Monday, April 1, 2019

“Marketing / Advertising / Reputation Mgmt. / Branding / Social Media”


Do you remember the all-day Visioning Session held at Lake Worth City Hall on July 24th, 2018?

Did you see the story about that public meeting in The Palm Beach Post? No you did not.

Because the Post never showed up. But thankfully The Lake Worth Herald was there, a lot of the public came and went all day, there is a video of that meeting too and there were a lot of photos taken.


See one of those photos below.


That photo is of a list of notes and the first theme/priority written down referred to adding “Beach” to the City’s name. And then later that question went to the voters by referendum. On March 12th the electorate said “Yes” and on March 19th Lake Worth Beach was officially ratified by the City Commission.

And all this officially began on July 24th at the Lake Worth City Hall at a public meeting.

It should be noted the editor at The Lake Worth Herald is still not at all happy about this City changing its name. And in a truly funny line last year he referred to the facilitator brought in to guide that Visioning Session as Carnac the Magnificent, the “mystic from the East who could psychically divine unknown answers to unseen questions”.

There were indeed a lot of unknown answers to unseen questions at that Visioning Session last year but “Beach” was not one of them. And the consultant brought in by City Manager Michael Bornstein was Mr. Kevin Knutson with plenty of experience: “Government management, strategic planning, finance, media relations, and communications leader with 21 years experience in high-performing municipal governments.”

Before we go forward there is an update.


If you did not know the official website for Lake Worth Beach is being reworked and will be relaunched hopefully sooner than later. Not even public meetings and agenda outlines are available for the public. A lot of people are going to be very upset about this.

The problem is in the meantime this void of information is going to be filled. And unfortunately some of the public will end up at the Lake Worth Wikipedia page and that is a real shame. There is some very accurate and helpful information on the page but also included is a lot of clever propaganda, mis- and disinformation. Will have more about this tomorrow but in the meantime don’t bother going to Wikipedia and fixing any of this. Because whoever is doing this will just follow behind you and change it back.

Someone or some group is very upset that this City renamed itself Lake Worth Beach. And unfortunately the Lake Worth Wikipedia page has always been a place for monkeywrenching of one sort or another. Wikipedia is a public page so be very suspicious of anything you read. And verify any facts you read too. The Lake Worth Wikipedia page is interesting and fun as well. And for that reason it is for “Entertainment Only”.


Now on to “Visioning”. . .



On July 24th, 2018 this City of Lake Worth, now called Lake Worth Beach, held an all-day “Visioning Work Session” at City Hall organized by City Manager Michael Bornstein with a consultant in attendance.

Yes, there was some blunt talk that day. Because that is what was supposed to happen. The elected leaders, administration and staff spoke openly about some very tough issues. Then out of that meeting something truly ridiculous happened.

On March 5th this year, exactly one week to the day prior to Election Day, came ‘Breaking News’ from Florida Bulldog headlined “Lake Worth uses cops, code enforcement in brazen effort to get rid of city’s poor”. This ‘news’ was supposed to rattle the City. It barely made a ripple.

This so-called ‘Breaking News’ in Florida Bulldog was so ridiculous it wasn’t picked up by even one single news outlet. Not one. The Palm Beach Post never even referred to it. No one even bothered to refer to it on Wikipedia either. But that story in Florida Bulldog is just one sample of the nonsense that has been reported about what happened at that public meeting at City Hall last July.

Although this meeting was well publicized and publicly noticed only the editor from The Lake Worth Herald was in attendance. No TV news reporters showed up.

No reporter from The Palm Beach Post showed up either.

If a reporter from the Post had attended this meeting they would have learned the City of Lake Worth was considering the idea of changing the name of this City to become the “City of Lake Worth Beach” (see image below).

Also at the table that day:
  • Mayor Pam Triolo.
  • Vice Mayor Andy Amoroso (District 3).
  • Vice Mayor Pro Tem Scott Maxwell (District 1).
  • Commissioner Herman Robinson (District 4).
  • Commissioner Omari Hardy (District 2).
  • Assistant City Manager Juan Ruiz.
  • Director of Community Sustainability William Waters.

The consistent theme throughout the day was it’s time to look forward. It’s time to start ignoring those old tired footsteps from the past.

“Where We’re Going . . .
Themes  →  Priorities


Branding/Name Change Add “Beach”?

Whilst on visions, let’s take another look back to the City’s Visioning Session last July and a “very difficult and public conversation about code enforcement.”


So. Did anything come from that Visioning Session last July on the topic of code enforcement?

One could clearly say the answer to that question is “Yes”. The slumlords have gotten the message loud and clear:


“[S]tep up and spend money to comply with basic community-wide standards, sell to someone who will, or I will authorize liens and foreclosures till their eyes bleed.”

Lake Worth City Manager Michael Bornstein as quoted in The Lake Worth Herald, article headlined “The Day Has Come For Slumlords in Lake Worth” published on October 11th, 2018.