Inaugural meeting of the City of Lake Worth Business Alliance.

This meeting was held on Wednesday, Oct. 18th at Tacos Al Carbon. If you’re interested use this link to see one of invitations on this blog. Tacos Al Carbon, am happy to say, is fast becoming a community meeting place. The owners don’t mind one bit.

About 30 people showed up, on a rainy night, which needs to be pointed out. The majority were those who have business interests in this City, and many also are residents as well, and discussed the pressing need to form a group to advocate for their interest in City affairs. Lake Worth City Manager Michael Bornstein attended and presented points of view from the administration’s perspective, along with history about where the City has been and his forecast about the future.

Bornstein’s conclusion is we’re at a point where the commercial and business interests need to be much more engaged in what is happening, e.g., regulatory changes and attempts to reduce or eliminate those that are detrimental to conducting business and attracting more businesses.

For example, as stated many times over on this blog, what we keep hearing from the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) and some in the City staff as well is, “Lake Worth is open for business”. But when so many people are complaining about burdensome and time-consuming regulations, that oft-told mantra of being “Open for Business” falls flat too many times for business owners, and it’s worth repeating, many of them are also residents of this City.

Besides the numerous complaints about the City’s regulatory process, others at this meeting last week focused on the need to control crime, especially street crime and especially along Dixie Hwy. The open prostitution that is happening and the not-so-‘petty’ street crime like graffiti and vandalism doesn’t help the City of Lake Worth’s efforts at “branding” very much (more about branding a little later in this blog post).

However, the positive news is despite the occasional hiccup (like the recent political grandstanding over the Blueway Trail project), the City Commission has taken a more positive position vis-à-vis the business community. Remember it was just last March when commissioners Herman Robinson and Omari Hardy were elected replacing Ryan Maier and Chris McVoy, PhD, respectively.

Who can forget the stir created by businesswoman Michelle Sylvester in January last year when she asked why Maier and McVoy wouldn’t “walk the walk” with her.

Maier is wearing the darkest suit jacket;

McVoy is off camera.

[Use this link to see who makes up the current Lake Worth City Commission.]

Make no mistake, this inaugural meeting of the City of Lake Worth Business Alliance (CLWBA) was and is significant. There are many public officials, staff and electeds in this City that truly and sincerely have their “ear to the ground” but at the same time though there are others who are either “tone deaf ” or worse, just don’t care.

There is a lot of frustration out there. And it’s only getting worse. A united voice, an alliance of those in the business community, will make a very big difference.

The hope for CLWBA is to be a single united voice for the business community. It’s an excellent idea. So much so it’s been tried many times before and failed every time. The steps to move this business alliance forward are easy to understand but the implementation is when the “wheels fall off the bus”. It only takes one or two people intent on monkeywrenching any progress, or just focused on promoting their own agenda, and the alliance will fall apart. We’ve seen that happen before.

Because our City of Lake Worth does not have anything resembling a City-wide ‘chamber of commerce’ and hasn’t for quite a long time, this group is really starting at ground zero. So step #1 is leadership, create a mission statement and a vision, and make sure everyone is on the same page and stays on the same page. Some discussed the notion of joining up with the Lantana Chamber of Commerce, a group that’s making good headway and is very active in that community.

It’s worth discussing. Briefly. The time spent negotiating and hammering out the details will take up a lot of time and that’s exactly what the CLWBA doesn’t have right now, time. The general mood is “let’s get this done”. Another one of the frustrations in the business community is the City’s slow progress on “branding”. Lantana’s brand is unique and so is Lake Worth’s.

A friendly competition will probably do more to make both brands better. We can share information and of course talent as well, both of which our cities have in abundance.

At the end of this meeting, Bornstein offered the possibility of putting on a “business community forum” where there would be an agenda (very important!) with a Q&A following the program. This could be done on a monthly basis. At this business alliance meeting last week attendees’ names and contact information was taken to follow up on what the next steps will be.

I will keep you informed as new information arises. If you are interested in learning more about the CLWBA, a business alliance group that may very well settle on another name instead as things pick up speed, please send me your contact information and will make sure you’re put on the list:

Email me, Wes Blackman, at wesblackman@gmail.com

And, as always, Thank You for visiting today.