Quote of the night from last night’s workshop held at Lake Worth City Hall:

“Honest to God!

What has The Palm Beach Post
done for us lately?”

The video of last night’s meeting at Lake Worth City Hall is below. Check back later on today or tomorrow for more about what happened, and even more importantly, what did not happen.

But the quote of the night was from the inimitable Mary Lindsey, who as the former president (now honorary “President Emeritus”) of the Neighborhood Assoc. Presidents’ Council (NAPC), summed up the problem quite nicely, succinctly, and even interjected a little faith about public policy into the discussion during the public comment portion of last night’s public meeting:


“Commissioner [Scott] Maxwell is 100% right. As a community we went through hell for 7½ years putting these pulling LDRs [Land Development Regulations] together. A big part of the issue then [2010–2011] I see has continued and it’s lack of public notification. [emphasis added]
     I understand it’s a publicly noticed meeting [referring to last night’s work session] and that all the legal requirements for that are met. But somebody please for the love of Dear Holy Jesus tell my why we would spend one nickel notifying anybody of anything in The Palm Beach Post, especially the legal notices, when we have our very own local community paper of record [The Lake Worth Herald].
     Honest to God! What has the Palm Beach Post done for us lately?”

Public notification about public meetings was sort of a big topic at last night’s work session.

Below is the ad in the Post Mary Lindsey is most likely referencing — which is also called a ‘tombstone ad’ — because hardly no one from the public will pay any attention to it or care what the ad is about:


Tombstone ads are typically unadorned text, black on white, often enclosed in a simple box, with a centered headline and a number of lines in the body of the ad, usually also centered. The name originates from their similarity in appearance to the text on a tombstone (headstone) grave marker.

How many from the public look through the Sunday paper for legal ads about upcoming public meetings?

Especially so the Post loaded up with come-ons, coupons and circulars?

Mary Lindsey is absolutely correct. The Lake Worth Herald should be our paper of record publicly noticing public meetings. And the NAPC needs to be notified as well. And remember, it was because an “egregious” and “incompetent” story in The Palm Beach Post our City had to go out and hire a public information officer.

If you wish, fast forward to the two hour and forty minute mark to hear Mary Lindsey’s quote for yourself.

Enjoy the video!