One issue dominates the March 10 city election in Boca Raton for mayor and three city council seats. It is One Boca, the proposed joint redevelopment of prime city property and a 99-year lease of public land to a private developer.

Public anger at the council for approving it spawned a grassroots revolt known as Save Boca, which has prompted three newcomers to run for office. At the same time, two council members want to be mayor, setting the stage for a history-making level of political upheaval.

Voters will also vote yes or no on two major ballot questions. Question 1 seeks approval of a bond issue of up to $175 million for a public safety complex. Question 2 asks if the city should proceed with the controversial downtown campus redevelopment plan (our recommendations on both questions will appear Friday).

Boca Raton’s part-time mayor is paid $38,000 a year, and council members receive $28,000. They all receive a $450 monthly car allowance. Winners will serve three-year terms. All elections are citywide and nonpartisan. All registered city voters can vote in all races.

For mayor: Andy Thomson

Under Boca’s council-manager system, the mayor is the public face of the city. The leadership role should be trusted to someone with deep experience and institutional knowledge, especially when the new council may have a majority who have never held elected office. Even more turnover lies ahead: Council veteran Yvette Drucker is leaving to run for higher office. City Manager Mark Sohaney has been in Boca less than six months.

Andy Thomson is a candidate for Boca Raton mayor. (courtesy, Andy Thomson)

Council members Fran Nachlas and Andy Thomson want to be mayor. So does Mike Liebelson, a power plant executive and political outsider who opposes Question 2 and is loosely affiliated with the Save Boca movement, though he’s not part of its three-person slate of council candidates.

Thomson, 43, a lawyer, is the best option to move the city forward amid so much acrimony over downtown development. An even-tempered five-year council member, he can ably guide the city, regardless of how voters decide the two ballot questions. He has been the council’s strongest and often only critic of the redevelopment project.

“When it comes to requests to develop or redevelop, some running do not know how to say ‘No,’” Thomson wrote in his Sun Sentinel questionnaire. “Others have promised to vote no on everything. Neither approach is responsible.”

Redevelopment is the critical distinction in the mayor’s race, because Nachlas supports it.

A 59-year-old nurse, civic volunteer and council member since 2022, Nachlas says redevelopment will generate billions for the city over the life of a 99-year lease of publicly owned land, money that could be crucial if property taxes are reduced.

This is the most expensive election in Boca’s 100-year history. Liebelson, 70, attacks the torrent of large soft-money contributions flowing to both of his opponents, especially from developers.

Lax state disclosure rules make it nearly impossible to track who’s giving to whom when a special interest donates to one political committee, which then in turn donates to another, which passes money to another in a system of state-sanctioned money laundering.

Liebelson has raised $200,555, with $140,000 a loan to his campaign. Nachlas has raised $233,694. Thomson has raised $116,883.

Nachlas has a separate political committee, Fran for Boca, that has raised $248,794. Thomson’s committee, Running with Andy Thomson, raised $290,100 between April and December. The true donors are impossible to find, and the numbers are sure to grow. Boca is at grave risk of having its elections hijacked by big development money as in other nearby cities, most notably Fort Lauderdale.

Thomson takes developer money. So does Nachlas. Thomson even received contributions from land-use lawyers and lobbyists representing Terra/Frisbie, developer of the One Boca project that he opposes, which he says illustrates that donor money cannot buy his vote.

For Boca Raton mayor, the Sun Sentinel recommends Andy Thomson.

Seat A: Michelle Grau

A three-way race in Seat A features political newcomer Michelle Grau; Christen Ritchey, who briefly ran for city council in 2023; and perennial also-ran Bernard Korn.

Grau, 41, an accountant, and her husband own Grau & Associates, which audits local governments and community development districts. As an opponent of One Boca, she’s part of the Save Boca slate.

Michelle Grau is a candidate for Boca Raton City Council Seat A. (courtesy, Michelle Grau, Photography by Annett Meyer Photography)

Grau’s contributions total $23,871 and Ritchey has raised $30,295.

Ritchey, 46, co-founder of a family law practice, has served on the city’s Planning & Zoning Board and Affordable Housing Advisory Committee. City police and fire unions and Business Leaders United for Boca Raton (BLU-PAC) are on her list of endorsements.

Grau and Ritchey both support Question 1 for a new police station. They are split on One Boca.

Ritchey supports the project. Scaled down from more than 30 acres of city land to fewer than eight, One Boca now reflects community input, she said.

Grau opposes it, citing “too much financial risk on taxpayers while offering too little in return.” Given Boca’s strong financial position, she said the city should be able to develop the campus without a complex, 99-year commercial partnership.

Ritchey has broader involvement in the city, but Grau’s accounting expertise would be a council asset. Korn is a frequent candidate who has not received strong public support in any race.

The Editorial Board recommends Michelle Grau for Seat A.

Seat B: Marc Wigder

Incumbent Marc Wigder has two challengers who are closely aligned with opposition to One Boca, businesswoman Meredith Madsen and Save Boca founder Jon Pearlman.

Madsen owns a skincare company, Sunshine & Glitter, and is one of only two candidates interviewed who opposes the police station referendum. She said it’s needed, but the price is too high.

Marc Wigder is a candidate for Boca Raton City Council Seat B. (courtesy, Marc Wigder)

She also opposes One Boca, citing the council’s initial failure to get public input.

Of a dozen candidates for four Boca Raton seats, Pearlman is the only one who declined to answer a concise two-page Sun Sentinel questionnaire. He said it had too many questions.

He also declined to take part in an online editorial board interview. We hope that Pearlman’s disdain for connecting with voters is a rookie mistake, because if he wins, it is not a good sign for residents.

Wigder, 54, elected without opposition in 2023, holds an MBA from Yale and is owner and CEO of The Greenhouse Companies, a real estate business focused on sustainable development.

Upon election, Wigder divested his company’s Boca business interests to avoid conflicts. He chairs the city Community Redevelopment Agency and Affordable Housing Advisory Committee.

Wigder is an early supporter of the One Boca redevelopment. This editorial board has strongly criticized other public-private partnerships between cities and developers, and has serious reservations on One Boca.

If Tallahassee succeeds in slashing property taxes, Boca faces enormous challenges to pay for city services. “Cities are going to have to get more creative,” he told the editorial board. One Boca may be the wrong deal for the city, but Wigder’s experience would be needed more than ever to find solutions.

Wigder has raised more than $130,573, dwarfing Madsen’s $610. But the untraceable PAC money that darkens the race for mayor is not evident in Wigder’s fundraising; nearly 90% of his campaign funds are loans to himself. Pearlman is effectively self-funding, He loaned his race $62,400 of $62,900 raised.

The political volatility in Boca Raton is high, which means incumbency may be an albatross for Wigder.

Save Boca may have enough insurgent support to carry Pearlman to victory, but that would be a mistake.

After his own petition drive failed, Pearlman worked to keep One Boca off the March 10 referendum, Boca Magazine reported. He has alienated allies, and Madsen said she was frozen out of the Save Boca group when Pearlman decided to run.

“Don’t fall for his lies,” warned Joe Majhess Jr., another harsh development critic who was briefly a council candidate.

Pearlman, who records show has never voted in a Boca Raton city election, told the Coastal Star he is too busy to draw up plans if he wins. That suggests to us that his interest is mostly bombast and opposing development.

Most Boca Raton council candidates have never held office, and substantial turnover appears likely.

Madsen has sound ideas, and for voters who strongly oppose Question 2, we highly recommend her over Pearlman. But with so much inexperience, Wigder’s thorough grounding in city issues provides needed balance.

The Sun Sentinel recommends Marc Wigder for Council Seat B.

Seat D: Larry Cellon

Voters again have a choice between two candidates who both oppose Question 2 and a third candidate who says he’s undecided on the dominant question about the city’s future.

Larry Cellon is a candidate for Boca Raton City Council Seat D. (courtesy, Larry Cellon)

On the fence is former Boca council member Robert Weinroth. At 73 an experienced political hand and a former Palm Beach County commissioner, he sounds like he’s trying to have it both ways and keep support on both sides. The voters deserve to know where he stands, but he won’t say.

Also running are Planning & Zoning Board member Larry Cellon, a building contractor, and Save Boca candidate Stacy Sipple, a pharmacist. Both are first-time council candidates.

Cellon, 68, a sixth-generation Floridian and partner at JMW Construction, is a strong alternative to his two rivals. He has worked more than 40 years as a contractor and has served 27 years on the city Community Appearance Board and 10 years on Planning & Zoning.

“We don’t need to choose between no development and poor development,” Cellon told us. “We need to focus on development that works better for residents.”

Cellon is brimming with ideas far beyond development, something lacking in many Save Boca candidates.

He wants to force developers to contribute 1% of the cost of construction to public art and other cultural missions in the city. He wants artificial intelligence to help with permitting, to cut delays by orders of magnitude.

He wants to see free WiFi downtown, and the turtles to return to Gumbo Limbo Nature Center. In a travesty, the city turned over turtle care to a nonprofit in 2023, only to see the nonprofit close up shop and ship the turtles to nearby sanctuaries. It shows that sometimes, good government gets the job done better.

Like Cellon, and like her fellow Save Boca candidates, Sipple, 54, a fourth-generation city resident, opposes Question 2.

Before this election, she told us she had little interest in politics, and first learned about Save Boca after encountering petition-gatherers at the city library.

Her newfound passion for public life is impressive, but we worry that she lacks the depth of knowledge needed on the council, which Cellon has in abundance. We encourage Sipple to serve on city advisory boards and run again.

Weinroth has raised $73,580 in this race, while Sipple has raised $4,783 and Cellon has raised $13,473. It is our hope that, at least in this race, the amount of money will not be decisive.

For Boca Raton City Council Seat D, the Sun Sentinel recommends Larry Cellon.

Note: Our endorsements reflect the South Florida Sun Sentinel’s values and concerns for our community. The newsroom does not participate in editorial board decisions.

The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. Contact us by email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2026/02/18/boca-raton-needs-both-change-and-experience-endorsement/