Stet NewsGreetings, Stetters! For you today, a new approach to treating mental illness, a court victory doesn’t erase low ratings for Tenet hospitals, a gift of land for Vanderbilt, leadership on the line in Riviera Beach, a deadlock at the Port of Palm Beach and all the treats at the new Plum Market in Palm Beach Gardens.
🛟 A cheaper way to treat mental illness
The Palm Beach County Health Care District plans a new approach to treating mental health emergencies. Officials say it’s cheaper, frees police for crime-fighting and treats patients in a way that keeps them out of crisis in the future instead of putting them behind bars.
- Jails and hospitals house the most patients now. Their treatment, if any, is the most expensive. Half of emergency departments don’t offer psychiatric services.
- The new approach aims to reduce the number of emergencies.
- It would also help get homeless people off the streets.
Yes, but: The first step costs $145 million, the budget for building a crisis intervention center near Southern Boulevard and Florida’s Turnpike. The taxpayer-supported district has spent $16.7 million on land and this month announced the facility’s name: Two Waters Mental Health Center.
- All mental health patients in the county, especially those in crisis, would be welcomed there.
- Upon arrival, patients would sit in recliners where they could be supported by peers and family.
- A professional would monitor for 23 hours.
- Patients who are stabilized would be discharged and given help with housing, medication, outpatient appointments and other needs.
- Those who need to stay longer would move to a bed — all in the same facility.
Margie Balfour, a psychiatrist and mental health care expert, endorsed the approach in her March 12 presentation to the Health Care District board and a room full of professionals, including police officers.
What they’re saying: “The defaults in most communities is that you call 911 for chest pain, you get an ambulance. Staff take care of your medical needs and take you to the emergency room. Whereas for mental health, the default is 911 if you’re suicidal, you get law enforcement,” Balfour, told Stet News. “If the response was the same for medical emergencies, you wouldn’t stand for that.”
Zoom in: Visits to hospitals can cost $10,000 to $20,000 where a crisis center visit is about $4,000. A jail diversion program in Miami-Dade County saved taxpayers hundreds of millions every year.
Zoom out: Severely mentally ill patients make up 6% of the population. They drive 44% of all health-care costs.
What’s next: Construction would begin on Two Waters next year, with opening planned for 2029.
See the Health Care District video explaining the facility’s name here.
Read more about Balfour’s approach to mental health treatment at StetNews.org.
— Holly Baltz
⭐️ Tenet’s 5-star court victory
Tenet Healthcare won big in court.
It defeated Leapfrog, forcing the hospital rating agency to remove from its website the D and F safety grades it gave Tenet’s five Palm Beach County hospitals — Good Samaritan, St. Mary’s, Palm Beach Gardens, West Boca and Delray.
But low ratings still haunt the for-profit hospital provider.
Why it matters: Patients have little idea what goes on beyond their hospital beds. Leapfrog, a nonprofit formed more than 20 years ago, hoped to change that by analyzing hospital data and publicizing its findings to pull back the curtain on hospital care and spur hospitals to do better.
Zoom out: Even without Leapfrog’s ratings, patients can still click on the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services link and find a one-star rating out of five for Good Samaritan, St. Mary’s, Palm Beach Gardens and Delray. West Boca received two stars.
- Rankings from the Mayo Clinic’s HealthLocator were similar. Delray, Good Samaritan and Palm Beach Gardens medical centers ranked in the bottom 10% of all hospitals in the country. St. Mary’s was ranked in the bottom 12% and West Boca was ranked in the bottom 20%.
Context: The nonprofit Jupiter Medical Center did the best among local hospitals on all the surveys, receiving four stars from CMS, 71% from Mayo and an A safety grade from Leapfrog.
Leapfrog vowed to appeal U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks’ blistering 41-page ruling that found Leapfrog punished Tenet for not participating in its survey. The safety rating “has no scientific basis, unfairly penalizes non-participating hospitals and misrepresents hospital safety,” he ruled.
What they’re saying: “We hope this decision leads to meaningful changes nationwide, so that hospitals are no longer subjected to Leapfrog’s deceptive grading system and pressure tactics,” said Maggie Gill, a Tenet executive.
The other side: Tenet should be more worried about its low rankingson patient safety than on Leapfrog’s methodology, Leapfrog President and CEO Leah Binder said.
“It’s such a disservice to the community they serve,” she said. “It’s unconscionable.”
Read more about the ruling and where to go to find hospital ratings at StetNews.org.
— Jane Musgrave
💚 Greenes’ gift boosts Vanderbilt
Palm Beach billionaire real estate developer Jeff Greene and his wife, Mei Sze, have donated key downtown land to Vanderbilt University next to the site of the school’s planned West Palm Beach campus.
The 1.3 acres between Evenia and Datura streets west of Sapodilla Avenue have been appraised at $80 million, Greene said after an announcement Monday.
Why it matters: The land will be combined with 7 acres over a two-block area between Tamarind and Sapodilla avenues from Fern to Datura streets being granted to Vanderbilt by Palm Beach County and West Palm Beach.
Flashback: Greene paid $5.5 million in December 2012, near the low point of the real estate market, for 13 downtown lots, including the eight lots he is donating to Vanderbilt. Those properties give Vanderbilt all but two lots on the long block between Datura and Evernia streets.
What they’re saying: “Our hope was that, together with the city and county, we could get a hospital, museum, stadium or university on these amazing, prime downtown parcels,” Greene said Monday. “Getting Vanderbilt University to open a 1,000-student graduate campus on our land is literally our dream come true.”
What’s next: Vanderbilt announced in January that it had achieved $300 million in private commitments toward its $500 million fundraising goal and would move into the next phase of the project with a plan to open in fall 2029.
“This land will allow us to design a true, cohesive campus, where classrooms, labs and community spaces come together seamlessly,” Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier said Monday. “We hope Jeff and Mei Sze’s vision will inspire others to join in this noble effort.”
Keep reading about how the gift came together at StetNews.org.
– Carolyn DiPaolo
🔥 Riviera Beach city manager under pressure
Riviera Beach City Manager Jonathan Evans’ job is on the line after a two-hour City Council discussion Wednesday night on whether to fire him.
Driving the news: Council Member Bruce Guyton made a hard push, fended off by Council Chairperson Shirley Lanier, who urged the council to avoid the kind of hasty firing that could get the city sued.
- When Council Members Fercella Davis Panier and Glen Spiritis agreed with Lanier, Guyton rescinded his motion.
Why it matters: Evans’ potential departure would come at a critical time, as he leads projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars and the FBI has announced its interest in city activities by dropping subpoenas on City Hall.
Context: This isn’t the first time Evans has faced a council vote for his job. He was hired as city manager in March 2017 and fired by a 3-2 vote the following September.
Evans sued, won a financial settlement and returned as city manager in May 2019, appointed by a newly elected City Council.
Of note: His contract ends on July 13 unless it is renewed.
What he’s saying: Guyton listed his grievances with Evans, including employee morale and the cost burden of the city’s $400 million water treatment system.
“I think it’s time to move in another direction,” Guyton said.
The other side: “I love my job. I love what I do. I love this community,” Evans told council members. “As long as the board would have me, I would love to serve in the capacity as administrator. But that’s a decision that you, and you alone, as the board, have to make.”
What’s next: Lanier said the city manager’s contract would be on the April 1 council agenda.
Keep reading to follow the arguments aired last week at StetNews.org.
— Carolyn DiPaolo
🛳️ Port lurches into choppy waters
When Jean Enright resigned her Port of Palm Beach Commission seat in October after serving less than a year of her term, it steered the port board into choppy waters.
Catch up quick: Commissioners couldn’t agree last week on a method to select one of 12 candidates for Enright’s seat.
- They deadlocked 2-2.
Commissioners Wayne Richards and Varisa Dass urged Commission Chair Blair Ciklin to relent from his position that a vote be held and if no candidate receives the support of three commissioners, the position be reopened so others can apply.
- The board’s fourth member, Deandre Poole, backed Ciklin.
Zoom in: Ciklin’s approach would almost certainly result in failure, Richards and Dass said, because it’s mathematically unlikely any one candidate would get three votes without narrowing the field.
They laid their concerns out at the March 19 meeting.
“It seems there is almost a purposeful willingness to select a process that will guarantee there is no consensus,” Dass said. “We’re basically sabotaging the process.”
Inside the room: A Richards-Dass motion to let commissioners pick all the candidates who would be acceptable and give the job to the one with the most selections failed 2-2.
What’s next: They’ll talk again in April. But Ciklin gave no inclination he would relent: “I have no timeline,” he said. “I don’t care if we delay it a week or month.”
Read more to find out who applied for the vacant Port of Palm Beach Commission seat at StetNews.org.
— Joel Engelhardt
🍊 The Juice
🇺🇸 Today is election day in North Palm Beach and for residents of state House District 87, which spans the coast from Hypoluxo to Jupiter. (Stet News on North Palm Beach candidates and District 87 candidates)
🤑 In South Florida, 53 billionaires held a combined net worth of $657 billion, up 13% from last year, figures in the 2026 Forbes World’s Billionaires List reveal. Forbes reported a record-breaking 3,428 billionaires worldwide — an increase of 400 from last year. (South Florida Business Journal $$$)
🏳️🌈 Lake Worth Beach officials are concerned that new state anti-LGBTQ legislation could jeopardize future Palm Beach Pride festivals, an event expected to draw 30,000 people to the city this weekend. “As I ride in the parade every year and celebrate our diversity, I could be removed from office,” Mayor Betty Resch said. (Lake Worth Beach Independent)
🗳️ Boca Raton lawyer Peter Ticktin, a classmate 65 years ago with Donald Trump at the New York Military Academy, is trying to persuade the president to issue an executive order that would allow the president to seize control of this fall’s midterm balloting. (Vanity Fair $$$)
✏️ Lincoln Elementary School will close at the end of this school year and be renovated to reopen in 2028 as the new home of Inlet Grove High, the Palm Beach County School Board decided March 11. (The Palm Beach Post $$$)
⛵ A rundown of the six largest superyachts at the Palm Beach International Boat Show, which opens Wednesday with more than $1 billion in inventory. (Forbes)
🖼️ The Norton Museum of Art reports that its “Art and Life in Rembrandt’s Time” exhibition is one of the most heavily attended in several years. The museum will be open until 8 pm on the exhibition’s last day, Sunday, March 29.
- Why to go: The exhibition is the largest collection of privately held Dutch 17th-century paintings ever organized in the United States with over a dozen Rembrandts.
🟧 Lawrence “Larry” Herbert, the Palm Beach resident who invented the Pantone Matching System for colors, is the subject of a documentary, “The King of Color,” now playing at CMX Cinemas Downtown at the Gardens. (Palm Beach Daily News $$$, New York Times review – gift link)
🎙️ “Top of Mind Florida,” the podcast by Michael Williams and Brian Crowley, hosts Craig McInnis, artist and manager of The Peach Art Collective in West Palm Beach. They discuss the effect of AI in the art world. (Listen now; watch after 4 pm today)
561NSIDER: 🛒 A Plum for Palm Beach County
Plum Market, the latest entry in the high-end, specialty grocery category in Palm Beach County, opens Thursday in the former Bed Bath & Beyond space in Palm Beach Gardens.
- The 30,000-square-foot store emphasizes sustainable, non-GMO and organic products along with full customer service.
- There’s also a dedicated chef with a culinary team, who run the prepared and hot bar food areas from the in-store kitchen.
What they’re saying: “The growth in Florida is staggering,” co-owner Marc Jonna said. “We’d been looking in the area and saw it as vastly underserved for this type of market.”
Zoom in: Plum Market joins six other high-end grocers on PGA and Northlake — Carmine’s, Trader Joe’s, Fresh Market, Whole Foods, Doris Market and Joseph’s Classic Market.
Zoom out: It’s the second Plum Market in Florida and the largest of the two stores.
- Nationwide, they have six large-format stores. The other in Florida is in Aventura.
- Plum Market also features 40 small “kitchens” or service stores with prepared and quick-serve foods in airports, offices and athletic facilities.
- Plans are to add two of the small stores to Palm Beach International Airport starting this summer.
Treats: See’s candies, fresh Driscoll’s Farms strawberries, freshly squeezed juices, Bell & Evans chickens, Niman Ranch American lamb, Scottish salmon, Snake River Farms wagyu beef and Bar Harbor and Halperns’ seafood.
Read more about what Plum Market has to offer at Stetnews.org.
— Jan Norris
