No sooner do they get the 20 Ordinances voted in to give them the legal clout that they need to enforce code, the department has lost every single employee other than one. Some left on their own volition and the rest, who knows? The City is going to outsource that department. I remember when they tried to do that to the utility customer service and the "fit" they all had and voted NO as they wanted to protect our employees and educate them.
The city manager, Michael Bornstein, said that he was "kind of surprised about some of the comments he heard" last night. He also reminded everyone of the "scathing" report from the Internal Auditor. Well, I believe that three people spoke to this issue in public commentary and each person had legitimate concerns and questions. Peter Timm has been working on code issues for 15 years and defended the employees. When you see employees leaving right and left, with no explanation from the city, the public normally has questions.
Bornstein admitted that now all the tools are in place to allow the code department to have some clout...that the city has spent $900,000 on this department and NO one is happy. Well, that was BEFORE the Ordinances were in place. Code officers were doing their jobs; they just had no legal recourse to help in enforcement.
The city will now go out on an RFP to find a company that will take over that department. There are four such companies according to City Manager Bornstein. Why does this not come before the city commission to approve? Is this not a policy decision to dissolve a department and go to privatization?
This commission should not blame all our problems with code on this past code enforcement department that was never given the legal teeth to do its job. Amoroso blamed it on the fact we didn't have an Internal Auditor for a number of years. As one former employee said to me, "The adverse, untrue and unfair publicity has fatality hurt us."
This was, once again, a political decision where employees were expendable and one that in the minds of this commission is justified. Maxwell wants a workshop to educate the public.
Finding the right people and getting them to run is even more of a challenge than getting them elected. AND, when they get in office, about 6 months down the road most of them get caught up in the love of power and become co-opted by the bad guys.
ReplyDeleteTime will tell on all of this, if how the mayor, CM,and comm. currently, respond to citizens, it is not promising. Heck, you cannot even get the CM and elected officials to email, call, or write you back when you contact them. How can we TRUST city government anymore? So many of us are loosing faith in our CM and elected officials, they do not listen to the public. They do not email us back. They give the impression they do not care about what we want as citizens, voters, and taxpayers. They are not DOING it for the people. Time will tell, not sure many will want to vote for them or re-elect them, makes you wonder now how much longer will this current CM stay on? He is not at all responsive to citizens. A real call for concern. There is no code enforcement in this city. The blight and crime is at one of its all times worst times. Look at the old mayor Drauts fence on the corner of N K St. and 2nd Ave. that graffiti has been there for almost two months and NO ONE, not the owner, city, or PBSO have addressed it, with so many driving by there after shopping at Publix and it makes our city looks so bad, the graffiti is on the rise, there is just so much blight and crime. What is the CM doing? Why isn't he responding to citizens and showing the elected he is cleaning up this city? Where are the answers? Who is taking any responsibility here is this city for the public and safety? I volunteer with the PBC Senior Center here in LW and a Church Shut-in program, I see so much, why aren't are city leaders doing more? Why aren't they responsive to citizens and our concerns?
ReplyDeleteAmen, yes, it seems like almost all elected officials become this way. Very sad, not wonder the public loses faith with government and politicians.
ReplyDelete"Finding the right people and getting them to run is even more of a challenge than getting them elected. AND, when they get in office, about 6 months down the road most of them get caught up in the love of power and become co-opted by the bad guys."
"Code" enforcement is a misnomer. You'd think that "code" refers to the Building Code, which is written to uniformly protect the life and property within the city limits.
ReplyDeleteHowever, code enforcement is NOT part of the Building Department.
Building inspectors are not allowed to address "code" problems except for permit inspections they are called out for.
The building inspectors need to be empowered to cite properties that have obvious building code violations, visible from the street and "red tag" them starting a process that requires permits to be pulled and proper inspections. Then, usually, other building code violations become evident.
This is how other communities keep the blight from taking over. STRONG BUILDING CODE ENFORCEMENT.
The code enforcement that is most often referred to speaks to grass overgrown, peeling paint, parking on grass and draping clothes over bushes or on fences.
There is a BIG difference and the difference has NEVER been addressed.
Also, one of the smart reasons to take code enforcement out of the political system should be obvious. As it is now, if someone who "knows" someone in city hall gets cited, pressure comes to bear to "lay off" that well connected person. An outside contractor hired to do a job gives the cover our politicians may need to allow them to do their job without interference from a commissioner.
Everything should be out of the political system if we really want to do the right thing. How is the County Ethics IG office coming along?
ReplyDeleteThe present City Administration is suffering from lazy, inflated egos, posing as important,as if raising the quality of Lake Worth's Tax payers' lives!
ReplyDeletehow many have read the Depts. handbooks? How many have knowledge of our 17 Depts.?
They put on a sho of arrogance,based on ignorance, to be able to pick up their pay checks, not to do the jobs they were hired or elected for with malicious maligning of the right knowledgeable Candidates!
We do not have our hand out to them, they have to us ,to do our best interest with full knowledge of our City functions.
The result is the present wannabee Communist style , arrogant pseudo management of Lake Worth.The Gulfstream Hotel could have been taken by the City for violation of certain Federal Laws.I know how and which ones, but we are paying a City Manager from Lantana, and a City Attorney, who should have had the knowledge and done it.It has been vacant and devalued since 2005!A Lake Worth Corrupt management would have had the same results, which would have been placed with outrageous cronyism.
Annexation the most corrupt County in Florida would have been same.
Blatant lie: CRA built low income housing brought the tax base of the City down.The opposite was claimed, by the liars.
Why is the city recruiting more Code staff, including a new Compliance Manager? Who would apply for a job knowing the city plans to outsource? Did no one inform Human Resources? Does anyone within city hall communicate?
ReplyDeleteGood question...didn't know that. No one is really encouraged to ask questions at city Hall. They now have a strategy of dissing you at a public meeting if you don't agree with them or write against them.
ReplyDeleteMs. Stanton outsourced the Streets Dept.to M&M asphalt to fill the potholes. WELL Look what happened there? 50 Million crater sized holes!
ReplyDeleteMaintenance at Pinecrest Cemetary outsourced and Grass overgrown, and residents had to turn to the local news media to get any type of response...
When they outsource the code dept. everyone will move out of LW. who wants to live some where, where you get fined for a little rotten piece of fascia board!!!!!!
I think the comment about the pot holes is dumb. They've really cropped up since the rainy season has been so heavy, and I believe this is Mr Bornstein's second budget, so how could Stanton be responsible for the pot holes? Please let it go and move on. It will be good for your mental health, anonymous.
ReplyDeleteThe commission approves of these changes when they approve the budget. They have reviewed the detail of the budget and personnel changes are discussed at that time. I guess the meeting the other night was a budget meeting? And if an RFP is going out for this service, it certainly will be a large enough figure that the commission will approve. I support the decision to outsource.
Your totally wrong Decker, Stanton abolished the Streets Dept in May 2011, Hired M&M Asphalt to fill the potholes, Effective soon after,the commissioners were deceived into thinking they would fix the potholes after a rain storm, and pick up dead animals. But actually the $500,000 allocated wasn't nearly enough. Since M&M only patched many feet and yards at a time. Running up the Time and Material and not to long after the money was gone.
ReplyDeleteThere has been worse rainy seasons then this and the potholes were always filled by the city. But now with skeleton crew it's not being done on a regular basis like it has been for 40 years.
So live with your outsourcing and potholes, and watching out for them on your BIKE!!!! Dont fall in one!
Good luck!
No, I don't think I'm totally wrong. Maybe YOU ARE (you're, not YOUR) in the wrong year. Seems that Stanton addressed the issue of pot holes and now the commission is not addressing it.
ReplyDeleteI really must laugh out loud at YOUR stupid assertion that $500k was spent to repair pot holes.