UPDATE: More information about what happened at the Lake Worth City Commission meeting last Tuesday.

Below are some photos taken from my seat in the Commission chambers. Check back tomorrow for more details from last night’s Commission meeting, including City Manager Michael Bornstein’s updates on work ongoing post-Hurricane Irma and about more of the items on the agenda.

See below (following the photographs) for details on the tentative City of Lake Worth millage rate and FY2017–2018 budget, my “Notes, News, and Observations”.

It was a pleasure being in attendance at our City Commission meeting. I didn’t show up with my video camera because it may be a few more days before the bandwidth is available to upload the videos to YouTube anyhow.

What was a bit surprising, however, is how many people thanked me last night for posting information on this blog all last week and through last weekend about Hurricane Irma. I reminded people that wasn’t my information in many instances. Mostly it was “copy and paste” of information from the City of Lake Worth — it’s the City that deserves the credit — not this blog.

Interestingly, The Palm Beach Post and other news outlets were doing the same thing, just copying information the City of Lake Worth put out, reworded it, and for some it suddenly became, “Real News Starts Here”. But it really didn’t start there. It was due to the hard work of our City administration and highly competent staff who were all battling Irma.

Without further ado. . .

A view of the International Talk Like A
Pirate Day (ITLAPD) proclamation. Spectacular!

It was a great mood at the City Commission last night, despite some differences of opinion.
That’s a hopeful sign.

A view of the crowd from my seat.
It was a packed house.

Our City Commission getting down to business.

UPDATE: “Notes, News, and Observations”.

What took a lot of people by surprise were the split votes (3-2) on the tentative millage rate and FY2017–2018 budget. There will be another vote next week, the “Second Reading”. Let’s hope for a little more unity next time. The discussion about lowering the millage rate, in my opinion, was just a waste of time. Mayor Pam Triolo was absent at the previous City work session but Vice Mayor Scott Maxwell wanted the mayor to have her chance to speak on the issue.

And Mayor Triolo did just that last night, taking a strong position on one side and then taking another strong position on the other side. I was reminded of President Truman’s quote about a “one-handed economist”. Basically all this was for naught, commissioners Andy Amoroso, Herman Robinson, and Omari Hardy were against lowering the millage rate by 0.25% before and nothing was going to change their minds. So it was a split vote, 3-2, with Amoroso making the motion.

Vice Mayor Maxwell’s idea and reasoning for lowering the millage rate is a solid one. Everyone agrees that is the case, including commissioners Amoroso, Robinson, and Hardy. But the timing isn’t right. Maybe next year. Maxwell’s correct in stating “property values are increasing”, the City is nearing 10-mil cap, and lowering the millage rate will send a strong message and encourage more investment.

But. . . according to Amoroso there are going to be hidden costs from Hurricane Irma and Hardy warned everyone once again about next year’s statewide vote on the Homestead Exemption, which is likely to pass and will significantly affect the City’s budget. Robinson summed it up quite nicely, “We can have the conversation later.”

Then there’s the proverbial Elephant in the Room.

Despite Finance Dir. Marie Elianor stating there will be no reduction in service levels in this year’s budget we also learned from City Attorney Glen Torcivia that the FEMA issues from past years are still out there. This is very significant.

There is still approximately $4M in question in years past from previous hurricanes and there is ≈$9M for “risk management” the City has available. Hardy pointed out until we know what is going to happen, and what FEMA is going to do, lowering the millage rate now is not the right time. Torcivia also alluded to the fact FEMA could withhold sending the City any assistance for Hurricane Irma to make up for past, well, let’s call them ‘accounting’ or ‘rounding’ errors by past administrations.

So. Items 5A and B, “Public Hearings” on the millage rate and City budget was a split 3-2 vote, Triolo and Maxwell the “No’s”, and so was item 5C a split 3-2, “adopt the debt service rate”.

Item 5D, “Second Reading, designate the restricted/committed assigned fund balances for Fiscal Year 2017” was unanimous, 5-0. Item 5E was also a 5-0 vote in favor vis-à-vis the new water system contract with Lake Osborne Estates (LOE). One resident, the same one from LOE, showed up in opposition but everybody is tired of hearing the grumbling. It’s time to move on and enjoy our wonderful and less-expensive City of Lake Worth water!

Anyhow, check back tomorrow for more, “Notes, News, and Observations”.