Screw up again

At our last City Commission meeting there was much discussion about the hire of a new city manager. The commission agreed that the search should include those outside of Lake Worth, that the applicant needed to have a degree and at least seven years of government/management experience. They also stated that in the Request for Qualifications, a new City Manager did NOT have to live in the City of Lake Worth.

That was the time when City Attorney Karns should have jumped up and told them the facts. He was silent on the law. We cannot arbitrarily change the law without a vote of the citizens. What ever do we have a city attorney for other than to protect us from ourselves?

Bob Baldwin, if he accepts the city manager's position in Dania Beach, will stay on for one more month in Lake Worth.

We need to hire a city manager who will play by our rules, not his/hers, or the Commission that gave a bad directive to the headhunter.

From the City Charter--
Sec. 2-3. City manager and utility director residence requirement.

The city manager and utility director must establish a bona fide residence in the city, within six (6) months of appointment as city manager. A bona fide residence, for the purpose of this section, is a permanent domicile within the city which has not been adopted with the intention of again taking up or claiming a previous residence acquired outside of the city limits.

(Ord. No. 87-2, § 1, 1-19-87; Ord. No. 88-11, § 1, 5-16-88; Ord. No. 92-11, § 1, 5-4-92; Ord. No. 2006-20, § 1, 6-20-06)