Boca Behind the Scenes

With an election year approaching, new voting equipment and ballots will be coming along with it. The City of Boca Raton recently partnered with the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office for an open house at Spanish River Library and provided voters with the opportunity to demo the new voting machines and practice on the new ballots. Host, Anne Marie Van Casteren, went "behind the scenes" at the open house to chat with Boca Raton City Clerk, Susan Saxton, and Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections, Wendy Sartory Link, to talk about new upgrades and programs, the importance and why to become a poll worker and what Boca Raton residents will be voting on and where.

Ghouls and goblins and ghosts; oh my! The City of Boca Raton's Boca Boo Days is one of most anticipated times of the year where Recreation Services facilities and centers host a variety of spooky events, activities, family fun entertainment and even education for all to enjoy. Host, Anne Marie Van Casteren chats with Carter Bogus, Marketing Coordinator for Sugar Sand Park and Stacee Lanze, Special Events Coordinator for Sugar Sand Park, about this month's events, what event goers can expect and a sneak peak into some of the most spooky (and even scary) events. For more information about Boca Boo Days, be sure to visit their website.CONNECT WITH US📱 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BocaRatonCity/🐤 Twitter: https://twitter.com/CityBocaRaton📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/citybocaraton/🏠 Nextdoor: https://nextdoor.com/agency-detail/fl/boca-raton/city-of-boca-raton/🌎 Website: https://www.myboca.us/

On this episode of Boca Behind the Scenes, host, Anne Marie Van Casteren talks some trash with Zach Bihr, Municipal Services Director, Austin Leroy, Sanitation Superintendent and Tony Remige, Fleet Superintendent. Listeners will hear about Sanitation Services and how the department works, the most asked questions from residents, information about the new sanitation service fee and all the new upgrades that will be added to continue to ensure world-class services to the community. CONNECT WITH US📱 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BocaRatonCity/🐤 Twitter: https://twitter.com/CityBocaRaton📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/citybocaraton/🏠 Nextdoor: https://nextdoor.com/agency-detail/fl/boca-raton/city-of-boca-raton/🌎 Website: https://www.myboca.us/

On this episode of Boca Behind the Scenes, host, Anne Marie Van Casteren chats with the City's Innovation Specialist, Pedro Moras, and President & CEO of Palm Beach Tech Association, Joe Russo about their upcoming hackathon and other innovative initiatives in the community. The Palm Beach Tech Hackathon is an hour event where participants form teams, vet ideas, create a project, then present their work to an expert panel of judges. The themes this year are Smart Cities and Hurricane Relief, with each project relating in some part to either topic.CONNECT WITH US📱 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BocaRatonCity/🐤 Twitter: https://twitter.com/CityBocaRaton📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/citybocaraton/🏠 Nextdoor: https://nextdoor.com/agency-detail/fl/boca-raton/city-of-boca-raton/🌎 Website: https://www.myboca.us/Transcript:Hey everyone and welcome to Boca Behind the Scenes a get to know you podcast where we talk to city staff to get details and information about new programs events and projects that are taking place right here in your city. My name is Anne Marie Van Casteren Public Relations Specialist with the City's Communications and Marketing Division and as always I am happy to be your host today. Today on the show I'm joined by Pedro Moras our Innovation Strategist thank you for being here today hi glad to be here and then our first ever non city employee Joe Russo President and CEO of Palm Beach Tech Association thank you so much for being here as well yeah thanks for inviting me. This podcast we're going to be talking about innovation and technology within the City of Boca but focusing on this upcoming hackathon and I know Joe last year you came and presented to city council about the hackathon and presented the winning team who actually created an AI bot for the City so do you want to tell us a little bit about that? Last year we held a hackathon at Office Depot which is based here in the City of Boca Raton and for those that don't know the city's history of technology is very vast from IBM being here for fifty years ago to now so we have a lot of tech talent the community so when we put on this hackathon and had over a hundred people attend it just so happened that the winning team built a product for the City of Boca Raton go figure and it worked out very well for us because we wanted to of course share the news of this hackathon with the city and what better way than sharing a little bit about the winning team which obviously gave a way for a city staff and residents to be more connected than ever before so hackathons are always different and people are always coming up with more imaginative ways to do things but yeah what a perfect result and we're hoping this next one will have just as a perfect outcome for the city. Awesome so tell us about this hackathon  I mean I have no idea what it is or how it works  yeah so every time people hear the word hacking their automatic thought process is oh no what happened but hacking is not a degenerative term it's really meant to be hack something to figure it out to work through a problem and what hackathons are doing is taking a group of very smart people all technology oriented and saying here you have twenty four hours to solve the problem right so it's hacking through that and for this year we put the themes of smart cities and hurricane relief on there so anything that relates to building a better city building a better community and more than that helping a community in peril should a disaster happen as we've seen in the Bahamas we really want to emphasize that community feel and have these teams and have these people have an opportunity to come up with ways to help their community we had seventeen teams last year this year we would obviously like to have more with each team working collaboratively with their skill sets in their backgrounds to come up with a way to help the City of Boca Raton and other communities around us. And who makes up these teams like are they all developers are you know did they come from different backgrounds are they young entrepreneurs. It's as diverse as you might expect we have very senior very seasoned folks who are partnering in teams with students from our local universities like FAU or Lynn University so we do have this really interesting mix and it's kind of fun to see how the teams flush out and see how diverse they are the second place team last year was an all women's team that came from our women's council so we have a women in tech group and they put together a team and it was amazing what they came up with by just all kind of saying well I'm good at this and I'm good at that either be web development software graphic design project management all these little skills in jobs that when you look it up they make about four five percent of the work force in South Florida put the all to to work and they make a hundred percent difference and Pedro I know your this is your first year yes here at the city and so what are you looking forward to the most with this hackathon and you know what is your involvement with this event yes we're really excited in the city in the office of innovation the office of innovation is brand new and our two areas of focus one of them is smart city how do we make Boca Raton a more technology enabled city how do we come up with better solutions to overall improve our community and that's everything from transportation to security to  many different things so we touch on a lot of different topics and then the other area of focus is how do we make Boca Raton a more robust entrepreneurial and startup ecosystem our council has has a big interest in this becoming a technology hub and as Joe mentioned before Boca has a really rich history when it comes to technology we have a lot of talent here and so a lot of times I think in the past we've done a really good job of  our community kind of growing organically and then at city hall we have some really good people so we're excited to tap into that the immense talent of our community and say hey guys we want Boca Raton to become a smart city but we know that we can't do this alone and we'd love to engage with you guys so we're excited to see what types of solutions come out because we really have a mindset of the city of not just saying oih that's really good that that looks good we're really looking at this as an opportunity for us to say great this is a first step how do we work together and for those of us who don't know what exactly is a smart city yes so the definition of it is very broad and it depends a lot on on the different types of cities and in what you mean the that the general kind of I would say consensus is  a city that that is delivering wanting to improve the quality of life for its citizens using technology as a primary means or or or a solution for it to do so so it can mean a lot of things it can mean from smart lighting wifi  5G something that's been thrown around a lot how do we use some better more sustainable technology when it comes to our transportation when it comes to building how do we provide better services and more opportunities for citizens pollution lowering pollution and those types of things where the definition varies it depends on the needs of the city a city like Boca Raton we don't have major pollution issues like  say Los Angeles or Hong Kong so that kind of deprioritizes it but there's  it's really vast and what it covers I'll add to that by saying I have this really neat app on my phone that is called the transit app just as simple as it sounds you can look it up it's a free app and they actually have partnered with cities like Boston or Toronto some big cities and integrated all of their public transportation to the big city where you know there's a lot of ways to get around I can go on this and I can see the live tracking where their buses and where their trains are and in South Florida it has Tri Rail and Palm Tran and Lyft and Uber and everything but just by making the public more connected with what is around them there are so many applications of technology and making a better more connected city and that's something as  a Florida native I'm really  proud and interested in so you know we become a better community leveraging what we have here definitely and so overall I guess what is the goal of this hackathon  you know from Palm Beach Tech Association's standpoint and also from a city standpoint like what are you looking to see come out of this event well I think from an industry standpoint we want to raise the awareness that there is a really awesome and amazing tech industry in South Florida and it's constantly growing and constantly evolving you may not have IBM here like we did years ago but we have Modernizing Medicine Office Depot has almost a thousand technology enabled employees in their office here there are so many different companies that we know of today raising the awareness of that and then inter connecting those companies so they can be a part of a movement that grows our tech industry here and give South Florida a really solid economic foundation for the future and heck I went to school here all my life I want more people I went to school with to say I'm coming back to South Florida from New York or Chicago or whatever and I'm going to make my home here so that's our selfish goal from an organization standpoint making sure that we our industry can grow but you know and  I'm sure this will relate to Pedro's I love to see what our people can come up with see what these teams can really do yeah from our side you know  we're sponsors of this event and in the future we're going to be doing work and looking to do a lot more at these events the city is very interested in  really pushing forward and evolving our city because it's growing the needs of our citizens are growing we have different types of citizens  inside of our community so as we look to grow we are looking for new   solutions new innovative ideas that are part of it and we think that some of the best ideas they may come from the big companies but a lot of times some of the best ideas come from the local entrepreneurs and developers the start ups the start up companies that really can push through and  have a very open mind when it comes to developing ideas so from my standpoint I'm really looking forward to seeing the types of things that come out and I think that this is a really good first step for us to one identify some of these issues  not issues but the challenges and problems that we can we can evolve and start identifying solutions and meet some of the people in our community that we think we can tap into as partners going forward awesome so for those that want to attend do you have to go as a team member that you can get involved with this or can you be a spectator so you don't have to be a part of a team to show up and join we actually have some team building factored into the whole time because most people aren't coming with the team or even coming with an idea they're coming to be a part of something and maybe learn so you know take for example a student they're not coming with a team formed but you know we make sure that everyone is paired up with other people that they can form their team and idea and if somebody wants to come as a spectator  we welcome that as well yeah we do have tickets online they start at twenty five dollars for anybody that's because we do have an immense amount of food that is you know have to be factored in for the weekend long event but you know we welcome anybody to come if they want to purchase a ticket and show up on Friday evening which is our kick off event where we're going to have the CEO of Office Depot speak the vice president of technology from Florida Power and Light and of course the illustrious Pedro over here present as well illustrious and and then Sunday morning keep in mind this is twenty four hours straight Sunday morning after being up they have to pitch their  idea to a panel of judges and that'll be Sunday at ten so those are the two major times that if you're not necessarily participating but you're really interested you can come in and attend those last question very serious question considering it's a twenty four hour event what is the best energy drink that people can bring to keep themselves awake and going all night oh lord I'm a Gatorade guy but that's just not going to cut it you know you need some some really hard for coffee we do have a couple coffee  providers we have your typical hot coffee we'll have there which is  Subculture coffee and we have a company called Candid Coffee that's going to be bringing in some cold brew because if there's one thing I know from my days back in college you have to drink a lot of coffee yes that's right okay all right and you know Redbeull should be sponsoring this week we've we looked to place yeah somebody should place a call yeah how we've looked at that and I I feel there has to be a great commercial opportunity here too  like you know like not Red Bull gives you wings but it keeps you up for twenty four hours straight to build stuff for the city of Boca Raton there you go there's your marketing plan our new thing in the city manager's office is Celsius it has like it's a Delray Ceach company it's it's and it is amazing we live off of it I'll talk to them all see what I can do they're in Boca Raton sir they're in Boca I would like to correct you oh okay right now they're a Boca company look at that they were actually at economic development just put an awesome event over at BRiC and the CEO of Celsius was there very cool awesome kudos to Celsius so Celsius Boca Raton I'll spell it right later well thank you gentlemen again so much for being on the show I really appreciate it and I hope you have an extremely successful event thank you very much thank you for having us thanks for tuning it

Plastic Free July is an annual challenge to reduce the many ways we use disposable plastics in our daily lives and raise awareness about the amount of single use and disposable plastic is around us. The Office of Sustainability is challenging residents to try the low-plastic lifestyle for this month and see what habits can stick throughout the rest of the year. Hear from Sustainability Manager, Lindsey Nieratka and Gumbo Limbo Nature Center Manager, Leanne Welch as they discuss the benefits of going plastic-free and not only how it helps our environment but our wildlife as well.CONNECT WITH US📱 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BocaRatonCity/🐤 Twitter: https://twitter.com/CityBocaRaton📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/citybocaraton/🏠 Nextdoor: https://nextdoor.com/agency-detail/fl/boca-raton/city-of-boca-raton/🌎 Website: https://www.myboca.us/Ep. 26 - Take the Pledge to go Plastic Free Transcript[Upbeat theme music plays]Anne Marie: Hey everyone and welcome to Boca Behind the Scenes -- a get to know you podcast where we talk to city staff to get details and information about new programs, events and projects that are taking place right here in your city. My name is Anne Marie Van Casteren, public relations specialist with the city's communications and marketing division, and as always I am happy to be your host today.[Upbeat theme music fades out]So wherever you may be listening to this podcast right now, I want you to take a moment and think of all the ways you may use single use plastics...[Sound of plastic items being touched]Plastic silverware, plastic water bottles, plastic food containers, plastic bags, now go ahead and think of all the people in this entire universe that use those very same items.[Sound of plastic items being dumped]It's kind of overwhelming to think about, right?[Ominous music plays in background]Plastic pollution is one of the biggest problems facing our environment and it's starting to gain a lot of attention. On a regular basis, images appear on our social media feeds of overly polluted oceans, turtles entangled in plastic and ingested plastic particles in pieces by various marine life. According to the Plastic Pollution Coalition, by 2050, the oceans will contain more plastic than fish by weight. So in an effort to increase awareness of the everyday ways that we as a community here in Boca Raton use and throw away single use plastics, the City's Sustainability Office is challenging all residents, yes you, to make changes this month during Plastic Free July. Plastic Free July is the global yearly challenge where millions of people give up single use plastics to raise awareness of the amount of disposable plastic items that we use every day in our lives and challenges people to do something about it. So last year we spoke to you our City's Sustainability Manager, Lindsay Nieratka, about this very initiative so let's hear from her again about Plastic Free July.[Ominous music fades out]Lindsey: So Plastic Free July is just it's a it's an awareness event and it is an international event that was started in Australia in 2011 and it started as just an office initiative but since then over two million people have opted to participate from over a hundred and fifty-nine different countries. What Plastic Free July does is it challenges participants to take a look around their lives and figure out the places where they're using plastic unnecessarily or not recycling it properly and to then implement some changes to reduce the plastic waste that they're producing.Anne Marie: Some of you may fully understand the benefits of going plastic free and some of you may not right now and that's totally okay. Honestly, I'll admit, it wasn't until I started working very closely with our sustainability department that I started to take notice and really take a look at the amount of single use plastics that I utilize in my life every single day.[Plastic bags being rustled]For those of you that may be in the same boat, let's listen to Lindsey as to the benefits of going plastic free and why it's so important.Lindsey: We've learned a lot in the last few years about the impact of plastic on the environment and just the amount of plastic that we have been producing. A study came out, I think last year, that looked at all the plastic that's been produced since 1950 and what has happened to it all and the results were surprising to even the people doing the study. We produced over eight billion tons of plastic since 1950, seventy percent of that has been disposed and of that only ninety or sorry only nine percent has been recycled. Which means that it is somewhere and sometimes that's going to be in places we don't want it like in our oceans. So all the plastic that's ever been produced still exists and ninety one percent of it has not been recycled. So we have this logical disconnect between this material that lasts forever and a use of it which is for disposable products.[Sound of ocean waves]Anne Marie: And if you've been to the beach lately, I am sure you have seen our many turtle nests blocked off within the area. Being a coastal community, not only is our community important to us but our wildlife that inhabits our environment is as well. Having a world-renowned turtle rehabilitation center within our city has opened our eyes first hand on how plastic affects our marine life, especially our sea turtles. Gumbo Limbo Manager Leeanne Welch was able to put this into perspective.Leanne: Two-thirds of our planet is covered in water, so it makes sense that two-thirds of our plastic that has not been recycled has wandered in the ocean and we see that in the most remote islands in the Pacific that man has never set foot on and they get there and it's just littered with plastic waste. We see it up close and personal at Gumbo Limbo, especially in our turtle rehabilitation facility. Every year there's tens of thousands of baby turtles, hatchling turtles that are born on our beaches and they're they're little, they're smaller than the palm of your hand and they're born with all of the knowledge they need to be an adult turtle. There's no, mom doesn't come back and take care of them and when they're born they swim for about two days they get out to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and wind up in these giant weed patches, these sargassum weed lines. And from there at they're preprogrammed to eat pretty much anything that fits in their mouth. A lot of them wind up back in our rehabilitation facility. They're weak and they get washed back up on the beach occasionally some of them do die and we do a necropsy, which is an animal autopsy, and what we find is a hundred percent of them have plastic in their stomachs. Two-thirds of the animals in a rehab facility are also impacted by plastic, whether it's an entanglement in fishing line or rope. Occasionally, we have to do an imputation of a flipper for that, so I mean we're just seeing it up close and personal everyday.Anne Marie: So now that we have all this really great information, why not go ahead and take the pledge to go plastic free this month? The City's Office of Sustainability created a pledge tracker that you can use at your office or at home to hold you accountable. And what's so great about it is that it's not just a one size fits all challenge. You can go ahead and pick initiatives that work well for you as well as your family. And looking at the pledge tracker, that actually have right now in my hand, it lists all the different ways and items to avoid. So there's things such as plastic retail bags, bottled cleaning products, disposable coffee cups, plastic cutlery and foam take out boxes. But then it provides you with different ways to avoid it. So for example, for the plastic retail bags, remember that you can use reusable shopping bags or even a cardboard box if you don't have them when bringing your groceries or items home. For plastic straws, when you go out to dinner, refuse the plastic straw or opt in for a paper straw if they have that available. Or you can even go online and purchase your own reusable straws and bring them with you. For plastic cutlery, you know go ahead and support businesses that are offering compostable alternatives like bamboo or fiber cutlery, or bring your own reusables or sit and enjoy dine-in. So there's so many different ways that you can get involved with this pledge. And what's really awesome too is once you see all the things you can avoid and how to avoid it, you can also look at the impact that you would have on the ocean, waste reduction and climate and kind of what level of impact you would have on those three. So it's a really great initiative that you can get involved in. You can go online and print it off of our website, it'll be on our social media channels and there will also be a display at the library where you can go ahead and get the pledge, and at the bottom you will put your name and information and you can leave the section below to get updates and be entered to win a sustainability price. So, it's really something to definitely look into and make it a challenge within your home with your family, friends and see you know what you can do, not only now during this month but how you can implement that long term. And this isn't the only way that you can participate in Plastic Free July. What's really awesome is the Office of Sustainability and our Recreation Services Department is hosting an intracoastal kayak / canoe clean up on July 27 at Spanish River Park canoe launch to celebrate Plastic Free July as well as Parks and Recreation Month, which I'm sure you'll be seeing more information from us about that and the and the possible podcast, and attendees are able to bring their own canoes or kayaks or you can borrow one but there are limited supplies available so make sure you R. S. V. P. soon to get yours. Or you can even join in on the, on an on-land beach cleanup and clean up plastic from the Intracoastal side of the barrier island. So there will be more information posted about this event and it's coming soon so make sure that you stay connected with us. And these are only two ways for you to practice sustainability. I mean, we have so many initiatives. If you go on to our sustainability web page you can read up all about them. We have our Coastal Connection Restaurant Program that kind of goes hand-in-hand with this. So be sure to go ahead and get involved. Use this as a way to you really propel yourself into sustainability within the city and incorporate these practices into your everyday life. So go and get creative and you know come to the beach cleanup, learn more about sustainability in your city on an ongoing basis, make the pledge and be a part of this great community effort.[Upbeat theme music plays]So for more information as always go ahead and follow us on social media -- we're always posting information about initiatives like this and we are everywhere. We're on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, I think I said Twitter, Instagram, you name it, Nextdoor, we're there. And you can also visit the city's website at myboca.us. and if you go to the search bar and look up sustainability, you'll go to that home page and it'll list all this information and more. So thanks so much again for tuning in to Boca Behind the Scenes and be sure to tune in next time.[Upbeat theme music fades out]

On this episode of Boca Behind the Scenes, host Anne Marie Van Casteren chats with City staff about how the importance of preparing for hurricane season. Hear from the experts about the many ways to connected with the City before, during and after the storm, information about evacuating, curfew rules and more. Guests include Nicole Gasparri, Emergency Manager, Chrissy Gibson, Communications Manager and Mary Siddons, Deputy City Clerk. For more information on hurricane information, please visit www.myBoca.us/BePrepared.CONNECT WITH US📱 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BocaRatonCity/🐤 Twitter: https://twitter.com/CityBocaRaton📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/citybocaraton/🏠 Nextdoor: https://nextdoor.com/agency-detail/fl/boca-raton/city-of-boca-raton/🌎 Website: https://www.myboca.us/