CABANA BOY BLUES: a true tale of The Prince, the no-bid contract, and an ill-timed drug bust. TIME TO CLEAN UP THE BEACH. mypalmbeachpost/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/battle-royale-prince-andreand-who-gets-beach-busin/nbGKs/?icmp=pbp_internallink_invitationbox_apr2013_pbpstubtomypbp_launch BY JOE CAPOZZI - PALM BEACH POST STAFF WRITER DELRAY BEACH — Of the 250 wooden cabana chairs available for rent at the city’s public beach, only one has a sign that reads “Reserved for Prince Andre.’’ Andre Fladell, a political powerbroker who has helped shape Palm Beach County elections for 30 years, said the wooden reservation sign is an inside joke among regulars who hold court on the same patch of sand every weekday morning at Delray Municipal Beach. Related Photo + Michael Novatka “You want to know the funny part? I’ve never, ever sat in that chair,’’ Fladell, a 67-year-old retired chiropractor, said with a laugh. “It’s not comfortable. There’s no back support. I can’t do my crossword puzzles.’’ But for one new Delray Beach city commissioner, the sign represents a larger concern about political influence in City Hall and might help explain why one company has enjoyed exclusive rights since 2002 to rent out chairs and umbrellas at the beach. “It is the symbol down at the beach of who is running things and I think those symbols need to come down because of the fact we have had voters rise up and say, ‘no more,’’’said Commissioner Shelly Petrolia, who defeated a Fladell-backed candidate in the March election. Related Photo + TAYLOR JONES Andre Fladell says he has never sat on the cabana lounge chair etched with “Reserved for Prince Andre.” He says it’s too uncomfortable. (Taylor Jones/The Palm Beach Post) “This is a public beach. This isn’t Andre’s beach.’’ No one disputes the fact that Fladell has clout. His influence with south county condominium communities makes him a go-to guy for any politician seeking votes, from would-be school board members to potential congressmen. Palm Beach County commissioners in 1985 passed an honorary resolution crowning him the “Prince of Palm Beach County,’’ a nod to his political hero, Machiavelli. The auditorium at the South County Civic Center bears his name. Related Photo + TAYLOR JONES Andre Fladell has commanded south county politics and politicians for years. Now some newly elected Delray Beach commissioners are kicking sand at his friend’s exclusive beach contract. (Taylor Jones/The Palm Beach Post) He’s particularly powerful in Delray Beach, his longtime base, where he has endorsed many city commissioners, past and present. New anti-Fladell bloc But power on the city commission shifted in March when two decidedly anti-Fladell candidates, Petrolia and Mayor Cary Glickstein, took seats and quickly forged a three-vote majority with Commissioner Al Jacquet. Related Links • Old issues and new ones divide Delray Beach candidates Petrolia and Glickstein campaigned on a pledge for government transparency after the commission issued no-bid contracts such as the $65 million extension that Waste Management received last year. Once she took office, Petrolia called for an examination of the beach contract – and the removal of the “Reserved for Prince Andre” sign on the beach chair. Fladell, an avid volleyball player, admits his daily trips to the beach spawned a friendship years ago with Michael Novatka, whose Singer Island-based Oceanside Beach Services is in line to win another concessions contract. But Fladell said he was friends with other vendors at the city’s beach long before Novatka arrived in 2002. In fact, Fladell said, regulars in what he calls his loose circle of beach “characters” have been posting hand-made “Andre” signs on rental chairs for the past 20 years and “no one ever said anything.’’ As for Petrolia’s perception that Fladell influenced City Hall on behalf of Oceanside, he said: “That’s absurd. This contract has nothing to do with me and Michael.’’ Firm serves 12 beaches Oceanside Beach Services, which started in 1986 at the Holiday Inn on Singer Island, has service contracts at 12 beaches in South Florida, including public beaches in Lake Worth, Boynton Beach and Jensen Beach. In April, the new city commission started questioning how Oceanside retained a renewal to the Delray Beach contract, which calls for the company to pay the city an annual franchise fee of $170,000 for the right to rent out chairs and umbrellas. In 2012, then-City Manager David Harden signed off on renewing a three-year contract awarded to Oceanside in 2009, but commissioners this spring said they should have voted on the renewal and decided to put the contract back out to bid. Harden, who retired in January after 23 years as manager, said in an interview last week that he did nothing improper last year by renewing the beach contract. He said the renewal was questioned only when the new commission took office. But nearly six months after the new commission voted to re-bid the contract, the issue isn’t settled. Michael Weiner, an attorney for Oceanside, has argued the commission’s decision to rebid the contract is not fair to the company and will leave the company’s customers who have seasonal contracts in limbo. The company over the summer offered an additional one-time payment of $45,000 to the city if commissioners let Oceanside keep the contract until it expires in 2015. Glickstein took exception to the offer, calling it “extortion” and “whoring the city” during a contentious meeting in August. Commissioners voted 3-2 to reject the payment. Casting dissenting votes were Angelete Gray and Adam Frankel. The request for proposals finally went out in August. When the commission first voted in April to bid the project, Petrolia told city staff to “cast a wide net” and attract as many companies as possible. 2 bidders; 1 disqualified Two companies — Oceanside and Miami-based Boucher Brothers — offered proposals, but city staff disqualified Boucher Brothers because the company failed to attend a mandatory pre-bid conference, scheduled for just nine days after the city issued the request for proposals. Jim Boucher said his firm was never told about the conference. He said he left messages with the city’s purchasing department earlier in the summer expressing his interest in bidding and giving his company’s new address and phone numbers. Pasty Nadal, the city’s purchasing manager, said the city accepts address changes only in writing and Boucher never sent written notification. A selection committee in late September recommended that Oceanside receive a five-year contract extension for $1.5 million, but Harden’s replacement, City Manager Louie Chapman, said Thursday that he will recommend later this month that the commission put the contract back out to bid again because the city received only one qualified bid. There could be another potential wrinkle. Novatka, Oceanside’s president, was arrested Aug. 20 on a felony charge of possessing 40 grams of marijuana in his truck outside a Riviera Beach convenience store, according to a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s report. Novatka, who was released the next day after posting $3,000 bail, is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday, according to court records. “We are denying the charges at this time and we are entering a plea of not guilty,” said Steve Sessa, Novatka’s attorney. Will arrest affect contract? Chapman, who learned about the arrest from The Palm Beach Post, said he wasn’t sure if it would hurt Oceanside’s efforts to win another beach contract because the arrest pertains to “the individual, not the entity.” Chapman said he would ask the city attorney for an opinion on whether the arrest violates any city policies. This summer isn’t the first time Boucher questioned Delray’s bidding process. In 2009, the contract went out to bid three different times because of concerns raised by both Boucher Brothers and Oceanside Beach Services. Ultimately, Oceanside won the bid, a deal that gave the city $510,000 over three years, after Boucher’s $595,000 bid was disqualified on a technicality: It was placed by Boucher Brothers Delray Beach LLC but listed the assets of the parent company, Boucher Brothers Management Inc. “I don’t care who puts chairs on our beach, as long as the process is open, honest, transparent and competitive. Why there is resistance to that is the overarching question,” Glickstein said in an interview. “We continue to have challenges here because there are people out there who continue to try to influence the outcome.’’ Similarly, Petrolia said, “My concern is the people didn’t get a chance at the bid process and that’s a large reason I’m sitting here today because there has been no transparency with things like that.” On the question of Fladell’s influence, Harden said: “During my tenure as manager I had very little interaction with Andre Fladell. As far as how he may have lobbied individual commissioners, I have no knowledge of that.” Frankel, an Oceanside supporter who plays volleyball with Fladell at the beach, said he has asked Fladell for his opinion about the beach contract. Fladell knows beaches “If you want to know what’s going on at the beach, if the equipment works well, if the beach attendants are doing their job, why not talk to the guy who’s there every day?” said Frankel, who said he also went to Fort Lauderdale Beach to view Boucher Brothers’ operation. “With all due respect to Ms. Petrolia, I have never seen her at the beach.” Oceanside’s latest bid would pay the city more than $1.5 million over five years — an average of $302,800 a year. But it also calls for an increase in rental rates that visitors would pay, said Novatka, who said the increases would be the first since 2002. Chairs currently are rented for $10 an hour and $30 a day, with annual memberships of $400. Fladell said the higher fees can be blamed on the commission’s decision to re-bid the contract. “Why would you want to take something that’s works perfectly and screw it up on some political vendetta,’’ he said. “It’s an example of dysfunctional government.’’ As for the move to get rid of the “reserved for Prince Andre” sign, Fladell said, “that shows how ignorant and petty they are. The whole thing is comical. It doesn’t define anything but them.’’ Fladell offered a suggestion for removing the sign. “If someone would make a good contribution to charity,’’ he said, “I will burn it.’’ Staff researcher Niels Heimeriks contributed to this story.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Oct 2013 19:05:54 +0000