Top City Executives Spoke at ROLO Meeting

Neighborhood Association, ROLO, met on July 11 with approx 50 in attendance

The main topic of the evening was the Sunset property that sold in 2005 for $1,500,000.

In 2005, we formed Save Our Neighborhood PAC to lobby and ensure that this property would remain Single Family 7 and not have it over-developed in our single family neighborhood. We even went to mediation to no avail.

It has languished through the years with several zoning changes: Agriculture, Single Family 7 and even Medium Density Residential. At the moment, someone, and we don't know who but we can only guess who made another zoning change, has the zoning as NZ - NOT ZONED-- ( 38-LAKE WORTH BEACH ).

There is a neglected house on the 4.02 acres that should be demolished.

We were told that SCG Florida, Chris Raley, has submitted plans to build on the acreage. Their web site says, "SCG Florida, LLC, builds sustainable single-family homes with a pathway to ownership with an ESG focus for affordable living." It was said at the meeting that he wants to build 42 townhouses with 6 as affordable units. There will be no sustainable bonus to the developer. I don't want to speak for our PAC that is now dissolved, but I believe we would agree that 42 townhouses are acceptable for the parcel.

Mayor Betty Resch was also in the audience.

City Attorney, Glen Torcivia (my favorite lawyer)

Commissioner Sarah Malega (my favorite commissioner) District 1

William Waters, (AIA, NCARB, LEED AP, GGP, ID, SEED), Director of Sustainability

 and

 Carmen Davis, City Manager. Ms. Davis did not speak to the Sunset property.

Maricopa County

Dirty? Maricopa Election Officials Founded PAC to Attack MAGA Republicans

Maricopa County election officials are under the microscope after another controversial election in Arizona.

Democrat Katie Hobbs was declared the winner of the state’s gubernatorial race on Monday after several days of ballot counting and widespread tabulation machine errors in Maricopa, Arizona’s most populous county.

According to the Post Millennial, the men charged with running elections in Maricopa, County Recorder Stephen Richer and Supervisor Bill Gates, founded a PAC last year to defeat candidates who do not “acknowledge the validity of the 2020 election.”

The fight may not be over yet, as Lake is reportedly refusing to concede and may take legal action against election officials.

Read about the corruption

Newsom's In-Laws like Ron DeSantis

Trust linked to Gavin Newsom's in-laws made contribution to DeSantis PAC

A family trust run by Kenneth Siebel made a $5,000 to the Friends of Ron DeSantis PAC, records show

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been a vocal critic of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, in recent weeks, but Newsom's in-laws seem to approve of the popular Republican.

According to contribution records on the Friends of Ron DeSantis PAC website, the Siebel Family Revocable Trust made a $5,000 contribution on April 6, 2022.

That trust is run by Kenneth F. Siebel Jr. and Judith A. Siebel, the parents of Newsom's wife, Jennifer Siebel, records obtained by Fox News Digital show.

Last week, Newsom pledged $100,000 to the campaign of DeSantis' Democratic opponent, Rep. Charlie Crist, who previously served as Florida's governor.

I wonder how that marriage is going.

Read about it...

The Scammer

Meet the man at the center of a shadowy multimillion-dollar ‘scam PAC’ network

Normally I would never print anything from Salon but this is an exception.

A super PAC that claims to advocate for wounded veterans raised millions of dollars this year, but spent only $18,000 of it on political activity. The rest of the money was spun off to administrative and marketing services, including to three companies belonging to one person — a former long-shot Democratic congressional candidate, self-published author, certified nutrition-label reader and serial hustler in East Tennessee named Alan Bohms.

The organization, called American Wounded Veterans PAC, bears hallmarks of what campaign finance watchdogs call a “scam PAC” — a for-profit fundraising vehicle that professes to advocate for a cause but makes no clear promise on how it will spend the money raised, and in reality intends to keep most of it, or pay it out to affiliated contractors.

I continue to give to Veteran causes and had to check if I had given to this one.

Read about the scammer

IRS investigating Political PAC affiliated with Chuck Schumer

Chuck Schumer Running Scared as IRS Begins Investigation

"Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer seems to have bigger problems than failing to bring home an impeachment win in 2021. What’s he scared of now?

It seems that his pet PAC, that is the Senate Majority PAC has a dirty little affiliate called Majority Forward. And Majority Forward? Oh, they’re under investigation by the IRS…. for something the lefties LOVE to accuse Republicans of daily: VOTER SUPPRESSION. Just take a second to drink that hypocrisy in… it has a certain saltiness… like liberal tears."

Even the somewhat left skewed Axios pointed out that Majority Forward and the CSSA were up to some serious shenanigans “aimed at depressing Republican general election turnout in 2018, newly released records show.” Axios reported.

Read about it...

Ted Cruz will no longer accept PAC money from"woke" communist corporations

Ted Cruz Drops the Hammer on Woke Communist Corporatism

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has thrown down a gauntlet against the woke communists who are suddenly running most of the multinational corporations in the US that operate with the blessing of the taxpayers: Save your corporate PAC money for Democrats, because Republicans in Congress won’t be taking any more of your cash to destroy America.

Cruz penned an op-ed that appeared in the Wall Street Journal this week. In that op-ed, he told Coca-Cola and the other woke communist multinationals that he will no longer accept any corporate PAC donations from these companies. And he challenged all of his Republican colleagues in the House and Senate to do the same.

His message to the communists was simple: You hate America, you hate our voters, you try to strongarm us into taking positions that hurt our voters, and it is finally time for you to go pound sand.

Read more...

Founder of Anti-Trump PAC Arrested

Founder of Republican Anti-Trump PAC Arrested in Major Bribery Case

Borges co-founded the Right Side Super PAC with fellow Republican Anthony Scaramucci. The organization is “focused on defeating President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election,” according to Ballotpedia.

Read about it... This couldn't have happened to a more deserving guy. And Anthony Scaramucci, worth $200 million and was a former senior adviser to President Trump and who was fired after 10 days, is part of this PAC...wow! Bitter guy.

Recycling Facility at POC opposed by Commission

Ralf Brookes represented an owner living near the Park of Commerce and objections to having a recycling facility next to the residential neighborhood. All those who spoke out against this facility did a commendable job to deny.

And for a little bit of trivia--

If you recall, Ralf Brookes was the attorney for Laurel Decker who was chair of the Respectful Planning Political Action Committee whose efforts kept the downtown of Lake Worth to 45 feet east of Dixie and 35 feet west to the Loop when the vote was won on March 12, 2013 by 55.86%.

Our referendum was ignored because of the City Attorney Glen Torcivia's opinion that bill, HB 537, a bill that was passed 3 months after our vote,  prohibits initiative or referendum processes for any development order, local comprehensive plan amendment, or map amendment.

 Our argument was that it was NOT an initiative or referendum for any development order
 It was NOT an initiative or referendum for any local comprehensive plan
 It was NOT an initiative or referendum for any map amendment.
IT WAS A CHARTER CHANGE. Do you understand that Pelican Pete?

But I've digressed--
Thursday night the City Commission listened to the people. They listened to the arguments against this facility locating in the POC by other businesses. After 4 hours, the commission, with a complete analysis and reasons to deny by Commissioner Hardy, voted down a recycling plant in our Park of Commerce with the vote at 5/0.

Read about it...

Stop AOC Pac

Conservative group spent $32K in one day against Ocasio-Cortez

It's not a lot but it's a start to bring awareness to defeat this nut job. The organization is focused on ensuring that she does not get re-elected and plans to raise $1 million by this summer.

Read about stopping AOC

Criminal investigation justified?

Democratic Rep. Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez and her top aide are no longer board members of the outside PAC credited with orchestrating her political rise, according to a corporate document filed Friday to a Washington, D.C., agency.

If the FEC finds that her campaign and the PAC were operating in affiliation, it could result in “massive reporting violations” or potentially even jail time for Ocasio-Cortez and Chakrabarti, former FEC Commissioner Brad Smith previously told TheDCNF."

Read more on AOC and her ethics...

Read the Ethics Complaint filed by The National League and Policy Center.

Political Hit-Piece out on Omari Hardy

When a hit piece comes out sent by a PAC or Electioneering Committee, it is virtually impossible to track it down to the responsible party. They are experts at subterfuge.

Yesterday I received a hatchet job attack mailer on Commissioner Omari Hardy from the Committee to Protect Florida, a Republican Committee registered in Tallahassee.  It was received right before the election. Whoever was behind this (and I have a good idea) knew exactly how to time this advertisement so that Omari Hardy could not counter it. The mailer exaggerated and outright lied. Hardy is anything but self-serving and he left a meeting one time when Maxwell would not even discuss an issue.

The Bulk Mail Permit is out of Tampa...not enough time to track it all down.

The two running in District 2 are both registered Democrats.  The difference here is that Omari challenges the dais and keeps them on their toes.  Some up there (most of them) don't like that.  We can bet that the city manager sure in hell doesn't like it. Although the Commission is his boss, city manager Bornstein and staff run the show.

So, when you go into that voting booth on Tuesday, vote to re-elect Omari Hardy, the only one asking the hard questions and the only one who has the puppet masters scared.

Also, please vote NO on both amendments that were originally brought forth by Scott Maxwell. Richard Guercio is the only candidate AGAINST these amendments.

Now maybe AOC will shut her mouth

She could be in very serious trouble, accused of covering up her affiliation and majority control of Justice Democrats PAC that she never declared to the FEC, a PAC that raised more than $1.8 million during her primary.

Republican election attorney Charlie Spies told TheDCNF: “It looks like the campaign and PAC are under common control and the PAC was funding campaign staff and activities as an alter-ego of the campaign committee, which would be a blatant abuse of the PAC rules.” It would be an abuse of campaign laws if this PAC was supporting her campaign.

Read about AOC and her possible jail time up to five years. This link shows all the details. We have already read that she funneled thousands of dollars to her boyfriend. I thought she believed that only capitalists were unscrupulous.

The Left's War on Women

Democratic Operative Arrested for Assaulting Female Trump Official

[Steven Ahle, March 17, 2018]
Capital Hill police arrested a man after he assaulted a female Trump official after Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke testified before the House Committee on Natural Resources.

The man, who has not been identified, told Capitol Police he was a reporter for American Bridge, a far leftist PAC supported extensively by George Soros and Tom Steyer. American Bridge was founded by David Brock to support Hillary Clinton.

Read more about it...

Quote of the Day - Allen West

“I don't like what I see in Washington. The swamp stinks. I remain loyal to this Republic, and I will not remain silent.  In the coming weeks, you'll be hearing a lot more from me. After taking a short leave from the Guardian Fund – I'm back. I'm back with a tenacity like you've never seen.”

“I fight for liberty, freedom, individual sovereignty, free market/free enterprise economic policy, and peace through strength – constitutional conservatism. We need these principles on Capitol Hill. I have committed the Guardian Fund to seek out constitutional conservatives who are either veterans or minorities, and who we can count on to defend our core principles, and do go all-in on guiding them to victory.”

~ Allen West

Steinhardt on the Consent Agenda

Well, this time the city actually outdid itself with 22 items on the Consent Agenda...4 short of a complete alphabet.

July 18 Agenda

One of the more interesting items on the Consent Agenda is the approval of the naming rights on the property known as the "Steinhardt property." No discussion on this--just pushing items forward in this "transparent" city environment.

A little background:
Originally leased to Marshall, owner of the Gulfstream Hotel back then, who flipped the lease to Milton Steinhardt--submerged land was leased from the City of Lake Worth in 1967 on a 99 year lease. He wanted to develop five, 10 story condos on three man-made islands at the southeast end of the Intracoastal Waterway bridge across from the Lake Worth beach. He also sought federal permits to build a boat marina at the site. The City applied for the permits on his behalf in order to bring some sort of clout to his requests and to possibly speed it along.

He was paying $6,000 a year to the City of Lake Worth and after Save the Waterfront and Town, chaired by Laurence McNamara along with other members, one of whom was the late Peter Timm,  went out on a petition in 2005, Steinhardt's dream was soon ended in spite of elected officials such as the then mayor, Rodney Romano, trying to keep it off the ballot. Eventually, the PAC got it on a March ballot and won at the ballot box on a Public Land/Public Vote Charter Amendment with 60% of the vote.

Betty Resch, former City of Lake Worth attorney represented the Steinhardts and came before the City Commission some years ago and asked for an extension of the Lease. On first vote, Romano, McKinnon and Burns voted FOR the extension. At the next regularly scheduled meeting, McKinnon brought it back on the Agenda and switched his vote to "no." Steinhardt lost again on a 3/2 vote.

The heirs eventually terminated the lease with the city and the city accepted (they owed a bunch of money to the City of Lake Worth) after their dream of development was shattered.

Read my blog of January 6, 2014. They don't deserve their name on this property as they never owned it.

Vote NO on Lake Worth's General Obligation Bond

No New Property Taxes!

Vote No on Bonds

 Citizen’s Against Unfair Taxation (CAUT) supports neighborhood road repair, but opposes the Nov. 8th bond measure.

City leaders insist the only way to pay for road repair is to increase property taxes by issuing $40 million in general obligation bonds. CAUT disagrees. Saddling property owners with $69 million in bond repayments over the next thirty years is overly burdensome. Establishing a “pavement preservation” program to extend the life of streets in good condition and seeking grants for road reconstruction is a strategy CAUT supports.

Vote against the November 8th road bonds

Here’s why:

• If voters approve the bond measure, Lake Worth property owners will repay the bonds through adjustable ad valorem taxes. Lake Worth already has the 5th highest property tax rate of 38 cities in Palm Beach County; if the bond measure passes, Lake Worth will have the dubious distinction of being number one.

• The city’s tax calculation estimator assumes yearly property value increases. A real estate bust cycle puts your property at risk, as every property in the city is offered as collateral to secure bonds.

• Higher property taxes discourage business investment.

• There is a disturbing lack of information as to what type of neighborhood roads the city envisions. The city makes no commitments to preserve existing neighborhood bike lanes, enhance traffic calming, or prioritize the safety of vulnerable users on our neighborhood streets.

• Don’t assume that your neighborhood road will be repaired if the bond passes. City officials state that only 29.72 percent of neighborhood roads will be repaired with $40 million!

• Taxpayers are obligated to repay $69 million for the $40 million bond package. That’s a 72 percent penalty for paying for roads through bonds.

• While the city directs bond money at “worst first” streets, city officials make no commitment to invest in inexpensive “pavement preservation” repairs, such as crack sealing and chip sealing, to ensure “smoother, longer lasting pavements.” *

• The city’s “worst first” bond measure strategy is inherently flawed simply because for every dollar spent on pavement preservation, the city would “save six to ten dollars” that would otherwise be spent on future road “rehabilitation, or reconstruction.” ** This by itself is reason enough to vote AGAINST the 2016 road bond measure.

* FHWA Memorandum on Pavement Preservation Definitions ** At the Crossroads, Preserving Our Highway Investment John O’Doherty, National Center for Pavement Preservation.

Paid Political advertisement Paid For by Citizen's Against Unfair Taxation, 2121 Collier Ave., Lake Worth, FL  33461

Why the General Obligation Bond Failed in Lake Worth

Comment Up

The blog below by Katie Mcgiveron, Chair of the C.A.U.T Pac that helped defeat the General Obligation bond in 2014, is in response to the Wes Blackman opinion as stated on his blog: Unfortunately for the public, what's missing in the article [PBPost] is the reason why we're in this predicament in the first place. And that's all thanks to a bond vote that failed in 2014. The reporter briefly mentions the failed bond vote but not the reason it failed by just 25 votes. He goes on to say it was the PAC and hypocrites and offers that as the reason why we have potholes.

Guest Blogger
Katie Mcgiveron

Why was the 20/20 bond of 2014 such a bad idea for Lake Worth? Let me count the ways. Setting the Record Straight

This was an initial $63.5 million dollar cash grab that by the end of thirty years would have cost taxpayers in Lake Worth over $131 million dollars. Even the best made road has a life span of about fifteen years--So thirty years of debt to pay off roads that might, on a good day, last half of that time.

This bond was pushed as a “Don’t you want your potholes fixed?” necessity. When, in fact, only 30% of the existing roads in Lake Worth would have been resurfaced. Maybe. There were absolutely NO guarantees on how ANY of this bond money would REALLY have been spent.(FEMA,anyone)?

$9,600,000 was earmarked for the Park of Commerce, privately owned land that the city does not even own. Citizens asked for a 'smaller roads only bond' but they were ignored.

$2,075,000 would have gone to pay for a project manager. And, shockingly, each Commissioner would have been given $800,000 to hand out at their own discretion on “neighborhood enhancements”. Hmmmm, really?

$18,510,000 would have been taken from the city reserves, and another 2 million would have been grabbed from the Electric Utility Bond.

These figures came from the CITY’S OWN LITERATURE. Somebody in charge was very unhappy that the public was being told of the REAL cost of this bond. (As opposed to the ridiculous cup of coffee and a burger comparison that Commissioner Maxwell was pushing). For telling the truth, the finance director at the time was fired.

The bond was a thirty year UNCAPPED tax lien on every residence and business in the city. The Commission had already voted to increase both the water and sewer rates. The UNCAPPED bond lien would have been added on top of these increased rates. Lake Worth could have become the highest taxed city, by far, in all of Palm Beach County. As fed up residents and businesses moved out of Lake Worth, the 20/20 bond noose would have gotten tighter and tighter around the necks of the remaining residents and businesses.

With this kind of a pay day at stake, it was no surprise that the City Commission would go to almost any lengths to get the 20/20 bond passed. There were supposed to be two city wide workshops on this issue. The city only held one. From July 1st 2014 until August 19th 2014, OVER A MONTH right before the election, there were NO CITY COMMISSION MEETINGS. This was so that the residents had no chance to speak publicly on the issue and the press had no chance to publish those comments.

A one sided propaganda fest was held at the Lake Worth Playhouse. Citizens against the bond were not invited or allowed to speak. The election was to be held August 26th during the summer to ensure a low voter turnout. The city stole $50,000 of tax payer money to pay for campaign propaganda pushing this cash grab. The Lake Worth Yes Pac was formed to help the city in their efforts. It raised $20,000. My Citizens Against Unfair Taxation PAC was formed to get the real truth about this bond fiasco out to the residents of Lake Worth. We had a total of about $6,000 to fight with. Not much when you’re fighting $70,000 worth of misinformation. And by the way, on the behalf of the people of Lake Worth, give us our $50,000 back!

Even the Palm Beach Post knew what a disaster this would have been for Lake Worth. From an article on 8/12/14- “Under the plan, property tax rates could rise by 35%, making Lake Worth’s rate by far the county’s highest. The resulting jolt to the city’s economy will likely drive up rents for businesses and renters, which could lead to some businesses closing or looking elsewhere to open up.”

Also from the Post 8/12/14-“The $63 million loan would be more than twice the city’s annual operating budget, and repaying it would require huge property tax increases on its residents.”

The city stuck their hands down our pants and stole $50,000 from us to convince us that they were broke and needed $63,000,000 [MILLION], because they were broke. There was no plan “B” in place to fix our roads in case the bond did fail. Why not? Because this was about fixing things, MANY things in Lake Worth, but our roads were not one of them.

Scott Maxwell always said, "Connect the Dots"

Comment Up

Yesterday, Scott Maxwell had a call go out to registered voters in Lake Worth on his behalf by Marie Horenburger telling folks why Scott is so wonderful and to vote for him on Tuesday. Ms. Horenburger lives in Boynton Beach. How does she know if Maxwell has done a good job or not? He told her? She drank his Kool-Aid?

TALLAHASSEE -- A blast from a few years ago--Former Delray Beach city commissioner Marie Horenburger, who spent her last year in office on a commission embroiled in controversy, stepped into a different frying pan on Friday. Horenburger attended her first legislative committee meeting as a lobbyist for Palm Beach County -- an early-morning session where members of two House committees grilled embattled Transportation Secretary Kaye Henderson. Read more...

Marie was also a registered lobbyist for The Morganti Group in 2012. In 2012, Morganti was building our Lake Worth Casino. The city has been in a big stall in filing a law suit for three years now for what they say is faulty work and now it turns out Scott has a big connection to shhhh...a lobbyist who represented Morganti.

She was also a registered lobbyist for Waste Management, a company that gave Scott Maxwell a $1,000 campaign contribution and one of their subsidiaries, Harris Sanitation, gave him another $1,000. Pam Triolo also got $1,000. He even took a campaign contribution from Hector Samario of Siemens in the amount of $500. The convicted felon gave him $500. Not only did Benny's on the Beach give him $1,000, so did the owner of Benny's at $500.

Click here...to see what the Morganti lobbyist was up to.

You have to ask yourself why is so much money being poured into a little city election? It is impossible to connect the dots--you would need the FBI to do it. Why all the ugly hit pieces from PACs so that their names don't appear as being sent out by them. Honesty is illusive. They are still operating in the dark, so much so that you need your Raid can handy. We have witnessed their disrespect to fellow commissioners, the public and democracy itself. We got them figured out; we have connected enough of the dots.

VOTE FOR CHANGE MARCH 15

Hudson Holdings in Lake Worth

Comment Up

Involved in our local elections by funding a mailer supporting the incumbents, the very people who just voted to upzone their hotel parcels in the downtown. They are also the company that wanted to grab our beach during a secret ITN process in order to make their hotel investment even more lucrative.

Click to enlarge

Hudson Holdings funding Trio's Campaign

Comment Up

Received my first "Keep Lake Worth Moving Forward" campaign mailer today. That is the saying that this Trio uses for just about everything. Anyone who disagrees with them on anything is moving the city backwards. At least that's what they like to tell the folks and they did just that on this mailer.

I have been saying it all along that Hudson Holdings is involved somehow in this massive amount of campaign contributions that Maxwell, Triolo and Amoroso have been collecting. Today, we find out that the Changing Florida's Future PAC out of Tallahassee that sent out this mailer was funded by Hudson Holdings in the amount of $9,000.

2016 M2--02/08/2016--$6,000.00 Hudson Holdings,20 S. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach, Fl.
2016 M2--02/25/2016--$3,000.00 Hudson Holdings

 Changing Florida's Future, PC.

They are there; they still want our beach park. And they will get it unless you vote Maxwell, Triolo and Amoroso OUT on March 15.