SB 216 -- Say "YES" Governor

Just a few years ago there was discussion about getting the Willard/Greater Bay Beach Plan advertised and marketed to the residents of Lake Worth. The City was going to print information on the beach plan and send it to ALL residents within the city in order to convince them that this plan “was the one.” They did not do this with the Michael Singer Artist Plan. They just went ahead and pushed it through. No vote. No say of the people, just a stupid one-sided survey taken by 250 people. The "will of the people" one Commissioner said.

The City was behind the 3 Charter Amendments in January 2008 to change commission seats to three years, eliminate run-off elections and to have our police and fire chiefs live here by Ordinance rather than by Charter. The majority Commission, luckily for the people, did not spend any money behind their initiatives and they lost, other than the Chiefs. The chiefs’ residency requirement is now moot anyway since they decided to outsource them both to PB County. It was bad enough the way the city attorney wrote the ballot language on the Chiefs. No one really understood it and that was their objective.

What the city did do was sue its citizens when the city made bad decisions, like the beach public/private partnership. The city got into a contract with someone who they did not even check out and who turned out to have 9 pages of judgments against him…a developer who not once performed under the contract and delayed our beach for several years. There are still a small few who want Greater Bay in spite of the fact that we stopped these people from getting their hands on our property. This is sort of like uncovering a husband's plot to kill his wife and she says, "drop the charges, I still love him."

We Love Lake Worth PAC wanted to get the zoning change voted upon by the people...our beach...our decision. The city disagreed and sued instead, spending tens of thousands of dollars, threatening to take PAC members homes in the process.

The Sunset parcel ended up in another law suit after the Save Our Neighborhood, Inc., won twice in the lower courts. Our neighborhood...not our decision though...and nothing to say in its destiny. The city was determined to beat the citizens. Don’t let them vote, oh no.

Can you even imagine if Gov. Crist does not sign SB 216 what sort of a chance the ordinary citizen would have of ever beating city hall--ever having a fair shake? Slim to none. What could we expect next? Our local government voting to fund campaigns of those in favor with the present administration in power? Anything is possible.

Everyone call Gov. Crist or e-mail him at Charlie.Crist@MyFlorida.com and ask him to protect citizens rights by voting FOR SB 216 which forbids local governments from using tax money to fund campaigns against citizen groups on ballot questions.