Cleaning up the Sins of the Past

Although in an approved location and part of the contract,
this advertisement was against city ordinance.

Seven years ago, the City of Lake Worth signed a ten year professional services agreement with City Solutions, Inc. that provided for the placement and maintenance of modular news racks to be placed in the modular news rack district per Ordinance 2003-47. This scheme, with no compensation to the City of Lake Worth, was approved by the Romano commission. You have to scratch your head in amazement...not one dime to the city for all of this billboard blight?

The company agreed to maintain the racks and a schedule of locations was part of the agreement. This agreement was signed during Paul Boyer’s employment as City Manager of Lake Worth. Larry Karns was the city attorney at that time.

The locations in question are racks at Lucerne Avenue and G Street; at Lake Avenue and G Street; at Dixie Highway at North Eighth Street; and at Dixie Highway and North Seventh Street. These locations were not part of the original contract that provided for 20 locations throughout our city. It appears that City Solutions, now called Street Outdoor, LLC, has installed racks on City property without City permission.

On top of the insult, this company has never had to pay the City one dime for this blight thanks to a former commission. The contract was signed under terms dictated by the sign company, not the City of Lake Worth’s Ordinance that forbids political advertisement on public property, some of which has been highly controversial over the past few elections. It was just another, among many, badly written contracts involving the City of Lake Worth and where a city attorney did not look out for our interests.

Our present city commission as well as our city manger, Susan Stanton, continues to right the wrongs of the past, cleaning up bad contracts that have been one-sided, costly and unfavorable to our city. This company has now sued our city because the city removed 4 racks that were unauthorized and installed on our right of ways.

Once the Contract expires in 2014, it should not be renewed.