Who wouldn't want to take control of this?
I was under the impression that the offerors would give a live presentation last night but it was not to be. Even the back-up was inadequate with Hudson Holdings giving us some site plan drawings that you couldn't read and John Szerdi, Hudson Holding's employee, in the chamber with some papers in hand. He still believes it was shockingly bad luck and voter ignorance as to why he lost his election.
The only thing "live" were the residents with many in the developer crowd there with one resident who even believes an audit of our beach complex is unnecessary. Every corporation and every city in the world has audits and Lake Worth even has delayed its 2014 general audit (the fiscal year ended September 30, 2014) that won't be out until July. What the resident said was: We were "hyperventilating...We need a middle ground, an informed public." Then in the same breath he said, "Audit figures are not necessary." How then do you get informed? How is the city supposed to know the reasons why we are not meeting expenses, (making money is their number one goal), or even if the pool expenses have been padded. There are no words to describe the idea of giving up control of our beach and going off willy-nilly without knowing the numbers and handing over one of our top assets, our casino complex, to a developer.
Last night's city commission workshop was not a workshop at least not in the sense of what we have grown to believe...it was a bunch of people giving three minutes of either agreeing with the commission or not based on little or no information. By the time it was all through, the commission went "Whew." I would suppose that the quote of the night which occurred early in the evening was Michael Bornstein's when he claimed, "I am the Father of the ITN." My question is why did we go out on one to begin with? Glen Torcivia, city attorney, answered that question--"It is used when you don't have a clear intent on what you want to do...to give us ideas." Why did we want to do anything but fix the problems we currently have?
Why then, if we had no idea of what we wanted to do or even why we were doing it, go out on this secret process in the first place? Why didn't we learn anything about the scaled back plan of Hudson Holdings and what they want to build? Why didn't we learn anything about Anderson and Carr's proposal and about their client and why they want the entire upper level of our casino for 25 years? Why didn't we learn why Mr. Bornstein thought it a necessity to do an ITN, a secret negotiating process with some appointed lay people on the needs of our Lake Worth beach? Why now, after a developer/investor who wants to further "expand" our beach park did Bornstein agree to do sustainability studies that will cost the city to basically accommodate this developer?
Why did we have to listen to the same old crap and the same old football line which is now, according to Retha Lowe, 40 years of tossing the idea around of doing something at our beach. I guess she added ten additional years as she has been out of office now and several years before she got us in trouble with Greater Bay when she grabbed the contract and signed it for the mayor who wanted to read it first. We just completed our beach and casino complex less than three years ago at a cost of $13 million dollars. Why is NOTHING good enough for these people? It has to make you wonder why that damn football is still being tossed around.
The Vice Mayor gave his observation (or was it a complaint?) that the "vast number of people who use our beach don't even live here..."it's a regional beach," he said and always wanting to be right, he grumbled again that the financial plan "will not work." No, it won't work when the 2nd floor space is not rented, when the grand ballroom is not grand and has a few problems of convenience, and the pool has never been marketed nor was it ever a part of the financial plan. They even put out false information apparently from Juan Ruiz that our pool is not a competitive pool. It is a competitive pool if used width-wise on 25 yard meets. The excuses are sickening, and spouting the company line as to why this complex is not working, is even more sickening.
Former Commissioner John Szerdi dissed the building, big time, bringing up all its problems in spite of the fact he had an interest at our beach development as his firm designed the restroom in the southern part of the beach. He was on top of everything back then. Resident Bob Lepa said that it was "incomprehensible that we're still subsidizing businesses there." We are supposedly operating at a loss because of the things mentioned in the above paragraph but we don't really know that because an "audit is unnecessary." We just keep on digging our own grave and giving unfounded reasons for failure.
Commissioner Maier, answering Scott Maxwell about his statement that the beach is being used mostly by those living outside our city and that it was "regional" asked, "Is our golf course a regional course? Is our downtown a regional downtown?" We own this beach and everything on it regardless of who uses it. Aside from Amoroso and McVoy, Commissioner Maier made some of the best points of the evening when he said "without the audited numbers, we can't fix a problem if we don't know it exists. Fix the building we already have there. Let's fix what we already have." McVoy's opinion was the same.
Maier's and McVoy's suggestion is all too simple but obviously all too difficult for this administration that seems to believe that the cure-all is to outsource and get the problem, once and for all, off their plate. Didn't they know that new businesses and business models take several years to start generating income? Profitability is whatever monies remain after all expenses are accounted for, including staff salaries. We have no idea what sort of expenses are being dumped into the casino operation. Fix the flaws. Rent the upstairs. Market the pool. Let's see the numbers and then let's talk.
If people can't do the job, then they really should give it up. No more excuses.
