Fesik, at one point, tried to abstain from voting and walk out of the meeting. She also called on two of her colleagues to join her in walking out to “deny quorum and pause this process and reclaim our Commission’s authority to protect our city.” This was met with a warning by City Attorney Mark Berman, who stated that Florida state law requires commissioners to vote on an item put before them unless they have submitted a conflict of interest through the proper channels.
The increase in cost projected by City staff and consultants arises from the method chosen to finance the City’s responsibilities in downtown. In the current master developer agreement, the City will finance the public portion of the project through the master developer, RocaPoint Partners.
Under the current master developer agreement, RocaPoint will loan the city the funds to construct the civic portion of the project and the City will pay that money back over a 30-year timeframe. However, there is a provision built into the contract that allows the City to seek financing elsewhere. According to staff, the current conditions to borrow money are more favorable than the terms that were built into the master developer agreement. Commissioner Smith said during the meeting “I feel we have an obligation to vote for the public funding… This is just smart financing.”
Commissioner Sigerson-Eaton said at the meeting, “this will get financed one way or another. I’d prefer to save the city $100 million dollars.”
During the Commission meeting, the reasons presented for the dissent from the dais came from a lack of trust in how the project arrived at this point.
Fournier said at the meeting that the resolution is about “the process and trust.” Going further, she said “every decision we make is about process and trust and how it’s done.” She went on to say that she was uncomfortable making a decision on the resolution without more information from the City Manager, Greg Harrison, and more input from the community. Dozens of public meetings have taken place before and since the master development agreement was approved in June 2024.
Another point of contention amongst the dissenting bloc is the people working on the project. Fournier said “I expect that the we have the right people working on this and that the wrong people exit this project.” Later in the meeting, Fesik proposed a motion to terminate Redevelopment Management Associates’ (RMA) contract with the city. Fournier said of RMA “I think RMA has a long history of not listening to the people.” The motion failed 3-3.
Christopher Brown, co-founder and principal at RMA and former director of the Delray Beach CRA, said of his time working for the Delray CRA and redeveloping Atlantic Avenue “the black community said ‘what are you going to do for me?’ Gentrification did not happen in Delray – Delray has a very large black middle class… I think that can happen in Pompano.” Going further, he said “[RMA] got [to Pompano] in 2009 – it’s only in the beginning stages. But a lot has happened in that time.”
Kim Breisemeister, the other co-founder and principal at RMA, said “The downtown would not be ready for its launch today without decades of commitment from the chamber of commerce, Eta Nu, the northwest advisory committee, the economic development counsel, the historical society, planning and zoning boards, incredibly dedicated city staff and so many others. This should be one of the most exciting times in our city’s history. I hope all those folks who have committed so much time and effort to envision and work towards bringing this downtown to fruition, get to enjoy and see the fruits of their efforts very soon.”
There is a deadline of August 15 to secure alternative financing as outlined in the master developer agreement. The resolution favoring public financing is expected to be brought back before the commission. Sources close to the project, who wished to remain anonymous, believe that the public financing option is likely to succeed. This belief is based on the idea that dissenters do not want to risk being blamed in future campaigns for costing the city $100 million.
