Fire/Rescue Meeting

Comment Up

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.