Click here for live stream - CRA Interviews (8/31)

I missed the first few minutes of the meeting so didn't hear if any discussion took place regarding the recusal of Commissioner Golden - I assume it did. Ed Grimm, the first on the agenda, is being interviewed now. Commissioner Golden apparently brushed off the request to declare a conflict of interest as she was the last Commissioner to ask him a question.

Ultimately, the choice of whether or not to recuse oneself is made by the person with the apparent conflict. So noted.

Later on, the Mayor made it a point to ask if a real estate attorney applicant would have problems with potential conflicts of interests with clients in Lake Worth. ??

Still later on. Listening tonight gives me hope for the future of the CRA - there are many good applicants and many new people that are interested in serving the city. You could see this from the applications - it's too bad they were treated the way they were with the initial interview date. Those that stayed on the list to be interviewed showed great enthusiasm.

I have a problem with Commissioner Jennings "discarding" people on the basis of what she thinks were "terrible" decisions in the past for positions on the CRA - such topics as the beach and Sunset were brought up that have nothing to do with the CRA. And, my hand to God, she and Commissioner Golden still bring up the Lucerne. Does anyone wonder why? It shows an oversimplification of complex issues and dismisses the decision process used to come to those decisions. And keeps the fear burning in the hearts of the voting public. You might call it a "litmus test."

Commissioner Golden did not mention Ed Grimm in her comments - he received four votes from the Commission. At the end, she did disclose that Mr. Grimm held a fundraiser for her and contributed to her past campaign.

Just in: Amended CRA Board Interviews (8/31)

Click here for link to NY Times article:

After Century of Growth, Tide Turns in Florida

By DAMIEN CAVE

Published: August 30, 2009

The Sunshine State, whose economy is tied to population growth, is in a pall after taking hits during the recession.

Click here for full back-up material re Commission CRA applicant interviews tonight (8/31)

Is anyone else having trouble seeing all of Edward Grimm's application? Just asking.

Sent this morning to the Acting City Attorney, City Manager, Mayor, Commissioners, the Palm Beach Post and the Lake Worth Herald

Political Advertisement Paid for and Approved by Wes Blackman for City Commissioner District #3

Great Disparity between Residential and Commercial Electric Rates

The City Manager includes this chart in her reports to the Commission. While Lake Worth is still above FPL in residential electric rates, it is below the average of all municipal electric providers. We rank as the 11th least expensive - strange way to look at it - as of July 2009 for residential customers.

By comparison, we are near the top in commercial electric rates - nearly $600 more than FPL and almost $400 over the average provider. There are actually only three providers that provide more expensive electricity to their commercial clients than Lake Worth.

Is this how the City Commission is promoting economic growth? This is, yet again, another negative message for those businesses looking to locate in Lake Worth.
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Mood Music...

Since my opponent has not come forward with her accomplishments and plan for a second term...

You might want to review what she said when she ran two years and eight months ago. Click title for link.
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Interesting, albeit expensive, option...

Does anyone else think this is a little backwards?

This is from this past week's City Manager's report. The City Commission is having its first reading on the 2009-2010 budget on Thursday, September 3rd. The City Manager is asking for the Commission to prepare "extensive and comprehensive" goals within 7 days - and this is somehow supposed to be integrated into the budget process for this year. And it is interesting that the City Manager brings up the process for the Park of Commerce. There is $250,000 of city money that is supposed to be used as matching money for a federal grant to perform an infrastructure needs analysis - which is what the city exactly needs to do in order to go on with the development of the Park of Commerce. I am afraid that the grant-phobic Commission has other ideas. More on this later...
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As a contrast, click here for Punta Gorda's City Manager Report

Note that they are already preparing for the 2011 budget year and they will be applying for TIGER (transportation related stimulus funding) funds. Is Lake Worth?

Click here for City Manager's Report for 8/28

Above is the City Manager's discussion regarding a selection committee for the Community Development Director position. Just so everybody is aware, this panel would be subject to the Sunshine Law. I wonder who will end up on it?

Think about this: It is the City Manager's job to hire and fire department heads. But, here she is asking for the Commission to appoint people to review the applicants and make a recommendation to her. It's a way to give the City Manager cover for her decision, but it also politicizes the decision in a way the Charter does not allow. Hmmmm.

Margaret Wheatley - click for link to website "Turning to one another"

"When we seek for connection, we restore the world to wholeness. Our seemingly separate lives become meaningful as we discover how truly necessary we are to each other."

"There is a simpler, finer way to organize human endeavor. I have declared this for many years and seen it to be true in many places. This simpler way is demonstrated to us in daily life, not the life we see on the news with its unending stories of human grief and horror, but what we feel when we experience a sense of life’s deep harmony, beauty, and power, of how we feel when we see people helping each other, when we feel creative, when we know we’re making a difference, when life feels purposeful."

"Over many years of work all over the world, I've learned that if we organize in the same way that the rest of life does, we develop the skills we need: we become resilient, adaptive, aware, and creative. We enjoy working together. And life’s processes work everywhere, no matter the culture, group, or person, because these are basic dynamics shared by all living beings."

"Western cultural views of how best to organize and lead (now the methods most used in the world) are contrary to what life teaches. Leaders use control and imposition rather than participative, self-organizing processes. They react to uncertainty and chaos by tightening already feeble controls, rather than engaging people's best capacities to learn and adapt. In doing so, they only create more chaos. Leaders incite primitive emotions of fear, scarcity, and self-interest to get people to do their work, rather than the more noble human traits of cooperation, caring, and generosity. This has led to this difficult time, when nothing seems to work as we want it to, when too many of us feel frustrated, disengaged, and anxious."

"There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about."

Her books include:

• A Simpler Way (coauthored with Myron Kellner-Rogers, 1996)
• Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World (1999, 2006)
• Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future (2002)
• Finding Our Way: Leadership For an Uncertain Time (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2005)

From Ted Kennedy's Celebration of Life Service

FYI - New Campaign E-mail Address

For campaign information and requests, please use the following e-mail address:

wesfor3@gmail.com

The wesblackman@gmail.com address will remain active and can be used for all other communication.

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