A blog post from yesterday. . .

For those of you who may have missed this, about Free Speech in our City of Lake Worth.

Four quotes:

“A democracy can remain healthy only when citizens are well-informed and can make decisions based on facts. Why else would the Founding Fathers, with the First Amendment, make sure to protect this one profession in the Constitution?”
—August 16th, 2018. Excerpt from Palm Beach Post editorial board.


“I paraphrase our brilliant third president [Thomas Jefferson] in saying that the greatest form of government is the one nearest to the people.”
—August 23rd, 2018. Hypoluxo Councilwoman Christine Nagy on topic of “Home Rule in Florida”, front page news in The Lake Worth Herald.


“It [pool at Lake Worth Beach] doesn’t lose that much money. In the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30, it lost just $123,000.”
—April 10th, 2015. Former tabloid that littered the streets in City of Lake Worth (learn more below).


“Encourage the public to voice grievances against the news media.”
—Quote. The New York Times’ Learning Network, “The Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics”.


Now moving on. . .

About that former tabloid in the City of Lake Worth: it first appeared on January 16th, 2015. It was FREE and with FREE advertising too. Each and every week the ‘editor/publisher’ informed readers the tabloid would require a subscription at some point but that never happened. It remained FREE until late April 2015 when the doors closed for good, just ninety-eight days after the doors opened.

And each and every week on the front page of that rag, under the masthead was the Latin phrase, “Domine, ut videam” which translated means:

“Lord, I want to see”

On April 10th, 2015, from that former weekly (more properly called a ‘scandal’ sheet) here is an excerpt by the ‘editor/publisher’ who tried to see:


     “I would like to know why he [City Manager Michael Bornstein] isn’t familiar with the overall financial picture for the Casino complex — why he didn’t know, for example, that in three years [April 2018] the beach fund will have a very healthy balance if all goes well. And according to reports, all is going well at the beach [emphasis added], with the city bringing in about $1.5 million a year just for parking.
     I would like to know why he [Bornstein] is refusing to market the municipal pool, and then advocating for its closure, complaining that it loses a lot of money. It [pool] doesn’t lose that much money. In the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30, it lost just $123,000.

‘[I]t lost just $123,000.’

But the dollars were the least of the problems. . .

A recent slide from CPZ Architects,
click on image to enlarge:

Right next to the ‘renovated’ Casino is the now-condemned municipal pool. The former administration shut down the pool in 2010. Then after the current majority took over the ones who shut down the pool demanded it be reopened again. It would be funny if it weren’t true.

[FYI: To learn more about the seven schemes recently presented by CPZ Architects to address the issues at the Lake Worth Casino Complex click on this link.]


So. The municipal pool lost $123,000 in 2015. But that doesn’t include all the other losses 3½ years ago. And another line from that ‘House Editorial’:

“And according to reports,
all is going well at the beach. . .”

 Click on tabloid clipping from April 2015:

“[O]n the heels” of this former tabloid. . .

Note that all of this occurred shortly after the municipal elections that year and City Manager Bornstein’s contract was extended for five years by the City Commission. Not quite what one would expect for a city manager not “familiar with the overall financial picture”. But the City Commission, the majority of them, understood quite well what was going on.

However, one of those in the minority, Chris McVoy, PhD got re-elected in March 2015. And one of the big reasons why was McVoy accusing the majority on the City Commission and Bornstein of all kinds of shenanigans. But two years later all of that came back and bit you-know-who on the proverbial you-know-what. McVoy was defeated by a young man named Omari Hardy in March 2017. In the endorsement for now-Commissioner Hardy the editor at the Post called McVoy a “gadfly”. A pretty harsh word to call an elected official.

Another clipping from that former rag. . .

Following the municipal elections in March 2015, the celebration at Mamma Mia’s at the Lake Worth Beach and Casino Complex:

Former Commissioner Ryan Maier (left, white shirt) celebrates with former commissioners Jo-Ann Golden, Cara Jennings and newly re-elected Chris McVoy (arms raised, blue shirt). McVoy lost his re-election bid two years later.

So that tabloid finally shut down on April 24th, 2015. By then kids were hired to distribute it around to people’s homes and it was dropped off in places like the Cultural Plaza where is was distributed by the wind all over the place. At the Tree Festival that year The Lake Worth Herald was a paid sponsor of the event but that tabloid wasn’t a sponsor but those FREE rags were all over the place anyway. A lot of them were disposed of properly and legally.

In conclusion, you may like The Lake Worth Herald and dislike The Palm Beach Post. Or dislike the Herald and like the Post. Or like both. Dislike both. But they are both newspapers. Free Speech if you are a subscriber. Or if your neighbor gives you the paper for FREE. Either way, protected by the First Amendment.

But consider this. Today marks six years, four months and twelve days since Michael Bornstein was hired away from the Town of Lantana. So whilst we all await the next editorial in the Post about this City of Lake Worth (the last one was exactly one year ago yesterday!) maybe there will be some acknowledgment — a nod of some sort — that this City has come a long, long way in 6½ years.

It wasn’t all Bornstein’s doing though. He had a majority on the City Commission who were on board with the vision as well when they weren’t hearing footsteps from a former administration that got swept out of City Hall.

And once again. .  .

Contact your elected leaders some time soon and instead of complaining, like most everyone else does, ask this question: “How can I help?”