Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Hatchet Job on Jennings

Commissioner Jennings taking some HARD KNOCKS lately.

News must be tough when the LW Herald and now the Post editorial does a hatchet job on Jennings. The Ethics Committee has said that "the allegations are legally insufficient to indicate any violations of Florida Statutes...there is no indication that the respondent Jennings violated Florida Statutes as there is no indication that the CDC would be considered her principal." Granted, she failed to disclose a mortgage she obtained before she was elected and it came from PB County, not the CDC, according to Jennings. Commissioner Jennings has always said that a Commissioner should disclose any potential conflict if a contract comes before them to vote upon.

Right now, this is nothing more than an allegation by a political enemy and anyone can accuse anyone of anything. It is done every day of the week. The Florida Commission on Ethics is looking into her failure to disclose a liability on a CE Form 1. Until that is completed and their findings are published, this is nothing more than an accusation.

She has also been a proponent of the "will of the people." On that note, she failed miserably by pushing through and accepting the Michael Singer Artist manipulated plan for our beach based on 240 people who took a survey that was contrived. This was a poll that steered them in one direction rather than getting the opinion of 37,000 residents of our city based on a fair value judgment. There was NO will of the people only those few hundred that took a fixed survey.

Singer and company failed to get up to the beach and ask one person who uses the beach upper level parking what would be their priority: upper level convenient parking or "green" with a Jungle Jim for little Johnny.

The aerial they used was not indicative of the general feeling you derive from driving to the beach. The lower level parking lot has a LOT of green. Drive it and notice all the green. You do NOT get a sense of too much asphalt. It was an unfair photo.

No lifeguards on Tuesdays and Wednesdays--AGAIN


Lake Worth beach with no lifeguards. All true. I had to drive over there to believe it. First we have lifeguards; then we don't; then we have them 7 days a week; then we don't.

CLICK HERE FOR article and video


William O. Lockhart Municipal Pier grand opening on Saturday.
Ribbon cutting at 10am.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

2 solutions to squatters, blight , crime and abandoned property



Disclaimer:
It's a joke! Just in case. You never know. :)

Political Puzzle


Rumors are all over the place as to whom will run. So far, we have had only two candidates to announce to the media that they would be running for Mayor—
Wes Blackman, although I heard he changed his mind and it is now District 3 seat he is after again. Who knows?
Tom Ramiccio wants to run again.

Greg Rice is being seen much more in public these days. His name is out there.

Javier Del Sol says he is running. We seem to see him everywhere. He even told me that he was against people coming here illegally. Politics will do strange things to people. This is Cara's choice.

Rene Varela’s name has been tossed around. He couldn't get support from his own Democrats last time around. Perhaps things are different now.

Ron Exline’s name has been mentioned.

Laurence McNamara says he will be running.

Next we will hear that John Rinaldi is running and that might be a good thing if it were not for Greater Bay.

How many more will come out of the woodwork for Mayor? Better question, why would anyone want this job?

And in district 1, the rumor is that Retha will not run again and that "they" are running Dan Winkle. He won't even make a stand supporting his own neighborhood. I guess he will garner it somewhere else...don't want to get that political support upset now do we, Dan?

More on the housing market

Answer to Wes--

Some townhouse units and a unit in the Lucerne sold. Yes, and some are in foreclosure! It's interesting that the cry from those against townhouses at the time they were approved were that they weren't affordable housing. Whose cry? We have never advocated for affordable housing in Lake Osborne Heights. That was not our beef. 99% of everything for sale in Lake Worth is "affordable." The market has a way for correcting that as these sales attest. Excess supply and less demand leads to falling prices. Eventually the market will find its equilibrium where currently vacant units are occupied at a new market price. True and in the meantime, those paying on the mortgages end up in bankruptcy. And the City of Lake Worth gets LESS in ad valorem because people can not pay. Foreclosures and our economic slow down affects most, if not all, components of our City revenue. Ask Mark Bates.

That is the trouble with the thinking of people who complain about vacant units in townhouses. First of all, these buildings are on the tax rolls
only if people can afford to pay the taxes will it mean anything here and property taxes have to be paid whether vacant or not. Not true. That is why we have more and more bankruptcies and foreclosures. Second, as noted above, it is a temporary situation that will resolve itself with the market You won’t see a recovery of the housing market until the big inventory of unsold houses has worked its way through the system. And no one knows how long that will take. No one can say whether it will be “temporary” or not. What is “temporary? Most things recover but not all.

Single family neighborhoods

33461 Lake Worth, FL Real Estate Market

a City Neighborhood with 14,691 households

house depreciates 13.7% in the last 12 months

there are 1147 homes for sale, including 761 foreclosures .

Now why are the few anonymous enemies of Lake Osborne Heights and all those who have been fighting to save this neighborhood as well as other single family neighborhoods in Lake Worth for nearly four years, wanting MORE empty units sitting on a 4.02 parcel of land that never should have been promised a different zoning when it was annexed...a zoning that was ILLEGAL?

They ask why would we not want $600,000 townhomes on this property? No one is buying right now especially high end properties in Lake Worth unless on the IntraCoastal Waterway or Golfcourse and that amount might be one or two, or haven't you noticed all the For Sale signs all over town? What we don't want is the neighborhood changing; townhouses that can't sell and turning into rentals and then slum and blight.

Why do these few little complainers want to see Save Our Neighborhood, Inc. lose? There is no reason other than they will disagree with any and all reason to continue the bully badgering. Is anyone listening to their lack of logic other than Realtors, developers and other nocturnal animals?

Remember Florida Hometown Democracy in 2010.

Employers beware!

Illegals watching pretty pictures

Fact sheet from the Department of Homeland Security:

  • Of the more than 6,000 arrests related to worksite enforcement in 2008, only 135 were employers.
  • Updated worksite enforcement guidance was distributed to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in late April. The new department-wide focus targets criminal aliens and employers who cultivate illegal workplaces by breaking the country’s laws and knowingly hiring illegal workers
  • Effective immediately, ICE will focus resources on the criminal prosecution of employers who knowingly hire illegal workers in order to target the root cause of illegal immigration.
  • ICE will continue to arrest illegal workers who are found in the course of the worksite enforcement actions.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Andres

Andres Reyes
(Photo swiped from www.lakeworthmedia.com)

"Andres has one of the most sought after of the engineering disciplines, i.e., Relay & Control. We offered him a position for those skills alone," so said an executive with a Florida energy company who e-mailed me. Andres turned down that offer because he liked working for Lake Worth Utilities and he liked his job and he just loves it here. Now he doesn't have one for answering a direct question from a Commissioner.

The question that remains is why? The best thing to do here is have him sit down with Rebecca Mattey, Utility Director, iron things out, shake hands and both of them get over it. We need him in Lake Worth. Everyone deserves a second chance and it is human nature to defend your honor and professional reputation.

More on Andres coming soon.

Miami is not a "slave" to stupidity--yet

We Invite you to our

Annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner

with Keynote Speaker
Governor Tim Kaine
Democratic National Committee Chairman


Saturday, May 30, 2009

Fontainebleau
4441 Collins Avenue
Miami Beach, FL 33140

Visit http://fladems.com/jj to Purchase Tickets

Questions?
Please contact Christina Boltin or Alexis Searfoss at 850.222.3411.
Sponsorship Opportunities are available.

Todd Rundgren--a memory

Tums is using the song by Todd Rundgren in its latest commercial. I haven't thought of that song in over 30 years but it was one of my favorites--

"Stupidity has a Knack of getting its Way"

It was back during the last general election that I started to get big doubts about the Democratic Party in general. The doubts stemmed from some of the people in it and some of the decisions made. I haven’t changed my mind yet, unlike the writer in today’s paper who does not want to focus on Obama’s 100 days but rather look at the “big picture” (sounds like former Commissioner Burns) and says talk to him in 1,000 days as our debt increases by over $3 mil a second.

The party abandoned Hillary Clinton. The most qualified and the most deserved candidate of the Party who was literally pushed aside for Barack Obama. Her own Party did her in. The Party fell for the great orator, the beautiful smile and the fresh new look.

I have talked before about the local Democratic Club and won’t go into it again. Mark Alan Siegel, the new Chair of the PB County Democratic Party, had given this Club his opinion and they did not listen. Now the Party is in the paper regarding the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, one of the Party’s major fund raisers. The name, that has been around longer than I can remember, is being changed by the PB County Democratic Party to Truman-Kennedy-Johnson dinner. This has always been called Jefferson-Jackson in honor of our 3d and 7th Presidents of the United States. If the Party is doing this because of slavery from 2 ½ centuries ago, then it is more stupid than I ever could have imagined.

“Thomas Jefferson was one of the principal authors of the Declaration of Independence and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of republicanism in the United States.” Andrew Jackson was one of the main people who shaped the Democratic Party and a hero in his time.

I posted a new Quote today and although not a Jefferson quotation, it sounds like something he might have said.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Sunset on Lake Osborne

From my balcony just a few minutes ago

A familiar tune

Concerned about the economy--
CLICK HERE

Food stamp applications Surge in South Florida


As more and more people get laid off or their hours are cut back, more and more citizens as well as illegal aliens are applying for public assistance. This amounts to a 63% increase in PB County.

$2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens.

Read the article

Saturday, May 2, 2009

More Seniors will be Pushed into Poverty

As the government bails out the losers, giving billions and more billions of taxpayer money to avoid corporate bankruptcies and in some cases even companies who are filing bankruptcy such as Chrysler with the government providing $3.5 billion for bankruptcy financing and an additional $4.7 billion in exit financing to them, the senior citizen takes it in the shin.

As all American citizens are struggling during this horrific, financial, economic boondoggle and worrying about whether they will even have a job tomorrow or make it to the next day, now the government has said NO to some of the poorest of our nation, senior citizens, ending COLA in social security for the next two years at least. A freeze would put a cap on Medicare premiums but there is still about 1/4 of the recipients who are not protected and will see substantial increases in Medicare Part D.

We can expect Medicare and drug prescription prices to rise, (estimated at $119 next year and $123 in 2011 for Medicare) thus taking a bigger chunk out of granny’s social security check for those who are unprotected, as prices for everything she purchases rise accordingly.

None of us mind biting the bullet but what about all those corporate executives who got million dollar bonuses AFTER we bailed them out? What about the Stimulus money used for an art walk in New York or sidewalks and trash cans outside a Michigan casino? What about the overall increase in everything and the government saying we are experiencing low inflation? We now have a spend, tax and borrow government. Who do you believe? Congress or your wallet? Congress or the prices you are paying for just about everything?

In spite of social security, about 3.4 million elderly live in poverty; 54.5 million people in general live with a disability and 1 out of 3 of those are senior citizens, 65 or older. It is now guaranteed that they, along with all people on fixed incomes, will feel it even more as they struggle to pay higher taxes and higher prices for services. Here on a local level we will be remembering all of that when we pay for Fire Rescue in Lake Worth as the cost is now transferred to our ad valorem tax bill, higher prices just to go to the beach and just to put bacon on the table. We will be remembering that 10% raise given to the CRA Director.

The Seniors will be remembering those AIG executives and bankers who got millions in bonuses when the cold hard facts hit them squarely in the face--the decision to spend that dollar on either higher priced groceries or higher priced blood pressure medicine.

2nd mortgage shock coming

Someone sent me this link and I thought I would put it up because all those walking away from mortgages are hurting the rest of us in one way or another. We just had one owner today in my building tell us he is filing for bankruptcy. We all financially will be stuck with his problems.

WATCH THE VIDEO

Stanton's First CM Report

Susan Stanton's first City Manager's Report

Already things are looking up...A City Manager who lets us know what is going on. Let's hope that she listens to the Commission.

Employers soon to get "iced"

Mentoring Center and City sticking out their tongues to Federal Law

It was just announced two days ago that ICE is shifting its policies and now will focus on the employer, the guy who is actually hiring the illegal alien. Employers will now have to put a lot of attention to their hiring process. ICE sees the employer as the problem. Janet Napolitano will target what she calls "the root cause of illegal immigration, the employer."

As employment is the primary force behind the illegal alien problem in our country, it reminded me of last month when I just happened to tune into Public Television Channel 20 and the Lake Worth “Resource” center, a.k.a. Shuffleboard Court, was featured with Lisa Wilson, Director and Monica Delgado of the Global Education Center at PBCC.

Ms. Delgado was appointed in September 2007 to oversee implementation of a variety of services to assist newly arrived immigrants (let’s tell it like it is—ILLEGALS) as well as PBCC students to integrate and eventually assimilate to the U.S. culture. This was brought about by Dr. Kathryn W. Davis who pledged $1 mil to PBCC earlier in 2007 to launch the comprehensive one-stop education and resource information center for immigrants. Ms. Delgado has a very impressive resume. She speaks fluent Spanish as well as English and holds a Master’s Degree in Theology from Life Christian University ion Tampa.

Lisa’s background is super impressive too: She holds a master's in business administration, a bachelor's in physics, and a project management professional certification. She began her career as an engineer testing a part of the B-1B bomber. Good credentials because she brought a BOMB to Lake Worth! Prior to The Mentoring Center, she held senior management positions with 3Com Corp. and U.S. Robotics. She also directed a U.S. Department of Education 21st Century Community Learning Center in West Palm Beach and in 2005, the Miami/Dade Chamber of Commerce Network Miami magazine recognized her as one of South Florida's most prominent and successful black business women. She is one smart cookie.

Ms. Wilson and her husband started The Mentoring Center in November 2006. It is a 501 C (3) corporation. According to Ms. Wilson, she and her husband now have 4 locations. She came to the “aid” of Lake Worth when we were experiencing loitering of illegals on our city streets when we were looking for a solution. The idea of the Mentoring Center was supported by Mayor Clemens, Commissioner Golden and Commissioner Jennings. Retha Lowe, if you recall, supported the idea of it but just not at the Shuffleboard Court. Actually, all five commissioners at the time supported the concept—DOING SOMETHING ILLEGAL! We ended up with a day labor center and kicked the Seniors out.

Police are bound to follow all federal civil rights laws which bar agents from using racial profiling. As an example, you can’t make a large amount of traffic stops in a particular community to catch drug offenders even though you know they are hanging out there. Sounds silly but I know some die-hards here who would agree. You can’t go into a neighborhood that you know is occupied mostly by illegals and establish a probable cause for something illegal. You have to prove that a crime is taking place…you can’t assume it. Just the simple fact that the police know that these people are here illegally is not a reason to do anything about it. Our City Commission wants a community relations board to ensure that our police are doing the right thing. Nuts? Well, I happen to think so but Commissioner Jennings would disagree with me. It is not the Sheriff breaking the laws here.

Remember our former Mayor Drautz who was unmercifully chastised for distributing fliers to illegals using a graphic that tried to teach them that urinating in public was a”no no” and not socially acceptable...fit in to our culture, etc? The other political spectrum in our City came down hard on him. Education is the key here and Drautz's attempt was in the right direction..

Ok, Mentoring Center, since you are being allowed to get away with this because of laws that are not enforced, that are ridiculously liberal and somewhat insane, what about your objective of teaching these people to assimilate into our culture. What about teaching them NOT to defecate on our shuffleboard courts and NOT to urinate in front of the front door of the Shuffleboard Court Building. I asked the Mayor to check on a major complaint by seniors using the courts. That was over a month ago and I have yet to hear back as to why The Mentoring Center said it could not do anything about illegals defecating on the courts. Unreal, right? And even better, what about teaching them NOT to loiter on our city streets which was the sole purpose of your getting involved in our City in the first place, or so we have been told. These alone might help ease the pain of your $1 a year lease and all the costs that the taxpayers are picking up for this illegal hiring practice and as education was one of the objectives.

The Mentoring Center operates in full view with the blessing of our City government, acting as a middleman to the employer and those seeking work, primarily illegal aliens looking for day labor jobs. The Mentoring Center and our City are sticking out their tongues to the law because they can. They have been allowed to get away with breaking it. Perhaps soon all that will change and our City, a party to the crime, might have to pay big bucks for breaking Federal laws.

IFCO Systems. Scroll down to number 5 and read about the whopping $21 million fine they recently paid for hiring illegal aliens.

As 66% of Florida favor stricter immigration laws (and this percentage is lower than the rest of the country's average) and are opposed to amnesty, all you local candidates who have remained silent on this issue, let's hear from you. In that same poll taken by Quinnipiac University, 25% of registered voters would not vote for a candidate who did not take a strong approach on illegal immigration no matter WHAT he believed on other issues.

Friday, May 1, 2009

Amnesty for Illegals?

Senator Bill Nelson
SH-716, United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Nelson,

I was shocked to learn that the Senate Judiciary Committee is holding hearings on amnesty.

American workers have lost over 5 million jobs since December of 2007. Over five million Americans continue to receive unemployment benefits (the most since 1967). Any program that allows illegal workers to stay in their jobs will also keep American workers out of them. If Congress grants amnesty to illegal workers, it will close to the door to millions of jobs that could have been available to legal workers. That would mean higher unemployment and more unemployment benefits.

Apparently, some in Congress believe it isn't enough to add 138,000 new work visas to the labor pool every month. These politicians also believe American workers have it so good right now that we should give 7 million non-farm jobs to people who broke the law to obtain them. This is simple supply-and-demand math, yet few in Congress have the courage to speak up.

Please speak up for American workers by opposing the Judiciary Committee�s biased (all of the witnesses are pro-amnesty and anti-American worker) amnesty hearings.

Phone me if you would like to talk about this,

Lynn Anderson

P.S. We have been complaining about illegal aliens for a very long time. Why won't you listen? These people are ILLEGAL and YOU need to do something about this atrocious situation that continues to get worse. It is not us, the voter, who has apathy. It is YOU and we all are sick and tired of our country going down the tubes because of illegal aliens. Do your job.

The Sun has not Set on Sunset

Unfortunately, the Lake Worth Herald did not attend the joint meeting of the P&Z and the City Commission on April 14 before he wrote his sensational headline yesterday. Mr. Parrish never called Katie McGiveron, Chair of Save Our Neighborhood, for a recent statement but instead used one of hers made in 2007 on zoning that would have protected this neighborhood if it had not been left out of the ZIP. If he had just done these two things, he would have been informed and would have heard what the City’s paid outside attorney said--

1. that what the City did at the time was contract zoning (this is ILLEGAL). The P&Z and certain Staff members continue to ignore this fact.

2. that a rezoning of property is in the police power of the City.

3. that the Amendment is not effective.

4. the owner has not done any further application for site plan approval or any other approvals for that matter.

5. there is no substantial investment of time and money by the owner.

6. and that the Sunset parcel was totally different than the Largo situation in that Sunset did not wait to purchase the property contingent on the rezoning but purchased the property BEFORE it was granted any approvals, including annexation approval.

This entire article was written without the facts. Laurence McNamara, in his letter to the Editor, suggested that the LW Herald should change its focus away from writing about the possibility of every Commission's decision ending up in a lawsuit that is frivolous at best. I suggest that a news reporter be just that, not relying on gossip for supposed news articles.

The presentation by Richard Grosso, an authority in land-use and zoning, would also totally dispute the Herald's scare article regarding the Sunset case and the “probability of a Bert J. Harris law suit.” Anyone can threaten to file a law suit.

When you have two attorneys telling you that your chances of a Bert J. Harris law suit are slim to none, particularly when you have just paid one of them over $3,500 to prove the opposite, I would think that would be fairly compelling.

The Herald said, in a couple of different articles in this week's paper, that the courtS rejected Save Our Neighborhood's argument, inferring that we lost in more than one court. We won in the Circuit Court and the City of Lake Worth pursued the case in the Appellate Court bringing in heavy hitters to help them--the law firm of Gary, Dytrich & Ryan, Corbett & White, Weiss, Serota & Helfman and the City of Boca Raton as Intervenors in their case plus the City's outside counsel of Casey, Ciklin (Boose, the guy who went to prison for 2 years), Casey. We lost in one court, the Appeals, on the State Statute regarding referendum that supersedes local ordinances on the 5 parcel issue.

This is written to set the facts straight regarding the Herald's titillating article and commentary. Obviously, the Herald's article was written in mind to sell newspapers, not reporting on facts.

Members of Save Our Neighborhood, Inc.
Betty Anderson, MaryBeth LaBreque, Katie Mcgiveron,
Jennifer Marchal, Lynn Anderson