BOCA RATON, FL — A Boca Raton City Council workshop on the city’s proposed police headquarters turned into a tense public dispute Tuesday after officials clashed over a SAVE BOCA email, allegations of misinformation and the future cost of replacing the city’s aging police station.
The May 26, 2026 workshop included presentations on the downtown civic area plan, the Police Services Complex, softball fields and freestanding emergency facilities. But the police station discussion quickly became the flashpoint.
At issue was whether the city was still pursuing the larger police headquarters proposal voters rejected earlier this year, or whether staff had already moved toward a smaller and less costly plan.
City Manager Mark Sohaney told the council that staff was now working from a smaller baseline concept: a roughly 94,000-square-foot police facility meant to address current needs, not a full buildout for projected 2045 needs.
Sohaney said the smaller concept would cost about $80 million for construction and roughly $120 million as a full turnkey project once additional costs such as technology, furniture and related programming are included. That is substantially lower than the previously discussed police station project, which had been tied to a much larger long-term buildout.
Mayor Andy Thomson said the city was not moving forward with the previously discussed $190 million police station plan and said staff had been working since the failed March referendum to reduce the scope and cost.
The dispute sharpened when Thomson referenced a SAVE BOCA email that he said left residents with the wrong impression that the city was still pushing ahead with the rejected $190 million proposal.
Thomson said he had roughly 200 emails from residents responding to information he described as incorrect.
“It would really help the process, the rebuilding of trust and the unification of this community, if we can all please be mindful of the fact that we have a difficult enough job as it is to create policy,” Thomson said during the workshop. “We don’t need to be creating more issues for ourselves by firing up members of the public with information that’s simply not true.”
Commissioner Jon Pearlman pushed back, saying SAVE BOCA was relying on what had been publicly discussed at the prior meeting. Pearlman, who said he serves as chairman and president of SAVE BOCA, argued that the $190 million police station had been the plan on the table before staff began describing the smaller concept.
“$120 million, $150 million, $190 million, you’re talking like we’re dealing with monopoly money here,” Pearlman said. “I deal with real money and so do the taxpayers and the voters of this city.”
Other officials were openly critical of the SAVE BOCA email.
Commissioner Michelle Grau said the message was misleading and confusing to residents, saying the city was not blindly moving forward with the same police station proposal voters rejected.
Vice Chair Yvette Drucker said council members had received correct information from staff during agenda briefings and accused Pearlman of effectively suggesting other officials were not telling the truth.
“I will not sit up here because basically one of our council members is calling us liars because four of us had the correct information and one member did not have the correct information,” Drucker said.
Commissioner Stacy Sipple also criticized the email, saying it had gone out more than once and that she had responded publicly that the information was inaccurate.
The debate then shifted back to the broader police station question: how Boca Raton should pay for a new facility, where it should be located and how quickly the city should move.
A majority of the council supported sending a new bond referendum to voters, with several members discussing a possible $125 million bond question. Pearlman opposed the bond approach, arguing the city should move faster and use available funds instead of waiting years for a new station.
Boca Raton Acting Chief Seth Dubinsky described current space problems inside the existing police facility, including inadequate briefing space, detective units split between locations, converted closets being used as workspaces and property and evidence areas that have been outgrown.
Location remains another unresolved issue.
Thomson said he supports moving the main police headquarters to the Spanish River Boulevard and Broken Sound area, citing prior public safety arguments from police leadership. Drucker said she supports a central police headquarters there but also wants a continued police presence downtown. Sipple said residents should have a say in the location.
The council did not take a final vote on the project size, location or ballot language Tuesday. Staff received direction to keep working toward a police station bond question while refining the project scope and outreach process.
The SAVE BOCA dispute continued into public comment, where some speakers criticized Pearlman and the political committee, while others urged the city to slow down, broaden public engagement or keep the police station downtown.
For now, Boca Raton’s police station debate remains unresolved. But Tuesday’s workshop made clear the next referendum will not only be about square footage, location and cost. It will also be about public trust after months of political division over City Hall, downtown land and the future of Boca Raton’s police headquarters.
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