City Attorney Larry Karns gives the Commission a monthly up-date on what he is doing. It probably is an impressive read. There are only two employers of mine who knew everything I did on the job and those jobs were my first, that of a dental assistant. I had daily job performance reviews working hand in hand, literally, with my employer. Most employers have no idea what someone does in their job and all the work and time it entails to perform well. He gives a bi-monthly report at city commission meetings, or at least it is on the agenda for him to do so. Does anyone really grasp from these reports what he really does or what he has accomplished?
Even when writing your own job performance review (unheard of in the corporate world) as did Joan Oliva with the CRA although Mark Rickards, Chair, says that he wrote it, you can not evaluate the time, thought, analysis and all the ingredients that go into performing your job in order to produce a favorable result. It is difficult to even imagine, however, that Mr. Karns is doing a bang up job for the City considering we have hired so many outside attorneys even to negotiate the simplest of things but most of all, to challenge the residents and entire neighborhoods. He is never animated and one has to wonder if he is even concentrating on the matters at hand.
Back in 2004 I got interested in Lake Worth politics because of the Sunset 4.02 parcel. After the City decided to annex the parcel and give a zoning incompatible to the neighborhood, five of us formed a PAC as we felt strongly that it should be the citizens who have the final say on what their neighborhood should look like, not three politicians or a planning and zoning board out of touch and with no consideration to the residents.
Attorney Karns checked our petition language and said that the PAC was ready to proceed under our local Charter that gave us the right to petition. We did. And after hustling to get the required signatures on 2 Ordinances, we turned them into the City. Attorney Karns then informed us that we could not petition because of some State Statute. He never contacted us during this process to let us know that he made a mistake. All that we knew was 1) he gave us his legal opinion that we could petition, 2) we had the legal right to petition under the Charter of Lake Worth and 3) we had the legal right to petition under the Constitution of the United States. That is compelling.
Not only did this cost us a lot of time but it cost us personally--a lot of money. Mr. Karns gave his own citizens wrong advice. Then to make matters worse, he made the decision to pursue the law suit to the Appellate Court, a decision that should have been made by the Commission, not Mr. Karns. At the time when questioned about continuing on with the suit he said that he had the right to make decisions if the cost was under $15,000. No he doesn’t. He has the right to settle a law suit under a certain dollar amount, not to initiate one.
To prove that Karns needed help, the City of Boca Raton and The League of Cities plus Casey, Ciklin allianced themselves with the City in the pursuit of bringing down the citizens by becoming Intervenors. Because if the citizens had won the vote, it would set a precedent that city governments deemed unacceptable—taking power away from them and giving it back to the people where it rightly belongs.
This is only one example. Why I believe that Karns should not be retained goes far beyond Sunset. My opinion comes from hundreds of hours of sitting in Commission meetings and seeing him in “action.” Even just recently at the joint P&Z/Commission meeting he adamantly said that an action had been completed when it had not. We had to prove that he was wrong and did. Mr. Karns, on more occasions than I can count, admits to not even reading a contract when asked. If you don’t read it then you can’t give bad advice. He seldom has an answer when questioned.
Lake Worth is now under new leadership. We will be hiring a new City Manager soon. Mr. Karns’ contract is up in February and this is a perfect time to bid him farewell. Start with brand new leadership at the top. It took a long time to change the politics in this City and it is now time to do right by the people. Just because he has been here for nine years is not an excuse to retain him.
96% of those taking the Poll here said to change city attorneys, with one lone vote (Mr. Karns’?) saying to save his job. Polls can be effective in gauging what people think no matter the numbers. At least the people who know Larry Karns, who read this blog, who take an active interest in what is going on in our city, took the poll voting that he should not be rehired. To poll people who are not familiar with his performance would be meaningless.
