Next up:
- Thursday 3/5 is the PBC Schools District’s community meeting re: Westlake’s new elementary school, SRHS auditorium at 6PM.
- Education and Youth Advisory Board meeting is next Thursday 3/12, 6PM at 4001 SPW.
1) WE HAVE OUR CITY MANAGER FINALIST – Mr. Howard W. Brown, Jr.! Mr. Brown will commence negotiations immediately with Mayor J.P. O’Connor, the Council’s designated point person, and the City Attorney to hopefully come to mutually acceptable contractual terms that will snag Westlake a great new City Manager!
Both final two candidates gave excellent introductory pitches. Mr. Leondrae D. Camel and Mr. Brown both have substantial experience as City Managers (about 13 years each) and they were both able to articulately explain what they have done, what they do, and how they’d do it at Westlake. Both gentleman live convenient to Westlake and are looking for a little bit of a change that the Westlake position would provide.
While all five city council members ultimately placed Mr. Brown as their first pick, it was abundantly clear that he just edged out Mr. Camel.
The Council pointed out Mr. Brown’s varied experience as a local government consultant, from OK, GA, CA and FL, as a boon. Mayor O’Connor appreciated Mr. Brown’s many experiences as an “interim City Manager” which has required Mr. Brown to go into established municipalities and make nice with the staff. NOT always easy to do. But Mr. Brown has successfully done this many times, and hopefully will again here at Westlake. Also, Mr. Brown served as the Village of Indiantown’s City Manager, which has a lot of similarities with Westlake: geographic size, being very newly established municipalities, and population.
Mr. Brown, a certified City Manager, has his Master’s in Public Administration and a certificate for state and local government officials from Harvard.
Mr. Brown lives in western Palm Beach Gardens, just around the corner on Northlake, and his wife is looking for him to “settle down” a little, i.e., to work in one place, the same place, with a relatively more predictable schedule than he had as a consultant.
Once a contract is hammered out, it’ll come before the City Council for approval. Congratulations, Mr. Brown!
2) CITY HALL – At last night’s SID meeting, it came out that the City would not move with SID to SID’s new building which is going in west of Publix and scheduled to open June-ish.
City staff will instead remain at 4001 Seminole Pratt Whitney, across from Seminole Ridge High School, unless/until the City can secure a temporary location while our permanent City Hall gets built. Mayor O’Connor says this is because (1) the current building at 4001 SPW is leased to us at about $500 per year. PER YEAR! Yes! Basically free! and (2) it’s time these two sister governments get a little independence from each other. They are different entities with different interests, after all.
3) READ FOR THE RECORD – took place last Thursday. Mayor O’Connor, who read at two different schools, says Westlake’s volunteers read for 433 students!
4) STATE ROAD 7 EXTENSION – which would connect Northlake (at Ibis) south to Okeechobee (at Target) through that 60th St traffic circle is moving forward in two phases, as per FDOT, despite ongoing legal challenges.
Mayor O’Connor says this extension is a long, long time coming and will be a valuable asset to the western communities. The extension could change our Target commute from what it is now to about 10 minutes! Yeesh. Hang on to your wallets!
Noting that official, on-the-record support from affected communities is important to offset the legal challenges, Mayor O’Connor has asked the City to write an official letter to the US Army Corps of Engineers in support of the extension.
5) AI DATA CENTER – Mayor O’Connor (I’m guessing after a consult with Westlake’s city attorney) has come out with a specifically worded stance on Project Tango: he is not anti AI data center; but he is anti AI data center within 5 miles of schools; and so is pro legislation that prohibits AI data centers within five miles of schools. For the record, the AI data center proposed in Project Tango is a mere 1,000 feet from Arden’s new Saddle View elementary school. Most of us get that many steps in walking our dogs around the block.
Mayor O’Connor is asking the City to write an official statement, for the record, sharing these sentiments.
6) PBSO – Deputy Paul Heckler reports that in February we had 173 traffic stops: 41 citations were given; 71 written warnings were handed out. These stops average about 50% Westlake residents; 50% non-residents.
TOO FAST on Persimmon ya’ll! And too fast on SPW, too, apparently. Or just not paying attention. There were EIGHT crashes on SPW last month. Hope everyone’s okay. Please drive defensively out there.
We had five crimes in February: four construction thefts (which have largely been held to be mis- or dis-placed items); and a stolen tip jar from the Exprezo Mobil. Thumbs DOWN! I think the thief was caught though, because Deputy Heckler mentioned that Mobil did not want to press charges. Hopefully the thief is sufficiently chagrined.
7) PBCFR – Chief Amanda Vomero reports that our February average response times are good. After a little uptick in our Response Time in January, February’s Response Time went back down to 6:12. The County standard for Response Time is less than or equal to 7:30. So we’re doing great!
Chief Vomero, on March 19th, is hosting all of PBC’s fire chiefs at OUR Lodge for a working lunch type of thing. Pretty flattering, huh!
8) WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH – Councilwoman Charlotte Leonard has suggested recognizing a woman resident next February for Women’s History Month. The Council seemed on board.
9) SPRING FEST – is March 28th, 11AM-3PM, along Ilex Way from Persimmon Blvd south to Sand Bar Dr. So far we have 33 vendors and nine food trucks lined up, with nine sponsors. Don’t forget your baskets to collect eggs!
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