Jupiter taking applications from residents for vacant town council seat through Sept. 12
JUPITER — The town has a new vice mayor and a plan to fill the spot on the town council left vacant when former Jupiter Vice Mayor Cheryl Schneider resigned Aug. 3.
Ron Delaney was elected vice mayor in a 4-0 vote at the council’s meeting Tuesday. Delaney will serve for the remainder of the 2023-2024 term. He was previously elected to that position in 2018 and 2022, and will preside over council meetings when Mayor Jim Kuretski is absent.
A council member since 2016, Delaney won his election to his third term in 2023 when he ran unopposed. He owns and operates the home-delivery food service, East Coast Foods, and is a graduate of Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts.
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Want to join the Jupiter town council? Here's how.
Whoever the council appoints to fill Schneider's seat will serve through March 2025. The town has set a deadline for applications for noon on Sept. 12.
Candidates should include a letter of interest, resume and proof of residency in the form of a valid driver’s license or an ID containing their current address. Interested parties should send their information to townclerk@jupiter.fl.us.
Council member Malise Sundstrom said at the Tuesday meeting that the town has received some inquiries from people who do not live within the Jupiter town limits. Town clerk Laura Cahill’s office will verify that applicants reside within the town limits.
The town has some unincorporated pockets surrounded by incorporated areas. For example, the Jonathan’s Landing neighborhood east of Alternate A1A and south of Indiantown Road, is in unincorporated Palm Beach County.
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If the council receives the applications by Sept. 12, they will have time to study them before the Sept. 19 meeting. The new member could be selected at the Sept. 19 meeting, or if more deliberation is needed, the selection could be made Oct. 3.
To be considered, interested residents must be:
A resident of incorporated Jupiter for at least six months. To see a map of incorporated Jupiter’s boundaries, go online to https://tinyurl.com/JupiterDistricts.
A registered voter in Palm Beach County.
While not a requirement, additional consideration may be given to residents of District 1, which sits north of Indiantown Road and Toney Penna Drive and along the barrier island south to The Bluffs neighborhood. Voters in that district elected Schneider to the council.
Once an applicant is verified to be a Jupiter resident, the individual will be required to sign an oath of eligibility, and if appointed, will be required to complete Form 6, “Full and Public Disclosure of Financial Interests” per Florida law.
More information on the process is available through the town's website.
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In announcing her resignation, Schneider said she was stepping down for health reasons, but she will continue to be involved in issues she has fought for over the years. Schneider was elected to a three-year council term in March 2022, and became vice mayor this year. She previously served on the planning and zoning commission, ran for mayor in 2019 and in 2017 co-founded the Jupiter Inlet Foundation.
Schneider resigned a week or so after the July 25 meeting when the council voted 3-2 to preserve 4 acres of the 10-acre historically and archaeologically significant Suni Sands site. Schneider and council member Cameron May voted against the measure because they wanted the entire 10 acres preserved.
As part of its July 25 vote, the council approved a certificate to dig on 6 acres of the waterfront site, which developer Charles Modica purchased 10 years ago with the intention of building a hotel, condominiums and townhouses, and a restaurant. Suni Sands opened as a mobile-home park in the 1940s.
The site contains a shell midden where Native American tribes lived 6,000 years ago. The historic Celestial Railway’s pathway runs across the site. The Florida Division of Historical Resources master site file lists both as historic archaeological sites that are potentially eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
The town’s ultimate goal is to purchase the site, which depends on whether Modica is willing to sell, and an agreement is reached, Kuretski said.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Jupiter residents can apply for vacant town council seat through Sept. 12
