February 10, 2026 • 13 mins
Ritchey is one of three candidates in the race for Seat A on the Boca Raton City Council.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Joel Malcolm four wj ando dot com. My election
(00:03):
spotlight focusing on Boca Ratone. Seems like I've been focusing
on Booker Ratone for a long time because it's going
to be a busy March tenth. There there are four elections,
one for mayor and then you have three city council
member elections as well, and we're going to focus in
this one on Seat A. This is friend Nicholas's seat,
(00:25):
but she has served a term and instead of running
for reelection to Cday, she is running for mayor. So
we have three candidates running for this seat, including Kristin Ritchie.
And that's who is we are who we are speaking
with now. Kristin, thank you for joining me.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Thank you so much. I'm happy to be here, appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
All Right, let's get a little bit of a little
bit of background on you. First of all, how long
have you been in Boca Ratone.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I have been in Boca Ratone since I was five,
which would be nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Okay, so what let me get some work background on
you and anything else you'd like to share.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Sure, I am a family law attorney. I own my
own law firm here in Boca Ratone Johnson Ritchie family
started it in twenty fourteen. Been practicing as an attorney
since two thousand and five, and I spend my days
problem solving, option building, and solution finding for people going
(01:27):
through difficult times in their lives such as divorced and
child custody type issues.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
All right, and I guess we'll get right into the priorities.
And I'm sure somewhere along the way one Boca fits
in because this is something we've been talking to all
the candidates about and I'm sure the hopefully most of
the voters know what this is, and if they don't,
(01:54):
they need to get on it because it's going to
be on their ballot too, the referendum there. But this
is essentially redevelopment of the downtown area. Some are on board,
some are not, Some are complaining about essentially how you
know how it all started. So let me get your
thoughts on it.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Sure sure that area downtown is near and dear to
my heart, I lived in Spanish Village, which is just
north of that downtown campus for about seventy eight years.
When I had my kids walk my my double stroller
down to the Children's museum and the playground in park
you know, multiple times a week. So my thoughts on
(02:37):
the planner, I was never for the first iteration where
they were going to build over on Memorial Park and
take away those recreational areas. That being said, I think
we absolutely need a new city hall, a new community center.
I'd love to see the Children's museum reopened and revitalize
and some recreation there. I do believe that over by
(03:00):
the bright Line station, the transit or the district could
use restaurant retails, you know, that area really needs to
be activated and be representative of the world class city
that Boca is, and at this time, I do not
think that it is representative of this city. So with
(03:22):
the you know, communication, collaboration, cooperation that One Boca has
had with the residents, I think they've done a great
job downsizing the project, putting it in a place where
it's appropriate. And I have to say, you know, impressed
with how Save Boca mobilized and got the vote on
(03:45):
the ballots for March tenth. Very excited that the public
will get to vote on it, and you know, public lands,
public vote. I'm all for it. And so yeah, I
think it's a nice looking project in its current fleet,
and I'm glad residents we'll get to make the decision
on whether we move forward with it.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
So is it safe to say that you'll be a
yes vote on the referendum?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Yes, it is.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
How do you feel about the police station? Because one
thing that I'm hearing, even the project the way it
is now, that maybe it's a bit too gaudy, you know,
maybe they could spend a little less on the police station,
even though it's been acknowledged by candidates in other races
and maybe even this one, but that you know, a
new police station is needed, but maybe not one as
(04:32):
expensive as the one that is part of part of
the plan.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Well, first of all, I'm in favor of the new
police station. I'm fortunate and honored to have been endorsed
by the police in this race, and I have been
here since that original police station was built back in
nineteen eighty eight for you know, astraction of the amount
(04:58):
of citizens that we have here. So I think we
definitely need a new police station and support that vote
on the ballot. Now. As far as Gotti and you know,
too expensive, I am not an expert in what we
need out of police station. I am well aware that
(05:19):
there are special and unique things that need to be
built in. For instance, now I'm an attorney, so a
chain of command for evidence is very important so that
we don't we don't tamper with it and we're able
to actually put the criminals away when we pull them
off the streets. So there are certain things that are
very important that we need to have, and I don't
know what the price is on it. I do know
(05:42):
from speaking with you know, our CFO and our Chief
of police and really studying this. But what we're doing
is we're taking out the bonch for the max right
one hundred and seventy five million. It doesn't mean we
have to actually spend that amount. So I'm all for
us taking a sharp pencil to the budget for the
police station and spending less if we can get an
(06:03):
appropriate station that adequately meets our needs for the residents.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
All right, I want to go back to business and
business development for a moment, because we're talking about obviously
the one Boca project. Also, another thing that Boca Raton's
been doing, you know, in recent months is, along with
coalm Beach County in general, is reaching out to businesses
in other states like California and New York to try
(06:28):
to get especially financial firms, and Boca Ratone successful with
d Wave, a quantum computing company out of Palo Alto, California,
agreeing to move its headquarters to Boca Ratone. The innovation
campus there one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars jobs
(06:48):
and at least one hundred of them, and I wanted
to get your thoughts on that.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
I'm excited about attracting new business and economic growth for
the city of broker Atone. Again, I would hear an
idea with here right and in the city really flourishes
when we have headquarters such as that here. I like
the idea of sparking new class A office space and
(07:20):
really retaining and attracting talent. You know, my main goal
here and running for city council is to be sure
that city that the city grows responsibly but maintained that
small town charm. I love so much about it since
I was so little, and I want my kids to
want to stay here and raise their kids like I did.
(07:42):
So it needs to be balanced. The economic growth is
exciting and will help the city prosper, but we have
to balance it We've got to talk about traffic. We've
got to you know, bring in some AI and make
these lights talk to each other so we can move traffic.
We've got to talk about public stacy, you know, not
police but fire Again. I was also endorsed by fire
(08:03):
and you know, getting personnel over to Station eight because
they wanted to be able to utilize their emergency vehicle
response vehicle. We need to talk about infrastructure, be sure
that we don't have issues like our town to the
south with flooding, and our seawalls are being maintained, and
these sort of things need to be prioritizh we need
(08:26):
to stop hyper focusing on one singular issue. I believe
in this city and really pay attention to all of it.
Because we want economic rooks. We want to keep our taxes. Look,
we don't want to cut our services. But so it
needs a balance and somebody with some experience to take
a look at it to be sure we're we're looking
at Boca through the lens of ten years from now,
(08:48):
twenty years from now, fifty years from now, and not
just you know today and tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Yeah, some candidates around the city have told me they
don't like the idea of offering incentives to the companies
that the companies essentially should just want to be in
Boca Raton. So I wanted to get your thoughts on that.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
We have funds for incentivizing people because it has been
a priority, and I do believe you know over the
years attending strategic planning that we have prioritized attracting companies
like this. I think it is worked out favorably for
this city. So but I'm always open to their dialogue
(09:28):
and discussion about what those concerns would be. The one
thing I would say, though, you know, the opposition to
it's what's the alternative, what do we think will happen?
What's the plan if we do take that away, because
I do think it's worked out well for the city.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
And Kristin, have you run for office in the past.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
I ran in twenty twenty in the twenty twenty three election. However,
although I qualified in November twenty twenty two, I withdrew
from the race prior to the ballots even being printed,
so I was not actually on the ballot. So so
I sort of ran, but I ended up withdrawing. It
(10:08):
was the wrong time for me, okay.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
And I just wanted to ask you another question about
one of the other candidates in this specific race had
made a comment to me, so I wanted to give
you the opportunity to address it. And this is somebody,
This is Bernard Korn, who has vowed to run continuously
until he is elected. In our conversation, and he said
(10:35):
his opponents decided to run at the last minute, weeks
or months before the election, and he was already in
you know, what are your thoughts on that? Just wanted
to give you the opportunity if somebody says something, you know, I.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Appreciate that opportunity, and I believe he's probably directing it
at the other candidate in the race. I filed in
May of twenty twenty five for the March twenty twenty
sixth election, So if he's talking about me, I.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Was.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
It was many months.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
He just said opponents. That's already never said anybody specific.
So yeah, that's okay, that's that's possible.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
All right. I'm guessing it's my other opponent because she
filed the week before qualified.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Okay, all right, what all right? Final question three candidates
in this race? What makes you in a nutshell? What
makes you the best candidate.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
My experience. I have served on boards in this city
for over a decade, you know, school advisory committee, boards
for my kids' school, the YMCA, president of the Women's
Executive Club, as far as the city extor Community Advisory Panel.
I've served on the Affordable Houses Advisory Committee. I have
(11:53):
served on the planning and zoning boards. I've built relationships
with the staff. I spend time setting our codes and ordinances,
identifying issues that are important to the city as a whole,
the entire city, which I think will lend itself well,
that kind of thing you just can't buy experience, you know,
(12:14):
you can't just pop in. There's an intangible there that
my opponents don't have. And I'm also not hyper focused
on one singular issue. I understand how important the downtown
campus is, but there's a lot more going on in
the city, and the public is going to vote on
March tenth, and then we're going to have to hit
(12:34):
the ground running with what happens if it's yes or
if it's no, and we need to be identifying and
dealing with all of the other issues in the city
at the same time. We cannot hyper focus on one
issue and I have never hyper focused on one issue.
I am well aware of all of the issues that
impact our citizens and residents.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
All right, well, I appreciate you taking the time to
speak to the voters of Boca ratone March tenth. We
should point out no in place early voting, but and
I always say I add those two words in place
because technically there is early voting, it's called vote by mail.
But there is no on site early voting for this
(13:18):
these municipal elections anywhere in Palm Beach County. So March
tenth is today. Thank you once again for joining me.
Kristin Richie, candidate for Seat A Boca City Council.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Thank you so much
Hey, Joel Malcolm four wj ando dot com. My election
(00:03):
spotlight focusing on Boca Ratone. Seems like I've been focusing
on Booker Ratone for a long time because it's going
to be a busy March tenth. There there are four elections,
one for mayor and then you have three city council
member elections as well, and we're going to focus in
this one on Seat A. This is friend Nicholas's seat,
(00:25):
but she has served a term and instead of running
for reelection to Cday, she is running for mayor. So
we have three candidates running for this seat, including Kristin Ritchie.
And that's who is we are who we are speaking
with now. Kristin, thank you for joining me.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Thank you so much. I'm happy to be here, appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
All Right, let's get a little bit of a little
bit of background on you. First of all, how long
have you been in Boca Ratone.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I have been in Boca Ratone since I was five,
which would be nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Okay, so what let me get some work background on
you and anything else you'd like to share.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Sure, I am a family law attorney. I own my
own law firm here in Boca Ratone Johnson Ritchie family
started it in twenty fourteen. Been practicing as an attorney
since two thousand and five, and I spend my days
problem solving, option building, and solution finding for people going
(01:27):
through difficult times in their lives such as divorced and
child custody type issues.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
All right, and I guess we'll get right into the priorities.
And I'm sure somewhere along the way one Boca fits
in because this is something we've been talking to all
the candidates about and I'm sure the hopefully most of
the voters know what this is, and if they don't,
(01:54):
they need to get on it because it's going to
be on their ballot too, the referendum there. But this
is essentially redevelopment of the downtown area. Some are on board,
some are not, Some are complaining about essentially how you
know how it all started. So let me get your
thoughts on it.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Sure sure that area downtown is near and dear to
my heart, I lived in Spanish Village, which is just
north of that downtown campus for about seventy eight years.
When I had my kids walk my my double stroller
down to the Children's museum and the playground in park
you know, multiple times a week. So my thoughts on
(02:37):
the planner, I was never for the first iteration where
they were going to build over on Memorial Park and
take away those recreational areas. That being said, I think
we absolutely need a new city hall, a new community center.
I'd love to see the Children's museum reopened and revitalize
and some recreation there. I do believe that over by
(03:00):
the bright Line station, the transit or the district could
use restaurant retails, you know, that area really needs to
be activated and be representative of the world class city
that Boca is, and at this time, I do not
think that it is representative of this city. So with
(03:22):
the you know, communication, collaboration, cooperation that One Boca has
had with the residents, I think they've done a great
job downsizing the project, putting it in a place where
it's appropriate. And I have to say, you know, impressed
with how Save Boca mobilized and got the vote on
(03:45):
the ballots for March tenth. Very excited that the public
will get to vote on it, and you know, public lands,
public vote. I'm all for it. And so yeah, I
think it's a nice looking project in its current fleet,
and I'm glad residents we'll get to make the decision
on whether we move forward with it.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
So is it safe to say that you'll be a
yes vote on the referendum?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Yes, it is.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
How do you feel about the police station? Because one
thing that I'm hearing, even the project the way it
is now, that maybe it's a bit too gaudy, you know,
maybe they could spend a little less on the police station,
even though it's been acknowledged by candidates in other races
and maybe even this one, but that you know, a
new police station is needed, but maybe not one as
(04:32):
expensive as the one that is part of part of
the plan.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Well, first of all, I'm in favor of the new
police station. I'm fortunate and honored to have been endorsed
by the police in this race, and I have been
here since that original police station was built back in
nineteen eighty eight for you know, astraction of the amount
(04:58):
of citizens that we have here. So I think we
definitely need a new police station and support that vote
on the ballot. Now. As far as Gotti and you know,
too expensive, I am not an expert in what we
need out of police station. I am well aware that
(05:19):
there are special and unique things that need to be
built in. For instance, now I'm an attorney, so a
chain of command for evidence is very important so that
we don't we don't tamper with it and we're able
to actually put the criminals away when we pull them
off the streets. So there are certain things that are
very important that we need to have, and I don't
know what the price is on it. I do know
(05:42):
from speaking with you know, our CFO and our Chief
of police and really studying this. But what we're doing
is we're taking out the bonch for the max right
one hundred and seventy five million. It doesn't mean we
have to actually spend that amount. So I'm all for
us taking a sharp pencil to the budget for the
police station and spending less if we can get an
(06:03):
appropriate station that adequately meets our needs for the residents.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
All right, I want to go back to business and
business development for a moment, because we're talking about obviously
the one Boca project. Also, another thing that Boca Raton's
been doing, you know, in recent months is, along with
coalm Beach County in general, is reaching out to businesses
in other states like California and New York to try
(06:28):
to get especially financial firms, and Boca Ratone successful with
d Wave, a quantum computing company out of Palo Alto, California,
agreeing to move its headquarters to Boca Ratone. The innovation
campus there one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars jobs
(06:48):
and at least one hundred of them, and I wanted
to get your thoughts on that.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
I'm excited about attracting new business and economic growth for
the city of broker Atone. Again, I would hear an
idea with here right and in the city really flourishes
when we have headquarters such as that here. I like
the idea of sparking new class A office space and
(07:20):
really retaining and attracting talent. You know, my main goal
here and running for city council is to be sure
that city that the city grows responsibly but maintained that
small town charm. I love so much about it since
I was so little, and I want my kids to
want to stay here and raise their kids like I did.
(07:42):
So it needs to be balanced. The economic growth is
exciting and will help the city prosper, but we have
to balance it We've got to talk about traffic. We've
got to you know, bring in some AI and make
these lights talk to each other so we can move traffic.
We've got to talk about public stacy, you know, not
police but fire Again. I was also endorsed by fire
(08:03):
and you know, getting personnel over to Station eight because
they wanted to be able to utilize their emergency vehicle
response vehicle. We need to talk about infrastructure, be sure
that we don't have issues like our town to the
south with flooding, and our seawalls are being maintained, and
these sort of things need to be prioritizh we need
(08:26):
to stop hyper focusing on one singular issue. I believe
in this city and really pay attention to all of it.
Because we want economic rooks. We want to keep our taxes. Look,
we don't want to cut our services. But so it
needs a balance and somebody with some experience to take
a look at it to be sure we're we're looking
at Boca through the lens of ten years from now,
(08:48):
twenty years from now, fifty years from now, and not
just you know today and tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Yeah, some candidates around the city have told me they
don't like the idea of offering incentives to the companies
that the companies essentially should just want to be in
Boca Raton. So I wanted to get your thoughts on that.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
We have funds for incentivizing people because it has been
a priority, and I do believe you know over the
years attending strategic planning that we have prioritized attracting companies
like this. I think it is worked out favorably for
this city. So but I'm always open to their dialogue
(09:28):
and discussion about what those concerns would be. The one
thing I would say, though, you know, the opposition to
it's what's the alternative, what do we think will happen?
What's the plan if we do take that away, because
I do think it's worked out well for the city.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
And Kristin, have you run for office in the past.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
I ran in twenty twenty in the twenty twenty three election. However,
although I qualified in November twenty twenty two, I withdrew
from the race prior to the ballots even being printed,
so I was not actually on the ballot. So so
I sort of ran, but I ended up withdrawing. It
(10:08):
was the wrong time for me, okay.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
And I just wanted to ask you another question about
one of the other candidates in this specific race had
made a comment to me, so I wanted to give
you the opportunity to address it. And this is somebody,
This is Bernard Korn, who has vowed to run continuously
until he is elected. In our conversation, and he said
(10:35):
his opponents decided to run at the last minute, weeks
or months before the election, and he was already in
you know, what are your thoughts on that? Just wanted
to give you the opportunity if somebody says something, you know, I.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Appreciate that opportunity, and I believe he's probably directing it
at the other candidate in the race. I filed in
May of twenty twenty five for the March twenty twenty
sixth election, So if he's talking about me, I.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Was.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
It was many months.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
He just said opponents. That's already never said anybody specific.
So yeah, that's okay, that's that's possible.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
All right. I'm guessing it's my other opponent because she
filed the week before qualified.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Okay, all right, what all right? Final question three candidates
in this race? What makes you in a nutshell? What
makes you the best candidate.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
My experience. I have served on boards in this city
for over a decade, you know, school advisory committee, boards
for my kids' school, the YMCA, president of the Women's
Executive Club, as far as the city extor Community Advisory Panel.
I've served on the Affordable Houses Advisory Committee. I have
(11:53):
served on the planning and zoning boards. I've built relationships
with the staff. I spend time setting our codes and ordinances,
identifying issues that are important to the city as a whole,
the entire city, which I think will lend itself well,
that kind of thing you just can't buy experience, you know,
(12:14):
you can't just pop in. There's an intangible there that
my opponents don't have. And I'm also not hyper focused
on one singular issue. I understand how important the downtown
campus is, but there's a lot more going on in
the city, and the public is going to vote on
March tenth, and then we're going to have to hit
(12:34):
the ground running with what happens if it's yes or
if it's no, and we need to be identifying and
dealing with all of the other issues in the city
at the same time. We cannot hyper focus on one
issue and I have never hyper focused on one issue.
I am well aware of all of the issues that
impact our citizens and residents.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
All right, well, I appreciate you taking the time to
speak to the voters of Boca ratone March tenth. We
should point out no in place early voting, but and
I always say I add those two words in place
because technically there is early voting, it's called vote by mail.
But there is no on site early voting for this
(13:18):
these municipal elections anywhere in Palm Beach County. So March
tenth is today. Thank you once again for joining me.
Kristin Richie, candidate for Seat A Boca City Council.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Thank you so much
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