City Commission Meeting tonight and Mike Bornstein's raise

Some of the items on the Agenda:

• Spending $197,518 on a street sweeper even though that function is farmed out to U.S. Sweeping.

• Agreement with Palm Beach County for demolition services up to $25,000 per demolition that must benefit the low to moderate income residents in the area.

• A Credit...can you believe it--under budget? of $53,317.38 for coming under budget for pump design

• $36,134 for additional road design on 16,17,18 Avenue North and Terrace Drive.

• $115,225 for chemicals for our water!

And then we have the City Manager's Raise

You know how retail operations price everything under one penny to make it sound cheaper...$1.99, $5.99 as an example. Well, that's the same gimmick being implemented with the Bornstein raise.

City Manager Bornstein is up for a big raise--16.55%--but this is not surprising considering he just promoted Juan Ruiz to assistant city manager for a salary of $135,000 plus big "bennies."

Second Amendment to Employment Agreement for City Manager Michael Bornstein
SUMMARY:
This amendment will adjust the annual compensation provided to the City Manager, increasing his base annual salary from $145,000 to $169,000.

BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION:
Under the April 7, 2015 Amendment to the City Manager’s Employment Agreement, the City Commission agreed to review Michael Bornstein’s base salary on an annual basis on or about April 1st of each successive year of employment; however, no increase in compensation has been addressed in the past two years.

In 2015, the City Commission established the annual salary for City Manager Bornstein at $145,000. A recent survey of City Manager Compensation in the surrounding Palm Beach County area shows this salary to be one of the lowest in the Palm Beach County area. The previous City Manager to City Manager Bornstein held an annual salary of $150,000 during her tenure at the City from 2009-2011. (To be specific, she left after 32 months when she was fired by the new commission--The Trio--because she did not "have my vision," said Triolo).

IN ADDITION:
City contributes 10% of salary into 401(k) or now $16,900 a year.
$1,000 for life insurance premiums
Medical and Dental insurance
Paid 12 sick days and 15 vacation days per yea--probably more by now who knows?
Travel and expenses reimbursed to outside meetings
Professional dues and subscriptionspaid
Cell phone and cell service
$500 monthly automobile allowance.
Healthcare

Code Enforcement Manager leaving Lake Worth

Mark Woods, our code compliance manager, is taking another job. This department has had a lot of complaints over the last several years. And the myth continues that Susan Stanton gutted it and ruined it and caused all of our problems. At least that's what you will hear if you talk to anyone on the Trio of commissioners. Hogwash.

Read about it...

Best City Manager ever Back in the News

With the overwhelming passage of Florida's new medical marijuana law, Greenfield, California has had its share of alleged corruption regarding theirs resulting in a recall election of its mayor.

The mayor says there shouldn't be all this fuss--it's about bringing jobs to Greenfield. The city manager censored him in September for meddling in the investigation of the medical marijuana business. It's city manager is Lake Worth's former manager Susan Stanton.

 Read about it... 

Greenfield, California has a "hot" mayor

Our former city manager, Susan Stanton, has a "hot" mayor and by "hot" I don't mean good looking particularly.  He got involved with two men who said they could do business in Greenfield for a medical marijuana dispensary--with NO license--and they were setting up their dispensary.

One other councilman thinks the mayor was bought off by marijuana proponents. The mayor faces censure tonight for meddling into this investigation.

Read about it...

Top managers bailing, even Stanton

Let's get the Facts Straight on our Code Enforcement Department

Comment Up

Back in 2010, Wayne Bergman, Supervisor of the Code Enforcement Division said:

Code Compliance staff is comprised of 9 employees and includes an Interim Code Supervisor, 2 secretaries, 5 zone inspectors, and a permit / licensing technician. We are hiring two additional inspectors to be paid by the recently awarded JAG grant.

These two new inspectors will assist the PBSO in targeting properties involved in criminal activities. We are currently understaffed in the field, with 1 open Code inspector position and another soon to be open inspector position.

Wayne Bergman gave a speech at a TRNA meeting in 2010 where he stated that the department was only reduced by one by former city manager Susan Stanton who had to take austerity measures. To make a long story short and one I have been harping about for years, the Code Enforcement Department under Susan Stanton ended up increasing its code officers in the next fiscal budget. There were seven budgeted code officers for 2010/2011 budget. We presently have seven code officers in the city, the same as in 2010 but we have an increase in management by two.

The Code Department was NOT GUTTED, as Scott Maxwell enjoys telling everyone and even reporters get on that bandwagon and take this as gospel. It makes for good reading. Politicians have to blame someone other than themselves and reporters just seem to report what city hall tells them.

Kevin D. Thompson said, when writing about our code enforcement department and a particular case,
"...crystallizes one of the many ills of a division that has been rocked in recent years by an unwise dismantling by former City Manager Susan Stanton."  His article...

Blast from the Past - Wes Blackman complaint never dies

Comment Up
Back on July 29, 2011, this blog appeared on Lynn's Little bit of Trivia:
Resident Wes Blackman files complaint.

The Blackman complaint, although officially over, goes on and on. This same complaint has been brought up over and over again for over 5 years even though it was answered and found to have no merit. And like a Pitbull with a bone, it is he and the same people who keep on complaining about everything to stir the political pot. You have to wonder, what is really going on. They can't stand that this gorgeous casino was built. I can't think of one complaint of Mr. Blackman's that has brought home the bacon for him other than costing people a lot of time to defend themselves.

Now the complaint for the moment, again, is our casino building...the fact it was not built on pilings, it was really "new" construction, etc. and now they are saying the financial plan was faulty never mentioning that the pool was NEVER considered in this Plan and that the upstairs space was included although never rented. It's always something and the complaints always consist of lies and twisted narratives. Some continue to say that the assistant city manager at the time was in charge of the construction (is that insane, or what?) and are blaming her for faulty hardware, etc., when in fact Morganti was the Construction manager.

In 2009, Susan Stanton said, "While I am very much aware of the continuing debate whether the City should have completely demolished the building and begin new construction vs. attempting to reuse as much of the building structure as possible, all parties involved with this project remain excited about the progress made to date and will provide any additional information the Inspector General's Office requires to properly respond to this issue."

Read the City Complete response (202 pages) to the Inspector General Office's

P.S. Hands off our Beach

Lake Worth's Oldest Business - Trapped in the Closet

Comment Up

No, it's not prostitution, at least not in the traditional sense...the local paper, the most political newspaper I have ever read (unless I would throw the New York Times into the mix), is trapped in the closet of reality. There are basically three political factions in this city and two out of the three normally always agree on local issues. The highly politically charged newspaper is always placing the blame on these two factions for just about anything.

Lake Worth's oldest newspaper said, and the editor firmly believes, that there are people who want to keep unemployment high in our city. Is he stark-raving crazy? In its editorial last week, once again, the editor plays the blame game and is removed from normal reality. As an example of this fallacious written opinion:

They, include at least one, one percenter, were responsible for blowing through millions of dollars of city reserves with nothing to show for it when they had control of the purse strings. Ask yourself, do we need any more of that type of leadership? Ask the question, Why do they want to keep unemployment high?

He never identifies these people, the one-percenter or the commission but likes everyone to assume that it was the majority commission that preceded this present elected body...believing them to be the problem, and states that this previous  group was "voted out of office." Actually if he is talking about Jennings, Golden and Mulvehill, only one was voted out of office. This is just another charge that is incorrect. Szerdi was voted out.  Dave Vespo was voted out. The Lake Worth newspaper needs to identify who it is charging with this serious allegation--"blowing through millions of dollars of city reserves with nothing to show for it..." rather than leading its readership to assume that it was the previous commission whose hands never touch the purse strings.

It is a real shame when you pick up a newspaper expecting news and you get falsehoods and fantasy. It mentions that we are fortunate to have a Publix here.  Well, we had one here less than a mile away from the one in the downtown that was located on Lake Worth Road. The paper seems to want to forget about that one. All those employees were hired in the new store or transferred as the new Publix downtown is half the size of the old one. If this new store had not been built, it would not have cost any jobs in Lake Worth as the paper suggests.

The "news"paper also states that the business plan at the beach is "a proven failure" and once again blames a former commission. The Business Plan not only was approved by a previous commission but the Finance Advisory Board. It was chair John Pickett's plan. It was also  perfected and approved by Steven Carr our former Finance Director who ran every type of number scenario to ensure its credibility.  As William Waters said in one of the ITN Selection Committee Meetings, the plan was good based on the 2nd floor space being rented out and we had no comparisons on the CAM at that time. We now have better information going forward. 

Below is a graph from the City of Lake Worth's Budget that shows when the "money went missing."  When the former city manager, Susan Stanton, was hired, she "pulled a Bill Clinton" by getting our city back in the black by reversing this trend of spending more than we took in and going through millions as the Lake Worth newspaper has charged a previous commission of doing. While she was city manager, she attempted to get approval for a one time yearly fee of $60 for fire services and was met with the most dreadful of attacks but we now have a commission that wanted to tax you for 34 years for God knows what and tonight will vote to go out on a loan for $16 million for 2 inch pipes.

It is the city manager who runs and operates this city and presents his case to the commission to approve the Budget.  The Commission has to rely on accurate information from its city manager. The commission states policy. There was no more "missing money" or spending more than we made when Stanton was City Manager. And Mr. Herald, it was not the dreaded past commission, the one in which you are totally obsessed, that ran through millions of our savings.

Pension Crisis

"The crisis isn’t going away. Nationwide, public-employee pensions are running between $1 trillion and $5 trillion in the red, depending on the rate of return expected on stocks and bonds. This could be the next housing bubble to burst. Some states such as Utah have smartly moved quickly to head off this crisis by closing down open-ended pensions and putting public-sector union members in 401(k) plans that won’t bankrupt the state or municipalities. The unions are fighting this reform everywhere."  Read more...

And what we have faced in Lake Worth is all swept under the rug.  This commission dares not mention the word "union" as it might open up the truth in that can of worms.

Liabilities:
$56.7 on the utility upgrade…money still unaccounted for in the original bond
$3.5 million still owed on the Gateways...
$87 million or so in unfunded pension liability

NOTHING is ever mentioned about the cost of public safety. Former city manager Susan Stanton was so aghast at the sheer numbers that she got into negotiations with Ric Bradshaw and shaved $2  million off of his costs to Lake Worth.  The thanks she got?  A lot of misinformed residents who were fed all sorts of politically charged explosive stories even going so far as to blame it all on hormones. This is the sort of disgusting politics we have in this city.

The commission never talks about the pensions that have bled this city dry which are uncontrollable costs amounting to 69.31% of the entire budget.

Greenfield, California and Wind Power

Comment Up

And speaking of Greenfield, California, Susan Stanton is in the news about renewable energy. This is a state that is conducive to and produces wind energy. The levelized cost of energy from wind turbines in 1993 was about 7.5 cents per kilowatt/hour. With current wind research and development efforts, the Energy Commission estimates that newer technologies can reduce the cost of wind energy to 3.5 cents per kilowatt-hour.

GREENFIELD — The City Council is considering the financial viability of a Greenfield Wine Turbine Facility and have decided to have the city manager analyze the matter further.

“We have a really good wind corridor and it would be financially advantageous to build and sell this energy back to an investor, in this case PG&E,” said City Manager Susan Stanton. Read about it...

Blast from the Past - Lake Worth's City Manager

Comment Up
Former City Manager Susan Stanton, who had acknowledged faults as a communicator, had deep experience in municipal government and was not afraid to tackle difficult issues. Her bargaining skills allowed the city to save millions by negotiating lower contracts with the county sheriff's office and county fire-rescue agency. She brought expenses in line with falling tax revenues while pushing through the city utility's first electric rate reduction. Under her watch, the city finally broke ground on renovations to Lake Worth's public beach.

Read about it...

Typical Politics - Lake Worth - The Bullies

Comment Up
Back in December 2011, a motion was made by Scott Maxwell and seconded by Andy Amoroso to fire our city manager.  We all knew that Maxwell hated Stanton because she didn't let him get away with his bullying. Amoroso didn't have a reason. When asked he said, "My motion is enough reason." Back then, Amoroso went along with the flow but seems lately to be coming into his own--better late than never.

Mayor Triolo voted to fire City Manager Susan Stanton because of Triolo's vision of prosperity and respect of all people. No kidding--that's what she said. Just three weeks after being elected, she determined that Susan Stanton did not have "her" vision and she gave no respect to Ms. Stanton. Actually, the mayor's own words get in her way as she has proved that her shoulders are not big enough to tactfully handle anyone who disagrees with her.

Often times with a lack of awe-inspiring decisions, many on the dais forget what they said and when they said it.  As Scott Maxwell would say, "I'm tired of the game playing" but this is typical politics from someone who knows how to play the game better than most.

"Grab the Cash" before the next Bubble, says the city

Comment Up

What do you do when you are cash poor?  You buy on credit until that dries up or you stop buying. In Lake Worth, they just keep buying as we have been operating in the red for the past two budget years. The "free lunch" is alive and better than ever. It is the hope of the city and the commission that their "grab the cash" plan will work at the polls tomorrow. They have done everything under the sun to convince you.

The commission is trashing your mailbox with junk trying to sell everyone on rebuilding our infrastructure in our tired and 100 year-old city...fixing the potholes and paving over the few streets that are still gravel.  They appeal to you that kids need sidewalks to keep them safe. Potholes are much more "right in your face" and a "selling point" to convince you to buy into their Roads Improvement 2020 plan that will obligate every property owner in this city for 30 years or more and then they will have to turn right around and fix the roads again.

Can you even imagine what you will be paying as property values rise? This is to attract development, not just the poor to whom they have been catering over the past several years by literally spending $23 million to build 138 houses dotting every poor section of our city with the hopes that those surrounded by this new housing will also improve their homes...the trickle up theory. Didn't work; never does. Now in order to raise tax revenue, they are engaging in affordable rentals..BIG TIME. They like to tell you that the one on Boutwell is NOT affordable rentals but it is according to HUD standards and definition.

But the main reason this is on the ballot is to attract developers and to change our quaint city forever.  Realtors are ready and some people are hurrying out to get their license so that they can cash in when the time is right. They are not happy with no growth and property values falling to a ridiculous low.  After all, real estate commissions are based on value.  They want to give developers a big break by YOU paying for the infrastructure at the Park of Commerce so that they might develop there. How long will it take for the city to recapture your $11 million minimum investment in that land?  Another 50 or 100 years? The government has done everything possible to ruin our city by building affordable rentals which will cause more slum, blight, the homeless, and crime. They even went so far as to not to honor the vote on heights in our downtown...a new low for any elected official.

No one is addressing this false sense of recovery that we are all experiencing at the moment.  The housing recovery seems to be just another stage of the foreclosure crisis with the same city players who regenerate whenever there is a boom. We have a lot of investors who are buying again with banks playing games. The bubble is back.

We very well might end up as we did before as this could be a false recovery. Even your property has been assessed on this "recovery." 8.9% increase in value based on what?   Institutional buyers are snapping up cheap properties. Banks, once again, are giving cheap mortgages. People are buying. We are still poor and slum and blight has no where to go. If the bubble bursts, we will have more folks in foreclosure than we did before who won't be able to pay their ad-valorem.

This commission does not listen to you.  Make them listen tomorrow when you walk into that election booth and cast your vote AGAINST.

Gang bust in Greenfield

Comment Up

Susan Stanton on top of things--cleaning up Greenfield, California
Read about it...

Wishful Thinking - that we are safer

Comment Up

Sheriff Rick Bradshaw wants a 4.3% increase for doing such a "smashing" job. This increase will go towards salaries and benefits. He is out there presenting his case and doing what it takes to convince the Palm Beach County Commissioners to give him what he wants...$531.3 million. Usually the sheriff gets what he wants because all of us are paranoid about the increase in crime in our county. And NOTHING gets better. Hell, crime is sneaking west of the tracks--someone recently drove by and shot into a house in the 2400 block of Lake Osborne Drive.

Even in Lake Worth the sheriff says that crime is down other than in two categories. We who live here are not experiencing any vote of confidence that crime is diminishing to any acceptable level. In fact, we are experiencing more of it. See crime stats  It is the elephant in the room that no commissioner EVER talks about along with the sheriff's budget unless, of course, they give us some erroneous bit of information like they saved us $600,000. The truth of the matter is, the sheriff's budget has gone up every year unlike the rest of Lake Worthians who work for a living and pay their salary increases.

• The Lake Worth crime index is 68% higher than the Florida average and and the Florida crime index is 15% higher than the National average.
• The Lake Worth violent crime rate is 130% higher than the Florida average and and the Florida violent crime rate is 25% higher than the National average.
• The Lake Worth property crime rate is 59% higher than the Florida average and and the Florida property crime rate is 14% higher than the National average. 

Lake Worth, FL Demographics

When we first contracted with the Sheriff, there were 134 now we have a total of 94 Lake Worth police officers. This results in 2.7 police officers per 1,000 residents which is 31.8% less than the Florida average and 5% less than the National average. The criminals are winning the 'game" in our city.

When contracts come up, raises should be based on results. Boynton Beach's city manager is in contract negotiations with the police union and they are calling for her head...reminds me of a few years ago when Stanton went through the same thing. The unions run the city, or so they believe, but rather it is what city managers have allowed them to get away with.  And of course, their officers in Boynton are pulling the same trick as they did in Lake Worth--all want to go to PBSO--higher salaries.

As a city, we are definitely poorer with little results to show for the $15,057,593 (projected to go up next year to $15,651,934) which is nearly 60% of our operating budget for SAFETY. 

There is power in numbers and Rick Bradshaw has more power than any human being in Palm Beach County. The rest of us? We sit here and pretend that we are feigning off criminals by putting on night lights so that criminals might think someone is at home, contract with ADT, install security lights, look over our shoulder when we are walking to our car and make the necessary precautions to feel less exposed to danger. And then we call for the sheriff AFTER the crime has been committed.  Do we feel safer? In the end, it is the voter who has the power to affect change.

Pensions and Unions - The Elephant in the room

Comment Up

It is predicted that there are a lot of massive municipal bankruptcies on the Horizon. And sadly but true when talking about the public sector the only way to shed pension obligations is filing Chapter 9 bankruptcy.  A report was just done that shows 85% of  pensions plans could fail in 30 years. Click here... for CNBC article.

Over the last several decades, the private sector has moved increasingly to the 401(k)-style “defined contribution” model pension plan, which yields a retirement savings based on what both employers and employees have contributed to individual accounts. Public-sector workers, on the other hand, still rely on “defined benefit” pensions, which provide a guaranteed stream of income based on career longevity and late-career peak salaries.

Back in 2010, Lake Worth City Manager Susan Stanton said that she wanted a reduction of $1,816,000 by suspending the General Employee Defined Benefit Pension Plan and adopting a Defined Contribution Plan. City employee union members demonstrated against her appearing in front of city hall calling for her head. She also said, "The current compensation levels as defined in the three collective bargaining agreements need to be evaluated and realigned with the community's general ability to pay for those benefits." All good advice but this union backed trio fired her.

At the end of fiscal year 2013, the Lake Worth pension fund positions were as follows:
 Employee retirement system: $65,044.534
 Police: $30,546,979
 Firefighters': $35,302,673.

Click here for descriptions of the Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution plans.

According to the city's 2015 calendar highlights booklet that was passed out, Budget Workshop #3 was scheduled for June 10.  This has now been cancelled and the next budget workshop is on June 24. Pension plans that were brought up on April 8 at the first budget Workshop and allotted one hour of discussion are the elephants in the room that no one at city hall ever really discusses other than to tell us they are uncontrollable costs. City Manager Bornstein said that the city was discussing  pensions but no information was brought forward.

If we could control pensions as well as the public safety budget, we would have money for all those potholes.

Blast From the Past - The Rest of the Story

Comment Up

Back in the Fall of 2010, Scott Maxwell was giving a series of city town hall meetings in order to "educate" the voters on the high cost of our electricity, or so he said.  Not only was he "educating" the people, he was also promoting his favored candidates for city office by distributing a brochure to all attendees. It said, "You can exercise your power by helping me gain the two supporting votes from the commission that are necessary to lower the amount of your utility bills."

Not only did he take advantage of Calvary United Methodist Church but also those who attended the forum where he used city staff for supposed "education" on our electric utility. But the real reason wasn't coming from power from a utility pole.  It was to knock McVoy and Mulvehill out of power.  As such, Susan Stanton, former city manager,  said "no staff will attend Maxwell's future community meetings including two planned right before the election."

This put the icing on the political Maxwell grudge and like an elephant that never forgets, when he got the opportunity he fired reformer Susan Stanton as city manager.

And that's the rest of the story.

Susan Stanton soon to get Top Cop

Comment Up
Greenfield city officials will conduct a two-day assessment of four candidates to head up the city’s police department, according to Susan Stanton, city manager.

Read more... from the Californian.com

Pushing forward in spite of it all

Comment Up

The longest recession since World War II began in December 2008 and the government says it lasted 18 months lasting well into 2010. Until this one, the longest postwar recessions were those of 1973-5 and 1981-2, with each lasting 16 months. Jobs lost, banks folded, homes were lost and cities filed bankruptcy.  It was a mess and we are still in recovery. It all affected Lake Worth in a very negative way.  The city became much poorer; property values fell for years and some still fell again in 2013. Over 2,000 homes went into foreclosure. We have not recovered. Our tax base is pathetic.  But we still have dreams and the city is going to spend what little money you have on those dreams, one way or another.

Last night it was said by the city manager that Mrs. Sharp was right, we should have started on the Park of Commerce  4 or 5 years ago...as "we need to create jobs" and ad-valorem.  During the economic crisis that was still affecting Lake Worth back then, we got a new city manager (Susan Stanton) who worked 16 hours a day to stop the bleed.  Now it seems we are going to open the wound that has never yet healed. On top of that, we're going to take over the maintenance of Boutwell Road from the County and we don't have a pot--not yet anyway--not unless the city moves more money from our Reserves or goes out on a General Obligation Bond and commits the city to long-term debt.

As one resident said to me, "When will this commission and city administration stop dreaming about what might be and take care of what is."

Jamie Titcomb in the News

Comment Up

Palm Beach County "It's almost like we're 

an incubator for things to happen"

Jamie Titcomb is back in the news today as the new Workforce Alliance chair whose primary goal is to put people back to work.

If you recall, Mr. Titcomb was one of the two finalists along with Michael Bornstein to be our city manager after Maxwell, Triolo and Amoroso fired Susan Stanton. A motion was made by Suzanne Mulvehill and seconded by Christopher McVoy for Titcomb. It came as a big surprise when Maxwell did not support him as he had served as the Executive Director of the Palm Beach County League of Cities. Maxwell had been the City of Lake Worth's  liaison to the League. In May of this year, Maxwell was voted in as the president of the PB County League of Cities.

Susan Stanton, City Manager of Greenfield, California

Comment Up

And what better opportunity, now that we talked about the constant crime in Lake Worth that seems to be escalating, than to mention our former city manager of Lake Worth, Susan Stanton.

Now the city manager of Greenfield, California,  Susan Stanton is conducting a national search for its very own police chief. As mentioned in a blog last year, Greenfield and Soledad California have been sharing one police chief since March 2012. She has held steadfast in her claim that Greenfield needed its own police chief.

According to Greenfield's police chief, "Burglaries in Greenfield are down 47 percent, armed robberies by 14 percent and neither city has had a homicide in 10 months, an accomplishment considering the violence flare-ups troubling much of the rest of the county. Assaults are down and we've saved some money, too."  click here.

At the time of her hire, the mayor of Greenfield, California said, "Stanton rose to the top of Greenfield’s applicant pool because of her skills in labor negotiations and her success in attracting new cultural centers to Largo. Communities across the nation are looking to raise revenues, and she did those things. Hiring her is a bold move, but it goes back to her experience and qualifications.”

Not only is crime down, but Stanton negotiated police salaries as she did when she was  city manager of Lake Worth. Stanton said her city's police department employees agreed to a contract with a 1 percent pay increase, compared to a nearly 12 percent increase under Soledad's new contracts. Please note that the PBSO got another raise this year. If any negotiations were taking place, we were not informed about them.