Thursday, December 20, 2018

There was a letter to the editor published in The Palm Beach Post last Sunday.


Before we get to that letter . . . let’s set the stage.

“Imagine if a boatload of refugees came on our shore here, how would we feel? I’d be ashamed to say we’d probably take out guns and get rid of ‘em.”

—Quote. Jo-Ann Golden addressing the Lake Worth City Commission on September 1st, 2015.


And then on April 3rd, 2016, in of all places the Atlantis Country Club, Golden and the Palm Beach Chapter of the ACLU met to discuss, “[A] three to two vote, Ordinance 2016-06 went into effect February 2, 2016.”

And briefly, just by coincidence, coming up on January 12th is an event on the theme “A Whole New World”. This fundraiser is being held in the City of Atlantis — a city protected by walls — but inside those walls will be a cash prize, raffles, and wonderful baskets.

This “Great Holiday Gift” only costs $50 and need RSVP by January 5th. For more details click on this link.

The letter published in the Post last Sunday (Dec. 16th, 2018) was by Jo-Ann Golden also referred to as ‘JoAnn’ as in Carson vs. Karson. The editor at the Post made an error that should have been corrected — or at least clarified — but wasn’t. Golden’s letter was the second negative letter in a row about the Lake Worth City Commission. A positive letter could have been published this week but that never happens.

Oftentimes the “seeds of discontent” about ‘Lake Worth’ are from outside this City in places like the City of Atlantis, from well-heeled communities out west with well-manicured golf courses, and from Lake Osborne Heights just outside the City. And many of those people, when we needed them most, fled the City of Lake Worth in the 60s and 70s.

Then what followed was many years of turmoil. Then about ten years ago things began to turn around. And now this City has come back strong. And to recognize all that this City will be having a referendum on March 12th, 2019 to rename itself “Lake Worth Beach”, shedding the old ‘Lake Worth’ that has haunted us for so very long.

And to no one’s surprise, Jo-Ann Golden has a problem with that.

Now that the stage has been set. To that letter to the editor published last Sunday.

Whilst trying to be a little too clever, in attempting to make the case against renaming this City as “Lake Worth Beach”, Golden actually makes the case for “Lake Worth Beach”.

That’s sort of what Jo-Ann Golden did in a Letter to the Editor published in The Palm Beach Post in last Sunday’s paper, a letter about a public meeting held in this City of Lake Worth. This blog post is a follow-up, clearing up some matters and some misconceptions vis-à-vis our long-time Mayor Pam Triolo. To learn more about that and Golden’s letter that got published click on this link.

That letter by Golden referenced a scheduled public meeting at City Hall on December 4th. Below is a Tweet from that night.

Please read the text in this Tweet. The press and media was present so claiming the public was “sequestered” is ludicrous:


[Please pause for Tweet to load]



Sadly. Also on the night of December 4th — just after the City Commission meeting had started — is when that terrible motorcycle crash happened near City Hall. So possibly Golden’s crowd en route to the meeting stopped to watch what was going on and that’s why so many were late.

WPTV reporter Andrew Lofhom ran out of the meeting to report on this incident and soon afterwards returned to City Hall. It’s worth noting that nothing about a contentious agenda item made the news that night on TV (Resolution No. 78-2018; see below).

And Resolution No. 78-2018 wasn’t mentioned anywhere else until Golden’s letter got published in the Post. But more about that a little later.

The meeting on December 4th was publicly noticed well ahead of time. That some of the public showed up late is not the fault of the City. On this Golden wrote,

“The overflow was sequestered [sic] in the hallway and conference room.”

Golden’s letter was mostly just a muddled collection of loaded words like the public being “sequestered” outside the City Hall chambers. The word ‘sequester’ means to separate, segregate or isolate. So already you see where things are headed.

The word sequester is a nine-letter loaded word just like ‘sanctuary’ is a nine-letter loaded word.

A crowd showed up in support of Resolution No. 78-2018, “Affirming Participation In and Acceptance of Community ID Cards”. If this issue was so critically important why didn’t the supporters of this resolution show up early to guarantee seating in the Chambers? Would this be more accurately called a political organizing failure?

But they showed up late and Golden said
they were ‘sequestered’.


Then after Resolution 78-2018 came Ordinance nos. 2018-18 and 2018-19. First Reading of:


Ballot language to change name of City to Lake Worth Beach by referendum on March 12, 2019, and setting the second reading and public hearing for December 13, 2018.


and. . .


Ballot language to allow the sale of 501 Lake Avenue by referendum on March 12, 2019, and setting the second reading and public hearing for December 13, 2018.


Of these items Golden said, “Two contentious ballot items were passed on First Reading with little public comment at close to midnight.”

It’s here where one has to ‘sequester’ one’s sense of space and time like in the Twilight Zone.


Let’s pause briefly. . .




Now back on topic. . .

Golden, her crowd of supporters, and the electeds getting clever with Robert’s Rules of Order pushed this discussion into such nonsense that Mayor Triolo had enough and left. Unfortunately a lot of voters will be reminded about what happened; there is an election of candidates coming up. We’ll just leave it at that.

And lastly, Golden ends that letter with this line,


The desire of the Commission to distinguish itself from the other Lake Worth zip codes is not by changing the name, rather it is by being uniquely Lake Worth . . . Authenticity is our brand.


And on that Golden makes a great point.

Monkeywrenching public meetings is, for some people, ‘uniquely Lake Worth’. And for those same people, ‘authenticity’ is their brand of troublemaking.

Remember, the unanimous vote by the City Commission on renaming this City the “City of Lake Worth Beach” came after the ‘contentious’ Resolution 78-2018 that Golden and her crowd supported.

Because of that one resolution, typically short items on an agenda, this public meeting at City Hall was pushed to almost midnight.

Back in 2011 the City Commission flipped and the administration led by former mayors and those representatives such as Golden and Cara Jennings were shown the door and ever since this City with a spectacular Beach has been improving and getting better every single day.

And on that we truly deserve to proclaim we are unique and authentic now. A truly special place.

On March 12th, 2019, vote “Yes”
for Lake Worth Beach.


FYI: Every vote, official votes and straw poll votes taken by the City Commission have been unanimous to move this referendum forward to the voters. Every single one. Including the unanimous vote at Second Reading held last week, on Thursday, December 13th.

At public comment last Thursday the public was permitted to speak their mind. Jo-Ann Golden did not show up.

Cara Jennings did show up. Be she was late and missed most of the meeting. She did not speak on any item.

Being late is sort of a thread in this blog post today.

The choice comes to moving this City forward or going back to when “Lake Worth” was just contentious all the time.


For example, there is this yard sign:

Another one of the stupid red and white signs.

To learn more about these illegal political signs
click on this link.