Some people think that the parking garage project is grounded more on the prospect of personal gain by public officials and their friends, than on the public good. The same thing might be said of the whole scheme of beach area redevelopment, starting with the CRA, and culminating with the proposal to designate the area as a Regional Activity Center (RAC) which would give City Hall broader powers to determine permitted land uses adjacent to the beach. In other words, it would pave the way for bigger and bigger buildings.

Part of this suspicion is just plain old fashioned cynicism, of course. But there are also the shadowy deals, decisions made without basis in fact or reason, decisions that defy public opinion, and the business relationships that we know exist between some public officials and developers.

The purpose of this article is to explore one such case, the business relationship of Mayor Al Capellini and Bill Gallo, whose firm was recently awarded the architectural contract to design a parking garage for the Main Beach Parking Lot. Did this relationship have a bearing on Gallo Architects winning the multi-million dollar garage contract over other firms experienced in parking garage design?

This is what we know. You can draw your own conclusions.

William J. "Bill" Gallo and his associate, Jerry DuBois, are business partners of Mayor Albert Capellini in a venture unrelated to the parking garage contract. Gallo Architects & Development Consultants, Inc. is a corporation registered at 1311 Newport Center Drive West, Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442. Bill Gallo is president of the firm.

Gallo is a Harvard graduate and active in a number of professional organizations. In an article which appears on the Flight Across America web site, he is identified as president of Gallo & DuBois, an architecture and construction company based in Deerfield Beach. Gallo & DuBois is not a (Florida) corporation and is not listed in the fictitious name registry.

As stated, Gallo's partner is Jerry DuBois, the president of JWR Construction Services, Inc., which is registered at the same Newport Center address as Gallo Architects. Gallo is the executive vice president and registered agent of JWR and Alicia DuBois is the secretary-treasurer of Gallo Architects.

We assume that "Gallo & DuBois" is a partnership between Gallo Architects and JWR, or their principals.

In private life, Mayor Capellini is the head of Atlantis Environmental Engineering, Inc., a Florida corporation registered at 1311 Newport Center Drive West, Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442, the same address as Gallo Architects and JWR.

Capellini, Gallo, and DuBois are also listed as partners in Arbor Green of Deerfield, LLC, along with Helmut Janssen of Boca Raton, in papers filed with the Florida Secretary of State. The mailing address of the Arbor Green company is the same Newport Center address, Suite C, which is the office of Capellini's company, Atlantis Environmental Engineering.

Without going into all the details of this complicated deal, Arbor Green is a townhome project in the Deer Creek Tennis Resort. For the benefit of readers who are not familiar with the geography of the city, Deer Creek is a residential development west of the beach area and is some miles away.

It might also be mentioned that the realtor for this project is the firm that employs Lynn Deetjen, the wife of City Manager Larry Deetjen. We do not know if the Deetjens have any other direct financial interest in the Arbor Green project.

Capellini abstained in Commission votes involving the Arbor Green project and also in the parking garage architectural contract. We shall assume, for the time being, that he was not in technical violation of state conflict of interest laws. Nevertheless, what we don't know for certain is whether the business relationship of the mayor and Gallo and DuBois influenced the commission's decision in some way, influenced the city staff in making its evaluation, or whether the mayor or city employees provided information to Gallo about the parking garage project that was not given to other proponents.

While we don't know for certain, it is hard to believe that given the close relationship of Capellini and Gallo, that there were not off-the-record discussions about the parking garage project that might have given Gallo an advantage over other competitors. The Gallo design was somewhat unique among the proposals and some say was the least meritorious.

We have been advised by a confidential source that in the Arbor Green case, a city employee left his position rather than sign off on the project because of some discrepancies he found. The employee was Dick Stevens, who was chief building inspector at the time. It is a fact that Mr. Stevens resigned, but we have not been able to confirm that this was the reason. Nevertheless, we can imagine it is a difficult position for city employees to act impartially toward projects or proposals in which the mayor or other elected officials are involved.

It is the mayor's right to pursue outside business interests and we suppose that there is always some tension between outside interests and public responsibilities. In this case, however, a controversial and costly contract was awarded to a business partner. This invites suspicion and raises legitimate questions about the deal. We don't think that the Mayor can just blow these questions off as he is inclined to do.

Can we be so bold as to suggest that the mayor could avoid the appearance of such improprieties in the future if he pursued his business interests exclusive of public office?