Firefighters and Police Support Retha, Jeff and Wes

"Political advertisement paid for and approved by Wes Blackman for Commissioner – District #3"

This is the back of the "Three Peas" piece...

"Political advertisement paid for and approved by Wes Blackman for Commissioner – District #3"

Another one on its way...

"Political advertisement paid for and approved by Wes Blackman for Commissioner – District #3"

New Mailer - Look for it Soon!

"Political advertisement paid for and approved by Wes Blackman for Commissioner – District #3"

From the Lake Worth Herald - March 22nd Edition

"Political advertisement paid for and approved by Wes Blackman for Commissioner – District #3"

Ad Hoc Committee Recommendations

Would this institutionalize our over-crowding situation? Check out who was one of the members of the Committee.

"Political advertisement paid for and approved by Wes Blackman for Commissioner – District #3"

Full Page Ad in Lake Worth Herald to Appear Tomorrow - March 22

NOTE: DRAFT FOR BLOG ONLY

"Political advertisement paid for and approved by Wes Blackman for Commissioner – District #3"

Volunteers for Pridefest Booth

My campaign will have a booth as part of Pridefest in Bryant Park this coming Saturday and Sunday. I will be in and out of the Festival both days, but there is a need to staff the booth continuously during the event, distribute fliers and talk with folks that drop by. If you are interested in volunteering, please e-mail me at wesblackman@gmail.com or call me on my campaign phone at 758-4397.

We need to fill spots from 12:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Saturday and from 12:00 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.

Thanks for your support and don't forget to vote on March 27th!

"Political advertisement paid for and approved by Wes Blackman for Commissioner – District #3"

Historic Districts - Present and Future

I thought it might be helpful to see the boundaries of the current historic districts (above) and the two that have been surveyed previously that are west of Dixie Highway. The current districts I supported and helped implement while on the Planning and Zoning, Historic Resource Preservation Board.

These boundaries (below) are approximate.

This also points out an operational problem in that Darrin Engle had to hand draw this map. You see this is a Mock Roos owned document - any changes or a new map mean a call to Mock Roos and a bill back to the City for time and materials. This has to end. Being the resourceful person that he is, Darrin drew up a boundary map of his own with a colored marker and made copies for the public. I am posting it here as it is a fairly rare document.

Note that I pledge to maintain the historic districts that we have and provide for the ultimate expansion of the historic districts into the areas that we have already surveyed. There are staffing issues that we will have to deal with once I am elected.

I post this here to counter the "story" going around that I want to abolish historic districts. Guess who might be saying that??

"Political advertisement paid for and approved by Wes Blackman for Commissioner – District #3"

From the Supervisor of Elections Office

This just in from the Supervisor of Elections office. Come to find out that when they sent out about 50 City of Lake Worth run-off election ballots, they were in empty envelopes - well, everything but the ballot itself. One of my friends, Walter Baker reported this. Here is his account:

I just received our families absentee ballots, 3 separate ballots. Opened mine up to find the return envelope, the secrecy envelope but no ballot sheet at all is enclosed.
I called the Supervisor of Elections office, spoke first
with a worker, no name given, and she blew it off, said it was isolated. I had her on the phone while I opened the other two envelopes, no ballots. I was told no problem, they would re mail the 3 ballots out. I asked to speak with Mr.
Anderson's office about it but was told he was unavailable. I did get a return
call from the supervisor of absentee ballot department, Donna. She said there
was no problem, if you call in, replacement ballots will be sent. We have just a
few mailing days left and we are basically out of time, she could care less. I
suggested a notice in the paper, no way. So I guess there will be disenfranchised voters as an earlier poster said last week, thought it was wrong till now. He is right. Another snafu with the elections board, another glitch
and they don't care.


I vote absentee because of working the polls, I do not work at my
precinct. My wife votes absentee because she works in Boca, not going to take
time off to vote early, and does not drive at all. Same with my daughter and
work. Others vote by absentee because they have to, maybe because they are
disabled, and can't get to the polls, maybe they are out of town, not being able
to get to the polls again, there can be a lot of reasons why you vote absentee,
not just out of convenience of not going to the polls. How about those votes?
50+ votes is a lot in our election turnout in this city, it can cost someone
their chance. I probably will make the trip to Military and Gun Club to vote,
I just don't think this will be corrected in time to not matter in the results.
I am just 1 out of many votes.

My phone has been ringing off the wall. Wes has called from the election
office, he had to go there on another matter, and says there are machines up and
running now, started today at Gun Club and Military, so you can vote early in person. Not sure about anywhere else though. Wes also said they, the election office, had started calling the intended absentee voters to find out if they received one or not. So the Supervisor of Elections office is working on it. Hopefully we can get it all straight in time.

Walter Baker

So, when I was there I bumped into the political writer for the Post. Expect a story on it tomorrow. I took care of voting today. If you want, you can vote there - right in the lobby of the Supervisor of Elections office. I hope you weren't one of the unfortunate that received an empty envelope.

"Political advertisement paid for and approved by Wes Blackman for Commissioner – District #3"

This is from Mary Lindsey...

Please click on the image below to see it in readable type.

My response to Mary, in part:

"What you said is beautiful and I thank you very much for
putting it in writing. As soon as I received it, I put it on my
blog. I respect you tremendously and others do as well. There is a
widespread belief around town that you were the margin for the "no" vote winning
with the Supermajority Referendum. You selflessly pushed that issue like
no other candidate could or would."

"Political advertisement paid for and approved by Wes Blackman for Commissioner – District #3"

Sample Run-off Election Ballots - March 27th

Truth Matters - Interview on Lake Worth Talk.com

Please check out my interview from last night on Lake Worth Talk.com. To get to the interview, simply click here. That will take you the page that has an audio player. My interview is at the top of the list as "3187 Guest Wes Blackman". Highlight that by clicking on it and then click on play.

In the interview, I take direct questions from discussion board users (mostly the famous "guest"). I was able to dispel a lot of the misinformation that is being circulated about my positions on issues, my stance on historic preservation and other items related to my professional life - including responses to issues raised by the negative flier that was distributed prior to the general election.

The interview lasts a little over an hour. Here are the questions that I fielded:

• To be perfectly frank, most of us are sick to death with the entire subject of candidates and elections. Just please look after our entire city, if you are elected, and not just your neighborhood and some special groups here. We are a city very divided and I want to know if you believe that it is valid to ask our tax payers what they think and then act accordingly before zoning can be changed in their neighborhoods?



• Wes, What do you think about the Fire Chief wanting to shut down a Fire engine or a Rescue because he does not want to meet the County wide Level of Service after he has had 4 years to prepare for it?



• Wes please explain why we don't have 65 ft projects in areas that allow that kind of height? The voters put their input on this and I thought it allowed 35-65-100ft heights in areas of city. Why hasn't this happened?



• How will the master plan effect development?



• What is the most important issue facing Lake Worth? How will you help to resolve it as a commissioner?



• Wes, as Chair of the P&Z board you were intimately familiar with the under staffing, (and an arguably less than competent director) of a city department. While there was little you could do in that position, what would you do to provide the City Manager with clear direction that high standards and accountability are essential from this department? What would be your expectations from this and other departments in the future? Is the current level of services provided by the city staff acceptable, if not how would you propose raising it? Thanks for your answers.



• How many Historic Structures have been demolished to build townhouses since you have been on P&Z? How many contributing structures that were not declared structurally unsafe by the building department were demolished to build townhouses in that same 7 year period?



• Wes could you talk about the CCF flier that went out the weekend before the elections. Is any of it true? Are you tied to corruption at the county level?



• Wes, What have you learned being a candidate for your first political office that you never knew before? Do you regret not running for Mayor?



• With the largest campaign war chest of all the candidates, how do you explain only getting 39% of the vote and how will you spend the rest of it to win the run-off?



• now that she's been safely re-elected - how would you honestly rate Retha's performance over the last 6 years? Would you give her an A+ like she gave herself in her flyers?



• I was told you want to eliminate historic neighborhoods and that you voted to demolish more than 30 historic homes for developers best interest. True or false.



• What if you get elected and Jeff doesn't? Will the 3-2 alliance hold up with you Dave and Retha?What if Jeff gets elected and you don't? Will you reapply for the P&Z board?



• Do you believe more people should be hired for proper code enforcement ??



• Will the new beach casino building look like the original casino building?Or will it look like the new Lake Worth golf-course building?



• Why do you think the post endorsed Jo Ann? I was shocked.



• What do you think about Joann's idea about the volunteer police?



• Do you think the Fire Department should be trying to get grants for equipment/staffing/supplies etc ...



• Instead of spending the staffs time to review the historic districts in the eastern sections shouldn't the already surveyed districts in the western sections be designated as historic?



• Why hasn't the new residential developments helped sustain the downtown businesses?



• What do you think about the Labor Attorney wanting his contract renewed a full year early while there are 3 union contracts that have expired during his oversight?



• Wes, what are your thoughts about the crime and filth that is getting worse in my neck of the woods. You know that I'm not a person that discriminates, however what is to be done about the illegals that are overrunning the area. A "Don't pee pee" hanger was not left at my door. I'm tired of chasing people out of my yard that think it is their toilet. My commissioner seems to think that this is ok .



• how are you different than Jo Ann?



• Why are people saying that you want to destroy our charm?



• During your chair, on the N/W corner of 10th and Federal, there were two homes that sat on that site. One was moved across the street, the other was raised and then placed on a new foundation, same site. During building the townhouses, the remaining structure (green one story house)was left exposed, no boarding up, all windows and doors empty. Now it says unsafe structure. Is this how contractors get around the prevention of demo work by HRPB and P&Z, leave it out till it crumbles? Do you agree with this tactic or is this what you have to deal with?



• You're saying that it's the will of the people. But, there are people lying about you. How can we stop this???? It sucks.



• Joanne claims she will unite this city. How do you respond to that?



• As there are so many people who are very suspicious of anyone backed by developers, how do you overcome that stigma when your record is very clear in the direction you want our city to go.



• Did you support Cara when she ran last year?



• What about our utility. Do you believe that we should sell it if it does not provide a real benefit to our city? Would you look into that possibility?



• What is your definition of "special interests?"
  

And here are some "reviews" from people posting during the interview:

• I love Wes!!!!!! Go boy go!!!!!!!!!!!! You rock!



• Great response regarding Retha! You are right on. We need to help and get more attention to Retha's district.



• Wes you're a really smart guy. I trust you 100% You're down to earth yet know what's up. You are thoughtful, careful yet progressive. You will be an awesome commissioner!!!!!!



• Great listening to you tonight Wes. Good luck as always.



• Good job... Love the show..



• Great show, Thanks. Go Wes!!



• Yes, yes, yes. You are so right on the target. Bullseye!!! Wes is the man. If you are not elected the city will be the biggest looser. We need your vision, energy, insight, positive attitude and high hopes! Go we love you!



• Thank you for not going negative!!!! It showed integrity for all of us. Thank you!!!

And, for the record, my opponent has been non-responsive to an interview request offered by Jim Stafford, host of Lake Worth Talk.com.

Thanks and I hope you enjoy the interview.

"Political advertisement paid for and approved by Wes Blackman for Commissioner – District #3"

St. Patrick's Day Parade - Lake Avenue

What a great day to be in Downtown Lake Worth on

Lake Avenue! I dropped by for the parade and took some

pictures of the fun. I heard the crowds stayed long into the night.

Thanks to everyone responsible for this great event!!

Oh, and look who else came out - Mocha and Cinnamon! Two Pembroke Welsh Corgis - same breed as Venus and Mars. My kids stayed home this time - but I did bring them down on

Saturday of the Street Painting Festival. Lots of excitement that day.

"Political advertisement paid for and approved by Wes Blackman for Commissioner – District #3"

Election Day Photo Collection

Here are some photos from the General Election on March 13th. This was a special day for me in many ways.

This is me and my friend Mike Federau. We have known each other since

second grade. I moved to Florida from Michigan in '89 and he followed with

his move to the west coast of Florida in '92. He came over for the day to lend a hand.

Hot on the phone in this picture. This is probably outside the 3032 and

3030 precinct location. By this time, I had already had a good dose of sun from waving at

westbound traffic on Lucerne, near the shuffleboard courts.

Consulting here with Mayoral Candidate Jeff Clemens. We were able

to talk to a lot of "undecideds" on the way to the polls.

Here I am saying "Hi" to Jean Adams. She had been with her Garden

Club people in Ft. Lauderdale most of the day.

A view of the east side of the street.
Drewkowski dropped by and interviewed Nicole Janok. Now that's

a switch!

Here I am with my North E Street captain, Robert Cromier. We are

at the Mad Hatter and looking at the absentee and early voting results.

Soon after this picture was taken, we almost needed to pass around nitroglycerin tablets

as the Supervisor of Election office showed the third place finisher in the District 3

race ahead with a total of 60% of the vote. That was resolved around 11 or so.

This is Jo Ann Gabel, my campaign consultant/manager and me looking over

the results and strategizing for the next phase.

"Political advertisement paid for and approved by Wes Blackman for Commissioner – District #3"