There will be a plaque at the new $155 million City Center in West Palm Beach that will have the Mayor’s and all City Commissioner’s names on it. Commissioner Kimberly Mitchell, who fought against it, does not want her name on the plaque. I say-- good for Kimberly for standing up for principles.Lois Frankel is always pushing buttons to the limit. She will never take “no” for an answer, not when she wants something. And that is exactly what she did with the City Center. She got it built in spite of a political action committee, the Alliance of Concerned Taxpayers, that fought against it and won in court. Frankel allowed the suit to go all the way to the Supreme Court and she lost. She rammed ahead and ignored the citizens and refused to listen to the people or to Ms. Mitchell who rightly stated that Lois was wrong with her “we’ve got money to burn” mentality. The most egregious action of the Mayor was building that building when it should have been put to a vote of the people.
When the Mayor just pushed all the buttons to do what she wanted to do rather than the will of the people, Kimberly Mitchell stood up and said, “no.” Why now, when the city center is complete and West Palm Beach is in debt for over $100 million should Ms. Mitchell now say it’s all okay and forget the wrong, forget the debt, discount all the 6,000 citizens who signed the petition, forget the law suit that they won, and forget what the Mayor did. She is standing up for principle, something far more important that becoming a “team player.” And this has nothing to do with being a sore loser as the Post stated today.Only weak people go along with the flow. They lack the inner strength to stand up for what is right, and in this case, stand up to a strong Mayor such as Frankel who pushed the wrong button. Kimberly took the right stand so why now should she do any less just to have her name on a plaque that she doesn’t believe should be there in the first place?
