Everyone will feel the Pain in Lake Worth

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Channel 12 was there with Al Pefley going up to the lectern to adjust the microphone--3 or 4 cameras were in the back--the Chamber was packed with unhappy people who maintained their composure. I only spent about 3.5 hours at the meeting last night. There was so much to cover and below are just a few of my impressions and highlights.

Staff spent 80 hours compiling the figures to last night's clear message of cutting costs--everyone in this city will feel the pain. This includes every single property owner, from the poorest of the poor right on up to the few extremely wealthy. Our employees are no exception. Thanks to the Unions that are inflexible and all those who believe that we need the premium of services from the PBSO (Police Study out in 2 weeks) whose contract will continue on its course of non-affordability, tough measures were discussed for implementation.

There will be substantial reductions in adopted service levels, city positions, employment benefits and special service contracts. Each taxpayer will pay much more on their non ad-valorem part of their tax bills if the Commission adopts Stanton's Plan.

In order to balance the Budget for year 2011/2012, The City wants to--
lay off 44 full-time employees (not sure if I heard correctly as the Post has it at 79...am waiting for confirmation...will edit later) and 5 part-time employees in the Public Service Division. The position filled by Valerie Hurley of Deputy City Clerk is on the chopping block. She is a Trustee of the Employee's Retirement Board.

The key to even having a chance of job retainage was to have advocates there speaking out. There was some discussion on the Library reductions and lifeguards, the two groups represented and/or had friends in the Chamber. Guarding the north section of the Pier and leaving the south section as "swimming at your own risk" was a possible solution.

I got the clear impression that the City Manager is hoping that the PB County Fire/Rescue will give Lake Worth the axe for non-payment of the supplement that is purposely being withheld. Fire Chief, Steve Jerauld, spoke and he says that the County is treating the late payment as any other late payment. Stanton smiled. He also said that the Supplement payment owed to PB County for Fire, which is $1,425,000 for 2011/2012 Budget and according to the Contract is $1.3 million for every subsequent year, can be shifted to the non-advalorem part of our tax bill, something the City is contemplating. The City has always thought that it was screwed when the County incorporated this supplement over and above the amount we pay them. We were. If the City shifts this non negotiated supplemental payment to the taxpayer, then we definitely are screwed. With pension payments of 152% of payroll, this too is non-affordable.

Susan Stanton, city manager, wants to contract out our street maintenance as well as our grounds maintenance that will include the cemetery. The cemetery now looks like hell and we owe it to all those buried there to keep this looking nice...it was part of their contract. Dead people don't complain though. The City Manager said that she expects a reduced level of service because they just don't have the money. Our city is already blighted. Now it will become even more so.

The Mayor as well as Maxwell and McVoy think it a great idea to shift some of the costs on to the non-advalorem part of our tax bill where everyone who owns property in the City will pay the same fee. That includes little Granny making $5,000 a year struggling to stay alive paying the same as someone making $5,000 bi-weekly. For some reason the Mayor thinks every cost possible should be shifted to our non-advalorem part of our tax bill, his solution. Commissioner Maxwell assured me out in the hallway that no one would lose their house over this proposal-- that it was mentioned in the back-up documents. A former staff and commission failed to negotiate for the taxpayers of Lake Worth, a common trait.

Maxwell also stated that the entire Commission should relinquish its entire salary as the City was laying-off employees. He got a resounding applause from constituents and employees. He is running for office this year, isn't he? Very few employees live here, however.

Because property values are so depressed and expected to be even lower in the next several years, we could see more fees on our tax bill such as an assessment for the Supplement payment to PB County Fire or a new fire department and an assessment for parks. If a neighborhood wants a park, it pays for it, not the City or any other neighborhood.

What can we expect from all of this? More potholes, more blight, increased taxes (and it is a tax no matter what the Commission says about non-advalorem fees), less efficiency, a workforce reduced by 79 positions, possible drownings, increased parking fees at the beach to pay for lifeguards, early departure plans, the possibility of downtown parking pay stations, an idea already rejected by the Commission.

The ineptness of the past as well as the sins of greed have caught up to us. We are getting closer every single day to de-annexing and going with the County. By no fault of this Commission or this City Manager on conditions that got us to this financial urgency, we could become, overnight, the highest taxed city in the State of Florida. You never know.

The 11:00 news on Channel 12 showed the Chamber and Mary Lindsey speaking. There are some in this City who still blame Cara Jennings on everything that has happened and why we are in the state we are in today. Blame is easy. Facts are harder to accept.

This is an earlier video regarding the meeting