I have always said that, for the most part, neighborhood associations are political. Some are more involved and more political than others. Last night, the Neighborhood Council achieved its goal. It was the only real winner and its politics was obvious.
The Council is always trying to tell us that they are not political and even went so far as to print this on their program handout:
The NAPC and all the LW Neighborhood Associations are incorporated in the State of Florida as non-profit organizations. As such, we take no position in support of or in opposition to any candidate.
The NA leaders can feed questions to the moderator and challenge Mayor Waterman on her honesty and other policy coming out of City Hall but the Council has been less than forthright on this issue of claiming non-political status or involvement. I am not sure that they met one of their objectives last night of "enhancing good will." They certainly didn't do that with the incumbents or their supporters.
17 comments:
Pretty strong words. Please explain what you mean by your last sentence.
Also what do yo mean by "feeding questions"? Are you saying that the hosts intentionally selected biased questions?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6VnTqpTqvQ
Lynn, this has got to be one of the funniest/creepiest and most bizarre campaign ads ever. The scary thing is that this is just the beginning.
Please don't call the Neighborhood Associations themselves political or biased.
We need them and we need more people active in them. they are an essential and often underattended and underutilized resources in LW. If you care to talk about the NAPC or whatever agenda's people have in that 'parent'organization, that may be a different story. Please don't assume a Neighborhood Association, any of their regular members, or what they do at regualr meetings, or what they care about and take part in has any sort of relationship at all with the NAPC, other than their President being eligible to be part of the parent group. Don't knock the innocents...we need all the help we can get, and NAs are the first thing that people look to in getting involved with the town. Please direct your comments to the NAPC in particular and not the neighborhoods as a whole.
Again as I said in my previous post about the NA's they are political absolutely Lynn. I thought that John Rinaldi was the worst choice for moderator last night at the NAPC Debate, I did not like how he presented questions and his occasional obvious biases. Especially why was he chosen if he actual gave money to the Triolo campaign, that is really bad of him to even offer to do this, very bad taste, although I like Triolo, I am not impressed by Rinaldi now. The Neighborhood Council made a huge mistake selecting John, they needed to get someone outside the city who is not known like John and his business here. He has commented negatively so many times on all these city blogs and just is not the right choice for something like this. It was of poor taste. I have lost all respect for him, Ryan Anderson and the NAPC. The NAPC is losing a lot of respect in our minds now, what a setup with these obvious questions poised. They almost were trying to get at Waterman intentionally, it was so obvious. Ryan Anderson should be ashamed of himself again, this is of very poor taste and unprofessional. If you want to earn respect you need to show it and give it. I think Andy and Triolo did the best of all of them. I was hoping that Dusty would announce that he was dropping out, so that he could endorse Triolo to have people give her his votes so that we can prevent a runoff again. We need to save money. I hope Andy is right and that we have change on Nov. 8, we need someone who will listen to the citizens and vote for what we want. I am fed up with people like Waterman and Golden who do not respond to our calls and e-mails nor vote the will of the people. I think a lot of people in our city are starting to see through these NA and want nothing more to do with them, I don't blame them, they are political and often times not very democratic either. A person can do a lot more for their community and make a difference without being part of the NA and all their politics and games. You just have to be an example of kindness, caring, and keeping up your place and giving to the community you live in.
Well don't forget that NA Leaders are voted in just like City Commissioners and in that respect your right NA's are political and yes some NA's leadership political views do come through.
Was happy to see you type "for the most part" as some do try very hard (and not always successful) to keep the politics out of it.
However sometimes an NA is forced to stand up for thier rights and have to get "in to the ring"
As for the debate the fill in for moderator was done as suggestion by people outside of the NA's.
It could have been better but knowing for many years of how these debates go, it could have been a LOT WORSE.
Just like your tag line at the top of the blog, thank God the debates are over.
LYNN, YOU HIT THE NAIL RIGHT ON THE HEAD WITH THIS ONE, ABSOLUTELY! THE NAPC AND MOST NA ARE SO POLITICAL, THE PRESIDENTS FROM THE NA SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES FOR WHAT THEY DID LAST NIGHT AND WHAT THEY ARE DOING IN THIS COMMUNITY, THEY ARE DIVIDING A COMMUNITY WHEN THEY SHOULD BE WORKING BETTER TOGETHER WITH THE PEOPLE AND CITY TO CLEAN THIS CITY UP, WE CAN DO MORE TOGETHER THAN APART.
Well,that "debate" last night was just one huge embarrassment.It made me cringe.There should have been a neutral, out of town moderator,who asked short,concise questions . What the hell was that rambling crap coming out of John's mouth all night?!? The debate was WAY,WAY too long. Zacks should have dropped out of the race last night if he really wants Pam to win. His continued presence certainly doesn't hurt Rachel. Anyway,shame on the NAPC for subjecting us all to such a stupid,biased night. Katie Mcgiveron
Lynn, weren't you one of the people that suggested using Rinaldi?
Regardless the questions came from the public not the NAPC and everyone had a fair equal chance to respond.
Maybe the NAPC should publish all the questions that were sent in and see just how nasty some of them could have been. That would be an interesting thing to see.
Frankly the candidates acted more responsilbe (sept one) than many members in the audience.
When is the last time any of you saw a political debate and came away with a warm fuzzy feeling of sunshine and rainbows.
It was a masacre and glad I didn't stay for the end! Who one the 50/50 raffle anyways! That would be more fun to discuss.
Anonymous at 11:31--what I am saying is that the NA Council gave the moderator the questions to ask. It is the Council that chose the questions. They were what they were and you can interpret them as biased or not.
I did suggest Rinaldi. I had no idea that the questions given to him would be so biased. I always expect better and then ask myself, why should I expect better? Silly me.
Blame Ryan Anderson and the entire NAPC who organized it, seems like he organized the TRNA one too that was equally controversial, not impressed at all! We need new and better leadership at the NA levels too evidently!
I love the quote by John Quincy Adams that says, "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader."
I think people like J. Golden, S. Stanton, R. Waterman, and R. Anderson could maybe glean a little from this quote and realize they are not being very leaderly in how they are behaving and running things, they are all very disappointing to us as leaders in their current capacities.
We deserve better in Lake Worth!
I'll agree that Rinaldi was the wrong choice in moderator and assume they had no choice. Rinaldi is political but more so I think as a business person and a resident then as someone involved in the Parrot Cove neighborhood association.
I think the NAs are generally polical free but they do have their own agends, things like safety, clean ups, the banners (which took at least 5 years to get done), zoning issues in single family home neighborhoods, taxes, etc.
I don't always agree with my NA, like on the noise ordinance, and find that my voice is always welcome and my opinion always respected. My NA takes no official position on candidates and walking around Parrot Cove the signs are pretty equally split.
People are political, and those that are active in the community are more likely to be informed and have political biases. There is nothing wrong with that, necessarily. If the NA's made an effort to do things in an fair way, it could work, but that effort is not an easy thing. The LW Dem club quit doing its forum because it's a complicated and divisive.
Some obvious fixes for whatever happens next year:
have a back up out of towner for moderator, and tell them to just read the questions and manage time/turns.
At all costs do not improvise explanations of these.
I don't know how to s elect questions, but I'd suggest that they be short and simple. They're a chance for the candidates to explain and show their knowledge, expertise as well as position. If a candidate does not show a grasp of the issue, that may be a telling point for a voter. I'd rather have a competent person I loathed than a screw-up.
All applause should be saved for the end, perhaps after each candidates closing statement, or perhaps just applause for all of them together at the end. Let's inform voters, not annoy them.
These issues of democratic processes are important for everyone in the city to work on together.
Sam Goodstein
amateur nobody
We needed less of the biased moderator and more of the candidates, other than Zacks that is. He says he's "real." I say he's a real spoiler.
It was obvious to everyone who attended the Playhouse debate that it was not fair or balanced, unless of course, you live in a vacuum and have absolutely no knowledge of what's going on. Everyone would have to agree if they wanted to be honest. IMO and I'm stickin to it.
Dear Lynn,
For what it is worth, I did not have any participation in the selection of the moderator for this debate. I did secure John Bachman for our last debate but my involvement in the NAPC has had to take a back burner due to my present health challenge. I did not attend any of the planning meetings for this debate nor was I emailed regarding any input or a vote from Genesis. I have tried my best to keep Genesis out of the polarized arena that is our local politics. Concentrating 100% of my energy, efforts and love for my community to helping individuals, like the grandmother of Lake Worth, or the senior who was being neglected at Terraces of Lake Worth, the countless parks or abandoned homes or lot clean ups to make our City look a little better, the sleepless nights of surveillance taking digital pictures to share with our local PBSO trying to eliminate drug traffick and prositution in our neighborhood, attending Nuisance Abatement hearings and standing up and identifying myself on the record against an apartment complex that was raided and dangerous drugs and loaded weapons were recovered where they were cooking up crack and there were infants and toddlers present. I didn't care that the gang members arrested there may have sought retribution. I didn't care, I take caring and helping to protect my neighborhood, very seriously. I don't see much politics in that. I never want Genesis Neighborhood Association to fall under the category of being seen as a vehicle to futher a personal politic agenda. It hurts my feelings that anyone would misinterpret the intention I had when I created Genesis and have kept it alive for three years and it hasn't been easy funding it almost 100% out of my pocket but I Love doing it. I am only human so I know I make mistakes. I ask that if anyone sees what they believe is Genesis Neighborhood Association behaving in a manner unbecoming of a non profit organization that was created to help our community than PLEASE be kind enough to let me know. Email me through our website www.genesisneighborhoodassociation.org or call me at the Genesis number 561.201.2851.
Sincerely,
Mark A. Parrilla
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