Council reopens its own task force vote before applicants are picked

**The setup:** Two weeks after the new council voted 3-1 to create the Downtown Civic Engagement Task Force — Mayor Andy Thomson's proposal, passed April 14 — Deputy Mayor Michelle Grau used Tuesday's workshop to challenge how its nine members will be selected. Council member Jon Pearlman, who voted for the task force, agreed the selection process should be revisited. **Backstory:** The city attorney confirmed Tuesday that any council resolution can be modified or repealed by a majority vote — including the resolution Council itself just passed. **Zoom in:** Same workshop, the council also rejected the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, decided to issue RFPs to professional planners for the downtown civic engagement work, and approved short-term fixes — Memorial Park lighting, Meadows Park water fountains — that one council member called 'low-hanging fruit.' **The read:** The post-One Boca council is moving in two directions at once — clearing visible deliverables fast while reopening process questions on the larger downtown question. **Worth watching:** whether Grau's objection produces a structural change to the task force or only a vote tweak before the nine applicants are picked. **The stake:** the task force has six months once seated to gather public input on Memorial Park and the surrounding downtown 30 acres — the same parcel voters rejected developing in November.

**The setup:** Tuesday's council workshop greenlit Memorial Park lighting and Meadows Park water fountains as quick wins. The session rejected the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council in favor of issuing RFPs to professional planners for the downtown civic engagement work — keeping that consultancy in city hands.

**What we heard:** Deputy Mayor Michelle Grau objected Tuesday to how the Downtown Civic Engagement Task Force's nine members will be picked, and Council member Jon Pearlman agreed the process should be revisited. The city attorney confirmed any council resolution can be modified by majority vote — including this one.

**The setup:** Boca Raton is pushing a charter change that would require voter referendums on future sales of large city-owned land — a direct response to the One Boca/Mizner Plaza rejection in November, which drew 74% against. The downtown 30-acre question remains open.

**Tonight:** A 90-minute documentary on Dorothy Gillespie — whose ribbon-like metal sculptures helped redefine contemporary sculpture — screens at 5 PM at the Boca Museum, which holds the largest institutional collection of her works. Foundation president Gary Israel and author Dorien Gillespie Israel join the conversation after the screening. Members $5, non-members $10.

**Saturday:** Josh Robinson — known online as OMGITSWICKS, with 1.7M TikTok followers — plays two intimate shows at The Studio at Mizner Park, 6 PM and 8:30 PM. His Florida-specific sketches earned him a road tour; this is his Boca date, with limited seats remaining.

**Through Sunday:** Eduardo Chacon: Postcards from Nowhere and Side by Side: Bernstein and Meyerowitz close Sunday, May 3 — last weekend to see Chacon's South Florida humanist photography or the canvases the married Bernstein/Meyerowitz couple painted side by side for 70 years.

Memorial Park's plaque debate brings the Boca Raton Army Air Field back into city memory. The base trained radar operators from 1942 through 1947 on land that later became Florida Atlantic University. Memorial Park was designated in 1947 — the year the base closed.