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Patrick Parrish of the Lake Worth Herald came out with a scathing editorial of Commissioner Jennings. He entitled his commentary, "Are Law Suits Accomplishments?" Well, sometimes they are.
The other thing that must be said is that any idiot can file a law suit. If you remember the anarchy on the Dais, Retha Lowe grabbed the Contract with Greater Bay away from Mayor Marc Drautz, and signed it as Vice Mayor. Even our self-proclaimed anarchist would not have done that! The Dirty Dozen was in the Chamber that night jeering and saying all sorts of vile things toward Drautz. The mayor wanted to study it first...read it, unlike Lowe. They were determined to get our beach out of public control for the enrichment of their friends and themselves.
There was no haste here, as the Lake Worth Herald states, in this contract termination. Greater Bay was given every opportunity to perform--the City bent over backwards. Greater Bay had dragged its feet for over a year. Even Retha eventually voted to kick the flim flam man out of town. As I recall, the entire commission voted to do that--reason? Non-performance. Cara Jennings is not responsible for this frivolous law suit. Those commissioners who voted for the Greater Bay Contract are responsible: Lowe, Clemens and Vespo. They started the entire mess and several law suits that followed.
The Herald further complained that she interjected herself into the city's problems at the south end landfill that is out of her district. Commissioner Jennings represents this City, not just her District. That is why we get to vote for all commissioners up for election. She was not interfering. She was doing her job. And where was the Herald's good friend Retha Lowe in all this landfill mess? Did she even support that community? No. She got campaign contributions from Sun Recycling, the company that was doing all the dumping and damage to our land and causing health problems to her neighbors in her District that she represented. Later she was fined by the Florida Elections Commission.
As far as Jennings trying to get support of the Haitian community for her re-election this year when she tried to divert the delivery of our ambulance to St. Mark's Hospital in torn ridden Haiti, is nothing more than a fictitious and malicious allegation by the Herald. The Haitian community is a very small voting block. Jennings has worked closely with them through the years advocating and supporting their needs. She has always had a good relationship with them. She always said that she would not seek a third term.
It is true that our Comprehensive Plan is being held up but that is not Jennings' fault. The City Commission approved 35 foot height limits. The Comp Plan is being help up by La Sonna Hayes, a resident who wants to change her residential neighborhood into mutli-family zoning. She does not like height limitations. Jennings had never said that she is against development. What she did was to make the developer establishment and friends act like rabid dogs when they thought they were ensured of a developer's field day on 6th Avenue South and 10th Avenue North by building high. This is the one action of Jennings that motivated them to action...money slipping from their fingers is not a pleasant feeling. They even formed a PAC, Businesses Aligned for Change. Limiting heights will not deter developers. That is always their excuse and a main reason why the State of Florida is in the shape it is in. It was all about money with this Group. It always is and why we need Amendment 4.
I look forward to Commissioner Jennings presentation prior to her ending term and to be reminded of her accomplishments. There were many. Because she refused to "toe-the-line" to conservative politics and developer interests, should not deny the existence of truth nor should it diminish her skills and achievements during her tenure. She will probably take this opportunity for her one last anarchist action to remind us that we are all equal, no one is "illegal," and that it is government's responsibility to take care of humankind. The majority of citizens did not agree.
Another in the continuing series of hagiographic accounts of the reign of Commissioner Jennings. She's not running for a third term so that she can plead "plausible deniability" in her future run for Mayor - the presentation talked about before she leaves the dais will be the first salvo in her mayoral campaign.
ReplyDeleteIf TRUTH is considered excessive flattery, then so be it. It is what it is. She never got the chickens. She did get her way on the beach redevelopment (Michael Singer)for which I highly disagree. There are others. She is one of the most intelligent commissioners in my recollection. Nothing was done for any personal gain. However, her social justice agenda got in the way of the health and overall welfare of our city.
ReplyDeleteThanks for explaining how to comment. I never knew what to do here. I read the Herald and I also disagree with how he slanted the background information on the candidates. It was very biased for a newspaper.
ReplyDeleteSteve S.
There are a lot of very mean people in lake worth. Cara raised the bar for this commission as well as future commissions. Always prepared. I hate the Herald anyway. Never buy it anymore.
ReplyDeleteJanice
It might be fortunate for the citizens of District 1 that the District 2 commissioner came to their rescue, since their own commissioner wouldn't help. In District 4 we have a similar problem. Our Commissioner has told us she doesn't represent us, but the whole city. She no longer lives in the district but is running anyway.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope our new commissioners DO represent their districts as well as the city as a whole.
Quite an apology for the commissioner who admittedly got in the way of the health and overall welfare of our city.
We voters voted our wishes for building heights when Romano was Mayor. Why didn't that count?
Lynn... thanks for allowing anonymous comments, even if only temporary.
Although this blog is about Cara, I wanted to say that Suzanne still lives in the same house that she has lived in for 5 years. Once it is sold, she will be moving to another residence within her District 4. And it is true--she represents the entire City, not just Dist 4.
ReplyDeleteActually for the record the vote to help District 1 was by all the commissioners that were on the board last year not just one. Thank you Commissioner and Mayor Clemens!
ReplyDeleteAs for height restriction or anything that involves the comp plan, code, zoning, etc.... This is going to change on a continues basis from commission to commission that is just the reality of government and hopefully wise decisions based on economy, need and well thought out research with a vision for the long term will be the out come.
The current commissioner in District 4 has done a great job in caring for the people as a whole and hope that she continues to bring in green initiatives and things that we need to be aware of such as carbon imprints and new ideas for the future that includes long term vision.
Representation in each district is a good thing and long time over due. It would be a great thing to have our City Commissioners fight for the needs in their own districts and hopefully be able to bring good things for their districts just as county, state and federal levels do.
Regardless please get out and vote and let your voice be heard and continue to participate in every level of government but especially in OUR local government.
Thank you Cara for your long service and hopefully Mr. McVoy will make all us proud!
Cara has done an incredible job of preventing disasters like Greater Bay,FMPA,the giveaway of our water,etc.Cara stood up for the rights of the taxpayers, the residents of Lake Osborne Heights when they begged the Commission to protect their single family neighborhood. Retha Lowe Dave Vespo and Nadine Burns voted AGAINST the wishes of their own citizens. Retha Lowe, Nadine Burns and Dave Vespo thought that two out of town land speculators/flippers had more rights than the people living in the neighborhood. Lisa Maxwell thought the same thing . She voted against the neighborhood in favor of a couple of her developer buddies. (Lisa makes her living off of developers. When it comes down to the wants and needs of the citizens of Lake Worth vs. her developer friends, Lisa Maxwell is going to tell the people to go screw themselves every time ).As far as height limits ,I was at the master plan session and saw the comments from residents concerning height limits.The consensus was no more than 4 stories.The question of how a limit of 4 stories turned in 10 stories or more by the time it went through the Planning and Zoning board has never been answered. Just like all of the other illegal variances Wes, Lisa Maxwell and the gang granted, I guess they thought that they could just shove these bogus height limits down our throats.Thanks Cara, we'll miss your wisdom. God willing, we will never return to the days where pieces of crap like Nadine Burns ,Dave Vespo ,Mac Mckinnon,and Retha Lowe sell out their own citizens for a few ,mostly imaginary, bucks !
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