West Palm Beach Corporation wins $90 million Air Force Contract

Powerus subsidiary wins Air Force contract worth up to $90M

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Autonomous Power Corporation, operating as Powerus (NASDAQ:PUSA), announced Monday that its subsidiary Tandem Defense LLC received a contract from the U.S. Air Force for Group 1 aerial-denial unmanned aircraft systems.

The competitively awarded indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract has a ceiling value of $90 million and extends through mid-2028, according to a press release statement. The contract includes ancillary support equipment, operator training, and field service representative support.

The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio manages the contract. Under the IDIQ structure, the Air Force may place individual orders against the ceiling as requirements arise, with work locations to be determined by follow-on task orders.

Powerus stated that actual revenue will depend on individual task orders placed by the Air Force and may be materially less than the $90 million ceiling. The contract remains subject to government funding availability, task-order issuance, and the government’s right to terminate for convenience. The Air Force has obligated initial funding as of the announcement date.

Tandem Defense manufactures unmanned aircraft systems for military, government, and law enforcement customers in the United States.

Powerus (Nasdaq: PUSA), is a defense technology company headquartered at 515 North Flagler Drive in West Palm Beach, Florida. The company builds unified autonomous drone and counter-UAS systems for military and commercial operations.

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Google gets back in the war business after years of employee revolts

Pete Hegseth Just Handed Google a Massive Pentagon AI Contract That’ll Make China Squirm

Google spent years running from Pentagon contracts after woke employees threw tantrums about helping America's military.

Now the company just landed one of the biggest defense AI deals in history.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced the launch of GenAI.mil, giving more than 3 million U.S. military personnel access to Google's Gemini artificial intelligence platform.

"The future of American warfare is here, and it's spelled AI," Hegseth said. "As technologies advance, so do our adversaries. But here at the War Department, we are not sitting idly by."

The platform lets troops conduct deep research, analyze video footage, and process battlefield intelligence at unprecedented speed.

Read about it...

$100 Billion Federal Contracting Scam

James O’Keefe Uncovers New Massive Fraud

A sweeping undercover investigation has ignited controversy across the federal contracting world after journalist James O’Keefe released footage allegedly exposing a billion-dollar fraud within the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) Business Development Program.

The video, published Monday by O’Keefe Media Group and already viewed more than 2.3 million times, features Melayne Cromwell, a contract manager for ATI Government Solutions, describing how her firm uses its minority-owned status to secure lucrative no-bid contracts before passing most of the work to outside firms.

“I tell you pass-throughs are a great thing!” Cromwell says in the footage, adding that ATI completes only about 20 percent of each project — far below the 51 percent threshold required by federal rules.

Built in America by Americans - FBI invests $10 million in advanced ballistic helmets

FBI just awarded one contract that will have criminal elements nervous

Federal law enforcement is getting a major upgrade in protective equipment.

The FBI just made a smart investment in agent safety by awarding one contract that will have criminal elements nervous. The Federal Bureau of Investigation recently announced a significant equipment upgrade that puts agent safety first.

Galvion, a New Hampshire-based defense contractor, secured a lucrative five-year deal worth up to $10 million to supply the FBI with their cutting-edge Hellbender Federal Edition ballistic helmets.

According to the company’s announcement, the contract covers multiple Justice Department agencies including the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, and U.S. Marshals Service.

That means this equipment upgrade will benefit hundreds of federal agents who put their lives on the line every day. These aren’t your typical police helmets – they incorporate technology originally developed for U.S. Marine Corps special operations.

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Hegseth cuts over one-half billion in Defense Contracts

Pentagon Chief Ends Wasteful Military Spending by Slashing $580 Million in Contracts

Pentagon officials long treated Americans’ pocketbooks like their personal ATM. They’d take hundreds of millions from our wallets with vague comments about “national security.”

Well, Americans, there’s a new sheriff in town, and he’s not playing around with your hard-earned tax dollars. The Trump administration promised to drain the swamp, and that includes cutting off the money hose that’s been flooding Washington’s bureaucratic basement for decades.

After years of Democrats treating the federal budget like an unlimited expense account, we’re finally seeing some adult supervision in Washington. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is taking a chainsaw to wasteful spending that would make even the most hardened bureaucrat blush.

And the best part? He’s telling us exactly what he’s cutting – a level of transparency that’s about as common in Washington as a politician turning down a free lunch.

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PBSO Contract with Lake Worth--12th Amendment

September 6 Agenda

EXECUTIVE BRIEF
REGULAR MEETING

AGENDA DATE: September 6, 2022 DEPARTMENT: City Manager

TITLE:
Twelfth Addendum to the Law Enforcement Service Agreement (LESA)

SUMMARY:

The Addendum to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s office LESA extends our law enforcement services through September 30, 2024. The cost will be $14,386,738.00 with monthly payments of $1,198,894.87 for Fiscal Year 2023 and the cost will be $14,602,539.00 with monthly payments of $1,216,878.25 in Fiscal Year 2024.

BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION:
In FY 2008, the City of Lake Worth Beach (“City”) and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office (“PBSO”) entered into a contract entitled “Agreement for Law Enforcement Services by and between the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and the City of Lake Worth Beach (“LESA”) which provides for all the City’s law enforcement services. The original Agreement has been amended many times allowing for annual increases, as well as additional personnel requested by the City.

In preparation for the PBSO contract renewal consideration, staff met with PBSO officials to discuss the law enforcement services provided by PBSO. PBSO is committed to working with the City to enhance its law enforcement services for the residents that results into a positive impact on the community.

As they have gone up on their contract through 2024, will someone ask them why they won't police our panhandling laws? We will have 82 sworn deputies for Lake Worth and 6 non-sworn.

Lake Worth to have discussion on sale of our Electric Utility

Tomorrow night, the Lake Worth commission meets at 6pm. Under New business, there are four items. I am addressing Item A.

Item A. Commissioner Hardy brought forward this item. He thinks it a good idea to get our Electric Utility "off our plate." He wants the City Commission to deliberate and decide the following two questions:

(1) Should the City Commission engage the Florida Municipal Power Agency (FMPA)
to ascertain whether it and its members will release the City from its obligations to
them for an agreed upon price?
(2) Should the City Commission engage Florida Power and Light to ascertain whether
it is willing to transact with the City and purchase its electric utility assets?

Commissioner Hardy, acting alone without vote or any authorization of the commission,  approached FMPA and FPL.

For a little bit of trivia--In year 2002, we entered into a contract with FMPA that locked us into higher power costs.

The beginning of lowering rates started in December 2008 when we voted to exit FMPA All Requirements. By the end of 2013, we ended our contract with them. In January 2014 we got a new energy provider with Orlando Utilities giving us a rate that was more favorable to Lake Worth and renewed with them in 2018 on a five year contract.

Then what did the commission do? FMPA had been contracted again, this time regarding our solar and signed a Solar Power Sales Contract with FMPA; deliveries began June 2020. FMPA screwed us on the gas line years ago so the City must be masochistic to be back in business with them.

The FMPA solar procurement is a 20-year power purchase agreement. Normally they give option renewals to extend the agreement and I have a Public Information Request for the contract. And good luck with the wish to sell our electric utility to Florida Power & Life (NextEra Energy). It will never happen. They don't want it. We all could have told you that Commissioner Hardy.

Even though we have had some problems with our solar energy program...some people believe it easier to sell the whole damn Electric Utility--easier to get it off our plate. We go through this every decade or less.

Just like there is no systemic racism in Lake Worth Commissioner Hardy, no one wants to sell our utility that has been around since 1914. Any sale of our Utility would take a vote of our electorate.

Immediately following is New Business B, Commissioner Maxwell's Resolution 30-2020 in support of the Lake Worth Electric Utility.

PBSO Contract

Article 6, Section 6.1 of the Law Enforcement Service Agreement is amended as
to the total amount due for services for the period beginning October 01, 2018
through September 30, 2019 as follows:

• $13,623,727.00 Annual payment

• $1,135,310.62 Monthly payment

In accordance with Article 12 of the Law Enforcement Service Agreement, the
Parties have agreed to extend the term of the Agreement for an additional one (1) year. The term of this Agreement shall run through September 30, 2019.

Tonight Cpt. Baer will give his quarterly presentation. Once again, we will hear that crime is down.

Deveaux files protest - Discrimination he claims

Dev-Land Demolitions and Site, Inc, with president Carl Deveaux, has filed a protest against the intent to award the Debris Removal and Hauloff Emergency Services to some company other than his.

Dev-Land cited "discrimination" in the scoring of its proposal but failed to allege any specific or sufficient grounds for the City to eliminate or disqualify any respondent.

Thirteen companies responded to the RFP (Dev-Land was ranked #12) that was narrowed down to four companies. Dev-Land was not among the four.

Back in 2011, the City of Lake Worth got into trouble with the court. Two Lake Worth employees - an attorney and a code enforcement secretary - were placed on administrative leave after a Palm Beach County circuit judge blasted the city for lying to the court in an attempt to foreclose on land owned by the Deveaux brothers, Ed and Carl, two longtime business owners. Bogus and fraudulent documents had been filed against the Deveaux's.

$13,356,595.00 for PBSO services in Lake Worth

Not exactly a drop in the bucket. PBSO will get another increase for its services to Lake Worth. One of the biggest complaints, however, is that we never see a deputy until after the fact. They will have a few dedicated to the beach. Crime at our  beach! The other big complaint is that crime is on the rise no matter what the PBSO wants to tell us.

Commissioner Hardy believes we should increase our budget for public safety and I would suppose that some of his cries have not fallen on deaf ears. This is on the Consent Agenda and will sail through.

Article 6, Section 6.1 of the Law Enforcement Service Agreement is amended as to the total amount due for services for the period beginning October 01, 2017 through September 30, 2018 as follows: The total amount due for the annual period referenced above shall be $13,356,595.00. Monthly payments shall be $1,113,049.58. The last monthly payment shall be $1,113,049.62

Inspector General investigates Lake Worth

And just think, the property owners here just voted in a 30 year general obligation bond. The most frustrating thing is when management does not do its job but gets big raises. The city manager's review is coming up in a few months.

City Manager Bornstein gave this explanation as to why the city never responded to the IG survey of two years ago. “I’m on my fourth finance director in 4½ years,” Bornstein said. “Organizationally, we’re still not where we need to be … but we’re improving.”

Read about it...and the City of Lake Worth having no policy on monitoring contracts.

Lake Worth Union Contracts ratified today

Comment Up

Union contract ratified today. Voting was held at the Osborne Center and employees voted between Noon and 2pm.

The contract ratification vote is when the members of the union democratically determine whether or not to accept the terms of the agreement that has been tentatively agreed to by the City of Lake Worth and the unions' elected bargaining committee.

PEU
Yes:  56
No:    1

PMSA
Yes:  14
No:   0

Their 4% raise is now retro-active to October 1, 2015.

Read the 70 page Contract

The Siemens Loan deal - Legal Fees and Costs

Comment Up

When I think of the Siemens deal, Donald Trump and the Iranian deal comes to mind. Last month when speaking about Iran he said that the nuclear deal with Iran was so bad he is close to wondering whether it was done poorly on purpose. “It’s almost like there has to be something else going on."

One thing that is going on with Siemens--the costs:

Click graph to read

Bond Counsel: $17,500.00
Financial Advisor: $5,000
Lake Worth City Attorney: $16,028
Bank Counsel: $12,500

TOTAL: $51,028

Now here is the BIG WHOPPER--The cost of these loans:

There are two separate loans that run simultaneously and the payments are impressive:

Loan #1 above is in the amount of $9,882,632.00 payments until year 2031 and is for LED street lighting, solar paneling, etc. At the end of this loan the interest and principal break-down is as follows:
INTEREST: $3,103,292.76
PRINCIPAL: $9,882,632.00

Loan #2 is in the amount of $12,663,088.83 payments to year 2031 and is for accessories, parts and other equipment.
INTEREST: $3,977,959.68
PRINCIPAL: $12,663,088.83

The interest compounds and we are paying a whopping 31.41% for these loans with some of the improvements not having a life of the loan. We will have to provide constant maintenance, something we don't do well or at all.

This is what all of the incumbents voted for and Mayor Pam Triolo signed the contracts.

To read it all, Click Here

ROLOH

ROLOH held their Neighborhood Association meeting last night.

Robert Waples, President of ROLOH

Cpt. Rolando Silva

We learned that burglaries are on the rise. The offenders, for the most part, are young men between the ages of 18 and 20. These happen most always during the day whereas car thefts normally happen at night. This neighborhood has had eight burglaries over the last two month period and one car theft. Increased Sheriff presence has caused the numbers of crimes to go down in Lake Osborne Heights.

COP's--Wally St. Cyr from Lakeside Point Gardens 2nd from left and
Bernie Siler far right

Members of the COP’s program were there with Cpt. Bernie Siler who gave a short speech trying to recruit more of the residents into the COP program.

Palm Beach County Commissioner Shelley Vana, District 3

who as you recall, won against Republican Bob Kanjian, flatly stated that the County has NO money. She also said that the Water Contract between Lake Worth and Palm Beach County was going to be extremely difficult to forget about. As a Commissioner, she voted to explore further talks with Lake Worth on this issue but there are those who are standing firm to the Contract. She described herself as “middle of the road” and is willing to talk about issues. She is against making it hard to petition and believes in local control for the people.