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On or about March 18, the news of Pay-To-Play was exposed by the Post. In that article it briefly mentioned Danny Derringer, a former Lake Worth city employee.
Danny Derringer was a former Lake Worth employee rumored to have been on the take. The Lake Worth Herald recently ran a story on the corruption. People who know Derringer say that he was allowed to retire here rather than be fired. As we know he went on to a few more jobs until this latest pay-to-play scandal broke. Now he faces 60 years.
Today, the pay-to-play is front page news, a
Watchdog Exclusive by the Palm Beach Post. This is an excellent article written by Pat Beall, Joel Engelhardt and Adam Playford and the kind of investigative reporting that is superior. When the Post sets its teeth into a story, no one can do it better.
One person who worked with Derringer says, "He was in charge of water distribution and reported to Mike Thew. He was a legend in his own mind, lots of talk and little to no action. He was let go-- they were going to fire him, but subsequently let him retire. I believe he was the head of the PEU and PMSA at the time of his “retirement.” There was some scandal involving his "retirement" but it too has been covered up.
It is time we stop the piggy-backing of contracts and the waive of bid deals. I, as well as others, have demanded this at public meetings to no avail. There are millions of dollars in waste at Lake Worth Utilities. William Coakley says that about four years ago, they had a $50,000 to $70,000 change order that we had to pay to Chaz (Mock Roos' was in charge) that in his opinion was a farce. To this day, we have not done a forensic audit. The milking as well as the cover-up of the Utility continues. Read this article by Coakley on a sidewalk deal in Lake Worth by
Chaz Equipment.
Chaz Equipment has made $2.92 million (reported by the Post) from the City of Lake Worth. I have to wonder about this amount because on February 20, 2007, the Commission approved a $1,498,860 contract to Chaz Equipment for concentrate discharge pipeline for the Reverse Osmosis plant. I don't know what happened to that Contract but we do know that the idea of discharging effluent into the Atlantic Ocean was unacceptable to the City and it delayed our RO objective.
At the last meeting of the Finance Advisory Board, Jessica Plotkin brought up the fact that we needed a forensic audit of the Utility. This was dissed with the reason being that we just can't have all these audits going on at the same time..."Do you realize that the audit by the State is a big thing," someone asked. Well, we can have as many audits as we want in Lake Worth. There has always been an excuse for not having this audit and the stall continues.
The former employee who contacted me further stated, "That whole group on the water side was very cozy with Mock Roos way past the point of normal...many stories about things taking place but never substantiated." How much has Mock Roos made with the City? It must total several million a year for 40 years? Several years back Dave Vespo went on a brief crusade, showing a little spark of possible brilliance by questioning Mock Roos and the city's relationship but stopped his pursuit--it never went anywhere; he dropped it like a hot potato. It is impossible to fight City Hall even when you're a part of it. Compromises are made.
The Corruption Capital of the Country prevails and it is not only public officials on the take. And you wonder why your Utility bills are so high.
