When seconds count, count on us

The only good thing about the Firefighters going to Palm Beach County is that we did not have to witness or put up with them walking the city streets, knocking on doors and handing out fliers, hanging around at the election polling stations and robo calls coming from the Lake Worth Fire Department in support of candidates with Union leanings—one form of corruption that ended in Lake Worth.

Their motto was a reality at election time when the Lake Worth firefighters supported candidates that wanted to give away the farm, literally, to the detriment of Lake Worth taxpayers. Every city department had to closely scrutinize its budgets but the Unions bitterly fought any cuts to their very lucrative contracts. They went so far as to have their Union attorney speak on three separate occasions in front of the Commission.

The unfunded actuarial accrued liability for just the Firefighters is $15,313,639. For every $1.00 paid in salary, the City pays them $1.52 for retirement benefits. They keep crying and we keep paying these unsustainable pension benefits. The firefighters keep finding and supporting candidates sympathetic to their self-interest to the disadvantage of Lake Worth.

If you noticed, the losing candidates, Blockson and Maxwell, received a lot of money from the Unions--$1,500 each from three different firefighter PAC’s and were supported by Mayor Varela and Commissioner Scott Maxwell. One candidate's husband was our former fire chief.

This year, the biased and self motivated intrusion by local firefighters working for Union backed candidates and imposing their will on the public, was all quashed. They might have given Union money but physically they were a "no show." Lake Worth is better for it.