Comment Up
Royal Poinciana met on Wednesday night at Lake Worth High School's Media Room. The invited guests were Vice Mayor Scott Maxwell and Ryan Hartman, both running for Commissioner District 1.
Ryan Hartman
Someone who is on the Board of the Royal Poinciana Neighborhood Association actually asked him a very rude question--She said, "I love your idealism. It sounds a lot like my misspent youth. Did you ever consider getting a job within the city before you ever thought to take it over?" Ryan said that he had a job and never had any intent to take over the city. Running for a city commissioner is not the way to take over a city and would be impossible to tear down the city as he is one vote out of five. He would be able to help pass legislation. Ryan said that he was a philosophical anarchist and a realist and he believes in participation in the system. It's all about community and it means not relying on someone else to solve our problems.
Vice Mayor Scott Maxwell
Commissioner Maxwell said that one of his accomplishments was moving forward with the $15 million Park of Commerce project. This has been "his baby" for years. We are getting $6-7-8 million from our Utility (reserves) and will be paying for wiring, plumbing and infrastructure for these developers/businesses that will be there. We own the streets and he is trying to get a matching grant from the State of Florida again as Gov Rick Scott turned down their grant request last year. He is also looking for some money from the Federal govt. He mentioned the lost General Obligation Bond vote hoping at the time that the voters would approve a $63.5 million dollar obligation to pay for our infrastructure needs. He failed to mention that the final cost would have been $131 million and for a thirty year pay-back paid by all the property owners with property value over a certain level. He mentioned our poor city and the high unemployment and also touched on code enforcement.
I thought Ryan presented himself very well, even in the midst of some very slanted and even hostile questions. It is obvious that the Maxwell minions will do everything possible to capitalize on the word "anarchist." If you do an internet search you will find this covers a broad spectrum of ideas. Among those are, as Ryan said, taking action and solving problems at the community level. Smaller government, if you will, with the admonition that this power to govern comes from the people. (? Sounds almost like the platform of many conservative Republicans) Ghandi was an anarchist, one of the world's most revered leaders. Technically I believe you could actually say that our founding fathers were also anarchists. The rule of the day was monarchy. They rebelled and defended the belief that there was no divine right to rule, or to tax unmercifully without any representation. Taxation without representation--anarchy--or the birth of a nation? I find this particularly appealing in view of our recent history in Lake Worth. Ceding public property to developers with ties to this majority commission. Maybe I could be considered an anarchist?? In this instance I definitely agree that the Commission should not be considered to have legitimate power to oppose the right of the people to have and enjoy their publicly owned beach. It is not theirs to give away. No matter how many secret processes and funny math you come up with--IT'S JUST PLAIN WRONG. This is why I will be voting for Ryan Hartman on March 15. I love the beach, and I love representative government in the sunshine. A cornerstone of his platform is transparency which we sorely need in Lake Worth.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I will be voting for Mr. Hartman but I know I WON't be voting for Maxwell. He is unprofessional, has anger problems and it was wrong for the City to spend our money to try and sell LW2020 to us, it was also wrong for the City to repeatedly lie about who would pay for LW2020, how much it would cost those homeowners and how it could negatively impact our ability to protect our homes. Thankfully, enough rich folks and business owners saw through the lies and were able to spread the truth that LW2020 would have decimated our business community and would have gutted our real estate market since, homes over a certain value would have a huge bill to the City.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe he is running on his LW2020 record in any shape or form.
The tyranny has been only displayed by those presently in power when they ignored the Heights Charter Amendment.
ReplyDeleteAnnamaria had a horrible comment especially to a guest at her neighborhood assn. It amazes me that people believe all the crap.
ReplyDeleteDid Annamarie Windy-Runt make the rude comment to Mr. Hartman? Or did somebody else from her organization? In my experience she is more of a in the shadows backstabber who doesn't have the stones to confront someone to their face.
ReplyDeleteI would rather vote for a guy like Mr. Hartman willing to lay down in the street for something he believes in rather than do what Andy Amoroso did- conduct secret out of the sunshine meetings to give our beach casino away to Hudson Holdings.
Maxwell has done NOTHING for district one, other than lie to us about the bond/cash grab, piss away 50,000 of tax payer money on propaganda to get his POC going and advocate for the destruction of John Prince Park.
10:08, that is SO WELL SAID!! We need someone who will represent our district, NOT their developer buddies.
ReplyDelete