Information is a commodity...

... or a public good. Getting relevant and timely information should be like going to your water faucet and opening the tap to get water or turning on the light switch to see in the dark. One of the most important duties of local governments is providing a reliable and timely stream of adequate information for its citizens. The delivery of that information should be neutral of political interference regardless of the contents of that information. Regular readers of this blog know that this is a particular bug-a-boo of mine. That's why one of the main planks of my campaign platform was reforming the way the city dispenses information to the public, including the repeal of the "research fee" for public information requests. Barriers to the access of information is a favorite technique of totalitarian regimes across the world.

One of the most important ingredients in the delivery of information revolves around time-sensitive communications. Many times in government and regulatory environments you need to respond within a certain required amount of time. This is true for the local government, but the general public also needs to have notice if there is an opportunity to respond within a certain time frame in order to protect their interests. One of those interests with a high dollar value is the bundle of property rights and the preservation of same.

Recently, the City received a letter from the Department of Community Affairs dated December 30, 2009. It appears below:

This letter states that the City's Comprehensive Plan was found "in compliance" by the state agency that regulates changes to it. This set of changes to our comprehensive plan included major changes that affect property rights in Lake Worth having to do with height (maximum of three stories), re-designation of the beach property's future land use to "Recreation and Open Space" and removing the medium density multifamily land use from the Sunset property. There are MANY affected persons (those with the actual legal definition and those that will be impacted) by this finding.

Note the following:

You have a 21 day window - which ends this Wednesday at 5p.m. to challenge this action. If you don't take advantage of this, you have not taken advantage of all of your administrative remedies. This could create problems in a court of law should you choose to protect your property rights and attempt to get compensation from the city for a "taking" of your property.

Very unceremoniously, this was placed on the city's website on January 5th. No mention had been made at a public meeting that I am aware of that this action had taken place. Given the nature of these changes and the broad impact that they have, it is definitely beyond a courtesy to provide notice on behalf of the city. But, this is something that we have come to expect from this regime.