Three seats are up for election on the Indian Trail Improvement District Board of Supervisors this year, and two challengers have come forward to face the incumbents.
As of Wednesday, Supervisor Jennifer Hager was unopposed for re-election to Seat 1 (see update below), while David Bradley is challenging Supervisor Ralph Bair for Seat 3, and Enrique Bassas is challenging ITID President Carol Jacobs for Seat 5. Filing closes at noon on Friday.
If more than two candidates are seeking a seat, that election will be held during the primary in August. If not, the vote will be held in November.
UPDATE: According to the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections on Friday afternoon: Candidates for Seat 1 are incumbent Jennifer Hager and challenger Michael Erickson, candidates for Seat 3 are incumbent Ralph Bair and challengers David Bradley and Alan Ballweg, and candidates for Seat 5 are incumbent Carol Jacobs and challenger Betty Argue. Enrique Bassas has withdrawn from the Seat 5 race. This means that the Seat 3 race will start with an Aug. 26 primary, while the other two races will not go to the voters until November.
SEAT 3 — It was a streetlight issue that first got Bradley attending ITID meetings.
“It started out small,” he said. “Once I started attending the meetings and seeing the dysfunction and lack of communication and cooperation between the board members and the more vocal members of the community, I thought there’s got to be a better way.”
After conferring with his wife, Bradley contacted his grandfather, former State Rep. Bernard Kimmel, who helped him put together a campaign.
“I’ve come in contact with a lot of great people, the Acreage Landowners’ Association, and heard a lot of the issues that seem to have fallen on deaf ears when it comes to the board of supervisors. I know there’s a lot of things going in regard to Minto, but that’s not the only thing going on.”
Bradley initially considered a run for Hager’s Seat 1 but switched to Seat 3 because he thought Bair did not participate as actively in discussions.
“Something stuck out to me in regard to Mr. Bair, and it was silence,” Bradley said. “This is not a personal attack against him… but I did not see anything from Mr. Bair over a three-month period of attending ITID meetings. He was just agreeing with Supervisor [Michelle] Damone and Supervisor Jacobs without producing any thoughts or ideas of his own.”
Bradley has lived in The Acreage since 1990 and has owned his home since 2008.
“When I moved to The Acreage, Royal Palm Beach Blvd. was still a dirt road once you entered The Acreage from Royal Palm Beach,” he recalled.
A fireman for Pratt & Whitney, Bradley is about to celebrate his second wedding anniversary. He and his wife, Jessica, are expecting their first child in January.
Bradley said his overall goal is to bring more cohesiveness to the board.
“There seems to be a divide,” he said. “There’s two factions on the board. There’s the ruling faction and there’s the minority. I want to be the bridge between those two, because when the governing body of a community cannot work together, that community is destined to fail.”
Bair has served 16 years as an ITID supervisor, the longest service of any current board member. First elected in the 1990s, he left the board in 2002 when he was defeated for re-election. His latest stint on the board began in 2006.
During his four years off the board, new ITID leadership brought the district to near-bankruptcy, Bair said, after the board embroiled itself in lawsuits and failed water utility deals.
“When I came back on the board, we looked at the district’s books,” he said. “We had an audit done to find out where the district was exactly at. We were running out of money for operations. The board that came on in 2002 had bought a whole bunch of equipment and spent a lot of money on lawyers and lawsuits, and buying a water system that couldn’t operate.”
It also got ITID embroiled in a lawsuit against Palm Beach County over water rights. “They spent about $2 million trying to sue the county,” Bair said. “We got that corrected and sold the utility and got that off our backs. That basically brought money back into the district, because now we had a utility fund that we could draw off of.”
After years of management issues, Bair supported the hiring of former ITID Administrator Tanya Quickel, who had been finance director previously but went to the Northern Palm Beach County Improvement District. Bair credits her for helping return the district to solvency. Quickel left last year after a salary dispute and is now with the Village of Wellington.
Bair said he is seeking re-election to make sure projects he has long supported come to fruition. He was on the board when ITID initiated its park system, including Acreage Community Park, which is now undergoing an expansion.
He also worked for years to pave collector roads in The Acreage, bringing a paved road within a half-mile of every home in The Acreage.
“That way, emergency services, fire, ambulance, the mail and everything could actually get to the homes,” he said.
Bair considers himself more of a listener than one who vocalizes opinions.
“I don’t react with my emotions,” he said. “I try to figure out what’s right, and do that based on my idea of what’s right and wrong.”
His goals include finishing Acreage Community Park to include a recreation building, which had been approved, but is no longer on the front burner.
He believes that many of the approved additional amenities, including a splash park, will not be complete without a building to support them.
“I know a few people disagree with that, but I have people call me and say, ‘Hey, we’re older adults, and we want a place to go that’s covered,’” Bair said.
He also wants the district to hire a service provider for children’s programs. “I would want someone to come in and provide service to take care of the younger kids, so they would have someplace to go,” Bair said.
An electrical technician at Seminole Ridge High School, the 59-year-old Bair has been active in numerous organizations, including the Jaycees, Rotary and other nonprofits. He is married with two grown children, who are teachers in St. Lucie County.
SEAT 5 — Bassas, who moved to The Acreage two years ago from Pembroke Pines, said his goal is to preserve the rural way of life. He is upset that Minto West plans to develop a large community near his home.
“I think that this election is of the utmost importance, because it could literally change the landscape of the community that I live in. I chose to come out here to live that rural lifestyle,” Bassas explained. “I want to be able to have not just a say, I want to take action. I want to ensure that we preserve that.”
Bassas said he has not attended meetings but watches them online and believes that some of the members are too friendly with developers.
“I don’t think that you should have ties or interests in land development when sitting in this position,” he said. “I think that opens up the doors to making poor choices and the possibilities of conflicts of interest.”
Bassas said he was not aware of the Minto West development plan until shortly after he moved.
“I didn’t realize that land had been slated for development,” he said. “My brother lived out here for 10-plus years, and I’ve always loved it. Unfortunately for me, due to the downturn in the economy, we didn’t facilitate the move sooner. I could not get rid of my house in Pembroke Pines. When we did finally, [buying here] was what we had been wanting for a long time, and the next thing I know, that developer was looking at the property.”
Bassas said he hears many people talking against the Minto development but has not seen a lot of action. “I’m not much of a complainer. If I see something that I feel strongly about, then I’m going to go ahead and try to do something about it,” he said.
Bassas, 37, is married with two elementary school-age boys. He works in law enforcement with the state.
Jacobs, who is finishing up her second term on the board and currently serves as ITID president, said she is ready to run a vigorous re-election campaign.
“I’m very passionate about our community, and I’m going to be very focused on my campaign,” she said.
Her goals for the next four years include completing Acreage Community Park and stopping Minto West’s proposal to more than double the approved density of its development on the former Callery-Judge Grove property.
“Minto is top of the list now, but I want to see the community park finished for our children,” she said. “When I ran in 2006, that was my goal, and I want to see it done.”
Jacobs said there are numerous other issues to address that sometimes seem overwhelming. “It’s always something coming at us from every direction, but [Minto West] is our main focus right now,” she said.
Jacobs said she is very satisfied with the current staffing at the district, as well as the board’s makeup.
“I’m actually happy with the board that we have now,” she said. “We complement each other. Everybody is going to have their differences, no matter who gets on the board, but as it is now, we get along pretty well together.”
Other challenges include improving drainage in the district and the completion of State Road 7 to Northlake Blvd.
“We’re working on drainage,” Jacobs said. “That’s a large focus. I’d like to see all the roads continue… I’d like to see Seminole Pratt continue, because you know there’s going to be more development, and I’d like to be able to get in and out safely. Right now we have too many accidents. We have a lot of traffic, and we have to address the main roads.”
SEAT 1 — Hager, unopposed for Seat 1 as of press time, was first elected to the ITID board in 2010. A teacher, she is finishing up her first term.
ABOVE: Supervisor Ralph Bair and challenger David Bradley.
Jennifer Hager has been one of the only BOSs who have stood up and publicly opposed the over development being proposed in the Acreage. As for Bair, because he doesn’t say much at the ITID meetings I don’t know if he’s a good candidate. It would be great to have a new fresh face, such as Bradley, who speaks out and shows his passion on concerns.