Vice Mayor Litt Asks for the Mayor Job
March 7, 2020
The March City Council meeting ended with Items for Council Action and Discussion. During the February Council meeting, Mayor Marciano had stated that while he was honored to have served as Mayor, he did not want to be selected by the Council for the position again. (FYI – each April, the City Council selects its Mayor for the upcoming year.) The council members all thanked Mark for his service and praised his actions during the past year. While the results of the Group 3 Election will not be available until March 17 (incumbent Matthew Lane vs Chelsea Reed), the remainder of the Council will be unchanged and a new mayor will be chosen at the time. Vice Mayor Litt spoke to her accomplishments and requested that the Council consider her for the next Palm Beach Gardens Mayor. Meanwhile, Council Member and former-Mayor Maria Marino said that she looked forward to working with Mark (and everyone else) for the next couple of months. Since she is currently running for Palm Beach County Commissioner District 1, one can only assume that she was referring to ‘resign to run’. Mayor Marciano also alluded to upcoming discussions that will occur on how to fill the vacancy.
March 5The meeting was called to order and closed out by “Mayor for the Day” Barron Roberts, a precocious and accomplished second grader from the Weiss School. Barron is already advanced in three forms of martial arts and trains for many hours in the week. His favorite part of being Mayor for the Day was visiting with the Canine Unit.
Vice Mayor Litt gave an update on the Palm Beach State College bus stop safety issue that she discussed last month. Palm Beach Gardens will pursue solutions on Campus Drive, while Palm Tran has asked for 4-6 weeks to look at possible route changes. Later, Brendan Rodriguez, speaking for the Student Government association, described the positive experience working with the City and other entities to come up with possible solutions.
Council Member Marino thanked a long list of the City’s employees who made the Honda Classic such a success and City Manager Ferris added to the list during the City Manager Report. He also showed the latest update from Brightline on the upcoming intersection construction and detours. The dates will continue to shift and the city will post the changes as they occur. You can always check by yourself at https://www.gobrightline.com/railroad-construction for updates. Mr Ferris also described the actions taken by the City for corona virus COVID-19.
Key on the agenda was Resolution 13, 2020 – Denouncing Anti-Semitism which had been discussed during the last couple of meetings. The Council adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of Anti-Semitism. See the Palm Beach Post article for more details. Laurence Milstein, Director of AJC Palm Beach County, thanked the Council for adopting the definition and voting for the resolution.