Has West Palm Beach politics ever known a figure as mysterious as Joan Goldberg? She was hired under mysterious circumstances by mayor Lois Frankel, and for her services she received a mystifyingly large paycheck. Her precise duties were shadowy, as were her qualifications to execute them. When it came time to develop West Palm Beach's waterfront, she exercised authority of unknown provenance, steering the development contracts away from the firm selected by a board of the city's citizens to a company which employed a friend and frequent collaborator. She could do all of this, and clarify none of it, because of a relationship with mayor Lois Frankel, the nature of which nobody's ever understood. Were they friends, or merely colleagues? Was their trip to the Berkshires a friendly retreat or a fact-finding retreat?
These are some of the enduring, but ultimately irrelevant questions of Lois Frankel's mayoralty. On Thursday, the first day of Mayor Muoio's term, Goldberg tendered her resignation.
The job from which Goldberg resigned was "waterfront manager."
And, as strange as the circumstances surrounding Goldberg's foray into
PBC politics might have been, she certainly earned her title. No one is
more responsible for the current state WPB's waterfront as Joan
Goldberg. And although we SoFloridians had our doubts about her, and
although her presence in Frankel's administration confuses us still, the
waterfront didn't turn out so bad. Good luck to Ms. Goldberg with her other endeavors.
Follow The Juice on Twitter: @ TheJuiceBPB.
