If you throw enough stuff against a wall, some of it will stick

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If enough (perhaps false or reckless) accusations are made against a person (or organization), his reputation will suffer, whether or not the remarks and accusations are deserved and that is the tragedy of what came out of the Greater Bay settlement meeting. Instead of pot-shots against Greater Bay and giving the public all the reasons why we kicked them off our beach to begin with and mentioning that three attorneys said we were in the "right" and giving all those reasons, our attorney made a ridiculously weak argument to settle. But, his mission had changed.
 
This is a strategy that even Obama is using: "You know what? We’re going to keep on trying a bunch of stuff until something works," said the president.  Our attorney must have picked up on this as that is what he did in the Greater Bay lawsuit. How in the world did an outside counsel become political? The suit went on for three years. Why didn't he advise us years ago that, in his opinion, we would be hard pressed to win.  Why wasn't he that aggressive in going after the Plaintiff instead of the citizens? Was that not his objective? But in the end, he was following his bosses' (the City Commission's) will and threw enough crap against the wall in order to make a case to settle. Those of us who have lived through this entire matter know the facts and it did not stick with us.

It is clear to many of us that this present commission wants to settle lawsuits, not win them. This is a new strategy facilitated by low city revenues and high legal bills and prompting from their friends. They are scared to death. They honestly believe that this strategy is "leadership." The mantra is "Let's get them (the lawsuits) off our plate....legal bills are killing the city." In the end, it didn't matter that the man from Rochester was out to screw us. Nothing mattered but justifying the Commission's decision to settle even if it meant throwing blame on all the wrong people, all political. They got their cake and ate it too by killing two birds with the same stone.

The guy who inflicted damage and who never performed got $1.6 million and citizens who spoke the truth and uttered their opinion got thrown under the bus and by the very same attorney who sued the citizens several years ago and by a commission that holds itself up to being fair.

This mindset started with Clemens, as so many things did, with the billboard company. We had an ordinance on signs but because this obnoxious company sued us, we caved in. We were so desperate for money, we caved in on the landfill too and gave Sun Recycling a pass on cleaning it up and taking off all that debris. It was all covered up. Sun, to this day, is still giving campaign contributions to political hacks.

Mock trials and all, the only thing that was a mockery were the reasons for this settlement. Sometimes, it is extremely difficult to stand up for what is "right," especially in Lake Worth.

Shanon Materio to act as mayor

Shanon Materio to act as West Palm Beach mayor for two days.

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Lake Worth Library makes $681

Hard work by our intrepid volunteers at the Friends of the Library Fall Book Sale today helped us make a profit of $681 to spend on the library's programs and projects..

Thank you, Scott, Herman and Sam for helping me set up at 8 a.m. Thanks, Jane, Teresa, Alice, Larry, Jeni, Joan, Sam, Drew and Christine for long hours of hard work during the sale. Thank you Phil, Scott and our Palm Beach State College volunteers for closing down and putting books away. We couldn't do it without all of you.

Best Wishes,
June
FOTLWL Pres.

Lake Worth Drug Stings

The number on the chalk board is to call when you spot

 a suspicious person in the neighborhood

Some good news--

At the ROLOH meeting this week, the Sheriff's Deputy was there giving a run-down on crime--deplorable--five recent break-ins in the Lake Osborne Heights neighborhood BUT, they rounded up lots of bad guys throughout our city early that same morning.

Twenty-two people were arrested for dealing dope and the Sheriff's Department confiscated two guns. One criminal hung out at the Cultural Plaza and another was within 1,000 feet of Victory Worship Center at 1915 N. A. Street.

Lake Worth's Whistleblower Lawsuit

Photo taken December 2008

Lawsuits certainly do drag on. And they certainly are costly as we found out on Wednesday night. The whistleblower lawsuit will be up for mediation next week and the city meets on December 4th to discuss.

Read more... on Andre Reyes, former Director of Engineering at LW Utilities and Howard Jordan and Larry Drenski, three whistleblowers who were fired by former Lake Worth head honchos, Utility Director Rebecca Mattey and City Manager Susan Stanton.

In cases where whistleblowing on a specified topic is protected by statute, US courts have generally held that such whistleblowers are protected from retaliation. However, a closely divided US Supreme Court decision, Garcetti v. Ceballos (2006) held that the First Amendment free speech guarantees for government employees do not protect disclosures made within the scope of the employees' duties.

It is probable that many people do not even consider blowing the whistle, not only because of fear of retaliation, but also because of fear of losing their relationships at work and outside work.
Because the majority of cases are very low-profile and receive little or no media attention and because whistleblowers who do report significant misconduct are usually put in some form of danger or persecution, the idea of seeking fame and glory may be less commonly believed. Source:Wikipedia

In their minds, these men were doing the right thing and were brave to come forward.

Congressman Allen West granted Re-Count

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Yesterday, a Treasure Coast Judge declined to intervene in the West/Murphy case. He left it up to the Canvassing Board. "We have the responsibility to try and restore trust in an elections process that has been shrouded in uncertainty," said Tod Mowery, Canvassing Board member.

In spite of the demonstrations in front of the St. Lucie Courthouse by anarchists and those wanting to diss democracy, beginning at 9:00am this morning, St. Lucie County will recount ALL 37,379 votes that were cast in early voting.

Solar Stimulus fails again

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Two more stimulus backed solar companies announce lay-offs. A pair of foreign-owned solar companies that benefited from a combined $84 million in Energy Department tax credits have announced they will lay off employees.

One of the companies, German-owned SolarWorld, was integral in the fight for tariffs against the importation of Chinese photovoltaic solar panels. The other, Chinese company SunTech, blamed those tariffs for its own layoffs.

Read about it

Obama Success Story

This company filed bankruptcy the very same day it received $1 mil. Another Obama success story.

Petition to Obama Administration

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Sign the Petition to Require Barack Obama To Allow The Public Examination Of His Birth Certificate Records and his College and University Records.

Click here

Twinkies

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Another company filing bankruptcy due to unreasonable Union demands.

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Lake Worth Library

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Tomorrow November 17th

Freedom Plaza, across from the library....

Face painting 10-12

Balloon animals 12-2

Pass the word to your friends!!
 Plus many inexpensive children's books!!

-- Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed:

 everything else is public relations.

-George Orwell

Giving all of the Facts -- Lake Worth Reserves

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There has been much said of late about a "former Lake Worth Commission" that went through our Reserves (our savings) to the tune of $8 to $12 million dollars. Commissioner John Szerdi mentioned it in the very first political speech he gave after being sworn in. The Lake Worth Herald continues to mention Reserves and writes that Suzanne Mulvehill gave praise in her final speech to those "who nearly bankrupted the city" and that "we don't need them in office ever again."

We concur. We don't need them nor do we want them in office. This was all during the Paul Boyer and Bob Baldwin regimes. The people who were in power then and the biggest culprits to this were Jeff Clemens, Dave Vespo and Retha Lowe. They had the majority vote and it was they who either allowed the then city managers to dip heavily into reserves and/or voted Reserves away. During Vespo's term, $60 million in Consent Agenda items were approved. We expect politicians to twist or eliminate facts to their advantage (that is why most are held in low esteem and honest ones are subject to annihilation--think Allen West) but we don't expect that of the Press. Over the last four years, however, we have witnessed a biased press.

It is unfortunate that neither one (Commissioner Szerdi or the Lake Worth Herald) identified the commission that was in power at the time reserves were squandered. The reason?  Some of them, to this day, are their friends. By leaving out that important information, it is meant for the listener or reader to jump to false conclusions and blame their political enemies, Cara Jennings and Suzanne Mulvehill.

Mulvehill was elected well after the money was allocated and the Budget set. Soon after, Susan Stanton was hired in April 2009. At that time she stopped the bleed and the robbing of Reserves. Past managers did not take the proper measures and did not address the imbalance between the estimated cost of city services and the projected revenue needed to pay for those services.

We all became aware of the city depleting Reserves in 2006. The City's failure to address this fundamental problem and not implement long term solutions, nearly depleted the unreserved general fund balance. Three years later, Stanton had us headed towards a healthier Lake Worth when she ended the robbing of our Reserves.  She was fired because she was a tough administrator, not because she failed at her job. When you make the hard decisions, you get a lot of folks angry, the Unions for one.

Even though these problems were pointed out over and over again, that commission majority voted to keep one ineffectual manager in place and our money kept disappearing. Retha even said, "I like him." He finally left after finding a job closer to his residence.

Obamacare Waiver Club

Exactly two years ago this week, the Obama administration announced it had issued more than 100 waivers en masse to a select group of companies, unions and other health insurance providers seeking relief from the onerous federal health care law. The Obamacare waiver winner's club now totals 2,000. Where are they now?

Answer: In the same miserable boat as every other unlucky business struggling with the crushing costs and burdens of the mandate.

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Programmer says Election machines can be rigged

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The massive Voter Fraud Machine

Peter's final word

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Greater Bay's final screw

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It's impossible to write about what went down at city hall last night. One thing that was perfectly clear to me was, we hired the wrong attorney. Little did I know or ever expect, that tough dealing, azz kicking Brian Joslyn would cop out and give ridiculous excuses for reasons to settle. After all, Joslyn was the lawyer who wrote the contract FOR Greater Bay. He knew all the nuances and legalities of it. I guess it took the reading of 70,000 documents that got him to acquiesce.

Joslyn was the attorney who was behind the city suing its own citizens in We Love Lake Worth PAC.  Incidentally, the PAC got ALL of the required signatures on three petitions that were certified by the Supervisor of Elections. If Cara Jennings did anything wrong regarding Greater Bay, it was voting against the petition going to ballot which would have kept the zoning PROS. The fear was possibly having to build a new building which would have ended the businesses considered as accessory under PROS. If the city did anything wrong, it hired an attorney with a definite conflict of interest.

Mr. Joslyn mentioned the zoning last night and that all those merchants who had been there were illegal based on the zoning. What the opposition failed to tell him was that all our merchants were accessory to the beach experience and "grandfathered in." The 1922 casino was built for business and has been a business enterprise since 1922. The PROS zoning did not have to change to BAC which was only changed to accommodate Greater Bay and the further commercialization of our beach. Mr. Joslyn should have asked anyone other than the opposition or even the former P and Z board that was politically removed recently if he was seeking the other side of the story or wanted correct information.


PROS (Public Recreation and Open space):

23.18.02.00. use restrictions in the PROS public recreation and open space district.

23.18.02.01. Principal uses permitted by right in PROS district.

A.  Parks and other outdoor open space areas intended for active use
B.  Essential services

23.18.02.02. Principal uses permitted as special land uses in PROS district. No uses are permitted as special land uses in the PROS public recreation and open space district.

23.18.02.03. Accessory uses permitted by right in PROS district.  Any use accessory to and customarily incidental to a principal use permitted by right.  (In other words, Mr. Joslyn, the merchants were always allowed there, were "grandfathered in" and were there since the casino opened in 1922.

Yes, we did have a case. Greater Bay NEVER performed. This article from lakeworthmedia.com, Greater Bay's Peter Willard - background check 2 years late is about a guy who I said in a previous blog, would charm the pants off my Grandmother and she has been dead for 50 years!  Brian Joslyn fell for all the politics of those who have been screaming about a public/private partnership with Greater Bay for years, blaming all the wrong people:  citizens, bloggers, false statements (not giving one example) and two commissioners who did the right thing. It wasn't they who signed the contract with an unqualified company.  The entire commission (including Retha Lowe) voted to end the Contract with Greater Bay for non-performance.

This commission had no choice but to make the settlement decision of $1.6 million to Greater Bay. They wanted to take the easy way out and support a flim flam artist. This was Greater Bay and Willard's objective from inception--to get its hands on our 19 acres in some way shape or form. For a company that didn't have a pot, they now have one filled with Lake Worth green. Greater Bay had a great attorney in Brian Joslyn.

Greater Bay - The sickening Truth

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As far as I can tell, the City of Lake Worth will be voting on its first Budget Amendment tonight in order to settle the lawsuit with the flim flam man--$1,600,000.00. Did you count the zeros?

Here's a company represented by a guy who never had any intention of developing our beach for if he had he would have performed during the contract. He did not do one thing. He strung us along like a wet noodle until we no longer could take the abuse. Then he held us up to hostage with a lawsuit.

His contract was structured by Boose Casey and Brian Joslyn, who ironically is now the outside counsel for the city of Lake Worth. He is the same guy who tried to sue, on behalf of the city, those in We Love Lake Worth PAC.  We sure know how to pick them.

Oath of Office in Lake Worth - McVoy and Szerdi

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Commissioner Christopher McVoy

Commissioner John Szerdi

Gave a long political speech mentioning divisive behavior...unstable and volatile dais and lack of transparency in the past --perception has to change he said. Solution and policies in the best interests of everyone not the few vocal people who come up here and speak on everything.

Over the next two years, it will be a race to see which one of the two talk the most. Last night, Szerdi soared ahead with his opening speech. Both commissioners have different views on how they want the city to look. Szerdi said that he will bring out the truthful facts when talking about heights and further mentioned divisive behavior. Divisive behavior is anyone who does not agree with Mr. Szerdi and friends. He wants 65 feet downtown. If you disagree, he says you are "putting in a wedge...divisive, he says.

Even John Thomas, Palm Beach County's Director of Residential Appraisals stated that he was happy to see that we were keeping our dense city relegated to one and two story buildings in the downtown.

The Purcase of new Electric Meters

Last night the purchase of electric watt-hour meters from Wesco Distribution and IRBT was on the agenda. Did we really need to commit to this huge expenditure  My source, an expert in the utility field, says "no."

The vote was 4 to 1 with Christopher McVoy dissenting. Even the Mayor lost her patience with his dissension and wanted to call the vote as she did not want the meeting to go past 10pm. But even he dissented for a different reason. I conferred with an expert in the industry and this is his take on the situation:

You see, unlike gas and water meters, analog electric meters do not have a diaphragm that can weaken with age.  The Asst. Utility Director's implication in the following paragraph is incorrect. Had he stated the facts, he would not have been able to sell his program.

B.  This item approves a not to exceed $500,000 purchase order for electric meters.This is the first part of a five year $2,500,0000 plan to replace meters that according to the asst. utility director, run anywhere from 40% -  85% inaccurately.

When this was brought before the Commission a few weeks ago, I recall Vice Mayor Maxwell asking that the old meters be tested after they are pulled (they can't be tested unless they are) and the results communicated to the customer so they have some idea of what their increased bill is likely to be before they get the new bill with the higher and presumably correct usage.

To this outsider, this is simply one way for Clay to get his smart meters in place without the citizens knowing about them. Only people who choose to keep themselves uninformed would permit this to happen.  Clay is wasting the money and nobody wants to become educated enough to say anything (except you and Mary).

Clay Lindstrom, Assistant Utility Director, said this purchase had nothing to do with Smart Metering.

Suzanne Mulvehill's final Speech

Good evening-

I first would like to congratulate Commissioner McVoy on his re-election. In the two years we have been colleagues on the commission, I have found him to be very much as the PBP described him: cool-headed and analytical. I would also add that he is very genuine and transparent in his decision-making. We are fortunate to have him and I am grateful that our voters thought so as well. Congratulations Commissioner McVoy!

As I prepared my final remarks, on my time in office I thought of the day I took this seat for the very first time; the hope and joyful anticipation I felt from those who gathered here; the promise of a new vision from a new commission majority who would honor our independent spirit and the will of the people.

I had aspiring goals for us and recalled speaking of “uniting the opposites” believing that our political differences could be bridged by our common goal. I saw that we all really wanted the same thing – a better Lake Worth. What I learned is that our political “sides” exist in how we accomplish this goal. And in my opinion, it is where we lack continuity and postpone achieving our potential. As an example, I served in the majority and minority in just four years. I watched projects be put together and taken apart. I worked with 6 commissioners, 4 mayors and 4 city managers, both permanent and interim, and I have served as mayor, vice mayor and commissioner.

As I leave office, our city is poised to vote on another charter amendment, the height restriction ballot item. It is an issue that I feel strongly about. While it may have been legal to move this ballot item to a special election, it was, in my opinion, morally and ethically wrong. When we use our power as elected officials to slow or suppress the democratic process, it is a “misuse” of power. That said, I believe the voters will speak decisively on the issue of height limits, when they are finally “allowed” to vote on the issue in March. “Ordinary people can indeed make sound judgments on major political issues,” said Thomas Paine back in 1776. And that ideal, a foundation of our country, holds true today.

I want to thank our staff and employees for all their hard work to move Lake Worth through some very difficult times, and especially our former city manager Susan Stanton for her leadership.

It has been an honor to serve the residents of Lake Worth, to serve with my colleagues both present and past, and especially Commissioners Cara Jennings and Jo-Ann Golden. I leave you with this quote because I believe it is how Lake Worth will achieve its potential -

“People often say that, in a democracy, decisions are made by a majority of the people. Of course, that is not true. Decisions are made by a majority of those who make themselves heard and who vote - a very different thing. ~Walter H. Judd

 Please vote and be an informed citizen. For YOU are the future of Lake Worth!