Questionnaire: Price Patton, candidate for Delray Beach Commission, Seat 1

Name: Price Patton

Seat you are running for: Delray Beach City Commission Seat 1

Education and highest degree attained: B.A., English, Williams College. M.A., Journalism, University of Missouri. Spent a year at Illinois Institute of Technology which fueled my lifelong interest in architecture and historic preservation.

What is your occupation? Historic preservationist, part-time editor for The Coastal Star newspaper (on leave of absence for campaign).

Please outline your work history for the past 15 years. (Please do not attach a resume.)

Retired in 2008 from The Palm Beach Post where I served in a variety of editor roles for 22 years. Co-Founder of The Coastal Star newspaper. Since I retired, my wife and I partnered with a preservation architect and to restore and repurpose three historic houses in the Marina Historic District. Worked with the Delray Beach Preservation Trust to get the Old School Square Historic District listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Was instrumental in saving and relocating a historic 1937 Samuel Ogren Sr., house. It now will be repurposed as offices for the Community Redevelopment Agency. Working to preserve and restore the orginal George Washington Carver High School, one of the few remaining former all-Black high school buildings in the county.

Have you ever been arrested, charged or convicted of a crime? Have you ever received a “withheld adjudication” or had a matter sealed or expunged? DUI in 1985. Pleaded guilty and driver’s license was suspended for six months.

Have you ever been a plaintiff or a defendant in a civil action, including bankruptcy or foreclosure, or had a restraining order issued against you? If so, please explain. No

Are you a member of any civic groups? President of Delray Beach Preservation Trust (on leave for campaign). Member of Delray Beach Elks Lodge. Member of Beach Property Owners Association. Member Carver High School Preservation Society.

Have you ever run for office before? If so, where and when? No

Why are you running for this office?

I have served the past seven years on two city advisory panels, the Historic Preservation Board and the Site Plan Review Advisory Board, and several matters I voted against were subsequently approved by the City Commission. The Commission sometimes approves development applications based on political agendas without considering the impact on residents and infrastructure. I have only the interests of our residents at heart. I am running to be in that final decision-making position to help both preserve our Village by the Sea image and move the city forward. The Commission/CRA should encourage growth in the NW/SW that is compatible with the neighborhood and meets the needs of the community.

If you have chosen to run against an incumbent, why specifically have you done so?

For the past nearly nine years, my opponent has consistently voted for special interests and developers, often to the expense of the taxpayers and our neighborhoods. To cite just a few: The no-bid Waste Management contract that he wanted to continue. His vote for the Atlantic Crossing over-development that will rain burdensome traffic on surrounding neighborhoods and Atlantic Ave. His vote to continue the no-bid, $2 million a year contract for a tennis tournament until 2030. The city had an opportunity through litigation to get a better deal. He voted to settle and keep the contract going. He also voted for the inappropriate Swinton Commons project in the heart of the Old School Square Historic District. I was a member of the Historic Preservation Board that repeatedly voted 7-0 AGAINST the project. I am interested only in supporting our neighborhoods, promoting sensible development and bettering the community. I have no further political aspirations.

Please describe your city and/or your district as you would to someone who has never visited.

Google Delray Beach and you get images of our historic icons: Old School Square, the beach, Doc’s Soft Serve. We preserve our past and studies have shown that cities across the nation that preserve their past assure their future. We have an incredibly vibrant downtown and our two-mile long beach is the envy of most cities. Our neighborhoods are diverse and take pride in being a part of Delray Beach. Our citizens are actively engaged with their city.

In your view, what are the top three issues facing your city or district?

1.) Help our small businesses reopen and laid off residents get back to work.

2.) Hire the best city manager we can find and let him/her do the job to provide confidence in our water system and restore efficiency to other city departments.

3.) Get to work on repairing and improving our infrastructure, which includes seawalls along the coast, streetlights, roads and sidewalks in many neighborhoods too long overlooked. Fix the damn potholes. They do not improve with age.

How would you assess the performance of the city commission? What grade would you give the commission for how it works? Why?

C+. The Commission did a good job working through the city’s sober house issues, completing the update of the city’s Comprehensive Plan, a blueprint for the next 20 years and finally, as the board of the Community Redevelopment Agency, investing in our Northwest and Southwest neighborhoods, neglected for far too long. The grade would have been higher had certain commissioners been more collegial and less politically motivated.

Is there anything you want us to know about your opponent(s)?

He has been on the Commission on and off for nearly nine years and his voting record has not in the best interests of our neighborhoods and residents. He never met a development application he didn’t like. He has a reputation of not responding to e-mails from residents and communicates only when he is campaigning. And during the height of the pandemic last fall, he callously said on a podcast that our front line nurses were “partying all night.” https://www.wptv.com/news/region-s-palm-beach-county/delray-beach/delray-beach-city-commissioner-adam-frankel-apologizes-after-saying-nurses-having-parties-every-night

Is there anything that we didn’t ask about that you would like to bring up?

I have given back to Delray Beach for many, many years through volunteer work and historic preservation. I am a 12-year volunteer at Paul’s Place after-school program at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, which serves the Haitian-American community of the southwest neighborhood. I serve on the board and scholarship committee and in the past couple of years we have had the pleasure of sending two students to college, the first in their families to advance past high school.

Is there anything about yourself that we didn’t ask about that would embarrass you if an opponent found out? No

Why should voters vote for you?

Never has there been a clearer distinction between two candidates. I am looking to better my city. Adam seems to be waiting to climb the political ladder. I am ready to jump in into the job, having watched commission meetings for years and dealing with city staffers. I have worked successfully with all the commissioners — save one, my opponent — on a variety of projects, ranging from historic preservation to preserving our tree canopy.

How much money have you raised so far? Please include today’s date.

About $30,000, including a $10,000 loan from myself, through Jan. 28.

Have you received any other endorsements? Not yet.