Today at Lake Worth beach

Note the pool is covered as it is heated. Beats that bubble wrap that we got from Peter Willard and Greater Bay who screwed us out of a bundle at the pool not to mention the $1.6 million this commission gave to them in order to get them out of our hair.

$1.6 million is not enough for Greater Bay

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Peter Willard has written a letter to the commission demanding an apology--

Well, of course it wasn't enough for Greater Bay..they originally said that they wanted $40 million--and the joke went on for 3 years with mounting legal bills. Peter Willard, after getting a settlement of $1.6 million for NEVER PERFORMING AT OUR BEACH, now WANTS AN APOLOGY FROM COMMISSIONER MCVOY FOR CALLING HIM a "con-man." Geez. Was there anything in the settlement agreement that mentioned that commissioners can't have the freedom of speech, or for that matter, tell the truth?

Chickens in Rochester, New York?

And for some more Crap--

One thing for sure, Peter Willard is no chicken. Another thing for sure is, he knows how to deal with chickens and win.

Thanks to a generous but very scared commission,  Peter Willard is probably sitting around his breakfast nook reading the Rochester blog and counting all of that windfall he just got from the citizens of Lake Worth. He just might be able to enter into the discussion on chickens in his backyard. He knows a lot about fertilizer. It seems that someone from the Rockville.com thinks having chickens in your backyard are a good idea for food and fertilizer.

Read more...

A Snowball in Hell - The Greater Bay Fiasco

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It's very disgusting to sit down at my dining table, open up the Palm Beach Post and read a horrendous article such as I did today on the Greater Bay lawsuit...particularly when I think of Peter Willard laughing his ass off. Here we have outside counsel blaming his failure to do his job for Lake Worth, a job he took willingly and wanted from day-one.

Greater Bay was to pay for and submit a site plan. They never did. They were to pay for all the financing. They never paid one dime for anything. All they did was stall and stall and eventually screwed up our pool when they finally did something.

The Development Agreement had a provision that essentially said that all government zoning land-use approvals had to be in by June 30, 2007, and if they weren't, either side could terminate the contract within 15 days notice.  The City attempted to make a Comprehensive Plan change but it was challenged by Tallahassee.

The McCauley/McNamara law suit challenged the Lease agreement of 20 years minus a day plus a sub-lease of 20 years minus a day and a development period with NO time limit or cap.  The Court agreed the suit had merit. The City knew that the charges in the suit were correct and went ahead and made an amendment to the Lease Agreement with Greater Bay. That suit was not dropped until Greater Bay was off the beach and rightfully so. Citizens formed a PAC to preserve the beach as Public Recreation and Open Space and to keep it from becoming more commercial. There was to be a referendum and the signatures on all petitions were certified as the citizens believed that they had a right to vote on what happened at their beach. Then the City, bending over backwards for Greater Bay, sued the PAC. The PAC, much to my dismay, bowed out of the process because of politics, not the threat of a law suit. Our outside counsel, Brian Joslyn, was behind that.

Joslyn says that there were several  beach redevelopment plans over the past 20 years that had fallen apart for one reason or another. To straighten out that perception, there was a plan for a General Obligation bond, pushed by then mayor Rodney Romano, of $19 million to redevelop our beach in 2002. That failed overwhelmingly at the polls. The residents did not want to be obligated for that much money. No other suggestion for the beach got off the ground.  Then Greater Bay answered the RFQ and presented a public/private partnership that would have tied up our beach for years with the city making no money other than $500,000 a year that would not even have paid for the lifeguards and have caused the City an annual loss for 20 plus years.

This was such a deal, that Greater Bay had no money, never had done a project of this magnitude, never got its bank financing and never even had opened up a bank account until years later when it was going to suit. Greater Bay charged that there was a government conspiracy to get rid of them from our beach even though they never performed, not once. People will say anything for a buck.

The biggest problem with Greater Bay was when the commission agreed to allow them to renovate our Olympic Pool before the Grant money expired. This was the biggest mistake of the city--allowing Greater Bay to appear to be a hero. I believe that this was the turning point. City attorney Larry Karns, at the time, told them not to go ahead with GB; they did anyway.  If someone is not performing and jerking you around, you don't let them proceed on another aspect of a project.

Now Scott Maxwell and Pam Triolo want to get "to the bottom of the Greater Bay lawsuit' and what got us to this $1.6 million settlement. What got us here, commissioner, was Lake Worth being too trusting; they never even did a background check on the principal, Peter Willard, and never even bothered to see first-hand one project that Greater Bay constructed. The main reason was trying to get something for nothing with a partnership with a company that was going to pay all of the bills.They naively believed the bull because they wanted to and because as Retha Lowe had always said, "We have been trying to do some thing with our beach for 30 years."

It would be her legacy when this beach was finally renovated. She was one of the top reasons why we are where we are today as well as the rest of the majority commission (Vespo and  Burns) who went along with the insurrection--she initialed the contract without reading it, every single page of it, not the mayor, Marc Drautz. Of course no situation tests us more than the urge to get something for nothing. That's what happened here. Everyone is tempted by "something for nothing."  In this case, elected officials made a political decision to sign the contract without understanding it, without even reading it, and the snowball just kept rolling down the hill.

With every bad thing that happens sometimes there is a silver lining.  In this case, the settlement is a good deal for Lake Worth considering we would have had a loss at our beach of several hundreds of thousands a year over 20 years while Peter Willard and Greater Bay originally wanted to sue us for $40 million, or make an estimated $2 million profit every year for 20 years. We are now in control of our beach, not them, and with good management, we will be making the money.

Supposedly in February, Scott Maxwell, the most political commissioner who has ever held the office in Lake Worth, will have a public workshop to bring out all the reasons that he wants the citizens to believe as to what occurred here. This is being done to justify this commission handing over $1.6 million of our money to the biggest scam artist who ever hit town and of course, to "hit" his political opponents right between the eyes.  The sad part of this is that there will be a certain percentage of people who will believe the politics here and not the facts.

It has been a snowball in hell that has not yet melted.

Lawyers are the Great Manipulators

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Boose, Casey, Ciklin, Lubitz, Martens, O’Connell was the law firm we originally hired to help negotiate the Greater Bay contract, a contract that was signed under unusual circumstances (insurrection on the dais) in November 2006.  The following year, William Boose went to prison, involved in the Masilotti scandal that put Masilotti in federal prison as well. The firm dropped the name of Boose.

Long time partner, Patrick Casey, retired last Fall and the firm dropped the name Casey from the masthead. Now Casey, founder of the firm, is suing his old firm over retirement benefits in the amount of $511,200 allegedly owed to him.

Through all of their turmoil, the City of Lake Worth stood by the firm (they helped to negotiate the Greater Bay contract) and they represented us while and after breaking it. Brian Joslyn was our "counsel,"who helped drag out the case over three years and cost us several hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees just to end up recommending that we settle with Peter Willard and group (Greater Bay) for $1.6  million dollars. Willard obviously never had any intention of developing our beach because he never performed and was someone who had nine pages of judgments against him. Joslyn, the lawyer who was on our side, said that we "could have" lost millions more because he conducted four mock juries that "said so," a mockery in itself. The lawyer who was hired by us to represent the city never mentioned in that public settlement meeting that he was arguing for Greater Bay during those "pretend" trials, confirmed by Scott Maxwell.

We can't afford all these legal fees with every Tom, Dick and Harry or nut case suing the City, that's a given.  However, when prudent in the future, shouldn't outside counsel be hired from a law firm that still has fire in the belly, one that will tell us the facts from inception and a law firm that has our best interests--still believing in winning rather than perhaps both sides dragging a case out and nothing is left but billable hours for 36 months? Lawyers are the great manipulators.

Read about it.

Greater Bay and the Pool/Beach Renovation

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As we just can't get enough of Greater Bay and it's big win off the backs of the struggling people of Lake Worth, here is a blast from the past.  Another blog beat me to this back in 2008.

Thoughts put in the form of questions from someone involved in the Pool and Beach Project early 2008 who indicates that there was ineptness from staff as well as stratagem for gain by GB. All that staff, that was in charge of decisions, were eventually terminated.--

Peter Willard and former Mayor, Jeff Clemens

They Were Given A Building Permit By The City of Lake Worth Fl?

How CAN they (GBC/GBG Steele/Willard Team) receive a building permit?

I don't know who the amateurs are or who approves projects in the City but the Citizens of Lake Worth and Palm Beach County are getting SCREWED, not protected, in this deal.

Do you know GBC/GBG (Steele/Willard Team) will be taking all the candy (huge profits) from the Citizens of Lake Worth and Palm Beach County! Where is the City of Lake Worth and their Agents in protecting the Citizens of Lake Worth and Palm Beach County? It appears GBC/GBG (Steele/Willard Team) are getting a free ride (in my opinion) — why are the Citizens of Lake Worth and Palm Beach County allowing the City of Lake Worth and its Paid Agents to act not in our best interests? Why does the City of Lake Worth and its Agents not require or want to have the PLANS and SPECIFICATIONS on record for the Pool Renovation in City Hall?

Why does the City of Lake Worth and its Agent not want to know what the labor and materials are going to cost them, not only them, but, how about the taxpayers? (Regarding the pool) Is the City going to receive the $200,000.00 from GBC/GBG (Steele/Willard Team)-- in a letter to Karns from GBC/GBG (Steele/Willard Team) stating they would pay the first $200,000.00, this is a public document stating that GBC/GBG (Steele/Willard Team) would pay, if the Pool Renovation Project was not completed by April 30, 2008? Is this letter (document) from GBC/GBG (Steele/Willard Team) to Atty. Karns available to the public?

Their excuse (the GBC/GBG (Steele/Willard Team) will use is that the building permit was not issued in a timely manner, from the City of Lake Worth — why? Therefore, no $200,000.00 guaranteed as stated, by GBC/GBG, to the City of Lake Worth by GBC/GBG (Steele/Willard Team).

Again, how did GBC/GBG (Steele/Willard Team) get a permit from the City of Lake Worth and its Agents without PLANS and SPECIFICATIONS???????????????

As it stands, the confusion will continue to reign within the City of Lake Worth on the Pool Renovation Project...NO recorded RECORDS for the City — why?

(On the beach) Over 20 years, GBC/GBG (Steele/Willard Team) will generate $150,000,000.00 to $250,000,000.00. maybe even $300.000.000.00 — WHY IS THE CITY OF LAKE WORTH RECEIVING SO LITTLE?

Author Unknown

The Greater Bay Settlement and who to Blame

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Dear Mayor and Commissioners:

I had the opportunity to observe much of Attorney Joslyn's performance at the meeting during which he recommended the City pay $1.6M to settle Greater Bay v. The City of Lake Worth. He blamed his diffidence in going to trial on local bloggers, activists, and former Commissioners, but neglected to include his own firm's action and lack of action as the first and main cause of the problem.

Boose, Casey, Ciklin, et al sent two attorneys to be present at the 2 days of contract negotiations between the City and Greater Bay, presumably to protect Lake Worth's interest. Apparently neither of these contract and real estate professionals, nor any other members of their firm did any background check of Mr. Peter Willard before drafting up a three part contract, giving him control of what was to happen at the Beach for well over 40 years.

Had they done even the most cursory investigation of Mr. Willard's record, red flags would have been raised which likely would have stopped the partnership. Instead, a three part contract was drafted, the 40+ year term of which violated the City Charter and put the City in jeopardy.

The Construction phase of the contract set no time limit on Greater Bay's finishing the project. This was so egregious that Mr. Willard himself laughed up his sleeve at its inadequacy in protecting the City.

Casey, Ciklin then unsuccessfully attempted to defend the 3 leases, which were in violation of the City Charter, and  were in the aggregate, indefensible. Judge Fine heard their Motion to Dismiss and said,  "Your motion is alluring, but I'm going to deny it."

In total, the contract has resulted in a loss of almost $3M for the City of Lake Worth and its taxpayers, a loss that could have been avoided had Boose, Casey, Ciklin etal investigated Mr. Peter Willard's background and had they drafted contracts that were legally sufficient, given the parameters of our City Charter.

Perhaps this firm has done some work beneficial to the City in the past, but I suggest that it may be time for the City to seek alternate representation, should the need for outside counsel present itself in the future.

Sincerely,

Laurence McNamara

Chairman, Citizens Come First

Greater Bay's final screw

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It's impossible to write about what went down at city hall last night. One thing that was perfectly clear to me was, we hired the wrong attorney. Little did I know or ever expect, that tough dealing, azz kicking Brian Joslyn would cop out and give ridiculous excuses for reasons to settle. After all, Joslyn was the lawyer who wrote the contract FOR Greater Bay. He knew all the nuances and legalities of it. I guess it took the reading of 70,000 documents that got him to acquiesce.

Joslyn was the attorney who was behind the city suing its own citizens in We Love Lake Worth PAC.  Incidentally, the PAC got ALL of the required signatures on three petitions that were certified by the Supervisor of Elections. If Cara Jennings did anything wrong regarding Greater Bay, it was voting against the petition going to ballot which would have kept the zoning PROS. The fear was possibly having to build a new building which would have ended the businesses considered as accessory under PROS. If the city did anything wrong, it hired an attorney with a definite conflict of interest.

Mr. Joslyn mentioned the zoning last night and that all those merchants who had been there were illegal based on the zoning. What the opposition failed to tell him was that all our merchants were accessory to the beach experience and "grandfathered in." The 1922 casino was built for business and has been a business enterprise since 1922. The PROS zoning did not have to change to BAC which was only changed to accommodate Greater Bay and the further commercialization of our beach. Mr. Joslyn should have asked anyone other than the opposition or even the former P and Z board that was politically removed recently if he was seeking the other side of the story or wanted correct information.


PROS (Public Recreation and Open space):

23.18.02.00. use restrictions in the PROS public recreation and open space district.

23.18.02.01. Principal uses permitted by right in PROS district.

A.  Parks and other outdoor open space areas intended for active use
B.  Essential services

23.18.02.02. Principal uses permitted as special land uses in PROS district. No uses are permitted as special land uses in the PROS public recreation and open space district.

23.18.02.03. Accessory uses permitted by right in PROS district.  Any use accessory to and customarily incidental to a principal use permitted by right.  (In other words, Mr. Joslyn, the merchants were always allowed there, were "grandfathered in" and were there since the casino opened in 1922.

Yes, we did have a case. Greater Bay NEVER performed. This article from lakeworthmedia.com, Greater Bay's Peter Willard - background check 2 years late is about a guy who I said in a previous blog, would charm the pants off my Grandmother and she has been dead for 50 years!  Brian Joslyn fell for all the politics of those who have been screaming about a public/private partnership with Greater Bay for years, blaming all the wrong people:  citizens, bloggers, false statements (not giving one example) and two commissioners who did the right thing. It wasn't they who signed the contract with an unqualified company.  The entire commission (including Retha Lowe) voted to end the Contract with Greater Bay for non-performance.

This commission had no choice but to make the settlement decision of $1.6 million to Greater Bay. They wanted to take the easy way out and support a flim flam artist. This was Greater Bay and Willard's objective from inception--to get its hands on our 19 acres in some way shape or form. For a company that didn't have a pot, they now have one filled with Lake Worth green. Greater Bay had a great attorney in Brian Joslyn.

There's no "ducking the past" when it comes to Greater Bay

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 Lake Worth looking east towards the Lake Worth beach

Circa 1960

We continue to read fantasy regarding Commissioner Suzanne Mulvehill.

First, it was rumored in the local news that she was really going to run again in 2012. This rumor was spread by her opponents and the local news picked up on the false rumor that she was just fooling/lying to everyone by saying she wasn't going to run again.  We have seen how that turned out.

Now the local newspaper is still on her case suggesting that (since she was really telling the truth all along that she was not going to run), they had to invent another fantasy to keep the political smirch alive...her "ducking the past." This time the reason used was the Greater Bay law suit that soon approaches trial. This is the most laughable fantasy yet.

I don’t remember the exact date that we signed over our 20 acres of beachfront to Greater Bay but it was in July 2006 that the Agreed Upon Business Terms was signed by the parties. Our City turned over our valuable land to a contractor who had NEVER had any experience on developing anything of this magnitude. The City NEVER really checked them out. And although suggested at the lectern to have the City of Lake Worth visit several of their completed projects here in Florida, the City never visited one that Greater Bay had developed. If you are going to build a house, the first thing that any normal person does is to check out a property where that contractor had built before. It's sort of standard operational procedure. You want to know what you are going to get for your money. In the case of the Lake Worth beach, it was multi-millions of dollars and loss of control for 20 years or more and a contract where Lake Worth was not going to make one red cent.

The basic of things were never checked even though we asked the Commission to do their due diligence.  Peter Willard had submitted a bio that said he was with the Willard Group, Inc. when in fact his corporation had been dissolved. They also stated that Rampart Properties would be the property manager on the new building. This was checked out at the time and Rampart didn't know anything about it and told me that they did not service this area. (They are located in St. Petersburg). Also, GB's Willard had a credit report of shame.

Greater Bay has been involved in building a Starbucks, a day care center, some schools and a Holiday Inn. They never performed under the terms of the Contract with Lake Worth that was for a lease of 20 years minus one day.  Not one little piece of dirt was ever moved. No plans were ever submitted. Greater Bay just continued to stall and stall giving one lame excuse after another.

Cara Jennings and Mark Drautz were the only ones on the dais who voted "nay" to Greater Bay. You can blame this entire Greater Bay mess on Commissioners Nadine Burns, Dave Vespo and especially Retha Lowe, a lady who was just plain tired of "kicking that football" and who was a party to the insurrection on the dais by grabbing the contract out of Drautz's hands and signed it, having never read it.

Then came our Olympic pool--The commission extended the pool project manager's contract on a 4/1 vote. The commission had changed by that time and Cara Jennings was the only commissioner who voted "nay" in retaining the pool project manager who supposedly was looking out for Lake Worth as Greater Bay was in charge of the repairs. He just was not on top of things. (Greater Bay never submitted anything on time nor did they complete anything).  The pool, as everyone knows, had shoddy work and some items were not even done. That commission, (Clemens, Vespo and Lowe) went against the advice of former city attorney Larry Karns, who told them not to hire Greater Bay for the pool repairs. We paid, including the Grant, $500,000 for those repairs plus another few hundred thousand overall for the pool contract manager. Now Bornstein and staff want to put a match to all that money and close our pool.

On December 4, 2008, the City Commission, consisting of Mayor Jeff Clemens and commissioners Retha Lowe (who was the only dissenter--she was holding on to the flim flam man up to the last minute), Cara Jennings, Jo-Ann Golden and Suzanne Mulvehill voted to terminate the Lease with Greater Bay for non-performance. 

So, no one is "ducking the past." The past is what it is--a weak commission that was willing to turn over our 19 acres to someone unqualified because they were tired of all the complaints about "not doing anything about our beach" and putting up with the lack of maintenance by the City of our important asset. Incompetence was the culprit across the board with a commission with no will to do the right thing at our beach that has an overall value of $500 million some believe.

This entire mess happened ALL before Commissioner Mulvehill. She was just lucky enough to be voted into office just a few weeks before the vote to run Greater Bay out of town for sitting on their thumbs for several years and not presenting one thing to the City of Lake Worth to instill any confidence in their company that they could or would perform. Commissioner Mulvehill was on the side of the vote to end the fiasco that never should have happened in the first place. We now have a brand new casino that will pay for itself from revenues and a beach redevelopment paid by the Recreational Bond. Lake Worth will be in control but will have to abide by County rules for 30 years because of the Bond covenants.

As everyone knows, Greater Bay has sued the city. They just won't get completely out of town until they get what they came here to get in the first place...$$$. Now we have yet another commission involved in the Greater Bay mess. No one knows whether this commission will let it proceed to trial. There is a lot of pressure from their political pundits these days to settle legal suits and "make it all go away" placing an emphasis on saving money rather than standing up for principle.

In the meantime, our Casino is completed, the beach redevelopment is proceeding and Mulligans will have its grand opening on October 3. Thank you, Suzanne for the Circle of Light.

Willard and Greater Bay

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Peter Willard

Greater Bay Group LLC vs The City of Lake Worth

One morning Peter Willard was sitting at his kitchen table in Rochester reading The Wall Street Journal and saw an ad on our Lake Worth beach and our interest to develop. A light bulb went off and being a clever guy, he saw another opportunity for himself and jumped on it. Why not him making bucko bucks off our beach? Why should some other bozo make the money when it could be he? That is how I imagine it all began. One thing led to another and he started hanging around Lake Worth once he got his fingers in the very rich pie.

A law suit was filed on November 16, 2009. Please refer to other past blogs on this subject for the history under Labels, Grater Bay. Briefly, this entire matter never would have happened if anyone on the dais had listened to the then city manager or even had taken the time to read the Contract. Mayor Mark Drautz tried but anarchy ensued when Retha Lowe grabbed the power and signed the contract with Greater Bay Group as Vice Mayor, thus handing over our beach for 20 years less one day and an eventual law suit. Our then city attorney, Larry Karns, sat there and watched this insurrection. Even the 20 years was disputed by one law suit, given merit by the Court, that was filed subsequent to this mess by private citizens who claimed it really was a 40 year power grab of our valuable beach property. Next, citizens formed a PAC and got signatures to fight it.

Essentially Willard and Greater Bay's complaint states that Lake Worth breached its contract and their claim is for specific performance regarding our Lake Worth beach.

The Court ordered mediation ended in an impasse. Subpoenas were issued late last year and depositions were taken. According to the City's information sheet, the case was taken off the Court's current trial docket and has not yet been rescheduled by the Court.

On February 2, 2012 there was a scheduled two hour meeting on this law suit. Those in attendance were the city attorney, acting city manager, the entire commission, a court reporter and our outside legal counsel, Brian Joslyn. The outcome of that meeting, as well as any discussion, is confidential but we know that there is a strong drive by some in this city who are urging their favorite commissioners to settle as many law suits as possible so as not drive up legal costs. Best business practice they say...right or wrong, let's not drag out untold legal costs that we can't afford...make it all go away. Deals are cut every day when it comes to law suits. This is exactly Greater Bay's strategy--wear them down and count on the politics that dictates.

To date, we have paid $384,105.65 in attorney fees because of bad politics at the time. Greater Bay? Who knows if he's paid one dime. The City failed in the simplest of things such as even doing a simple background check on Greater Bay to find that they had never built a building or had a project of this magnitude. They never even visited one project in which Greater Bay had been involved. They never inquired or contacted any owner of any building that involved Greater Bay for a reference. They never checked out Willard's credit history which consisted of pages of personal judgments for unpaid or failed deals.

Blame this on lousy politics, a total lack of due diligence and just plain bad advice. That's what's going on with Greater Bay, and Peter Willard just keeps hanging in there to get a piece of that cherry pie, minus the pits, that he still wants.

Greater Bay and the Wimps at City Hall who Cost Us

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Peter Willard of Greater Bay and
former mayor, Jeff Clemens

Over two years ago on November 16, 2009, Greater Bay filed a suit against The City of Lake Worth. Prior to that the City had ended their contract and kicked them out of town for non-performance on our beach/casino. They then decided that they would pull a pit bull act. They wanted a big piece of whatever meat Lake Worth had on that bone. Afterall, this was a city government with deep pockets, or so they thought, and they had already jerked us around for quite some time. What difference would it make if they just kept on jerking?

Retha Lowe kept complaining that we had been talking about the beach/casino for 30 years and had never done anything. The City Commission at the time decided something was going to be done on their watch and had Vice Mayor Retha Lowe grab the contract out of the hands of Mayor Marc Drautz. They only listened to their supporters who packed the chamber (some were ugly). The rest of the citizens they ignored. No one on the commission had read the Contract. Lowe signed it and that was the start of three law suits including a petition drive by the citizens to reverse the mess. Anarchy on the dais caused the problems that we see today encouraged by some of the very same people who cry out now about "anarchists."

I do not have up-to-date legal costs on this suit however in February 2011, the costs for outside council were $224,523.94. Citizens don't get to know these important details. Attorneys have a way of dragging things out. Brian B. Joslyn is our attorney on the matter and he is a partner with one of the most highly respected law firms, Casey Ciklin Lubitz Martens and O'Connell in West Palm Beach. The firm used to have the name Boose but they dropped that after William Boose went to prison. It seems like it was just yesterday. He was involved with former County Commissioner Tony Masilotti in illicit multi-million dollar land deals. Both are now out of the slammer.

Joslyn was also the attorney that the City of Lake Worth hired to sue the petitioners on August 21, 2007 of We Love Lake Worth Political Action Committee of which Commissioner McVoy was the President of the PAC. We Love Lake Worth, Inc. tied up the Greater Bay deal for the City's attempt to change our beach to a commercial zoning and allow a developer to grab our 19 acres of prime beachfront to develop a mall along with a parking garage. There was a citizens' law suit back then, McCauley/McNamara, against Greater Bay that stated it was not a 20 year lease but a 40 year lease. The WLLW case was dropped on June 23, 2009 after Greater Bay was relieved from its contract for non-performance. The private citizens' suit was dropped as well.

The only law suit still in effect is the Greater Bay vs. The City of Lake Worth. The attorneys have had a field day and now, two years later, the Court has decided that the Parties have reached a total impasse and that all issues require court action. We could have told them that over four years ago when we, the citizens, were all rallied to a just cause and understood our priorities in Lake Worth when the elected officials did not do their due diligence, did not listen to anyone but their inner sanctum.

Lake Worth is still getting slammed by the Greater Bay law suit that attorneys drag on and on for billable hours with Greater Bay hoping for some sort of a settlement or in their dreams, the whole enchilada. Now, it seems, there will be a jury trial. Greater Bay was wrong then. It is still wrong today but you just never know about juries and that is what they are counting on..

We have a new commission that has complained about the number of law suits involving the City. The vast majority have to do with code issues and foreclosures. Some have implied (as well as their supporters) that we should cave in and settle some suits before they get as far as the Greater Bay suit. I worry that they will put principle aside and create a whole new line item where anyone can come into Lake Worth and sue knowing they will get a settlement.

There are several pending cases, one of which is Sunset Drive Holdings, that says it has a Bert J. Harris claim. I worry that we will digress and become wimps for anyone who wants to file suit. The Vice Mayor has fought the Casino project and its financing since he became elected. He is only listening to his mentors. What next can we expect?

Greater Bay Lawsuit - a Bastard from the Beginning

Peter Willard
No, we haven't forgotten you
Those who were in power and want desperately to grab it back this November, (the Dirty Dozen) are the ones responsible for Greater Bay in the first place. They are the ones behind those commissioners who voted to allow this group on our property and enter a contract with the City--never even bothering to do the basic due diligence on the company and Willard. They still, from time to time, like to bring up the $40 million bogus law suit filed by Greater Bay (Willard) and seem to relish in its very existence.

You know what's frustrating? Never knowing what the heck is going on when it comes to law suits in the City of Lake Worth. I well understand why this is privileged but it is still frustrating. Why isn’t our outside attorney, Brian Joslyn, counter suing Greater Bay? At least we have a case.

Greater Bay is in Discovery right now. Instead of depositions, at the moment they are asking for written interrogatories. This entire suit just drags on and on. This is the strategy. They want to drag this out so that our legal fees go up and up. The legal suit was filed on November 16, 2009 and now, eight months later, Greater Bay has finally reached the Discovery stage. The last filing by them was on July 19th asking the City to produce more information.

"In American law, discovery is the pre-trial phase in a lawsuit in which each party through the law of civil procedure can request documents and other evidence from other parties and can compel the production of evidence by using a subpoena or through other discovery devices, such as requests for production of documents, and depositions. In other words, discovery includes (1) interrogatories; (2) motions or requests for production of documents; (3) requests for admissions; and (4) depositions.”

Ok then. Let’s do our own Discovery if we are not going to counter-sue for the shoddy pool refurbishment, and we should sue...let’s ask the following of Greater Bay:

• Income tax records for Greater Bay and Peter Willard personally for the last 5 years.

• Copies of all telephone bills and e-mails for both for the last 5 years prior to the Development Contract.

• Copy of any and all lawsuits for both of the above.

• List of all business dealings for both.

• List of all credit card charges for the above.

This prolongment by GB and constant request for information is only to run up bills and to impose obstacles and hindrances to get the City frustrated so that the City settles with Willard and Greater Bay. You have to wonder if his lawyer took this case on some sort of a contingency. It has been a bastard from day one. Why aren't we getting aggressive? Or maybe we don't have to.