Education
MBA in International Business, PMP, Six Sigma green Belt from FAU, BFA from School of Visual Arts (SVA)
Experience
Highly Accomplished, Deeply Driven Entrepreneur with an MBA In International Business, a civic leader, local small business owner and employer committed to entrepreneurship and economic vitality in Boca. Active parent and professional with a unique combination of creative and strategic skills.
Endorsements
n/a
Campaign Phone
5615319487
One of the biggest threats currently facing Boca Raton is overdevelopment, specifically, high-density projects that are permanently changing the character of our community and reducing our limited green space and increasing strain our roads, schools, infrastructure, and public safety resources. I want to focus on responsible, community-first planning. I want comprehensive traffic analysis of all existing approved projects before approving any new developments.
As a City Council member, I will prioritize protecting green space and ensuring that Boca remains livable, walkable, and family friendly for future generations.
Boca Raton’s greatest strength is its strong sense of community and small-town character. We are a city where neighbors know each other, families feel safe, and our A-rated schools that are well supported by this active community.
We should continue to build on that strength by protecting what supports it: putting current residents first. We need to maintain our safe neighborhoods by supporting traffic abatement, supporting our excellent public schools, our green space with responsible growth that keeps Boca livable and family friendly. City leaders should focus on policies that reduce traffic, preserve parks, and invest in community resources rather than approving projects that overwhelm them.
I do not support eliminating or reducing property taxes. Property taxes are the primary way we fund the services that make Boca Raton a safe, successful, and desirable community, especially our public schools.
If property taxes were drastically reduced, the result would be cuts to schools, public safety, parks, libraries, infrastructure, and essential city services. Those losses would either have to be replaced with new fees and taxes, or our quality of life would suffer. I believe proposals like this ultimately undermine public education and shift more costs onto local governments and families.
Strong public schools and well-funded local services are investments in our community not just some random expenses to be slashed.
There are real opportunities for savings in Boca Raton, particularly by reducing unnecessary promotional and marketing spending that does not directly benefit residents. For example, our City has spent taxpayer dollars on high-profile marketing campaigns, including ads in Times Square. Meanwhile basic concerns like traffic analysis and abatement, infrastructure, and neighborhood quality of life remain underfunded. I believe municipal tax dollars should be used to serve residents, not to market Boca to developers or tourists.
I support a balanced local approach that holds firm to public safety and quality of life while also advocating for increased shelter capacity, affordable housing resources, and partnerships with nonprofit providers. Real solutions require compassion paired with accountability to ensure we respect the dignity of all residents while keeping our parks, sidewalks, and neighborhoods safe and welcoming.
Education
AB Economics, Harvard University
Experience
Founder of Save Boca, a grassroots non-profit organization to protect public land and parks in Boca Raton
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Education
MBA, Yale University School of Management (Sustainability subfocus); Juris Doctor, New York Law School; BA, University at Albany (NY)
Experience
28 years experience as business/real estate attorney (NY, NJ, FL), 15 years with own company focusing on sustainable commercial real estate, board member for several years before being elected (Community advisory panel, Bike and ped committee), Chair, CRA Boca Raton, past chairs Audit and AHAC
Endorsements
Boca Raton Police Officers Union (FOP Lodge 35), Boca Raton Fire Rescue Department union, Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce BLU PAC
Instagram
@marcwigder
Campaign Phone
561-759-8401
Boca Raton is a coastal community with miles of beach and intracoastal and lots of properties that abut these beautiful features. This also means that the City has many seawalls, bridges, canals, and flood control infrastructure projects, that need to be maintained and/or rebuilt as many are aging. I have been expressing this as a priority to our city management/municipal services department. They have begun doing surveys of all infrastructure and this year we are replacing 3 critical seawalls and each year we will do more as needed. This will come at a cost, but it is an investment that will save homes and reduce flooding so I see it as an urgent need.
Boca Raton has a wonderful balance of community and corporate tax base. Its a great place to have a business, raise a family, choose a school, or retire. In fact, about 50% of property is homesteaded, and the other 50% is commercial/non-homestead. Despite what others say, our annual growth rate is only 0.9% which shows responsible growth. This diverse tax base provides the city a deep and stable budget. Our Millage rate has not been increased in 10 years, (and for homestead capped at 3% increase). This allows the city to provide excellent services (Public Safety, Fire Rescue, Sanitation, Parks, municipal services, Water utility, flood control, library, recreation, Downtown, Mizner Park, Events) which our people enjoy and depend on.
This is a critical issue facing all municipalities/counties. Boca's diverse tax base is helpful to offset potential losses but internal analysis indicates that 10's of millions in the budget would have to be cut if the most significant reforms go through. This would devastate any city without replacement revenue. One way to offset this potential budget cut, is the consideration of our downtown development project, which would pay the city millions in ground rent (in addition to new commercial taxes) on a small portion of underutilized land near the train. This would create a new and protected revenue stream that is critical to offset those potential cuts.
Boca Raton has a robust award winning financial services department with annual audits of its budget to ensure financial practices. If required, budget cuts could be made by embracing technology, such as AI plan review, AI traffic light control (Which the city is already investing in and I have advocated to expand), trusted vendor programs, and virtual inspections (many of these initiatives I have proposed). Additionally I proposed we should create a community land trust to support our park with the corporate and philanthropic community (which most large cities already do).
Boca Raton's public safety department is very active in managing this issue and we have expanded our budget for our Homeless Outreach Teams to further assist in this effort. In addition, the city has signed an interlocal agreement with the County for additional outreach services to get people the help they need when it comes to mental health or drug addiction services. Additionally, we are working with local non-profits who are committed to this issue to support them as well.
