Commissioners on repealing the fire assessment

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On Tuesday night, the Lake Worth Commission repealed the fire assessment. By implementing the Department reductions, elimination of certain positions and deferred starting date of certain positions and the elimination of the costs related to the Fire Services and Street Lights assessments will generate an estimated General Fund savings of $1,443,797.

If we continue along the the same lines, by 2016 our budget deficit is projected at $7 million according to the Office of Budget & Management. Bad Union contracts, the overall recession and the loss in the market caused this financial crisis. Pensions are escalating out of control. The City has promised to pay approximately $67 million in future benefits to past and current employees yet does not currently have that amount in its various pension funds with no means to get the revenue.

You can expect a lower quality of life and a lower quality of services. I don't think that I was elected into office to take this city backwards.

Commissioner Mulvehill, as well as Commissioner McVoy, had guts to stand up for their principles. Compromise, by the Visionaries, was not in the cards. I have always claimed that the fire assessment was nothing more than a money grab. However, it does not negate the fact that Lake Worth, because of past mis-management, has a financial picture that is anything but stellar. The questions to answer are, should the property owners of Lake Worth continue to bail out the City for this run-away train...for all the cash reserves spent by past city managers Boyer and Baldwin...how do we solve our problem...for all the waste of millions by former commissions. Will it ever end? What should we do? Something has to give. If taxing is not the answer, what is?

It seems that we always find a boogy-man...someone or something to demonize...let's not start demonizing that our level of service will decrease...I didn't see anything in these recommendations tonight that spoke to directly to a cut in any services...it's time to start paying attention to what's going on.

The proof is in the pudding when the PBSO and Susan Stanton negotiated a reduction in cost of $1.2 million from the PBSO reducing the man power by 9 people but keeping the level of service the same. However, some services will be directly affected. We already know that staff is thin and many doing multiple jobs.

Don't confuse efforts with results...It's priorities and how we handle what's next for the city and the immediate needs of the city.

The Finance Department looks at financial projects well into the future, not just the immediate and are basing their projections on departmental budgets and Union pension costs. We always should have been looking at cutting costs but the real culprit here are union costs of which we have no control.

Very soon, this Commission will be going through the exact same problems in the upcoming Budget workshops for the next budget cycle. Although we cut some fat on expenses in various operating budgets and deferred some positions, campaign promises were fulfilled. The special assessment has only been eradicated short term. What will we expect in months down the road when we all will finally have to admit that we are in big trouble, that the Unions really don't give a hoot, and we are facing the exact same estimated financial short-falls. We will no longer be able to take the Scarlet O'Hara approach to doing business.