Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Laurence McNamara Resigns from Lake Worth's Planning & Zoning board

Comment Up
May 1, 2012

Dear Mayor and Commissioners,

I hereby resign from the Planning and Zoning, Nuisance Abatement, Community Appearance Boards, and the Sign Board of Appeals.

I am proud to have volunteered my service for the last 2+ years and for having been present at all but one meeting during that period, since my unanimous appointment by the 2010 Commission.

My fellow board members and I worked towards and, in most cases achieved, the delicate balance between community regeneration and protection of the historic character of our waterfront city. We refined several plans that came before us and thereby created a more gracious beachfront, Dixie corridor and Lake and Lucerne Avenues than were presented to us in original submissions.

Our NAB actions increased the City revenue from Nuisance cases by levying substantially larger legal fees on nuisance properties and respecting the genuine efforts of responsible landlords while meting out appropriate and harsher penalties to negligent profiteers of criminal activities.

Each of my fellow board members has brought valuable insights to our deliberations and I will miss the precision, high intellectual level, and good humor present at all our meetings.

Finally, I want to thank William Waters for his patient presentations and erudite explanations of all matters, and particularly for his creation and shepherding of the beautiful Casino building, putting Lake Worth back on the map in a gracious and positive light and finalizing a project that has consumed much of my attention for the last 10 ½ years. Lake Worth owes him respect and gratitude for its completion on time and under budget.

I had put my legal studies on hold when I was appointed because of a Wednesday night scheduling conflict. My resignation will allow me to continue my studies.

Sincerely,
Laurence McNamara

cc':
William Waters
Sandi Dubose
Lynda Mahoney
Robert Waples
Linda Davis
Kate Sheffield
Gael Silverblatt
Cara Jennings

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you ,Laurence,for all of your years of service to the taxpayers of Lake Worth.You are a true gentleman. The citizens of Lake Worth will be much poorer without your wisdom,humor,and incredible knowledge. Katie Mcgiveron

Anonymous said...

Laurence Mcnamara, showed 5 Lake Worth, 2 year Commissions, how to save OUR Lake Worth Beach from theft by developers with collaboration of crooked Commission members, Parks and Public land,
and exit the extortionate electric rates imposing FMPA Contract(conned by Romano,Maxwell,without reading the Contract) etc.,termination, without penalty!!!, to Lake Worth Taxpayers.
This exit, prevents L.W Citizens from obligation, to buy extortionate rated,from,on the open market, electricity selling Racketeers for double the price, they bought from crooked or sucker small Towns Commissions. All proven incapable,lazy, to manage their most precious Commodity, their independant electricity generation..! The economic need for re-creation of the only revenue generating project:Lake Worth's Palm Beach Island 1921 CasinoSuzanne! Mulvehill and supporters think that Xavier and U.F.O,unknown, Rachel Waterballoon, would make the best Mayors, based on hatred for the only right,honorable Candidate,Laurence McNamara.
They are not worthy of his known, highest moral level based time!
If Commissions cannot learn the job in two years,they do not deserve the job.Their incompetence and ignorance , only cause damage to the Towns.

Thank you Laurence,21 year Tax payer, for all your positive contributions to Lake Worth, based on Love for Lake Worth!

Lynn Anderson said...

Your political enemies who have constantly put you down, have no idea what a superior person you are and all you have done. Good luck and thanks for your service. Don't worry about the bores who call you "Larry." We know your name is Laurence and you are one hell of a guy.

Anonymous said...

I didn't see anywhere in Larry's resignation letter a mention that he is totally against the new boardwalk and lagoon restoration?
Why do you think he left that out?

Lynn Anderson said...

Well, better question, how come you are such a horse's A and don't know the facts? Tell me that.

In 2000 and 2001, he, along with some citizens who live on Golfview, opposed them taking 20 acres of water and filling it in. They wanted the project smaller and cut in half which is what happened and the final result.

He has been out of the entire matter for over 10 years and totally in agreement with the final product.

So, take your "Larry" reference some where else.

Anonymous said...

McNamara’s efforts to deprive Lake Worth of a new park on the Hotdog site can be debated as to what is best for Lake Worth.
However, if the McNamara lawsuit that clouded Title, preventing the city from starting the Contract clock on GB proves to result in a judgment for GB, will McNamara pay his “fair share” of the Special Assessment or Debt that the city will need to fund the judgment?
Cara Jennings and those other elected officials who voted to void the GB Contract are covered by insurance provided by the city. But the amount per individual of $1,300,000 will be far short of a judgment that should be in the neighborhood of $20,000,000. Deficiency judgments will probably fall short of the total the city will owe.
Is McNamara going to be held accountable for the consequences of his actions?

Lynn Anderson said...

I am going to assume that you are a citizen and someone relishing in the idea that Greater Bay will win a judgment. Pretty sick of you.

Laurence McNamara's law suit was dropped after Greater Bay was kicked off our property for non-performance. Are you trying to say that citizens now don't have the right to pursue justice? Are you saying, perhaps, they should have checked with you first? Checked with Greater Bay, the flim flam team?

There is always a chance that they will win some monetary damages. You never know what a jury will do. But, why do you think that they will? Do you think that just anyone should be allowed to sue the city without us taking appropriate action to defend? Greater Bay's law suit is just as frivolous as McNamara's now isn't it? Both were declared with merit by a Judge. Why do you go against a citizen and not an outside company that came in here, allowed by a political vote, to hold us up to hostage? Why is that acceptable to you?

Anonymous said...

If McNamara’s lawsuit is the reason I am required to pay a Special Assessment or Debt Service used to fund a judgment, you can bet I’ll be in a commission meeting demanding that McNamara pay his fair share. It certainly wasn’t my fault Greater Bay won.
Everybody knows that GB has demanded a Trial and that X City Attorney Karns will be one of their witnesses. I am not a lawyer, but that doesn’t sound good to me.
I moved here 6 years ago from Boynton. They lost a $10,000,000 lawsuit to a developer over an action of the city commission. I don’t know the details, but they had to fund a bond issue to pay the money. I can’t seem to get away from this BS that is not my fault.

Lynn Anderson said...

You have been totally compromised by politics in this city and talking to the wrong people on this argument.

I would suggest that if GB wins, you file your suit. Let's see how far it goes. Frivolous lawsuits, indeed.

Our outside counsel gave an opinion in this case. We proceeded accordingly. So, you think that if the city loses the law suit in the case of Greater Bay that it is McNamara's fault? Are you serious? Have you been smoking that funny stuff? Do you think people file lawsuits and spend a lot of money on legal fees for the hell of it such as McNamara? Do you think he was going to gain financially in some way by challenging Greater Bay's lease? Get real.

You should be happy that people stand up for legal rights in this country instead of allowing people to take advantage of you. We should have sued the billboard people. We didn't. Look what happened. Total farce. No balls.

Anonymous said...

Those same people told me that McNamara's lawsuit against the Lucerne resulted in McNamara and Annabeth Carson having to pay the developer's court costs and legal fees. That is why I don't think I should have to pay for McNamara's agenda driven lawsuits.
Do you agree with that. After all, if we lose, you will have to pay one way or another.

Lynn Anderson said...

The ONLY reason I am printing your comments is so that I can give you an answer. McNamara wouldn't bother with this stuff and I don't blame him.

The McNamara law suit was done through a Political Action Committee. Annabeth Karson was a member of that PAC. It was judged that they did not have standing to file a suit.(Look that up on Google) It was not that the argument was frivolous. Everything he stated was true and look at the Lucerne today.

Laurence has stood up for what is right in this city. You don't find many people anywhere who do that, take their own time and money for justice.

Laurence has been a great ambassador for Lake Worth and has done many things on a personal level to make it better here even going so far as to buying the paint and painting over gang graffiti.

Laurence is one of my good friends. So I am not going to make any more commentary here on him. I have the last say. Sorry.