Last night's Hudson Holdings was the sameo, sameo, at least for all of us who have heard it before. They want our beach. There are many people in this city who feel that they will get this deal because of politics and their "in" with the commissioners. And we can't forget, that it was the city manager who opened up this can of worms. The meeting started at 5:21pm, 21 minutes late, because of the registration slow-up as well as people arriving late. I got there at 4:30 and the entire decal parking lot was filled. One lady really was mad that the city took out those 23 decal parking spaces. She thought that they had just eliminated them but we informed her that they had been moved closer to Benny's on the Beach. That is where I ended up parking.
When we walked up to the casino there were four Sheriff vehicles parked in front. When I asked about it, I was told that Hudson Holdings had hired the PBSO as security. As they hired enough men for two vehicles, there had to be a third vehicle as two require a supervisor. That was a lot of overtime. The fourth vehicle was because of a burglary. I asked one deputy if there was only one door for egress and ingress and he said "yes." When asking about a fire, he said that he would open the rest of the doors at the ballroom. That was comforting.
Also, our pool was opened and it was packed with swimmers from the Swim Club. It looked beautiful. We are so lucky to have this gorgeous Olympic pool right at the beach. Szerdi even mocked the murals of beach scenes on the inside walls of the pool area saying we had the real ocean on the other side of the wall. It was a desperate attempt to ridicule.
Most of the chairs that had been set up were filled but there were a few empties. It was hard to estimate the number of attendees as my estimation was half of someone else's.
If you only came for the food, well...
Most of Hudson's budget for this event was obviously spent on mailings and
signs illegally erected on city rights of way.
Former commissioner John Szerdi who works for Hudson Holdings did much of the presentation. They took questions from the crowd, some of which were right to the point even bringing up their failure to do anything at the Gulfstream hotel. Basically, and in my opinion, the crowd overall was not happy that anything could change at our beach and were not thrilled about Hudson. Commissioner Szerdi, to this day, does not believe that he lost his election because of Hudson Holdings...that we all lied. Hudson must believe that too as they use Szerdi for all presentations.
John Szerdi grinning and working the crowd
The golf course is another fabulous asset of ours that this commission always likes to tell people--"It's not making money" either. Folks, the beach is sustainable. It takes about three years for any new business to start supporting itself. The golf course IS now making money after we spent a lot of money re-doing the greens.
We like our beach just the way it is. Although different than Hudson's message, ours is "Hands off Our Beach."
Other than a few of their shills in the audience, I couldn't find anyone who wanted them. I was sitting near Cara Jennings and she was right in what she said about the residents not wanting any expanded development there. Hope everyone heard her. there were a lot of good questions and Hudson did not want to talk about the hotel. Now they are blaming it on code issues that set them back. What a laugh.
ReplyDeleteThey locked all doors but one? And made people wear armbands? And show ID??? These guys are Nazis.
ReplyDeleteI saw in the Post article that HH is promising some free club/spa for City residents, did they talk about that at the meeting?
ReplyDeleteThey over did it to give the appearance of transparency. Nothing could come back to haunt them...the city attorney gave them this advice. So, you can see how the city is heavily entrenched here.
ReplyDeleteThey could promise the moon but who would believe them?
ReplyDeleteThe city is ridiculous, the CM, Department Heads Involved and commission are all crooks. Isnt $130,000 + a year good enough CM & Dept. Heads????? You need HH to pat your pocket some more. News Flash here we go. The PUBLIC does NOT want HH so how bout the commission stands by their residents and aren't they supposed to be the voice of the public. Does the corruption know no bounds?
ReplyDeleteLooking down on the pool last night from the balcony, I was so proud of how beautiful it looked and was pleased at all the kids swimming. for a second I forgot John Serdi had lost the election. He acted like he was still in charge.
ReplyDeleteIts funny, the pool is slowly getting back to somewhat regular use (after many years of being closed or mostly closed - still closed most of the time these days) and now Wes is complaining that its overused and we need a second pool b/c too many people want to use the pool for different purposes.
ReplyDeleteUm, maybe get the pool open during the week, have lap hours (like many pools do) and leave the weekend time for recreation, etc.
No matter what happens at the pool Wes wants to bulldoze it for HH. And I like his doublespeak, I don't work for the HH entity that owns the Gulfstream. He does work for HH, and no matter the fact that HH uses single property corporate entity structure (as most developers do) he works for HH and is lobbying all his friends on their behalf.
Why don't we have a lobbying ban for former commissioner and board members that require a waiting period before they start lobbying, many other cities and towns have such rules.
I would like that @10:53 but you know, where there is money to be made by some folks, we will always have corruption. He writes a blog with one point of view which is ok as I do the same. But he is nasty and twists facts. I wonder what made him finally admit to working with Hudson and stepping down from one of the city's most powerful boards. Prior to that, he was chair of P&Z for years. Something must be up for him to finally be truthful?
ReplyDeleteWas I at the same meeting? My perspective was definitely different than yours on how the crowd reacted. The Majority there made it clear they want something done at the Beach. A lot of good ideas were voiced and I am sure there will be other meetings like this to allow everyone to give their thoughts and ideas. Now that doesnt mean we want Hudson Holdings to get the project. That remains to be seen. They will have to come back to us showing they listened with a proposal that we all can agree on that fixes the problems at the Casino building including the financials and a more user friendly pool area. Parking and the traffic issues will need to be addressed as well.
ReplyDeleteHi John Szerdi, how are ya doing? The casino will be fixed by the contractor who created them as the city has filed a suit.
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing wrong with the pool.
There is nothing wrong with the financial plan.
People agreed that yes, the beach needs to be sustainable. It was the way in which HU posed their questions.
What a waste of time it all was.
it all comes back to the same old question. Why should the city allow them to even make presentations on the beach when they haven't done anything with the Gulf Stream and they have a bunch of other properties with open code violations running in fines? I would more understanding if they were doing things by the books and making good on promises to the city but there not. If I was them I would be ashamed to even make presentations to the public when their no better than the slum lords draining our city keeping it in the gutter. Oh because they have money we should bat a eye? So again why is the city allowing them to make presentations on unfulfilled promises?
ReplyDeleteI agree in the fact the pool building needs work and we need to fill that vacant spot upstairs on the new building, where's the headway on that? It seems as if the city was holding off advertising and allowing a restaurant.. etc. up in the vacant spot because they are determined to get HH their.
I DONT CARE about a spa I want my beach PUBLIC!
I hope they don't get the beach but sadly its not up to the public. Its up to the Officials Elected in office to represent us and from what I've seen they aren't concerned about us (the residents) at all.
"I am sure there will be other meetings like this to allow everyone to give their thoughts and ideas." - Really? You must be kidding!
ReplyDeleteWhat came 1st the chicken or the egg?
OUR Reps should have had this meeting with the people FIRST!
We do not need an "Anchor Baby" to show us the way and OBVIOUSLY they
have stalled (Code or Beach connection) on the Gulfstream! I am
sick and tired of Talking Points we get creamed with because we think and speak common sense! WTH is wrong with the people in LW that 2 bids (really one) is the only choice on the planet? Anderson Carr couldn't rent the upstairs but sure seemed to want it for rock bottom price after the fact! What HH suggests is for the 'newby's" who seem to think they know better than the old timers here! Get over yourselves and ask your/our reps why in hell they would allow a CM (EMPLOYEE) to even entertain such a BS ITN process! Why in all the world of possibilities only 3 bids showed up? You are being 'worn out' by this on purpose! Ask about your roads and why the Park of RENTALS (NO -NOT COMMERCE) gets the cream and you get skim milk! The Mayor called the Gov because we didn't get the 'grant for the POC' but she won't return many of our calls? This build it and they will come has to stop and get back to boring basics of lights, roads and electric! Why isn't solar an option? Big oil & the LEAGUE OF CITIES are against it! Definitely need to totally eliminate LOBBYISTS of any kind (LW 7K a month)and just keep the tax money generated (kudos for promoting jobs/business) vs BEGGING ON YOUR KNEES LIKE THE HOOKERS on DIXIE for our tax money back in grants - as if they are Santa Claus! We all learned from Forrest Gump - Stupid is as stupid does and this whole thing is stupid on steroids! WAKE UP LAKE WORTH and save your beach - the reps won't and you MUST! nuf said!
You all must have left the room when Szerdi asked the attendees by show of hands who wanted something done at the beach and 75% of those in attendance raised their hands. Combine that with the naysayers attempt to pack the room with naysayers and you guys are either mislead or lying because it was clear that the MAJORITY of people there want revenue generating development at OUR beach. Maybe you all should have worn pink for solidarity.
ReplyDeleteThe casino has been located at the beach for close to 90 years it's hardly a new business. Is that your lame spin attempt to reflect the blame for a bungled project away from your "best commission" and "best city manager ever"?
ReplyDeleteLynn sorry you left the meeting early, such a hot button topic.
ReplyDeleteThe ballroom, set as auditorium seating, looked to offer about 300 seats, maybe another 20-30 standing around the back and sides of the room.
The stinky, dirty barefooted guy sitting next to me seemed to enjoy his 2 plates of food. John Szerti tried his best to steer the fairly well behaved crowd to stay on task - Which supposedly was to generate 'ideas' about what ALL the citizens want for the ENTIRE beach complex. HH showed a slide presentation that was hard to read due to the color graphics and lighting.
The principal, Stephen Michael, imagines hotel guests flitting about downtown shopping, visiting local restaurants, our Lake Worth Golf Club and visiting our Casino complex, beach and a public 'beach club' at the pool via a shuttle. The 'beach club' he invisions would be a public venue (like our golf Club) pool complex with a restaurant, new locker/changing rooms, new amenities like cabanas, beach shop and maybe another pool, maybe a spa element; overall big facelift to make it attractive, more usable, efficient, user friendly. The Gulfstream will have its own roof top pool, so the Casino plan is to add value by finishing the buildout upstairs, rent out the space and get more usage overall as well as be a destination for the public and hotel guests to better enjoy the beach scene.
HH says their niche is 'beautiful and historic structures in great cities'... 'Kind of lifestyle we feel is going to bring more people downtown'. It would be really nice to revive the old Gulfstream Hotel to its once luster...
But I really would like HH to disclose some of their competed projects - they mentioned Miami and Chicago but I couldn't find them... googling them I just found they expecting on spending $100's of millions dedicated to historic renovations of places like our Casino... Like in Cleveland, OH, old massive downtown bank bldg. with 93% vacancy; Louisville, Ky the old landmark Starks Building, another historically sensitive renovation; we already knew about Delray - the Sundy House which is also on the National Register of Historic Places; so it does look like they are into maintaining and preserving historical landmarks in downtown cities to support a thriving city hub. I can see why they liked the Sundy House and the Gulfstream Hotel...
By a show of hands, it was very clear there are a majority of supporters who want the pool open more, keep and expand the concurrent uses the pool has now, and want the entire Casino complex to pay for itself and not require additional taxpayer dollars to subsidize it. There were a minority of hands - maybe 20 - that were very vocal and clear with their message of no more anything at the beach.
This was supposed to be a citizens ideas generation meeting and there were several good ones...
Shuttle, like Molly the trolley, to connect the downtown going west of Dixie to help more citizens get to the beach.
Move the pool building to the west side and open up the view of he ocean (instead of looking at a mural of the ocean that is there now).
Move resident decal parking to the top lot
Have a 'green' 2 floor parking garage on the west side of the property with a breezeway/walkway directly over the dune to access the beach - maybe have a green roof nicely landscaped - nice for the handicapped
Re-route all traffic to one way to eliminate traffic jams and allow EMS/fire rescue fast access for emergencies.
Elliminate all upper parking and make it a green space
Incorporate a dock on the intracoastal so boaters could dock and visit restaurants and the beach. (The city has been working on docks at this location all summer)
At the end of he night I think a lot of rumors were diapelled and HH heard loud and clear that the citizens want to give input to improve this cherished beach asset... We'll have to stay tuned to see what modifications are made to their plans after hearing from all the stakeholder view points...
It must be close to quitting time at Hudson holdings. Did you pick up all your illegal signs off of city property today?
ReplyDelete3:56...HH must pay you well. Do you have a big bonus in the works if this bad deal works out for them?
We don't need to wear a color for solidarity. That reflects in the vote.
4:06 must be a Hudson employee maybe Michael himself. To go to this degree to convince people that they want you on our beach is really too funny. Why should we want to hand it over to you? I didn't go to the meeting and wouldn't give Hudson the time of day. They, right now, are a disgrace to our city and what they have done to the hotel. there are two new windows broken and more vagrants. Someone make a code case please. No one wants you on our beach and the sooner you realize that the happier you will be. You then might be able to do something with the Gulfstream. Beginning to believe you have no intention of fixing it up for a hotel. All you want is your plans approved to make it more valuable in order to flip it. We've been there before with the last owner. Sick.
ReplyDeleteNope! Not an employee of HH or affiliated with any of them..
ReplyDeleteJust have a business degree, can read a financial statement, like to do the research, and a friggen brain. What we have now at the Casino and pool DOES NOT WORK FINANCIALLY!
What plan could you offer that would?
I saw a clear majority of those in the room say they would welcome a project at the beach. I would too if it were well done. The meeting was pretty useless, a nice PR gig to mend fences.
ReplyDeleteCara sounded a bit high handed claiming to represent a silent majority. I remember someone else who made that claim, equally unsavory. I think she'd be better off engaging and using her brain than living the activist posture.
Szerdi looked like a tool. I'm not sure what the truth to rumors are, but if he thought he was sticking it to his critics or something he came off to me looking like a fool and confirming all bad rumors about him. I guess that's ok in the business world. He also sounded like he was still fighting to explain himself on the campaign trail, he was not a good moderator.
Sam Goodstein
Weethe is absolutely right about one thing.
ReplyDeleteThis conversation about such an important amenity should've started with the citizens .
I understand the CM came up with the ITN idea as a vehicle in order to discover the universes concepts on what is possible after receiving numerous suggestions from a wide variety of people.
I guess on the converse, he could have suggested an RFP, but that would have opens even bigger cans of worms.
People have suggested goofy/putt putt golf courses, wave pools and water theme parks, skate park, surf museum, someone even suggested a crematorium. Can you imagine, what kind of insanity is that?
What is any city manager to do with all sorts of ideas being suggested… I think he's been proactive. Now albeit, it could've been better planned... workshop/brainstorming from citizens and the business community to get a sense of what the people want could've happened before any formal ITN took place in order to establish a fence in which concepts could live within.
If they were to be allowed to build what and where they propose, the view of the Atlantic available when one drives across Lake Worth would be destroyed. GONE FOR GREED.
ReplyDeleteWe would see their new concrete structure instead.
By the way, we are making a profit at the beach now so we can do without Steven Michael and Hudson Holdings con attempt to get control of our priceless asset for $500K a year- a totally insulting offer.
That's kind of a biased perspective of the crowd. By the time half of the people left out of disgust for the manipulative presentation, there were about 50/50 naysayers to sheep left.
ReplyDeleteThe golf course is still losing money, Lynn.
Juan Ruiz said that we were making money at the golf course. We had a slight deficit in 2014 of around $81k. Will try and get the numbers for 2015.
ReplyDeleteLynn, I think you are really reaching when you spend time complaining that the fire code was not up to par and that the food was bad...
ReplyDeleteI wasn't there, but I saw the difference in number of the hands raised and those not... and the vast majority were for hearing about the project. Please stop just blasting them and please start to figure out how to use their interest in our city, to all our advantages.
I dunno, anonymous at 10:01..I sort of thought it interesting. Cops galore, uninteresting food and power drinks, badges, ID's, tickets, a lousy sound system, couldn't read their graphs and on and on. The highlight was that cute guy, the DJ. In my opinion after listening to the comments, no one was thrilled.
ReplyDeleteAnd guess what, I don't care about their interest in our city. They have shown zero interest at the Gulfstream Hotel. They could be the greatest bunch of people going (I highly doubt that though) but I'm just not interested.
And yes, we were all interested in what they had to say...I think.
HH is trying to buy the pubic off with a suggested free spa! What a joke. I go to the casino complex often and there is a no problem with the use of the beach and pool. Just need to rent the one space. Geez...why would we turn this off to a group of risk takers, especially in this economy. They might not even be around in a couple of years. I know someone who has dealt with HH and he said "never again"!
ReplyDeleteThe budget workshop last night still indicates we are in the red at the beach complex. Of course with McVoy's magical number crunching and new suggestion at changing the terms (adding more years of repayment of the loan) of the agreement and commitment made to the citizens 4-5 years ago.
ReplyDeleteI've got a brilliant idea to make sure we're in the black… Why doesn't Mcvoid just suggest that we forgive the entire loan that we made to ourselves!
That way the obligation to repay the $500,000 a year we're currently not repaying ourselves now would simply just disappear off the ledger sheet as a liability.
I didn't have to show ID, or my ticket which I left in my car... Just told them my name, they found me and my wife on the list and bingo, we were given wrist bands and allowed in.
ReplyDeleteThey didn't say anything about a free spa... Or about taking over the beach... They did say the beach is public and will remain so in perpetuity.
At least they rented the space. Now there's some additional income!
Doesn't anyone know some multi-millionaire or billionaire who just gift us $5-$6 million? Bam, problem solved!
Oh, thanks for the clever financing idea!
ReplyDeleteyou want your public beach--do you like you public cultural plaza--everyone, life is about change if lake worth doesn't let someone with money come in and try to repair its reputation--then i would recommend cara jennings live at the cultural plaza and see how long she would survive
ReplyDeleteYou have that sound byte down pat...repair our reputation by developing our beach park--more concrete? You must be kidding. Sick joke. No one buys that BS.
ReplyDeleteWhat would repair our reputation would be
Get rid of sanctuary city status.
Get rid of the slum and blight,
Get rid of the crime.
Have everyone who owns property clean it up and cut their lawn and trim bushes.
Get the city manager to hire someone who can do the job at our beach.
Cara Jennings is one voice. She is entitled. She was elected twice in our city as a city commissioner. Have some respect...other than a few mistakes, she did an excellent job.
how do you do that lynn when your city is dirt poor--tell me how -just tell me
ReplyDeleteget rid of-get rid of---the question was with no money how do you do it--please answer that---get rid of is not a answer
ReplyDeleteHanding over our beach park to a developer is certainly NOT the answer. I have said on way too many occasions, FIND SOMEONE WHO CAN DO THE JOB.
ReplyDeleteAnon @ 11:55 A.M. Aug 26:
ReplyDeleteThe budget workshop Tuesday night indicated that the beach is NOT in the red. Revenues exceeded expenses by $471,000 in 2014 and preliminary financials (and projections) indicate that revenues will exceed expenses this year. You must be confusing the Beach Fund with the Golf Fund. This commission forgave $1.8 million in taxpayer dollars that were owed by the Golf Fund to other funds in 2012.
After that rather quiet and generous write off of our tax dollars, the very next year (2013) the golf course expenses exceeded revenues by $100,000. The year after that (2014) golf course expenses exceeded revenues by $134,000. Since all you anonymous people claim to be so brilliant at reading financial statements and understanding the city's financial position, why don't you try actually doing it sometime? It's all public information.
Lynn, Juan is under the impression that a transfer of $285,000 from the General Fund to the Golf Fund is a revenue stream. It is not. Look on page 76 of the latest CAFR under Other Revenue Sources. Also on page 42 under Interfund Receivables, Payables, Advances, Transfers. You can find the Beach Fund on page 68. The Beach Fund balance at Sep 30, 2014 is $708,610 and that's AFTER making a $250,000 loan payment.
Right, Laurel. Didn't Bornstein say that there were mistakes in the CAFR?.. and that we had over $400k in the beach fund balance...can't remember the exact figure now.
ReplyDeletelol. Are you serious? I can't believe it. When did he say that? I was on a call until the very end of the Electric Fund discussion.
ReplyDeleteNo, it's still up on the website. They would have taken it down if there was a problem. And I've been emailing with him, he would have said something.
ReplyDeleteThere was a "one off" of $500k, last payment from the county I think. We had to submit invoices and be reimbursed for the $5 million. It didn't make it into the 2013 report. That, plus $471k in net revenue, minus the loan and interest payments leaves the $708k.
He said that there was a mistake in the beach fund balance of 2014. It was a few weeks ago as I recall...I thought it was in July where we got to speak because I mentioned that we had a positive balance in the beach fund. others brought up the positive fund balance--Peter Timm and one other resident. I then asked Christopher that night if this would affect the CAFR of 2014. This is how I recall it. Bornstein then said that some of the numbers were wrong in the budget and that's why some residents were relying on wrong info? Wish i could remember the meeting. It might have been the one where the mayor lost her temper.
ReplyDelete