Political Cartoonist, Signe Wilkinson,
of the Philadelphia Daily News,
of the Philadelphia Daily News,
was featured in The Palm Beach Post this morning
This is the elephant in the room that NO city official will ever address. They have ALL been stone silent on it, blaming all of our woes on everything and everyone else. Of course, when you take campaign contributions from the Unions or any entity wanting to, or has, or is doing business with the city, it does make it difficult or can even compromise logical thinking.
Our elected officials even have gone so far as to say that we need to grow our downtown vertically in order to get out of our financial dilemma. Any increased taxes from that would go to the CRA, not the City of Lake Worth. Why can't they tell the truth? Why won't anyone tackle the real problems in this city and one of the top causes as to why we keep struggling to climb out from under that rock.--slum and blight and high pension costs.
Our commission believes it is being pro-active by voting in an ordinance to wean us from the electric utility funding that keeps us afloat. They tell you with a straight face that growing our city taller will help the tax base. The CRA was set up to achieve and eradicate Slum and blight which has become worse. What also will help turn around our city is outsourcing departments whenever possible in order to eliminate high union pension costs. We tried that with the Utility Customer Service but this commission majority turned it down.
Our elected officials even have gone so far as to say that we need to grow our downtown vertically in order to get out of our financial dilemma. Any increased taxes from that would go to the CRA, not the City of Lake Worth. Why can't they tell the truth? Why won't anyone tackle the real problems in this city and one of the top causes as to why we keep struggling to climb out from under that rock.--slum and blight and high pension costs.
Our commission believes it is being pro-active by voting in an ordinance to wean us from the electric utility funding that keeps us afloat. They tell you with a straight face that growing our city taller will help the tax base. The CRA was set up to achieve and eradicate Slum and blight which has become worse. What also will help turn around our city is outsourcing departments whenever possible in order to eliminate high union pension costs. We tried that with the Utility Customer Service but this commission majority turned it down.
While certainly agreeing that no elected official has ever addressed the problem of pension costs, I don't believe campaign contributions are the problem. After all, Jennings, Golden, Mulvehill & McVoy never addressed the topic in a Budget meeting.
ReplyDeleteWith respect to the CRA, I continue to think that their constructive efforts will never result in all of their potential as long as Staff in the Building and Code Departments continue to be ineffective.
Neither did, Clemens, Burns, Vespo, McKinnon or Lowe. NEITHER DID THIS COMMISSION, and this is the one in power right now. Trying to figure out who to blame is ridiculous. It starts with that vote. It started when they voted to allow Greater Bay on our beach. It started when they voted in FMPA in 2002. It started with a BAD water contract. It always starts with BAD city commission votes. The latest one with weaning us off utility funds is one of the most amazing in view of the fact there is NO concrete plan indicating that it is even feasible.
ReplyDeleteTurning the city into a sanctuary city for illegals, dismantling the code department, hiring a train wreck of a city manager just o prove you were "progressive", calling and treating the utility a cash cow, doubling water bills to finance an unecessary R.O. plant, financing the casino based on rents. These were all great ideas that have netted great results. Don't you agree?
ReplyDeleteI don't think that the commission can address labor issues from the dais, has to do with legal limitations. The city manager must have the will to deal with it through negotiations. Stanton did what she could when the contracts were up for re-negotiation.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't count on our current city manager to wade into this. He's a lightweight.
turning the city into a Sanctuary City was not done by one vote. Clemens voted for this as well and pushed it BIG TIME.
ReplyDeletedismantling the code department is a myth. I have blogged about this before.
Susan Stanton was highly qualified and therefore she got the job. I sat through the interview and she was very impressive. She was the one who closed the Mentoring Center.
the utility is a cash cow...accurate description. and thank God we have it to operate our budget otherwise wed would be in chapter 9.
The water bill was not doubled. It went up 5.25% the first year and was not increased the following year under Stanton. Can't help if past administrations went through our bond money. We now have the best water around. the RO is a plus plus for LW.
Financing the new casino based on rents was a brilliant idea. The citizens were off the hook for a general obligation bond.
P.S. Stop making your ridiculous inflammatory comments here that are lies and basically DUMB, DUMB, DUMB.
Can we get back our former P&Z board and Historical board. These guys are the worst and arrogant know-it-alls.
ReplyDelete