There will be a special meeting of the Westlake City Council on Tuesday, July 16 at 5:30 p.m. to codify a change to the municipality’s sexual offender and sexual predator ordinance.
Mainly, the change extends from 1,000 feet to 2,500 feet — the additional length of some six football fields — the prohibition against persons listed as sexual offenders or predators living near parks, playgrounds, daycare centers, libraries or “any other place where children regularly congregate,” such as bus stops or the Westlake Adventure Park.
The revamped ordinance passed 4-0 at its first reading on Tuesday, July 2. Vice Mayor Greg Langowski was not present.
Council members agreed to call a special, one-item meeting on the earliest date legally possible to hold a second reading of the ordinance. If approved again by the council at its second reading, it will become law.
“The safety and security of our residents and children is paramount,” Mayor JohnPaul O’Connor said this week, noting that he has two young children of his own.
The urgency grew out of concerns by residents of the 55-and-older Cresswind development regarding two individuals listed on the U.S. Department of Justice sex offender public web site and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement sexual offenders/predators search. Sexual offenders are required to register their residential location with local law enforcement agencies. Several concerned Cresswind residents spoke up at the July 2 meeting.
However, City Attorney Donald Doody emphasized that the ordinance is not intended to target any individual or to create an absolute ban against such individuals living in Westlake.
“We cannot legally prohibit that, but we can regulate the distance,” he said, noting that the 2,500-foot limit has been upheld by the courts. “It is defensible.”
Considering Westlake’s small geographic size — 6.5 square miles — Doody was asked if the new ordinance did not in effect wall out sexual offenders.
“If [the ordinance] extremely limits the opportunity for individuals who are sexual predators, then that will be the case,” he said. “But this is not a total prohibition.”
O’Connor was satisfied with the wording in the new regulation.
“The ordinance accomplishes what we need to accomplish,” he said. “The essence of the order is to prohibit known predators from living anywhere near where our children may congregate.”
In other business:
- The council adopted 4.95 mills as the tentative rate for the city’s 2025 ad valorem property taxes, as required by the state’s Truth-in-Millage (TRIM) law. The 2024 fiscal year rate was 5.0, down from 5.1 in 2023.
The city’s second budget workshop is set for Aug. 6. The first budget hearing is scheduled for Sept. 3, with the second and final hearing planned for Sept. 11, at which all council members must be in attendance.
Under Florida law, the TRIM millage rate once set cannot be increased, but it can be reduced — something O’Connor is encouraging staff to do before the final vote.
“I know we run a lean government as it is,” O’Connor said, “but let’s tighten the belt and at least match what we did last year.”
The city had to return $110,000 in tax revenue because of findings by the Palm Beach County Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller Value Adjustment Board, Cassel told the council. “That’s why we budget the way we do,” he said this week. “So that we have reserves for situations such as this.”
The city plans to set aside $1,382,100 in the 2025 budget to go with $1,259,800 projected to be in the municipality’s reserve fund by the Sept. 30 end of the current fiscal year. That will create an approximate $2.64 million emergency reserve for the municipality.
- The council approved a $44 increase — $280 to $324 — per residential unit for solid waste disposal, plus $180 for the county’s disposal fee.
O’Connor reiterated that none of the money — some $761,000 total — goes to Westlake.
The city’s current waste disposal contract expires at the end of the next fiscal year, and Cassel said the work will be put out for bid in hopes of finding a better deal.
“We’re of a size now that I’ve had three or four of the hauling companies contact me, and we’ll see how sharp their pencils are,” he said. “Their looking at us as a good target for business, and we’re primed for bidding.”
- The council approved a $1,066,606 contract with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office for police protection services. That represents a four percent increase over the current fiscal year.
“The PBSO has been great,” O’Connor said. “So, let’s give them whatever they need.”
The sheriff’s office has seven full-time deputies assigned to Westlake.
- The council heard more complaints from residents about people walking behind their property to fish in the community’s many lakes and waterways, all of which are the property of the Seminole Improvement District (SID), which provides most of the infrastructure, roads and drainage for the community.
In most cases, residential property stops where the slope down to the lake or canal begins, Cassel noted, but added that many residents are rightly concerned about strangers wandering around behind their homes.
Fishing from SID’s swale or in SID’s lakes is prohibited, he said. “The proper procedure is to call the PBSO,” he said. “They’ll chase them off and, if necessary, fine them.”
O’Connor said this week that he hopes someday to be able to create a safe space for children and adults to “enjoy this great pastime and hobby” — perhaps in the form of a boardwalk alongside one of the lakes that front the 50-acre regional park that Westlake is building in conjunction with SID on the west side of Seminole Pratt Whitney Road just south of Seminole Ridge High School.
