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.

Blast from the Past - Scott Maxwell

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The only time he speaks to citizens is when he is calling them liars or worse. Return a phone call?  Forget about that. Answer an e-mail?  No way. This happens with frequency. Lately he has his personality in check concealing a less pleasant or creditable reality. After all he has to show some sort of  normalcy towards the electorate.  Scott Maxwell is running again in District 1. His challenger is Ryan Hartman.

Below is an article republished with permission from the editor of the Lake Worth Tribune--

April 24, 2015
The Lake Worth Tribune

OPINION: Anyone Better Out There?

Something has to change. For the fourth or fifth City Commission meeting in a row, Commissioner Scott Maxwell reamed the private citizens who were in the audience, with so much venom spewing from his mouth that if anybody had lit a match, the room would have blown.

One word spoken from the audience in meager defense, and the mayor barked: “Quiet in the Chambers!”

Three members of law enforcement – Capt. Rolando Silva and two deputies – sat on the back bench. They should have taken Maxwell out and charged him with domestic abuse. It’s our house, after all, City Hall.

On Tuesday night, Maxwell railed against those opposed to plans for a Hudson Holdings-built convention center at our beach, accusing them of lies. They said they’d listened to the tapes of the ITN Committee meetings. He said from the dais he hadn’t. But he still accused them of lying about what was on them.

You really can’t take him seriously anymore. The name-calling, the screaming. But it doesn’t make it any more acceptable.

I’m not sure why he holds elected office here, or why anyone would vote for him. You wouldn’t if you saw him in action.

Lake Worth needs better representation. Let’s set politics aside. At a minimum, we need representatives who understand that they are public servants. We need people who will listen to us, and respect our wishes — on the beach, on the bond, on heights.

You don’t have to be the perfect candidate. You don’t have to be connected. You just have to be willing to listen.

— Margaret Menge, Editor

Gary Antieau featured in Lake Worth Tribune

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The Lake Worth Tribune has just published an article on Gary Antieau who is a candidate for mayor of Lake Worth.

Click here to read about Gary.

Relevancy - Citizen suggests inflammatory charge

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It's all politics but the suggestion made by Mr. Ellis is ridiculous as politics often is.

All in the same breath he takes a swipe at the Lake Worth Tribune that does honest reporting and all of those running against the Trio that (real estate license or not), are involved in something nefarious. Heck, the Trio even had a secret meeting to give away our casino complex (a possible 99 year lease with renewals) to a developer involved big time in....you guessed it-- real estate.

Found on Facebook:

Ben Ellis If the Lake Worth Tribune really wanted to write a relevant article, maybe they could spend some time investigating why three licensed real estate agents are suddenly running for office, out of the blue, with no prior public engagement, and in some cases very short time as residents.

Like · Reply · 8 · January 17 at 8:17am

So, what are the facts?

DISTRICT 1
Scott Maxwell: Current Real Estate License thru 3/31/17
Ryan Hartman: No

MAYOR
Pam Triolo: No
Gary Antieau: Current Real Estate License thru 3/31/16
Diane Jacques: No

DISTRICT 3
Andy Amoroso: No
Frank McAlonan: Current Real Estate License thru 9/30/16

So, one incumbent has a real estate license and two out of the four candidate opposition have current licenses.  Neither one of the two opponents use their license to buy or sell real estate or work in real estate sales.  Gary Antieau might dabble in it but that's rare. So, three people running have licenses and four do not.

Of course, the implication is real estate salesmen have something to gain by running for office in Lake Worth against these incumbents and therefore we all need to be leery of these unscrupulous people.  Perhaps, they too, work for Hudson Holdings?

District 3 Candidate McAlonan interviewed by the Lake Worth Tribune

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The Lake Worth Tribune just published an interview by Margaret Menge on Frank McAlonan, a candidate for Commissioner District 3.

To read what Frank has to say about our beach, our pool, heights, Hudson Holdings, PBSO and rating our top Lake Worth executives on a scale of 1 to 10, Click here

Illegal Alien Serial Rapist and Murderer

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Illegal aliens are committing crimes in every city across America and Lake Worth hasn't been immune to illegals committing atrocities here. I don't recall ever reading about this criminal who lived in our city. Perhaps that detail was never revealed. Think about it. The city hates bad publicity.

Read about the Lake Worth Illegal Alien Serial Rapist and Murderer at the Lake Worth Tribune.  It's great to know the creep lived directly across the lake from me.

Message from Margaret - The Lake Worth Tribune

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In case you didn't see Margaret Menge's comment on my blog yesterday, this is what she says about The Lake Worth Tribune--

Hi Lynn, Thank you for your support of the Tribune. I wouldn't say that anyone with the city directly caused the paper to shut down. Newspapers are a tough business. They're expensive to produce, and you have to sell a lot of advertising to cover costs of news gathering and production.

It wasn't nice of Commissioner Andy Amoroso to tell businesses not to advertise in the paper. And it was wicked of Wes Blackman to tell people to steal stacks of my papers and for Mark Parrilla to do it. But ultimately, it was my task to make the business work. I needed to put together a better sales team, and to focus more on the business, and less on the journalism. Of course, as a journalist, this would be hard.

Many people have told me they would like to help bring the newspaper back. And I think there is a possibility of this. Certainly, this town is big enough to support a weekly newspaper, if not a daily paper. And there are plenty of small newspapers all over America that make it work. So stay tuned.

Thanks,
Margaret Menge, Editor and Publisher
The Lake Worth Tribune

The Lake Worth Tribune

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It's extremely difficult to start a new business today. But what made this one close to impossible to succeed was politics. It was all those politicos that were driven to ensure that the Tribune, competing against the established newspaper in town whose editor is one of the "boys," would not get any traction. They were livid that another newspaper would actually report on the facts and on the truth and conducted the biggest smear campaign on a blog and on Facebook in this city's history. Because of the unfairness of their actions, I am now inspired, more than ever, to continue this blog and report the other side of the story. Hopefully, Margaret Menge will be able to write a Business Plan that will succeed and this newspaper will re-open at some time in the future. One thing for sure, the Tribune sure beat having to read the lies and distortions and the made-up "facts" that we have been reading for years.

The Lake Worth Tribune

1 hr ·

Dear Readers of The Lake Worth Tribune:

I want to thank those of you who have told me over these last few months how much you enjoy the paper, and to let you know, with regret, that I could not make it work as a business, and so have to close up shop.
I began with the the idea, the conviction, that residents of Lake Worth needed more information about their community -- that they were hungry for it, and that they deserved it as citizens and taxpayers.

I tried every week to give you the information that I thought you would want to know, and to present it in a way that was highly readable.

I started with about $15,000 in savings, and took out a loan for $15,000. My father bought $600 worth of stock in the corporation and I assigned stock to an old friend from New York who once gave me $1000 when I was working to start a paper in Key West.

I had a plan. That plan showed us selling enough advertising to cover the expense of printing and distributing a newspaper every week, and a little more. Unfortunately, I faced a number of obstacles. Many of them I expected. I knew going in, for example, what happens when you start publishing a spirited newspaper that shines a light on some things that some people would like to keep hidden. The bullets fly. This is a very good sign and I was cheered by it.

But I didn't expect a sitting city commissioner to go to our downtown businesses and tell them not to advertise in the Tribune. And I didn't expect people to go up and down Dixie Hwy. stealing stacks of newspapers after the chair of a city board encouraged them to do it.

I'm sad for Lake Worth that we have these sorts of people here. This is a wonderful town, in so many ways, and we have so many intelligent and kind people living here.

Speaking of...I had lots of help with the paper. A number of friends helped in a number of ways. I won't soon forget it.

I'm sorry I couldn't keep it going. Lake Worth really does deserve a good newspaper. It's a heck of a town.


Margaret Menge, Editor and Publisher
The Lake Worth Tribune

Lake Worth Tribune Editorial 4-24-15

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Lake Worth Tribune's free promotion is ending

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The Lake Worth Tribune is a fabulous and exciting new publication in Lake Worth. For the first dozen publications, it has been distributed for free in order to market and introduce itself to the reading public.  One thing that we do know, everyone is reading it and talking about it and can't wait to receive it. But this is also a business. Starting soon, it will be by subscription or you will be able to buy it at various distribution areas throughout the city. The Tribune's phone number is 586-6643 or mail in your subscription along with check to PO Box 85, Lake Worth, FL  33460. Below is a message from the publisher.

The Lake Worth Tribune

To Our Readers -- We have distributed the last 11 issues of the Tribune to many of the homes in Lake Worth free of charge, in order to introduce the paper to the community. But all good things must end, and the Tribune is now, as was originally planned, transitioning to a pay model. We are asking, then, all of you who have been reading and enjoying the paper to subscribe. This is the last week of the $39 annual subscription special. Next week it goes up to $43 -- still a very good deal. For now, you can still get the paper at many locations downtown, including Publix, Chevron, Texaco, Dollar General and many of our restaurants, cafes and shops... But just to let you know: Soon there will be a price on it. Feel free to call with any questions. And thank you for your support of the Tribune.
Margaret Menge, Editor & Publisher

The Lake Worth Tribune

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It keeps on getting better!

Two pieces of trash arrived in my mailbox today

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John Szerdi put out a Hit Piece that was delivered to mailboxes today against his opponent, Ryan Maier.  The entire mailing is a lie.  But what can we expect when his campaign consultant is Wes Blackman, the Hit Piece King of Lake Worth. This is typical Lake Worth politics by that side of the political spectrum.  Nothing ever changes here with that group and it's no wonder good people don't want to get involved.

Read the facts

Two conclusions today--the Lake Worth Herald really knows where its bread is buttered, (Szerdi had a full page ad today) going after both McVoy and Maier.  John Szerdi needs to be kicked out of office for his hit piece on Ryan that was full of twisted statements and lies and grasping at straws.

First of all regarding the Hudson Holdings "by invitation only" meeting to the owners of the Gulfstream Condos, where Steve Michaels of Hudson indicated that he wanted to get the bid from the city to build a convention center at our beach along with a private Beach club, Chris Mcvoy was visiting one of his constituents who owns there. She mentioned the meeting to him and invited him to attend.  And he did.  Now Szerdi and friends are making a big deal out of it.  Got caught discussing development at our public beach, huh? Out of the Sunshine too.

Next, "No Solicitation" signs means someone knocking on your door trying to sell goods or services. It's typical for condo associations to have one erected.  Political campaigning does NOT fall into the category of solicitation.  Let's get real. It seems one of the owners as well as the President of the Gulfstream (a condo commando?) in that condo wrote letters to Margaret Menge of the Lake Worth Tribune, objecting to her article and the fact that our elected commissioner was even in the building to begin with, calling it solicitation and said he had no right to be there. What are they trying to hide? Is it because Hudson Holdings offered all of the owners a parking space in the parking garage he is planning on building at the Gulfstream if his bid at the beach goes through? Maybe they need a good dictionary on solicitation or learn what pay to play means or maybe even what an invitation is.

Back in November 2012, John Thomas, Palm Beach County's Director of Residential Appraisals stated that he was happy to see that we were keeping our dense city relegated to one and two story buildings in the downtown. Ryan Maier is all for honoring the vote of the people, something John Szerdi refuses to do.

If you want commissioners who care about you, who will look after the welfare of our city and all of its assets,  and take conservative approaches when asking for or spending your money, then you must vote for Christopher McYoy and Ryan Maier, both of whom got endorsed by the Palm Beach Post, a newspaper that actually knows how to spell the word endorse, unlike the LWHerald.

The Blame Game always and erroneously being played in Lake Worth

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It's no wonder that we don't trust politicians.

This is a blast from the past but the Vice Mayor, Scott Maxwell,  STILL, to this day, likes to blame all the wrong people for the state of affairs of this city. And during the break at Tuesday's meeting, he even told us that no one has addressed the roads here in over 100 years...this will be a detriment to attracting people to live and work in our city he says. The Pioneers came to Lake Worth and settled here all for the fine roads, right?  He knows very well that our street maintenance budget was $1 million a year until this commission, his commission, reduced the budget.

Street Maintenance Actuals have been as follows:

FY 2009-2010: $1,027,719
FY 2010-2011: $ 850,688
FY 2011-2012: $ 523,186
FY 2012-2013: $ 550,145
FY 2013-2014: $ 511,016

Tuesday night during the break from the commission meeting where the Vice Mayor nearly had a stroke, he was blaming a "former Lake Worth Commission" for  money that went missing to the tune of $8 to $12 million dollars. His  implication  was that it all happened during the Stanton regime.  UNTRUE. When I asked why the internal auditor was never commissioned to find the missing money, he pointed out that Stanton fired him. We were without an IA for a few years because of austerity. He forgets that this country was in a depression/recession and Lake Worth was hit hard. Stanton cut back and got the city back in the black. So, I asked, where is the internal auditor now--what is he working on?

Commissioner John Szerdi mentioned the missing $$$ in 2012 in the very first political speech he gave after being sworn in. The Lake Worth Herald continued to mention Reserves and wrote that Suzanne Mulvehill gave praise in her final speech to those "who nearly bankrupted the city" and that "we don't need them in office ever again." Another UNTRUE attribution to a commission that had nothing to do with missing money. If a news-person writes a story at least the facts should be correct.

What I wrote back then: We concur. We don't need them nor do we want them in office. This was all during the Paul Boyer and Bob Baldwin regimes. The people who were in power then and the biggest culprits to this were Jeff Clemens, Dave Vespo and Retha Lowe. They had the majority vote and it was they who either allowed the then city managers to dip heavily into reserves and/or voted Reserves away. During Vespo's term, $60 million in Consent Agenda items were approved. We expect politicians to twist or eliminate facts to their advantage (that is why most are held in low esteem and honest ones are subject to annihilation--think Allen West) but we don't expect that of the Press. Over the last four years, however, we have witnessed a biased press.

Now we have a new newspaper in the city, the Lake Worth Tribune.  It has taken some knocks from the politicos who don't like truth or facts to emerge with some even going into establishments and asking, "Why do you have that newspaper here?"

Read here... to get the facts on the missing money.

Deed Restrictions - Lake Worth

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It's really cute how certain people on the dais can become so politically obnoxious about deed restrictions when talking about the golf course in their attempt to bring down a story in the Lake Worth Tribune that reported on residents ideas to finance the infrastructure at the recent financing meeting at Compass.

John Szerdi even singled out Commissioner McVoy by saying that he too has been out and about and that he had a copy of the 1944 deed to the golf course in his hand when he walked down Golfview Road recently. He further stated that he can confirm the confusion about selling the course and found it tough to run into that issue when there are other issues to talk about, having to repeat himself over and over again that it can't be sold. Three commissioners brought up the golf course taking subtle pot shots at the Lake Worth Tribune's article that merely mentioned a resident's request that it be sold.

It wasn't too many months ago when deed restrictions did not matter when this commission wanted to take a huge hunk of John Prince Park and bulldoze it for a national ball field. They were told about those deed restrictions and instructed the city attorney to find out how to go around them and garner support from neighboring municipalities to get that ball field here.

You can't trust a politician when they want something. You just can't. And one thing that we definitely know, these four commissioners want to grab your cash for the largest amount that they think the property owners will allow for their infrastructure program.

The 2nd edition of the Lake Worth Tribune is now out.

Please look for it at various places throughout the city with articles about a former commissioner taking the publisher's personal property and ordering it dumped in the trash. This is the newspaper that has an honest and refreshing approach to reporting the news.

The Tree Festival and the Lake Worth Tribune

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The Tree Festival was held at the Cultural Festival yesterday.  Directly across the street, the Friends of the Library were having a sale. People came out in droves to look at and purchase various varieties of trees.  Organized by the Tree Board, they did an outstanding job even manning their own booth full of information on just about everything green. The music was fabulous and the best I have heard in a long time. Wasn't that singer great?

Margaret Menge, publisher and editor of the new newspaper, The Lake Worth Tribune, was there with a tied stack of 100 newspapers for distribution that just launched its first edition the day before.

This is a non-political festival.  The mayor was there and gave a speech. John Szerdi, who is seeking re-election for Commissioner District 4, appeared on the stage. Someone in the audience started giving little jabs about the Lake Worth Tribune's tied stack of newspapers ruffling its pages in the wind. At one point, the stack of 100 was picked up by staff to haul off to the waste disposal. When the city employee was asked about it, he said that he was ordered to do so by Nadine Burns. This charge has been unverified.

As the Cultural Plaza is public property, Ms. Menge had every right to distribute her FREE newspaper that is written about and for Lake Worth and a paper whose mission is to tell the facts.  We understand that some businesses have been intimidated for advertising in the Lake Worth Tribune. If you want to pick up your free premier copy of this exciting newspaper, the Lake Worth Library still has some as well as various businesses throughout the city.

And all it takes are a few politicians or activists to curb free speech. As usual, freedom of the press is challenged by some, not only in Paris, France but right here in Lake Worth.

I thought this was a cute photo as it had an orange the size of a grapefruit hanging from a little tree.

New newspaper in Lake Worth

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It seems that every major city has a Tribune, (a protector of the rights of the people)--Atlanta, Chicago, Austin, you name it.  And now Lake Worth, Florida has its own Tribune.

The Lake Worth Tribune Hits Newsstands Today

A new broadsheet newspaper called The Lake Worth Tribune debuts today, and will be available free of charge in dozens of businesses downtown and on Dixie Highway.

Lake Worth resident Margaret Menge, a professional journalist, is the editor and publisher of the new paper, which has its offices at 129 N. Federal Highway.

Menge previously worked for Newsmax, for the Miami Herald Company and for U.S. News & World Report. She’s been published in a number of newspapers and magazines, including U.S. News & World Report, the New York Observer, New York Press, Columbia Journalism Review, the Miami Herald, and the Wisconsin State Journal. From 2006-2008 she was editor of a small newspaper in New York’s Hudson Valley called The Cornwall Local.

She has lived in Lake Worth since 2010.

The Lake Worth Tribune is a broadsheet newspaper, with full color on the front and back pages. It measures 22 inches tall by 12 ½ inches wide, making it one of the largest newspapers published in South Florida.

It is a general interest newspaper, covering the most important Lake Worth news every week – breaking news, political news, development, crime, as well as features and events. The paper will run a comprehensive events calendar each week, and a crime blotter.

In its coverage, the paper will strive to get the full story and to get it right.

The editor, Margaret Menge, vows to use Florida’s strong public records laws to get access to public information, so that she can provide this information to readers of the Tribune.

5000 copies of the newspaper will be distributed each week to homes and businesses in Lake Worth, and the total readership is expected to be 10,000.

Advertisers in the newspaper’s first edition include the Car Clinic, Ace Hardware and Ace Rental Place on Lantana Road, South Shores Tavern & Patio Bar, The Lake Worth Playhouse and E.R. Bradley’s Beach Club (at the Lake Worth golf course).

Letters to the editor of up to 250 words in length are welcomed. Longer opinion pieces on specific topics will be considered. Email: mmenge@lakeworthtribune.com.

Press releases and information about events to be published in the paper can also be sent to mmenge@lakeworthtribune.com.

Want to get home delivery? The newspaper is offering a special introductory yearly subscription rate of $39. This is for home delivery every Friday 52 weeks a year. Call the newspaper’s offices at (561) 586-6643.

Have a News Tip? Call (561) 586-6643 or (561) 801-NEWS.