Vote the bums out - Stir the Political Pool

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"Vote the bums out" was a William Coakly motto when he ran for mayor of Lake Worth a few years ago. 

Today, 19 elections will be held in Palm Beach County.  Lake Worth is not among them. No one in the City of Lake Worth ran against the incumbents. If you think about it, all the ingredients necessary for a political explosion were in place. People have been fed up with the growing slum, blight and crime in Lake Worth. And even though ordinances have finally been passed to help correct the cancer that afflicts us, nothing changes. Emphasis is put on "shiny objects" and a plan to rebuild our 100 year old city's infrastructure to be paid by many struggling to survive.

This "visionary" commission has a huge problem-- they don't listen to the people for whom they serve. People are fed up with them and some top staff who do not return a call and who continually hit them aside the head with  baseball bats.  They're too busy or traveling to ports of call for the League of Cities or some other networking event. The people won an election a year ago but what did the city do?  They drew themselves into court now using city tax dollars against the people. They knew best and honestly believe they are smarter than the people. They should have honored the vote instead of using some trumped up State law after the fact. They listen to their "economic growth' supporters and believe the hype.

From the first day a Pioneer set foot here, this city has always been a middle-class town full of working folks raising families. Later, after development, we garnered a small percentage of retirees and Snowbirds...now we have thousands. It is a city comprised of  5.64 sq mi where 35,000 people live who want to have a nice quality of life and preserve their single family neighborhoods. Instead, we have a downtown full of bars, bikers and garbage galore but the commission's attitude of anything for a buck persists. Honky Tonk USA. And we have a commission that believes in growth at any and all costs. Low cost housing is prevalent with two rental projects now being built attracting more poor to our city.

We are not cleaning up the garbage and the filth. It is easier to give things away than to maintain them. We have attracted a lot of people who show no respect for the city they visit, or the one in which they own property, evidenced after a city event or a drive through the neighborhoods. Abandoned and stressed properties abound and they bring down the entire neighborhood and property values.

It is hard to defeat an incumbent. They are in office for at least two years and have built up connections and have raised money.  Even their campaign account balances are within the limit that can be rolled over to the next election. Good people, who would consider running, are maligned by that side even before they step into the arena to the point you wouldn't recognize them if they fell over you. Politics is slimy and cruel here and the lies grow like Pinocchio's nose. For a small city, it has to be the most vicious. Good people have literally dropped out.

So I suggest that you vote all incumbents out of office unless you actually find an ethical, honest, hard-working politician, one that is working for you and the overall good of the people--one who really supports the important issues, instead of just giving them lip service. They might deserve a second term in office. Other than that, vote them all out. By taking this approach, it will automatically stir the political pool until something more than scum rises to the top and we are able to identify people that are actually capable of doing a great job.

A second term should be a rarity in Lake Worth until we get our political act together. And we should never have people sliding into office with no opposition.