Tuesday, September 7, 2010

"Sustainability" is being used a lot tonight at the City Commission meeting...

...nothing is sustainable if it is not supported economically - period.

Don't know why I thought of this while listening to the Commission meeting...

For those using the automated utility payment service...

Please check your bank statements routinely.  A reader sent me an example of an instance where the city took the same amount that was due - twice.  Once the day before the bill was due and once on the due date.  I usually use the link on the city's website and hand enter my debit card information every month.  I have not had a problem with that method, but many people seem to have problems making sure that their payments are properly credited to their account.  This may explain the many people wanting to pay in person and get a receipt "in hand."

Let me know if you have problems with any payment method and I will pass it on or share it here.

Click here for live audio link to City Commission meeting (9/7)

Click here for agenda and back-up material

The on-street parking issue that has emerged is now part of the agenda - comments on that item will be taken when the Commission discusses it.  Apparently, the city staff has put together a map showing areas where on-street parking will not be permitted in residential areas.  This issue has taken many by surprise.

Commissioner Jennings is voting against the sheriff's contract due to the city's inability to control costs.  The Mayor pointed out that the amendment to the agreement allowed for the reduction in cost this year.  Commissioner Maxwell pointed out the the decision to go with the sheriff was made without the foresight of knowing that property taxes would plummet like they have and that the sheriff has reduced their contract.  Commissioner Jennings believes that keeping our own department would give the Commission better control over cost.  She, and all others, had nothing but good things to say about the sheriff's level of service and reduction in crime.  If you were spending a certain amount of money with our own department and not getting the results for it that money was being wasted.  Apparently Commissioner Jennings doesn't think that lower crime is worth spending incrementally higher rates for that service.  "Effectiveness" doesn't seem to matter and public safety is something that isn't of paramount importance to her.  How about working on the other side of the ledger - like finding ways to attract private investment to Lake Worth?

Now they are talking about the city fire truck going to Haiti - again, some more.  The ambulance has been shipped, but Commissioner Golden has a problem with sending a pumper truck to an unstable country.  They moved the issue to the Sister City board to follow through.

Many people are upset about the storm water fee on their tax bill - many from the Park of Commerce and others with commercial properties.  No one can determine how their fee was calculated.  This is a "catch-up" fee from 2004 and is being made up now.  According to the City Manager, this was a mistake by the property appraiser's office.  Joe Kroll is doing his best, as requested by the Mayor, to answer the questions.  They tabled the item until next week.

They are now talking about the parking restrictions in residential areas - and there are a lot of people there to speak on the issue.  A flier was distributed about this matter over the weekend by concerned residents.  After a lengthy explanation by Joe Kroll and everyone saying that this is not ready to come to the Commission yet and nothing is being done about on street parking prohibition.  Commissioner Jennings used this as an opportunity to say how different things were now - that maybe before there might have been decisions made without neighbor and resident input, but we are beyond that know and that any decision that is made now is done with public input.  (burp)  Much back-peddling happening now on everyone's part - saying it's not a priority, it's a third or fourth tier problem, etc., etc. Commissioner Maxwell asked if this opens the city to liability issues - "Can the door be closed once it is open?" - Mayor.  Commissioner Golden, "It wasn't an issue until it was an issue."  Brilliant.

Just a quick note here - the largest crowd that I remember ever for a Planning and Zoning Board meeting was when revision of the recreational vehicle storage part of the code appeared on our agenda.  We chose not to pursue any changes.  Any issue like this is guaranteed to pack a room.

People are using this opportunity to talk against parking meters in the downtown too.

City Manager: "The money just is not there.  You are looking at a situation where the economy and the tax base in this community have deteriorated over the past 10 years."

Statewide Utility Rate Comparison - Residential and Commercial - July 2010

This appears on the last page of the most recent City Manager's Report 9/3/2010

An alert reader pointed out...

...that the third page of the agenda is page 500 (the last page) of the back-up material for tonight's meeting.

Again, the packet amounts to over 100 megabits of data in a .pdf  It's important to point out that the current chair of the Planning and Zoning Board is insisting that her packet be printed and that she can physically pick it up at City Hall (per this set of minutes - page 8 of this attachment)  Has anyone notified the Tree Board?

Monday, September 6, 2010

Regular City Commission Meeting 9/7 @ 6 p.m.

Click title for link to agenda and back-up information.  Be warned that the back-material amounts to over 100 megabits of data, which even on a cable modem takes some time to download - good luck if you are on a slower connection or dial-up.


There might be a third page to the agenda, but it isn't in the packet on-line.  Also, when did it become policy that there is no public comment on consent agenda items?  It used to be if a Commissioner wanted an item pulled, then those items allowed public comment.  Did this change?  It actually should be this way:  If anyone from the Commission OR the public has a question on an item, wants their opinion known or for whatever other reason wants to make a comment, they should be able to.  This would require the public to have the ability to pull an item for discussion.  But that might resemble democracy too much.

The separation of the Planning and Zoning and Historic Resource Preservation Boards has finally made it on the agenda.  Click here and you can read the back-up for just that item.  This is interesting on a number of levels.  First of all, the staff is presenting this, but not recommending it due to the extra burden that it will put on staff and is anticipating that overtime of approximately $10,000 will be needed to cover the additional staff time needed.  Really?  The new board will be made up of seven members plus two alternates.  There is not a requirement that one live in a historic district and only five of the members have to be from professions that actually would have experience in historic preservation or similar backgrounds.

The Board only will have to meet quarterly - it can meet more often if necessary.  No criteria are given for when it would "be necessary."  This leaves potential applicants in a lurch since they wouldn't be sure when in the future their applications would be heard and it may hold up their projects' timeline.  This sort of delay could hamper someone trying to be heard.  A bad idea and one that may make people question whether it is worth owning a historic property.

This is part of our land development regulations - which aren't going to be done until June 2011.  This creates another level of uncertainty for anyone owning property in Lake Worth - regardless of whether or not it is historic.  What regulations do you go by in the meantime?  Right now our zoning code/land development regulations do not reflect what is in our Comprehensive Plan in terms of height limitations and other details and our Comprehensive Plan still is in a state of limbo.  Would you want to come in with any type of project in Lake Worth given the uncertainty of this regulatory environment?  The answer is "no" which apparently is just fine according to the make-up of the City Commission now  and the constitution of the Planning and Zoning Board.

This is just another extension of the "de-facto" moratorium on redevelopment that we have in Lake Worth.  Who is going to pay the city's bills in the future?

Sign being seen around town:

Sunday, September 5, 2010

$2 million Palm Beach County project aims to turn Lake Worth natural area into a haven for fishing

Click title for link to Palm Beach Post article.  This is good news but wouldn't you know everyone is lining up to take credit for this project when most of the present Commission definitely was not involved in the original project - the environmental work in creating Snook Islands.  They might have had a small role in the park project, but in the end, it is really Palm Beach County driven.  And it is the same group of people that are quoted in the article who find every opportunity to blame our current financial situation on the actions of past Commissions and staff - except when it benefits them and the news is good.  That attitude shouldn't sit well with the public - or are they snowed by this sort of spin?

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Lake Worth Volunteer Boards

Lake Worth's Volunteer Board interviews are scheduled for September 30th.  Applications will be accepted through noon on September 20th.  They are accepting applications for the following boards: 

     Firefighters Pension Board
     Community Redevelopment Agency
     Library
     Planning & Zoning
     Sister City

If you have questions, please contact the Deputy City Clerk:

Valerie Hurley
Deputy City Clerk
City of Lake Worth
561.586.1663

Friday, September 3, 2010

Better living...and weight loss...through mass transit...



The report

Reviewing the South Florida East Coast Corridor Study report -

Right now, I am about half way through the 150 plus page report. This is one of the foundations for implementing passenger transit service on the FEC (eastern tracks) through Palm Beach, Broward and Dade counties. It's a rather technical report, at times, so as I go through it, I'll try to summarize the major points and findings. All in all, it is a good reminder that Lake Worth - all 40,000 more or less people that live in the city are a small part of larger urban region that faces many similarities and obstacles in the transportation of goods and people.

Lake Worth is not an island, nor should we pretend to be.

Growth for the region is showing increases - which reverses a recent trend of decline in population due to economic conditions - lack of jobs here and difficulty persons wishing to locate to this area have in selling their homes in Northeastern or Midwestern states. If this growth is going to happen, where is that growth best to take place? Laced throughout the report is the answer - in the older, established municipalities that grew up along the Florida East Coast (FEC) railroad to begin with. Much of our future as a region will depend upon us reaching back to our past in order to sustain our regional economy. If we really want to become a sustainable environment and conserve land that otherwise might be developed, it only makes sense to redevelop what has already been environmentally disturbed. It also makes sense to make an effort to reduce the distance between place of work and where you live. But, you have to create a land use pattern that supports this sort of redevelopment and reliance on transit.

Starting on page 34 of the report, we have the following text:
We are setting ourselves up to be one of the obstacles in the success of mass transit in our region. A three story height limitation near the FEC railroad tracks will do nothing to support transit and will not wean us from dependency on the automobile as a primary means of transportation. That's what ended up in our Comprehensive Plan.
The report lays out four alternatives (above) that range in financial and operational impacts. These are reviewed in the tables below. From left to right, they begin with buses providing linkages on existing roadways (US-1) to Tri-Rail, to buses actually using the FEC right-of-way with freight traffic, to self-contained diesel units (DMUs) to equipment that is like the present "push/pull" engines that provide Tri-Rail service. There are pluses and minuses to all of the various approaches, but this does a good job at laying out the alternatives. Let me know if you have questions.

The conclusions of the report will be the subject of the Public Hearing at the Kravis Center on September 14th.

Dalai Lama

When concern for others' feelings and welfare is missing, our activities tend to become spoiled. Through lack of basic human feeling, religion, politics, economics, and so on can be rendered dirty. Instead of serving humanity, they become agents of its destruction. Therefore, in addition to developing a sense of universal responsibility, we need actually to be responsible people.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Tropical Ridge Neighborhood Association - Update

Tropical Ridge Neighborhood Association Meeting
Monday, September 13, 2010, 7pm at Compass
Come out for the 2010 Lake Worth Candidate’s Forum!


Banner Initiative
Help us raise some money for neighborhood identification with a chance to win an awesome prize!
http://www.tropicalridge.org/raffle

Volunteer
The 212 Collier Avenue project was postponed this weekend. Read more about the circumstances and where you can go if you are interested in helping out somewhere else this weekend.
http://www.tropicalridge.org/announcements/2212colliercleanuppostponed

South Florida East Coast Corridor Study - Local Passenger Train Service on FEC (Eastern Tracks)

Public Hearing
Tuesday, September 14
Kravis Center for the Performing Arts
Parking Garage, 3rd Level First Floor, Salons A & B 701
Okeechobee Blvd.
3:30 – 5:30 p.m. OR 6 – 8 p.m.


Public Transit Options:
a) Take the Tri-Rail train to the West Palm Beach Station stop.
b) The following Palm Tran Routes can be taken to Downtown West Palm Beach and to the drop off near the Kravis Center; #2, #31, #41, #43, #44, #46, #53.

Click title for DRAFT ALTERNATIVES ANALYSIS REPORT (large document) - I am taking time to review it now.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

This is making national news...

Fetus found on South Fla. beach

Fetus discovered along Lake Worth Beach

Another tale from Utility Customer Service...

A reader called me this morning about his latest trip to pay his bill at the Utilities office in the City Hall Annex. By the way, this person insists on paying in person and getting a physical receipt so there is no question as to whether he paid his bill or not. This may be the underlying reason for a lot of people going to the office to pay their bill. But that's just learning to live in Lake Worth by a seasoned resident and not the essence of this morning's story.

The office wasn't too full. It was early. While in line to pay his bill, a lady sat down at the customer service desk and immediately announced, loud enough for others to hear, "I don't know what the #*^@ you people are doing. I was here yesterday and paid my bill. In fact, I talked to you (looking at person behind the glass) and you told me that I owed $40. So, I go home, thinking its taken care of, and my power is OFF. I go to my mailbox and there is a bill saying that I owe over $200 and need to pay that before my power is turned back on." The person behind the desk snickered and the manager came up and attempted to deal with the issue - about getting the reconnection fee taken off. The reader left before it was resolved. In the meantime, the ticket counter wasn't working which was causing more confusion about who was next.

Over the past two days, the Commission talked about the physical condition of the building and how shoddy/depressing it is - especially since it is the first impression many people have when they come to the city - whether they are a business owner, a homeowner, landlord or renter. It didn't sound like anything will be done soon as there are major improvements needed to the building for ADA compliance and bathrooms etc. It sounded like the City Manager would like to have Community Development operate out of there due to its central location, but other issues are preventing that like lack of dedicated parking. Whatever is done, I hope that they realize it is one of our buildings that is on the National Register.

If you would like to share your stories about your interaction with the utility department, send me an e-mail and I will try to work it in.