Greenway Village resident Lenore White is challenging incumbent Jeff Hmara for Seat 1 on the Royal Palm Beach Village Council. The election will be held Tuesday, March 15.
White recently sat down with the Town-Crier to discuss her background and goals for the village.
Originally from New York, White grew up with a middle-class family background.
“My mother didn’t work, my father worked. I have a brother,” she said. “I got married, had some kids, got a divorce.”
White managed a cardiopulmonary medical center and opened her own women’s clothing boutique after her divorce. She later remarried, but her second husband, Frank, passed away in 2005.
“We had a very successful photography business,” she said. “We did school and sports photography and had 32 employees. We were the largest photographer on Long Island, and worked very closely with Kodak when Kodak was high and mighty. I was the CFO of that company.”
White ran the business by herself for a while, then sold it.
“After Frank passed away, I decided, ‘Hmm, I’ve owned a condo for the last 30 years in Royal Palm Beach, maybe I’ll come down here.’ So I became a resident in 2009,” she said. “My parents lived in Greenway, and Frank and I were at a convention in Key Biscayne. We called and she said, ‘You have to come up. Take the turnpike to Okeechobee, make a left and the first traffic light you come to is going to be Royal Palm Beach Blvd.’ None of this was here.”
After moving to the community, she became involved in the Greenway Village neighborhood.
“It is interesting,” White said. “I’ve been in business a long time, and I guess you have to shake hands with all kinds of people, but the number one thing is to have integrity, and don’t grow a wishbone where a backbone should be.”
White has served as HOA president in Greenway Village South for the past five years. She got involved because she didn’t think the community was being run the way it should.
“When I discovered insurance fraud there, that was a big eye-opener. Then I decided, ‘If you’re going to do it, do it all the way and find out what else needs to be done and make it right,’” she said.
White lists her top accomplishments as her marriage, her children and her honesty.
She believes that she is the best person to serve on the Royal Palm Beach Village Council because she doesn’t think that the current council members are listening to most of the residents.
However, she did not focus on specifics because White said she wants to familiarize herself with what is happening in the village in order to formulate goals for the next two years if elected.
“Everybody hears snippets of this or that going on at the council, and they’re changing the zoning laws and they’re doing variances here,” she said. “Royal Palm Beach is a beautiful, small community, and why certain people would want to change the beauty of it, I don’t understand.”
White opposed the plan to put a RaceTrac gas station at the corner of Royal Palm Beach and Southern boulevards.
“I’m not against progress, but you really want to think about where you want to put things and what you’re planning for,” she said. “Do you want to take the family-oriented community and turn it into a large city? That’ll lose its flavor. People won’t want to move here anymore.”
White said that she believes the top issues of the campaign include controlling development, especially as it relates to RaceTrac.
“I think the number one priority right now is this RaceTrac deal,” she said. “In my opinion, I don’t think it should ever have left the village manager’s office. I think there is a lot of partiality shown to certain communities, and neglect on other communities.”
White said that the council’s approval of the RaceTrac gas station “really boiled my blood.”
“I don’t believe the correct decision was made,” she said. “You take the northern entrance to the village, which is on Okeechobee, and that’s beautiful. You have a sculpture there and an office building there that nobody has ever occupied, but that gentleman or that corporation maintains it.”
She claimed that the southern entrance to the village from Southern Blvd. will be degraded by construction of the station.
“You’re going to put this monstrosity on it; I have a problem with that,” White said. “I have a problem because the Audubon Society has designated the entire area as a bird sanctuary and a migratory path. What’s going to happen? What is the point of putting this huge 20-pump, 24/7 station on a corner that doesn’t need it?”
White complimented the village on its park system, but wants to see some improvements.
“Everybody’s done a terrific job for the most part on the parks,” she said. “I think that physically challenged people have not had a big enough say in how the park is made convenient to them. There are a lot of people in wheelchairs who cannot access certain areas in the parks. This is the feedback I’m getting.”
Asked how she thinks Village Manager Ray Liggins is doing and whether there’s anything she would like done differently, White said that she would have to find out.
“That’s a tough question because I don’t know the man yet,” she said. “I’d have to find out what he has done or hasn’t done. As I said, I don’t think this [RaceTrac] development should have ever left his office. Why it did? You’d have to ask him, but how can I offer an opinion on someone who I don’t know right now?”
White criticized the way that council meetings are conducted, saying there is not enough notice or opportunity for public input at the meetings.
“That’s the other part that I’m hearing. Where do they advertise that they’re having a council meeting?” she asked. “I’ve run into people who have computers, but are not really computer-literate. They don’t really know to go to the village web site to see when there’s a council meeting. I don’t know that the council or whoever is in charge of that is reaching out to the residents.”
Asked how the village can ease traffic issues, White said that she recently drove through La Mancha, where issues have arisen about the connection of Madrid Street to the State Road 7 extension. A possible connection has stayed closed since a meeting several years ago when a majority of residents who showed up demanded that it not be open.
White said that people change their minds.
“The residents want it,” she said. “They want an east-to-west [connection]. You have to zig and zag when you go around the roundabout there and go down Las Palmas.”
Asked how she would reduce traffic problems at Royal Palm Beach Commons Park during major events, she said she wasn’t sure whether anything could be done.
“I’d really have to look into that,” White said. “The boulevard only goes north and south. It’s two lanes; it’s not changing.”
She added that sheriff’s deputies do a good job controlling traffic before and after events. “It’s a great thing to see people coming there to enjoy whatever’s going on,” White said.
The village has more recreational space per capita than any other municipality in the county, which also raises the question of how to cover the cost to maintain it, but White said she did not see why it would be a problem in the future.
“The village is solvent,” she said. “That’s what brings the families here. No matter where you go, even Veterans Park, you go there on Saturdays and Sundays and there are families there enjoying it.”
Asked how Royal Palm Beach can address future development west of the village, White said finding a solution would be difficult and that she’s still researching issues. “I’m a fast learner,” she said.
The March 15 election will be held concurrently with Florida’s presidential primary. White said that the expected higher voter turnout would help her and the other two challengers, Selena Smith who is running against Vice Mayor Richard Valuntas, and Martha Webster, who is running against Councilman Fred Pinto for mayor.
“I think people are disgruntled with the status quo,” White said. “Most people who usually don’t go out to vote will come out to vote. I think they’re unhappy with the present situation.”
White has been criticized as being a one-issue candidate motivated by the RaceTrac issue, but she said there are more issues that she is focused on.
“The selling of the land and the variances, the exceptions being made, play an important part,” she said. “I’d like to see the village somewhat continue on what attracted all these residents to come here.”
Asked why she chose to run against Hmara, as opposed to running for another seat, she said that as the new kid on the block, she did not feel she was ready to run for mayor.
Her vision for the future of Royal Palm Beach is to move in a direction that will benefit the residents and not take away the quiet neighborhood feel.
Asked about her strengths and weaknesses, White said her weakness is a tendency to say what is on her mind. Her strength is listening to people and being good at financial matters.
Asked about her opponent’s strengths and weaknesses, she said she is not sure that Hmara has strengths. “All three councilmen are weak,” she said. “I haven’t found anything exceptional about them. Jeff is good at paper-pushing.”
Asked why voters should vote for her, White said that she is well-qualified for the job. “I care for the residents of the village, not just down my end of the village,” she said. “I’ll do a good job, and I have a sense of humor.”
