Photo: Palm Beach Post, 2003
A bunch of convicted felons
A bunch of convicted felons
This has to be one of the more interesting photos in recent years that was just revived today in the Post in their article entitled Biotech Bonanza didn't go as planned. Scripps just has not cut the mustard as Jeb Bush had hoped and that all the above "dreamers"and schemers had promised when they had no trouble spending $579 million of state ($310 million) and Palm Beach County ($269 million) to create a promise of 50,000 jobs. This reminds me of the dreamers (visionaries) behind the Park of Commerce although Scripps and the bio-tech industry is on a much larger scale and so are the tax payer dollars.
If you consider this bunch in the photo above,
Addie Greene resigned from the PB County Commission supposedly for health reasons but her vote on the local Scripps project was swayed by 5 million dollars in pledges to a foundation. Click here... to read about the bribe.
Warren Newell, plead guilty to corruption for honest services fraud, collecting $500K from schemes in which his partners profited from his votes as a commissioner, sentenced to 5 years in prison which was reduced by 2 years for cooperating on convicting Mary McCarty. At one time, Lake Worth's City Manager Michael Bornstein was his aide.
Tony Masilotti plead guilty to corruption for honest services fraud for $9M in cash and real estate, sentenced to 5 years in prison, 2 years probation, forfeiture of $175K in cash and land worth $9M.
Mary McCarty plead guilty to corruption and taking free resort stays and steering bond sales to her husband, sentenced to 3.5 years. Her husband served 8 months.
And then we have
Jeb Bush in 2004 was all gung-ho on bio-techs locating here in Florida, directed the Florida pension fund, which then held $102 billion in state workers’ retirement money, to set aside $1 billion as venture funding for tech start-ups. Bush invoked his oft-repeated pitch that luring Scripps would bring high-risk, high-reward entrepreneurs — “dreamers,” he called them, per the Post article.
Source: Click here... to read a Chronology of Corruption and Remediation in Palm Beach County.
And as Panagioti Tsolkas would say, "This project has turned out to be yet another boondoggle, at the expense of animals, the environment and the people who live here."
ReplyDeleteAnd to add one other thing to that statement--all the wasted $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ for a dream that never has materialized.
When I first looked at the pic I thought it was Shelly Vana.
ReplyDeleteWhen did City manager Michael Bornstein work for Warren Newell? Was he questioned in the investigation? Did the conviction of his former boss on corruption charges come up in his interview for the City of Lake Worth job??
ReplyDeleteHe worked for him way before Newell was caught for corruption. There would have been no reason for it to come up. In fact, as I recall, it was never mentioned in his bio or application as it was irrelevant at that point. I just like to mention it as "trivia" when talking about Warren Newell. ;)
ReplyDeleteLynn, since you like to include a little “trivia” about our city manager having once worked for former PB County Commissioner Newell when talking about Warren Newell, then why don’t you also mention the bit of “trivia” that it was also Commissioner Newell who first offered the $5 Million Dollars to LW to improve our casino parking lot. You should also mention, then it was LW City Commissioner Cara Jennings who negotiated with the county on behalf of the taxpayers of LW the terms and conditions of accepting that money that gave away the control of our city owned parking lot, except for 50 or so city decal residents spaces on the north side of the current casino building for 99 years? Doing away with resident decal holders the opportunity to park in any open space like residents use to be able to do.
ReplyDeleteI guess yu miss a lot of what I write, anonymous @`12:56. I was against taking the bond money and all the strings that went with it. I was against spending $6 plus million rebuilding the casino too. Where were you? At least Jennings got our 50 decal parking spaces. Actually, she and the city had little say in the deal...it was a sort of take it or leave it proposition with Burt Aaronson about to pull the plug.
ReplyDeleteThat would have been one of the few moves I would have agreed with Burt on. Former Commissioner Jennings should stick to protesting and leave the negotiating duties to those with the training and education to perform.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't really matter if you remember or read what I have said on this subject but to say it one more time, Cara Jennings asked for and got 50 RESIDENT DECAL PARKING PLACES located in the lot where they are right now on the north end. The city paid for this lot. It was not part of the bond as the County would not allow resident parking anywhere on the beach property.
ReplyDeleteTo even think that one commissioner negotiated $5 million in bond money with the county is too absurd to imagine but she did manage to get our decal parking lot. Thanks, Cara.
Since the money to redo the small north side parking lot was not improved or redone with any of the county bond money then what did that get us? What that bond money got us was the loss of control of the biggest portion of our property up there not just for 20 years but for 99 years. That's what happened and all the folks now with the red signs in their mostly overgrown yards never said a word. The county now has control as to what we can and can't do with that portion of our property up there. Where was the cry that that deal was done without letting the citizens see the county's restrictions? What was the then city manager doing? She must have known what we were giving up. Why didn't the then city attorney say that we can't can't enter into an agreement like that for more than 20 years without a vote of the people?
ReplyDeleteYou are totally CLUELESS, anonymous at 2:34...TOTALLY.
ReplyDeleteAnon at 2:34,stop drinking this early in the day.
ReplyDeleteanony at 2:34, sure hope you are not on staff or an elected official. You have no clue about what you're talking about. It's certainly sad in this town.
ReplyDeleteWow... 50 spaces... Out of like over 600+.
ReplyDeleteThat's some deal makin'
The County required a certain number of public spaces in order to accept the $5 million in bond proceeds. The City eliminated 163 upper level parking spaces to put in a swing set for little Johnnie. That's the only area (north side decal parking lot) that was left. At least we got that. Now Bornstein wants to move half those spaces to the lower lever or some damn thing.
ReplyDeleteI say, HANDS OFF OUR BEACH.