10 Years later, some things never change

A memory from when the city conspired against the residents

SHOCK III: Committee Conspired to Keep Beach Build Plans from Residents to Get Szerdi Re-elected

The Lake Worth Tribune By Margaret Menge

"In an audio recording of its February 10, 2015 meeting, members of the ITN Committee are heard conspiring to keep plans to build at the beach from the public to make sure John Szerdi would win re-election to the City Commission.

“I would recommend we do not have any kind of public meeting until after the election,” said William Waters, a city employee who oversees the building and code compliance departments. “If we have a public meeting, and it gets out (unintelligible)….you can say goodbye to Szerdi,” he said.

Commissioner Andy Amoroso, the Commission’s liaison to the ITN Committee, quickly agreed, saying, “Absolutely, you cannot do this before…”

News of Hudson Holdings’ proposal to build a convention center and private beach club at the Lake Worth beach did get out before the election – after Steve Michael of Hudson Holdings met with owners of the Gulfstream Condominiums in late February and Commissioner Christopher McVoy happened to be in the room. McVoy took detailed notes of the meeting, and provided them to the Tribune, which published a story just two weeks before the election.

Read the article...

As it turned out, John Szerdi lost his re-election bid on March 10, 2015 to first-time candidate Ryan Maier by a 20-percent margin, winning just 37 percent of the vote to Maier’s 57 percent." And did they ever give Ryan Maier a hard time after that..drove him out of town eventually.

Now the city, with a memory like an elephant and still wanting to screw up our beach and city, is doing that same thing in a ballot initiative.

Vote NO on Amendments 2 & 3 on March 10, 2026. We want to keep our historic beach and small town.

RICO charges filed against Hudson Holdings

Remember these bums?

Well, former Lake Worth commissioner John Szerdi should remember them...he worked for them. Then we have Wes Blackman, former chair of the Historic Resource Preservation Board--he worked for Hudson Holdings too. We can't forget Greg Rice, Chair of our Planning & Zoning board, campaigning for it all, as well as the PAC for which he was affiliated, Friends of the Gulfstream, which had an ethics complaint filed against it in July 2013. It pulled a lot of dirty tricks back then.

On top of the above three, we have three city commissioners still in office: Scott Maxwell, Mayor Pam Triolo and Andy Amoroso who gave Hudson Holdings every little thing their heart desired like upzoning at the Gulfstream Hotel area as well as declaring an entire election null and void, won by the people on heights.

Anonymous Lake Worth Graphics Artist

Respectful Planning PAC won at the ballot just a few years ago getting 56% of the vote to keep the heights to 45 feet. Thanks to everyone who worked on this with special gratitude to Laurel Decker. Then the city attorney pulled a fast one on the people--so did the commission. They did not care about democracy, only giving developers what they wanted.

Changing Florida's Future, a PAC out of Tallahassee, sent out mailers supporting the election of Maxwell, Triolo and Amoroso that were funded by Hudson Holdings in the amount of $9,000. Hudson Holdings knew who their friends were.

The Gulfstream Hotel sits there and rots to this day. But wait a minute--we had a husband and wife team that blitzed into the city...supposed developers, Amy and Amrit Gill from St. Louis who told us that they were ready to embark on a $100 million project to renovate the historic building. The city fell for it and so did the residents. I wonder if any investors fell for it too? Where are these people?

Hudson Holdings had a lot of connections in St. Louis as well as failed projects. Was there not a red flag for the City of Lake Worth with this husband and wife team when it appeared out of nowhere from St. Louis? It really makes one wonder what really is going on. No one can continue to have two left feet.

The caveat for these "supposed" new developers to go forward with the hotel? They insisted that the residents approve a ballot measure in March 2020 that would allow property built adjacent to the hotel to match the Gulfstream’s 87-foot height. City guidelines limit building height east of Dixie Highway to 65 feet. Mailer after mailer was sent out to voters promoting this measure. Who was behind this mailer? It sounds like a Steven Michael tactic. The City knows nothing about this husband and wife team any more than they did about Hudson Holdings. Have they done one bit of due diligence?

Two years ago, south county developer Bill Milmoe and vitamin kingpin Carl DeSantis filed a RICO lawsuit against Hudson Holdings. It was settled and it was reported that CDS (the DeSantis group) now owns the property. Details of the settlement were kept secret and sealed.  But the owners are still HH GULFSTREAM LAND HOLDINGS LLC according to the Property appraiser's office.

**Now one of the original investors in the Hudson Holdings "enterprise" regarding the Gulfstream Hotel just filed suit under RICO statutes because of Steven Michael's and Avi Greenbaum's continuing individual and enterprise misconduct." The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties.

COMPLAINT

City of Lake Worth POLITICAL Advisory Board Appointments

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A blast from the past--

Example of "dirty tricks" to confuse the voters. 

(A reminder how important board appointments are

 and how the will of the people can be diverted through deception)

New Volunteer Political Board Appointments:

Planning and Zoning Board:
Mayor’s reappointments of Greg Rice and Anthony Marotta both for a term ending in July 31, 2019. (Greg was in the Friends of the Gulfstream PAC as treasurer to defeat the Heights amendment...every nasty trick in the book was used but they still lost)
Vice Mayor’s reappointment of Dustin Zacks for a term ending in July 31, 2019.
Commissioner McVoy’s appointment of Tara McAlonan to the fill an unexpired term ending in July 31, 2017.

Historic Resources Preservation Board:
Vice Mayor’s reappointment of Judith Just for a term ending in July 31, 2019.

Finance Advisory Board:
Mayor’s reappointment of Sherry Canterbury Schmidt for a term ending in July 31, 2019. (She was the gal on the secret ITN Committee that wanted to hand over our beach to Hudson Holdings)
Vice Mayor’s reappointment of John Szerdi for a term ending in July 31, 2019. (He is an employee of Hudson Holdings)

Construction Board of Adjustment and Appeals:
Commissioner Maier’s appointment of Ryan Paplow to fill an unexpired term ending in July 31, 2016 and reappoint for another term ending in July 31, 2020

14 S. J Street code complaints

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Two complaints were filed against the property at 14 S. J Street by an anonymous person. We don't know if this person even lives in our city but whoever it is obviously is very "concerned." This is where commissioner Maier rents space for his hair salon, The Other Salon.  He is a target of some political folks in our city who just don't like him just "because" and love to put a little dent in his day.

The first complaint was filed on January 8, 2016, citing the area parking behind the building as out of compliance.  It must be paved per our code. Of course, it has been gravel from the beginning of time but someone had a huge problem with Commissioner Maier parking his car there.

On March 31, the magistrate gave a $50 a day fine for 60 days plus an administrative fee saying that the owner has been unresponsive. The property is in the historic district. Code Officer, Yolanda Robinson, is the very same officer who was involved in commissioner Maier's personal residence last year when a complaint was filed by an out-of-town citizen and a friend of John Szerdi.

That complaint wasn't enough.  I guess the anonymous complainant checked to see if a license was in effect. Another complaint was filed on 02/26/2016.

Both these code complaints are against the owner of the property, not any of the tenants or Commissioner Ryan Maier.

The "Fabric" of Lake Worth - The Homeless

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Slum, blight, crime, Sober Homes and the belief that development will rid us of our problems are issues that we face on a daily basis in Lake Worth. While elected officials seem only interested in spending millions to attract developers as evidenced by what they have approved to spend at the Park of Commerce  (this year alone is $11 million), and money that will take 100-200 years to recapture in ad-valorem taxes, the city falls further into a hole of urban decay.

Ever since John Szerdi got defeated in his re-election bid for Commissioner District 4, this trio commission of Maxwell, Triolo and Amoroso have been perplexed and in somewhat of a funk. They ask themselves, "Could the impossible happen again?"  The answer is "yes."

In spite of their well-heeled political connections and special developer interests, their record is not a rosy bunch of accomplishments. All you have to do is drive around our city to see exactly what I mean.  Hell, even at the entry of city hall there are steps that are never swept or pressure cleaned that are contributing to the blight.  They took out the bushes there as they were never maintained.  The homeless park themselves on the several benches directly in front of the "people's temple" as city manager Bornstein would say.  Many are being dumped in Lake Worth and the homeless population here is growing leaps and bounds.

"Most of Lake Worth’s homeless population can be found in Bryant Park, the Cultural Plaza, Dixie Highway and anywhere that there’s an overgrown property where they can hide. There are some who camp at City Hall at night. We know many of them by first name," Bornstein said in a Palm Beach Post December 5 article. "They’re part of the fabric of our community.”

We just can't keep playing the blame game--it's out of control.  I would say that most of the homeless want a roof over their head...a home.  Perhaps strengthening rent regulation laws would preserve affordable housing and protect tenants which would allow the homeless and other struggling Lake Worthians to have a place to live and then they could get a job. New York has rent controls and rent stabilization programs. We need a standard of reasonableness as rental rates are exorbitant in this poor city.

Read Michael Moore's Letter to the Editor in the Palm Beach Post.  Michael is a Lake Worth resident who advocates for those in need. The Homeless Coalition of Palm Beach County is offering a lot of free services (see graphic below)to the homeless such as haircuts, clothing, food and health screening on January 22..

You're damn right it's political - The Gulfstream Hotel

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At the first reading of this ordinance a resident who is a former Lake Worth city attorney commented that she supported the ordinance to give Hudson Holdings an upzoning on their parcels known as The Gulfstream Hotel.

Her reasoning: The Gulfstream Hotel had been standing empty for years. There was a need for meeting or wedding rooms to be provided. There was a five or six story nursing home a block away from her home and no one knew that it was there. There was a need for a six-story hotel and a need for it in the City. She said she was sad that people were politicizing this issue. The ordinance was good for the City.

Well, surprise!  OF COURSE, it is political.  We voted on it. And her opinion is just that--opinion by someone who once got her paycheck from the City. Hudson Holdings can build a 45 foot building--they do NOT need a 6 story building, nor do they need a 5 story building in order to make money. Their own attorney said that most hotels needed 120 rooms. There is a difference between NEED and WANT and in this case it is called GREED.  And the city commission of Maxwell, Triolo and Amoroso are allowing this to happen and don't give a fig about you and your vote in their desperation for a hotel. They believe in the wants of the owners over their own citizens' vote and prefer to call us liars.

What is GOOD for the city is to honor the vote on the Heights Charter Amendment. This commission trio chooses to believe an investor over the people who the "visionaries" have accused in a public meeting of lying to get the vote. It wasn't the people who promised 20 months ago that renovations would begin at the Gulfstream within 9 months. We the people only care about our city--not the almighty dollar or who Hudson Holdings wants to flip the property to. So who do you find the most honest?

We are allowed to amend our Charter.

Action:3/2 with McVoy and Maier dissenting.

In 27 days, we gathered 1790 signatures that were gathered by 43 volunteers. Some only got their next door neighbor but every signature was important. We even had John Szerdi turning in two signatures.

Hands Off our Beach & Pool

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The new sign now includes the word "pool" as Hudson Holdings wants to get rid of our Olympic Pool and build three smaller ones. But who knows what they really want to do.

Hudson blew into town thanks to John Szerdi, former commissioner of Lake Worth, who works for them. The former chair of the Lake Worth Historic Resources Preservation Board, Wes Blackman, also works for them. The hotel property is situated in the historic district.

Hudson gave us all sorts of promises for their Gulfstream hotel, none of which have been fulfilled. Then they told us that in order for them to renovate the hotel they wanted our casino complex including the pool. This commission "visionary" wanted to give it to them on a long-term lease and secret meetings were held. Now they say they must have more height on their Gulfstream property and are requesting an up-zoning to allow it. They can get it on a 3 to 2 vote because this commission ignored the will of all those who voted and won to have heights at 45 feet in that area.

Other than just wanting some contract zoning on their Gulfstream parcels and wanting our casino  asset, can we believe anything they promise?  Can we even consider that this commission might do the right thing?

Once again, the The Palm Beach Post ignores the Charter Amendment even though they are aware. I would like to see any local newspaper incorporate all of the facts into their articles.

Gulfstream Hotel requests up-zoning

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JOT THE DATE DOWN!

Hudson Holdings is looking to up-zone its property known as the Gulfstream Hotel--you know, the group that wanted to grab our casino complex. The meeting of the Historic Preservation Board will be on November 18, at City Hall 6pm. All five of their parcels are included in this request to rezone the property to Downtown Zoning from Multifamily Residential MF-30.

On March 12, 2013, the Charter Amendment ballot initiative was won by the people:
AMENDING CHARTER BUILDING HEIGHT LIMITS IN DESIGNATED DOWNTOWN AREA, WITH EXCEPTIONS.
Should the Charter be amended to limit building height to 45 feet between Golfview Road and F Street and 35 feet between F Street and A Street within a designated downtown area (between a southern boundary of 1st Avenue South; northern boundary of 2nd Avenue North; western boundary of A Street North and South; and an eastern boundary of Golfview Road North and South), providing exceptions for existing buildings and already approved building permits?
Shall the above described amendment be adopted?

On August 6, 2013, the following Downtown District was created.

*
Of course, they know as well as the city knows, we had a Charter Amendment and that any development there must stay at 45 feet. They want to keep stuffing this down the throat of the people and ignore the vote.  When the city lost this vote by 56%, you would think that a commission would represent the people they serve.  Not in this city. Their intent, however, is to allow Hudson Holdings to build a five story addition and ignore the voters.  I hope that every voter remembers this in March 2016.

Ordinance 2015-04--8-4-15--amend various sections and tables in the LDR's.  Vote 5/0

Ordinance 2015-12 9-1-15--amend various sections in the LDR's. Vote 3/2 McVoy and Maier dissenting.
The 2nd Public Hearing was held on 10-6-15 the vote was 3/2 McVoy and Maier dissenting.

This was the meeting from hell where the Vice Mayor and Mayor were bullies. Five people spoke from the public--Former commissioner John Szerdi who works for Hudson Holdings, Electric Utility Advisory Board member, Peggy Fisher and Loretta Sharp a member of the city's  Historic Board spoke for the city's interest.  Former commissioner Jo-Ann Golden and resident Mary Watson spoke for the people's interest.

Waste Management to be Awarded Roll-Off Container contract with Lake Worth

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Does it ever make you wonder why the City of Lake Worth just never can seem to manage anything it has its hands on...never makes a profit?

Now it's demolition and construction debris pick-up. The city admits they just can't handle it but they want to retain the right in this three year contract to pick some junk up themselves and will hang on to one of the two roll-off vehicles and multiple containers of each size that they own. Usually when they outsource like they did with our Fire Department, they gave away everything...one truck ended up in Haiti.

The city says that it would be in their best interests to execute an exclusive contract with one provider for these services--they're losing money doing it themselves. As displayed in the chart below, the City has consistently run this operation at a loss since it began in 2011.

Waste Management will be awarded the contract, the very same company that has been picking up our recyclables since 2008. One good thing, Southern Waste Systems did not win the bid, the company that dumped all sorts of construction debris on our landfill, some of it toxic.

Remember in the last election when John Szerdi took $1,000 from various Southern Waste System companies and Commissioner Amoroso took $450 from Jet Port II LLC? Through the years, they have given to various candidates and we all can use our imagination as to the reasons.

The Hudson Holdings Boyz

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Heavy hitters
Former commissioner John Szerdi, Blake Macdiarmid, Steven Michael

Well we know who Szerdi and Michael are but do you know who Blake Macdiarmid is?

When a political consultant in 2013 sued Palm Beach County Court Judge Marni Bryson for non-payment, Bryson's attorney claimed it was a shakedown without any merit. Macdiarmid was married to Judge Bryson at that time. He met her when he was her campaign consultant in 2010 while he was still married to Dorothy. Bryson and Macdiarmid married in 2013. In 2014, Judge Bryson divorced him for "cheating on her." Source:  Jose Lambiet

MacDiarmid served as lead consultant for the successful passage of a $24 million parks and community ballot referendum, was chief strategist with the City of Fort Lauderdale to pass a critical $40 million public safety ballot issue, and has also worked as a strategist with Lynn University, the Republican Party, Florida on the Move and business and neighborhood advocacy groups. Source: Old faithful Ins

In March 2014, Scott Maxwell paid MacDiarmid $3,000 for campaign services and consulting. He also helped mayor Pam Triolo in her campaign.

So, Hudson Holdings has brought in the heavy hitter. This would not be happening without the cooperation of some big wigs in the city.

Read about the heavy hitter Blake Macdiarmid.

Enterprise Funds in Lake Worth

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For some reason, there is a blogger in town who likes to dispute what I write (he's always scrutinizing everything it seems) along with his four invisible and sometimes hateful friends.  This time it has to do with Enterprise Funds.  He made a big to do on his blog using arrows and pointers, etc. and declaring how stupid I am when I wrote that the Beach Fund was NOT an Enterprise Fund after I pointed out his Hudson Holdings friend, John Szerdi's mistake calling it as such at the Hudson Holdings presentation at the Lake Worth Casino Ballroom. He too works for Hudson.

If he were to go to the 2015 Budget, the one in which we are still operating, and go to page 65, it explains our Enterprise funds and what exactly are included there.

According to our financial director, the following explains what is included in our Enterprise funds that are used to account for operations that are financed and operated in a manner similar to a commercial enterprise, where the intent of the Commission is that the costs of providing goods or services to the general public on a continuing basis be financed or recovered primarily through user charges. The City operates the following enterprise funds:

401--Electric Fund
402--Water Fund
403--Local Sewer Fund
405--Regional Sewer
406--Regional Sewer R & R
408--Stormwater Utility Fund
410--Refuse, Collection & Disp
480--Storm Water Utility Fund

Please note--there is NO Beach Fund listed.

On page 50 of the 2015 Budget, it shows that the Beach Fund is a Special Revenue Fund.  So, if the bully would like to learn anything, I invite him to read my blog.  I do the research. He does the bullying.

Enterprise Funds in Lake Worth and Hudson Holdings

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Former commissioner John Szerdi was in office for two years and eight months. He walked into the position unopposed. Szerdi works for Hudson Holdings, a company that wants to grab our beach. At the Hudson Holding's meeting at our Casino ballroom, Szerdi first said that the beach was an Enterprise Zone.  Later he said that the beach was an enterprise fund. And then again he insisted that it was an Enterprise Zone.  When a resident questioned him about it, he told her she was wrong.

Our casino beach fund is not, according to the city, an enterprise anything. Therefore, the city must rely on funds from our operating budget to pay those expenses when there is a shortfall of revenue to cover the total costs. The only Enterprise Funds that the City of Lake Worth has are the following:

401--Electric Fund
402--Water Fund
403--Local Sewer Fund
405--Regional Sewer
406--Regional Sewer R & R
408--Stormwater Utility Fund
410--Refuse, Collection & Disp
480--Storm Water Utility Fund

Sources: Office of Financial Management;  Municipal Accounts.

Please read my blog of May 27, 2015 on Enterprise and Special Revenue funds.  Is it possible that John Szerdi really didn't know what he was talking about or on several occasions that night intentionally misstated the facts to confuse the residents (something he accused his opponents of doing when he lost his reelection) in his quest to make a point for grabbing our beach complex for his employer, Hudson Holdings?

The Hudson Holdings' Gambit

Hudson Holdings' Meeting at the Lake Worth Casino

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Last night's Hudson Holdings was the sameo, sameo, at least for all of us who have heard it before. They want our beach.  There are many people in this city who feel that they will get this deal because of politics and their "in" with the commissioners.  And we can't forget, that it was the city manager who opened up this can of worms. The meeting started at 5:21pm, 21 minutes late, because of the registration slow-up as well as people arriving late. I got there at 4:30 and the entire decal parking lot was filled. One lady really was mad that the city took out those 23 decal parking spaces. She thought that they had just eliminated them but we informed her that they had been moved closer to Benny's on the Beach. That is where I ended up parking.

All doors were locked to the ballroom other than one on the north side where they had a registration table. Besides the preregistration online and the ticket that they requested you bring, they wanted proof of who you were and if your license matched your registration.  We were told that they needed a driver's license ID.  Even Muslims wearing Burkas don't have to show their faces in some states across our country to prove identity. They gave us a blue arm band that you had to wear while there and you literally had to cut it off. As they were attempting to be fully aboveboard, they wanted to assure us that no commissioner or public official or anyone on the Selection Committee from the ITN was in the room. There was no way that they wanted to be accused of collusion. Open and transparent was the message but it had to make you wonder.

When we walked up to the casino there were four Sheriff vehicles parked in front. When I asked about it, I was told that Hudson Holdings had hired the PBSO as security. As they hired enough men for two vehicles, there had to be a third vehicle as two require a supervisor.  That was a lot of overtime.  The fourth vehicle was because of a burglary. I asked one deputy if there was only one door for egress and ingress and he said "yes."  When asking about a fire, he said that he would open the rest of the doors at the ballroom.  That was comforting.

Also, our pool was opened and it was packed with swimmers from the Swim Club.  It looked beautiful.   We are so lucky to have this gorgeous Olympic pool right at the beach.  Szerdi even mocked the murals of beach scenes on the inside walls of the pool area saying we had the real ocean on the other side of the wall. It was a desperate attempt to ridicule.

Most of the chairs that had been set up were filled but there were a few empties. It was hard to estimate the number of attendees as my estimation was half of someone else's.

If you only came for the food, well...

Most of Hudson's budget for this event was obviously spent on mailings and

signs illegally erected on city rights of way.

Former commissioner John Szerdi who works for Hudson Holdings did much of the presentation. They took questions from the crowd, some of which were right to the point even bringing up their failure to do anything at the Gulfstream hotel. Basically, and in my opinion, the crowd overall was not happy that anything could change at our beach and were not thrilled about Hudson. Commissioner Szerdi, to this day, does not believe that he lost his election because of Hudson Holdings...that we all lied. Hudson must believe that too as they use Szerdi for all presentations.

John Szerdi grinning and working the crowd

We left that meeting early and headed up to the Lake Worth Golf Course where there was a book signing about historic Lake Worth and the cottages. The proceeds from this book are all being donated by the author, Marion Cone and the Designer, Walter Harper to the Friends of the Lake Worth Library.

The golf course is another fabulous asset of ours that this commission always likes to tell people--"It's not making money" either. Folks, the beach is sustainable. It takes about three years for any new business to start supporting itself. The golf course IS now making money after we spent a lot of money re-doing the greens.

We like our beach just the way it is. Although different than Hudson's message, ours is "Hands off Our Beach."

Hudson Holdings has a crude fan

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Now and then I get a lot of BS from some people in this city...usually it is the self-serving ones or those trying to grab an asset or two and who are aligned with developers. This is the latest comment:

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Hudson Holdings just won't Quit":

As usual you are making your assumptions, and leading everyone towards the LIES. Until you hear what is said IN YOUR MIND it must be bad for EVERYONE. Do EVERYONE a favor and just GO AWAY. I do not know anyone that as is HEARTLESS< MEAN< OR ANGRY as you. My question is did you not get enough when you where younger?????????????????????????

...............
Of course, they accuse me of lying but never identify the lie. They are always anonymous cowards. Then they get into personal, ugly attacks. If you don't agree with them, you are vile, old, fat or whatever other insulting comment they can dream up. You can't have a different opinion--oh no. It all shows how desperate they are.

The truth of the matter is, we just redeveloped our beach and spent $13 million dollars. Why should we hand it over to Hudson Holdings on a long-term lease that could be up to 99 years? Didn't we just get rid of Greater Bay a few years back that wanted to do the same thing? Don't new city managers ever understand history, the charettes we had back then and what the people wanted? Do you honestly feel that the tide has changed in just a few short years because no one knows how to manage anything?

So, is the poster above on Hudson Holding's payroll like John Szerdi who lost his election on this issue and Wes Blackman who now admits working for Hudson or will he/she benefit from Hudson in some way?

Lake Worth to hold Special Meeting - Ways to screw up our beach

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Commission Meeting
When: Thu, July 30, 6pm – 8pm
Where: City Hall, 7 North Dixie Highway
Discussion of Beach/Casio Invitation to Negotiate

The City of Lake Worth is STILL pursuing development at our casino property and pushing its agenda. All they continue to do is wear you down. They won't let it die or just take care of what we already have.

We are now going to hear presentations from the three companies that submitted their individual plans per the Invitation to Negotiate, a secret meeting held behind closed doors over six months. Hudson Holdings, owners of the Gulfstream Hotel, Oceanside Bar & Grill and Wave House Miami. Wave House was previously turned down by the ITN Select Committee for late document submission but we get to hear them anyway. Why would we want surfing in our pool when we are right on the ocean with the real deal.

And don't forget our Olympic Pool--the city and majority commission want to screw that up too.

A "white elephant" according to City Manager Bornstein 

who just won't market it

This will be an opportunity for those residents of our city who are working for Hudson Holdings to come forward and finally admit their participation in this attempt to grab our beach. John Szerdi never admitted it during the election and a former HRPB member, who recently admitted to a resident his connection to Hudson Holdings, has not either.

Lake Worth Election Stats

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Local elections are very important. In some ways, they are more important than national elections or voting for a President of the United States. These elections are enablers. You become responsible for the financial and administrative affairs of your city. The voters rejected those candidates who were for increased heights, more taxes or screwing around with our beach as an example. They rejected all those who did not have their finger on the pulse of our citizens.

It's not always the amount of money you raise that will take you over the top. If the voter doesn't "buy" your message, you lose.

Header 1	Header 2	Header 3	Header 4
Candidate	'# of votes	$ Spent minus office or donation	Cost per voter
JEROME	907	10799.57	11.91
MCVOY	1636	10253.43	6.27
MAIER	1434	10246.98	7.15
SZERDI	935	17926.20	19.17

Maier-- deducted $353.03 for office account REFLECTED in above dollars spent column

Szerdi--deducted $1,113.80 for donation REFLECTED in above dollars spent column.

Quote of the Day - John Szerdi

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"...Park of Commerce I'm glad it's not coming up here...I think as far as the blog [Lynn's Little bit of Trivia] that was referred to earlier, I think it's disgusting...that that kind of information or that presentation that was put out there was divisive...putting everybody at a divisive situation here....not just during the election."

~ John Szerdi

Well, not all of us want tax payer money going to develop infrastructure at the Park of Commerce. Not all of us agree that eminent domain is the ethical or correct thing to do to achieve this purpose. Not everyone has this "Field of Dreams" mentality. Is this the blog he was referring to? Gosh, it was right from the Lake Worth back-up that some people, to this day, do not read. Some people complain about anything and Szerdi has been good at that since he lost his election. This was just an opportunity for him to attack this blogger with a comment that was baseless.

I can always count on John Szerdi to be my Quote of the Day even though I have to admit, they are not memorable quotes, just whines.  John Szerdi just doesn't get it.  It hasn't sunk in, not one little bit.  In his opinion, it was all a fluke that he lost and all the uninformed residents voted for the other guy, you know, the one he likes to put down, the one who pals around with anarchists and all of us "dregs."

Commissioner District #4 - LAKE WORTH

Vote for 1
		Percent	Votes
Craig Frost		5.28%	132
Ryan Maier		57.34%	1,434
John William Szerdi		37.39%	935
			2,501

Political parody/satire is lost on some

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It seems that Andy Amoroso went after this blogger for the graphic depicting him as a Klansman hauling off commissioner Maier to be hung, as he or someone on his team called Channel 12 and they ran a one-sided segment about the Ryan Maier incident never contacting Maier or me. Words like "despicable" were used as well as Andy's favorite, "Let's move this city forward."

Residents like Jessica Teutsch find the mudslinging shameful, saying "it hurts the town she’s come to love." Jessica, who doesn't even live in this city, started the "mudslinging" that more than likely was encouraged by that political side.  According to Maier, William Waters, Director of sustainability said, "the code citations were not evidence-based, rather based solely on the claim of a woman name Jessica Teutsch."

They (the other side of politics) can't accept, nor can John Szerdi, that he was slaughtered in the last election.  Even this past Tuesday when Scott Maxwell brought the subject up and wanted to comment about these "serious" code violations (that have not been proven), Szerdi was waiting out in the hallway...waiting for this public lynching of Ryan Maier who beat him unmercifully...waiting in vain for some personal glee but the mayor stopped it.  Maier kept his composure throughout the entire episode.

This story of Channel 12 is one-sided.  For a news station, this is what's "shameful."  They should focus on both sides of the story and what prompted this graphic, not just the politics of one side in our city. Amoroso comes up for re-election so I am sure that he is not happy about it but most people are not happy with political satire/parody when they are the subject.  He needs to put on his big girl panties as Maxwell would say. He is a public figure.  "Racism" came into play when Vice Mayor Maxwell called all of us who voted against the general obligation bond, "racists."

And let me remind all of you that we have free speech in this country and the Hustler's Magazine case involving Jerry Falwell that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court--it all had to do with parody.
 
Hustler Magazine, Inc. v. Falwell, (1988), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held, in a 8–0 decision that the First Amendment's free-speech guarantee prohibits awarding damages to compensate for emotional distress intentionally inflicted upon them.

Thus, Hustler magazine's parody of Jerry Falwell (which talked about Falwell having sex with his Mother) was deemed to be within the law, because the Court found that reasonable people would not have interpreted the parody to contain factual claims. Source:  Wikipedia.

So, everyone knows that Commissioner Maxwell and Commissioner Amoroso are not members of the KKK. But, Maxwell did try to publicly "lynch" Commissioner Maier. That IS something that we all know.

Quote of the Day - John Szerdi

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John Szerdi says we need a Public Information officer. I guess he wants that so desperately because he doesn't believe that people know what in heck they are doing when it comes to their vote. After all, he lost by a huge percentage.

"One of the things I wanted to bring up again was a public information officer...some of the things over the past few months is not the 'will of the people has spoken'...it's more confused with the apathy of the people of the unknowledge of the people in terms of what the city has done positively...It is not fair to say that it is the will of the people have spoken when only 5% of the population showed up and 3% of the entire population actually voted...
~ John Szerdi

Mr. Szerdi has a real problem with accepting his loss. It's the other guys' fault syndrome. According to Wikipedia, our city has 34,910 residents. The last voter's list in my possession shows 15,258 registered voters in Lake Worth. The SOE's office determined that the voter turn-out in our city was 16.02%. If you did not like the voter turn-out, you should have knocked on more doors and got the vote out.  It certainly was not for a lack of money.