Politics, People and Punks

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Who will win this tug of war?

Politics, people and punks. Most cities are fighting the same wars and they are struggling just to pay what the Sheriff wants and continue to operate as a city. We have a lot of all three in Lake Worth but the punk element has been contained over the past year or so because of the gang task force. What we have now is a fight over precious resources--money. The Sheriff wants us to honor a contract signed three years ago and we no longer can meet his high cost for services. Until recently the Sheriff has refused to negotiate.

There are some who believe that the Sheriff is the only way no matter the cost, no matter whether this city goes bankrupt--safety in their minds is paramount above all else and they believe that the Sheriff is the only one who can provide it even though 99.999% of the people across the country do not have PBSO. Without the Sheriff they say, gangs and crime will escalate. And to bring up the Willdan Policing Study that was recently presented to Lake Worth showing us a plan to have our own police department once again and saving $3 million dollars, has caused an outcry from segments of the public who were organized and frozen in fear of even considering any alternative.

It reminds me of Jim Jones fanatacism.

There are residents who won't believe any report put in front of them unless they wrote it themselves. They are here to show the city who is boss; it is all politically motivated by friends of PBSO, the largest political entity in PB County. They actually have people, including one city commissioner, dedicated to tearing apart any and all information coming from City Hall. It is their new sport.

The truth of the matter is that the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office's Violent Crime Task Force (VCTF) was formed to assist Palm Beach County law enforcement agencies with major case violent crime investigations with an emphasis on gang related violent crime. You do not have to have contractual services with the PBSO in order to get these services as you pay for them on your County tax bill.

Prior to this task force, gangs seemed to be in control of some neighborhood blocks. Now gangs have been stopped and members are serving long prison sentences. Stopping the gangs was all due to the following: Detectives from Palm Beach County, State of Florida and Federal law enforcement agencies, FDLE, Florida Highway Patrol, PBSO (of which we are now a part), and those cities with their own police departments--Lantana PD, Boca Raton PD, Boynton Beach PD, Delray Beach PD, Greenacres PD, Jupiter PD, PBC School Board PD, Palm Beach Gardens PD, Palm Springs PD, Riviera Beach PD, and West Palm Beach PD.

Gang violence was getting out of hand and that is why Sheriff Ric Bradshaw started a gang task force back in 2007 because throughout the County we were experiencing a lot of murders with the majority of them drug related. Most of the crime was attributed to gangs that were engaged in organized crime. Bradshaw got the Feds involved and gang members eventually were rounded up and tried on RICO charges that got them stiff prison sentences. Local sentencing was most often a revolving door system and they would be right back on the streets doing the same thing all over again.

Many members of these gangs lived here renting houses from slum landlords where background checks were non-existent. Their crimes were committed elsewhere unless it was a drive-by where they were killing their own. There were many times that I walked "the hood" and gave out campaign literature. Many in Lake Worth felt our own police department was not doing the job and this was due to poor management, certainly not the cops on the streets. Thus the push to join the PBSO became huge. PBSO was getting a lot of great publicity for reducing crime and we wanted that in our own city. Unbeknown to most people, these services were provided for and paid for and were in your County taxes. It was the PBSO's job, in conjunction with local police departments, to halt the gang crime activity and it was our police chief's job to take advantage of the program's resources.

It was a management problem with our police department then, but politics dictated and demanded a costly change that was predicated on emotions and perception (helicopters, dogs, crime lab, community policing when needed, as examples) with no thought to the unsustainable cost that was predicted by Jennings and Golden. They were right, but by then people were just plain fed up and the political frenzy began. It all could have been different under good leadership and a different majority commission but Clemens, Vespo and Lowe voted for the PBSO. They were the three who wanted to erode our city independence by outsourcing certain functions in Lake Worth. Policing was just one of them, as crime was and still is a hot political potato, and politicians were beholding to the Unions. They had no faith in our City and that is the tune today--"we can't manage anything," some say. Of course, we know that this is a wrong assessment because today we have excellent management and a strong city manager.

Bradshaw's $500 million budget accounts for over half of the County’s total operating budget and public safety in Lake Worth is no different. Bradshaw has told the County that he won't cut road patrol deputies and essentially has told Lake Worth the same thing. The County and Lake Worth can't afford the Sheriff and both have asked him to reduce his budget.

So instead of those who spoke out in front of city hall telling the City to pay anything that is asked thus putting the city up to hostage for public safety, and to come up with the money even selling off our city to do it, is outrageous as well as politically and emotionally off the deep end.

The politics and people are still around--same group, nothing has changed. The same men who were on our police department now wear different uniforms and are with the PBSO. Many of the punks are looking through bars. And the City of Lake Worth, a poor one at that, wonders how to afford policing that has quickly become unaffordable...a contract with PBSO that is getting all of us one step closer to bankruptcy as we inch towards becoming the highest taxed city in Palm Beach County, another statistic of politicians who acted on the fear of the people and who were quick to sign on the bottom line.

How about telling the Sheriff to reduce his multi-million dollar over-inflated tab. It can start with staffing. While population has remained relatively flat, the Sheriff's staffing has gone up about 29%.

Wishful thinking of that I am sure but I expect our Commission to do the right thing by all the 37,000 people who live here and not cave into political threats by the Dirty Dozen who has riled up the public into believing that nothing else is possible and saving $3 million dollars doesn't matter. I will respect you. The citizens will respect you. The Dirty Dozen will never respect you no matter what you decide. It is all about the game, because if they really cared about the City, $3 million dollars would matter and we would be hearing about all their calls to the PBSO asking them to reduce their cost.