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Residents press council over Save Boca petition, 99‑year lease and appraisal methods
Summary
Speakers at public comment urged the council to honor a citizen petition, questioned a proposed 99‑year lease and the appraisal method, and disputed the number of certified petition signatures; the mayor corrected the certified‑signatures count and council said the judge's decision affects the charter amendment path.
Public comment at the Dec. 15 Boca Raton workshop focused heavily on citizen concerns about a proposed long‑term public‑private lease and the Save Boca petition effort.
Pam Paschke asked why condominium tax impacts were included in a recent financial analysis and expressed concern about the 99‑year ground‑lease term, calling multi‑decade leases "extremely difficult" for the city to assess over time. "Doing anything over 99 years is extremely difficult," she said, and asked staff to clarify how long‑term maintenance, replacement cycles and periods when new buildings are offline for repairs were treated in financial modeling.
Mike Gleibelson, who said he is running for mayor, criticized the council’s handling of the petition and called for placing the Save Boca charter amendment back on the ballot. Gleibelson told the council he stood "in solidarity with the 13,000 Boca Raton registered voters who signed the Save Boca charter amendment petition," and urged the council to align with petitioners’ goals.
The mayor corrected the public record on certification: he said the supervisor of elections certified roughly 6,200 Boca Raton residents on the larger question and noted overlaps among multiple petitions submitted. "Only 6,200 signatures were submitted and verified of Boca Raton residents on the petition," he said.
John Perlman and other speakers disputed aspects of staff and consultant work, raised questions about a proposed $30 million parking garage noted in earlier materials, and urged greater transparency on appraisal comparables and methodology. Perlman said some petition batches were submitted on different dates and argued that, when combined, the total number of submitted signatures exceeded 12,000, while the city said overlap reduced the certified total.
Speakers asked the council to consider legal and procedural options to put public‑lands protections before voters and to ensure public assets and parkland are not conveyed or leased without sufficient public input. The council did not act on those requests at the workshop but discussed options for additional ordinance or charter measures at later meetings.
