Last Night's Commission Meeting

Last night’s commission meeting was very important with a lot on the agenda and a lot to digest.

There was one new item added to the Agenda at the last minute--the approval of a reimbursement agreement for the failed Hammon Park Project. Hammon Park, the CDC and its partners have applied for a CWHIP Grant that must be secured by the end of December. These funds will be used for construction of the condos and townhouses. PB County set aside this money for this project which covers roadways, curbs, gutters, landscaping, etc. The City agreed to be responsible for subsequent maintenance of all infrastructure improvements on Hammon Park. If Hammon Park does not get the Grant, the City is requesting that the funds be available for infrastructure for that project. So, I learned something here. I thought it was only our CRA that had given a total of $100,000 towards Hammon Park. I had no idea that the City of LW was committed to maintenance on the infrastructure.

We had an item in the amount of $565,000 on last night’s Consent Agenda. Consent! The City Manager did say that items this big perhaps should be off of Consent and moved somewhere else for discussion. But she has total confidence in the Utilities Director. The entire Commission passed this expenditure for the re-manufacture and re-wind of our idle power transformer without even considering flushing it out to save hundreds of thousands of dollars, the recommendation of the insurance carrier on this transformer. Mattey, Utilities Director, said that the warranty with G.E. might be jeopardized if they went that route. So, it might very well be a simple flushing out versus rebuilding it. The Commission did not challenge this at all. The warranty is only for one year. Not much to be worried about here.

The mayor made two curious statements last night. Now I don’t want him to think that I am picking on him. I find him a very personable guy. But really, Mayor. He said, when speaking about our water source, that “we don’t have any control over our water, that we and the County get our water from the same place.” When we speak about “control” we are only talking about being a supplier or a buyer of the commodity, not what aquifer we get it from. Next he said that he was not voting on the authorization of an RFQ on the RO deep well injection because, “We don’t know how we’re going to pay for it.” Mayor, whether we go to PB County for our sole source of water or build our own system, we have to pay for it. The dollars are similar. “But I don’t like West Palm Beach water.” He didn't say that last night but the tune was still there.

Our Interim City Attorney and our City Manager met with PB County on our water contract and the County wants around $8 million to end the deal amicably. Stanton said that Elaine did a superb job at the meeting and she is still promoting her to be the City Attorney. Elaine can apply like anyone else for this job. She cannot be under the thumb of the city manager. She must be separate and distinct and have total authority for the legal department and report to the Commission, her only boss, not the city manager.

Sunset was discussed and Stanton mentioned that all of the players (DCA,City Manager, Interim City Attorney, investors, Save Our Neighborhood, Inc) will be on a conference call this Friday at 1pm to see if there is any way to resolve the issue. Obviously Ms. Stanton had not yet received the letter to the City, (I have included only the cover letter in this link) consisting of 42 pages, from our attorney that was dated July 6. Several weeks ago the city manager told us one thing and two weeks later the direction that the city was going to take (according to her) was totally opposite. Either the City or the DCA is confused. The DCA could care less what sort of residential land-use we have there so I know which one I choose. Take your pick but perhaps we will find out on Friday.

Ms. Stanton said that the Commission would have to make a “policy” decision on the Comp Plan but was clearly leading them to keep it MF-20 and even brought up the Bert J. Harris Act again. To me this is unbelievable when their own outside counsel said there was NO CASE using Bert J. Harris. The City of Lake Worth has been told that zoning is a police power. So just change the zoning to Single Family 7 and stop listening to the Chair and former Chair of the P&Z. No one from Save Our Neighborhood is lobbying with the city manager and we are the ones who have the most to lose as we represent 450 families in Lake Osborne Heights. What is the P&Z’s interest anyway?

I left before the casino was discussed by the City Manager but heard that it was also unfavorable as far as the previous direction given by the City Commission. The Commission has already said to refurbish/renovate the building but the forces that be out there are fighting very hard to see that building razed.