We concur. We don't need them nor do we want them in office. This was all during the Paul Boyer and Bob Baldwin regimes. The people who were in power then and the biggest culprits to this were Jeff Clemens, Dave Vespo and Retha Lowe. They had the majority vote and it was they who either allowed the then city managers to dip heavily into reserves and/or voted Reserves away. During Vespo's term, $60 million in Consent Agenda items were approved. We expect politicians to twist or eliminate facts to their advantage (that is why most are held in low esteem and honest ones are subject to annihilation--think Allen West) but we don't expect that of the Press. Over the last four years, however, we have witnessed a biased press.
It is unfortunate that neither one (Commissioner Szerdi or the Lake Worth Herald) identified the commission that was in power at the time reserves were squandered. The reason? Some of them, to this day, are their friends. By leaving out that important information, it is meant for the listener or reader to jump to false conclusions and blame their political enemies, Cara Jennings and Suzanne Mulvehill.
Mulvehill was elected well after the money was allocated and the Budget set. Soon after, Susan Stanton was hired in April 2009. At that time she stopped the bleed and the robbing of Reserves. Past managers did not take the proper measures and did not address the imbalance between the estimated cost of city services and the projected revenue needed to pay for those services.
We all became aware of the city depleting Reserves in 2006. The City's failure to address this fundamental problem and not implement long term solutions, nearly depleted the unreserved general fund balance. Three years later, Stanton had us headed towards a healthier Lake Worth when she ended the robbing of our Reserves. She was fired because she was a tough administrator, not because she failed at her job. When you make the hard decisions, you get a lot of folks angry, the Unions for one.
Even though these problems were pointed out over and over again, that commission majority voted to keep one ineffectual manager in place and our money kept disappearing. Retha even said, "I like him." He finally left after finding a job closer to his residence.
Speaking of Szerdi, where was he on Wed nite?
ReplyDeleteYou should double check your timelines. The spike in spending started in FY07/08 and went through the roof in FY08/09. So who did the spending???
ReplyDeleteYou're right about the spike. So who were the city managers when these budgets were formulated?
ReplyDeleteThanks for reminding us of the truth. It does get pushed aside a lot in this city. I have never understood the hatred that spews from one side of politics here. No wonder no one shows up for commission meetings but the cheerleaders for the majority who hate everything. Very sad for LW.
ReplyDeleteI understand from a reliable source, City Managers Boyer and Baldwin and Assistant City Manager Laura Hannah all got ENORMOUS amounts of money at the time of their departure! Check the record folks!
ReplyDeleteThe budget for fiscal year 2008/2009 would have been approved by October 1, 2008. That would be a month prior to Suzanne Mulvehill's election.
ReplyDeleteIf you review the CAFR for that year, you will see that many categories in the general fund came in under budget *except* for Public Safety, which came in $730K OVER budget. How did that happen, when we were saving sooooo much money by going with PBSO?? The rest of the expense for going with PBSO is buried, but can be found if you spend enough time sorting it all out. I would do that, but what's done is done. Clemens, Lowe, and Vespo are gone and their irresponsible spending legacy lives on. But the mayor and Maxwell would like you to believe that it was Jennings, Golden, and Mulvehill who made bad decisions.
The reason most lines in the CAFR came in at or below budget is named Susan Stanton, who realized even before she was hired, that the city was headed over the cliff. She took action right away.
I have also heard the mayor carry on about $10 million dollars in reserves that was spent in that time period, and Zerdi has apparently decided that $9 million disappeared somewhere in that period of time they are both being so vague about. I'm not sure where they get their information, but if they are getting it from audited financial statements, we are in big trouble, because these people can't read a financial statement. There has never been a reserve in that amount that just disappeared. Most funds in the reserve at the end of 2009 were restricted to capital improvements and hurricane insurance. But not to worry, I think the mayor found the hurricane reserve in the Self-Insurance Fund recently and will be paying off Greater Bay with $1.6 million of it.
Hopefully, one day we will either get some people with a finance background on our commission who can actually understand what happens from year to year, or at least some people who have the good sense to be embarrassed about their own ignorance.
Good points. Because your friends in office that past 5 years have been both. Who cancelled the contract with GB? That clearly showed a lack of any financial background and a serious lack of being embarrassed about their own ignorance,condsdiering they were told cancelling the contract was a losing proposition for the city.
ReplyDeleteIf Stanton/Golden/Jennings/Mulvehill were so good for the city why did they leave the city in shambles?
I normally will not post lies but I let the above go. Someone else can address this.
ReplyDeleteAll FIVE commissioners voted to end the contract and were allowed to do it and were advised that they could do it. So get your facts straight on the GB contract.
ReplyDelete