Save Boca Sweeps City Council: Grau, Pearlman, Sipple Win

Voters in Boca Raton handed a clean sweep to the Save Boca movement Tuesday, electing three new City Council members who share the group’s skepticism toward downtown redevelopment plans that have divided the city.

Michelle Grau claimed Seat A, Jon Pearlman flipped Seat B by ousting an incumbent, and Stacy Sipple secured Seat D. The results signal a sharp shift in the direction of city government, arriving alongside the election of Andy Thomson as the city’s new mayor.

Grau, a Republican accountant specializing in government finance, pulled the strongest numbers of the three, capturing 65% of the vote in a three-way race against family law attorney Christen Ritchey and former law enforcement officer Bernard Korn. Her campaign centered on fiscal oversight, lower taxes, improved communication between city government and residents, and addressing homelessness and cost-of-living pressures. She raised nearly $24,000 through her campaign account as of early this month.

Ritchey, who ran as politically unaffiliated and had previously served on the city’s Planning and Zoning Board, backed the proposed development plans, arguing that the private companies involved had listened to community concerns and refined their proposals. She outraised Grau, pulling in nearly $35,000, but finished second on election night.

Korn, a Democrat and longtime candidate who had never previously won a race for public office, argued that City Hall was being steered by lobbyists and special interests. He spent under $350 of the roughly $5,400 he raised.

In Seat B, Pearlman defeated incumbent Marc Wigder and a third candidate, Meredith Madsen, with 51% of the vote. The city uses a plurality system with no runoff requirement, meaning a candidate needs only the most votes to win outright.

Sipple won Seat D with 54%, beating Robert Weinroth and Larry Cellon for the right to succeed Thomson, who is moving up to the mayor’s office.

All three winning candidates carried endorsements from Save Boca, a movement that has forcefully opposed plans to redevelop the city’s downtown. Save Boca’s central argument is that the city can finance improvements to the downtown area directly, without leasing public land to private developers. Opponents of that view contend the proposed projects would modernize the city and generate badly needed revenue.

The election unfolded against a backdrop of genuine anger about Boca Raton’s growth trajectory. Residents packed public meetings in recent months to argue both sides. Supporters of the development plans pointed to economic benefits and private investment. Critics warned that major projects were being approved faster than roads, parking, and public safety infrastructure could keep pace, a concern Korn echoed even as he fell short Tuesday.

The outcome suggests that, for now, the critics have the votes.

Boca Raton City Council seats carry three-year terms with a limit of two consecutive terms. Members are elected at large on a nonpartisan basis, though the candidates in this cycle reflected clear partisan and ideological differences on the core question of how aggressively the city should pursue private development.

With Grau, Pearlman, and Sipple joining the council alongside a new mayor, the Save Boca coalition will hold significant sway over upcoming decisions on development proposals that have already drawn years of public debate. Whether the group can translate its electoral momentum into durable policy changes will depend on how quickly those proposals come back before the council and how the new members navigate the competing interests that have long shaped growth politics in Boca Raton.

What is clear after Tuesday is that Boca Raton voters wanted new voices at the table. They got three of them.