Sunday, February 22, 2015

The Blame Game always and erroneously being played in Lake Worth

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It's no wonder that we don't trust politicians.

This is a blast from the past but the Vice Mayor, Scott Maxwell,  STILL, to this day, likes to blame all the wrong people for the state of affairs of this city. And during the break at Tuesday's meeting, he even told us that no one has addressed the roads here in over 100 years...this will be a detriment to attracting people to live and work in our city he says. The Pioneers came to Lake Worth and settled here all for the fine roads, right?  He knows very well that our street maintenance budget was $1 million a year until this commission, his commission, reduced the budget.

Street Maintenance Actuals have been as follows:

FY 2009-2010: $1,027,719
FY 2010-2011: $ 850,688
FY 2011-2012: $ 523,186
FY 2012-2013: $ 550,145
FY 2013-2014: $ 511,016

Tuesday night during the break from the commission meeting where the Vice Mayor nearly had a stroke, he was blaming a "former Lake Worth Commission" for  money that went missing to the tune of $8 to $12 million dollars. His  implication  was that it all happened during the Stanton regime.  UNTRUE. When I asked why the internal auditor was never commissioned to find the missing money, he pointed out that Stanton fired him. We were without an IA for a few years because of austerity. He forgets that this country was in a depression/recession and Lake Worth was hit hard. Stanton cut back and got the city back in the black. So, I asked, where is the internal auditor now--what is he working on?

Commissioner John Szerdi mentioned the missing $$$ in 2012 in the very first political speech he gave after being sworn in. The Lake Worth Herald continued to mention Reserves and wrote that Suzanne Mulvehill gave praise in her final speech to those "who nearly bankrupted the city" and that "we don't need them in office ever again." Another UNTRUE attribution to a commission that had nothing to do with missing money. If a news-person writes a story at least the facts should be correct.

What I wrote back then: We concur. We don't need them nor do we want them in office. This was all during the Paul Boyer and Bob Baldwin regimes. The people who were in power then and the biggest culprits to this were Jeff Clemens, Dave Vespo and Retha Lowe. They had the majority vote and it was they who either allowed the then city managers to dip heavily into reserves and/or voted Reserves away. During Vespo's term, $60 million in Consent Agenda items were approved. We expect politicians to twist or eliminate facts to their advantage (that is why most are held in low esteem and honest ones are subject to annihilation--think Allen West) but we don't expect that of the Press. Over the last four years, however, we have witnessed a biased press.

Now we have a new newspaper in the city, the Lake Worth Tribune.  It has taken some knocks from the politicos who don't like truth or facts to emerge with some even going into establishments and asking, "Why do you have that newspaper here?"

Read here... to get the facts on the missing money.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Agreed, but here's my problem. You say they caused it, they say you caused. Herald says the BCE caused it, Tribune says the current group caused it. McVoy blames Maxwell, Maxwell blames McVoy. So who am I supposed to believe?

I say you're are all full of $#!+, especially the bloggers. Local politics don't affect the economy, they don't even affect the local economy, local politics don't affect immigration, local politics don't affect the 1st Amendment, or the 2nd Amendment, or anything to do with the constitution, local politics don't affect weetha peebull's so called Agenda 21, local politics don't really affect anything except local squabbles between petty people who don't have anything better to do with their lives and just have too much time on their hands. I just want a local commissioner who can show they actually do something productive with their own life and bring a real life perspective to the small, tiny, petty, and insignificant decisions that are made by a city councilman.

Lynn Anderson said...

Politics starts at the local level. That's why everything they do is important. Every decision they make, every person and special interest, every lobbyist, etc. who enters their lives is important in how they think and vote.
The Tribune reports the facts.
McVoy has never blamed Maxwell on anything.
Local politics DOES indeed affect Agenda 21 because it is the politicians who are pushing it. It is starting at the local level all over the country. How else would they implement all this sustainability?

Every decision is IMPORTANT to our quality of life. There is nothing insignificant about it, anonymous at 10:43.

And that's why we still have slum, blight and crime.

Anonymous said...

political eggs incubate and hatch at the local level

Anonymous said...

Politics at the local level is the lowest level of government, the bottom of the totem pole.

Agree with 10:43.