BREAKING NEWS! Former Lake Worth Commissioner Mark Foley makes news in today’s Palm Beach Post!

And guess what, it’s good news and there’s nary a mention about any “rotten behavior” back in 2006!

Learn more about Mr. Mark Foley in a blog post
(see below) from last week which asks a provocative
and challenging question, “Which counts more. . .”

In today’s print edition of the Post on page B3, below the fold, is a really terrible photograph of former commissioner Foley, but at 63 years old you can see he’s in very good shape, still the handsome man you remember, and would make a fine addition to our Lake Worth City Commission once again. Maybe in the March 2019 elections?

Interestingly, Mr. Jeff Clemens may also be available to serve our City once again as well.

And also of note in today’s anticipated weekly (every single Monday) Lake Worth Very Very Special Monday Cursory Print Edition (LWVVSMCPE) there’s none of those silly phone numbers any more! Really now. Did it serve the public good to have the phone numbers for the Parks Dept. and Sewer Dept. published each and every week in the Post for an entire year!

“Gee Wiz, Mable, it’s only Wednesday. I can’t wait for the paper next Monday. I need the number for the Sewer Dept. right away!”

Anyhow. . .

Maybe in next week’s LWVVSMCPE we’ll learn some good news about Jeff Clemens too? Hope you enjoy the blog post below which asks a “challenging” question, learn more about Clemens’ political career and more about Mark Foley too. Then try to answer this question for yourself:

Which counts more: “rotten behavior” or admirable politics?

A recent opinion piece in The New York Times by Clyde Haberman posits this question:

“So which counts more: rotten behavior
or admirable art?”

Can’t the same be said about politicians — that they can be remembered as admirable as well — despite some well-publicized “rotten behavior”? What about a former City of Lake Worth mayor, State House representative, and later a member of the Florida Senate?

From Wikipedia, learn more about former
Lake Worth Mayor Jeff Clemens:

Of then-Mayor Marc Drautz, ahead of a run-off election in 2007, Clemens said, “Usually an incumbent spends his time talking about the positive things he has accomplished, but in the absence of accomplishments the only recourse is to
use negative attacks.”

What happened with the Park of Commerce in the City of Lake Worth is still fresh in everyone’s minds and a lot of people probably had a touch of schadenfreude when they learned about Clemens’ recent “rotten behavior” and subsequent resignation from the Florida Senate.

But how many people remember what
happened in 2007?

Back in 2007 when crime was at its worst here in the City of Lake Worth reporter Patrick Parrish at The Lake Worth Herald wrote, “According to [City of Lake Worth] Mayor Jeff Clemens, the city is at least 10 officers short of the same time in 1997, a significant number when translated into street presence.” Another former commissioner, JoAnn Golden, quoted in the same 2007 article said, “I can understand [Commissioner Cara] Jennings’ concern on civil rights, but we have allowed gangs to get ahead of us.”

Then in August 2008 then-Mayor Clemens had to make one of the hardest political decisions ever in his political career, to disband the Lake Worth PD and have PBSO take over law enforcement in this City.

“IN WITNESS WHEREOF. . .”

On August 26th, 2008, then-Mayor Clemens

signed the agreement with PBSO:

In retrospect, couldn’t that decision by Clemens be considered “admirable” or was his recent “rotten behavior” the only thing that matters any more?  

Let’s take the case of another politician, former
Lake Worth Commissioner Mark Foley:

Is every article about Mark Foley required to cite his “rotten behavior” in 2006? Or at some point can the public focus on other things like Foley’s key part in bringing Spring Training baseball back to Palm Beach County as reported by Post reporter Joe Capozzi last year?

Foley volunteered to serve on the City of Lake Worth’s C-51 Advisory Committee this year and our City later passed, by a unanimous vote, a “Resolution of Support” for the Blueway Trail Project. And how many in the public know about Mr. Foley’s role in bringing the “Military Memorial Monument” to Downtown Lake Worth which was just unveiled on Veterans Day?

Mark Foley was a Lake Worth commissioner from 1978–1979 and 1982–1984; served in the Florida House of Representatives from 1990–1992; Florida Senate, 1993–1994; then U.S. House, 1994–2006.

Mark Foley at his former restaurant called The Lettuce Patch at 502 Lucerne Ave. in 1976.

Both Foley and Clemens have paid a high price for their “rotten behavior” but they’ve both also made many “admirable” contributions to our City of Lake Worth and Palm Beach County as well.

Now back to the question posed by Clyde Haberman at The New York Times, “So which counts more”?

That’s a question everyone has to ask and answer for themselves. But in politics everything is fair game. But hasn’t Foley redeemed himself ten times over? And if you know Clemens do you have any doubt he’ll remain in politics and do the same thing? Remember folks, Clemens has never lost an election.

Who knows, maybe Clemens will reboot his political career by running for mayor of Lake Worth again. In City of Lake Worth politics anything is possible. Back in 2006 an Anarchist got elected in Lake Worth. And then re-elected!