Regarding soon-to-be former Commissioner Jennings

Thanks to everyone who called me to report that Cara Jennings failed to qualify for the November 2, 2010 ballot. The first call came in at 12:23 p.m. from City Hall where someone had fallen on their knees in hall praising the powers that be, creating quite a spectacle as one would imagine. Other calls kept coming in through the afternoon. In the voices on the phone, there was universal surprise in the news that she won't be running again. For me, my reaction is more telling about how I feel toward anything that happens in Lake Worth anymore. There just are no more surprises left.

Welcome to Lake Worth - This is life beyond the looking glass.

If we think that somehow the current Commissioner Jennings is going to crawl under a rock, get on a boat or a plane with a one-way ticket to somewhere, we are fooling ourselves. Superficially, the personality matters, but in the end it really doesn't. Even if this one individual did fly away to another planet, the signal that I get is that the group who got her in a position as an elected official is supremely confident that the seat is safe. Regardless of the personality that is sitting in the District #2 seat, they are sure that the next person that will occupy that seat will carry Cara's torch, which is really their torch. The people that run the campaigns for the group that is the current majority of the commission thinks that they have the ability to "dial in" the results of an election. This is in essence the maturing of their political machine.

Perhaps they feel this confidence due the newly minted voter identification information that was harvested from the Census Total Count Committee effort or the Energy Conservation Workshops. Perhaps it is the halo effect of the Palm Beach Post "fluff" pieces that will endow the current Commissioner Jennings ability to anoint her chosen candidates, pound the pavement and knock on doors - the "right" doors according to their data - and get the vote out on November 2. Don't forget that she is now a lame duck and will have wreaths piled upon her place at the dais during every meeting from now until the time the new Commissioner is sworn in.

Or is the current Commissioner Jennings' decision not to run based upon the realization of the sorry and precarious position that the city self-admittedly finds itself. Is she afraid of the house of cards falling down around her in a third term? Can she no longer stand the hypocritical positions she finds herself in? Is this an admission that she would be such a target in this year's race that even the "organization" couldn't secure her election? Are there other locations and people and situations where she is needed that we will hear about in future news reports and are these the payback she owes those who have helped her through her terms in office? After doing her payback work, will she then return next year to run for Mayor? Or, will she involve herself in support of her causes by staying local and visible in anticipation of running for Mayor? Is there another elected position that appeals to her? The confounding part about this is that there is not an obvious, immediate next step for Cara Jennings to go to. That leads to these sorts of questions.

Chris McVoy, the person selected to run for the district #2 seat, is best known for his role in the petition drive for the repeal of the beach future land use and zoning ordinances. Well, now it turns out that we need those ordinances in order to have the amount of square footage anticipated as part of the financial program that was approved last night. Those ordinances might even restrict retail square footage more than what the city is currently planning or may have to accept as part of the ultimate project - if and when it is built. He was a loyal foot soldier in the effort and sacrificed his name in the legal challenge initiated by the city in response. So it is probably seen that he is owed something by the group.

If it were a choice between Chris McVoy and Cara Jennings, I would choose Chris since at least you can - or at least could at the time, he might have different orders now - talk with him. I have had some long conversations with him where we ended up to agree to disagree on more than one occasion. People who disagreed with Cara never got that chance. His extremely short term on the Planning and Zoning Board shouldn't even appear as experience on his campaign fliers - he resigned automatically today, if he didn't already do so.

The point here is that this surprise doesn't change much of anything. The candidate that Lake Worth needs, Carla Blockson, is going to need all of our help to win this election for district #2 Commissioner. We should govern ourselves accordingly.