Group Picker not showing help tool tip and placeholder

Hello Appian Community! 

so I have a group picker in a  section layout that is not showing the helpToolTip  and not showing the placeholder 

here is my code for the pickerFieldGroups

a!pickerFieldGroups(
            label: "Proponent",
            labelPosition: "ABOVE",
            helpTooltip: "Which organization or staff agency is identifying this capability gap?",
            placeholder: "--- MCOE (Maneuver Center of Excellence) ---",
            maxSelections: 1,
            value: ri!GFIM_CNA_Request.proponentneedshort,
            saveInto: ri!GFIM_CNA_Request.proponentneedshort,
            required: true,
            readOnly: ri!readOnly,
            validations: {}
          ),

here is the picture of what it looks like in Appian designer

here is the same form live via a site 

and here is the same form from debugging the process

any ideas why they are different?

why  it does not show in the site?

thanks,

Kevin