Victims of Wellington's Horse Wars Are Residents, Businesses



Editoria By Rhonda Swan

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

In the latest episode of Wellington's ongoing soap opera, As the Horse World Turns, village officials warned Mark Bellissimo that his Equestrian Sports Partners could lose its Global Dressage Festival if the group again violates a court-ordered agreement. ESP put up a tent without permits, it is the latest cliffhanger in a drama that needs to be canceled.

Mr. Bellissimo and his supporters are rightfully upset at their treatment by the new anti-equine majority on the village council. Mayor Bob Margolis and councilmen John Greene and Matt Wilhite have revoked approvals a previous council granted for an $80 million dressage and commercial project in the equestrian overlay district. Still, that is no excuse for Mr. Bellissimo to flout village rules. Simiarly, councilors cannot use the fact that they were elected based on their opposition to the equestrian project as an excuse for opposing everything associated with Mr. Bellissimo. They were elected them to govern, not to punish.

Mr. Greene has steered events away from ESP-owned Palm Beach International Equestrian Club. Mayor Margolis failed to act on a request by the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, which supported the equestrian project, to hold its annual Winterfest at the village amphitheater. The event had to be moved.

In a letter to the mayor, the chamber’s president, Alec Domb, expressed frustration at the division that last spring’s election created. The billionaire Jacobs family, which opposes the equestrian project, spent $500,000 on a mostly negative campaign backing the new majority. “We never expected that the vindictive nature of the new majority on the council would actually spill over into civic events that have become popular with the local community,” Mr. Domb wrote. “These events have nothing to do with politics, or any dispute relating to public policy.”

Mr. Bellissimo and his crew have been just as petty. Mike Nelson, the husband of former Mayor Kathy Foster, a Bellissimo supporter, filed an ethics complaint against Mr. Greene for obtaining a parking pass for the gated community where he lived temporarily. The Palm Beach County Commission on Ethics dismissed the complaint. One member called it harassment. Mr. Bellissimo has filed public records requests for a voluminous amount of information, including all emails and cell phone records of councilors and several employees. That also amounts to harassment.

In an interview, Mr. Domb rightly noted that the victims of this millionaire-billionaire feud are the residents. “It’s not good for our economic development,” he said. “It’s not good for any of the things that matter to the business community here.” Indeed. Who will be first to act like an adult?

Rhonda Swan for The Post Editorial Board