Thursday, March 8, 2012

Tonight's Agenda

Comment Up
Mark Parrilla back as Chair of the CRB
Investigative Committee on a 3/2 vote. Even this committee is divided. David Lorrichio was elected Secretary.

CITY COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING
called by Commissioner Andy Amoroso who has publicly stated that some members of the Planning & Zoning Board are unqualified to serve. Tonight we will find out why he thinks so and who among his supporters have been feeding him this line. Maybe not.

CITY HALL COMMISSION CHAMBER
6:00 PM

NEW BUSINESS:

A. Discuss the Community Relations Board's scope of service. That is a joke.
B. Discuss combining the Planning and Zoning and Historic Resources Preservation Boards and members' qualifications. This is a joke.
C. Commission discussion on the salary ranges and contract provisions for the Lake Worth City Manager. This has been a farce since December 6 and definitely a joke.

A little background per the descriptions on the city web site that really says very little:

The Planning & Zoning Board members review and approve site plans for three-units or more of residential development and all commercial development. The members also review community appearance and have the ability to grant variances from the Lake Worth Zoning Code. The members also serve as the Board of Sign Appeals and Nuisance Abatement Board. The members serve three-year terms.

The Historic Preservation Board members shall consider historic preservation issues. The members serve three-year terms.

Tonight there are some who want to grab all of the decision making and put it back into the Planning & Zoning Board that already oversees two other boards. However, when this came up on a workshop back in January 2010, the reasons not to separate were as follows:

The P&Z is for planning; it is not for retaining structures.
Without separate boards, there is no checks and balances between new development and historic preservation.
It was discussed that the HRPB meet only when needed to cut down on costs
Rick Gonzalez, architect and owner of REG who has worked with many historic preservation boards said that having separate boards would allow us to obtain Grant money. This was a deciding factor to later separate the two Boards.

Lake Worth is a Florida Certified Local Government by the Bureau of Historic Preservation and by having the Boards separate, we are eligible to apply for special matching grants from the Bureau of Historic Preservation to assist their preservation programs. Funding is available for projects such as:

· Surveys to identify and evaluate significant historic properties;
· Nominations to the National Register of Historic Places;
· Preservation education materials such as booklets, brochures, slide or video programs;
and
· Local historic preservation plans.

More of the Witch-Hunt Committee
to support the removal of Panagioti Tsolkos as Chair of the CRB

5 comments:

Steve Ellman said...

If Parilla had a shred of decency he'd resign his position. How can he have any credibility as a fair-minded gatherer of evidence--which is what the subcommittee purports to be--given his history of vicious personal attacks (puerile as they are) on PT and PT's significant other?
Beyond that, the fact is nothing--nothing whatsoever they've presented rises to the level of "abuse of power." Nothing shows PT attempting to impose directions on others based on his position with the CRB, which is what abuse of power is, properly understood. This is a witch hunt, transparently, whose only purpose is to punish PT for differences of opinion.
Oh yeah, about the witch-hunters' lament that PT violated the board's charter, not "fostering amicable relations": Some of us feel it fosters amicable relations to let minority communities know that the city has a board that is concerned to see that such communities will not be subject to disparate treatment by local police. You don't "foster amicable relations" by keeping your mouth shut or turning a blind eye to police misconduct or other matters that involve social injustice.

Anonymous said...

The irony of it is that Parilla was forced to step down from the Chair of the CRB because he tried to force his own agenda down the board's throat.

What a hypocrite!

Anonymous said...

There was a reason, a good reason, that we separated the P&Z board and the Historic Preservation board. These two boards have two very different missions, some times they go together but more often than not they do not. It was horrible when we had P&Z folks voting for development projects that they and their friends benefited from and then they turned around and ballyhooed about how our 20s and 30s wooden historic structures were not worth keeping b/c they were 20s and 30s wooden structures. Um that is our history folks. Of course the P&Z folks had trouble wearing two hats, one had to vote for development, why in the world would they ever vote against development when wearing their historic hat.

It didn't work and that is why they were split. Why are we replaying this!! ARGHHHH!!!!!

Lynn Anderson said...

POLITICS

Janet said...

Absolutely, Parilla is no better than Panagioti, they both have "their" agendas and want to have control and power. Parilla ran a three-ring circus at the CRB meetings too, they need a new face and someone who can be respected, because neither of these two have earned respect at all. We deserve better here in Lake Worth. Someone like Joann Kelly would be a good choice.