Three more candidates qualified to seek election in Royal Palm Beach on the last day of filing Tuesday, meaning that all three Royal Palm Beach Village Council seats up for grabs will be contested in the March 15, 2016 municipal election.
Former Councilwoman Martha Webster has challenged Councilman Fred Pinto in his bid for mayor. Pinto announced previously that he will resign his Group 4 seat to run for mayor. Incumbent Mayor Matty Mattioli is not seeking re-election and will retire after 22 years on the council, including six as mayor.
Meanwhile, Greenway Village resident Lenore White has qualified to run against incumbent Councilman Jeff Hmara for the Group 1 seat, and local businesswoman Selena Smith is running for the Group 3 seat against incumbent Vice Mayor Richard Valuntas. While White is a political newcomer, Smith ran unsuccessfully for a council seat in 2012.
Webster told the Town-Crier that she is running to bring more transparency to the village and “to be the voice of the people.” She is specifically opposed to the plan to build a RaceTrac gas station at the northwest corner of Southern and Royal Palm Beach boulevards, and believes residents were not sufficiently informed ahead of time.
“I have always stood up for the residents of the village and listened vary carefully to what they want,” Webster said. “Why I made that decision to run [for mayor] was based on the current RaceTrac issue. To improve the village, I think that there should be a more open process, and that the residents need to be listened to when they come out and voice their opinions. They need to have more of a voice in some of these decisions that are made. I think RaceTrac has demonstrated that.”
Webster said that when she spoke to residents about the project, they were not aware of the application.
“There seems to be an issue with getting the residents informed of what’s going on around them,” she said. “This is a very large project, and it seems that the information of what was going on went through a very narrow group of people. Whatever the reason for that was, I don’t know, but they need to know more, not just regarding RaceTrac, but in what comes ahead.”
Webster said residents were unhappy that a project with potential for great impact on the community was coming in and they weren’t aware of it.
“Now we have scheduled four meetings and there is no leadership in making a decision,” she said. “We had two October meetings, and we even got to the point here where we had a time certain Dec. 3 meeting that was changed to Jan. 14. People come forward and they want to have their voices heard, and yet they’ve just moved it forward to another time.”
Webster served for five years on the council before being unseated by Councilman David Swift three years ago. Since then, she has lost two bids for a return to the council, one to be mayor in 2014 and one to reclaim her seat from Swift in 2015.
In this most recent election, Webster is critical of all the incumbents, except her previous opponent, Swift, who she complimented regarding the RaceTrac issue. “He has been very open and very helpful in this process,” she said.
Webster thinks a change is needed in how things are done.
“We need some leadership,” she said. “We need individuals who will research it as council people and mayor so that they know what’s coming before them and are able to make a clear and concise decision after listening to the people, and not continue to push it down the road.”
Webster has lived in Royal Palm Beach for 20 years with her husband, Gary. She is a founding member of the Western Business Alliance, a member of the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches and a volunteer who works with military veterans. She has worked closely with the Central Palm Beach County Chamber of Commerce and has served on the boards of a number of countywide agencies.
Webster is a retired tenured faculty member of the University of Florida IFAS.
Smith and White did not return calls from the Town-Crier this week.
Smith has served in leadership roles in a number of local organizations. She holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Barry University and a master’s degree from the University of Miami. In March 2012, Smith ran for the vacant Group 1 seat, losing to Jeff Hmara, coming in second in a three-way race.
An election forum run by the Town-Crier will be held Monday, Feb. 22 from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Village Hall council chambers.
ABOVE: Martha Webster.
The RPB Council has not listened to the will of the people and now they have opponents. I hope that the residents see that this is their chance to take the government back in RPB. The majority on the council has been catering to a single interest for way to long and the people are mad as ….. well you know. Good for them for stepping up now time for the people to get out and vote for them!
Oh please. It is common knowledge that the other two are shills for Martha. Running at her “urging”. She’s pulling the strings. I’m no fan of musical chairs on the council either and I wish term limits could be on the ballot. But these three are who we have to choose from? They’re fortunate that it is a Presidential Preference Primary. People may actually come out to vote.