P.U. , Pew, pee-you - no matter how you spell it...

Pugh property at 6th Avenue South

Corruption abounds in the City of Lake Worth. Waste is prevalent. We continue to give away money when we have none to give. Money is missing. When real estate values were manipulated, the City was receiving plenty of money. Where is it? Why did they spend it all? Where is the missing $2 million they mentioned at the Audit meeting?

Remember Pugh? He is the one who owns this property on 6th Avenue South and received a lot of money from the Lake Worth Community Redevelopment Agency for an option on his property, formerly The Pool Doctor. This was politics at its worse. He was also hired by Greater Bay to refurbish our pool that never was completed--more politics. We paid for certain things we never received. Peter Willard blamed Pugh for this at a city commission meeting.

The CRA paid Geoffrey Pugh, the owner of this property at 6 Avenue South and F Street, $14,000 a month on an option so that it could control what would be built there when it sold. Of course, NOTHING was selling then to anyone. They paid around $90,000 to him until the option was stopped by public outcry and Bill Coakley’s exposure of this corruption.

The CRA also paid $22,500 to help demolish one building that was on the property. The owner had at least $12,000 in code enforcement fines that the City has never collected and has been totally silent on this issue. These decisions of the CRA drove the close vote on taking the CRA over by the city commission. It was saved as an independent Board by Commissioner Mulvehill because she was overwhelmed with commission work as well as being a new commissioner.

Geoff Pugh is also the Vice Mayor of Ocean Ridge so he knows the political system and knows how to get things done. Although campaign contributions have not yet appeared on Treasury Reports for these candidates, look for them in the future.

Do these political signs mean that these candidates support the CRA’s action on wasting thousands of taxpayer dollars? That they support more rentals? That the owner believes he will get favorable rulings from these two candidates as they were former members of our Planning & Zoning Board and one was on the CRA? What do these signs mean?