The state of the city sucks. That is no lie. We have lost 49% of our property values over the last few years. This year there was a decline of 3.57% and we feel grateful. With 16,473 housing units within the City, 3,515 are vacant and 1,261 are for rent. We, in the form of taxes and special assessments, make up for these units that are in foreclosure and/or abandoned as well as the nearby cities that refuse to pay their sewer bills by paying the lost revenue to the City in the form of taxes and all special assessments that they want to cook up. We have just paid for a Study to find out what else the City can special assess.
The City says that it is responding to the challenge and that they are no longer going to spend money that they do not have. So the city has devised a scheme to keep pissing on our leg--the CM is totally pissed off that poor people living in homes worth nothing are not paying their "fair" share so charges us the same as the guy in the million dollar house. When was the City ever authorized to spend money that we didn't have or to take from reserves? Are you sure this is not just some bloody nightmare and this is really Washington, DC?
Now we learn that the City has committed fraud and tried to steal a property owned by prominent citizens.
The City can no longer say that this is just business as usual. It needs to call for a city-wide meeting to explain all of this to the residents, the innocent guys who no longer believe that it is only a little Summer rain.
Well said.
ReplyDeleteAgreed Lynn! This is the start of the complete collapse of our City as we know it. Emergency Action needs to be taken for all the items that have become a mountain of CRAP all at one time.
ReplyDeleteIts enough! Its time for all of us to put our "sides" away and come out swinging at City Hall and its constant blunders and hold our commission and staffs feet to the fire as well.
You do not have to support one or the other to recognize that we are ALL pissed off at this point and we as RESIDENTS need to make our voices heard...This is not to take pot shots at your political figures you dislike, but to stand up for our rights to say NO from all of us to the city that we are not going to take any more of these shenanigans.
If you can't stand up for your people then don't sit on the dais regardless of who you are, if you can't clean up your department then you should not be on our payroll, if you can't get a grip after two years and clean this place up then you should not be sitting in the City Managers Chair....
If you simply Can't recognize that even the union has to give back during a recession then you should not be part of that union.
At some point we all have to band together and anyone that tries to bring the same old song and dance to the table as a repeat performance....dance yourself to some other town we don't want it any more...NO MORE CHAOS and EMBARRASSMENT to the Citizens of Lake Worth!
And on a personal note....we should all lay down in protest at the shuffle board courts and stand up for our seniors to have a place to enjoy themselves in a simple game of shuffle board with out feeling the threat of criminal elements and the threat of a city that wants to take more away from those who have paid their fair dues!
That picture is so funny.
ReplyDeleteThank you anonymous at 12:23. I meant to respond earlier and got busy. Thanks for standing up for seniors. We all will be there one day if we are lucky.
ReplyDeleteWhen can we get a protest going?
ReplyDeleteMaybe we need to start talking about how to get a new city manager then Lynn, it sounds like a lot of this starts at the top and we do not have really good leadership after all. I know that she doesn't treat a lot of people very nicely that is for sure. Her answers are always so demeaning. I think we deserve a meeting and a response from her and our elected officials as to what is going on here. We need to stop settling for the mediocrity that the CM is maintaining in this city, we pay a lot for very little, there is too much crime, blight, drugs, prostitutes, illegals, etc. No one is accountable, the buck stops here and the CM needs to take the bull by the horns and show some true leadership once and for all or else step down or be fired.
ReplyDeleteOk now, let's be fair. To blame the city manager on crime, blight, drugs, prostitutes, illegals, etc. is anyhing but. It was all of you that weanted the PBSO at any cost. Crime is their job. Code is another problem and I am sure that we disagree on this approach. It was this city manager who got rid of The Mentoring Center that was a draw for all these illegals. She worked out a deal with PBSO to reduce costs. She is in the process
ReplyDeleteof doing the same thing with the fire. She IS doing the job for which she was hired. We, right now, are mad at the taxes she is inflicting on a poor city whose unemployment just went up. We have a good city manager for the times. I don't always agree especially with the taxes and aspects of the Budget but that does not mean that I don't support her. I want to see the Commission stop caving in and fight for the residents; that is their job.
The only reason the mentoring center is not there anymore is because it was beginning to be a political liability. Just like the decission to do away with the PBSO began to be a political liability, and now the idea of going back to our own fire and rescue is a political liability. Just like Lynn has been telling us, it's all political.They will do the things that will ensure re-election and not what is best for the city. And the CMs' job is depended on the commision majority to be re-elected.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot of truth to what you said. the fact of the matter is, The Mentoring Center just did not work out. It never got the illegals off the streets. It was a total disaster as the Lessee trashed our property and cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars and for what? We needed the space for our own city departments. It was time to get rid of them.
ReplyDeleteEverything is poltiical. The CM's job is not supposed to be. I would say that it is her job to convince the commission on what she wants to implement and she does a damn good job in that respect. She has even brought Scott Maxwell around. I never thought that I would see the day.
But that's the problem Lynn... It is always what she wants and not what the public wants.. Should we change the name of the city from Lake Worth to Stantonville??
ReplyDeleteWhen you think about it, she has a plan and believes it best for the health of our city. It might be. Look to the Commission to do more due diligence--and I mean ALL of them and tell them to stop meeting one on one every week and getting brainwashed.
ReplyDeleteThe city and Stanton are all over the map. She/they have no plan. It's time to open your eyes to the truth. Stanton is a train wreck and needs to be firedam
ReplyDeleteHas anyone considered that the budget is really what is (unfortunately) necessary atthis time?
ReplyDeleteAll citizens who do not vote, all who never go to Commission mtgs, are those who I'm sure have believed that their Commissioners were looking after the best interest of the citizens and the city.
The errors of judgement from the past and present have caught up with the city now.
What if this budget is the only way to begin to get the city whole again?
Of course no-one likes it - but I guess we all have to suffer for the sins of the past, and maybe put some serious thought into we vote for in the future.
Just like I am sure that Obama would like to wave his magic wand and erase his 16 trillion dollar defict or tax all of us to death. And the city manager stole his famous quote, "Yes we Can!" and she is.
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