If enough (perhaps false or reckless) accusations are made against a person (or organization), his reputation will suffer, whether or not the remarks and accusations are deserved and that is the tragedy of what came out of the Greater Bay settlement meeting. Instead of pot-shots against Greater Bay and giving the public all the reasons why we kicked them off our beach to begin with and mentioning that three attorneys said we were in the "right" and giving all those reasons, our attorney made a ridiculously weak argument to settle. But, his mission had changed.
This is a strategy that even Obama is using: "You know what? We’re going to keep on trying a bunch of stuff until something works," said the president. Our attorney must have picked up on this as that is what he did in the Greater Bay lawsuit. How in the world did an outside counsel become political? The suit went on for three years. Why didn't he advise us years ago that, in his opinion, we would be hard pressed to win. Why wasn't he that aggressive in going after the Plaintiff instead of the citizens? Was that not his objective? But in the end, he was following his bosses' (the City Commission's) will and threw enough crap against the wall in order to make a case to settle. Those of us who have lived through this entire matter know the facts and it did not stick with us.
It is clear to many of us that this present commission wants to settle lawsuits, not win them. This is a new strategy facilitated by low city revenues and high legal bills and prompting from their friends. They are scared to death. They honestly believe that this strategy is "leadership." The mantra is "Let's get them (the lawsuits) off our plate....legal bills are killing the city." In the end, it didn't matter that the man from Rochester was out to screw us. Nothing mattered but justifying the Commission's decision to settle even if it meant throwing blame on all the wrong people, all political. They got their cake and ate it too by killing two birds with the same stone.
The guy who inflicted damage and who never performed got $1.6 million and citizens who spoke the truth and uttered their opinion got thrown under the bus and by the very same attorney who sued the citizens several years ago and by a commission that holds itself up to being fair.
This mindset started with Clemens, as so many things did, with the billboard company. We had an ordinance on signs but because this obnoxious company sued us, we caved in. We were so desperate for money, we caved in on the landfill too and gave Sun Recycling a pass on cleaning it up and taking off all that debris. It was all covered up. Sun, to this day, is still giving campaign contributions to political hacks.
Mock trials and all, the only thing that was a mockery were the reasons for this settlement. Sometimes, it is extremely difficult to stand up for what is "right," especially in Lake Worth.
9 comments:
Probably if you come down to citizens, the only traitor is Blackman
There were so many things wrong with this GB deal. It is amazing to me that this city commission chose to forget all of them. What a bunch of freaking wimps. If they are so hell bent on getting facts, why did they not consult with all of those involved who made the decision to end the contract. Even the mortgage broker gave testimony that GB could not and would not ever get financing. They didn't even have a bank account until the last minute. They weren't even incorporated until the end. Willard had 9 pages of judgments. They did exactly what they came here to do.
Lynn, you have always made clear your distruct and lack of confidence in Greater Bay and I can respect that.
But isn't the real question about the lawsuit why did the commission take such a major step that resulted in such an expensive penalty? Shouldn't their motives and judgement be questioned as well as asking your questions?
More revisionism. Breaking the contract and filing a frivolous lawsuit is what caused the city to lose $2.4 million.
I guess you all would have been happier if the city continued to fight the case, piled up more legal bills and lost anyway.
That way you could all blame Wes for the city paying $15 million instead of $2.4.
And Larry Karns DID tell the best commission ever not to break the contract. They just knew bette rlike all of you legal and coastal construction experts.
Why are you so negative anony? It was Greater Bay that filed the law suit. Are you saying they filed a frivolous law suit? We already know that is not the case. You like to use the word "frivolous" whenever anyone files a suit that is against your politics. Facts remain that there will always be a winner and a loser and much of the outcome depends on your representation. If we had aggressive legal representation, who says that we would not have won this case? YOU????????????????? If we had a commission that wasn't so jaded by politics and their friends who wanted them to settle, who says that we would not have won? The only thing Larry Karns told the commission was NOT TO ALLOW GREATER BAY BACK ON THE BEACH TO REPAIR THE POOL.
I shudder to think about Scott MAxwell making the motion to settle.He is the one who made the motion to enter into a contract with FMPA years ago.Look what that has cost us.
...Lynn, is it you thought that the commission go to trial and if so, what happens if the city loses and is awarded more than the settlement amount?
I would like to know what our outside counsel said, behind closed doors, to our commission for the past year and vice versa.
Casey Ciklin should give Charles Blackman a job.
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