A sitting Lake Worth commissioner up for re-election doesn’t think our City volunteers can be trusted?

City board volunteers are the backbone of Lake Worth. Without them our City couldn’t function. But who would want to volunteer their time, energy, and being away from the family at night after hearing what Commissioner Chris McVoy, PhD, said at a Commission meeting?

A crucial part of the City’s Neighborhood Road Improvement bond (which passed overwhelmingly last November) will be an advisory committee, the Finance Advisory Board, to oversee the process. We learned at a Commission meeting last October this oversight committee will increase from 7 members to 14 for more community representation.

Was this enough to placate McVoy who has opposed any plan to fix the streets and potholes? No. 

Not even that was good enough. McVoy then went on to suggest these volunteers couldn’t be trusted. Mayor Pam Triolo took great offense to this as did many others in the Commission chambers that day. We simply cannot have volunteers serving the City being used as political footballs by “raising the question”, casting doubt and suspicion about volunteers.

Have you ever sat through one of McVoy’s lectures from the dais? “Make speeches”, talk “at great length”, and the ever-looming, “raise the question”.

Sadly, this kind of political attack is not new. The statement (see below) was originally posted last March on this blog. This was in the lead-up to the municipal elections in 2016. Mr. Greg Rice, the Chair of Lake Worth’s Planning and Zoning Board, demanded an apology (which he never received) for false statements made about volunteers on the P&Z board (see video below):

“I would like to make a public statement. Somebody running for city commissioner [the challenger to Commissioner Andy Amoroso] has made public comments at public meetings accusing members of this Planning and Zoning Board, and there are several of them in this room tonight, for being involved in secret meetings with the developer of the Gulfstream hotel and the Planning and Zoning Board. He’s making a slanderous statement. That has never happened [emphasis added]. I want everybody to realize that. I don’t know why, whatever that means, to possibly create doubt and suspicion about what’s going on here at City Hall. But these volunteers on this board that aren’t elected officials that are serving this City, making the sacrifices, this could have a significant, things like slanderous statements like that, could have a significant impact on their ability to be able to make a living. Especially those that are involved in professions that are construction-related or design-related. I would like an apology before the election that [‘secret meetings’] never happened.”

Use this link for the video—hear the quote above for yourself—Mr. Rice giving his yearly Planning and Zoning Board update. Now you can better understand why it’s so hard to find volunteers, especially professionals in a specific field, to serve communities like the City of Lake Worth.

Elections are very important. In more ways than you may think. Hope this helps you to “raise the question” about one particular commissioner up for re-election, next Tuesday, March 14th.