February 4, 2026 • 18 mins
Madsen is one of two challengers to incumbent Councilmember Marc Wigder in Seat B.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Joel Malcoln for WJ and O dot com. My
(00:02):
election spotlight on the City of Boca ratone. Very busy
March tenth for residents, i should say, registered voters living
in the city of Boca ratone. There are three city
council races and a mayoral race as well, and we're
covering all of them right now. We're focused on the
race for seat b uh and this this is the
(00:22):
only of the of the three city council A, B,
and D races, this is the only one where you
have an incumbent who is running. The other two races
you've got the incumbents are actually running for mayors. So
you have Mark wigser is the incumbent. Here, we have
two candidates, John Pearlman and Meredith mads And challenging Mark.
(00:43):
And we have Meredith Madsen joining us. Now, thank you
for coming on with me.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Thank you, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
I think we've got everybody up to speed now with
the what's going on with the races, So thank you again.
And let's get a little bit of background on you.
How long have you been in Boca you know, work, experience,
et cetera.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
All right, I have been living in Boca as a
resident for the last ten years. Prior to that, I
lived for ten years in Fort Lauderdale when I found
that it was untenable with the in regards to the
traffic and density, and so I moved to Boca.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
And I have my own business.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
I have a company, and prior Stadt, I had my
own ad agency. I have an MBA in International Business.
I have a PMP, which is a Certified Project Professional
Management the certificate.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
I have a six sigma.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Green Belt, and I am a vice president of the
PTA for Boca.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Raton Community Middle School.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I'm also on the Student Activities Committee as a voting
board member. I had previously been president of Boca Square,
which is one of our largest civic associations in Boca,
and I also served on the CRA for a short
period of time. So I am running because I felt
that I was not properly represented by either Save Boca Itself,
(02:13):
which I was a member of, or by the incumbent Mark,
who I did not agree with how he had been voting.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
So I felt that I need to step up.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
All right, let's move on to some of the city stuff,
and we're going to talk about the quote unquote elephant
in the room one one Boca project. What obviously I
kind of got a gist of your just based on
the fact that you're part of the Save Boca group,
But what, you know, what are your thoughts? Would you
you know what, what is your biggest concern with regards
(02:43):
to that.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
I think Save Boca started uh with a group of
a concern residents and I was one of those concerned residents.
And I worked alongside a lot of people all summer
long speaking at city council meetings, grabbing signatures, handing out information.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
When that got sort of co opted and.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Trademarked by another candidate and to own for their personal use,
I was like, this is not what I had personally
signed up for. This wasn't something that I had felt
represented me any longer, and it had sort of moved
on to a different iteration, which I find to be cult.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Like that, you know is not.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
If other people feel supporting of that, that's great. I
still support, you know, us having I don't want nine
hundred and fifty condos in the downtown of vocavertone. We
don't need that kind of density. And I am still
for innovation, I'm for progress.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
And development.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
I find Boco to be a town filled with intelligence,
sophisticated people. It's a nice place to live and there's
a reason for that. We should protect the downtown as
a historical and cultural and we can put those kinds
of high density innovative projects in the brick, which is
the book of retone innovation campus, which is what it
was designed for. So it's not that I'm against uh,
(04:12):
you know, housing, it's that that is the least efficient
place to put that kind of density housing.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
It is the least.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Effective, It is the most taxing physically and emotionally on
the on the residence of Boca.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
What about the renovation of city Hall and I police
I believe the police station as well, and all of that,
that's all part of it too.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Those are separate things.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
So one is that the city Hall, the downtown police station,
the community center that is at our community center at Crawford.
There's a bunch of buildings that if you were to
say the city uh had the opportunity to renovate and
(04:54):
often did not to the point where they've become blighted.
Because at the end goal was this sort of massive
city redevelopment project. Now that was never There had been
multiple times prior to the pandemic where people had sort
of had this conversation and they kept getting voted down
because there was always this sort of where we got
(05:14):
to hear and no one could come together. There was
no city council that coalesced the citizens. When they sort
of pushed forward this agenda in sort of a sleepy
time with a traffic study that was not an accurate
TOFIC site down on August eighteen, which is the lowest
density time, the citizens sort of rose up and said, hey,
(05:36):
we don't want this sort of density. It's not that
we're not for renovating these buildings. These buildings can be renovated.
We don't need to give away land and build the
infrastructure for a developer to get our own buildings built.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
We can build our own buildings. We can also find
creative ways to do these projects. These projects.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
We're a city with a lot of resources, and to sort.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Of feel shackled or to hold in to a.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Developer to do it is we are the ones with
the cards. I am sort of shocked that we have
gotten to hear, and that's how these sort of this
sort of activist movement started. Now these citizens have a vote,
and I'm for us having a vote, and everyone can
vote on this project. It is true the city is
spending so much money to convince people to.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Vote for it.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
That is also not working as effectively.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
As they thought it would safe to say, you're a
no vote.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
We can do this. I'm a no vote on this project.
I'm a no vote.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
That this entire city council went about this the wrong way.
That the roundtables that were offered in summer at the
studio by the developer, terror for me, should have been
run by the city council that was pushing this agenda themselves.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
That is what it is to be resident driven.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
If you have a vision that you want to impress
upon the citizens, bring that vision yourself. Do not outsource
the actual job. That is your job, which is to
rain the citizens together. It isn't for the developer to
work as the velvet.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Glove of the city council.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
It is for the city council to bring the developer,
not the other way around.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
So that felt wildly.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Disingenuous, and honestly, we need these buildings to redone absolutely,
And whether we need a two hundred million dollar police
station is a separate issue that is also up for vote,
the new police station for Boca Ratone. It's fine if
you want to move that and that the downtown's it
(07:37):
should become a substation because it's just not serving them
any longer.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
But it's not going to cause a.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Safety issue because the actual police force sits in their cruisers.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
So it's these are complex issues that we need to discuss.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
I find it's a myopic conversation if you are going
to have a direct conversation with say Boca, that it's
a singular issue Memorial Park, Memorial Park.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
We have security, a vote on Memorial Park. We have
hundreds of other issues that need to get discussed.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
And I'm not convinced that we need one hundred ninety
five million dollar police station.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I don't know whether we're building.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
The Pentagon, but I haven't been convinced that one hundred
ninety five million dollars is what That's practically a million
dollar for every resident.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
That is a very nice police station.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
All right, So let's let me move on that. We're
going to stay with business though Business stuff Development says
it was just I believe it was last week where
it became officially announced that the UH one of the
one of the leading quantum computing companies, which, yes, everybody
I talked to can't get their head around what exactly
that is. But nonetheless I can.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Tell you what that is because quantum computing is we
are of AI.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
AI is the future, and we need.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
This sort of higher level ability to process this kind
of data and the let me be clear that LARRYA.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Hilson just bought Lion Country Safari. Okay, these are all
connected issues.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
We're all talking about our silos within our little towns
and our tiny fights, but these are.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
The things that are happening.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
The density Boca is almost privileged to be able to
have a fight about condos going downtown because what you're
not fighting about is server stations poisoning your town downtown.
So you have very valuable real estate, and every piece
of whatever the valuable real estate is gets carved up
to whatever person can use it the best for.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Them to exploit the land.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
So a quantum computing company is great. It's going to
bring high quality jobs with intelligent residents who are going to.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Be able to work there.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Okay, so what you're doing is you're getting high networth
earners coming in who are going to need housing and
whatever that said, do they need to live in nine
hundred square foot apartments in the downtown of book Ratona.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Unlikely. These are quantum computing people. They're going to end
up living in the places they all live.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
And we should say that part of the deal to
bring them here was that the company d Wave had
to agreed to provide I believe it's at least one
hundred jobs at at least one hundred and twenty five
thousand dollars a year salary yest.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
And that's not a.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Big deal for a guy doing quantum or woman or
doing quantum computing, because that's that's a starting salary in
some of these points. I mean, any quant finance guy
or girl is making like three four.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Hundred thousand dollars. So the quantum computing on.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Multiple levels is a high paying, intelligent job. But they're
not living in high density condos by the bright line,
So you're not those that's not the same person.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
You're not conflating those two issues.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
And what they're talking about is that we need more
commercial real estate downtown. You already have a million square
feed of empty commercial space in Boca right now, you
already have a million. You're building more empty storefronts. Doesn't
make your talent thrive. Creating your town to where these
people can actually rent those spaces, where those businesses are incentivized.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
The local businesses.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Are here, not who's coming who's already here, cannot afford
to even be in those spaces right now.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
So now you're going to build more that less that that.
Who's coming in?
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Who not the quantum computing people, they're not starting small businesses,
they're not You're you're you're already having empty commercial real
estate right now. You are not at capacity, and now
you need to build more. You're not at capacity for
commercial at all.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Right now.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
You may be for residential, but that doesn't need to
go to the downtown. That's your commercial, that is your
that is the jewel of your town.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
That is not for high density apartments.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
All right. I have one final I can hear that you're, yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Have an opinion. She does have an opinion, and it's
not singular.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Well here I'll give you one. How do you feel
about the Gators? I'm just scared tea son the Gator.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
So I am gone. Come on, I was there, I
was oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
I saw your photo.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
When we won on the homecoming game and they were
still screaming fire Billy Navier. And now Billy Navier is
over there at JM.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
You and they're so happy for him. So go Gators.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
That started as a joke because I saw your your
photo with you and your son with the gator stuff on,
and I figured you'd have an opinion on that as well.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
I have an opinion on that. And just for the record,
I was not rehearsed.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
You called me five minutes ago and I answered, right
off the cuff.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
You said, let's just go, and I said, I said, okay,
because we could, we could get this ready, I could
reach out to the other candidates in the race. Well,
I have one final question, Let's go.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
I can answer these questions anytime in my sleep because
I live my values.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Well, I have one. I have a feeling you're not
going to have an issue with this one or a
hard time coming up with it. Final question, what makes
you the best candidate in this race?
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Let me be clear.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Okay, I am been in Boca for ten years, active
in the community. Okay, Mark Whig has also been here
for a very long time, active in the community. I
don't agree with how Mark Wigdor votes, Okay, I find
that he is always on the side of development for
every single vote, every single time issues came before the
(13:20):
city council. The fact that he's building bridges now is
because people like me are standing behind him forcing him to.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
He ran on a convert on it as on a post.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
He ran on a post he walked into his seat.
If I had known that three years ago, I would
have run against.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Him then, but I didn't.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
That said, I have no issue with what say Boca
as a collective, a seven thousand residents or five thousand
residents or whomever you choose for that number coming together
to sign a petition.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
But that was a civic.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Grassroots movement, not owned by any one person. And that
person is now literally demanding people come sign a new
petition to rally and foment the.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Base that will actually undo their vote. And then when asked,
when asked.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Hey, would you have built Blue Lake Elementary School, and
he's like, I wouldn't have done it. We've worked so
hard to get that school built. The money of our
taxes is to go feed and nurture the growth and development.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Of our schools.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Of our roads, of our residents. It isn't for developers.
It certainly isn't for a money that we can never touch.
Our taxes are for schools. The lack of understanding.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Of that is a perfect tiny.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Sliver of the lack of understanding across multiple issues. This
is a singular comanity with a singular speech that now
has turned into a rally for personal agenda. I'm totally
not on board with it. So yes, am I save Boca?
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Yes, but I'm not. I don't own that trademark. I
didn't buy it.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
So I consider myself a supporter of that movement that
is found that that was no longer representing me appropriately.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
So you have you've talked about the incumbent quite a bit.
There is one other candidate in this race, so what
makes you alternate?
Speaker 3 (15:17):
That was the other candidate I was talking about? So
I did was I first spoke about Mark and then
when I said so yes, So that is when I
say that one is Mark, who I don't agree with
how he votes.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
The other candidate is the one who.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Has co opted a civic movement, trademarked it to own,
and is now circulating petitions that will take the vote
away just for political gain, which is literally the opposite
of what everyone worked so hard for this summer, and
in addition, does not understand the issues at any depth
(15:52):
enough so that in a candidate forum would tell everyone
in this town they would have voted against Blue Lake
Elementary when all the residence wanted that school. Everyone needed
that school. And we are Our schools are our jewels.
The reason our property values are good is because we're
a rated schools. The reason you want to live in
Boca is our schools. The reason you've got a quantum
(16:16):
quantum computing company coming is our schools. To say I
wouldn't have done Blue Lake Elementary is a perfect example
of not understanding any issue other than the one tagline
that you repeat over and over myopically.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
That's it, all right, Meredith. I appreciate you. I almost
feel bad. Yeah, no problem.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Listen. Anyone can reach out to me at any time.
I am available.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
It isn't like exactly that I wanted to be a politician,
or that I jumped up to be in this race
because I have some long burning desire to climb to
some other place.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
I want to live in.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Boca for the rest of my life. This is the
only place I want to live. I'm stepping up right
now because I felt a sense of urgency that we
had a very limited amount of time to make a difference, to.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
To make sure that our town was not given away.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
And then I felt, at the same time, I didn't
want to see the wheels of progress grind to a halt.
So say Voca as it is currently, I find it
grinding to a halt myopically without an understanding of any
additional issues. And I see Mark Wigdor giving away the town,
and that we are somehow beholden and lucky that the
(17:33):
developer would talk to us.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Are you kidding that we're so lucky? Are you kidding? No,
we are Boca, We're not.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
I demand nothing less, I demand nothing less.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
All right, Well, we appreciate you joining us since been
speaking to me.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Nice to meet too, Meredith.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Mad's in Canada for see.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Both.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Gratone, best of luck to you, Thank you have a
great say bye.
Hey, Joel Malcoln for WJ and O dot com. My
(00:02):
election spotlight on the City of Boca ratone. Very busy
March tenth for residents, i should say, registered voters living
in the city of Boca ratone. There are three city
council races and a mayoral race as well, and we're
covering all of them right now. We're focused on the
race for seat b uh and this this is the
(00:22):
only of the of the three city council A, B,
and D races, this is the only one where you
have an incumbent who is running. The other two races
you've got the incumbents are actually running for mayors. So
you have Mark wigser is the incumbent. Here, we have
two candidates, John Pearlman and Meredith mads And challenging Mark.
(00:43):
And we have Meredith Madsen joining us. Now, thank you
for coming on with me.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Thank you, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
I think we've got everybody up to speed now with
the what's going on with the races, So thank you again.
And let's get a little bit of background on you.
How long have you been in Boca you know, work, experience,
et cetera.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
All right, I have been living in Boca as a
resident for the last ten years. Prior to that, I
lived for ten years in Fort Lauderdale when I found
that it was untenable with the in regards to the
traffic and density, and so I moved to Boca.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
And I have my own business.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
I have a company, and prior Stadt, I had my
own ad agency. I have an MBA in International Business.
I have a PMP, which is a Certified Project Professional
Management the certificate.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
I have a six sigma.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Green Belt, and I am a vice president of the
PTA for Boca.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Raton Community Middle School.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I'm also on the Student Activities Committee as a voting
board member. I had previously been president of Boca Square,
which is one of our largest civic associations in Boca,
and I also served on the CRA for a short
period of time. So I am running because I felt
that I was not properly represented by either Save Boca Itself,
(02:13):
which I was a member of, or by the incumbent Mark,
who I did not agree with how he had been voting.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
So I felt that I need to step up.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
All right, let's move on to some of the city stuff,
and we're going to talk about the quote unquote elephant
in the room one one Boca project. What obviously I
kind of got a gist of your just based on
the fact that you're part of the Save Boca group,
But what, you know, what are your thoughts? Would you
you know what, what is your biggest concern with regards
(02:43):
to that.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
I think Save Boca started uh with a group of
a concern residents and I was one of those concerned residents.
And I worked alongside a lot of people all summer
long speaking at city council meetings, grabbing signatures, handing out information.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
When that got sort of co opted and.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Trademarked by another candidate and to own for their personal use,
I was like, this is not what I had personally
signed up for. This wasn't something that I had felt
represented me any longer, and it had sort of moved
on to a different iteration, which I find to be cult.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Like that, you know is not.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
If other people feel supporting of that, that's great. I
still support, you know, us having I don't want nine
hundred and fifty condos in the downtown of vocavertone. We
don't need that kind of density. And I am still
for innovation, I'm for progress.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
And development.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
I find Boco to be a town filled with intelligence,
sophisticated people. It's a nice place to live and there's
a reason for that. We should protect the downtown as
a historical and cultural and we can put those kinds
of high density innovative projects in the brick, which is
the book of retone innovation campus, which is what it
was designed for. So it's not that I'm against uh,
(04:12):
you know, housing, it's that that is the least efficient
place to put that kind of density housing.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
It is the least.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Effective, It is the most taxing physically and emotionally on
the on the residence of Boca.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
What about the renovation of city Hall and I police
I believe the police station as well, and all of that,
that's all part of it too.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Those are separate things.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
So one is that the city Hall, the downtown police station,
the community center that is at our community center at Crawford.
There's a bunch of buildings that if you were to
say the city uh had the opportunity to renovate and
(04:54):
often did not to the point where they've become blighted.
Because at the end goal was this sort of massive
city redevelopment project. Now that was never There had been
multiple times prior to the pandemic where people had sort
of had this conversation and they kept getting voted down
because there was always this sort of where we got
(05:14):
to hear and no one could come together. There was
no city council that coalesced the citizens. When they sort
of pushed forward this agenda in sort of a sleepy
time with a traffic study that was not an accurate
TOFIC site down on August eighteen, which is the lowest
density time, the citizens sort of rose up and said, hey,
(05:36):
we don't want this sort of density. It's not that
we're not for renovating these buildings. These buildings can be renovated.
We don't need to give away land and build the
infrastructure for a developer to get our own buildings built.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
We can build our own buildings. We can also find
creative ways to do these projects. These projects.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
We're a city with a lot of resources, and to sort.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Of feel shackled or to hold in to a.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Developer to do it is we are the ones with
the cards. I am sort of shocked that we have
gotten to hear, and that's how these sort of this
sort of activist movement started. Now these citizens have a vote,
and I'm for us having a vote, and everyone can
vote on this project. It is true the city is
spending so much money to convince people to.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Vote for it.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
That is also not working as effectively.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
As they thought it would safe to say, you're a
no vote.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
We can do this. I'm a no vote on this project.
I'm a no vote.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
That this entire city council went about this the wrong way.
That the roundtables that were offered in summer at the
studio by the developer, terror for me, should have been
run by the city council that was pushing this agenda themselves.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
That is what it is to be resident driven.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
If you have a vision that you want to impress
upon the citizens, bring that vision yourself. Do not outsource
the actual job. That is your job, which is to
rain the citizens together. It isn't for the developer to
work as the velvet.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Glove of the city council.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
It is for the city council to bring the developer,
not the other way around.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
So that felt wildly.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Disingenuous, and honestly, we need these buildings to redone absolutely,
And whether we need a two hundred million dollar police
station is a separate issue that is also up for vote,
the new police station for Boca Ratone. It's fine if
you want to move that and that the downtown's it
(07:37):
should become a substation because it's just not serving them
any longer.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
But it's not going to cause a.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Safety issue because the actual police force sits in their cruisers.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
So it's these are complex issues that we need to discuss.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
I find it's a myopic conversation if you are going
to have a direct conversation with say Boca, that it's
a singular issue Memorial Park, Memorial Park.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
We have security, a vote on Memorial Park. We have
hundreds of other issues that need to get discussed.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
And I'm not convinced that we need one hundred ninety
five million dollar police station.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I don't know whether we're building.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
The Pentagon, but I haven't been convinced that one hundred
ninety five million dollars is what That's practically a million
dollar for every resident.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
That is a very nice police station.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
All right, So let's let me move on that. We're
going to stay with business though Business stuff Development says
it was just I believe it was last week where
it became officially announced that the UH one of the
one of the leading quantum computing companies, which, yes, everybody
I talked to can't get their head around what exactly
that is. But nonetheless I can.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Tell you what that is because quantum computing is we
are of AI.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
AI is the future, and we need.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
This sort of higher level ability to process this kind
of data and the let me be clear that LARRYA.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Hilson just bought Lion Country Safari. Okay, these are all
connected issues.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
We're all talking about our silos within our little towns
and our tiny fights, but these are.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
The things that are happening.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
The density Boca is almost privileged to be able to
have a fight about condos going downtown because what you're
not fighting about is server stations poisoning your town downtown.
So you have very valuable real estate, and every piece
of whatever the valuable real estate is gets carved up
to whatever person can use it the best for.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Them to exploit the land.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
So a quantum computing company is great. It's going to
bring high quality jobs with intelligent residents who are going to.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Be able to work there.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Okay, so what you're doing is you're getting high networth
earners coming in who are going to need housing and
whatever that said, do they need to live in nine
hundred square foot apartments in the downtown of book Ratona.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Unlikely. These are quantum computing people. They're going to end
up living in the places they all live.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
And we should say that part of the deal to
bring them here was that the company d Wave had
to agreed to provide I believe it's at least one
hundred jobs at at least one hundred and twenty five
thousand dollars a year salary yest.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
And that's not a.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Big deal for a guy doing quantum or woman or
doing quantum computing, because that's that's a starting salary in
some of these points. I mean, any quant finance guy
or girl is making like three four.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Hundred thousand dollars. So the quantum computing on.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Multiple levels is a high paying, intelligent job. But they're
not living in high density condos by the bright line,
So you're not those that's not the same person.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
You're not conflating those two issues.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
And what they're talking about is that we need more
commercial real estate downtown. You already have a million square
feed of empty commercial space in Boca right now, you
already have a million. You're building more empty storefronts. Doesn't
make your talent thrive. Creating your town to where these
people can actually rent those spaces, where those businesses are incentivized.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
The local businesses.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Are here, not who's coming who's already here, cannot afford
to even be in those spaces right now.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
So now you're going to build more that less that that.
Who's coming in?
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Who not the quantum computing people, they're not starting small businesses,
they're not You're you're you're already having empty commercial real
estate right now. You are not at capacity, and now
you need to build more. You're not at capacity for
commercial at all.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Right now.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
You may be for residential, but that doesn't need to
go to the downtown. That's your commercial, that is your
that is the jewel of your town.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
That is not for high density apartments.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
All right. I have one final I can hear that you're, yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Have an opinion. She does have an opinion, and it's
not singular.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Well here I'll give you one. How do you feel
about the Gators? I'm just scared tea son the Gator.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
So I am gone. Come on, I was there, I
was oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
I saw your photo.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
When we won on the homecoming game and they were
still screaming fire Billy Navier. And now Billy Navier is
over there at JM.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
You and they're so happy for him. So go Gators.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
That started as a joke because I saw your your
photo with you and your son with the gator stuff on,
and I figured you'd have an opinion on that as well.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
I have an opinion on that. And just for the record,
I was not rehearsed.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
You called me five minutes ago and I answered, right
off the cuff.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
You said, let's just go, and I said, I said, okay,
because we could, we could get this ready, I could
reach out to the other candidates in the race. Well,
I have one final question, Let's go.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
I can answer these questions anytime in my sleep because
I live my values.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Well, I have one. I have a feeling you're not
going to have an issue with this one or a
hard time coming up with it. Final question, what makes
you the best candidate in this race?
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Let me be clear.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Okay, I am been in Boca for ten years, active
in the community. Okay, Mark Whig has also been here
for a very long time, active in the community. I
don't agree with how Mark Wigdor votes, Okay, I find
that he is always on the side of development for
every single vote, every single time issues came before the
(13:20):
city council. The fact that he's building bridges now is
because people like me are standing behind him forcing him to.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
He ran on a convert on it as on a post.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
He ran on a post he walked into his seat.
If I had known that three years ago, I would
have run against.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Him then, but I didn't.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
That said, I have no issue with what say Boca
as a collective, a seven thousand residents or five thousand
residents or whomever you choose for that number coming together
to sign a petition.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
But that was a civic.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Grassroots movement, not owned by any one person. And that
person is now literally demanding people come sign a new
petition to rally and foment the.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Base that will actually undo their vote. And then when asked,
when asked.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Hey, would you have built Blue Lake Elementary School, and
he's like, I wouldn't have done it. We've worked so
hard to get that school built. The money of our
taxes is to go feed and nurture the growth and development.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Of our schools.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Of our roads, of our residents. It isn't for developers.
It certainly isn't for a money that we can never touch.
Our taxes are for schools. The lack of understanding.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Of that is a perfect tiny.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Sliver of the lack of understanding across multiple issues. This
is a singular comanity with a singular speech that now
has turned into a rally for personal agenda. I'm totally
not on board with it. So yes, am I save Boca?
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Yes, but I'm not. I don't own that trademark. I
didn't buy it.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
So I consider myself a supporter of that movement that
is found that that was no longer representing me appropriately.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
So you have you've talked about the incumbent quite a bit.
There is one other candidate in this race, so what
makes you alternate?
Speaker 3 (15:17):
That was the other candidate I was talking about? So
I did was I first spoke about Mark and then
when I said so yes, So that is when I
say that one is Mark, who I don't agree with
how he votes.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
The other candidate is the one who.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Has co opted a civic movement, trademarked it to own,
and is now circulating petitions that will take the vote
away just for political gain, which is literally the opposite
of what everyone worked so hard for this summer, and
in addition, does not understand the issues at any depth
(15:52):
enough so that in a candidate forum would tell everyone
in this town they would have voted against Blue Lake
Elementary when all the residence wanted that school. Everyone needed
that school. And we are Our schools are our jewels.
The reason our property values are good is because we're
a rated schools. The reason you want to live in
Boca is our schools. The reason you've got a quantum
(16:16):
quantum computing company coming is our schools. To say I
wouldn't have done Blue Lake Elementary is a perfect example
of not understanding any issue other than the one tagline
that you repeat over and over myopically.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
That's it, all right, Meredith. I appreciate you. I almost
feel bad. Yeah, no problem.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Listen. Anyone can reach out to me at any time.
I am available.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
It isn't like exactly that I wanted to be a politician,
or that I jumped up to be in this race
because I have some long burning desire to climb to
some other place.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
I want to live in.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Boca for the rest of my life. This is the
only place I want to live. I'm stepping up right
now because I felt a sense of urgency that we
had a very limited amount of time to make a difference, to.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
To make sure that our town was not given away.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
And then I felt, at the same time, I didn't
want to see the wheels of progress grind to a halt.
So say Voca as it is currently, I find it
grinding to a halt myopically without an understanding of any
additional issues. And I see Mark Wigdor giving away the town,
and that we are somehow beholden and lucky that the
(17:33):
developer would talk to us.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Are you kidding that we're so lucky? Are you kidding? No,
we are Boca, We're not.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
I demand nothing less, I demand nothing less.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
All right, Well, we appreciate you joining us since been
speaking to me.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Nice to meet too, Meredith.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Mad's in Canada for see.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Both.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Gratone, best of luck to you, Thank you have a
great say bye.
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