or even five columns a week, at age 70 he doesn’t plan to continue working after his early September retirement: “There’s no Phase 2 Frank Cerabino independent journalist outfit,” coming, he said.
Read more: Post, Daily News staffers take buyouts and a conversation with Frank Cerabino.
— Joel Engelhardt and Carolyn DiPaolo
