Last night's meeting

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In a nutshell-

It began with Public Participation on Non-Agendaed items with many presidents of the neighborhood associations giving gifts of t-shirts, certificates and kudos to Joe Kroll who is leaving Lake Worth after four years to pursue greater opportunities. The crowd wore Say It Ain't So Joe t-shirts to show their appreciation. The President of the Neighborhood Council spoke and asked the City to waive its fees of $75 an hour at the Lake Worth Golf Course so that they could throw a party for Joe on October 20 and have one staff member work the bar.

Now Joe is a nice guy and all but he RESIGNED from Lake Worth. It's not like he is leaving after 27 years like Charles Stevens who was given a clock. It's not like Valerie Hurley who was forced out after 24 years or so and got nothing. It was done, all at the right time, where this Commission could not say "no" without looking like the bad guy. It was another political move by the Neighborhood Council that took advantage of the situation. Who ever heard of a boss giving an employee a party who has essentially told the boss to "stick it." Timing is everything in Lake Worth. And who said that the neighborhood associations aren't political?

The Consent Agenda was passed with no discussion--probably because public participation took about an hour to get over Joe Kroll. Sure hope everyone on the dais knew what spending all that money was all about--quicklime and sodium hypochlorite. Another Study was approved for nearly $30,000. Since assumptions are made each year in determining expenses on annual water and wastewater revenue in order to set the rate adjustments, the CM recommended performing an annual rate sufficiency analysis to update these adjustments for FY- 2012 and create an overlay district for water rates to serve the Beach-Casino property. The City wants to know how to stick it to you once again. This deserved discussion.

In the meantime, after getting the party thing out of the way, the commission finally got into the nitty gritty--spending your cash on a fire assessment. The curve ball was that the discussion was only for the 2,300 properties or so that were excluded from the original notice. The City assured us that Government Services Group that screwed up did pay for all the mailings and reduced their fee for this "inconvenience" never stating how much it all cost.

The City, cleverly so, made this Resolution 42B-2011 instead of starting the debate all over again for all of the people and businesses that this unfair tax would affect. The Commission still does NOT get it. Rachel Waterman's dilemma was the fact that they had already passed the tax for the majority of the citizens and if this resolution failed, it "would not be fair" to those who will have to pay it. She also gave a strange analogy that the delay of the CIP expenditures to cover this cost was like "selling your car to buy groceries." The city attorney reminded her that if it fails, (McVoy was absent and it left only 4 on the dais. On a 2/2 vote, the motion dies) the motion is brought back at the next meeting. Politically it worked out for Waterman who then voted "nay." It will come back next week.

Commission salaries brought forth the wrath of the public even though it was only to vote on keeping their salaries the same as they presently receive--$14,400 for a commissioner and $15,400 for the mayor.

There are a lot of people fed up. The Mayor showed her temper once again by ejecting Mark Parrilla from the Chamber for whispering to me. The last time she ejected someone it was my cousin. Now perhaps it is rude to talk while in the Chamber but jimminey, we can't all sit there like robots for hours on end. I made a big mistake last night because I should have walked out along with Mark and for that I apologize. One of the residents next to me was videoing-- so much of this will be uploaded to You-Tube and you will see many of the highlights in action.

For some reason the city manager took it upon herself to change the hours of downtown parking from 4 hours on the street to 2 hours even going to far as to have information printed, signs changed and tires marked. This never came before the commission. There was never any public input. The businesses were never approached for an opinion. Other than Maxwell, no one else on the dais saw or expressed an opinion as to how outrageous this all was. If one of you had an employee who took it upon himself to 1) change policy and 2) spend your money without your knowledge, do you think he would just get a little pat on the wrist? Even the pat did not happen from this Commission.

The big complaint was that some stores parked all day in front of their establishment. So? If any business owner is that stupid, so be it. For the most part, everyone wanted the 4 hour rule enforced, something we have not done in the past. As I stated last night, we have so many humongous problems within our city, why mess up something that has worked? Why go to this extreme for the possible parking overtime revenue? Angering residents is part of the culture at City Hall.

Today I will be in a mitigation at City Hall for probably most of the day regarding Sunset, thus the rush to get this up. Yes, after 6 years, Sunset has not yet set. There are forces out there that still want to screw up this lovely single family neighborhood. There is a belief that if you own a property you should be allowed to build anything you please on it even if it is against our zoning and land-use codes.