Truth is stranger than fiction...

RE-POST from May 2008

Look what appeared on the CRA agenda last night (5/27):





Expect more on this later, but here are the facts:

• Commissioner Jo-Ann Golden leads the charge for the City Commission to take over the CRA.
• Commissioner Jo-Ann Golden's reasons for doing so include the need for City Commission budgetary oversight and financial responsibility in CRA dealings.
• Two months later, the Lake Worth CDC, where Commissioner Jo-Ann Golden is a paid employee and whose title is Project Manager, applies for a $300,000 "grant or forgivable loan" from the CRA.
• The subject property was given to the Lake Worth CDC by the City in January of 2003.
• The property is one block to the west and across the street from the Pugh property.
• The Pugh property was the catalyst for Commissioner Jo-Ann Golden to call for the takeover of the CRA, citing the $15,000 per month option contract on the property among other factors - including the establishment of more rental housing in the area.
• Commissioner Retha Lowe went on record as wanting only single family homeownership in the area.
  
• The reason for the $300,000 grant cited by the Lake Worth CDC was that estimated project costs increased from $761,000 to $1,300,000 since 2003.
• That is a 71% increase over 5 years - not the 50% as mentioned in the back-up material.
• The total number of affordable RENTAL housing units proposed is four (4). That amounts to a grant of $75,000 per unit.
• In comparison, the Pugh property represented 55 affordable rental units and 15,000 square feet of commercial space.
• Hammon Park was given a grant by the CRA in the amount of $50,000 to support green construction efforts. Spread over its 137 homeowner units, that's an investment of $365.00 per unit.
• The $300,000, if granted, would have to be transferred from another account since the item was UNBUDGETED.

Thankfully, the CRA turned down the request. But I don't think we have heard the last of this. Notably absent is any outrage expressed on the "other site" - Lake Worth Media. None of the usual attendees of the CRA meetings were there last night to protest.

So, I guess what this means is that if you are a Commissioner that does this group's bidding, then you can carry out grossly mismanaged projects (71% over original estimates) and then ask to have that mismanagement rewarded by applying for, without protest, $300,000 in public money that doesn't have to be repaid.

Or, imagine what would have happened if the City Commission did take over the oversight of the CRA - what would have happened then?

Are you starting to see the inherent conflict this City Commissioner has in her role with the Lake Worth CDC?

We are officially beyond the looking glass...