One most positively hopes that...

...while Commissioner Mulvehill is visiting her Southend-on-Sea, UK friends, she studies the information and input made available through that community's website and works on how we can employ such a comprehensive array of options for Lake Worth residents.

Furthermore, she should study the vast compendium of advisory committees and the ease by which information is accessed regarding meetings by those advisory committees and the fact that nearly 100% of them have sets of minutes available on line as recent as mid to late June.  As of July 25, 2010, the most recent set of minutes available for the City Commission in Lake Worth is:

Notice too that each individual decision-making body has an individual search engine.  To experience how confusing the search function is on the City's website, enter "pier" in the search window on the homepage.  How could you find anything you are looking for related to "pier" in the 81 items - 62 documents - that come up in the results?

Looking a little further into the Southend-on-Sea site, you can see that development applications are available for review and comment.

Notice too that they even ask about how useful the page is so that they can make continual improvements in the services offered on-line:

When will we see something like this on the Lake Worth website?

Check out their special "Invest in Southend-on-Sea" website.

Yes, we could learn a lot from this sister-across-the-sea, but will we?   

It's worth noting there is very little promotion and mentioning of names of individual "councillors" on the website.  In fact, you have to enter your address to find which "councillor" you should consult about your problem.  No publicity at the taxpayers' expense.

Southend-on-Sea also had its own Casino-like building at the end of its pier. This is a picture of what they refer to as the Pier Pavillion from 1923.  

According to Wikipedia, it was destroyed by a fire in 1959 and replaced in 1962 with a bowling alley.  After a fire in 1995 it wasn't rebuilt.  Instead, they held an International Competition and selected one design after reviewing 73 entries.  The winning design is not a "pastiche." Instead, it will be a new piece of architecture that reflects its Victorian roots, and is not an imitation.  It will contain a restaurant, a theater and public assembly space.  It is unclear what the status of the design is relating to a timetable - I'm still looking.

 Yes, we could learn a lot from our sister city-on-the-sea.