Peter Boinis: Help! My City Hall ATM Code Is Not Working.

Poor, poor Peter Boinis. He's the restaurateur who somehow (*cough-campaign donations-cough*) convinced a few Deerfield Beach commissioners that it was a good idea to lease him its pier for just $150,000 per year so that he could build a restaurant there. A burst of city activism derailed that plan in the nick of time, but in case you missed it over the holiday, Boinis is back at city hall, holding out his hand.

Now Boinis is bitching about the city not paying him handsomely enough for a parcel of beach land he bought in 2004 only to find out that it's a turtle-nesting area protected from development. He paid $200,000 and the city has offered to take it off his hands for *only* $310,000.

In this market, it sounds like Boinis is getting a pretty damned good deal. But he wants $600,000.

Boinis better not push his luck. One of his good buddies, recently turned ex-mayor Al Capellini, is facing corruption charges. Another, Larry Deetjen, resigned as city manager in December 2006 following episodes in which he was found to be helping the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the city and to have ordered deputies to remove Commissioner Steve Gonot from his office.

But if the city really is pursuing grants that would enable it to pay more than $500,000 for the property, Boinis must still have some friends in high places. In the meantime, you can bet he'll keep up those 17 hostile signs, a childish tantrum that Deerfield Beachgoers are just going to have to live with.

-- Thomas Francis