Ribbon cutting in Lake Worth

December 5, 2016

Contact: Jamie Brown, Public Services Director
Phone: 561.586.1720
Email: jbrown@lakeworth.org

11th Ave South Greenway Project – Ribbon Cutting

The City of Lake Worth is pleased to announce the completion of the 11th Ave South Greenway Project. The project consisted of the installation of a new multi-use concrete sidewalk, concrete driveways, street trees, irrigation system and ADA improvements.

Date: Tuesday, December 13
1:00 pm
Where: Intersection of 11th Avenue South & South D Street

Please contact the Public Services office with any questions or comments.

Big Bath on Banyan

Comment Up

How often do you have to replace rubber seals that go between two pipes?

West Palm Beach commissioner Shanon Materio, blamed the 5 million gallons of water that poured onto Banyan Blvd and Australian Avenue as “Poor maintenance and antiquity of the system." The city says workers installed that rubber seal in 2011 and inspected it again as recently as 2013. Read more...

Lake Worth's New Strategy

Comment Up

Let's inform the people of what we want them to know--

Last night the city set out on a new course of action to inform the residents of the economic state of our city by presenting our financial picture to the Bryant Park Neighborhood Association. Michael Bornstein was invited to have a presentation and was asked to invite some of the commissioners to attend.  On several occasions in the past, Scott Maxwell has told us that the city had 30 plus meetings on the Lake Worth 2020 roads improvement plan of which few of us were aware. This time the City wants to change its strategy and "get it right."  Mr. Bornstein and Commissioner Amoroso had an interesting and informative meeting especially for all of those residents who are not familiar with our budget--how we make our money and how we spend it all.

City Manager, Mike Bornstein, led the Power Point presentation on the budget pointing out that we take more money ($9,138,387 or 30%) from our enterprise funds (electric, water and sewer) than we receive in ad-valorem taxes, ($6,315,694 or 21%) to operate our city.  Enterprise revenue funds more than supplement our budget and without them we would cease to exist. On the one hand, this commission is continuing its electric rate reduction to bring our rate into parity with FPL in order to eventually appease businesses, now within a 6.7% difference in residential rates (commercial rates are no longer the highest in the State), which means even less money for operations. Then the city tells us that the only way it can operate is to transfer funds from that Utility. Water is up 5% and sewer rates by 8%. Commissioner Amoroso said that he was never for selling our electric utility, an option that was recently panned by the Electric Utility Advisory Board.

Out of the $30.324 million 2015 operating budget, the city projects that personnel services will take 41%, up one percent from last year even though the city has eliminated one position.  Out of the total $30 mil operating budget, there is $20,914,270 in non-controllable costs or $68.97%. It was also mentioned that we have a shortage of personnel in some departments.

Answering a question on street maintenance, it was stated that we have $500,000 in the budget with $300,000 of that going towards street lights. According to the 2015 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

So, the street maintenance budget has has gone down during this administration. Where has the difference been applied? Can you even imagine passing a budget by a 9.7% increase and not allotting more for road repairs particularly as the Commission just tried to grab $63.5  million in a general obligation bond for that very thing? Only McVoy and Amoroso voted Nay on the new budget.

Commissioners Scott Maxwell and John Szerdi were also present last night. Mr. Szerdi twice asked the attendees, "What do you think the city should do to finance fixing our roads?" And this is the new strategy for the city...let the folks know that we have very little left over after paying all the uncontrollable costs such as police protection, employee salaries, benefits and retirement. What then do we do to fix the potholes?

Lake Worth 2014/2015 Budget - First Public Hearing tonight

Tonight the city will be adopting the millage rate along with the proposed budget. During the Budget Workshops, estimates for 2014/2015 had included Lake Worth 2020 that just was defeated at the polls. This was to affect many of our rates such as Water going up by 5% and Sewer at 8% in order to fund the capital needs of the system and the Park of Commerce. Also, costs of $45,993,291 for capital improvements through 2019 will be voted upon that include the Park of Commerce, with $5,241,592 coming out of our streets maintenance budget.  $24,520,000 out of the $63.5 million they wanted from taxpayers, is coming from the bond proceeds. (See page 526 of the backup). It will be interesting how they handle this, if they do.  Their entire budget was predicated on receiving bond proceeds.

Below are some interesting graphs--to enlarge, click on graph.

In the proposed 2014/2015 budget page2, advalorem is projected to be $6,315,694.  In order to support the Public Safety aspect of our budget, we have revenues from other sources, i.e., utility fees, licenses and permits, fines and forfeitures, etc.

Police public safety costs are projected to be $15,306,633 in the upcoming year.  According to Wikipedia, we have 34,910 people living in our city, a figure taken from the 2010 census.  If you divide the cost of policing by the number of people, you come up with a whopping figure of over $400 for every man, woman and child.

Number of PBSO in LW--80 boots on the ground.

"We just want the millions--shut up about the facts"

Comment Up

The devil is in the details and with Lake Worth, it's about what is not said--

I am reprinting these facts because they are important. From the very first presentation, the city has said that the roadway and utility plan involve 71 miles. Although the city has changed, crunched or eliminated numbers, there has been no diversion from the number of miles in its plan.  We don't know if there will be major repairs or just simply cutting and filling in a pothole as it is not described with any detail. No facts are given as to how much money will be spent on any given road.  Here are the facts--the cost and percentages as given to us by the city in their own printed material:

The bulk of the millions will be spent on
 25 miles of roads

The city implies that it is 71 miles that will be reconstructed and hands out a red map with most of the streets outlined to show us what they will be doing.  Is this is the most deceiving map ever devised?

25 miles -55 pci = $71.01 million
11 miles +56-65 pci = $3.31 million
20 miles +66-75 pci = $3.36 million
15 miles +76-83 pci = $1.54  million

The city manager continues to describe Lake Worth as 7 square miles.  At this point, who knows? There are many estimates on the number of overall miles.  Wikipedia says that there are 6.46 miles with 5.64 being land.   Lake Worth Quick Facts says that there are 5.87 land miles.  Don't want to be accused of nit-picking like you know who but the point here is that there is no precise number of miles in this city.  So, let's just round up. Land miles are under 6 and that is what will be affected by their road plan. If you don't know this basic fact of the size of the city in which you govern and then you ask property owners to fund a $63.5 million bond, then how in the heck can you tell us that there are 116 miles of paved roads and alleys. It must be from one of those Mock Roos studies sitting on a shelf that cost $150,000 right along with all those Plan B 's.

The city tells us that they had only allocated $448,528 in the budget for the Streets Division.  Why?  You get the politicos who are always talking about a former commission that "gutted the code department" (it was two people less--we were going through massive budget cuts) but why didn't the city with this commission add more personnel to the streets maintenance department that only has one supervisor and 4 crew members if the roads are so damn bad? This commission has been on the job for nearly three years and all of a sudden they are excited about rebuilding Lake Worth from the ground up...a 100 year old city for gosh sakes. Perhaps it is all about the money that is exciting--they want a money-grab?

The city has no idea what it will spend on each road...NONE...and they would never commit to that because they don't have to do squat on your road. The city can change its mind at will. LW 2020. The ONLY thing that is certain is that the city wants you to approve of an overall debt of  $131,000,000.00 for 34 years (the city does not tell you that) and they are counting on the property owners to actually pay these ad-valorem taxes over the lifetime of this bond. But it won't matter if someone can't or won't  pay.  The rest of the taxpayers will pick up the slack.

No trust; no bond

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - Lake Worth's General Obligation Bond

Comment Up

"Under the plan, property tax rates could rise by 35 percent, 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. We hope the negative effects will be minimal, but no one should pretend there will be none.  ...No one denies the city’s need to repairs its infrastructure. But the proposal has been remarkably divisive, and for legitimate reasons. 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 Palm Beach Post

The Palm Beach Post's editorial today recommends passing the bond referendum.  No surprise there.  The Post and I agree on little from local to national politics. However, at least the editorial was not a marketing piece for Lake Worth 2020 and the City.  It did give the good, the bad and the ugly in its editorial. We all agree that roads and infrastructure must be repaired or in some cases, totally rebuilt, but we are looking for a worst case scenario to do first and not put the property owners in debt for 34 years. As we come out of this recession that hit us harder than most, we are optimistic that property values will increase, thus more money to the city.

We also agree that there is a lot of poverty in our city along with the beautiful and important assets that we have. It has always been a poor city and even during the economical boom years, money was spent and went "missing." To rebuild the infrastructure on 70%, according to the city's figures, in a 100 year old city that had a line item for street maintenance of $1 mil a year until this commission, boggles the mind. Politicians don't blink an eye on asking residents to vote themselves into a massive debt and put their properties in jeopardy.

I am still looking for Plan B and someone at city hall who can come up with it instead of grabbing all the cash in a city that gives away city assets for a dollar a year and has never maintained one darn thing--past city administrations or this one.

Don't vote for any more money to go down the drain or that pothole.  

John Prince Park off the list of possible Spring Training sites

Comment Up

State Representative Lori Berman called me this morning to let me know that John Prince Park is out of the picture for a Spring training facility. The City of Lake Worth and its commissioners were working over-time to ruin a county park and collapse a neighborhood in Maxwell's district.

The reason why Scott Maxwell was in such a lousy mood last night:

From: Robert Weisman
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2014 1:17 PM
To: BCC-All Commissioners
Cc: Verdenia Baker; Jon Van Arnam; Eric Call; Liz Bloeser; Sherry Brown; Audrey Wolf; JGreen@wpb.org; croog@wpb.org; Robert Weisman
Subject: Baseball Spring Training

A meeting was held today with representatives of the teams, the City of West Palm Beach and County staff to discuss costs, funding and site issues.  The exclusive site discussed was the West Palm Beach 160 acre site south of 45^th Street between Haverhill Road and Military Trail.  The teams indicated that the County’s alternative John Prince site is too small for the two team facility that they currently envision.

The meeting was not conclusive, but there was open discussion in an amicable manner.  It was agreed that a follow up meeting would be scheduled in the near future after the parties have the opportunity to better analyze open issues which include construction costs, maintenance responsibilities, availability of tourist development funding and the ability to bond such revenues and State  funds, and how the property might be used to benefit City and County residents when not in use by the teams.  If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to call me.

Read Joe Capozzi's article that says, John Prince Park off the table

Last night's meeting Lake Worth

Comment Up

Mathews Consulting Presentation
If you recall, they were hired by the city to oversee Mock Roos Engineers on the Park of Commerce project (the salvation of Lake Worth according to the "visionaries") and a firm that has worked for our city for 50 years. We are paying them $349,930 to ensure that everything the engineering firm is doing is right and on time.

Inmate Labor
Florida Department of Corrections will provide inmate labor in work programs under the supervision of the Florida Department’s staff. An inmate work squad consists of up to seven inmates plus a Florida Department of Corrections Guard/Supervisor. The work squad is available five days per week throughout the year except when a Department of Correction Guard is on vacation or sick. This service will continue to be overseen by the City’s Ground Maintenance Division. And get this--they have to use E-verify to verify eligibility of all persons employed during the contract term. Cost:  $23,957.08.

CRA Shuffleboard Court property Lease
We turned over control of our shuffleboard Court property to the CRA to be used for arts. We just can't get enough art or enough CRA. They in turn sub-leased the property to the Armory Art Center for one year. Because of that action, the lease with the CRA had to be amended. For various tuition charges, you too can become an artist.  Go with the flow.

Sun Recycling and our Landfill
Not once did the city mention the contract terms...out of sight for city staff and commissioners and certainly out of the minds of the residents. They bent over backwards in sending out surveys with self-stamped return envelopes. Only 10% returned them which showed that there was little interest or no problems left in the Osborne area. It is a landfill that was compromised--big time--by a firm whose operators had no conscience. 6,000 truckloads of construction material, some highly questionable, dumped on our property as a pretense to building a staging area for hurricanes.  We believe that the membrane was penetrated by these heavy trucks allowing gas to escape causing odors and sickness. We did find out that one commissioner, Andy Amoroso, has walked on the property without experiencing any odors or any problems. Sun Recycling got off the hook because of our lack of resolve. It was cheaper to forget about what they did, forget about the contract terms and move on. Anyone can come to Lake Worth and get away with just about anything because our legal team will find a way to appeasement.

Right of Way at 1501 N. L Street
The City gave that away too on a Revocable Permit on the First Reading. It was said by the city manager that we don't understand rights-of-way. 

Beach Decal parking
As predicted, the city commission gave away the availability of use of our 50 decal spots to non-residents. Even after having made the motion to do so, the speaker for the out-of-country Snowbirds said that charging them more money than residents was "unfair." You can't win with people who want it all. And you definitely can't win with a commission that is confused about what is "fair" or the circumstances of today compared to the circumstances of yesterday.

Also it was said last night that residents who rent couldn't get a decal which is not the case. Then Juan Ruiz clarified by saying that they had to have a year's lease which is a requirement.  Also mentioned was that the decal could be pro-rated. When did that happen?  I talked to Juan this morning and he wants to change that stipulation and I agree. The city will bend over backwards for these non-resident property owners for 50 decal spaces. Unbelievable. There even was a person who complained that there was no handicapped parking in the resident decal parking area. WTF?

Parking spaces are always filled on weekends, according to Juan Ruiz Recreational Director.  Holidays, forget about it.  Spring Break--don't even go there.

Some interesting quotes from the beach decal discussion:

Remembering that we have 50 decal parking spots--

Scott Maxwell:  We need to take a hard look at costs...wants to significantly increase the benefit to the residents and ridicules the amount we have been paying. (We now know where he disappeared to for 45 minutes or so--he traveled to the ROLOH neighborhood association meeting, a rare appearance)
Pam Triolo:  Let's charge $50 for residents and $75 for Snowbirds.
Andy Amoroso:  I don't want any cap on the number sold because it would discriminate against your residents. (It was said that 1745 permits had been sold for 50 spots)
Mike Bornstein, city manager:  Sell as many as you can...it will be like a lottery ticket to find a parking spot. It will be car "bling."

In looking over my beach decal receipts, the following charges applied not including tax:
2006:  $10 for a resident---$30 for a snowbird
This continued until...
2009:  $20 for a resident---$60 Seasonal
This continued until...
2013:  $30 for a resident

Some of the required Documentation to purchase a beach decal:
For Residents: Fl Drivers License, FL Vehicle regisgtration, homestead Exemption card, Ad Valorem tax receipt, Utility bill and if a renter, a one year lease minimum.
For snowbirds in the past when we had an unlimited number of spaces:  FL Driver's License, Vehicle registration, Ad Valorem Tax Receipt or Mobile Home Registration.

Roadway and utilities master Plan Capital projects
There was some question as to whether this was the 2020 Plan. Answer-- NO.

Professional services agreement with URS Corporation Southern for engineering, design and construction services for the Roadway and Utilities Master Plan Capital Projects for a twenty-four month term with provisions for three two-year renewals. The initial work authorization is for engineering and permitting services for Year 1 Projects # 2, 4 and 7 in a lump sum amount of $681,807.

Agreement with Craven Thompson & Associates, Inc. for engineering, design and construction services for  the Roadway and Utilities Master Plan Capital Projects for a twenty-four month term with provisions for three two year renewals. The initial work authorization is for engineering and permitting services for Year 1 Projects # 1,3,5,6 and 8, in a lump sum amount of $467,185.

Destructive pests threaten the neighborhood

Comment Up

GUEST BLOGGER President of ROLOH, says:

826 Sunset Drive needs to be torn down not boarded up as satellite images show many holes in the roof which indicates i'ts caving in.  Also since they do not keep this "mowed" on a regular basis they are running vermin such as raccoons all over the neighborhood.  This has caused thousands of dollars in damages to homes--from several homes having their roofs ripped open to others having their side vents ripped open by raccoons trying to find a "new" home.  (5 homes that we know of so far and as we drive the neighborhood I'm sure we will find others.)

If the Sunset owners do not wish to provide continued maintenance then they should simply forfeit the property and move on.  One of the houses on the Sunset Property clearly has holes in the roof.  The other structures should be inspected for hazardous materials.  If the one small structure is a well, is it capped?  Another structure past the barn also appears to have holes in the roof.  What are the three round objects in the attached image?
 

Save Our Neighborhood, a political action committee that began about eight years ago to save the ROLOH neighborhood residential Single Family 7 zoning from upzoning, is still in effect. It was over the 826 Sunset parcel that was bought by out-of-town land speculators. The property languishes as the owners constantly threaten a law suit to get the upzoning they desire. But like everything else in Lake Worth, the property has been abandoned over all of these years and is now rapidly deteriorating causing untold problems throughout the neighborhood, especially the nearby houses located on adjacent streets.

Vermin and racoons have resided on and about the property and it has been suggested that they have literally taken over its occupancy. Raccoons look for weak spots on a house to get through and start their family and multiply. There are plenty of weak spots as depicted above. The only solution the neighborhood now has is to capture these animals themselves and then when that is done, hope that the city will enforce its code and make sure the property is maintained. Raccoons can also be a health hazard if in or around your house.  Raccoons may leave millions of roundworm eggs in their feces and after a month they develop to the infective stage. 

A raccoon invasion 

Raccoons love abandoned houses

William Waters responded:
Mr. Waples:
We are in contact with the owners through Code Compliance and are following up with the order for Board & Secure. We will have to inspect the board & secure to approve the final certificate at which time we would have the legal opportunity to go on the property itself and assess the building. A board & secure requires that all openings are secure not just doors and windows. We will not be able to final the board & secure unless all the openings including the ones in the roof are secured. Based on the extent of the deterioration, the owners may decide to demolish verses secure. We will keep you apprised of their response and it will go to the Special Magistrate should they not respond as a notice of violation has been prepared and has been filed. Thank you.
William Waters, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP BD+C

Graffiti in Downtown Lake Worth

We used to have Laurence McNamara who would paint over graffiti as soon as he learned about it.  Porter Paint would contribute the paint or he would pay for it himself. Then, back in 2009, we had a graffiti unit with the PBSO that was responsible to paint over it within 24 hours. Now no one seems to know whose job it is to get rid of the graffiti that brings down our neighborhoods. The above graffiti has been on J Street in the heart of our downtown since April 2013 at least. It is NOT art.

In our code:

Defacement of property. No person shall willfully or wantonly damage, mutilate or deface any exterior surface of any structure or building on any private or public property by placing thereon any marking, carving or graffiti. It shall be the responsibility of the owner to restore said surface to an approved state of maintenance and repair.  

Abatement.

(1) It shall be unlawful for any person owning property, any person acting as manager or agent for the property owner, or for any person in possession or control of the property to fail to remove or effectively obscure graffiti upon any public or private building, structure, or any other real or personal property within ten (10) days of receipt of notice from the city to remove such graffiti. This notice may be given verbally or in writing by an enforcement officer. If the notice is given verbally, an information report shall be completed by the city, a case number assigned, and the report shall be filed with the records department of the police department.

Has the owner been notified?  If not, why not?

Lake Worth - Employees

Comment Up

I always say, it could be worse--we could be living in Boynton Beach.  Most of our problems pale in comparison other than slum, blight and crime, of course.

Now the latest is they age discriminated against an elderly man who was working for the library part-time to subsidize his income.  They fired him after he was considerate, arranged the surgery during the summer when it was slow and gave proper notice that he would be out for a short time due to hip surgery.  Boynton didn't like that.  They fired him.

The truth be known is that corporations are hiring the older workers now.  It has been proven that they have good leadership skills; they're focused; they're loyal; they have a good work ethic; and they have strong networks. If they are over 65, they are on medicare therefore no healthcare costs to worry about.

We in Lake Worth value our employees but at a huge expense I might add--union benefits are killing us, contracts signed during good times. Union negotiations are something we have not heard about under this commission.

To set the record straight, ever since Commissioner Amoroso ran for office the first time and even though he was informed at the time he was using an erroneous figure when he said that Lake Worth, under Susan Stanton, laid off 70 workers, that figure has stuck.  Mayor Pam Triolo quoted it just recently. In actuality and during the 2011-2012 budget discussions, it was said that 39 positions were eliminated beginning in 2008--some due to austerity measures and the rest because of the contracting out of our police and fire, outsourcing of city services in the areas of park, facility and street maintenance the year before.  Some were probationary union positions or were  positions still listed on the chart that were never filled, thus making up the 70 plus positions.

 I have mentioned this before but local politicians (who never attended a commission or budget meeting back then) still like to use the larger figure to blame a former commission on everything imaginable especially on the lack of code enforcement by saying that they laid-off all these employees. They try to imply that we wouldn't have all this slum, blight and crime if the previous administration had not cut staff.

Lake Worth Budget Discussions

Comment up
Jamie Brown, Public Works Director

Last night the third discussion was held of the 2nd Draft Budget for 2013/2014.

The good news: Certain revenues are up such as ad valorem by 4% or approximately $259,000; gas tax receipts $13,000; and code fines and related monies $260,000. Our estimated operating budget will be $29,516,000 with a balance forward of $783,960 or a total of $30,299,960 for the upcoming fiscal year. Millage is expected to stay the same as last year.

The bad news: The city is still struggling--fulfilling the department goals with less employees although those employees are making more money. William Waters announced that he has lost 4 employees just recently due to non-competitive salaries and benefits. I always thought our benefits were spectacular when you consider that they are getting anywhere from 50% up to 63% of their salaries in medical insurance,  retirements, etc. There was much discussion on pot holes and a hint of special assessments.

The city used a comparison from 6 years ago to today. This is a flawed comparison and they should have used last year's budget or even better, the one of two years ago to this proposed budget for the new fiscal year. This is the only way we can really gauge 1) if the city manager is doing his job, 2) if the departments are working efficiently and where we might have problems.

Jamie Brown, a civil engineer who had served as the city's interim public services director after Joe Kroll, was named director over one year ago. He oversees garbage collection, streets, building maintenance, grounds and cemetery, stormwater, fleet maintenance, and other functions and is doing one heck of a job. He even works with the Department of Corrections which provides 5 workforce inmates and a supervisor who work in our alleyways. Jamie was hired in at that position at $112,486 and hopefully he got a good raise.

All in all, it was a good meeting and the commission actually worked together and asked good questions. Politics was totally out of the equation. City manager, Mike Bornstein, said, "Our goal as a city is to make things work well."

The F.E.M.A fiasco was pushed back and the city will discuss that tonight at the fourth budget discussion starting at 6:00pm before presentations on the golf and beach funds.

Urban Decay, Urban Rot, Urban Blight - No more excuses

Comment Up

As we have had so many comments about run down properties and owners neglecting same, I wanted to talk about this most important problem we have in Lake Worth.  It is not jobs; it is not development; it is not the high cost of electricity. It is blight caused by the acquiescence and apathy of many among our population. It is now a cultural mentality that prevails throughout the city and has even trickled over to neighboring property owners. Yesterday one of the houses I have featured as Mess of the Week hung clothes to dry on the bushes.  It is a Third World mentality and we have allowed this to continue. We, as a city government, are to blame.

An urban area is characterized by a higher population density. We have the highest density of any city around--according to the 2010 census, we had a population of 34,910 with density at 5,945.2 people per square mile. As an example of comparison, Wellington has 1,230 people per square mile and West Palm Beach has 1,833. With high density comes slum and blight.

Slum and Blight are on the minds of all of us in Lake Worth. It affects every single neighborhood in some fashion. Certain neighborhoods that have catered to a lot of rentals and immigrants have the biggest problems. Slumlords have been allowed. When the economy tanked, our properties devalued faster than neighboring towns because of our older housing stock and our smaller houses. During the false boom, when everyone was making money, our city attracted more immigrants and poor people looking for cheap housing and jobs, some living 10 or more in a house. Many landlords did not take care of their properties (still don't) and looked the other way--but the biggest culprit was the City and it got out of control.

As a city gets older, and ours is 100 years old, many of the properties are not maintained and become run-down, foreclosed upon and end up abandoned.  Lake Worth has attracted the poor and people who can't afford to live elsewhere. They are forced to live in properties that are without appropriate maintenance, where slumlords rake in the rental money and do little in improvements or yard maintenance. Eventually, these properties go to slum and blight.  The look and condition of these properties, as well as their use, has blighted our city.

The city in conjunction with the CRA, attracts more poor people with 'affordable' housing giving them rental subsidies. We are not doing anything to get rid of the slum and blight--all we have ever done is talk about it.  Dee Mcnamara makes a good point: "The CRA is inflicting low income housing and rentals on Lake Worth thus decreasing the tax base of Lake Worth, undermining its sustainability!" The CRA must concentrate on its mission of eradicating slum and blight, not more affordable or rental housing that eventually leads to more blight.

The problem of slum and blight is systemic and Code Enforcement can't do its job. There are not enough people to ever tackle code enforcement in this city--the problem is too great. It has been allowed to decay to this extent. We even see blight in the better neighborhoods where some are fortunate to live and wonder how some guy living across from us can neglect his home and ruin our street. Sometimes we are part of the problem knowing that a fresh coat of paint or giving a little TLC to our yards would help but we procrastinate thus making the property worse over time. With the city's policy of tackling the safety issues first, this allows the blight to grow like a disease throughout our city. The city is more concerned with someone who did not pull a permit to get repairs done for  painting, or repairing that broken down fence, instead of just allowing them to do the work.

With high density, the slum and blight is more prevalent and will continue until we get serious about the problem, set our priorities and come up with a solution. Instead the city worries that someone doesn't have smoke detectors. Let's face it, and it's sad to say, some of these places should be bulldozed. The city is one of the biggest offenders--just take a look at our cemetery. Yesterday it was cleaned up for Memorial Day but even the commander said he finally found a grave of a long lost buddy that had been covered up. Should the City not rule by example? You could have a weekly volunteer clean-up in this city and it would all look the same two weeks after the work. People have no pride in where they live and want/expect others to do the work for them. The accumulated strewn trash at our beach yesterday was unbelievable.

We must remedy the situation if we are to survive as a healthy city--to increase our property values thus bringing more ad valorem to Lake Worth. Slum breeds crime. Concentrating on eradicating slum and blight eventually will bring down the cost of public safety that is taking 70% of our operating budget. In so doing, the benefits which will result from cleaning up our slum and blight will accrue to all the inhabitants and property owners of Lake Worth.

Politicians have run on the platform of eradicating slum and blight but nothing ever changes--every  neighborhood is worse. Isn't it time to seriously tackle this problem?  If we don't, no one will want to come here to buy or invest. We won't have to worry about a 4 story hotel versus a 6 story one. Forget about the Park of Commerce. We will never have the money for that dream. We will never be able to generate enough tax dollars to fix the potholes. It's that simple. Scott Maxwell says he has a plan.  As three of our commissioners have filed to run again, it is time that we put pressure on them to tackle the most important problem that we have.

Time to wake up, smell the roses--

no more excuses.

Lake Worth CRA successfully spends $23 million dollars

Comment Up

Susan and Ozzie won a prize

Valentine Basket of treats

Yesterday, the Lake Worth CRA put out a Press Release. An excerpt from the release states that the Consortium had rehabilitated or constructed ninety-seven (97) housing units, composed of seventy three (73) homes for sale and twenty four (24) rentals, while acquiring sufficient properties to output an additional fourteen (14) properties over the next couple of years. The grant also was able to provide for much needed City infrastructure including new water, sewer and gas lines and sidewalks where previously none existed.

"The CRA's signature project, the Arts Lofts, is now complete. These for-sale units contain up to 2650 sq ft of livable space which includes a downstairs work studio and an upstairs living area in the heart of downtown Lake Worth." You have to be a poor, struggling artist, I think.

"Further, the Consortium was able to facilitate the upcoming development of a 55-unit affordable, green building rental development, not only to help alleviate the area's need for safe, affordable rental housing, but to use land which has long been vacant and underutilized property on one of the City's Gateways. Collectively, the Consortium has removed approximately one hundred (100) foreclosed properties from the County's backlog, putting as many as one hundred forty two (142) housing units back on the tax rolls, while affecting a total of one hundred sixty six (166) properties, greatly exceeding its goal of one hundred (100) housing units and thirty (30) land banks". See PR

So, last night's presentation and public information meeting, after the fact, on la Joya Village was a celebration of sorts. Many CRA members as well as staff were there as well as the principals involved in the project/development. I noticed where they weren't sure what to call it--project or development. La Joya village, if you recall, is the soon to be built project/development on the railroad tracks on 6th Avenue South and S. F Street in Lake Worth.

When talking to Allan Schnier the developer/principal of Realtex who is out of Boca Raton, he said that they would do background checks on all those wanting to rent in the project/development and it would have on-site management. I don't know what the background check will entail. It could be nothing more than a PBSO check. At least that might keep out the drug dealers. I asked him if they would pay ad-valorem taxes for the property and he ensured me that they will be paying ad-valorem. He also said that renters could possibly make $80,000 a year. I challenged him on the "poor" element of that.

As far as rental projects/developments are concerned, a citizen of Lake Worth said, "They establish and maintain a rental/management office that has the ability to screen prospective renters, run background and credit checks, manage and monitor on-site activity; they have the economy of scale to contract for the routine and not-so-routine repair and maintenance of the property; they create a budget with reserves for repair/replacement/maintenance. These are all of the things that aren’t being done by absentee landlords of single-family rental houses and duplex/triplex units throughout the city." If you consider those aspects, they are all pluses. I asked the developer how many people were allowed in a 3 bedroom apartment. He told me six but they were not going to allow a bunch of non-family members be a part of that count. Don't know how that one works.

"In addition, attractive rental developments have significantly greater setbacks from the road with berms/plantings/decorative fences or walls acting as an attractive buffer from the road as well as greater green/open spaces/ponds, etc. within the property. The absence of those elements and the location on the tracks screams low income. I guess if one is low income, one doesn’t “deserve” any better. It also appears that, just like Hammon Park, these residents don’t deserve elevators.

A slab porch is not a porch in my book but what does it really matter—who would want to sit on any “porch” 10’ from 6th Avenue S sucking up vehicle fumes?

The third floor is not stepped back, so my guess is that the plan is to approve this project before the LDRs are passed, or that language will be removed from the LDRs when they are passed, or this project will get a variance."

Whether we are pro or con for a rental development/project on the railroad tracks in Lake Worth in the poorer area of our city, we're getting it under the pretense that poor people deserve "luxurious"  rental units with impact glass and new appliances and their own laundry. This is right out of the liberal government spending playbook. Right now they are waiting for their permitting and will break ground possibly in August and be finished in one year.

I was asked by the chair of the CRA what else can you do with that property? I can think of many things, but when you are concentrating on spending ALL of the NSP2 Grant on time, there wasn't much else. Almost forgot...the developer will have an artist's studio on the ground level facing 6th Avenue South. It fits right in to the CRA's LULA theme.

Now we all can wait and see if the CRA's spending of all this money has made any difference to Lake Worth and its slum and blight problem that has escalated beyond imagination.

Lake Worth Mayor made another Big Blunder

Comment Up

Ms. Point of Order, Mayor Pam Triolo at one time said, "I am not political."  But she went ahead by involving herself in local elections, which is not politically smart. Triolo endorsed Jim Stafford over sitting commissioner, Christopher McVoy who was just re-elected in a land-slide. She, the PB Post and the Lake Worth Herald just don't have a pulse on the community or want to listen to any other point of view.

Politically she did make some cuts this year in our Utilities and caved in to the few people who kept on complaining about not being competitive to FPL. She also robbed over $1.2 million from our savings to balance the budget to pay for the cuts she had made.

Also, we all know that she is not in favor of sky-scrapers, a political exaggeration to make a point, but she is in favor of 65 foot buildings that could/would sprinkle the downtown landscape. She diverted the referendum to March to give her time to defeat it thus costing the taxpayers $21,000. She has talked about a hotel over-lay district to get her way.

Read about what she wrote below and her trying to give some sort of justification for her endorsement of Mr. Stafford:

The Mayor's message:

Cooking up a storm today and reflecting on election day. It's been almost exactly a year since I was elected Mayor. What a year it has been! Coming from the private sector, it has been a rude awakening as to the politics that can often interfere with the truth. It has been publicly stated recently that I am in favor of assessments. As most of you know I am not and ran my campaign with hopes of eliminating both the fire and streetlight assessments. When elected I did exactly as promised. Words of mine from the dais, taken out if context are being circulated. In a last case scenario I would look at them but hope never to make that decision. Remember the former commission said they HAD to assess us and there were no more cuts that could be made. The current commission not only eliminated the assessments but cut 2.3 million from the budget and still funded most positions in sustainability and added more code enforcement and the return of our own building inspector as well as grounds and maintenance programs and assigned unspent grant dollars to streets, sidewalks and a master plan to address them.

I have also followed through on other promises including lowering electric rates by 6.4% in my first year, (we are just getting started) in the next few weeks we should have a new internal auditor and hopefully a new power solution to deal with our exit from FMPA.

Back to truths... I never want to see skyscrapers in our downtown and would debate anyone who thinks such nonsense is true about me. People that play politics with my words will have the truth revealed. With that said, this Election Day I support Jim Stafford for Lake Worth City Commissioner.

Lake Worth is trying to Improve its streets

Comment Up

Before

We have a lot of pot holed streets in Lake Worth. Every time I go down 2nd Avenue South from Dixie, I worry about my tires. After all of the rain we have been having, no sooner do you repair a hole and the fill is washed away to leave a deeper hole.

Public Services works in conjunction with the Stormwater/Streets Division to generate work orders for patching potholes; erecting street signs, regulatory signs, and other required signage. Also managed through this coordination is the maintenance of storm sewers, removal of fallen trees and limbs from the roads, and the clean up and sweeping of city roads, right-of-ways, and easements. If this is the case, $36,100 dollars is allotted for street maintenance for 2013, down nearly 4% from last year.  See page 242 of new Budget.

Katie McGiveron was fit to be tied a few weeks ago and left a strong message for the vice mayor who forwarded her pot hole repair request near her house to Jamie Brown. He took care of it immediately.  Streets Maintenance says its goal is to respond to all calls related to pot holes and make the repair using cold patch within 24 hours after receiving the complaint.

Ardy Teitsma on South Palmway came before the commission several months ago and mentioned the huge hole behind her house. Eventually the city was out there. They leveled the hole but it still is a problem.

After
Leveled off but still needs fill