FORT PIERCE — Questions about how to revitalize the local economy, the future of Fort Pierce Utilities Authority are among chief concerns for voters entering Tuesday’s Fort Pierce City Commission elections for District 1 and District 2.

In District 1, R. “Duke” Nelson is hoping to return to the City Commission by defeating incumbent Rufus Alexander. In District 2, incumbent Christine Coke faces three challengers: Curtis Boyd, Tom Perona and Rick Reed. District 1 primarily includes citizens west of U.S. 1 and north of Delaware Avenue as well as those along northern Okeechobee Road. District 2 primarily includes citizens south of Delaware Avenue along with those east of U.S. 1 as well as those south of Okeechobee Road.

Unemployment was at 15.3 percent in the county in September, according to the state’s Agency for Workforce Innovation. High unemployment combined with foreclosure rates have led voters to search for elected officials to come up with smart solutions to fix the problems while managing a budget diminished by a 17.4 percent decline in local property values.
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STUART — Voters deciding this year’s race for the Stuart City Commission Group II seat will choose between a political newcomer promising fresh ideas and an incumbent with some 20 years of commission experience.

Jeffrey Callahan, a Martin County marine safety officer/emergency medical technician entered the political arena this year to challenge incumbent Jeffrey Krauskopf, who will be seeking his 13th term as a city commissioner.

Voters head to the polls for this year’s general election Tuesday, but early voting and mail-in ballots already have been cast. Early voting for city residents continues until 4:30 p.m. Friday at the Martin County Supervisor of Elections Office, 135 S.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in Stuart.
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PORT ST. LUCIE — City property owners may be able to avoid a proposed 26 percent increase in their property taxes.

During a special meeting Wednesday, the City Council unanimously agreed to use half of the city’s general fund reserves to keep the property tax rate at its current rate of $4.22 per $1,000 of taxable value. The council will formally vote on setting the property tax rate during scheduled 7 p.m. public hearings Sept. 14 and Sept. 28 at City Hall.

Using the city’s median home price of $112,000 with a $50,000 homestead exemption, an average city property tax bill using the current rate would be $261, excluding taxes from other agencies, such as the school and fire districts.
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A former Jupiter Island Town Commissioner died Monday in Rhode Island in what police there are investigating as a possible suicide.

Finn Caspersen, 67, was found dead Monday at the Shelter Harbor Golf Club in Westerly, R.I. from what police believe is a self-inflicted gunshot wound, said Westerly police Capt. Edward St. Clair.
Caspersen a philanthropist, was first elected as town commissioner in Jupiter Island in 2005. He resigned on Aug. 4. Caspersen also had a home in the Shelter Harbor Golf Club where he died.

“As a public servant, policy-maker and overall gentleman, Finn Caspersen exceeded every standard of good measure,” said Jupiter Island Mayor Charles Falcone. “Stoic and soft-spoken, he did a lot of listening during town meetings before carefully weighing in with insight and informed expertise.”

An assistant reached at Knickerbocker, LLC said the family did not want to comment. No funeral information was available.

Caspersen served as the chief executive officer for the Beneficial Corp., a major financial holding company, from 1976 to 1998. More recently he was serving as the chairman of Knickerbocker, a private management company that oversaw numerous trusts and foundations. Caspersen personally donated money to Harvard Law School in Massachusetts as well as the Morristown Memorial Hospital, and schools such as the Peddie School and the Drew University Caspersen School of Graduate Studies, all in New Jersey

Longtime friend Tom McNicholas described Caspersen as “approachable and genuine” and said: “Each time I would refer to him as Mr. Caspersen he would peer over his glasses, softly chuckle and say, ‘Call me Finn.’ He was a friend and always fair to everyone.”

As a town commissioner, Caspersen was pushed for a town referendum on whether to bury power lines on the island underground. He also got involved in Martin County’s contentious debate over real estate development, paying $17,000 out of his own pocket in 2006 to bankroll a phone survey of 500 Martin County residents about their views of population growth. He also created a political action committee, Keep Martin green, that ran advertisements opposing rapid growth in the county.

“Finn had strong convictions towards protecting our environment and he invested a lot of his own money and time to support local causes like Keep Martin Green which focused on smart growth and environmental protection,” McNicholas said.

This is the second longtime Jupiter Island official to die in recent months. Town Manager Joe Connolly, a friend of Caspersen, died of Lou Gehrig’s disease just days after Caspersen resigned from the town commission in August. Deputy Town Manager Gene Rauth said the town is considering a memorial to Caspersen.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

The early retirement of state Sen. Ken Pruitt will cost local governments — and therefore taxpayers — more than $475,000.

Tuesday’s special election to replace Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, for one year will cost at least that much.

Elections officials in the five counties that comprise state Senate District 28 base their costs projections upon printing, staff overtime, poll worker costs, advertising and the cost to mail out absentee-style ballots. (more…)

The week-long process called early voting, where ballots are cast on optical scan equipment at county elections headquarters and a couple other locations, kicks off Monday morning for the special state Senate District 28 election.

Elections officials will oversee early voting at the main office in each county. St. Lucie and Palm Beach counties will open secondary locations, at the Port St. Lucie City Hall and the North County Courthouse in Palm Beach Gardens.

As of Friday morning, election officials reported 19,802 voters in Florida’s Senate District 28 have cast their votes, using the vote by mail ballots, since the start of the month for the Aug. 4 special election to replace retiring Sen. Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie. (more…)

Asked in a questionnaire by Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers for TCPalm.com’s “Ask the Candidates” page whether they had been convicted of a felony, both candidates on the ballot for state Senate District 28 seat wrote “no.”

The answer from one of the candidates isn’t accurate, according to a Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers investigation.

According to court records and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Eastern Pennsylvania, Democrat Bill Ramos, a mortgage broker from Jensen Beach, pleaded guilty to a single count of embezzlement of postal funds — accepting a three-year probation and repaying the missing money — in 1989. That charge is a felony.

Ramos said Thursday he didn’t consider pleading “no contest” the same as a conviction.

“I answered specifically as it was asked,” Ramos said. “It just said have you ever been convicted of, and I answered no. I plead no contest.”

The court documents show Ramos pleaded guilty.

Assistant State Attorney John Cannizzaro, of Florida’s 19th Judicial Circuit in Fort Pierce, said judges advise defendants before they enter a guilty plea that the action is the same as being convicted at a jury trial.

“There is no difference,” he said. (more…)

When the Martin County Commission fired Duncan Ballantyne from his $147,250 a year job as county administrator on St. Patrick’s Day, a pot of gold awaited the seasoned bureaucrat.

For starters, Ballantyne remained on the county payroll for a month after he cleaned out his office because he was entitled to a 30-day notice of his termination.

Since his official last day on April 23, Ballantyne has collected a total of $84,451 as a result of the severance package he negotiated when he was hired in the fall of 2005, county records show. And his initial severance period doesn’t end until Aug. 23.

Ballantyne’s severance package is not unusual for local government managers and attorneys on the Treasure Coast. In fact, 13 local government managers and attorneys in Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties are entitled to severance pay for six months, or longer, if they are fired without cause. (more…)

PALM CITY — Hard financial times have turned tumultuous at a local church, with the pastor using a sheriff’s deputy to keep elders outside the sanctuary doors and the elders, in turn, filing suit to remove the pastor.

In the lawsuit filed Wednesday in Martin County Circuit Court, seven members of Palm City Christian Church charge Pastor Anthony “Pastor Tony” Galbicka with breach of fiduciary duty and seek a ruling “ousting” him and voiding the “improper and/or illegal” actions he took.

The suit also alleges Galbicka slandered one plaintiff, Edward Taudien, when the pastor told other church members Taudien had stolen money from the church. The suit counters that Taudien had donated more than $168,000 to the church and loaned it $200,000 to build the sanctuary at 6450 Martin Highway in western Palm City.

Galbicka could not be reached Thursday at his home in Palm City, at the church, via telephone or by e-mail.

Robert J. Watson, a Stuart attorney representing the plaintiffs, said he expects a hearing on his request for a temporary restraining order against Galbicka to be scheduled late this month or early August.

According to the lawsuit, the 80-member church “began to struggle financially” this year; at a May 28 meeting attended by Galbicka, the elders approved several spending cuts, including reducing the pastor’s salary “by a modest percentage.”

Watson said the cut was to be about 15 percent, adding the church paid Galbicka’s housing and car expenses plus $22,000 a year. Details of how to make the cut had not been worked out, he said. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — Mayor Patricia Christensen and her husband and campaign treasurer, Frans Christensen, have paid $5,000 in fines to the Florida Elections Commission as part of an agreement over charges of campaign violations.

According to the agreement signed by the couple on June 4, the two failed to report a $500 contribution from Homes of East Lake Village LLC in August 2006, and two $500 donations from The Painting Pros LLC in August and October that same year.

The commission agreed to charge the couple $5,000 in fines, which was paid last month, according to an official.

The commission is set to approve the agreement and payment at its August meeting.