The hour long presentation by the Willdan Group was interesting and informative but I was there for the rest of the story and the meat of of it, not to eat dirt -- how much will it cost me for the imposed assessment by the City of Lake Worth? How many times do I have to hear that, "oh gee, because we have lost $1 billion in property values that all of us have to pay for fire/rescue," a premise in which I do believe but vehemently object to the poor subsidizing the rich. Scott Maxwell was the only commissioner who even brought up that aspect. The only problem last night, after three hours, was that we never got that meat and the city manager wanted the Commission to vote on what is a really big deal, without it.
Stanton has been meeting with the Fire Chief as she was told to meet with him directly, not any PB County Commissioner. What does Scott Maxwell do? He reveals, in his cunning way, that he has been meeting with Palm Beach County Commissioners (names unknown) in secret and says that he is "sensing a shift" in their thinking on the Supplement payment. He did not get into details as it was, well, secret. Any sort of unofficial talks should not be condoned by the Commission as they can undermine the City's position. The Commission should have had stronger objections to this rouge act as the City has been in serious discussions that affect all of us and just one word, one comment, could sabotage all of the hard work put into these negotiations no matter how good the intention.
Back in March, Fire Chief, Steve Jerauld, spoke and he was the one who gave Stanton the idea to put the supplement payment on the non-advalorem part of our tax bill. Right now we have not paid PB County the Supplement for 2011 Budget and according to the Contract, we will owe $1.3 million for every subsequent year going forward. The City Manager took the Chief's advice to heart and now wants to put the whole damn thing on a special assessment. She did say near the end of the meeting, as things were slipping away, to take the pension cost of $1.8 million a year and put that on the special assessment.
We did learn that starting up our own fire/rescue again will cost us about $1 mil more than we are now paying Palm Beach County for the same service. Start-up costs always are costly so I don't have a problem with that element. I would like to see, however, the cost projections for the next five years and a comparison with PB County. Vice Mayor Mulvehill asked for this information. We also need to know how we are going to pay for it all.
After three hours, with Chanel 12 there the entire time, a vote was taken to Table the Fire and EMS decision until July 28th meeting where the millage will be set. The vote was 3/2 vote with Maxwell and Waterman dissenting. I saw nothing wrong in the motion to Table as the only other choices were to accept or reject. We were told by the city manager, however, that we still will not have the numbers that have been requested in order to make an informed decision. Why not? We still won't know what the assessment will be and the city manager said that much of it will be explained in her tentative Budget set for release some time today. Then why not explain it last night?
Those in the Chamber who were sitting there all of this time did not get a chance to speak to the issue. The Vice Mayor, after her second on the motion to table, asked the city attorney if there could be discussion and comments from the residents. She gave some sort of explanation and said "no." The vote was then taken. The Fire Chief was the only person in the chamber who was allowed to comment after the vote. Why him and not anyone else? He gave a superb sales job on why we should stay with the County. The Dais did not want to be rude to him after sitting for three hours but those who pay the bills--let them eat dirt.
Robert's Rules are extremely challenging to learn. The vote had not been taken and the Chair could have called for public discussion. Also, the Commission could have made a motion to waive the rules to allow public commentary. Waterman did her best and relied on the city attorney for advice. The City Attorney did not give all of the facts.
Waterman had to ask for "quiet" in the Chamber three times during the meeting. The incessant chatter and complaints from a few continued for the entire three hours and after they learned they could not speak, several people behind me got loud and left angry.
17 comments:
Lynn - You can pay my assessment and my neighbors since you are in favor of everything the BDE and BDME does. The citizens and taxpayers of Lake Worth have the right to know what we are being charged for and the amount.
No crap, Annie! Can you READ? Does it sound like I am in favor, Annie?
Annie has PMS today. Don't worry about someone in so much pain with a 3rd grade education.
that would have totally pissed me off if I had been there for 3 hours and did not get to speak. No wonder those people were loud.
Ms. Sarcasm above, what is BDE and BDME? Are these more of the Blackman acronyms, WBE? We all have the right to know what we are being charged and that is why this was tabled by the commission. Maxwell obviously wanted to reject it out of hand. Waterman, can't figure her vote. Anyone?
what is WBE?
Wes Blackman errors
No, I think it means Worst Blogger Ever
Here we go AGAIN!!!_Staff not having the information for our Commissioners to make an informed decision!And Stanton-One on One brainwashing sessions don't count as PUBLICLY DISCLOSED INFO !!! Commissioners- Read these words- NO NEW TAXES-or we kick you out of office. Commissioners work for the taxpayers- not the employees!
New taxes are going to happen. You can take that one to the bank. The city can't function without raising more money. How else are they going to do it? Raise fees so high at the beach that NO ONE IN THE WORLD WILL GO TO IT? What?
And they continue to ignore the blight and they continue to claim there is no correlation between blight and property values. Their only solution is to raise taxes and increase fees and assessments for everything they can which is only going to keep people and businesses away continuing the downward trend.
Stop ignoring the problem don't be afraid. Attack the problem
First, Waterman knew exactly what she was doing, and I blame it on poor judgement that she did it. She thought she was making a point, but she chose the wrong time to do it. Emergency Service Personell's time is valuable....the way they were treated was disresepctful. The chief was even unsure how much time he would be ALLOWED to speak...and Waterman told him to hurry up twice. I understand tabling the motion was probably wise, but irritating the voting populace who cared about the town enough to come out and be active in their town's government will probably undo some of the good she did at the last meeting. It also will cause a few of the new voters she recruited during her campaign to change their votes for the next election.
Second, a point of clarification, since I overheard you at the meeting talking about all the College Park people.... I am not from College Park..and I can count many people at the meeting last night representing SOSA, ROLOH, Mango Groves, and Downtown Jewel, among others... The other Neighborhoods are getting more of a voice too....and I feel I can say we're a little angry about the petty 'working' of the system to deny the public their voice....
Finally, I appreciate you recording the events in the article above.....we really need to keep track of this, and share it with other citizens who didn't make the meeting or see what happened. The Willdan study was informative, I felt they were more in their comfort zone with this subject matter over Police Services, although I really don't want to have people just out of school, with incomplete training be the ones putting out the fire in my Vintage Wooden Frame Cottage, or pulling an elderly person out of the top floor of Lake Worth Towers. I am worried about this situation. I feel it is an investment we are making in our city..... We just have to figure out a creative way to pay for it...or get a reworking of the contract.
Were you worried for the 98 years it was LW Fire?
To answer regarding the Fire Chief--No one invited him to this meeting. He came in order to speak and sell PB Cnty Fire. He was given at least 10 minutes to speak when only 2 minutes is ever allowed unless it is a scheduled presentation. Waterman was overly generous in the time allotted to him. No matter how she handled it, she would have been condemned for it. She was trying to be overly courteous to him by even allowing him to speak at all. Perhaps someone might change his/her vote in November but probably you are one of those people who never voted for her anyway.
We have always had our own fire department and there were NEVER any complaints. How come all of a sudden there are and people want to invent problems that never existed before?
Since LW Fire does NOT exist it is a moot point. I was talking about creating what Willdan called a "Training Organization", to replace what is a well-oiled and fully functioning machine. You can't take back what was done in the past, but we can ensure our future is better if we really try hard enough. This is an investment that will pay off if we do ever get Lake Worth back on track....
You acknowledge Mayor Waterman as the be-all and the end-all of who is allowed to speak in Lake Worth. I thought this was America? We have a right to due process, and FREE SPEECH is written into the constitution. She played games with the protocol. One would think that the current organization would give expert advice on whether the Willdan Plan would be feasable in real life. Who wouldn't want all the info they could gather so as to make a GOOD CHOICE.
The Mayor is the one who runs the meeting. Where did I say that she was GOD?
I agree with you on the lack of information.
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