College degree--is it a ticket to success?

I hate to be disrespectful of the President of the United States, but where has he been for the last 8 years? Does he really live somewhere else?

He just gave Obama some advice on the No Child Left Behind Law and not to water it down because it “would weaken a chance for a child to succeed in America.” He gave Obama advice! This is the very same man who, under his lack of leadership, brought this country to financial ruin and has nearly ended our status as a super power.

A good education is an absolute advantage, I think. I used to believe it was a ticket to success and a necessity in order to live well in this country. It might still be. I don't know. We should, however, be educating the parents of these kids on the importance of education, as one out of four children are high school drop-outs. 25% of these kids can do the work of the illegals that are crossing our borders in mass and taking money out of this country. But it is the irony of his statement that got to got me. Under President Bush, more and more good jobs are being outsourced. There does not appear to be a strong influx of white collar jobs on the horizon, at least in this country. So many technology, information, manufacturing and marketing jobs have moved offshore and more will follow. American corporations are recruiting foreign workers here because they demand less in salaries and over-all compensation.

The price of higher education has skyrocketed, increasing 51% over the last 5 years. And what do these kids have to look forward to? Colleges are telling them to look for work in fields that do not require a college degree--firefighter, hairstylist, cosmetologist, locksmith and security system technician.

President Bush, we are educating our youth to apply for jobs in India owned by American corporations or to be my hairdresser! As I see it, the best job for a college graduate to get now would be in government (forever growing) or as an off-shore manager and be a part of the effort in finding off-shore jobs in American companies for college buddies.

5 down, how many more to go?

Aren't you just sick of it? Now we have Mary McCarty joining the ranks of elected officials caught in federal corruption, honest services fraud.

We have two County Commissioners and two West Palm Beach City Commissioners who were sentenced to prison with Ray Liberti and Jim Exline already released. What will happen to Mary? Is anyone honest?

For all you guys playing hanky panky, watch out. You could be next. When I witness some of the awful votes, it has to make me wonder.

And Commissioner Lowe, why won't you resign? Is your middle name Blagojevich? FBI please come to Lake Worth.

Paying through the nose

I never know what I am going to write about when I get up and I had no intention of writing about Unions this morning. Decades ago there was a necessity for them—today it is a totally different landscape. After reading about the Kravis Center, the thought occurred to me that aside from totally inept management in some cases, Unions have played a big part in working America’s problems today.

I have to give a lot of credit to the Unions for helping to bring down our auto industry by putting a gun to their heads—wanting huge salaries, retirement for life, medical, you name it, while the companies' profits eroded to such an extent that it destroyed them and they no longer can compete in the global or domestic market. I know. Some of you are going to say we have an inferior product. Bolderdash!

The Unions have forced companies to outsource good jobs just to stay profitable. Here in Lake Worth, we were “forced” (the proverbial 3 to 2 vote) to dissolve our local Police Department and merge it with the Sheriff’s Department on the excuse that we no longer could afford the Pension Retirement benefit. We are still, to this day and every day forward until these people die, paying for more than half of them who did not elect to go with the Sheriff’s Pension Plan. Maybe not. Perhaps the retirement benefit passes on to the surviving spouse for all I know.

The other night it was said by our Mayor that the Employees Pension Fund has lost $11.9 million dollars. I feel for this. I have lost money too. We all have and we all have had to bite the bullet. Not the Unions, though. Not our city workers either. All employees got a 5% raise in the City of Lake Worth, or so I was told, and the CRA Director managed to get a 10% raise. A $100,000 a year plus benefits was not enough!

In the Post editorial this morning it talks about the Kravis Center and it suggests its need to drop the law suit and work out a deal with the Unions. I think the problem is that the Unions did not want to deal thus the lawsuit. However, what struck me was the chain of events: The Union contract was up. It went into negotiation. The Union said “no way, I want this, and this, and this and just plain more of this.” The Kravis then ended the discussion and decided to hire non-union workers in the place of union workers. I mean, afterall, the Contract was up! Voila! A law suit filed by the Union. So, it seems that you can’t even hire who you want in America today. You are held hostage to the Unions.

Then I read about our Museum curator, who as you all know, will be staying afterall. I had no idea how much money she made until the other night. $12 an hour is what people are paying their baby sitters today. And that is essentially what this job was—baby sitting our artifacts and giving the occasional visitor a history lesson. Now they suggest that this curator take displays on the road, marketing it. If they change her job description, and she takes on more duties, she should make more money. This is probably why there are unions..inept management that takes advantage of some workers.

But overall, Union greed has diminished and has nearly destroyed, what once was considered “free” enterprise. Union members are guaranteed high raises whether they perform well or not. They are not held accountable and it is impossible to fire one unless he has committed a crime. It is a growing problem and if it is not addressed, in about 25 years we will end up with only the educated wealthy and the uneducated poor. The middle class will be gone because there will no longer be a place for them. What will all you “open border” people do then?

What is Pay to Play?

On January 28th we will be talking about an Ethics Policy for Lake Worth. The past Commission turned one down just last year when it was brought forward by Commissioner Jennings. Retha Lowe was one of the dissenters. I wonder why.

Pay to Play is just a phrase used more and more frequently in government corruption when money or something of value, over or under the table, has been given to a candidate for some financial benefit to the contributor, i.e., a government contract.

Because a citizen gives money to a particular candidate who he feels best represents his views, does not mean every time that elected official votes on something for which he agrees, it is a pay to play situation. There was no personal monetary gain involved. Because someone contributed to and voted for Obama because they hope that he will lead and vote correctly for America, does not mean there is any pay to play.

This is the same thing with Charles Celi who gave campaign contributions in this last election to Cara Jennings, Suzanne Mulvehill and to Rene Varela. He knew that they were more aligned with his political beliefs. His argument against the owners of The Gulfstream Hotel is all about following the rules we have in place. He wants the City to look at both sides of the argument and weigh all of the facts, something the P&Z did not do. Instead, they manipulated the rules to suit their political agenda. He is not going to benefit monetarily from any political decision. He is standing up to principle, an American right. Standing up for one's beliefs is admirable and Mr. Celi took all the hard knocks last night from the Mayor who said his arguments were frivolous to the Gulfstream attorney who said there was not one shread of truth to them.

That’s how I see it. And I know who I believe.

Thought for the Day

Let’s save some money. Here’s my suggestion.

Hire Bill Coakley as Interim City Manger allowing Bob Baldwin to leave now. We pay Bob $170,000 a year plus benefits. Bob wants to leave asap. We immediately save money. It will take at least two months to even get to an interview process and more time to hire.

It will give us time to evaluate Bill Coakley and it will give him time to lead the city in the right direction. Then, in a few months, he can be part of the audition/interview process to hire a formal city manager and will have already proven himself. There is no one in this City that knows more about our Utility, an asset that provides a big revenue stream. He’s smart as a whip. He lives here. He owns property here. He cares about this City. He's fearless. And we know that he gets to the bottom of everything. He would never lead us astray.

We have everything to gain.

Commission Meeting of Jan 6, 2009

Breaking my New Year’s Resolution of not staying late at Commission meetings, I left at 11:50pm. So much for resolutions. I didn’t stay long enough last night to see if Commissioner Retha Lowe fulfilled her threat to leave the dais at Midnight. She should leave permanently, but that is another story or past stories.

Tom Ramiccio managed to stack the chamber once again last night on the Gulfstream Hotel issue, having sent out e-mails to various people. Some of his friends did not stay that late, so their comments were not read into the record. Rachael Bach, when asked how the Historical Preservation Board voted, replied that their vote was “unanimous.” It wasn’t. I asked the owner of the hotel, after the Commission voted to table it, why he did not just open the hotel. His answer, “I can’t…the appeal is holding it up.” I then asked him, “It’s been holding you up since the day you bought it?” “Yes,” was his reply. I guess he has P&Z believing that too, a Political Board that seems to grant him his every wish. Let’s get the hotel opened but not break our own laws/ordinances to allow the owner to do whatever he wants. The City should not be in bed with developers. Charles Celi did a great job on his appeal.

Choosing the Mercer Group was a good decision to find a new City Manager. Colin Baenziger, a company that was turned down this time, gave us Paul Boyer and Bob Baldwin. The Mercer Group's presentation was well made and hopefully this company will consider some of our home-grown qualified people for this position.

Our Museum will stay opened for another 9 months until we find money to support it. That was another good decision. Of course our Mayor wants us to spend millions building a new library and was hesitant when he voted Yes.

The red-light cameras were defeated. Good decision. The Mayor voted for them, the only dissenting vote. They will not generate that much revenue for the City as we are on a sliding scale down…the more violations, the less money we get. We would have been known as speed trap city. Writing an Ordinance forbidding red-light cameras in the City of Lake Worth was definitely the way to go. Mr. Karns said he thought that our ordinance would take precedence over a PB County ordinance if it decided to put in red-light cameras on County roads.

We have a billboard ordinance too but the City did not pay attention to that and allowed billboards near I-95. For the amount of money they generate over 20 years it was another awful decision. Maybe the red-light camera people will threaten suit as well and our City attorney will capitulate like he did with the billboards. That was another Clemens and Lowe decision. She should step down. Do I sound like a broken record?

The Palm Beach County Water deal was an interesting segment, to say the least. Brian Shields from Palm Beach County was there and he told us that we are now $1 million dollars into the project when just 30 days ago we had only received an invoice for $57,000. Brian must have hurried like heck to do all that work so that it would make our decision to stop the County water deal very difficult. He never said we owed $1 million. He said that the County had spent it. The Commission, the day after the election, should have immediately contacted PB County Commissioners and set up appointments. They didn’t and it’s now 48 days later. It only took 6 days to create the earth. We now have a big problem because of their inaction. The mayor said that West Palm Beach had a “terrible history” and that we were “treading on dangerous waters” even considering using their interconnect for free, just paying for the cost of the water. Spending $21 million dollars is a better deal than NOTHING Mayor? What is really going on with the Mayor? The Assistant city administrator for West Palm Beach, Eduardo Balbis, spoke briefly telling us that they had made major capital improvements to their water system and that the quality of water is better now than in the history of the city.

Allowing the Boynton Beach Community Church to hold a special event at Bryant Park was voted in with no discussion. The Church wants to hold an Awareness of Hunger in Palm Beach County. Past events, held in another location, attracted only 300 people. This event is estimated to attract between 500 and 600 people. Is there anyone out here who does not know that there is a homeless problem? Is anyone unaware? Anyone? These events should be handled by charities and faith based groups holding them anywhere but public property. This event will be on March 15^th. That month we have the Reggae Fest and Pride Fest.

Always an oddball in every group

Ducks at Lake Osborne

Priorities askew

Gov. Bill Richardson, October 2006 in PB County

Sometimes you just have to wonder if anyone gets priorities straight. You know, like the beach is a beach, not a mall.

Did anyone know we were building a $700 million embassy, the largest American embassy in existence, in Iraq? Our country is hemorrhaging and we spend money on foreign soil and create jobs for Iraqis. That’s the least we can do, I guess. It could always be worse, right? The war, so far, has cost us $619,972,068,399 and growing by the second. Obama brought his new economic plan to Congress yesterday and is endorsing tax cuts and new spending. He wants to “break the momentum of this recession.” Gov. Charlie Crist, on the other hand, is worried about our $700 million budget deficit and plans on cutting $276 million from healthcare programs for the poor and elderly. Way to go, Governor!

Now we have Bill Richardson turning down a Cabinet position in Obama’s administration, the U.S. Commerce Secretary’s job, because of a possible pay to play. Apparently there is a company that contributed to his political campaign in 2003-2004 and then won a State contract. He says that a grand jury would find him innocent. On the other hand, we have Commissioner Retha Lowe who was found guilty by Florida Elections Commission of campaign violations. This involved a company that gave her multiple contributions from entities they own and gets awarded a Lake Worth contract--not one contract but two--and she refuses to step down.

FPL's biggest nightmare

Lake Worth's famous environmental activist group, Palm Beach County Environmental Coalition, was at it again today out near Indiantown protesting that FPL is drying out the Barley Barber Swamp by pulling water from the ground.

Isn't Panagioti going to be sentenced on Feb 2 for his last FPL protest?

Photo from a previous protest.

Our beach/casino

The lawsuit of McCauley/McNamara proves that the lease with Greater Bay is more than 20 years minus a day. That is what their suit is about. This is the impetus behind the suit. They, as well as their bevy of attorneys, say that is so. The Court says that the suit is not frivolous. The problem here are those who were involved in writing the contracts and not looking out after our interests. Also, the fact that the citizens were not involved and 3 people made a decision of this magnitude, caused all of the last several years delay and expense. In another's opinion it is not a shopping mall, but in my opinion that is exactly what was proposed to be built. Having shops ancillary to the beach experience is what we have had and what we want--not a Ruth Crist's or a Neiman.

As far as "including more restrictive language in the Charter"...Karns and the rest of staff as well as the Commission should have been watching out for us. We had an expensive law firm supposedly looking out for our interests. If you were at the negotiations, it would have made you wonder. The Commission never even checked out Willard in a basic background check. They never checked out Greater Bay or inspected one property they ever built. They just voted to turn it all over to them on a silver platter. They didn't watch out for the citizens. The lawyers didn't. The Commission didn't. Staff didn't. They have not had the political will to do so. Perhaps they do now.

As far as the building is concerned, what was proposed by GB was a tall building on our beach in a place no one wanted it to be. Restoring the present building is something for which the majority will agree to and I am rather sure that the We Love Lake Worth PAC, once this is contracted and the property left in City control, will allow the City of LW to end their suit and WLLW will go away. In both cases, it is the City that will have to come to McCauley/McNamara and to WLLW. That is the status of the law suits...limbo...with it being the City's move. In either case, it is tricky. I think that another law suit is in order and the citizens should sue the City for misfeasance, nonfeasance, whatever "feasance" applies. Greater Bay had every opportunity to bring in a Plan that was acceptable. They didn't. They had every opportunity to perform anything. They were handed the pool deal and they still have not fulfilled that contract.

Ask Mr. Smith what he wants at the beach. He will tell you. He wants to be able to drive up to the upper level parking lot and drop off his kids and his cooler and walk 20 feet to the beach and have a place to buy a hotdog and a soda in his flip-flops. Stop inventing the wheel.

Something to think about

"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism but under the name of 'liberalism,' they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without knowing how it happened. I no longer need to run as a Presidential Candidate for the Socialist Party. The Democrat Party has adopted our platform."-- Norman Thomas, Socialist candidate for President in 1944.

This was said 65 years ago. I wonder what Norman would think today as we bail out every loser around, every corporation that took their manufacturing out of this country, every chief executive that lined his pockets and this government looking the other way welcoming anyone and everyone to come into our country illegally for any excuse, real or imagined, so that the taxpayers can support their "entitlement."

We know first-hand here in Lake Worth that some Democrats are confused. Something to think about.

Let's not be left holding the bag

2010 will be here before you know it--

Well, everyone’s talking about 2010 so I just might as well get on the band wagon too. On New Year’s Day, an editorial was written entitled Time to Think about 2010. The Editor talked about the myth that “growth will pay for itself and provide a prosperous lifestyle” for everyone who buys into it. Because of the economy, that myth collapsed. I am happy to see that the PBPost understands this but it still has no clue on Florida Hometown Democracy.

This propaganda, promoted by developers, the Chamber of Commerce, Associated Builders, St. Joe Paper, etc., has been a big lie and nothing more than a money machine for all those groups that supported the growth at all costs mentality. They didn’t care about us. They didn’t care about our State. Politicians have fallen for the con; they were bought and paid for as they got big campaign donations from these groups to keep them in power and to ensure that zoning changes and building plans were pushed through.

Staff, consultants, lawyers, mortgage brokers, bankers, Realtors and lobbyists make a living by keeping the myth alive, some of whom are the very same people who brought DOWN our economy. These very people are the ones Florida Hometown Democracy has been fighting for years as FHD has known it was all just a Ponzi scheme, as described by the PB Post, devised by them to line their pockets and to pave over our State while the citizens were left holding the bag.

They have been encroaching on our Everglades, building airport runways that go nowhere, bridges that go nowhere, condos that sit vacant except for the occasional migrant or homeless person who breaks in for a roof over his head. You read today about all those condos at City Place still empty. This is all about the untold millions to beef up their bank accounts and nothing gets in their way to achieve that goal--changing zoning where it suits them and literally looking to build on every square inch of available land in the State of Florida. Roads, utilities, schools, wetlands, taxes, you name it, have been impacted by this run-away growth we have experienced in the past. All of this has cost residents a fortune and diminished our quality of life. We have some developers now that want impact fees waived in order to build affordable housing. Like we don't have enough already.

Here, locally, our politicians easily gave up our valuable and pristine beach property to a developer on an agreement that is challenged in court because it did not protect the citizens of Lake Worth per our Charter. The developers and the politicians wanted to build a shopping mall at our beach, against the will of the people and remove our upper level parking. There is still a blogger who thinks that is cool. He, to this day, is writing about having no parking at our beach (something that we have had since inception and something everyone wants) and is the very same one who has been in favor of the Gateway projects, money ill spent and money we can not afford to spend in order to attract development.

Instead of living within a budget, the City devised ways to collect more taxes, raising recreational fees, shifting a stormwater charge to the County, something that used to be in included in our millage. They up-zoned even a single family neighborhood to do it. This was a developer backed Commission supported by a developer backed P&Z Board. They bought into the myth at the expense of those very citizens who pay the bills and who they are sworn to protect.

We have a chance to ensure that this mentality is halted by voting in Florida Hometown Democracy in 2010. We know it is just a matter of time when the economy will turn and the developers will be back to try and take it all away from us once again, paving over our entire State to fulfill their dream of money; just show them the money. We have the perfect chance to slow it all down.

What Florida Hometown Democracy will do is to require popular vote of changes to local growth plans, required by the State of Florida, through its Growth Management Act. This Amendment will do more to curb the costs of suburban sprawl than any measure in Florida history and it will take 60% of the voters to do it.

Let’s protect our State and our community and pass Florida Hometown Democracy in 2010.

Today at the beach

Florida Hometown Democracy Myths

From the Martin County Defender--

MYTHS

Hometown Democracy RIGHT answer to land use

Now today, we have Al Levine, President of Gold Coast Builders, dissing Florida Hometown Democracy. Why? Well, HE'S A BUILDER! What do you expect him to do? These guys are like bad pennies. Here is the truth about Florida Hometown Democracy from The Martin County Defender whose owner has given me permission to reprint it--

The Martin County Defender
The e-newsletter for aware citizens - No 84

Florida Hometown Democracy Amendment

GETTING READY FOR THE 2010 BALLOT

Readers will recall that the Florida Hometown Democracy (FHD) amendment to the State constitution is a proposition that will allow citizens to have a say in how their communities change their comprehensive plans for growth. Some 870,000 Florida citizens signed petitions (611,000 certified signatures required) to put FHD on the 2008 ballot, but the underhanded efforts of the state Chamber of Commerce, Associated Industries, certain business/developer interests, and numerous officials kept it off the ballot, but only temporarily.

SMART MONEY CONSPIRES TO ROB YOU OF YOUR VOTE

Here is what a competing business-industry "Floridians for Smart Growth" amendment - designed to prevent citizens from voting on changes - would require: Unlike FHD, a referendum on a Comp Plan Amendment would require 10% of all voters to travel to the office of the Supervisor of Elections to sign a petition within 60 days. The perpetrators know this anti-democracy proposal presents an almost insurmountable voting obstacle.

This proposed amendment, approved 4 to 3 by the Florida Supreme Court on Dec. 18, 2008, disenfranchises Florida active duty military and National Guard who are deployed out of state. The amendment also discriminates against disabled, housebound Florida voters. If approved by 60% of the electorate in 2010, the provision will become part of the Florida Constitution - the ultimate sellout to money interests.

Boiled down to its essentials, the Smart Money Growth Amendment will destroy citizen petition initiatives, but retain constitutional amendments by the lobbyist-dominated legislature. In sharp contrast, FHD would automatically empower the people by giving all residents a chance to vote on a limited number of local growth issues.

State legislatures, beneficiaries of hefty campaign contributions from the so-called "Smart Growth" players, have done all they could to erode the 1985 Growth Management Act, which requires counties to have a Comprehensive Plan for growth. They have been modifying the Act for years to favor the growth machine. So instead of the Plan controlling growth, growth has been controlling the Plan. We can look back and see how that has led Florida to disaster.

One of the more recent malignant acts of legislature was passage of a law allowing signers to revoke their petitions. The petition revocation law was declared unconstitutional by an appeals court. On Jan. 8, 2009. the Florida Supreme Court will hear a state appeal of that decision. One hopes the high court will affirm. If they do, the roughly 630,000 certified petitions will qualify the FHD amendment to be on the next ballot. If the court overturns, then there would be the costly but attainable gathering of about 40,000 more signatures. One way or another, FHD will be on the 2010 ballot.

GIRDING FOR BATTLE - KNOW THE FACTS

We can expect the same members of the failed growth machine to spend another five million dollars to mislead citizens again about what FHD does - and to attempt to persuade you that making it near impossible for citizen initiatives to get on the ballot is good for you.

Two Lake Worth Top 6 gang members convicted

Convicted by a jury: Jessee "Blackman" Thomas, 22, of Lake Worth, of drug possession, resisting arrest and racketeering charges. Ernst "Shotgun" Exavier, 25, also of Lake Worth.

Two down. How many hundreds more to go?

Uncle Jay Sums up 2008

Lake Worth's Festival of Trees coming Jan 17

FLYER

What electrifies

Mayor Clemens is quoted as saying in today's Editorial section PBPost that he voted against FMPA the first time around because “it was brought to us as kind of a last-minute deal.” Whaaaaa? Mayor, isn’t it true that this is part of your strategy when you want things to go your way? Put it on the Agenda at the last minute where NO one will know that much about it, no one will have time to do research or investigate and then vote it up or down depending upon the politics of the dais. Getting out of FMPA had been discussed numerous times. You never listened to your own Electric Utility Task Force. Paleeeze.

It then goes on to say that Lake Worth has replaced its dilapidated electricity transmission system. It failed to say what it was replaced with. As you recall, Mayor Clemens was a fervent supporter of the 26.4kv system. Finally, after a few years of writing about it, talking about it and just plain making tantrums about it, it went back to the 13.2kv system because of reliability. We got the proof positive.

You really have to attend City Commission meetings to understand. I have always said that you have to look at all of them straight in the eye. Listening at home is not the same. I think that is the reason why some of us write articles. We don’t like anyone pulling a “fast one” and playing politics in the media.

Lake Worth Media has done a superb job over the past several years bringing awareness and electrifying the residents of Lake Worth. There are some new blogs out there and I hope that these writers will stay involved and write about what concerns us the most…Lake Worth...and let the readers decide what is and what isn’t.

April fools?

Betty and prankster, Ron
Did Ron think that this was Halloween?