A Kick in the Pants

Under normal circumstances, contracts should be respected, but not the Contract with Palm Beach County Water.

Commissioner Retha Lowe agreed that we “made some dumb decisions” on this Contract going with the County. We should never acquiesce in a case such as this and should fight it all the way. At least Commissioner Lowe, as did three other commissioners, directed Staff to proceed further with the County for termination. Mayor Clemens is still holding to his original decision that of burning $15.5 million already into our RO (the RO Plant was so impressive in the presentation) and go with the County. He says that he won’t drink WPB water.

Speaking of West Palm Beach water, it took nearly 1.5 hours for it to be even mentioned. Commissioner Mulvehill reminded us that we could connect for free. The Utility Director gave us some options for short term needs that would cost us millions going with PB County never bringing West Palm Beach into the scenario. Why not?

We need a fighter up there negotiating with the County and it would be very wise. As I have brought it up in the past as well as Laurence McNamara last night, we must hire a great contract attorney who will go over this line by line and advise us as to our rights. Larry Karns last night was adamant that we would be sued. Actually, Mr. Karns should be given his walking papers now. Nothing is a "given" Mr. Karns. Lake Worth should not be penalized for the sins of former commissions or PB County for taking advantage of our ignorance.

Palm Beach County knows only too well that water scarcity already affects every continent and more than 40 percent of the people on our planet. By 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world’s population could be living under water stressed conditions. They want our wells , perhaps even the remaining bond money, and do not want us to go forward with our own water source. How else are they going to provide water and still approve of building unnecessary housing projects throughout the County?

The Commission has asked Staff to get on the Palm Beach County Agenda as soon as possible to once again, present the case for an “amicable termination” as suggested by Commissioner Mulvehill. Also, Palm Beach County knows that once we get an attorney going over this “bad deal” that we were lobbied heavily and encouraged to accept, they might not be looking very good right now with all the corruption going on there. No PB County Commissioner wants to appear like the "heavy" or appear as if it's taking advantage of a poor city in its County.

We told them that we wanted to get out of this deal on January 6 and Brian Shields, Deputy Director of Palm Beach Water Utilities, was in our commission chamber. We told him. In essence he said, “forget it.” He more or less said, “too bad, you lose, we win.” What he said exactly was, "We have a contract in place. We have deadlines, and we fully intend to meet them."

Once we have our own RO, we will be able to sell excess water to PB County when it requires it. Ain’t that a kick in the pants Palm Beach County? I suggest that we charge double to Brian Shields, Addie Greene, Burt Aaronson and especially, Jeff Koons.

As far as the Mayor worrying as to whether we will have customers to sell water to in the future—once the RO Plant is finished, there will be plenty of surrounding areas wanting to buy the best water around, Lake Worth’s. No one is going to commit to buying water from us in a project that is not yet finished. But more importantly, we will be able to keep our independence as well as control of costs.