First, a short comment about that ridiculous article in The Palm Beach Post last Tuesday: the Post editorial board will endorse this next bond referendum just like they did in 2014. Why? Nothing's changed much except it will be a smaller bond and the roads are still in terrible shape. But like in the 2014 "LW2020" bond vote it doesn't help much having the editor come in riding the White Horse to save the day after their reporter at the time did such a terrible job of reporting what was going on.
By the time your editorial came out, Dear Editor, it was too late. Most people had already made up their minds. So. . . is it too much to ask for accurate reporting? To have commissioners quoted accurately?
Now to the front page, above the fold, article in this week's Lake Worth Herald on what to expect vis-à-vis another bond referendum to get our City roads fixed; here are two excerpts:
Lake Worth City Staff has asked the Commission to consider a referendum for a bond issue. In the wake of an ambitious bond request a couple of years ago, City Manager Michael Bornstein has issued a pared down request.
The streets are falling apart and this bond request is only for the streets and roadway infrastructure part of the bond issue that failed by around 25 votes just two years ago. Many residents voted against the bond issue because of confusion over how the money was going to be allocated.
This new request, for a forty million dollar bond, will be only be used to improve the streets.
[and. . .]
Staff was looking for consensus to bring a resolution before the commission to put the bond question on the November ballot but during the discussion, an unruly resident disrupted the meeting and caused the Mayor to adjourn the meeting.
To learn about the "unruly resident" look in the right-hand column of this blog for "Critics have 5 days now to write their own bond initiative (due July 19th)" or use this link. Now to the editorial titled, "Why Nothing Gets Done In Lake Worth"; here are some excerpts:
It is the job of city commissioners and the mayor to represent the people and keep staff in line with the wishes of the people. Commissioners and the mayor are elected “by the people” to represent them. Most of them anyway.
It is the commission’s job to debate staff’s recommendations and decide what the city can or is willing to pay for. They must weigh the needs of the staff and residents and determine what makes sense.
[and. . .]
Now as staff is trying to get a referendum to ask “the people” to issue a bond so they can improve the infrastructure in Lake Worth, the two commissioners [Chris McVoy and Ryan Maier] who are always doing the twist, begin again.
It is not about a bond they so ferociously object, it is about a referendum. Yes, a referendum that would ask “the people” to make it possible to fix the City’s streets. They will object to every form of language for a referendum without ever offering language themselves.
[and. . .]
The unruly resident, the one who thinks she represents “the people” even though she has never been elected is also the one who organizes, and not by the rules, political pacs to fight any progress in the City. It is beyond time for the mayor to gavel them down.
It is time she make an example of unruly residents during City Commission meetings. Put the deputy to work and allow the meetings to proceed.
To learn why the "LW2020" bond failed in 2014 use this link. And don't forget about another City resident who fought so hard to defeat that bond vote, he recently wrote this Letter to the Editor published in the Post:
 |
| Feel much sympathy? If the "LW2020" bond vote had passed that road would have been fixed already. |
![Dr. W. H. Cotton’s ode: “Oh, My Lake Worth, Florida!” [circa 1920].](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yhHyCn84ZIQ/WezjlEL-0tI/AAAAAAAAPZ4/CzkhriK6zpEJJ3d9Je1495d49gIhnMlxACK4BGAYYCw/s1600/LakeWorthPioneers.JPG)
