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It seems that Boynton Beach had a similar problem to Lake Worth. It involved customer sewer charges and staff billing errors. And as much as I have said "Thank God, it could be worse, we could be living in Boynton Beach," this time Boynton did something right or rather, it worked out well--after two auditing firms found the under-billing errors, Boynton negotiated unpaid sewer bills that had gone on for decades.
One community had not been charged since 1993 due to a data entry error. Once Boynton notified them, they began to pay--no problem. Villa Lago Condos settled as well after Boynton had undercharged them by 1/2 million bucks.
These cities, all six of them plus Palm Beach State College, owe us to
the tune of $10,418,237. One more time—we have been trying to collect
this money for over 7 years. And again—we have not been able to collect nor have we been able to negotiate one darn dime.
All we get in Lake Worth are arbitrary customers who say "prove it" along with attorney Trela White in the act who not only is the attorney for The League of Cities but she is the attorney for all the cities including Palm Beach State College (a facility that has always received FPL rates from Lake Worth)
that were billed for sewer after the comprehensive independent audit by Rampell and
Rampell discover4ed that they owed us. discovered they had not been billed for years. Their refusal to pay resulted in
sewer rates going up by 30% regionally and 13% locally and all the
residents of Lake Worth are paying for all those cities who owe us a lot of money.
How is that Governmental Conflict resolution with Chapter 164 of the Florida Statutes coming along?
We need the "visionaries" to tell us what was discussed at the League of Cities convention in Boston where all the people are taught how to screw their residents in one way shape or form. We have some still condemning the former city manager, Susan Stanton, who actually was the one who discovered and exposed the sewer billing errors that amount to over $ten million dollars.
There you go with your famous revisionism again.
ReplyDeleteEveryone except you apparently remembers that it was fired city manager susan santon that screwed up the negotiations on her way to being terminated.
Mr. Bornstein came so qualified and highly recommended, why isn't he in there negotiating a settlement, and while he's at it, negotiate with the Unions and Sheriff's dept for lower payments...Susan Stanton did. But wait, Lantana's interum CM negotiated a deal saving them $900,000.00/year just after
ReplyDeleteMr. Bornstein left...maybe we should have hired her.
Sorry, I believe it is you who is confused.
ReplyDeleteStanton did not accept their offer of pennies on the dollar. Those cities knew that they owed the money and because they were not billed, decided NO TO PAY IT or even remind us that they were never billed. the cities gambled and are winning on this because our city can't find all of the receipts, etc. This was way before Stanton's time.
Who is the revisionist? get real.
That is your type of friend?
maybe the check went to laura hanna
ReplyDeleteI believe they are close to resolving this issue. A bigger issue than the settlement amount is getting them to sign a new agreement, this one ends in 2016. I don't know where the 10 million figure came from but it will be less than 2 million.
ReplyDeleteWell, the State Auditor must have come up with some conclusions. The City of LW ALWAYS settles--eventually. They should stop F-ing it up to begin with.
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