I went to sleep with the sound of our electeds dancing in my head...

The meeting finally got over at 1:30 a.m.  I am not sure how many were still in the audience at that late of an hour, but they tackled some interesting issues in the "wee hours" last night.  There were also some revelations.

One of them concerned the forensic audit of commercial utility accounts.  You can read the back-up by clicking here.  Apparently, in just their initial internal checking, they determined that $300,000 that should have been paid by some commercial customers hasn't been.  This means that some people, by whatever means, have found a way to cheat the system and get around the city's high commercial electric rates.  If you have this as a widespread condition, then you have to continually raise rates to make up for the shortfall.  The people that don't cheat get the highest bills and those that do seem to have no problem doing what they do with a clear conscience.  Well, this forensic audit of commercial accounts is a start in the right direction.  When we do the same thing to the entire utility department, that will be a good thing.

Also utility related, the City is contracting with a firm which will takeover utilities customer service for a three month period and institute "best practices."  I guess that is all that this firm does is run utilities customer service departments.  Then there might be the same or another firm that takes over the operation for another nine months.  It was SAD to hear Utilities Director Mattey describe the sorry state-of-affairs within the department.  She said that attrition is so bad that they are in a position where there is no management now.  They have raised the bar higher which means people have been let go for non-performance or left due to early retirement.  It really seems to be the case that nobody is left to answer the phones - imagine that.  She said to forget about training, they are now at a level where it is a challenge just to get people to come to work.  To me, it sounded like she was talking about the behavior of a kindergarten class and not a utility customer service department.

Then there was a presentation by the Morganti Group about adding the entire 19 acre renovation project to the beach in addition to their construction manager at risk assignment related to the Casino building.  This was approved, with some concern about an insurance matter, which at the hour this was  discussed I had a little difficulty following.  If anyone can shed some light on the situation, please do.  Interestingly, last Thursday, those of us on FaceBook who "liked" the Morganti page, got a preview of this.  I should have gotten a "screen grab" of the post but this is what was on their page last week - it is gone today.  "The whole beachfront project is ours! This is awesome for the Casino project coordination, better value for the city and great for all our Lake Worth people to be a part of!"  Seems to be they were counting the chickens before they were allowed.  I bet they were given all assurances by the City Administration that this was a "done deal."

Then, Commissioner Maxwell commented on his day at the County Commission meeting concerning the Inspector General.  The County Commission passed the item without the changes requested by the League of Cities, which would have weakened the program.  In fact, the whole thing will go into effect on second reading (two weeks from now) and not in October.  The Inspector General will be able to go back as far as they need to - there is no date before which they cannot look into things.  Hmmm.  Most revealing, in terms of how the County Commission sees Lake Worth, is the number of times Lake Worth was mentioned in the context of not being able to be counted on to carry out and abide by agreements.  The city's non-payment of the fire services contract was specifically mentioned and they wondered whether they can trust Lake Worth to live up to its obligation and pay the $17,000 and change cost for the Inspector General.  This met with immediate rebuttal from Commissioner Mulvehill and City Manager Stanton, saying that they have had good relations with the Inspector General so far - but they purposefully missed the larger point.  The point is word on the street is that Lake Worth cannot be trusted.  Commissioner Aaronson suggested that if it becomes a problem, the County can take the money from the $5 million it has given for the beach project.  Commissioner Maxwell understood the importance of the matter, but it was lost on the rest of the City Commission and Administration.

And we learned the the Administrative Hearing Office has ruled that the City's Comprehensive Plan has been found "in compliance."

After that their voices faded off into the distance and I was able to dream about pleasant things and happy places.  Feel free to add anything I may have missed under comments.