The Egregiousness Continues...Commissioner Jo Ann Golden attempts to grab the CRA again...

As if two times were not enough, Commissioner Jo Ann Golden is making another run at the power represented by the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA).  Commissioner Golden also happens to be the Project Manager for the Lake Worth Community Development Corporation (LWCDC).  This is a private non-profit corporation that no one really knows what they do.  This even though the LWCDC uses a city building and hasn't had a current lease with the city since Commissioner Golden has been on the dais.  They also haven't paid utilities over the same period of time.  Thus, the LWCDC enjoys a subsidy from the City of Lake Worth without the benefit of knowing if that subsidy is worth public money.

Commissioner Golden has inconsistently declared a conflict of interest when matters affecting the LWCDC have come before the City Commission.

A week after Commissioner Golden's first attempt at a City Commission takeover of the CRA, her LWCDC came before the CRA and asked for a $300,000 "grant or forgivable loan" for property that they have along 6th Avenue South and E Street - a property that is non-conforming with the Gateway zoning district.  The CRA turned it down - this is before I was on the CRA - but one could see this as an attempt to bully the CRA into granting the money to the LWCDC or else future attempts would be made to takeover the agency.  Well, that came to pass a year later and the attempt was unsuccessful. 

Now, we have another attempt by Commissioner Golden to grab the power and money represented by the CDC.  Click here to read her memo prepared for the March 1, 2011 City Commission meeting.

She cites "many missed opportunities" and "many lost economic development opportunities and poor decision-making."  THE ONLY AGENCY THAT HAS BEEN EFFECTIVE IN ADDRESSING SLUM AND BLIGHT OVER THE PAST TEN YEARS IS THE CRA - NOT THE CITY COMMISSION.  She is also under the mis-comprehension that tax-increment monies targeted toward residential areas has less of a benefit that monies targeted towards the city under-utilized commercial areas.  The future return is many fold more when investing in commercial property.  That greater spin-off can then be targeted to residential area up-grades.  This is not to say that money hasn't been spent in residential areas - it has!

She gets many facts wrong in her memo and shovels out  a fair share of revisionist history as well.  The Gateway Districts have now been established - along 6th and 10th Avenues for at least 7 years and were a result of many public and neighborhood meetings.  This was a co-operative effort between the CRA, the Planning and Zoning Board and the City Commission.  The fact that the LWCDC has a non-conforming property on 6th Avenue South is the LWCDC's problem - not a problem with the zoning ordinance.  The Arts Overlay District is an area around the downtown commercial area and has been in place for at least ten years and was a product of the Planning and Zoning Board.  If you want to see success stories in real-life, look at the renovated historic structures along the west side of North M Street between Lucerne and 2nd Avenue North - a thriving dentist's and architect's office.  At the northeast corner of 1st Avenue South and South M Street we have a renovated historic structure that is a lawyer's office.  These are courtesy of the Arts Overlay District.

She has the chutzpah to say that enticing Publix into the downtown area was an "improper decision."  She thinks that luring the Palm Beach County Cultural Council to Lake Worth, in the heart of the downtown in a formerly vacant historic building, was an "improper decision." Commissioner Golden refers to a mysterious "big box storage building to be built in the Osborne Community" that the CRA somehow "allowed...without adequate community input."  Jo Ann, the CRA does not give out development approvals - you might want to write that down.  And just where is this building "to be built?"

The City Commission, in its finite wisdom, is funding the rehabilitation of the Casino building through the City's "cash portfolio" to the tune of $6 million plus during a time of "Financial Urgency."  Does this inspire confidence in City Commission-made financial decisions?  How are all of those lawsuits coming Commissioner Golden?

THE CITY WOULD NOT HAVE THE BENEFIT OF THE $23 MILLION NSP2 GRANT WITHOUT THE CRA APPLYING FOR IT.  In Commissioner Golden's second attempt at taking over the CRA, she said that the CRA shouldn't have applied for the NSP2 money since the "city would be told how to spend it and that the city knows best how to spend money here."  She thought that the CRA's application for the money was tantamount to insubordination.  Well, that didn't stop her from using the grant as one of her accomplishments in her re-election materials.

Related to public input, it was Commissioner Golden at the last Commission meeting (2/15) that said, "We get a lot of people here for dogs and puppy mills but we talk about the budget and there are five people here."  Commissioner Golden, how is the City Commission takeover of the CRA function going to increase public input?  Other than longer agendas and meetings into the wee hours of the morning, I don't see much change in public input unless the Commission makes a sincere attempt to want to listen to the public and discard the practice of decisions being made prior to the meetings themselves.

She consistently cites the "current board" being too "passive" - but these are people that for the most part she appointed!  A year and a half ago, 6 of the 7 positions were filled with new people.  One of the current members of the CRA is Ed Grimm - who happens to be the LWCDC Board Chairman!

Oh, it just so happens that the LWCDC is one of the NSP2 partner agencies that gets funding through the CRA.  Hmmmm.  How would that work with their project manager sitting as a decision-maker on the board that determines how that money is spent?

The memo concludes with what looks like an incomplete recommendation from the City Manager.  But, it is my understanding that City Manager Stanton is telling people that this proposal "has three votes to pass."  HOW IS THIS NOT A BLATANT VIOLATION OF THE SUNSHINE LAW?


AS JO-ANN HERSELF SAID, "MANNY [and everyone else] IS GOING TO HAVE TO GET USED TO LIVING IN A GHETTO UNTIL THINGS TURNAROUND HERE."  That would be until people like Commissioner Golden are off of the City Commission.  In the mean time, we should keep the CRA responsibilities with a separate appointed board.