Omari Hardy's Performance Ineffective

Letters to the Editor
Sun Sentinel
July 18, 2020

Hardy’s performance hardly effective

The election for House District 88 in Palm Beach County has been theatrical. Those theatrics have included a candidate, Lake Worth Beach Commissioner Omari Hardy, displaying gross disrespect for the female mayor, Pam Triolo.

To add, Mr. Hardy’s performance of commandeering commission meetings has rarely resulted in a consensus in favor of his amendments or resolutions. When his ideas fail to gain majority vote, his actions include berating the mayor and fellow commissioners who voted against his measures. How can this approach to governance be effective for the citizens with a House seat where their representative will not be allowed to overrule the House?

Although it makes for great theater, it seems overrated to suggest that Mr. Hardy stopped citizens’ power from shutoff during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lake Worth Beach is a manager-council form of government, so the power shutoff moratorium did not require a commission vote and had already been implemented by the city manager prior to any commission meeting to discuss it.

Lori J. Durante, Delray Beach

Letter to the Editor - Drew Martin on Solar in Lake Worth (Beach)

Letter to the Editor
Palm Beach Post
July 17, 2019 2019
Lake Worth throws shade on rooftop solar power

Twenty years ago I served on the Climate Change Committee for Lake Worth. The purpose of the committee was to establish policies that would make the city, now called Lake Worth Beach, more resilient to climate change.

Lake Worth Beach is now attempting to institute policies to discourage residents from installing solar power systems on their homes. On plastic single-use, the city has failed to take action to reduce its vendors at the Lake Worth Casino from offering single use plastics.

On solar installation, the city will vote to adopt a policy to discourage rooftop solar. It will put a solar limit of 10 kilowatts on city residents and businesses. It will not permit battery storage with solar installations, with the result that citizens will not have battery-stored power during outages. This will endanger the health and safety of residents. Solar provides a non-polluting and ultimately less expensive form of energy. With solar installations, citizens and businesses can profit from selling electricity back to the city utility. They will help prevent the long-term negative impacts of sea-level rise by reducing carbon.

Drew Martin, Lake Worth Beach

Editor’s note: Martin is conservation chair, Loxahatchee Group, Sierra Club.

This was discussed by the public during public commentary at last night's commission meeting.

Lake Worth has a lack of vision

I found the following in the Sarasota Tribune by Lake Worthian, James Thomson--

"The lack of vision for Lake Worth by Mayor Pam Triolo, commissioners and the CRA (appointed by the commissioners) is, to say the least, disappointing. This fixation on a parking garage, license plate readers, red light cameras and changing the name of town the seem to only promote fear and confusion.

City Manager Michael Bornstein tells the public “there is nothing nefarious” going on with the parking garage project, so who is the one owner benefiting from this sale of historic properties?

As a community, we should be asking or demanding our elected officials to expand solar and wind power, to develop publicly owned broadband for downtown and commercial district areas. Create more green space, such as parks and recreational facilities throughout our town, and preserve our historical buildings by whatever means possible instead of selling them.

Lake Worth is such a unique treasure that should be saved and promoted as a destination in south Florida like no other.

James Thomson, Lake Worth"

VOTE NO

ON LAKE WORTH AMENDMENTS

Lake Worth Leaders should Listen to the people

Letters to the Editor
Palm Beach Post
July 4, 2018

Lake Worth leaders should listen to people

A photograph is worth a 1,000 words, as to what our beach and pool used to look like back in the 1930s and ’40s, and could look like again, if only our current mayor and commissioners would start listening to the people who live and work in this unique town of Lake Worth.

I am sick and tired of their public-private partnerships to solve the problems that they are too afraid or lazy to confront and fix. The price of any services by public-private partnerships are consistently higher than those managed by local governments. All people should have equal access to the commons (public areas) on a nonprofit basis.

The public pool that should have been fixed two years ago still languishes in disrepair during the hottest summers ever recorded in history. The mayor says we don’t have the money to fix it ourselves, which to me is ludicrous. We seem to be able to come up with the $300,000 plus for license-plate readers to catch desperadoes entering and leaving our town.

This is Lake Worth, not Palm Beach. So Mayor [Pam] Triolo and commissioners, stop assuming our existing public service providers are unable to perform their duties cost effectively because nothing could be farther from reality and the truth.

JAMES THOMSON
LAKE WORTH

Shanon Materio answers Palm Beach Post editor

Shanon Materio, standing up for facts--


Point of View
Palm Beach Post
June 25, 2018

No comparison between Materio, Lambert campaigns

I strongly disagree with the two implied conclusions in Editorial Page Editor Rick Christie’s recent “Opinion Zone” blog post and column, “Christie: Follow the money in heated West Palm Beach commission race.”

First, I completely disagree that there is a comparison to be made between the alleged illegal activity of political consultant Rick Asnani and his Cornerstone employees, and the frivolous-in-nature complaints against my campaign, in which I mistakenly accepted a $50 contribution, which I discovered and self-disclosed; and a second complaint in which I supposedly sent out a Christmas card without the proper campaign disclosure.

Sign up for The Palm Beach Post FREE weekly Opinion newsletter: Text Opinion to 444999

All contributors and the amount of their contributions to the Materio Campaign, as well as any political committees acting in support of Shanon Materio, are fully disclosed, public information, and properly filed.

This is absolutely not true for the entities formed to support the Christina Lambert Campaign.

The three entities in particular are not political committees regulated by the state of Florida and have been discovered to be nothing more than shell companies formed to hide who the contributors are and even worse, how much each contributor gave.

I am disappointed, although not surprised, that Commissioner Lambert has not responded to my request that she join me in demanding Asnani and Cornerstone reveal to the public who these shadow contributors really are.

I am even more disappointed, that The Post hasn’t seized on either the illegal activity aspect, or the lack of transparency and what it means in terms of the First Amendment.

The Post decries even the slightest perception of a governmental body’s lack of responsiveness to a public records request.

But when it comes to hundreds of thousands of dollars raised and spent with the specific purpose of hiding the money, you instead compare it to a $50 campaign violation.

SHANON MATERIO, WEST PALM BEACH

Editor’s note: Materio is a former West Palm Beach City Commissioner for District 5.

Letter to the Editor - The argument for not banning weapons

Letters to the Editor
Palm Beach Post
April 13, 2018

Deter cowards with superior firepower

The article “Lake Worth commissioner (Herman Robinson) adamant: No weapons of war for civilians” (Tuesday), where the Lake Worth commissioner categorized the AR-15 as a weapon of war, is incorrect.

The weapons given to our troops are as follows: the M14 (5.56mm) and the M16 (7.62mm NATO). Additionally, the S.A.W., otherwise known as the M249 (5.56mm), is handed out to some U.S. Marine Corps ground troops.

Notice that all of the above weapons have three firing settings. One is automatic, the second is three-round burst and the third is semi-automatic, which can fire only as fast as the trigger can be pulled. The AR-15 is semi-automatic only.

Interestingly, the school shooting recently in a Texas school was thwarted by a man using an AR-15, which is very accurate, far more than a pistol. Protection for all large-traffic federal buildings has armed protection, some of which are fully automatic. I believe that all of our schools deserve the same protection.

Making a weapon illegal will not end school shootings. Additionally, school shooters are cowards. As such, they choose schools as targets, knowing that they will not be confronted with deadly force.

If we were to hire vets as armed school security or arm properly trained educational staff members, the cowardly shooters will refrain from entering buildings in which they may be confronted with deadly force.

ANN MARCEL
GREENACRES

Writer weaves Trump into his narrative about Amazon

On Wednesday there was a letter to the Editor of The Palm Beach Post about Amazon and the US Postal controversy. The letter writer weaved  President Trump and the entire GOP into his comment.

Yes, the Postal Department ideally should be run as a business but the United States Postal Service  shouldn't offer ridiculous discounts to a corporation such as Amazon when they are losing billions a year for years. This is all about the government protecting jobs and keeping costs down to the general public overall, not a multi-billion dollar corporation. There is a huge subsidy from the federal government to the postal department. Read about the subsidies. If there is a gripe, talk to your congressman. You are the only one spreading discourse and confusion or would you rather spend $3.00 to send a letter?

Amazon is now the world's third-largest retailer and ranks No. 83rd on Forbes' Global 2000 list of the world’s biggest and most powerful public companies. Amazon posted a record profit of $1.9 billion during the last three months of 2017, marking the 11th straight quarter of positive net income. The United States Postal Service, on the other hand, posted a net loss of approximately $5.6 billion for fiscal year 2016 and it continues to lose billions year-on-year.

There is no doubt that they should be paying more for postal service and stop taking advantage of the American taxpayer.

The Letter:
Amazon, post office run as businesses

Why waste time and print space on the supposed Amazon/post office controversy? Isn’t it President Donald Trump and the GOP who preach that government should operate as a business?

The only business of the Postal Service is as a delivery service. Don’t all businesses — corporate, personal or flea market — offer coupons, coupon codes, promos, bulk discounts, cut prices, sales, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, Veterans Day or Any Day deals?

But, OMG, a delivery service making a “delivery service deal”?

Sadly, I’ve observed that anyone that asserts the “I’m not a Trump supporter” defense into any conversation clearly indicates that they really are, and are again attempting to spread discourse and confusion among us. My fellow Americans, don’t fall for it.

JUDE SMALLWOOD
ROYAL PALM BEACH

Letter to the Editor- On the Lake Worth Commission and Hudson Holdings

Letters to the Editor
Palm Beach Post
April 10, 2018

Hudson Holdings has not earned city’s love

The silence is deafening with regard to the relationship our mayor and commissioners in Lake Worth have with Hudson Holdings and the Gulfstream Hotel properties.

How is it our mayor is so enamored with this group and keeps promoting it as a good resource for the betterment of Lake Worth? Hudson Holdings is currently being sued not only by its partners regarding the Gulfstream Hotel and properties but in 10 other lawsuits around the state.

How can our mayor and commissioners think this is good business? Mayor Pam Triolo should be sending code enforcement officers and start daily fines for not maintaining this historic property (for the past seven years). Why should the taxpayers augment the profitability of Hudson Holdings Group who year after year chose profit over ethics?

So mayor and city commissioners, time to step out of the shadows and earn those raises you gave yourselves by addressing the projects that benefit everyone, i.e.: the public pool at the beach, improve and expand city-owned land (ballfields) and other parks and take the time and effort to listen to the majority of the citizens of Lake Worth on how to make this city the envy of not only the county but the whole country.

JAMES THOMSON
 LAKE WORTH

The Palm Beach Post is part of Trump's "Sleaze" factor

Comment Up

Trump has said that The New York Times is  "unfair and biased and totally dishonest." He said that The Washington Post is "dishonest with inaccurate reporting." His observations are true.

The Palm Beach Post continues to print biased articles against Donald Trump posting them in their "Balanced News" in the "From the Right" section. Most every article is a leftest view against Trump and from journalists who are employed from liberal newspapers, the very ones Trump has called out as unfair. This is probably done by every liberal rag in the country.

Today the Post printed a Letter to the Editor from a reader entitled Conservatives agree in opposing Trump." The letter writer makes the assumption that since their columns were placed in the conservative column of the Palm Beach Post that they are indeed conservative and what they say against Trump is gospel. The fact of the matter is, they work for liberal newspapers who have denigrated Trump even to the point of lying.

That is the problem. Perception is reality and when you have a liberal local newspaper read by thousands, many readers will be influenced by unfair reporting and unfair placement. In this case, many of the articles should be in the "From the left" column.

More and more people don't trust the press. Subscriptions are falling like a rock. People used to be able to trust newspapers to be fair and balanced. And so it's time that Trump points out that the Post is part of the "Sleaze" factor--subtle sleaze, but obvious.

Keep John Prince a park at all costs

Comment Up

Letters to the Editor
Palm Beach Post
April 13, 2016

Keep John Prince a park at all costs

John Prince Park in Lake Worth has been an oasis of green tranquility and beauty for many years and a place for families to get back to a sense of nature’s survival amid Palm Beach County’s continual sellout to commercial interests. One by one, the forests, orange groves and nurseries have fallen to the bulldozers as the county commissioners, seeing only more tax money, allowed the absolute destruction of our Florida beauty to be paved over, trees cut, and expansion up to and then into what was once the Everglades.

From a quiet county where life was simple and truly livable, the commission has wrought havoc with its inability to say “no” to more and more buildup, changing building codes and allowing a stampede of out-of-state developers to destroy what nature has spent thousands of years evolving.

Now the greatest blunder of all: the consideration of destroying John Prince Park and turning it into a spring training baseball complex. Have the county and Lake Worth city commissioners gone mad? This last bastion of peace and serenity to be ’dozed away and replaced with a baseball field, with its vastly increased traffic along the already busy Congress Avenue, all for some tax dollars to pay for more people to flock to our way-too-crowded streets and neighborhoods.

Wake up, commissioners, before you commit the ultimate betrayal of the people who elected you to keep our county and towns livable, with nature not being sold off for you to rake in more (hoped-for) tax money to justify your jobs. And people of Palm Beach County, make your voices heard and refuse to accept that we have no power in determining the future of lives, as made by a few politicians.

Call them, write them, and if need be, file lawsuits against this.

WAYNE GROVER
LANTANA