Keeping America Safe

‘A Force for Good’: Pompeo Explains the Trump Administration’s Vision for America’s Role in the World

“The question today is how do we make sure that we match today’s requirements with American resources to most effectively keep America safe,” Pompeo says.

Click here to find out

Dishonoring the Charter Amendment

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The difference in our elected officials making an Ordinance allowing Hudson Holdings to get what they want at their Gulfstream property and making a Charter change is significant. And the bully commission that wants its way on heights in our downtown knows it.

An Ordinance is a majority vote of the commission that can be easily changed at any time.  A Charter change, however, requires a petition signed by 10 percent of the registered electors that needs to be certified and then placed on the ballot so that all the registered voters have a chance to weigh in--not just three people.  Both an Ordinance and a Charter change are political but a Charter change is supreme.

But for some reason, the vote of the people was spit upon in Lake Worth by Maxwell, Triolo and Amoroso. They believe that they know better than the voters and they believe they have squashed our vote.

Laurence McNamara stated in a comment card that Florida Statutes 166.031 authorized citizens of any municipality to amend their charter in the exact way citizens did so to limit development in the downtown area encompassing the Gulfstream property to 45 feet. Citizens were disenfranchised by a questionable opinion offered to the sitting Commission by the Assistant City Attorney based on post facto legislation, which was used to ignore the citizens charter amendment and refused to place the amendment into the Charter.

Post facto legislation was illegal in criminal cases and was becoming indefensible in civil cases with great regularity. To avoid exposing citizens to another lawsuit, it would be prudent for [the Commission] to reject this rezoning application and require the purported developer to work within the existing zoning regulations and the 45 foot limits of the charter amendment.

A City Charter is the Constitution of a municipality and its highest law. Ignoring it would put the developer and the City at risk of any construction in violation of its limits.

"Visionaries" want our Beach to fail

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Neither wanted to hear the facts or listen to the truth

The last item on the agenda was discussion on the Beach Fund. City Manager Bornstein brought it back for discussion as he wanted the information to "sink in."  I am sure that he is as perplexed as the rest of us when it comes to the majority's decision to purposely operate at a loss at our beach. Now what businessman would consciously do that?

"We promised the people," said Triolo when talking about the loan rate and term. What you also promised the people was to make right decisions for the health and welfare of our city. What person of any responsibility would vote not to do that? The money that was borrowed to build the Casino is our money and we can pay back this loan at any rate and at any pace we choose.

When you are operating a business, there are times when you need to borrow capital and you negotiate the best rate and terms possible. Most businesses borrow from financial institutions; we borrowed from ourselves. There are many times when you re-finance that loan in order to alleviate financial pressures or to get a rate that is more advantageous. We have done that at City Hall with some of our outstanding loans/bonds. It is a normal operating procedure. Maxwell complained that there was never a policy decision to pay the loan from ourselves.

But restructuring loans isn't normal to Vice Mayor Scott Maxwell nor is it normal to businesswoman Mayor Pam Triolo. I would think that commissioner Amoroso would understand.

Maxwell has been about doom and gloom from inception and wants to know if any of the merchants at the beach have been asked about raising parking fees. That's sort of like asking your tenant who leases your house what they think about your raising their rental amount.  Do we ask all our customers about what they think about water rates going up and if they approve? Really stupid stuff. What do you think they would say? And why do they still want to engage the community about our beach?  We already decided what we wanted at our beach.

What never is mentioned is the negotiation with Morganti, the builder, and what is going on in that regard to fix the problems we have had at the casino. How much money would it take to fix those problems and how much money are we spending on legal fees?  Are we close to any kind of compromise?

The only conclusion that one can arrive is that the "visionaries" want our beach to fail. The shoved more expenses onto the beach without approving ways to raise revenues.  Last night, the only positive was that they voted to formally end the latest proposal by Hudson Holdings. The other negative is that they didn't make another motion to go out on an RFP to find a broker to handle our un-leased second floor 5,000 sq. ft. space. The entire beach plan was predicated on all space being leased. Why wasn't a motion made for an RFP? Maxwell didn't want it to happen. Someone should have made the motion anyway and got it on the record.

Scott Maxwell was mad and didn't want to agree on the numbers provided by our Finance Department and presented by the City Manager.

Summary of Revenues and Expenses

Eminent Domain

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• Donald Trump said, "Eminent domain is wonderful."


• The "visionaries," Scott Maxwell, Pam Triolo and Andy Amoroso along with McVoy (that one was a surprise) said the same thing when they voted for Eminent domain on June 16th at Lake Worth City Hall. The Park of Commerce is all about spending (OPM) other people's money or public money to ready land for developers.


• Marco Rubio railed against the relatively obscure issue of eminent domain Thursday. While eminent domain is necessary for important (that's the key word--important) infrastructure projects, the power is often used to benefit wealthy private developers.

Rubio further said, "The fundamental right to private property has been under assault for years through our government’s abuses of eminent domain. Eminent domain is the authority vested in government to force the sale of private property. While this authority can be a necessary evil in rare cases related to public development, such as the building of crucial infrastructure, its modern use far exceeds this limitation. Today, it is often wielded by crony capitalist politicians to benefit wealthy and powerful private developers.”

I stand by Marco especially when we think about the Park of Commerce and all the private property they will take in order to fulfill Scott Maxwell's field of dreams and the multi-millions that the City plans to invest there over-all.

Lake Worth Budget - Kicking It for Politics

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I only attended last night's meeting for two hours but it's a good thing I had something else to do as the meeting was contentious and lasted until around 10:30 in order to get a final vote on the Budget. Motions were kicked back and forth.

As I watched it from home later, it was clear that a few commissioners were losing their cool.  There was NO compromise on the part of the Mayor, and Vice Mayor Maxwell used his favorite political slogan blaming everything on "poor management of the past" even though in August there was consensus (3/2 vote) on everything presented last night. He was part of the Nay vote then and didn't like it one little bit.

This city has to make revenue to stay afloat; it's their obligation.  The electric rate, however, has always been political with Maxwell and Triolo...they had voted on rate parity with FPL and have been rip roaring ticked off that we use utility funds to support our general fund.  How can a little utility compete with a huge conglomerate on price?  It can't. If we can't use funds from our own utility fund to help operate our city, then what are we supposed to do? The answer is to cut spending and that's something this commission can't/won't do. The city is within 4.79% of FPL's present rate. It was pointed out in a workshop, by looking at the numbers on the graphs, that we can't continue to reduce rates or have them stay the same. We need to raise rates or we will be losing tons of money and robbing reserves.

They have been reducing our electric rate, thus our income, over the past three years.  After last night, the electric rate will stay the same and per the Electric Utility report of August 11, we will lose $1,276,208 in income next year. As asked before, why would any commission approve of a budget to purposely LOSE money.  This is a business.  It shouldn't be about politics. It is no wonder our city is in such bad shape and it's no wonder that commissioner McVoy was mad. McVoy also wondered about $8 million being moved from the Self-Insruance Fund to balance the budget. An explanation was provided by Nerahoo Hemraj,Finance Director but no one understood it.

Also a bone of contention was the parking rates at the beach. In August, there was consensus to raise the parking rates.  The following analysis shows only a $29,965 deficit after raising expenses for lifeguards and custodians.

Beach Fund Analysis using 14 year pay-back

This was approved by Commissioners McVoy, Amoroso and Maier to be evaluated after one year ending September 30, 2016. Maxwell, once again, was complaining that parking was NEVER to have been used to support the casino restoration loan from ourselves of $6 mil and refused to budge on raising parking rates. It's as if he wants the casino to fail so he can continue to say, "I told you so."

Motions upon motions were made with no seconds to the motions. The budget part of the agenda was moved to the end of the meeting in order to vote and discuss the rest of business. Later a motion was made by Maxwell to revisit the electric and beach in six months. The motion failed on a 2/3. The Mayor passed the gavel and made a new motion to review only the beach financials in six months and bring it back for discussion if needed (she is adamant about parity with FPL even if it costs us millions). That motion passed on a 3/2 (McVoy and Maier dissenting) to approve the $178.9 million budget.

So, the irony of it all is the "visionary" commission's objection to an additional $339,942 in beach parking revenue but voting to lose $1.276 million in electric revenue and Maxwell blaming it on past management instead of taking responsibility.

It was politics at the expense of the Lake Worth residents and rate payers.

The White Elephant and Michael Bornstein

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A little trivia: When it comes to smarts, elephants are right up there with dolphins, apes and humans and they don't forget.

According to City Manager Michael Bornstein, our pool is a "White Elephant." We know that is blatantly false. But he has his own built-in cheer leading section of the dais and public. Even the bully is blogging and taking the company line, as usual, and the "visionary" commission wants to cut comment from the dais even further ("2 minutes to state your position and 3 minutes to rebut," says the mayor) and just pass whatever he wants?

Bornstein just got a $10,000 raise for what they say is outstanding performance and making great strides in our city over the past three years. The only trouble is, no one knows what they are. One of the main reasons why we don't know what is going on is the simple fact that the public is kept in the dark. A weekly manager's report could help dispel the thoughts of secrecy behind closed doors which he says he will have tonight...maybe. Elephants are loyal to their "families" and this "visionary" is his Lake Worth family that has no problem keeping us pesky residents out of the loop.

We acknowledge he is, for the most part, a likeable fella, but challenge him--forget about it. City managers should stay out of politics. Some have observed that he let everyone in a city commission meeting and on the Internet hear a snide remark about someone whose property value is low and doesn't contribute much to the tax base insinuating that he/she therefore should not have an opinion on much of anything especially the general obligation bond? Some believe it was he who passed the N word incident to the Lake Worth Herald to bring down an opponent who has written to him about decisions/issues for which she disagrees?

Even though we all like elephants, they can trample you to death.

Park of Commerce - Lake Worth Commission's Pie in the Sky

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It's all about grabbing the cash anyway. Without saying a word, this commission, tells everyone--"It's my way or the highway." In this case it is a County Road. I can't even imagine anyone so arrogant to plow ahead after half the voters said "no." 

Lake Worth is signing an Interlocal agreement with Palm Beach County that will transfer county ownership of Boutwell Road over to the city so that we can develop and maintain it. This will be on the agenda this Tuesday night. To make matters even more insulting, they have placed it on Consent Agenda. They don't have to tell us one financial detail. Of course, we really don't have any money for the Park of Commerce but the city commission has miraculously found multi-millions somewhere probably in the capital improvement budget to devote to this project--a project that will NEVER pay for itself even if it does attract developers who build. It will take 50-100 years to recapture the cost in advalorem taxes. So who is really the beneficiary?

At least five years ago, the city applied for a Grant and was awarded one in August 2009 from the U.S. Department of Commerce in order to develop a Needs Analysis at the Park of Commerce. They "needed" to cement their case as this was their Field of Dreams. This was a matching grant, so $500,000 was spent on this "need." At the time, they told us that the vision of the City of Lake Worth is to "develop the Park of Commerce (POC) into the best area for business in southeast Florida. The City’s desire is for the POC to become a vital center for light industry and a major employment center."

Because of this commission's insistence to own the road and cater to development, its ownership must be transferred and the street  maintained by Lake Worth along with stormwater drainage. It will cost the City of Lake Worth taxpayers. Scott Maxwell, along with Triolo, Amoroso and Szerdi, believe that developing the Park of Commerce is our salvation. Businesses will re-locate here and all sorts of ad-valorem will enter our city coffers. This is a pipe dream and a lie perpetrated on the people.

The commission complains about our existing crumbling infrastructure.  They complain about pot holes.  They complain that the voters said "no" to grabbing the cash and putting every property owner in debt for 34 years. But then, they want to actually create a new paved road at 7th Avenue South when they can't fix the roads they already have and plan on spending millions of your money at the Park of Commerce. They complain that they have no money. They can't and never have taken care of what we already own--not once--anywhere in this 6 mile radius.

But the best commission bonus of all--the "visionaries" are getting their way by spending $6 million at the Park of Commerce...they originally wanted to spend 3 times that. We knew not to trust them with the cash and half the voters (plus 25) told them that.

Lake Worth Chamber of Commerce

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Nearly three years ago and before the merger with the Central Palm Beach Chamber, Commissioner Mulvehill wanted to include in the motion that the debt that was owed to us by the Chamber be included in the contract. The "visionaries" did not want to include the debt and the Vice Mayor even went so far as to say, "It is inappropriate to put it on the agenda." Maxwell further stated that "It is irresponsible to make allegations; it takes away from the spirit."

The Chamber owed the city money in the amount of $10,450 that included a "lost" golf cart.  Also, it was stated that the merger would not trigger the repayment of the $300,000 that was given to them by the City of Lake Worth back in 2005 as it would not constitute a cessation of existence, an agreement in the structured deal. Read about another deal to the Chamber, Your Tax Dollars paying for Chamber Mortgage...just more shenanigans.

Now we learn Tuesday night that the Chamber of Commerce has this Lake Avenue building up for sale. This commission did not protect our interest in this building at the time of the merger.

According to PAPA:

Improvement Value	$174,674
Land Value	$177,820
Total Market Value	$352,494

Year 2020 - The Vision

Don't feel alone on 2020 initiatives that can, might or will cost you BIG TIME. It seems that every legal citizen has been screwed in a 2020 of a different kind.

"The U.S. congressman said his trip to the border showed him the mind-boggling nature of the problem in a nutshell. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, described to a hearing held by the House Judiciary Committee this  morning and how he saw illegal immigrants arrive on the border, claim asylum, and then be given a court date as far in the future as 2020. 'Meanwhile they get a work permit to compete against those legally and lawfully here', he said.”

Read more...

Scary vision, isn't it? You can thank Obama and the Democrats.

The Real Lake Worth Predator

At least we might know what registered predators are doing

Search Details Address Searched 7 NORTH DIXIE HIGHWAY LAKE WORTH , FL 33460 Radius 3 Miles Offenders/Predators found 98

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When doing a 2 mile search from City Hall, there are 72 offenders or 18 every quarter mile--unacceptable. Some of these people are committing crimes. One may be your next door neighbor.

Until we get rid of the dregs in our city and everything that has caused the slum, blight and crime, then the roads infrastructure and outlandish money grab needs to be ended. Spending nearly $10 million to develop private land for developers at the Park of Commerce on land we do NOT own and a huge monetarial investment that we will NEVER recapture in ad-valorem taxes, should fall to the bottom of the list of priorities or permanently taken off the "visionaries" list.

Which is the real predator?  The city or known sex offenders?...at least we know where some of the "sexy" guys live.  On the other hand, we have a city hall that is preying on all the property owners with its money-grab and we will never really know how this money will be used other than what they choose to tell us. The city is not good at managing anything, least of all other people's money. Using $50,000 of taxpayer money for its campaign to convince you to vote to get yourself in debt is bordering on a grey line of ethics. They know it.  We know it.

Letter to the Editor - Lake Worth Forgot to ask the Residents

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Letters to the Editor
Palm Beach Post
June 29, 2014

Oops, forgot to ask the Residents

Lake Worth Needs Inclusive Planning

Just like “Six Plans to Make Lake Worth a Better Place,” targeting developers and investors to show how Lake Worth should look in the future; the baseball stadium in John Prince Park, a boondoggle for special interests that was determined not feasible; and now Lake Worth 2020 is yet another public relations effort promising a fix for all that ails us.

The visionaries who serve us have lost sight of Lake Worth. Our location, our people, our natural resources are assets worthy of praise. And yes, ours is a poor city with an old infrastructure. We do need a plan. We need a plan that considers future climate instability, sea-level rise, and temperature increases, and the effects of building, paving, and increased water and sewer use. And especially, we need a plan that includes the needs of our residents and welcomes their input.

Any plan to borrow $60 million from taxpayers deserves great deliberation. There has been little citizen outreach, no charettes, no workshops, and only the four quickly contrived “town hall meetings” rushed to fulfill the requirements of ballot inclusion for the August primary.

The leaders of Lake Worth seem to have all the answers; unfortunately, they haven’t asked the right questions. And they forgot to ask the people.

JO-ANN GOLDEN, LAKE WORTH

110 North F Street

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Personally, I think the city has a lot of nerve placing many items that it does on Consent Agenda. This is one of them...it can't maintain one damn thing and their solution is to give all our buildings away to the CRA or to some non-profit and let the other guy maintain them and/or make the ad-valorem off of them and "scam" the government in the process. This commission says it is focused but their vacillation is costing you a lot of money.

What in the hell are we doing? This is all about obtaining grant money from the government which in this case is $500,000 max. When you're a poor city you make desperate decisions...this is just another one of them.  On top of that, the people have NO say on how our city should look even when they win an election. This was not my vision. And even if you speak to this item on Tuesday, it is a done deal...this commission does not care what you think.

Always talking about wasting money, even going so far as to vote nay on the Budget, Scott Maxwell, along with Triolo and Amoroso originally voted for the architectural and engineering work on our city owned building located at 110 North F Street formerly occupied by The Department of Health. We know of $40,000 that was 'burned" there, probably more. The goal was to use it for Utility Customer Service, Community Development, Code Enforcement, Planning & Zoning and Preservation Divisions.

In fact, it was Maxwell that made the motion back on June 21, 2011 --"I move to approve the transfer of $11,000 from the Project UT-EL 1112 to Project UT-EL 1010 and approve architectural/engineering services work order CPH Engineers, Inc. for design of Customer service and Building Department facilities at 110 North F street for an amount not to exceed $81,000," said Scott Maxwell. Read about it...

If there is anything good coming out of the city's "give-away" mentality, at least these buildings are three stories.
Concentrating on eradicating slum and blight should be the CRA's goal but not at the expense of turning over everything we own for development that no one has approved.

9. CONSENT AGENDA: (public comment allowed during Public Participation of
Non-Agendaed items)
D. (Added) Resolution No. 30-2014 - conditional conveyance of property located at 110 North F Street to the Community Redevelopment Agency

TITLE: Resolution No. 30-2014 – conditional conveyance of property located at 110 North F Street to CRA
SUMMARY:
This Resolution proposes to conditionally convey 110 N. F Street to the CRA for development of the “West Village”, a mixed-use redevelopment project.
BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION:
Currently, the City owns the property at 110 N. F Street (PCN: 38-43-44-21-15-012-0260) (a.k.a. the old Health Department building). The Lake Worth Community Redevelopment Agency proposes to redevelop the property into the “West Village”, a mixed use redevelopment project which would include commercial, residential and office uses and a park area to be called “Luna Park”. Copies of the preliminary project drawings are attached.
The CRA is applying for a State of Florida Cultural Facilities Grant to assist with funding the project. The grant requires the CRA to own the underlying property. Pursuant to section 2-1(f) of the City’s code of ordinances, the City Commission at a scheduled public meeting by a simple majority vote, may waive the requirements regarding the minimum bid amount, method of sale and sale of surplus property and convey the property directly to the CRA. Since the CRA is still securing funding for the project, approval of this Resolution conditions the City’s conveyance of the property on the CRA securing sufficient funding to commence the project.

The Vision -- Greenacres and Lake Worth

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We continue to hear the same old line that Lake Worth hasn't had any development in years and the insinuation from our politicians is that it's the fault of past commissions instead of the economy. A roads infrastructure plan involving humongous debt to the taxpayers is this commission's answer to the lack of development in Lake Worth. They believe that new roads will increase property values and developers and investors will want to come. They are also asking you to pay for the infrastructure for developers at the Park of Commerce, spending $11 to $17 million.

As the demographics are essentially the same, the differences between Greenacres and Lake Worth are--they have their own police force, they do not have a utility subsidizing their operating budget and they don't have a beach.

Greenacres, has experienced the exact same economy as Lake Worth, as has nearly every city across our country. The property value in Greenacres was cut in half just like ours. It's been over 6 years since their last development.  They have a developer who will build three or four bedroom houses that are upscale and that developer will be paying for his own roads, etc. Stefan Hoyer plans to build Verona Estates  consisting of 53,  three and four-bedroom homes that will start at $249,000.

What is Lake Worth doing? Building affordable rentals on the railroad tracks as well as in the Park of Commerce, a piece of land that should have been for industrial and commercial property. In Lake Worth, it's anything for the buck--the possibility of increasing the tax base is the most important consideration.

Village at Lake Worth: 7.64 Acres, $2.25 M

Boutwell and Lake Worth Roads

Moving right along-- 216 affordable residential rental units in the Park of Commerce. We all know how affordable rentals have decimated our city.

Utility and Roadway Improvements Lake Worth

It will be much easier and the pressure will be off the city if they can convince the people to put a noose around their necks and vote in 30 years of debt--their pipe-dream of a general obligation bond. Tonight is the 2nd Town Hall meeting to that effect which will be held at the Glass House at 7pm.  In the meantime, here are the projects already on the table:

Click here...

Lake Worth to pass a Resolution - Visionaries Dreaming big

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John Prince Park is believed to be the second oldest county park in Florida with 726 acres which includes 338 lake acres. John Prince was a Palm Beach county commissioner who got the State of Florida to donate these acres to the county for a park.  It was eventually named after him in memory of his diligence and perseverance in obtaining it for all the residents of Palm Beach County and the tens of thousands of visitors it attracts year round.

It has many amenities some of which include a 4.5 mile walking path,  3 softball fields, a splashpark, 8 tennis courts, 2 volleyball grass courts and 6 sand volleyball courts. It has fishing, an RV park, 4 basketball courts, picnic pavilions, a golf learning center, canoeing and kayaking access and so much more.

The County Board of Commissioners will meet to discuss a Spring Training camp at the park and/or at other locations. UPDATE: There is nothing on their immediate agenda to discuss John Prince Park or any other location. Former congressman Mark Foley was hired by the Nationals to find a site. Coincidentally, Foley gave campaign contributions to our "visionary" present LW commission. Tomorrow night, the Lake Worth City Commission wants to hit the public over the head with a baseball bat by passing  Resolution No. 10-2014 to support a major league baseball training camp at John Prince Park.

The expense of a "dream" of this magnitude makes the roads infrastructure program cost look like "peanuts" in comparison.

Photo: Damon Higgins of the PB Post

Pushing forward in spite of it all

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The longest recession since World War II began in December 2008 and the government says it lasted 18 months lasting well into 2010. Until this one, the longest postwar recessions were those of 1973-5 and 1981-2, with each lasting 16 months. Jobs lost, banks folded, homes were lost and cities filed bankruptcy.  It was a mess and we are still in recovery. It all affected Lake Worth in a very negative way.  The city became much poorer; property values fell for years and some still fell again in 2013. Over 2,000 homes went into foreclosure. We have not recovered. Our tax base is pathetic.  But we still have dreams and the city is going to spend what little money you have on those dreams, one way or another.

Last night it was said by the city manager that Mrs. Sharp was right, we should have started on the Park of Commerce  4 or 5 years ago...as "we need to create jobs" and ad-valorem.  During the economic crisis that was still affecting Lake Worth back then, we got a new city manager (Susan Stanton) who worked 16 hours a day to stop the bleed.  Now it seems we are going to open the wound that has never yet healed. On top of that, we're going to take over the maintenance of Boutwell Road from the County and we don't have a pot--not yet anyway--not unless the city moves more money from our Reserves or goes out on a General Obligation Bond and commits the city to long-term debt.

As one resident said to me, "When will this commission and city administration stop dreaming about what might be and take care of what is."

Top Lake Worth "Razzies" for 2013

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Following are my top favorites on decisions by the Lake Worth Commission--some driven by lofty political goals or simply believing that development is the answer to all our ills--perhaps just a desire to go down in the history book as the "visionary" commission that finally "fixed" Lake Worth--

The Lake Worth Razzie Awards for 2013--

Heights Amendment
The developer backed commission fought the Heights Referendum and directed the city attorney to find a way  to overturn the March 2013 vote that was won by the people to keep our downtown a low-rise city of no more than 4 story buildings east of Dixie and 3 stories west of Dixie. They pulled every trick in the book to defeat the Referendum with their final bogus ploy saying is was all about a hotel. Whether what they did will legally stand will be decided by the Court.

Electric Utility
Voted in a 5 year plan on an Ordinance weaning us off the city's dependency on the Electric Utility. They want to lower electric rates and feel that our high rates have deterred business. This is funding we need to stay afloat and to operate our city (anywhere from $6 million to $9 million a year). They made it a super-majority vote from the dais in order for any future commission to over-turn it. Selling the Utility is still on their minds. According to the city and the mayor, we are the poorest city next to BelleGlade and they voted to reduce our operating budget by millions. Our Uncontrollable costs are $20,769,790 or 69.49% of our budget.  Controllable costs are $8,863,638 or 29.66% of budget...do the math...there will be few funds left to operate the city if their vision is fully implemented, unless, of course, property values sky-rocket.

Greater Bay
Bad and inferior advice from their outside attorney who "played" them for years racking up legal fees, coupled with their fear of losing (a seed planted by our legal eagles), they settled with the flim-flam man for $1.6 MILLION dollars...blaming their decision on everyone but themselves and Greater Bay. Scott Maxwell and Pam Triolo wanted to get "to the bottom of the Greater Bay lawsuit" and what got us to this $1.6 million settlement to get them off our beach for non-performance.  Maxwell was outraged and went political" and even called for a public workshop. Good thing for them that idea died.

Road Infrastructure and Give-Aways of public buildings
Wanting to repair or repave 50% of the roads in Lake Worth and wanting the taxpayers to pay for it all plus the infrastructure at the Park of Commerce to attract development, the commission has talked about a General Obligation bond to finance this vision.  Millions has been discussed on the renovation of city buildings. The Palm Beach Post reported it could be a 100 million dollar dream. There has been little talk about this lately and it will probably wait until after this March election.  They have to raise capital because with their reduction in electric revenue, it will leave us millions short to operate. Raising taxes, especially an amount this large and for a long term, is not a good idea for any politician. The city can't account for all of the last Bond money and where and how it was spent. We still owe $56.8 million that was refinanced in 2013. They have decided that Lake Worth will be an artists destination, attracting more starving artists competing against each other for that precious dollar. And they are giving away city buildings for that end.

Code Enforcement
With everyone screaming about slum, blight and crime, the commission listened to its new internal auditor and his report on our code department-- heads rolled. After just passing 20 or so ordinances that finally gave the department some clout to do their jobs, they decided to outsource it. Then all of a sudden, they changed their minds.  It will be in-house after all. As it turns out, they don't have enough staff to enforce the laws. One of the areas they are supposed to enforce involves Illegal flags, banners, streamers and signs. We know how that one went during the March height election. Look for illegal banners on the Gulfstream or other places to happen again, when convenient, by the development at any cost crowd.

Lake Worth has a big appetite

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City of Lake Worth - Notice of General Election
NOTICE is hereby given that a General Election will be held in the City of Lake Worth, Florida, on Tuesday, March 11, 2014, (with a Run-Off Election on Tuesday, March 25, 2014, if necessary), for the purpose of electing a Mayor, Commissioner from District #1 and Commissioner from District #3, each for a two (2) year term.

Persons seeking election may qualify with the City Clerk from noon, Tuesday, January 28, 2014, until noon, Tuesday, February 11, 2014.


Two years ago Capt. Silva of District 14, the district that covers Lake Worth, was to draft letters to banks that own vacant properties in the city to make them aware that their properties are harboring criminals. How did that go? We still have massive slum and blight that brings crime.

We need people to step up to the plate and run for office.  We can't continue to allow incumbents to run unopposed especially when the condition of our city is growing worse. We have a commission spending money like we have it and conjuring up a long-term debt  (we can't print money like the Feds), and giving away public owned buildings for arts. Some of our employees still work out of trailers and this commission has visions of spending multi-millions of dollars on a new city hall. Their attitude is "there is no time like the present," or one we hear a lot, "We can no longer kick the can down the road."

Some of the things they have proposed (some not voted upon by the commission but silence is acceptance) and are diligently working on now:

Park of Commerce	18.15 mil
City Services Complex	4.6 mil
City Hall renovation	2.6 mil
(personnel will move to 1000 Lake)
Municipal Auditorium	1 mil
(current city hall)
City Hall annex	1 mil
(convert to historic arts bldg)
North F street	1.1 mil
(conversion to arts bldg)
Facility & land acquisitions	5 mil
Vacant/foreclosed property	2.5 mil

This is a republic with democracy, not a dictatorship and the people are not serfs. Votes should count and voices must be heard, correct decisions must be made and the people should be allowed to weigh in. Contracts must be understood before execution. Details can't be hidden from the public or covered-up. We can no longer afford Nancy Pelosi moments (we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it). Who is running our city?

“Government is like a baby: an alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.”
― Ronald Reagan

More Art? in the Lake Worth Art District

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I honestly would like to see the CRA concentrate on slum and blight within the district they control (which is vast) within the City of Lake Worth. They spend millions building affordable houses to attract more people living in the blighted areas or creating new ones, ignoring the slum and blight and the crime it all breeds.

This graffiti is on South H Street and 1st Avenue South. 

Can the city make them do these things first before handing over city owned buildings to them for art?

If they can't take care of the basics, then they don't deserve our historical City Hall Annex, the Shuffleboard Court building or any other building within our city. We have so much art in our downtown that I don't see where any of them can make any money.

 But the "visionaries" ran with the concept

 and we all had absolutely nothing to say about it.
It's a good thing that we get to vote on some of their ideas. Oops, that's right...we did vote this year and you remember how that went.

Alleys and Easements -The Lake Worth Vision

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Last night was a discussion on Lake Worth 2020, the city's plan to redo half of the infrastructure within the city of Lake Worth, and a brief synopsis of the various areas it will entail. This is just another one among many discussions that the city will have on this humongous project, a vision ending close to 2030 if you throw in the Park of Commerce and if all goes as planned. Also cost was not touched upon with the Vice Mayor asking for silence on that important issue as no one can give an accurate cost estimate at this point until all of the studies and cost analyses are completed. Ever since the Palm Beach Post came out with a possible $100 million estimate, it has been a thorn in the city's side.

Some of you are actually drinking water out of a pipe that looks like the above...rusted carbon steel. We were assured that it is not injurious to our health because of chlorination.

As Lake Worth is dependent upon alley and easement access, city manager Bornstein said they need to develop a policy.  "It is not our intent to come in like a raging bull," he said.

The alleyway water piping improvements will involve a total of 18.6 miles and will improve approximately 2,800 properties. Easement piping will be replaced in 8.4 miles that are near to impossible to access that will improve 1,030 properties including an additional 11 miles of easements that have easy access. The pipes consist of 2", 3" and 4" piping that will be replaced with PVC plastic piping. Although it was said the pvc  has a "good life", there was no indication as to how lengthy that life would be.