Tuesday night I attended the CRA meeting and watched as they voted to give away over $60 thousand dollars for such things as a hot water heater costing $1,000, pavers for a driveway that could have been repaired much cheaper. How many of you can afford pavers for your driveway? Well, move to the CRA district. "That is one of the advantages of living in the CRA District," said Ms. Materio.A sprinkler system was thrown into the mix of discussion. The owner will come back later for that one. $15,000 for ONE owner who has the nicest house on the street. This is what the CRA does—gives money away to whomever applies and who presents the correct documentation, according to CRA staff, proving that they are qualified to receive “free” money with few strings. Oh, did I mention that she wants a new front fence because school children sit on hers on their way home from school?
The owner, Mary Demers of 501 S B Street only presented, per the back-up docs, one estimate for each item for the work. Her Santa wish-list amounted to over $40,000. In the Residential Rehabilitation Grant, the CRA on a 5 to 1 vote, Donna Ross dissenting, gave her $15,000 non-matching funds towards improvements to her house. There was NO copy of her tax return in the back-up only an altered copy of her W-2. The CRA has agreed that she will have one of our city employees, Martin Cybulski, City Horticulturist, assist her in planning additional landscaping. Once that is done, she will re-submit an application for
if she can find room for it.
The five members who voted to give away our TIF money to this property owner were: Brendan Lynch, Wes Blackman, Ed Grimm, Shanon Materio and Wayne Marcinkoski. If I were a tax payer in the CRA district I would be pretty miffed about TIF.The CRA was formed to eliminate BLIGHT. From the CRA's web site it states: "Tax dollars in the CRA district are spent to help revitalize blighted areas of the city." Is there anything blighted about this house? Yes, agreed, it is in a "blighted" area but this house is NOT blighted.
When will we stop this delving into the cookie jar mentality that the CRA has. "Let’s give it away," says one member of the Board. “I am surprised that you did not ask for more,” says the same member talking about another grant given to a different owner. “Come back for more money.” Recently the CRA and the Commission had a Joint Meeting to set their priorities. There were 20 categories. Residential Rehab Grants ranked 11th; Commercial Façade Grants ranked 13th, and Community Aid Grants ranked 17th.
It’s easy to hand out money when it is NOT yours. Policy must be changed for all Grants within the CRA. There should be a requirement for at least two estimates if not three. The owner should provide a copy of the tax return, not a copy of a W-2. A W-2 does not prove the amount of total income. Standards need to get tighter and if the Grants persist, then the CRA needs to stop handing out money like it is X’mas in Lake Worth every month.
Remember the Gateways, 6th Avenue South and 10th Avenue North where we are spending over $14 MILLION DOLLARS? Well, on the priority list of the CRA and City Commission, maintenance of the Gateways was ranked number 18 out of 20. CRA members Ed Grimm (kudos to Ed) gave it as one of his top priorities (6 points) and Mark Rickards (1 point) and Jeff Clemens (3 points). These were the only members who ranked Gateway maintenance at all. That's why our city looks as it does. We totally neglect our assets or have low priorities for general maintenance. We give money to a woman who does not need it. We give $16,000 to an owner of a commercial property to fix up his parking lot who lives in a waterfront home worth over one million and we vote to neglect maintenance of The Gateways.
Santa, stay in the North Pole and send us a plan that will make sense on how we give money away to eradicate BLIGHT, not to people who are allowed to take advantage of a bad system and a Board whose hands are tied because of it.
