City commissioner goes all in on Lake Worth Beach charter changes
Anthony Segrich is hosting town halls Wednesday and Feb. 25 to make a case for why voters should approve five referendums on the March 10 ballot
With the March 10 election five weeks away, City Commissioner Anthony Segrich is rallying supporters of two Lake Worth Beach charter changes aimed at bringing sustainable revenue streams to the cash-strapped city.
State law forbids the city and City Commission from advocating for referendums, but individual commissioners are allowed to share their opinions.
After opponents, at city-sponsored informational meetings last month, blasted the ballot questions as biased and misleading attempts to strip voters of their power, Segrich hosted a town hall on Jan. 27, the first of three, to make a case for why voters should approve them.
His next town hall is 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 4, at the beach casino complex. The final one is 6 p.m. Feb. 25 at the Lake Worth Beach Golf Club.
The most contentious of the five ballot questions are two that would allow leases of up to 99 years on city-owned land at the beach and west of State Road A1A. Approving questions 2 and 3, as they’re listed on the ballot, will also transfer final say on lease projects to a City Commission majority instead of a voter referendum.
Those changes are needed to encourage much-needed private investment, supporters say. If voters approve questions 2 and 3, developers can inject revenue into the city through annual long-term lease payments in exchange for building their commercial projects on public places, such as the beach casino complex, golf course and City Hall annex.
Ballot question 2, for land east of A1A, would prohibit hotels and lodging but allow other projects such as an overhaul or replacement of the public swimming pool at the casino complex.
Aside from helping the city renovate aging public buildings — renovations the city can’t afford to do itself — the changes could also pave the way for revenue streams to pay for a backload of repairs to roads, sewers and other public infrastructure, supporters said.
The deals would also empower private development interests to get projects they want in exchange.
To bolster their case, Segrich and other supporters, including City Commissioner Mimi May, have pointed to proposals in Tallahassee that could ask Florida voters in 2027 to eliminate or drastically reduce non-school, non-law enforcement property taxes.
One measure, if approved, would erase more than $5 million from Lake Worth Beach’s coffers, nearly a quarter of the $19 million in ad valorem tax revenue the city collects, according to the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s Office.
“If they take away some of our funding, we are going to be in a financial strain,’’ May said at a city-hosted town hall Jan. 22 at the municipal library.
Opponents that night accused May of fear-mongering when she told a packed room that the loss of property tax revenue could force the city to make unpopular decisions like cutting the annual Street Painting Festival or eliminating garbage collection.
Five days later, in front of about 60 people in the back room of the Irish Brigade restaurant, Segrich displayed a cartoon of a Dumpster fire next to a graphic describing millions of dollars in deferred maintenance.
He said it would cost $7.5 million a year for the next 15 years to catch up on the backlog of road repairs. (Interim City Manager Jamie Brown did not respond to the Lake Worth Beach Independent’s request to confirm the figures.)
Approving questions 2 and 3 on March 10 can help change that, he told the mostly sympathetic crowd.
“It’s going to require you guys to get out there and run this as if it’s a campaign,’’ he said. “Knock on doors, talk to your neighbors, get them out there, hold their hand, get them to the ballot box. I’m committed to doing that. That’s why I’m doing these town halls because I personally believe in this.’’
Greg Rice, the popular Hulett pest control pitchman and longtime Lake Worth Beach resident, took the microphone and told the crowd: “‘I’m behind this and I hope you are, too.’’
Segrich decided to host the town halls after opponents dominated the public discussion at the four informational meetings hosted earlier this year by a city-paid consultant.
At those meetings, critics made two loud complaints: The presentations were biased and the city failed to point out that approval of the two lease questions would strip voters of their legal authority to have final say over long-term lease projects on city land.
The language in the presentations was approved by Jennifer Blohm, an elections attorney in Tallahassee working as a subcontractor for Cornerstone Solutions, a West Palm Beach political consulting firm.
Cornerstone, which ran Segrich’s election campaign last year, was hired by Brown on Dec. 30 for $48,500 to spread word about the ballot questions with a fact-based informational campaign, launched the first week in January.
Blohm, responding to a request by Brown to address the opponents’ concerns, said the language and presentations comply with state law.
“None of the city’s actions expressly advocate for or against the referendums,’’ she said in an email Jan. 19 to Brown. “The law requires the information to be factual. It does not say that the information must cover everything that every person believes should be covered. It would not be practical to do so.’’
Opponents don’t agree with Blohm and insist the city is tipping the scale. They’ve requested an opinion from the Palm Beach County Inspector General’s Office.
At the very least, they say, city officials should have made it clear in the ballot language and in their public presentations that approval of the referendums would strip voters of their power.
Officials publicly acknowledged that point for the first time on Jan. 22, at the third town hall, after repeated questions at the previous two.
“I don’t know how anybody could possibly go into a voting booth and read this and understand what the effect of a ‘yes’ vote is,’’ said Parrot Cove resident Nancy Udell, an attorney who has shared her concerns in YouTube videos.
Five days later, Segrich made it clear at his first town hall that voters would lose their power by approving the ballot questions 2 and 3, a necessary change, he said, if the city wants to attract quality private investment.
“That means basically the voters, if they pass it, are putting their trust in their elected officials to make that decision,’’ he said.
If voters have final say over leases of between 20 or 30 years and 99 years, it would not be practical for developers to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to prepare a project proposal before it goes to a referendum, he said.
“They are not going to do that if they can get shot down at the end if people don’t want to give them 99 years,’’ Segrich said.
He also said banks probably won’t provide financing for a project without lease terms that would allow developers to recoup their investment and pay off loans.
“We have a representative form of government … because things have to move along at a certain speed and a certain certitude,’’ he said. “At some point you have to trust your elected officials. If you don’t trust your elected officials, vote them out and get new ones.’’
Overshadowing the two ballot questions, like a proverbial elephant in the room, is an unsolicited proposal that the city rejected last fall.
The multimillion-dollar Copperline Partners proposal, submitted in January 2025, called for Hyatt hotels at the beach and golf course, an overhaul of the golf course, an oceanfront aquarium and a public swimming pool in the northwest part of the city.
Even though the project was withdrawn in October, without the City Commission formally considering it, many residents worry that the charter changes will lead to an influx of developers pitching proposals that threaten to ruin the character of the city’s beachfront and downtown.
May said she understands those concerns.
“I don’t want a giant takeover of Lake Worth Beach. I don’t want the kind of development we are seeing in West Palm,’’ she said in an interview with the Lake Worth Beach Independent. “There’s no way on God’s green earth that any commission would let that happen, because residents don’t want that.’’
The lease changes offer a way for the city to get some much-needed financial help without burdening taxpayers, she said.
“The referenda are not the end-all, be-all of the future of Lake Worth Beach,’’ said May, who serves on the Florida League of Cities’ Finance and Taxation Advocacy Committee.
“It’s one step toward sustainable investment,’’ she said. “It’s an extremely important step. But it’s not a carte blanche invitation to take over like people keep saying it is, in my opinion.’’
Congrats on the awards, Joe!