The Political Pendulum

This is an advocacy blog. Writing on issues that are interesting to me and that reflect my opinion is what I do. My purpose is not to be a cheerleader for the City of Lake Worth but rather to point out certain failures, trends and history with the hope that our City will get better. City officials need to be held accountable for what they say and do and their votes need to be remembered. Our city's successes are reflected here as well.

This is NOT a news site unlike the Lake Worth Herald that just featured a color photo of the opposing attorneys for the cities that owe us over $10 million bucks in the Sub-Regional Sewer System on its front page, relegating the outside attorney for the City of Lake Worth on an inside page in black and white. News should be fair and balanced. Opinion blogs don't have to be.

The political pendulum has been swinging in the wrong direction for the last ten years or more. That is why I decided to write a blog in the first place. What better place to write about than what goes on in the corruption county of the United States that Lake Worth is a part? There is just so much to cover in our city and its political history is important (history does do it for me). The understanding of how we got here and why we can't afford to make the same mistakes that have occurred over and over again need to be exposed. We learn from history; we should not try to change it or hide from it. Sweeping all our failures under the rug solves nothing but a continued head in the sand approach to governing.

Wednesday night Bill Thrasher, member of the Finance Advisory Board, made a comment that we should stop the “negative” and concentrate on the “positive” or words to that effect. He specifically mentioned local blogs. Of course his comment has nothing to do with the budget or the millage, so he got my attention...his intent. He feels that hashing over old mistakes is unproductive and that "we should move on."

As he is a public administrator, he is “for” certain things that I am not such as the League of Cities. He believes that getting revenue is the main key to turning this city around..."We need a whole lot more revenue to solve some of the issues." He is against Amendment 4. Mr. Thrasher comes from a totally different mind-set than do I. He also works in a very wealthy city, unlike Lake Worth.

When it comes to political issues, there is always a big percentage of people who will disagree. That comes with the territory and that's why we have several political parties with different philosophies--why we have tons of political writers with every view imaginable. On a local level, Wes Blackman and I are often on opposite sides of that pendulum especially Amendment 4, a State-wide issue. He is a planner and derives his income from development. We both have different motivations.

I agree with Mr. Thrasher on many things and appreciate his keen mind. However, I don't tell him how to do his job. Depending upon who reads this blog, that someone might very well have a different perspective about attaining profitability in a private business or a corporation than does a governmental employee who is used to spending and used to raising fees to meet unrealistic and/or over-inflated budgets and socking it to the taxpayers, as an example. We all have different views.

Republicans and Democrats think differently on how to be fiscally responsible. The difference in the two is that today's Democrats don't know how to count and the Republicans are saying "figure out how to pay for something before you spend the money." Our government has run a deficit for over 40 years and it is at a perilous level of unsustainability. The U.S. government has not been bound by a balanced budget. Obama himself promised a spending freeze at most government agencies but it all continues to what has developed into over a $13 trillion dollar deficit.

When property values were inflated, Lake Worth generated twice the money that we have today. What did the City do? It spent all of the money. We have always heard about the tremendous amount of waste in government. I believe that the key to turning this city around is stopping the waste and stopping the spending, not implementing more programs to garner a few bucks here and there at the expense of the Lake Worth taxpayer. It has been proven over and over again that the more money the City gets, the more it will spend and we will still have the slum, the blight, the crime and high utility rates. We must know where we have been and where we are going to figure out how we are going to change things.

Monthly financial statements should be prepared on a timely basis–5 to 8 business days following the month’s close. Comparison should be made to budget. Review the numbers. "Remember, not looking at them is like buying a newspaper and not reading it. There is no benefit. Periodically (2 to 3 times per year) update the actuals with a forecast to see how the year end numbers will come out." The Finance Advisory Board as well as the Commission must be on top of our budget and financial oversight is imperative. Are all these true costs/projections?

We must do something about the Union benefit situation or we won’t have a City to worry about-- a cause for prime concern not only here but in thousands of cities across the country. Our City Manager is working on that now. Stop the waste, spending and abuse. Reforming costly and wasteful programs will build essential momentum for the larger reforms that are needed to bring the budget under control. Look at all the non-essentials and eliminate them immediately.

Surplus properties were discussed at the FAB meeting. Stop holding on to all the surplus properties. If possible, work out a program with developers that will be beneficial to the City and to homeowners that we want to attract. We didn't sell them in the "up" market and now we don't want to sell them in the "down" market. We continue to hang on to stuff that costs us money and properties that further deteriorate.

What is perceived as a “negative” by some often times is nothing more than where you are on that political or social pendulum. We just have different beliefs on how to "swing" it all around and how to "stand up" for Lake Worth.