Yours truly at left, Scott Maxwell District #1 Candidate and Loretta Sharpe, Mayoral Candidate.
We will return each Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. on AM 1340 until the election. I have made a personal commitment that when elected, I will continue my appearances on a monthly basis to keep their listeners informed on what is going on with the City of Lake Worth.
Candidate Statement
Lake Worth finds itself at a crossroads. The November 3rd election will send a message by answering this question: Will residents act to take back control of their local government from extreme elements that have taken over the political process in Lake Worth? We need to return to a partnership between the residents and their elected representatives and perform basic city services well. We can no longer tolerate hastily called meetings that take place in the middle of the day – when most people are unable to attend or listen to what is going on in the Commission Chambers. We can no longer allow staff to present items the day of the Commission meeting and expect an informed vote by our elected representatives with no possible way for input from our residents. Decisions made with little or no study may have disastrous long-term consequences.
That's why my campaign platform revolves so much around the importance of open government. You, as residents, need to know when your elected officials know and what they know. And you need this as part of a regular information stream coming from City Hall. Likewise, the City Commission needs information from you on the problems you are facing that relate to crime, City services, utilities and facilities. I purpose to make both processes much easier than they have been for a very long time. When elected, I will make sure the Commission schedules regular monthly “listening meetings” in different areas of the city. These meetings won't be to listen to elected officials beat their drums. We've had too much of that already. They will be opportunities for you to tell the City what is bothering you, what you like and what you don't like about how the City is performing. This will raise your expectations about the City responding to your concerns – and the City will have to respond like never before. I'll make sure of it.
Being an urban planner, I am familiar with how local government works and how it doesn't work. I've learned from both good and bad examples. There is much that can be done to improve the interaction across the counter between you, the resident, and the city employee at the building department and utilities customer service. For whatever reason, my opponent has not made that a priority during her two year and eight month term of office. Beyond simple kindness, Lake Worth needs to become a place where you can expect the respect you deserve as a resident, a business and a taxpayer. I'm looking forward to working with staff and our other elected officials to make these revolutionary changes happen. Please vote for me on November 3rd!
Political Advertisement Paid for and Approved by Wes Blackman for City Commissioner District #3
Commissioner Mulvehill is attending the meeting by phone.
The long overdue audit is at City Hall and I requested a copy. I hear that the Internal Auditor is gone - more on that later. Also, strangely, the July 20th City Commission meeting minutes are "not completed." There are minutes in this City Commission's agenda packet through the month of August. This is the meeting where the Commission discussed taking back the CRA - the one I mentioned below.
Thanks for being patient for those who have been waiting. If you would like one, e-mail the campaign at wesfor3@gmail.com with your name and address. Thanks for your support!!
And in its biggest coup, the city has persuaded the Palm Beach County Cultural Council to move its offices here next year from West Palm Beach.
The city's community redevelopment agency also has launched an ambitious project called the Cultural Renaissance Program, a novel approach to economic redevelopment through the arts.
Launched in April, the Cultural Renaissance Program has a goal to make Lake Worth the county's cultural center. Its first project was spending nearly three-quarters of its $1 million budget for the just-ended fiscal year on moving the cultural council, an umbrella group representing the county's cultural organizations, to the city.
Its next move is promoting reduced-cost purchases of foreclosed or abandoned commercial and residential properties. The city hopes to entice artists to convert them into studios and work spaces, eventually eradicating pockets of blight, says CRA Executive Director Joan Oliva.
The program is focused on an area of about 130 homes, west of Dixie Highway between Second Avenue South and Third Avenue North and west to North D Street.
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While Paducah's project began with the purchase of properties, Lake Worth's began with a $700,000 incentive to woo the cultural council to town from its offices in a West Palm Beach high-rise. "That was a completely different way to start, and in my wildest dreams we never thought we would start there," Barone says, "but I told (cultural council Executive Director Rena Blades), 'We gotta get this done.' " Blades agreed. Four years ago, her organization created a strategic plan that called for its relocation to a downtown area accessible to pedestrians, where there would be meeting and exhibition space for local artists. When Barone called "out of the blue and said, 'We want you to move to Lake Worth,' " she knew they'd found a match. "It's perfect, because of the history of (the city), because of what is already there, and because of its promised future," Blades says. "There are those fabulous buildings and cultural entities like the Playhouse, and all those art deco buildings. The history is very rich, and one we can tap into. In that groovy little place, this stuff is gonna thrive." The cultural council hopes to have secured a location and begun its move within the next year, Oliva says. In the meantime, the CRA is preparing to buy properties, beginning with commercial property, within its target area.
This is being distributed to all residents of Lake Worth Towers - senior citizens on fixed income who can least afford an increase in their rent. The reason for the rate increases goes right back to the City Commission. They are the ones that put forward a 15% per year increase in water rates over the next five years to cover the cost of contract foibles and our new reverse osmosis water plant - that on top of our electric rates being at least 30% higher than FPL. Look for your new rate increases coming in your next utility bill - the one for usage in October.
![Dr. W. H. Cotton’s ode: “Oh, My Lake Worth, Florida!” [circa 1920].](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUL75cv6zJQFjX15ojOIIz9AjnbqH4asHJTYSDhnGnYr7rJZRha1NcNTirj2xPcId158vkz5Hw-wXgOfrlztj8Zr8jLFFCfuEN6PyV44ZlpMRmJ68xbtFL9vzxNiG7xDs_HJvm/s1600/LakeWorthPioneers.JPG)
