Friday, March 20, 2009

Eight Palm Beach County road projects survive bickering over stimulus cash

Excerpt (click title for link to full article):

"It was truly a sham of a process," said Jeff Clemens, Lake Worth mayor and planning board member, who also came away empty-handed. "There was no good basis as to how they ranked those projects."

Cities that wound up with a share of the stimulus included Riviera Beach, Wellington and Royal Palm Beach, which had delayed the planning board's decision by missing the original deadline to submit stimulus proposals.

Clemens had proposed spreading the money across as many cities as possible, partially funding projects in cities that could afford to pick up the remaining tab.

But that and various other approaches to more fairly divvy up the stimulus cash failed, as board members grappled against a deadline under the uncertainty of whether partially funding more projects would meet legislative approval.