"Nobody does it better"

ROLOH had its meeting last night. Lt. J.J. Morrisey of the PB County Sheriff's Department spoke as did Deputy Santos. Joel Morgenstern of the C.O.P. program was there. The Sheriff's Department has done a lot of good over this past year instilling confidence in Lake Worth residents. They obviously work under great management. Their response time is quick and they scheduled more units on the streets. They treat the residents with courtesy and they are always on the look-out for the bad guys. I have yet to meet one that I didn't like.

Over the last month in our area we have had 13 burglaries, 2 vehicles stolen, 1 graffiti. The Sheriff did 97 residential and business checks. They talked about a few incidents one of which involved a gang member from Folk Nation.

The Mayor spoke next and this is always a treat. He is personable, charming and funny...exactly the qualities that make for a good politician although he said he never reads blogs! Mayor, I'm hurt. Politicians lie well also. He said that the Sheriff's department is catching people, that crime is down 14% overall in Lake Worth, a statistic that the Sheriff's Department avoided. The most amazing statement of all was when he reminded everyone in the room that after November 3rd, there would be NO one left on the Commission who voted FOR the merger to the Sheriff's Department and to "Keep that in mind when you are voting." What he failed to say was that two of the main reasons that commissioners were against this merger were 1) cost and 2) losing control of our own police department. In about two years we will be lucky to afford the Sheriff.

He also talked about what he considers good things for Lake Worth: Publix coming to the downtown (good for the merchants he says) and that the Palm Beach Cultural Council is a real coup for the City (another good thing for the merchants). What he forgot to say is that our CRA will be giving them $700,000 to come to Lake Worth with no performance guarantees.

The meeting was summed up when the Sheriff told ROLOH that no neighborhood association does it better as far as looking out for their neighbors and reporting possible criminals. After leaving the meeting and one block away, I encountered some sort of a crime? scene.