The Fight For Wellington’s Incorporation
The Narrowly Decided 1995 Referendum That Created The Village Capped A Six-Year Effort
Story by Joshua Manning | Photos courtesy the Wellington Historical Society
What if the Village of Wellington was never created? It almost happened! It took six years, three votes by residents and an unexpected victory in Tallahassee to make incorporation a reality. This month, we chat with incorporation activist Mark Miles and others on a battle that divided the community but set Wellington residents up to control their own destiny.
It’s not easy to create a new municipality out of a mostly residential area already home to more than 20,000 people. The creation of the Village of Wellington took six years, three votes by the residents, a legislative tussle in Tallahassee and a final campaign that divided the community.
Looking back nearly 30 years later, it’s almost impossible to imagine what Wellington might be like today if it had never seized its own destiny. However, the vote that finally created the village passed by a slim margin.
When all the votes were counted late into the night on Nov. 7, 1995, a total of 3,851 Wellington residents voted in favor of creating a new municipality, while 3,713 opposed the measure — a margin of 138 votes that made all the difference as far as Wellington’s future was concerned.
On that day, Wellington — the huge development approved by Palm Beach County 23 years earlier — moved in a new direction. It was in control of its own future.
The fight for incorporation began as Wellington grew from a developer-controlled patchwork of subdivisions to a living, breathing community. While strong voices could be heard calling for incorporation as far back as the early 1980s — Town-Crier founder Bob Markey Sr. for one — it wasn’t until 1989 that the first mechanism was in place to get a plan into action. That was when the Acme Improvement District, Wellington’s pre-incorporation government, voted unanimously to support the idea.
When Acme’s bylaws were changed in 1990, wording was added that specifically allowed for the district to lead an incorporation effort. That effort led to an initial charter prepared by Acme attorney Charlie Schoech, among others, that went to the voters on Nov. 6, 1990. It failed by a slim margin — a failure that many attributed to the fact that the impetus for incorporation came from Acme, rather than from Wellington residents.
That was the opinion of the late Michael McDonough, an attorney who later served on both the Acme board and the inaugural Wellington Village Council. He sent a personalized letter to residents days before the vote, criticizing Acme’s role in the effort and a tax cap he felt was too high. Many on the pro-incorporation side cited McDonough’s letter when 53 percent of voters rejected that first referendum.
While Acme remained in support of the incorporation goal, they took a back seat to resident involvement in the future attempts to incorporate. That residential input came from groups such as WISE and POWER.
WISE — “Wellington Incorporation Study and Education” — was founded in 1992. Its leader was Mark Miles, a local business leader and later a member of the Wellington Village Council. The group’s stated goal was to revive the incorporation question and put it to a vote in 1994.
Miles ran a series of well-attended meetings to discuss the idea. His goal was to provide a public discussion where residents could determine what was best for the future.
“[County Commissioner] Ken Adams asked me to lunch one day. He sat me down and explained what it would be if we were incorporated. He asked me to take on the project, and I agreed to it,” Miles recalled. “I took out an ad in the Town-Crier asking people to join me for a community meeting to discuss the possibility of incorporating.”
For Miles the crucial issue was the millions in state money that Wellington was losing each year by not being incorporated.
“People were overpaying property taxes, and Palm Beach County was keeping all of it and returning nothing to us,” Miles said. “We had to prove to people that, in fact, it would be in the best interest of the community and that it would save them money.”
By 1993, WISE representatives were running from community events to civic group meetings, pitching the benefits of incorporation. WISE even went so far as to commission an accounting firm to study the financial impact of incorporation. That report bolstered the claims that incorporation would bring a financial windfall to the new village.
“The most important thing was that we were not receiving our property taxes back, and it simply was unfair that our tax money was going to other communities and improving their parks and facilities and infrastructure. I thought it should be coming back to us,” Miles said.
WISE used the slogan, “Vote facts, not fear.”
“Debbie, my wife, came up with that slogan to use,” Miles said. “We had the facts that we would literally get tens of millions of dollars back that we were losing to other communities. People were frightened of change.”
In 1994, another group stepped in to help push the incorporation plan as well. It was led by Linda Bolton, a community activist who also later sat on the Wellington Village Council.
Bolton had just been one of the leaders opposing the controversial “Town of Wellington” project west of Flying Cow Road. She had been successful in rallying her neighbors against that project. Her new goal would have to rally a whole community in favor of incorporation. The group she led was called POWER, which stood for “People of Wellington for Educated Residents.” Like WISE had done, POWER conducted town hall meetings, which drew a strong response from residents.
The combined attempts led to a non-binding “straw poll” on Nov. 8, 1994. For the first time, a vote showed that a majority of residents (57 percent) supported Wellington’s incorporation.
That successful straw poll allowed the incorporation supporters to draft a charter and try to get it approved by the state legislature. After comparing dozens of different charters, from communities as diverse as Boca Raton, Key Biscayne and Daytona Beach, the pro-incorporation forces drafted a document that was unique to Wellington. Protecting equestrian interests was a crucial factor, as was eliminating points that residents said would make them oppose incorporation. There was a much lower tax cap included, and the government was set up with a council-manager form of government with what was initially an appointed mayor. Term limits for council members were also added.
“It took many meetings to write, rewrite and study it,” said Miles on the proposed charter. “In the end, I think we put together one of the best charters in the whole state.”
The charter was also careful in designing the boundaries for the new village. Pro-incorporation supporters poured over the results of the 1994 straw poll and noted areas that voted strongly against the idea, the Wycliffe neighborhood for one. Although part of the Acme Improvement District, Wycliffe was left out of the boundaries of the new village after its residents voted 2-1 against incorporation during the straw poll.
With a plan for incorporation in place, the proponents took their cause to the legislature in Tallahassee, sponsored by State Rep. Rick Minton, who wrote the bill. But when the plan went to the legislature, it almost didn’t make it. The village’s incorporation did not get to the floor during the lawmakers’ regular session. Many people thought the entire effort had failed, and those opposed to the idea celebrated. But their relief was short-lived. A special session was called, and Wellington’s incorporation was one of the few items on the agenda.
Pro-incorporation supporters travelled to Tallahassee to lobby legislators, including Acme Improvement District Supervisor Dr. Carmine Priore, who later served on the Wellington Village Council. “I lobbied the legislators,” he recalled when interviewed in 2001. “I walked the halls in an attempt to get the legislators to support incorporation. It was one of the few items on the agenda. When we were able to get it approved, we were thrilled.”
The late Ken Adams, whose political career took him from the Acme board to the Palm Beach County Commission, was another key supporter. He had a large hand in writing the charter approved by the legislature in 1995. “We got a unanimous vote of the Florida Legislature,” Adams recalled when interviewed 20 years later in 2015. “That doesn’t happen very often, and I’m awfully proud of that, not just for me, but for all the people who participated.”
The Village of Wellington’s charter was approved by the legislature as House Bill 1439 on May 11, 1995. But the fight for incorporation was not over. The supporters still had to convince the residents to accept the charter and make incorporation official.
Groups such as “Safeguard” and “Citizens Against Incorporation” spent months disputing the benefits of incorporation, notably the financial benefits, which opponents said were likely to be offset by the extra services that the village would require. Some remained suspicious of the motives behind incorporation.
In the end, the voters — by a very slim margin — chose to become Palm Beach County’s first new municipality in more than 30 years.
“I stood up on top of a table at Cobblestones restaurant and held up the returns that night from the vote and said, ‘Finally, finally, finally.’ I had been working on the project for more than four years,” Miles recalled.
After the vote on Nov. 7, 1995, the village came into existence on Dec. 31, 1995. That set off a mad scramble with 27 candidates seeking the five seats on the inaugural Wellington Village Council, which met for the first time on March 28, 1996.
Miles is proud of his work, along with many others, to make the Village of Wellington a reality.
“It is certainly my legacy for the community,” he said. “I built more than 300 homes in Wellington during my career, and built many friendships, but it doesn’t compare to the net result for the community as my participating in the incorporation effort.”
What would Wellington be like today if the effort was not successful?
“It would not be as beautiful as it truly is,” Miles said. “When I drive through Wellington today, the mirror still shines. If anything, it shines even brighter. The quality of life in Wellington is far superior today than it would have been without incorporation.”
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