Saturday, February 19, 2011

The Community Redevelopment Agency - A Success or a Failure?

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For years now, all we hear about is slum and blight. Everyone cries about it, uses it in campaign attacks accusing this or that commissioner for the problem and has told the entire city commission that it has fallen down on its job. Most of the blight is in the CRA District. It has been the CRA's responsibility to tackle that problem that should have been its number 1 objective. Have you seen improvements over the last 22 years?

What we have seen is wasted funds and monies going to "special" friends. This video depicts, of course, one little drop in a very large bucket.

It is apparent that the CRA Board, comprised of appointed not elected members, has not eliminated slum and blight, its main objective since it was established in 1989. Through the years they have given away money to residents for sprinkler systems, air conditioning units and landscaping. They have given money to business owners to redesign their stores and repair outside facades such as giving Paridiso a $25,000 grant, a restaurant for which the average taxpayer in the CRA can NOT afford to dine. They have forgotten the main mission of its formation, that of eradicating slum and blight. They spend money like candy and continue to do so and reward its Director with a yearly raise and benefits in a City that is in a financial crisis.

Bill Coakley says, "Just a few short years ago, the CRA Director Oliva proposed changes to the long standing CRA bylaws placing them on the consent agenda where unsuspecting board members might not easily grasp the big picture of what she was doing. She was right. The chairman was caught off guard and wasn’t aware of all the other clever changes that would reduce the board to a mere appendage of the director who would then control all the information flowing to and from the board. Only board members Shanon Materio and Wes Blackman voiced support for the director’s efforts which amounted to a clever rouse to gag the CRA board by preventing them from even speaking with the CRA attorney unless director Joan Oliva approved it."

Now with the NSP2 Grant money of $23 million dollars, they are buying properties all over the city to fix up 130 houses. They have bought them well over the appraised values (a total of $893,524 over appraised values) even paying $415,800 for a property at 26 S. "E" Street, $97,579 over appraisal. They have ignored local contractors such as Hector Cabrera who has built beautiful small houses here in Lake Worth and have hired out of town firms such as a property appraiser, a real estate broker, a contractor and a roofer. They have totally culled local businesses.

Following is Commissioner Golden's reasons why the City Commission should be designated the CRA and make the decisions that affect our residents in our CRA district. Fiscal responsibility is paramount in these financial times and an elected body should be the one to determine where tax dollars go. This will be on the March 1 meeting.

Designating the City Commission as the CRA.

12 comments:

  1. An e-mail from out-spoken Dee NcNamara in defense of Commissioner Golden to TRNA in response to their e-mail message--

    WHY IS THIS SITE USED TO CREATE DIVISION,INTSIGATION,TO PIT ONE AGAINST ANOTHER,
    TO UNDERMINE BRILLIANT,DIGNIFIED COMMISSIONER JO-ANN GOLDEN,BASED ON IGNORANCE OF THE CITY'S HISTORY?
    THESE ARE MANNERS OF STREET PEOPLE FROM WHAT I HAVE OBSERVED ONLY IN AMERICA'S ROUGH NEIGHBORHOODS(AS IN PRIMITIVE HOODS!)

    HIGHLY CULTURED, CIVILIZED,COMMISSIONER GOLDEN,IS NOT ON THAT LEVEL.

    IS YOUR WHOLE NEIGHBORHOOD SO VULGAR?
    I KNOW THIS NOT TO BE THE CASE!

    RESPECT YOUR BETTERS!!!!

    SHE IS AN EXPERT IN REHABILITATION(OVER 15 YEARS) OF OUR OLD HOUSING STOCK(38) AND KNOWS THE TRUE MARKET VALUE OF SUCH WORK,NOT $200.000 PER REHAB.

    SHE HAS GIVEN MANY JOBS DOING THAT FOR LAKE WORTH CITIZENS ONLY.

    I MET ONE OF HER CONTRACTORS WHO SHOWED ME A HOUSE 3b/r 2 ba, BUILT FOR HER CDC,INC., FOR $89.000.- AND SOLD FOR $159.00 TO PAY LAKE WORTH LABOR FAIR WAGES!!!

    WHAT HAVE THE STREETSY INSTIGATORS OF DIVISION IN OUR CITY DONE TO MATCH THAT???
    THAT IS PUTTING FOOD ON THE TABLE OF FAMILIES AND UNEMPLOYED!!!!

    THE ALCOHOLIC MALCONTENTS AND MENTAL PEERS HAVE UNDERMINED THE
    FUNCTIONING OF OUR CITY BY SUBVERSIVE,DIVISIVE HYSTERICAL ACTIONS AND STATEMENTS,BASED ON IGNORANCE.

    THE RIDICULOUS 13 POINTS OF THE PROVEN POMPOUS, USELESS,BIZARRE PARTLY DISHONEST,IGNORANT FINANCE COMMITTEE, PROVES THAT THE IGNORANCE OF THAT PATHETIC LOT,IS ANOTHER MERE INVENTION OF THE WHEEL!

    TRY TO WORK WITH, NOT AGAINST, THE CITY! NOT ALL COMMISSION MEMBERS ARE AT HER LEVEL OF ABILITY AND KNOWLEDGE!THEY ARE LEARNING, NOT ANTAGONIZING!

    COMMISSIONER GOLDEN IS A DIGNIFIED BUSINESS WOMAN,
    NOT A CHEAP, STREETSY INSTIGATOR!
    RESPECT BREEDS RESPECT!!!!!

    DEE MCNAMARA,ALL CITIZENS' INTERESTS' ADVOCATE,NOT DIVIDER!

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  2. I wish we could just have people in office and on these boards that had the publics best interest at heart and not their own agendas.

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  3. The CRA spent how many millions on the gateways. What a waste of money. Then they tried to pull a fast one with Pugh. Now they have their hands on $20 million . What do you think will happen here? They will go through it and the city will still look like hell. We should do what Boynton Beach has done. Get accountability.

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  4. Personally, I think the ultimate goal of the CRA is ti dissolve itself once all the blight and problems are addressed and solved, but they don't want this, so they never really address the problems of fully solve them to prolong this blight and issues so to be able to stay intact, this is wrong and wasteful, more than that it is hurtful toward the people who chose to live int he CRA, because they have all this hope, but never see real improvements, for 22 years now the CRA district is still blighted, has lots of crime and code issues, and the city and CRA do nothing substantial to address the real problems, they just keep taking our money, but never improving the area. Our city and system is broken, fix the problems then dissolve the CRA. Golden is no better with her CDC though, she has made many promises to improve areas, and has not delivered, she just wants control and the power has gone to her head too, she needs to step down and let someone else try, she has made enough messes with our city, why is it that almost every commissioner or mayor always leave their position in disgrace? Bo Allen, Romano, Rammiccio, Clemens, etc. etc. they all go out leaving a bad taste in the publics mouth. The system is broken, the city is broken, the CRA needs to fix things then be dissolved!

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  5. Why now? A lot of the problems listed came from a previous CRA. The let them eat cake crowd,headed up by the crybaby twins Shannon and Brendan , have been removed.The current Commission doesn't have a clue as to what is going on this city. Stanton is pulling all of the strings.A wonderful example of the pot calling the kettle black comes from the memo. "We do not micromanage staff,we let staff do the work and we approve of the staff recommendations". This sounds just like what our entire Commission is doing.None of them knew about the City manager sending away the trust for Public Land organization that wanted to buy the Sunset property. The list of what our Commissioners don't know is certainly not a short one. And now they want to take over the CRA? We would replace Oliva with Stanton in control. A losing situation either way.

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  6. Why NOT now? Oliva makes all the decisions at the CRA, not your friend Andy. Have you been following the expose on the NSP2 money? That's enough for me to question them once again and put the Board right back in the kettle of hot water. Do you want the same people who were on the Board in the past still in control of what's going on in this City? That's going on.

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  7. Who in the hell do these board members think they are? Freaking idiots. Thanks for telling us the facts but the question is, why do these things continue with each cra board? I don't want these people in charge of all this money. Andy Amoroso can get over it. Why should Golden tell him that she wants to take over the CRA? It's the commission's right to do so. This Board has way too much power.
    Gail

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  8. Dee is on another planet. What is wrong with what Joanne Golden believes? I don't get why people are coming down hard on the commission taking it back. Why should the CRA have a problem with that? What's in it for them to fight it at all?
    Joe

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  9. It will be yet another huge mistake by the Commission who are puppets to Susan Stanton. The only reason the City received the grant is because of the CRA. With the Commission in charge, they can kiss it goodbye. Every time real change is about to happen, the Cara cartel swoops in to stop real change.

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  10. What has been "real" change in your book? $15 mil on the Gateways so that some people could get rich? The option on the Pugh property so that, once again, someone could prosper? All the things that Golden mentioned are relevant and terrible decisions by the CRA. These were "real" changes that were a total waste of money. We now have the CRA patting themselves on the back for all these wonderful things they have accomplished in and for Lake Worth not even bothering to ask the rest of us to have patience that they will all pay off, some day, sometime, some year. I can't imagine how powerful this Board must feel with all that money burning holes in their pockets.

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  11. Well.... LAST time the commission wanted to take over the CRA, it was pretty unpopular with the residents and Mulvehill said they (the commission) could not handle the extra time needed to run that agency.

    The commission now sits as the Utility Authority and what a crack job they are doing there.

    With the budget shortfall of $4+ million of their own, doesn't take rocket scientists to figure out why the "need" for their oversight.

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  12. It was "pretty unpopular with the residents." NO, it was only unpopular by the CRA and their friends. What oversight are you referring to with the CRA? The CRA will have a very hard time just paying back the loan on the Gateways, a totally bad business decision for Lake Worth...millions of dollars for some puny trees and giving their friends work.

    Whichever way it goes on March 1, the CRA should eliminate blight as much as possible and then be sunsetted in 3 years.

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