Question: Can Palm Beach County's Climate Change and Sustainability Coordinator offer Lake Worth some guidance?

Natalie Schneider is Palm Beach County's Climate Change Coordinator. We have heard a lot about the issue of Sea Level Rise (SLR) and the responsibility of local governments like Lake Worth have to take it on.

I attended a meeting that included candidate Ryan Hartman and Lake Worth Vice Mayor Scott Maxwell. Three elected Lake Worth representatives (Vice Mayor Scott Maxwell and commissioners Ryan Maier and Chris McVoy) attended the Climate Change Summit in Key West recently and they all returned with their observations and ideas for proceeding forward.

Mr. Hartman when asked about this said he was prepared to reach out to Maier and McVoy but wasn't interested in talking to Maxwell about this subject. My question is this: Should the county's Climate Change Coordinator set guidelines going forward on who sets policy concerning SLR?

Clearly, anyone who knows the situation Lake Worth is in financially knows that the City is very limited in what it can contribute to solving the problem of SLR. And some guidance going forward would be very helpful.

Vice Mayor Scott Maxwell's view on SLR is not extreme by any means:

Maxwell is not a "denier" and he, like almost everyone, is searching for the answers to the problems we face in Lake Worth, Palm Beach County, and the state of Florida.

The question is simply this: What should the role of local governments be to solve SLR and should those burdens be carried by each City individually or should the county take on that burden, set the policy, and give cities the ability to focus on present issues that face each resident each and every day?

What we also need to keep in mind is that if the 2020 Bond had passed, we would be designing all of our new infrastructure to TODAY'S standards. All of the elevations and hydrology related to the improvements would have to take sea level rise into account. The point is that if we don't have this kind of infrastructure funded, we are going to maintain our existing infrastructure to the standard that it was designed. That may be a 1930 standard, a 1956 standard or a 1974 standard. Any new infrastructure designed by licensed civil engineers would take into account current projections and design accordingly. Doing nothing by saying "no" to the bond keeps the City in the past, without a way to adequately address sea level rise projections. If those 25 people had voted the other way, we would be on our way to meeting the sea level rise challenges.