Comment Up
UPDATE:
Personnel Actions FinalizedFrom the City Manager:
In response to the a court order last week concerning a code enforcement case, Assistant City Attorney Jean Middleton has resigned her position with the City and Executive Secretary Dana Nichols has been suspended without pay for five days. Both of these City staff members acknowledged the mistakes that were made in the case and have accepted responsibility for their actions. Ms. Middletown is a very dedicated and passionate lawyer and I regret that events which occurred in the case necessitated this personnel action. The City is in the process of hiring new code compliance supervisors to provide more consistent and professional oversight which will ensure that these mistakes are not repeated in the future.
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8-19-11
Two Lake Worth employees - an attorney, Jean Middleton and a code enforcement secretary, Dana Nichols, were placed on administrative leave Thursday after a Palm Beach County circuit judge blasted the city for lying to the court in an attempt to foreclose on land owned by two longtime business owners, Carl and Ed Deveaux.
Read more about it here.
22 comments:
This is very disturbing and it would be really great if it turned out not to be the case.....
Regardless here is another serious image issue for all of us that love our city. How much more embarrassement can one city take?
What can we as residents do to stop all this craziness!? It has to be time for some new blood on Dias....and a the current commission would be smart to stand up and say ENOUGH.
Internal Auditor on staff? "Forget about it!" We need a full department to department review from an outside unbiased entity that can not be enflunced through salary and chain of command or unions.
Too bad someone in the city did not tell them that screwing with the Deveaux brothers was not a cool thing to do. It took this situation to expose the going ons in Code. And here I thought it was all over--the corruption of the past.
These guys have been illegally dumping all over the place for years. Their friends are no longer in power.
I'm sure that all of you are just as pissed off as I am about the mounting stupidity that just keeps building one on top of the other for our city.
I actually have been sitting at work wondering if we should just walk away from our home and leave but reality is that I still love this city and the people in it and especially my neighbors but find it hard to to deal with these continued major stupid blunders, although I know its just a down moment and it will pass.
Does anyone know if the commission is going to make any type of public comment to assure the residents of Lake Worth that all the "messes" that we are in are going to be addressed? I don't mean a statement at a commission meeting I really think they should call an emergency assembly and make a press release to the people as opposed to not making any comment what so ever....
This is really a PR nightmare at this point...city wide from the Beach, To the Taxes and Assessments and now the possible Fraud Charges and sky rocketing utility bills!
How much more can this City do to make it hard for us to want to stay and encourage others to buy and take up residence here? Why do we only have around 3000 people in the city that actually vote? Why do the vast majority of registered voters in our city just stay clear of any elections and just stick their heads in the sand or apply for boards or get involved? Maybe its because people are just tired of the "3 Ring Circus Mentality" in which the City Entity conducts business in general. (I can be wrong here and the historical reality is that the numbers at the polls and participation have traditionally always been at this level)
I'm sure by this afternoon I will feel "normal" again but DAMN IT! When does this get better? The anger is so intense this morning that I just want to throw things and yell at people!!!
Vote Golden out. She has had 4 years during which we have seen this city go to hell. If your not an illegal she has no interest in your welfare. We need to send a message that it's time for new blood on the commission. If your elected and things don't get better expect to get booted out. Let someone else try to fix it.
Vote for new candidates this November. Hopefully a new majority will do what should ave been done a long time ago. Fire the city manager. It will suck to start from scratch again but the people now making decisions have had plenty of time to prove themselves and they've proven they cannot handle the problems the city faces. This does not make them bad people, it just means they need to do something else with their lives.
We ain't turnin no corners.
According to the CEO of this city, it is ALWAYS the other guy's fault. It is just a matter of time when these people will be gone. I truly wish that the commission had some balls. Even Scott lost his set.
New blood on the Dias, and also in the city managers office
Thanks , this is great , the judge stepped up to the plate and did the right thing. This is no different then what the city was trying to do to me and has done to many others, I managed to keep my property, these 2 employees should be fired along with most of City Government. It's all a scam to rob the local residents to pay their salaries , it's all coming to an end though , THE ECONOMY IS DYING.
It doesn't matter who's on the dais, anonymous at 6:27. This is the roughest time that Lake Worth has had to stay afloat. You think someone else on the dais will be better? That is just political bull.
No political bull there Lynn.
The commission cannot be held faultless.
Not fully to blame by any means, but not faultless either.
Waterman, Golden, Mulvelhill and Mcvoy's concentration is on all things green and the immigrant issues.
While they are all nice people, the focus simply has to go in another direction while our city is is in trouble.
Environmentalist causes are wonderful, but the city HAS got to get serious and this may mean a change of the guard on the dais.
We need professional people who know a thing about corporate fiscal responsibility and are well versed with contract law -
Not sure anyone who is qualified would be willing to tackle the current problems, but it's plain as day that the focus HAS to shift to a much more serious nature for the time being.
Where and when has any policy decision been made in support of Immigrants, legal or otherwise by McVoy, Mulvehill or Waterman? Name one. Name one policy decision made by Waterman that convinces you that she supports "all things green." Now, I am not saying the "green" is bad in all cases.
Political bulls**t How about we get a few on the dias that are not Stanton's puppet's and a new puppet master too.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the Mentoring Center created just for the immigrants?
Spending $$ painting bicycle lanes, instead of fixing the roads and sidewalks; throwing wrenches in the Publix contract for green causes...and making noises about the immigrants green markets being adversely affected by Publix coming to town..
Appointing Cara and her boyfriend to city boards is a good example of the direction the Commission wants the boards and the city to take.
They are both eco-extremists -
I agree that LW has to realize that new minds need to be governing the city during this critical time.
All this stuff about "green" drives me crazy. It's almost laughable.
The Mentoring Center was created to legally be able to ticket employers stopping on city streets to pick up immigrants for day labor jobs. Jeff Clemens, a big advocate of The Mentoring Center, said it was necessary in order to do something about the growing problem of these people on Lake & Lucerne. It was not all Cara Jennigns or any one particular commissioner. This is what the government told them.
Cara and her boyfriend are also big friends of the environment, causes that they should concentrate on and causes that have a lot of merit.
Regarding publix--when they got $500,000 from taxpayer money, I think it is fair to ask them anything. There was no wrench thrown in by Jennings--just environmental, etc. questions. It is too bad that Publix didn't like them but they are a billion dollar corporation. I have little sympathy for them as they increase food prices EVERY WEEK.
In Lake Worth, the code enforcement has been notorious for harassing property owners, especially after the hurricanes. It was absolutely out of control 3-5 years ago and it seems here the shenanigans are still going on. The city code enforcement / fine / lien system is a RACKET. A nice little old lady down on B Street had roughly $60,000+ in fines on her house and they made her give it to them out of the selling price when she was forced to sell it. How can anyone defend that?
This sort of thing happened a lot.
What has just been exposed inlake worth ofharrassment andillegal activities by code enforcement isalso typical of theCity Of west palm,omly 100 timesworse, asin City ofWest Palm,the whole governmant-staff,lawyers,administrators,mayors,andpoliceare allin it-illegaland improper utility bills,transfersfromproperty to property, denial of due process appeals of utilities-lack of poilice protection-IT WILL ALL COME OUT
Sure she resigned. Will we ever get the truth out of the city? How come this other one only got 5 days off for bad behavior.
"acknowledged the mistakes that were made in the case and have accepted responsibility for their actions. Ms. Middletown is a very dedicated and passionate lawyer and I regret that events which occurred in the case necessitated this personnel action"
It's amazing...she does not regret the financial and mental anguish caused by these acknowledged mistakes to the Deveaux's or possibly to the other "25 people over the last 8 years". "Good employees" anywhere else, people making these kind of mistakes would be FIRED! But, I'm sure a resignation looks better than being fired when your looking for a court position.
Don't try to make the injuried parties feel bad because you had to reprimand your idea of the "good employee"!
The problem now really is that no one wants laws anymore and with good lawyers and green judges you can get out of anything. We have become a lawless society, we blame all and no one wants to accept responsibility for anything, just pass the blame, the brothers are at fault, but so is our city, our laws on codes are inconsistent and the leaders bend too much and do not enforce laws. We used to have a law that new houses built in the city had to place a sidewalk on their property, but the city does not enforce this anymore either. It is all about laws and we have a lot, but most are not enforced, just look at our illegal immigration problem in this country, our leaders have overlooked it since the 80's and it is now out of control and no one wants our laws enforced here either. Chaos is just around the corner and it has most of us crazy right now in this city. I will not vote for any of the current ones in power and I hope the CM gets canned soon, leadership starts at the top, to take responsibility and be transparent, they are not upholding our laws and I will not support them anymore.
The CM always blames someone else for the problems caused under her management. Everyone better hold on to their hats as the truth comes out about the Casino building, the beach project, and Morganti. It can get worse and it is heading our way. The CM will blame all this on Margoles and try to skate on this too.
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