Monday, March 11, 2019

Richard Guercio on the Issues

A few Q & A's from the Palm Beach Post Interview:

Do you support growth in your community?
We have a mountain of vacant properties. Growth needs to be complimentary, maintaining the character and flavor of the immediate surroundings. We need to look at height limits, certainly west of I-95 and in some areas, west of Dixie Highway. Ad valorem income had dropped from $16.6mm to $5.6mm post banking crisis. With Save our Homes, we only recoup 3% per year on homesteaded properties and 10% on the rest. Our 2019 projected income is $9.6mm, so increasing our tax base is essential.

Do you think the city manager is doing a good job?
This is not a yes, or no answer. We'd be hard pressed to find someone as talented as our CM. He has assembled an excellent team of department heads that I've had the great pleasure to work closely with and they do a fine job. The issue is authority. Our CM has been given a long leash by this Commission, too long in my view. He needs to be reeled in and stick to what his parameters are. This is, in many ways, the fault of the Commission.

Is your city wisely spending its share of the county sales tax money?
Another question that does not carry a yes, or no answer.
Yes - license plate readers, cameras in crime hot-spots and matching money to the grant for the Park of Commerce.
No - funneling money through the CRA - without public input - to build parking garages downtown This needs to be a more open process with more citizen input.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm getting nervous

Anonymous said...

Lynn, who do you think will win?

Lynn Anderson said...

It would be great to have a crystal ball. I am not convinced that some of the candidates did all that it takes to win.
I want the amendments to FAIL and the candidates have disseminated no information on them other than Richard at a Forum. Hopefully, they are talking about them when they door knock.

Anonymous said...

Richard, on the license plate readers, do you really believe that we will instantly know when a stolen car enters our city? Do you really believe that PBSO will have someone monitoring those cameras 24/7/365 and dispatch a deputy immediately to arrest the perp? Is that what you want the public to believe?

Buying these readers is just spending to sooth the fears of the public.

Lynn Anderson said...

When the study was done before we bought them PBSO, said it had been alerted to two or three stolen vehicles per day. Cpt. Baer says they work. As far as monitoring them, it must instantly flash up on a screen. There can't be just one person with a screen that has real time dAta. They are catching criminals daily with these readers and Cpt. Baer addressed this at his last commission update.

Anonymous said...

12:48 can’t figure out how to update the time on a microwave it’s always flashing 12:00!

Lynn Anderson said...

OMG, do I have AOC on my blog? :)

Anonymous said...

12:48's words sounded familiar and so I checked and they are lifted from one of Lynn's posts from 2018!

Now, I guess, she's all for the LPRs since Richard is.

Lynn Anderson said...

The stalker is back...of course I have no clue as to what you are talking about 3:17. Do you? You spend more time stalking. Get a job. Do a tax return or something.
I am all for anything that makes sense, anonymous. Is someone now against these readers since we have learned that they work?

John said...

Lynn, just eliminate anonymous posting. Voila, problem solved.