Shhhh...Don't tell anyone but FEMA STILL WANTS ITS MONEY!
I have written about this through the years where the city took millions of government money that it was not entitled to according to FEMA because of sloppy accounting or even possibly fraud (buying personal sfuff at Sam's Club?) according to our outside auditors at the time. We even had a city manager, Paul Boyer, who was fired.
The city gets tons (millions) of money in grants (remember the $23 million to the CRA?) and has no problem spending it all and then some. But spending money for which you are not entitled? It has to make you wonder about ALL of the accounting taken place with other people's money.
It is no wonder that the public never heard about the FEMA fiasco. So many living here are new residents and the city will NEVER air its dirty laundry. Instead, the city will beat you down to reduce the charge or make an election moot--whatever serves its purpose. What does a city do when they have taken money from the government in the tune of $26 million for three hurricanes in 2004 and 2005, and now FEMA wants the city to return multi millions ($8 mil now reduced to right under $4 mil) which FEMA says the city is not entitled? I wouldn’t want that to get out in the public either. Lake Worth has enough problems with its reputation as it is.
Read my blog of 2013 that will give you some of the details.
"Most of it was used on hauling away debris after the storms," said Lake Worth City Manager Michael Bornstein. In 2010, years after the Hurricanes, FEMA sent a letter to City requesting it pays back $8.1 million. In the past five-plus years, Bornstein says that has been negotiated down to just less than $4 million, but it is still money that Bornstein says the City does not have. "It would almost kill us," Bornstein said. "We're a city that doesn't have a lot of money, we're financially strained like a lot of cities."
See Channel 12
This is what the Department of Homeland Security originally said that we owe.
It's no wonder the city and this Trio were so desperate in wanting that general obligation bond to pass. At the time we said "No Trust; No Bond."
I voted against the bond and I am very glad that I made the right decision. I don't think any of these people manage money well. Cut the damn travel for these commissioners. It's sick. Better yet, vote them out.
ReplyDeleteHow about that Oath of Office ALL the elected take?
ReplyDelete"If passed the legislation would essentially
eliminate outstanding requests for repayment
by FEMA. Frankel says that amounts to $35
million to Florida cities." - Lois Frankel
ARTICLE I Section 9. No bill of attainder
or ex post facto law shall be passed.
ARTICLE I Section 10. No State shall...
pass any...ex post facto law..."
Do we all obey ALL the Laws or just make
it up as we go along? Can the reps read?
Not to mention all the finance directors who have either quit or were fired for not playing ball.
ReplyDeleteFor the ridiculous JACK-A who just tried to post here--NO one is blaming this commission on FEMA.
ReplyDeleteGod, you people are desperate in your defense of this trio and you constant personal, snide attacks.
The city and all of administrations are notoriously horrible at managing large sums of cash. Yet another reason to vote against the LW2020 bond issue. Put your house at risk and trust us we will spend the money on our pet projects. Ugh. Poor record keeping, failure to maintain leadership in the finance dept. leads to multimillion dollar debt to the federal gov. Not good.
ReplyDeleteBut none of you understand! Lake Worth NEEDED,they WANTED,they HAD TO HAVE that 63 MILLION dollar (which would really have been 131 million )pot of our hard earned tax dollars from the 20/20 bond!
ReplyDeleteAnd now we know where a couple of million would have gone.
The tactic in Lake Worth is to delay, delay and delay some more. Eventually, it is cheaper to walk away and forget about it. Last night the mayor brought up Lois Frankel's "Statute of Limitations" on collecting what's owed to FEMA.
ReplyDeleteIt's a real shame when cities can screw around to this extent.