Good News from CRA Meeting - Merger with Sheriff's Office Saves $240,000

As the memo above indicates, had we stayed with our former City of Lake Worth Police Department, the CRA would have spent about $340,000 for additional patrols throughout the CRA district in this current fiscal year. When the CRA board considered and approved its budget, it was at a time when the impact of the sheriff department take-over hadn't been realized and no one was sure what the arrangement would be with the sheriff department in terms of additional patrols.

Due to the increased visibility and sense that level of service is much improved under the sheriff, the CRA is now able to fund one special officer, designated for work within the CRA district. This person can also work with code enforcement on certain CAT team matters and patrols. To fund this position costs $100,000 for the rest of this year - thus opening up other funding possibilities for the un-needed $240,000 remaining portion of the contractual services line item.

I made it a point that this represents a savings due to the merger with the Sheriff's office and should be included in any sort of "plus and minus" analysis of the merger.

The CRA also contracted with a consulting group "Hands-on." This group will work hand-in-hand with CRA staff in a 30 block yet-to-be-identified area, targeting artists and low and moderate income persons for housing and studio needs. Some people who attended the meeting left thinking that this group will just be putting together a study for the CRA. Their scope is much broader than that and includes getting Lake Worth put on the map nationally and internationally as an artist-friendly community. More news on this later. We will be having a joint City Commission/CRA workshop on January 27th where we will discuss this effort and other marketing/redevelopment items. In deference to the Commission, execution of the contract with the consulting group is delayed until after our workshop.