Coakley Casino Report

If anyone has NOT seen Bill Coakley's latest video and opinion on the Lake Worth Casino, it is a must see--especially for the present City Commission, Public Works Director and top management.

VIDEO

Rene Varela, Candidate for Commissioner District 4, on Vital Services

The key to future stability as a city is to have fully functional and cost-effective public services, independent of other municipalities and county government. As a city we must make every possible effort to preserve these vital services as a function of the public interest. All of these services should and must provide the city with the economic and physical stability necessary to enable the positive development of our neighborhood and business community.

Clearly, many problems exist with each service, mainly as a result of historical negligence, but we must redouble our efforts to save these resources as a key to our future. In fact, our capacity to generate electricity and water are the largest potential revenue generating capacities that our city possesses.

What is required is the vision to see our future through these services, the persistence to root out all of the waste and revenue streams already available, and the will to change our current destructive path so that we can move toward a brighter future. Without these vital services, the Lake Worth can not map its own uninhibited path toward much needed progress for all of its residents. For a better future we must:

Restore Vital Services to economical and functional viability

Revitalize all existing external water and energy service providing contracts

Ensure that existing contracts maximize returns for Lake Worth

Innovate to make our city energy and water generation profitable rather than a burden

Alternative water generation methods must be employed

As South Florida wells dry up, Lake Worth becomes an important supplier

Encourage community and home generation of alternative energy

Taking the burden off our generation system

Transition city to alternative energy generation

Removes financially destabilizing effect of world petroleum market

Hey Dave, where’s the Sheriff?

431 N L Street was broken into--again. This is City owned property that is blighted and situated in a drug infested environment. There are continued problems at this location.

Palm Beach County spends a big percentage of its budget on the Sheriff, and we are now counting on the men in green to solve our run-away crime problem. Where is anyone when you need them? Dave?

Last night's Forum

The Candidates spoke last night at the first Candidate Forum of the election season. The room was decorated with Obama signs and Save Our Reverse Osmosis signs on all sides. It was packed with enthusiastic supporters of their candidates. The Mayor and Commissioner Golden were there but I did not spot Retha Lowe. Everyone had their ears opened to what each and every candidate had to say. The questions that were prepared in advance by Club officers/directors Jim Kelly, Herman Robinson and our Club President, Harvey Millstein and asked by a former candidate in District 4, Barbara Aubel, did not seem to follow the letter that was sent out to the Candidates and were unclear to a few. But, all in all it was a good night.

There was no clear winner in either District in my opinion. It’s a toss up as to whom got their points across best and who convinced the best.

Cara did a great job presenting her accomplishments. I have to give John Jordan a lot of credit at age 82. He was on point with what he wanted to talk about and he is always someone I like to listen to as he tells it honestly, taking no prisoners. My favorite line of the night was Mary Lindsey’s when she said that Jennings has had her time…”the only Ordinance she got passed was against the Iraqi War and that’s still going on.” Great jab. Slam dunk.

District 4 was interesting but not as much as District 2. Mulvehill, the motivational speaker, got in some of her motivational bullet points: “empower the people,” “listen and respond.” It sounded like she has helped everyone out there to be a success. Varela stayed on point and underplayed his accomplishments. Vespo gave his campaign rhetoric. One totally amazing thing he said last night when asked about the Commission interacting with the various Boards and neighborhood associations was “we almost disbanded the CRA due to a communication gap.” Doubts about Dave are getting more prevalent every day.

I am looking forward to the next forum. What about you?

Doubts about Dave

We have them--DOUBTS

The next time you see Dave, ask him about all these decisions he made for Lake Worth and why we are worse off today than we were 2 years and 9 months ago when he took office.

DOUBTS ABOUT DAVE
are growing by the day!

Rene Varela, Candidate for City Commission District 4, on City Budget and Management

Dr. Varela and his wife, Dr. Tanya Tag

City Budget and Management

The driving force to the successful management of any city is a fully verified and dependable budget. This city has survived for far too long without accurate accounting of expenditures and measuring cost-effectiveness of its efforts. Forging ahead to a better future must first begin with creating a system of timely, accurate, and transparent reporting of the city’s liabilities and assets. In an effort to effect such a change, I will demand:

Demand Timely Audits
• Performance-based milestone disbursement of funds for audits
• Call for state review and audit immediately after the deadline has passed without an audit presented

Open up entire budget no less than 3 months prior to submission
• Renegotiate all long-term agreements in favor of Lake Worth
• Re-evaluate utilities mandate and pricing scale
• Re-evaluate and negotiate all taxing districts within the city to find reasonable balance
• Evaluate efficiency measures in all city departments for cost savings to residents
• Apply targeted technology to increase efficiency in city reap savings for residents

Close General Fund Black Hole
• Institute departmental self-sufficiency and cost-effectiveness
• Require quarterly budget analyses to be reported
• Require quarterly report to the public with expenditures and product produced

Obama's got it in the bag

Unless the Republicans can cure our financial ills and get the Stock market in an up tick, Obama has it in the bag!

Right now, he is 7 percentage points ahead of John McCain in Florida. This has all been caused by this horrible disaster in our financial markets.

Can the Republicans come up with a miracle in time to save McCain as well as our country? Can you even imagine voting for McCain when he wants to privatize Social Security?

1. McCain Voted for Bush’s 2006 Social Security Privatization Plan

2. In 2000 McCain Wanted to Divert Social Security Money to Private Accounts

3. McCain STILL Proposes Privatizing Social Security—Despite What His Website Says

4. McCain Might Raise the Retirement Age and Reduce Cost-of-Living Adjustments.

5. McCain Supported Deep Cuts That Put Social Security Benefits at Risk

6. McCain Voted to Use Social Security Money to Pay Off National Debt

7. McCain Voted Against Protecting Social Security Solvency with a Strategic Reserve

8. McCain Voted to Replace Social Security with Risk-Based Investments


Don’t forget about any of this 27 days from now on November 4. It is time for a change!

"Go a little easy on us"

Financially, we are in a mess. All these bums who caused this financial crisis got their $700 billion bailout. Who has it hit the hardest? The middle-class taxpayer and the poor, that’s who. The very same guy whose job has been out-sourced or eliminated and the guy who has been paying into that 401k that is now down 40%. You and me. All the Seniors living on a fixed income whose investments are assisting them in order to make it in this world for the rest of their lives. That’s who. Everyone is hurting.

Rachlin LLP, the company hired to do our audit for 2007 for $170,000, finally got it done! Most every city around had theirs out in March. Ours has never been out in a timely fashion since they were hired 3 years ago. Mayor Clemens asked if they could possibly get the audit out earlier and the Accountant gave all these excuses. He did report, however, that we were in good shape: We have $6 mil in an account here, $5 million in an account there and another $2 million over there. About a month ago, Mark Bates told me we are not bankrupt. I was a little skeptical. But now I find out that we have a lot of money sitting around while we downsize and stop services and our electric rates will go up. We always seem to find the money to pay these consultants outrageous sums.

The Auditors asked and got a 7.6% raise from last year and we will now be paying them $183,000. When asked where this money would go, we were told for salary increases of 6 to 15%. I looked at the man next to me and we both went, “Wow!” at the very same time. The Commission approved to hire the auditors again-- no bid, no more questions. Take our money and run boys.

There has not been much financial oversight on the Federal level and at our local level the Commission approved almost $1 million dollars last night that was on the Consent Agenda. Commissioner Vespo says that we just can’t manage anything. How dare they vote to give away our assets, terminate employees, give-away our public transportation (Boynton Beach now owns our Trolleys), hell-bent on giving away our beach and the list goes on and on.

Everyone can come into Lake Worth, ask and get what they want for their services and we say, “Gee, can you go a little easy on us because we just can’t manage anything?”

It is time for a change!

Arthur missing in action!

It seems that Arthur Anderson, Supervisor of Elections, has been in hiding since he lost the Primary and top Democrats and Republicans are worrying about what to do. The Palm Beach County Commission is seeking legal advice as I write. We can't afford anymore fiascos in Palm Beach County.

Short Selling

In my last professional position, I was closely involved in the stock of my company that was traded on the NASDAQ. Most people who buy into a company do so with the idea of buying long, believing that the price of it will rise at some future time. This is your average investor-- you, your Mom and Dad, your next door neighbor.

One of the techniques prevalent in the market is Short Selling. This is done by a lot of savvy investors, hedge funds, etc. to protect their long term investment or “hedging” their bets with offsetting positions. In a nutshell, this is what happens:

1. A Broker lends you the stock
2. You sell the shares and the proceeds go into your account
3. When the prices go down, you then buy the stock at a lower price
4. You then return the shares that you “borrowed” to your stock broker

You end up making money (sometimes small fortunes) on something you never owned. I have always thought that those who short sell are a big cause of a market downturn, not the only cause but one to consider. The market can be manipulated by smear campaigns by short sellers. Also, why allow someone to make a big profit on something they never owned? This never made any sense to me.

I don’t know what happened to our market. To blame it all on the sub-prime mortgage industry, who knows?

Glenn Becks says: "Our current crisis was caused by politicians, both Democrats and Republicans, who perverted the American Dream by treating home ownership as an undeniable right rather than what it really is, a privilege. President Bush aggressively promoted the benefits of home ownership through various policy positions including a reckless down-payment initiative for some homebuyers and praised Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac even after concerns about their accounting standards began to surface."

Donald Trump blames it all on the price of oil and he is actively buying property.

Right now analysts are looking into what caused this financial freefall.

Charter Amendment #1

Snook Islands

Commissioner Dave Vespo, before agreeing to put this on the November ballot to give PB County a 99 year lease on our submerged lands said, "Great, this is one less thing that we (City of Lake Worth) will have to maintain."

I hope that the voters tell Commissioner Vespo on November 4 that we can maintain our property and it is our elected officials duty to ensure that. We need to elect people who believe in our City and hire the right people to do the job rather than handing over our City to anyone who asks.

PB County never was told that its request went around our Charter. Since Lake Worth didn't bother to tell them, let the people tell them. Vote NO on November 4.

PBPost article

There is only ONE reason why I am against a lease over 20 years, 20 years less one day, because it is in our Charter... something that was voted upon and agreed to by a big majority of Lake Worth residents. By voting to go around our Charter every time someone wants us to do so, takes the power away from the people who already said NO to anything over 20 years.

A 99 year lease is just an arbitrary time span beyond the life expectancy of any possible Lessee or Lessor. You might just as well deed over the land and get some revenue off the property. A lot of damage can happen in that long of a period. We voted in 20 years minus a day to have that control.

The City needs to take the citizens seriously. We voted on this and we have spoken. Those who wish to lease our public land or public buildings, especially at $1 a year or some other ridiculous amount, should construct leases that will be easily renewed if they are good tenants. Tenants should play within the rules set up. The City should also.

Meals and Wheels

Thanks to John Jordan, Candidate for Commissioner District 2, who called in the tip--People at the Lake Worth Towers are worrying about their Meals but now, it seems, they have to also worry about their WHEELS!

Last night, thieves committed Grand Larceny when they came at night under a brightly lighted lamp post and stole all four wheels and tires from a resident's car parked in the Towers' lot on Lucerne Ave. Aside from causing a lot of dents and grease on the car, they were neat thieves, putting the car up on cinder blocks. Their mama taught them right.

Uh, how much did we pay for that Sheriff?

Top Cops

At the Cultural Plaza Thursday night, and up and down Lake and Lucerne, it looked like a police State. This was the Chamber's Lung Association Event. North M Street between Lake and Lucerne was closed all day. There must have been 50 cops or more all over the place—walking up and down the streets and hanging out at the Plaza. Everywhere you turned around, there was a sheriff vehicle. Even Cpt. Silva was there! It was a formidable presence in Lake Worth. They were telling the people—-“See, we are here for you and we are going to make a difference.” One man stopped me on the street, someone I did not know, to make a negative comment about it. I can’t repeat what he said but it was along the lines of testosterone and the size of organs. My only thought was—-why aren't they out catching criminals? This is why we gave up our very own police department, the first step in dismantling our Charter and being an independent City, and handed over our entire infrastructure to go with them, wasn’t it? Were the criminals having as much fun that night doing what they do best or did they take a night off too?

Loyalty Oaths

There is a man in town who says he is “his own man.” This is a guy who, if you don’t fit into his mold of things, do not agree with him or he just plain does not like you for whatever reason that he dreams up at any given moment, always takes the jab. He is part of what’s wrong with people—the constant dehumanizing of anyone and everyone. I say, discuss the issues and who is responsible for the outcome, not the personality. So, I won’t dwell on him either because it really takes a professional there.

This is about loyalty oaths. I would wager to say anyone who grew up in our school system took a loyalty oath by saying the Pledge of Allegiance to our flag and to the United States of America. Loyalty oaths are required by government officials as well as members of the armed services. All those who joined an arm of our government took one, even if they were their “own man.”

When you are an Officer or a Director of a Political Club such as The Lake Worth Democratic Club, there is a Loyalty Oath that you take, that you sign and one in which is notarized. It is a prerequisite for becoming an Officer. Mark Alan Siegel, the legal arm of the Democratic Executive Committee, says this:

This is not a question of your natural rights; this remains a free country. No one forced you to be an officer of a Democratic Club. You chose to be one and in exchange for that responsibility you agreed not to support any non-Democrat against a Democrat in any race for non-partisan office. You can (and should) free yourself of this restriction by resigning your office, if any. If you do not hold a club or other party office requiring the oath, then you are free to do as you wish, even as a club member.

If anyone does not agree with this, and if loyalty oaths can’t be adhered, it is that officer/directors’ right and obligation to step down and become just a member of the Club or drop out totally. This has nothing whatsoever to do with being another puppet and not making up your own mind as to where your values lie.

Whose fault is this?

It is too bad that a large majority of people living now can not share memories with parents or grandparents who went through or were the direct product of those who suffered during the 1929 stock market crash. Overnight, values changed and you can still run into an elderly person today--you know the one I mean--the little old lady who steals the packet of sugar from the table, hoarding it at home just in case.

The values instilled in me were a direct result of what happened way back then--pay cash for everything when you can--but there has been 79 years from then until now and once again, greed got the best of us. Everyone wants instant gratification and all the material things that they think will make their lives happier. Whose fault is this?

In 1933 the founder of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Senator Carter Glass, was the primary force behind a bill entitled Glass-Steagall Act. This was a strong bill brought about because of the Wall Street crash of 1929. He and the government ultimately did not want to see anything like that happening again. A system was set up dividing commercial and investment banks with the purpose of curbing the use of their deposits should there be underwriting that had failed. In 1956 the government enacted the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, another bill to reduce risk in the financial industry.

The U.S. Congress in 1999 repealed the GSA that eliminated the restrictions between commercial and investment banks with the President saying that he wanted the free market and the banks to regulate themselves. My Republican friends say the Democrats are at fault for the crisis we are now in. I say we ALL are at fault.

Times haven’t changed that much. What happened then are the same things happening now: banks have been too speculative; banks and financial institutions are greedy and made high risk and unsound loans. Citizens bought what they could not afford. It was all about “me.” We can’t control our greed or regulate ourselves. Whose fault is this? We all now must suffer the consequences. Are you crossing your fingers?

Life Cycle of a Democracy

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that time on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been 200 years.

These nations have progressed through this sequence:
from bondage to spiritual faith
from spiritual faith to great courage
from courage to liberty
from liberty to abundance
from abundance to selfishness
from selfishness to complacency
from complacency to apathy
from apathy to dependency
from dependency back to bondage.
-- Alexander Fraser Tytler (1742-1813)”

The above was from the web site goofigure.com. It was sent to me by former Lake Worth Commissioner, Scott Maxwell and I thought it was extremely interesting.

Right now with the recent $700 billion bailout, with the main purpose of unclogging the credit markets--passed in the Senate and now in the hands of the House to vote on an updated version by today--we are at the Apathy to Dependency stage of the democracy cycle. Also, our country is officially 232 years in existence. That means we have survived 32 years over the world’s average. That’s like saying “she lived to the age of 90”…10 years past life expectancy. The absolute fact of life is that we all die and according to the stats, so do democracies, a supreme power held completely by the people under an electorate system.

The oldest Democracies:

USA (1776)
Denmark (1849)
Australia (1901)
Sweden (1907)
Britain (1918)
Canada (1931).

The government is subsidizing farmers for not growing food; corporations are outsourcing jobs to make more profits; CEO’s are robbing the shareholders blind with corporate packages that are so far out of line it makes you sick, citizens apply for disability when they are physically fine, and the list goes on. Mortgage lenders and financial institutions are the direct cause of this latest crisis. The average citizen has to take a lot of the blame when he buys a house he can’t afford, buys an expensive car, buys designer jeans and charges everything to credit cards, maxing them out, and perhaps even filing bankruptcy. The government putting other priorities before America's national and financial security, and funding an illegal war, are major parts of the problem.

We all have to pay for this financial crisis caused by dishonesty and greed. The question is, can greed be stopped and can we change the culture of this democracy? It might take tough times to shake us back to reality. It very well could be the difference of our survival.

The Vilification of Sarah

Last night while walking on Lake Avenue, I ran into a woman wearing an “Obama Mama” button. She is a die-hard Obama fan and one who had nothing nice to say about Republicans…mortal enemies in her mind. The vice presidential debates that were about to take place at 9pm that night were brought up, and she said, “How embarrassing, Sarah Palin is a bimbo.” I was clearly annoyed at her comment…clearly. Can you possibly imagine that all of a sudden, since its creation in 1854, that the Republicans, especially in these tumultuous times, would pick anyone other than a qualified and dynamic candidate? Again, her comment could have been brought on just by sheer enthusiasm for Obama and hoping that no one else could possibly have anything worthwhile to contribute. It is the vilification of people that I so abhor and it really needs to stop. Judging someone on his performance is one thing but character assassination is another.

As you witnessed last night, Sarah Palin was terrific. The momentum that McCain had been losing because of the Media and Tina Fey’s portrayal on Saturday Night Live of Sarah, was turned around by a stellar performance.

Knowing where your Loyalties Lie

Just talking about Politics can make the best of friends mortal enemies overnight. You don’t agree with them and they throw a label at you. People love throwing the “racist” word at you. I hear that one tossed around like salad in a bowl. You are either a racist, a whacko, consumed with hate or worse, just because you have a different view. I think that my grandmother said never talk about sex, politics or religion. Unbelievable, that in this Century, there are still those who get screaming mad and threaten to cut off the left side of your brain for not agreeing with them or delete your member account from their web site. Laughable? Perhaps. More like Unbelievable.

As far as I am concerned, both the Democratic Party, the Republican Party and all political parties have a lot to be desired. I probably say that because I consider myself a conservative Democrat and know that no one group has all the answers. Those who are so strongly committed one way or the other to actually go so far as to be rude and insulting have to make me skeptical and wonder if they just forgot to get enough sleep or eat their Wheaties. Don’t get me wrong—you have to fully understand who you support and why but sometimes there really is a fine line of distinction. I thought Hillary and Obama were closely aligned as to thought and policy. Hillary had the most experience and the most prestige. I don’t know how the power play worked to defeat her in the Primary. It more than likely was the big lie and the press doing its dirty deed.

Locally our Democratic Club is going through a crisis of major proportions. The Parliamentarian of the Democratic Executive Committee has told the Officers and Directors that their loyalty and support, even in a non-partisan race, must be with Democrats. PERIOD. There are some in the Club who are fighting that tooth and nail…won’t resign and want to continue on as if all is well and pretend that they don’t understand the By-Laws or that the rules have not been clarified to their liking…some who still support Republicans. The thought process is, if no action is taken then the problem will all go away; we all will forget about it. They should form a Republican Club.

We are a wonderful yet dysfunctional city filled with some dysfunctional people who might mean well most of the time but are part of the problem all of the same. You have to know where your loyalties lie and it’s not with the "enemy," not when you have taken a Loyalty Oath to support Democrats and not when you can’t talk a problem through without total character assassination and someone blaming it on your hormones. We have still, a long way to go towards perfecting just plain civility and good old common sense.

On Ethics

The P.B. Post has written about residency requirements (Oct1) on a few occasions.

When we think of ethics in government, we think of the bigger than life things—the reasons why officials go to prison. But ethics can be the little things, like an elected official who skirts around a residency requirement, hiding where he really lives. Ethics is what makes actions right or wrong. If an elected official covers up something that seems so innocuous, then what else is he capable of? Bad behavior begins with the benign and can grow like a cancer.

Politicians, corporate CEO's, doctors, lawyers and all people should have a code of ethics. Would you trust your life to a doctor who did not practice under a code? We should not entrust our country to politicians who do not adhere to a personal code either. The little things are important and telling about character and who we can depend upon.