A placeholder was there for Waterman."I do not support the politics of division," says Waterman.
The entire room was pleasant and non-toxic. I am not sure if the reason was that Waterman was not there or that Dustin Zacks was on good behavior. He is still my curiosity. He gave the crowd his explanation again for jumping into the race--he did not want Waterman to go unopposed. And then, lo and behold, Triolo filed her papers soon after he did. He says we now have a good candidate in Triolo and "Vote for Pam." Why didn't he just drop OUT of the race? How does he know that Triolo is a good candidate? Did he know her before the filing? As Triolo has no prior experience as an elected official and they do not come from the same area of the country, what is the connection? No one I know knew Pam Triolo until now. We certainly did not know Dustin Zacks.
One thing that I want to mention, and probably the most important thing that hit me like a ton of bricks last night is that NO ONE KNOWS what the Budget amount for 2011/2012 is. The question posed to the candidates was to give the budget amount. Golden went first and said it was around $5.8 million. Andy said, "Well Jo-Ann is a commissioner, she should know, I agree." Pam agreed. Zacks agreed. As this race has everything to do with the budget, everyone had better know what it is. Even the moderator said that the newspaper had it at $152 mil or something.
$5.8 million is the revenue expected from advalorem taxes--NOT the Budget. And that's another thing, listen to the question. Probably one of the reasons why our City gets into so much trouble is that some on the dais do not listen to the question. Do not take the other guy's word for anything. Do your homework. This was a great opportunity for a candidate to come up with the correct numbers or even just to dispute Golden. Just think about it--public safety is $19 mil dollars. Not that I always agreed with her but one of the reasons why Cara Jennings was always so effective, she most always did her homework. It was when she didn't that she made mistakes.
The published Budget in the PB Post is $30,930,693 in the general fund and a total Budget of $172,266,317 which includes the Utility and other Enterprise Funds, and Capital projects, etc.
Statements for which I agree and dis-agree:
Triolo: Agree: "I am not in favor of a millage increase; we are dangerously close to the cap"
Disagree: "Growth or business is a dirty word."
Amoroso: Agree: "Utility is mis-managed. We need an audit." When speaking about the Budget and the Millage increase, he said, "I do not trust the numbers." Actually, Andy was spot on most of the issues throughout the forum.
Disagree: "Many people on the P&Z are unqualified to be on that Board"
Golden: Confused: "I studied the Budget and voted for the millage increase." My question then is why could she not give the correct answer above on the budget amount.
Disagree: Said that the $1.8 million in the Billboard fund was in the Capital Improvements Fund and that we could not use it to reduce taxes." WRONG. That money was moved, by the city manager, out of the CIP and put into the General Fund. This is a prime example of how money goes missing and why we no longer have ANY capital reserves.
Zacks: Other than to denigrate Waterman, I still want to know why he's even here.
26 comments:
I will not be voting for Rachel Waterman because I believe that Lake Worth would be better off with an reasonable adult as our mayor instead of a spoiled child. Waterman has ,in,effect,taken her ball and gone home in a huff. Waterman should suck it up and apologize to the citizens that she threw out of city hall. She should put on her big girl pants and realize that politics aint pretty.Cara Jennings was ALWAYS attacked for her stand on things,yet she always carried herself with dignity. She never insulted people. Even the ones hurling insults at her. Pam needs to realize that we want reasonable growth in appropriate areas. Our vision for Lake Worth is not Miami, or the now horrendous West Palm Beach.If Triolo is nothing but another growth whore set on reaping our city,she needs to jump into Rachels wagon and join her on a trip out of my town.
How refreshing to attend a forum that was well attended, civilized and respectful. I thought the lightning round format was very productive.
No doubt part of the reason for that was Waterman's absence, though I would very much have appreciated it if she had gathered the courage to attend.
*The budget answer....to follow on Dustin's fave answer, it depends. The whole number ran from 174 million to 188 million to 195 million depending on how they added it up at the last meeting, and Golden's number (she said) represented the general fund only. *The Waterman question: Yes, she let her public down, and showed she is not ready for her office. The word Sophomoric comes to mind.
*The Pam question: She wants the town revitalized. She IS small business, and so is her husband. She understands LW because she's been here for over a decade in home and business. It's in her and our best interest for LW business, and residential tax base to increase so the less than $50Ks don't exist anymore and everyone pays taxes. My vote will be for her, and NOT by default.
*The Cara topic is interesting. I am fairly new and I don't know much, but a pattern seems to be emerging in my finds. She's for growth and good things, and then throws just enough of a wrench in things to foul the process so nothing gets done. Completion of a project is the final indicator. And I do care how nice you are, but not more than I do for doing your job well.
* The Dustin answer. It strikes me he could be here EXACTLY why he says he's here. He seems straightforward to me. No deep level of subterfuge...just an honest passion. And NO, we can't afford a run off....I would have said the same thing up there.
I also think it was childish for her not to attend. Can you imagine her as an insolent child like the one on Willie Wonka's Choc. Factory. (Is she the one who ate the big Blueberry and puffed up and floated away?) What a loser.
The rest of the candidates did a good job and Dusty was just as humorous as Panti-gioti was when he ran or Javier the racist was last time. He brought some perspective to the table when he compared us to little towns around Detroit and how they tried the "progressive" route and are now ghost towns.
JoAnn proudly stated she was THE most progressive candidate up there, and being happy to admit that she raised our taxes BEYOND the legal limit, I guess you can't argue that.
The Budget figure on which you must rely is the one published in the legal notices in the PB Post--no matter what numbers were discussed or actually printed in the CM's Budget. The published Budget is official.
Lynn, On your comment talking about why Dustin qualified to run for mayor when he is now saying vote for Pam he said, "he didn't want RM running unopposed"; what's so hard to beleive about that? There seemed to be a lot of property owners there last night that are glad now that she's not running unopposed too. Neither Pam or Dustin knew the other was going to run until after qualifying had closed. Both of them have full-time jobs, don't need the mayors salary, but did not like the way the city has continued to run during the short time the interim mayor has been in office. I'm sure that since Dustin is a good researcher, after he learned Pam was also in the race, I'm sure he did his research on her and found out that she is a business owner who pays her bills and would use that same financial stewardship in leading LW thru this financial crisis we are going to be facing over the next two years.
I don't believe Pam and Dustin knew each other before all this. And not a lot of people in LW knew them publicly until they both stepped up to run for mayor. Lynn, I remember you telling me that you didn't know Rachel Waterman when she first announced she was running for the interim mayors job and you are one of a handful of people who are really active politically in LW. I don't remember Marq being known when he was recruited to run for mayor nor was Rene` when he was first recruited to run for commissioner.
And lastly, at least for now, you ask why doesn't Zack drop out of the race? Why? He paid for his ticket to run, why shouldn't he now have the opportunity to bring to the voters some information that they need to consider before they go to the polls in Nov. Yes, maybe some of the information he broght up at the TRNA last week had been brought up and glossed over during the special election in June but as we all know and complained about when the talk of a summer election came up that it was not a good idea because a lot of people were away. Don't you now think they deserve to know about the decisions made in the past by those wanting to make financial decisions for our city in the future? Let's hope the remaining canidate fourms are as a packed as last nights event so homeowners can hear what the canidates themselves say when asked good questions and not what their door knockers are trained to say when they're going door-to-door with a different message at each house.
Greg--that was quite a comment!! Of course, Dusty, even though he has no intention of running a race to win, has every right to stay in the race.
I don't see where he has given anyone any information or has said anything that people don't already know. He is there to be the henchman for Triolo.
Chalk it up to me just being a suspicious type by nature.
Greg we are supposed to believe that just because someone says something it is gospel. We are supposed to believe that Dustin thinks Rachel is not worthy of the mayoral job because she had some financial problems and he actually has anything to offer this election? He never came to meetings and no one knows him either. He's an authority now on who is or isn't qualified?
RW has foreclosures....DZ is a foreclosure attorney...I could see why he might know something.
But isn't it just as speculative to hypothesize that DZ is a "henchman"? The way the reaction is going to what he said...it could be more detrimental than helpful
Well, possibly but when a candidate gets up there and says, Vote for my opponent, Pam--describing him as a henchman is exactly what he is. He is NOT a viable candidate now is he? No one gets into a race just to spit on someone to this degree unless he is an attention seeker or a little bit egocentric. John Jordan used to do this and I never did understand his intentions either. Is it only 15 minutes of infamy?
Not worthy? The job of an elected representative is not something that is bestowed on someone because of birthrigt, it's should be earned because of their leadership ability & good judgment skills. Not participating in a NOA event would be like the CEO of a corporation not showing up to a shareholders meeting. The mayor is the CEO, the commissioners are the board of directors. They work for the taxpayers, (we the taxpayers). Why would they publicly avoid 2 NOA's if she wasn't concerned what might come up next that would make us question even further her decision making ability? I didn't interpet Dustin's pointing out her public record as saying he know's better than us as to who should lead LW for the next 2 years. He just was pointitheng out the difference between our intrem mayor who turned her back on the citizens Monday night & a sucessful business owner that pays her bills and taxes in LW. It's up to the stockholders (taxpayers) as to who they want leading us out of this financial mess we're in.
Here's the thing.Zacks has not lied on the dais.
What he puts out there is factual and he seems to have done his homework.
As far as grandstanding, Cara has practiced this in numerous ways, most notably her press conference held in the town square in an attempt to excoriate Scott Maxwell and his perceived beliefs. (she was that good...to get TV coverage!)
Or Javier del Sol who's only purpose in ever running was to have a soapbox from which to espouse his racist views.
Zacks is doing the same, but he entered the race in earnest and now has an opportunity to, I'm sure in his opinion, express his beliefs from the podium.
Just like Cara, Javier, etc.
Your conspiracy theory Lynn, in my opinion, objectively pales in comparison to the scenario above.
And then there's Waterman, who cowers now, to the youngster.
This really and truly could be a tragi-comic Greek play.
To say henchman implies a parnership, which there isn't. He seems to have a strong desire to have a voice. I don't mean so much about the singular dislike for the person he seems to have, but his desire to share the warning from his personal experiences up north. I'd like to see his progress in a few years, and I hope he stays involved...not just a flash inthe pan. He's not playing the game by the unwritten rules, but I appreciate him trying to save the cost of a runoff...I worry though that he might be hurting more than helping although he was toned down this time. Did you notice how the crowd responded to him though? He may like that...he is in the business of fighting in court for people's houses in foreclosure...and as we all know, a lot of dirty laundry is getting aired out with the Big Banks...it may just be the regular day to day for him.... I look forward to the next forum, and hope RW realizes her error and changes her mind.
Just to get into the clubhouse, you had to run a gauntlet of Waterman supporters. Then one of Waterman's people was streaming the meeting live to her. She called the "camera man" during the meeting and told him to move closer to the front. All this "Secret Squirrel" stuff!!
Greg, we get it--you support Pam. TP, you have to ask yourself WHY does Dustin have a "singular dislike" for RW? As he works with foreclosures, he knows very well that hundreds of thousands got bad loans that got them terribly in debt. I printed a note from her on what happened. Perhaps he has a strong desire to have a voice but I ask why. On top of that, I don't like his message that was hashed over and over 4 months ago. His message is, let's just keep stepping on someone for having been in debt even though she has now risen above it while supporting a husband and 2 children. NICE MESSAGE THERE TP.
Maybe is dislike is not the fact she was foreclosed on, but the fact that she walked away from all of her debts, and he is afraid she will do the same thing with Lake Worth
Waterman-spoiled idiot
Zacks-useful idiot
Triolo-maybe idiot
Golden-proven idiot
Amaroso-not an idiot
If Triolo didn't run, Mr. Zacks would be wiping the floor with Waterman.
If he doesn't win I hope he runs for Mulvehill's seat next election. He would be GREAT for Lake Worth.
Maybe his dislike for our illustrious mayor is directly related to the way her cronies have been running the city the past 5 years. You know the same cronies that selected an unemployable 40 year old juvenile with a police record and a publicly vocal dislike of police to a city board that deals with the police. Just another poor decision to go along with all the others they've made.
Bet they're regretting their decision to not select a more qualified person now huh?
Sorry but the past commission directly before this one has done a lot of good things for this city. Zacks might have wiped the floor with Waterman but it would get old very fast. Waterman has only been here a short time. Other than voting to raise taxes and the budget, what's left to knock her on? Zacks needs to grow up and take a chill pill and come back in 20 years. This guy doesn't want to run for anything. All he wants to do is verbally body punch and be a shill for the anti Waterman crowd. As far as street fighting, I probably could get in a good punch or two. What is the anti-Waterman crowd? These are the people who insist she is affiliated with Cara Jennings. Anyone who is not perceived to be their "friend" is the "other side" and ready to be taken out in any manner necessary. Not likable traits.
You must not be listening to what Zacks says when he talks. Too busy looking for conspiracies.
What did the past commission do that was so great for the city?
It's ALL unravelling right before your eyes Lynn.
I must not be listening? Because I disagree with you, now I'm not listening? Who is this? Zacks? Zacks has nothing to say that interests me. Thanks.
Lynn, why are you letting DZ get so far under your skin?
Stranger things have happened in our little town by the sea.
And certainly very vicious attacks have been heaped upon certain candidates in the past.
I don't recall you getting so hot under the collar about those.
Rachel is a grownup and should be able to handle herself - Zacks appears to be a smart young guy, spouting facts about an opponent.
Is it all bizarre? No doubt. But evil and conspiratorial?
No. Please relax and let the chips fall where they may.
Everything happens for a reason, right? (and I mean karma kind of reason, not conspiracy theory kind of reason, so don't blast me for that!) :)
Thank you. I acknowledge everything you are saying. I still stand by my opinion as you do yours.
Actually, I spoke out against all of these personal attacks in the past that I considered totally unfair:
Cara Jennings and the Nature Way Affair against Scott; Lindsey and the FireFighters mailer and its deceptive return address; a robo call coming from a city hall phone number and the BACPAC with its ridiculous mad scientist mailer.
You actually compare a postcard that had a cartoon saying 'mad scientist', to say, running down the aisle to physically attack Maxwell in front of his family at his swearing in? Or the tv press conference about his racism? Or to a postcard that depicted dying dolphins written in (faux) blood saying 'dolphin killer'?
Or Cara using mob tactics to intimidate business owners into not hosting events for them?
(ok, you did mention that one)
The above are to me, are beyond vicious and out of control.
There doesn't seem to be much to do about DZ. Except for you pleading RW's 'victim' case for her.
Everyone else has rolled with some serious punches - (except for the owner of Nature's Way. He felt compelled to sell his business)
Why won't you let DZ be, and let RW unruffled her own feathers?
Personal attacks are just that. Slimy politics are just that. Those were examples of both. You don't like them? You are the one accusing me of never taking a stand on these things, but rather only standing up for Rachel. And of course, YOU ARE FLAT WRONG. Most people who crawl out of the woodwork are.
Most every politician stays away from toxic rhetoric unless they are nuts. Of course, we know Zacks is NO politician or even a nice guy. He's there to promote Triolo. PERIOD. Ron Klein pulled that crap with Col. Allen West. You can see the results of that.
And if you are so adamant in your beliefs, post under your real and complete name. Stand up for your convictions.
As far as my pleading Waterman's case, that is your interpretation. That's why some people graduate from highschool. Because politicians have to roll with the punches does not forgive the "punch."
TRNA forum was totally unnecessary and Zacks was allowed to be ugly. Some of us actually did NOT like it. We are there to hear how they will make LW better--not to rip apart a standing mayor for her past financial problems. This is not supposed to be a blood bath or sport for her opponents.
Anon she is like the one that found the goose that laid the Golden Egg, and she is not going to let go if she has her way.
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