Scott Singer, Mayor, City of Boca Raton

Scott Singer, mayor of Boca Raton, spoke with Invest: about maintaining the city’s steady growth and robust quality of life. “We’re a city of 100,000 with a small-town feel and a big-city business presence. Because we invest heavily in infrastructure, public safety, and amenities for residents, we are able to provide great value to our residents and attract businesses to propel our economy,” he said.

What is on the agenda for Boca Raton in terms of infrastructure projects, revitalization efforts, or economic expansion?
The City of Boca Raton is entering a transformative era with a proposed $1 billion public-private partnership poised to reshape the heart of our downtown. Located on a 30-acre site that currently houses City Hall and the community center, the project has drawn interest from major developers across the nation, underscoring the site’s extraordinary potential.
The City has selected Terra and Frisbie Group as its partner to bring to life a visionary downtown campus that will feature a new city hall, recreation, open, green civic space, retail stores, restaurants, office space, and an affordable housing component to attract and serve city employees. This bold project integrates with our Brightline Station to enhance connectivity and set the stage for Boca’s downtown and the rest of the city for generations to come.

To what extent are PPPs a key aspect in bringing economic development to the city?
This is an essential PPP. Instead of only building a city hall and community center that shuts down on the weekends, we decided to introduce a whole mix of active uses through a public-private partner that can help us build more effectively, efficiently, and more cost-effectively for residents, making the whole greater than the sum of the parts.

How is Boca Raton balancing economic growth and a thriving business environment while at the same time maintaining quality of life for its residents and citizens?
The city has done an outstanding job balancing growth while maintaining our unparalleled quality of life. Our tax rate has decreased over the last 10 years, and we have the lowest property tax rate of any full-service city in Florida. Our schools have an A-rating, we’ve added parks and green space, lowered crime rates, and attracted thousands of new jobs. Because we invest heavily in infrastructure, public safety, and amenities for residents, we are able to provide great value to our residents and attract businesses to propel our economy.

What initiatives and measures is the city implementing to improve public safety?
We continue to have the most outstanding public safety professionals. Our police and fire departments receive national and international recognition. We are one of the few fire departments in the nation that has the ISO Class 1 rating, putting us in the Top 0.5% of all agencies. We continue to maintain high standards while other communities have reduced their standards. We have one of the highest starting salaries, helping us attract the best police officers. Our way of policing focuses on respect for all interactions. We already have a low crime rate, and it keeps dropping. Our crime rate has dropped roughly 15% over the last six years, while other communities are seeing rises in their crime rate. Our response times for police and fire are outstanding, and we invest in additional training and certifications to help respond to mental health issues, homelessness, and addiction. We entered into a recent partnership with Palm Beach County to add dedicated Homeless Outreach Team members to Boca Raton. While we have a low population of homeless residents in Boca Raton, we want to get the number down to zero. We want to help each homeless person into a long-term solution.

What new amenities, services, or initiatives is Boca Raton looking to offer to provide residents with the best quality of life?
We continue to work on a wide range of projects downtown that will be transformative not just for the residents of downtown, but for everybody in the city. We recently reopened our Lake Wyman and Rutherford parks after millions of dollars of investment to reclaim environmentally sensitive land, plant thousands of trees, and provide paddle board rentals. We moved more of our permitting online for all aspects of city engagement, from getting a beach sticker to reserving a field at a park. We invested in upgrades in recreation at the Boca Raton Golf and Racquet Club. We’ve partnered with the Boca Raton Beach and Park District to expand recreational offerings.

How is the city leveraging technology and integrating AI?
We use AI in a variety of ways. We use it as a predictive system in our Innovative Sustainable Infrastructure Program, which detects water and sewer main weaknesses before they break. As a result, we have excellent infrastructure and fewer problems compared to other cities. Because we invest in infrastructure, our water rates are only one-sixth compared to other cities in South Florida. We have used AI technology on our roadways for many years and have implemented more pilot programs on main roadways. We are using AI to streamline our permitting process. We have more predictive capabilities for a variety of permitting actions that help streamline our processes. We passed over 20 streamlining initiatives over the last five years, increasing the quality of life for residents and attracting businesses.

What are the main sectors or industries driving growth and employment in Boca Raton?
We continue to have a robust economy with a diversified group of industries. Technology has been in our blood since IBM moved its R&D facilities here in the 1960s and invented the first mass-market personal computer, transforming the world in 1981. We’ve also been strong in financial services, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, medical technology, and information technology.

What are the primary challenges for Boca Raton, and how is your office working to address these?
We’ve adhered to our traditional values that we’ve gained over the last century. We’re a city of 100,000 with a small-town feel and a big-city business presence. We punch above our weight when it comes to business. We have over 40 publicly traded corporate headquarters, more than half the corporate headquarters in all of Palm Beach County. The challenge is managing our growth responsibly, which we’ve done despite increasing demand. Some of the challenges come externally. For example, Palm Beach County has approved thousands of residential units without a similar investment in infrastructure. That forces Boca Raton to deal with increased use of the roads without new revenue sources. We have innovated by finding a better mix of uses to shrink the number of cars on the road and miles traveled by each car. This evolved thinking will help us maintain our leadership and unique position as we enter our second century as a city.