Just a small part of the act which led to about $2.6 million dollars of your money being wasted...

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks."

Everyone's favorite local blogger threw out some sweeping and serious allegations during last night's City Commission meeting.  She didn't mention the subject matter, but accused the city of purging public records.  Here is that part of her comments under unagendaed items:

Later, after Ms. Anderson stormed out of the room before anyone could respond to her charges, Mr. Bornstein responded to what he thought it related to.  You can hear what he says below:

In Commissioner responses to comments, it became clear that Ms. Anderson only shared her concerns with her now favorite Commissioner McVoy.  Maxwell and Amoroso mentioned that these are serious charges and it is important to know what they revolve around.  Mr. Bornstein thought, as you can hear in the video, that it related to some "questionable requests" regarding the pool at the beach and Greater Bay's work on the pool.

Is Ms. Anderson asking the city to prove a negative?  Is she saying "prove that you didn't destroy records?"  Is she asking for documents that back-up her version of the facts that don't reflect what actually transpired?  Is that why she is asking for them?

Me thinks so.

Commissioner McVoy's feeble attempt at damage control re the Greater Bay lawsuit against the city...

Too little, too late Commissioner McVoy - the chickens have come home to roost, in part due to your own actions and by those who supported you from the dais and your close-knit crew of un-elected supporters.

Pinkie Jr. and Pinkie Sr.

Some things can't go unchallenged...Part II

RE-POSTED from September 3, 2012 in advance of the City Commission meeting(s) regarding the Greater Bay lawsuit. 

Before we discuss the situation surrounding the casino building in more detail, it is important to give a little more information on two points made in the previous post.  One is that the other blogger's reference to the "insurrection on the dais" refers to the fact that then Mayor Drautz refused to initial each page the final document regarding Greater Bay - after the City Commission already approved the agreement.  The insurrection was his refusal to initial each page; it was not then Commissioner Lowe "grabbing the contract out of Drautz's hands."  Lowe was Vice-Mayor at the time, so the majority of the City Commission transferred the "initialing duties" up to her.  Mind you, this all played out in typical "high drama" fashion by those that did not want to go forward with the agreement.

Another point worth clarifying is that McVoy's petition drive to repeal the Beach and Casino land use and zoning designation (and map change, too) was useless.  Those zoning and land use designations were all eventually needed for the city to do what it eventually did there.  The former zoning allowed no commercial business - just open-air recreation space.  The lawsuit against "Lake Worth citizens" was soon dropped after the breaking of the agreement with Greater Bay.  So the petition drive ended up being a meaningless waste of energy and served more to energize the base for the next election cycle than "prevent over-commercialization of the beach."  And, as was stated in the previous post, it introduced a person to the community that would be a future City Commissioner.

Commissioner Mulvehill, through her own admission - see video -  used John G's to "lobby" there for her first campaign.  As the video shows, the building official at the time - after reviewing 10 or more years worth of structural studies on the condition of the casino building, condemned the building and tenants were given a deadline to get out.  During the campaign, this is when "Straticon" appeared on the scene.  This was a contractor that was doing work on the former Hilton hotel further north on A1A.  Approached by those around our future Commissioner, suddenly it was possible to SAVE the building from demolition, with the promise that all the existing tenants could stay during reconstruction.  The "rehabilitation" myth continued through the architect selection process, with each saying that they could save the building.

Picture that appeared in Morganti issued progress report dated 8/19/11

Above is what actually saved after all of the b.s. was cleared away, along with demolition debris.  The city and the "team"  worked the calculation to determine whether this project represented a "substantial improvement"  and came up with a valuation scheme that put the "new building" below 50% - the threshold after which the building would have to meet current code standards.  You can read about the implications here in a recent post.

The long and short of this is that since the city chose to build in exactly the same spot as the original building to give the perception that it was a "rehabilitation" now calls in to question whether the $6 million investment is adequately protected by the existing seawall or "armoring device" as the Florida Building Code refers to it.  This likely means that the city will undergo the time and expense to do an exhaustive study by a certified engineer that actually evaluates whether or not the seawall qualifies as that "armoring device."  Also by shutting down creativity and problem-solving made possible by looking at other building locations on the site, we end up with a site plan that may not be functional.  This is what is being heard now - complaints about adequate parking for delivery and emergency vehicles, the two way pattern of traffic in the upper parking area, among other issues...

Greater Bay always proposed a site plan - never approved or officially reviewed - that had the building in the center of the property along with a parking deck.  Think of the unobstructed view of the Atlantic Ocean as you crest the bridge.  Unfortunately, we have walled off a rare view of the ocean to accommodate political "agendas."  A parking deck would provide needed shade for beach-goers and consolidate asphalt/concrete to allow for more green space.  Instead of hearing of the benefits of this project, all we were treated to was how this was "giving away our precious land" and that it was "over-commercialization" of the beach.

Well, now we may have to add to the project cost such things as the reconstruction of the seawall and a judgement in favor a Greater Bay that the city acted in bad faith by breaking the development agreement.  Where will those be that were responsible for such oversights and procedural snafus come home to roost?

Commissioner Mulvehill will be furthering her business and professional interests.  She won't be on the dais.  Perhaps she will become an expatriate in Sopot, Poland or South-End-on-Sea, Great Britain?

And, for the record, I was not in favor of either of the original presenters that responded to the RFP to develop the beach.  I would have told them both to go home, adjust the RFP and re-advertise the project.

Some things can't go unchallenged...Part I

RE-POSTED from  September 3, 2012 in advance of today's City Commission meetings re Great Bay lawsuit.

There is another blogger in town.  I gave up regularly visiting her blog for Lent this year and never returned as a regular visitor.  From time to time, people forward me links to what is going on over there.  There was something posted yesterday about the history of the current beach project, Greater Bay, the Greater Bay lawsuit and Commissioner Mulvehill that distorted reality so much that certain facts need to be pointed out.

The city never "turned over our valuable land to a contractor" by executing "Agreed Upon Business Terms" or the eventual private/public partnership agreement.  First of all, the agreement was for a 20 year minus one day lease of the 19 acre property.  If the project proceeded that way, the city would retain ownership of the property - never relinquishing it - and let a developer (in this case Greater Bay) build and lease out a new building and return that building to the city after the expiration of the lease.  The developer, in turn, would pay the city $500,000 a year in lease payments.  They would select and collect rent from tenants, manage the ballroom space and collect parking revenue.  The City would pay for the lifeguards, as I recall.

The city couldn't turn over "our valuable land to a contractor" since it never could provide clear title.  There was a lawsuit filed by private citizens  related to whether or not this development agreement violated the City Charter since it may allow for an extension of the lease term for some tenants beyond 20 years - given renewals that may be built into their leases.  Whether or not that had merit, the fact that it existed prevented anyone, other than the city, to do anything to the property.  And you also had a petition that had been circulated looking to repeal the Beach and Casino land use and zoning designation that had been passed by the City Commission.  This effort was led by no other than then private citizen Christopher McVoy - giving him visibility which aided his run for elected office.  The city actually had to sue McVoy and others associated with the petition drive effort.  With the land use and zoning designation, which were being changed to allow limited commercial uses on the beach property where none were allowed before (the existing businesses there were non-conforming or "grandfathered in"), in potential limbo, this created another impediment to the project going forward.  Clean title and a land use/zoning designation that would allow the project to proceed were more the province of the City - not Greater Bay.  This is part of the basis for Greater Bay lawsuit against the city - they say they couldn't perform due to non-performance on the part of the city.

Despite this, the Commission, made up of Jennings, Golden, Mulvehill, Clemens and Lowe decided 4-1 to break the agreement with Greater Bay.

Just before that, Greater Bay, as part of the agreement, had to use a state recreation grant that was about to expire - some $400,000 that the city would lose if they didn't improve the pool.  They did work as directed by the city and its representatives at the time - and were specifically told not to do things - one was not to improve the pump house for the pool.  The point here is that the city was able to keep the grant money and the pool was improved to city expectations at the time.  Greater Bay performed.

Then you have the whole issue of the building.  THE BUILDING WAS NOT SAVED.  THE "CIRCLE OF LIGHT" PUT ON BY COMMISSIONER MULVEHILL WAS MORE ABOUT SELF-PROMOTION.  In order for the public to sort-of, kind-of believe that the city "restored" or "rebuilt" the casino building, the Commission chose to build in the exact same location as the existing building - which had historic merit of its own.

More to come in Part II

Mayor Triolo Speaks at Parrot Cove Neighborhood Association meeting...

This picture was taken during the question and answer session at last night's meeting.  The Mayor talked for a little over twenty minutes and then took many questions from the 50 or so that attended the meeting - her portion of the meeting took up a total of about an hour.  She had lots to report.  The most significant announcement was that the city's budget projections are looking better than previously thought and it looks like the city will not have to dig in to the reserves - to the tune of $423,000 to maintain a balanced budget.  This is indeed good news!  Commissioners Mulvehill and McVoy voted against this budget - the one that reduced electric rates by 6.2% since it was thought that the city would need to rely on the transfer of the reserve money.  They also didn't like getting rid of the conservation program - but that also contributed to the decrease in utility rates.

Mayor Triolo also talked about how the city really needs to focus on streets and sidewalks in under-served areas of the city, particularly the south and west sides.  She mentioned a new business attraction program that will allow businesses to take advantage of lower rates, equal or better than FPL's, and that will promote economic development and job creation.  She was happy that Mulligan's is opened in the NEW casino building and that other tenants are finishing their build-out.  She also acknowledged problems with the building - water intrusion, etc. - and that the city will not accept the building until those issues are fixed by the contractor.

She also was very clear about her position on heights in the downtown.  She emphatically stated that she does not want to see skyscrapers in the downtown.  She reminded everyone that the only place we are talking about buildings up to 65 feet in height is the area east of Federal where there are already buildings of that height or higher.  She would even restrict buildings from going to 65 feet from 45 feet only if they provide at least 50 hotel units.  She stressed that having hotels in the downtown is an important part of job creation and helps keep tourist money in downtown Lake Worth as opposed to sending it to other areas of Palm Beach County.

The Mayor also said that they are working on resolutions to long--standing legal issues and lawsuits. These include the Greater Bay lawsuit - which appears for discussion on tonight's agenda - and the Sunset property mediation.  She gave out great praise to the city's new set of attorneys for assisting in this process.

During the question and answer portion, many questions were asked about the current status of the Gulfstream Hotel.  She said that she knew of two bona fide offers from people that want to buy the property, but they haven't been accepted by the owner.  She pointed out the the city is limited in what it can do to push things along there.

There was a whole discussion about parking in the downtown - the Mayor said that we are not at a point where we need a parking garage, that there is parking available but it may not be always in the most convenient location.  She did not like the idea of parking meters in the downtown but said that the city will be enforcing the four hour maximum limit for parking - which hasn't really been enforced before.

There were a lot of questions surrounding parking at the beach and handicapped access to the new building.  There is talk of a 10 passenger shuttle, perhaps two, that would ferry people from the fairly distant parking area during construction and perhaps after as well.  The Mayor pointed out that the current Commission is left with decisions made by previous Commissions on the site design and that there are some issues that need to be addressed.  She has also looked into an electric shuttle service like Delray employs that moves people around town and to the beach - operated by college-aged kids.

All-in-all, it was an enlightening, candid discussion presented with optimism and confidence - something that we have come to expect from Mayor Triolo.

ST. LUCIE COUNTY SUPERVISOR OF ELECTIONS ATTEMPTS TO STEAL ELECTION

I would say that someone has a hard time accepting reality.  Things at the trivial blogger's household are bleaker than usual - I hear that she is covering all shiny objects as part of her mourning process.  Click title for link to a press release from the West campaign.

Election Reflections...

Let's talk a little about the election that took place last Tuesday, and the campaigns leading up to it.  As our experiment in self-government continues, it's a good idea and take a step back to look at elections and what they are designed to do and what they aren't designed to do.  At their best, campaigns and their associated debates and discussions should revolve around what the major issues of the day are in a given community, state or nation.  I am sure that everyone would agree that we were anesthetized by the mind-numbing ads coming from the state and national elections of 2012.  It was pretty much a wall-to-wall barrage of political commercials, mostly negative.  These pretty much were run non-stop from August through election day itself.  Amid all of this noise, sneaking in at the bottom of the ballot was a small but consequential race for District #2 City Commissioner for Lake Worth.

Before I go too much further, I want to let you know that this is my plea to move the municipal elections in Lake Worth back to March.  This item, along with the height issue (maybe) will be on the ballot slated for a special election in March 2013.  Money, time and effort are all key ingredients that go into any campaign.  How can the candidates that run for a seat in Lake Worth draw much attention and resources when you have all the noise going on in the form of state and national elections in even-numbered years.  I can't tell you the number of times that we heard people say that they were involved in the presidential campaign and couldn't devote time to the local Lake Worth race.  The same was said as an excuse, a legitimate one, to not give as much or any money to a local campaign.  How then, with restricted resources, can a local municipal race pierce through this political fog?

We have to keep in mind too that there is a built-in distortion between the voter turn-out in even and odd numbered years.  In odd-numbered years, we have three seats - two commissioners and the mayor - that play to an audience of about plus or minus 3,500 voters.  In this past election, 8,152 voted in the District #2 race.  So not only were candidates competing for more limited resources in terms of time, attention and money, but they had to broadcast their message to a larger audience - which draws even more resources in order to get your message across.

Campaigns give us an opportunity to discuss the major issues of the day and we need to realize that such a discussion is healthy and required for our representative form of government to function well - especially at the local level.  In Lake Worth, we almost didn't have that opportunity this year - perhaps for some of the reasons I already identified.  The District #4 race ended up being uncontested.  Thankfully, we were spared another term of the current Commissioner that occupies that seat as She Herself chose not to run for another term.  Getting John Szerdi up on the dais is a good thing, but we missed the opportunity to discuss the city's pressing issues of the day through the debate and conversations that would ensue had the seat drawn two or more candidates.

We came very close to that happening in the District #2 race.  For a while, it seemed that it was a "gentleman's agreement" where one side pledged we won't run someone against your guy if you don't run one against ours.  Now wouldn't that be sorry state of affairs.  Lost would have been the opportunity to talk about slum and blight, the high utility rates our residents face and the sorry state of much of the city's infrastructure.  Had we not had a race for the District #2 seat, the incumbent Commissioner could freely continue to misrepresent what is present in the city charter that explicitly allows the sale of the electric utility.  This coming from a person that was an active party in two petition drives - one to withdraw the land use and zoning designation for the beach and one related to regulating building heights in the downtown that we will see in March 2013. One would think that with such first hand knowledge of the referendum process and proponent of "letting the people vote" would think that such a referendum on the sale of the utility would be a good thing.  This hypocrisy was exposed for all to see in this campaign and, unfortunately, enough people seemed to think that it was o.k. to lie about such a matter and they put the person proffering the idea that the charter prevented the sale back on the dais - period.

So campaigns and elections are fundamental, almost sacred, elements in our representative form of government.  We need a quieter time of the year to focus on our local issues and November elections do Lake Worth a disservice.

The boat ramp is taking shape!

From an Ethics Seminar today...

Put on by the Palm Beach County Planning Congress in Boca Raton today.  I led a panel discussion on "old" and "new" media and its impact on ethics and corruption.  More to come...

MAYOR PAM TRIOLO TO SPEAK AT PARROT COVE NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION MEETING

Parrot Cove Neighborhood Association invites everyone to attend their Monday, November 12 meeting at 7:00 pm when Mayor Pam Triolo is the guest speaker. She will update the community on issues facing our City including the budget, electric provider, beach project, LDR's (land development regulations), height restrictions and will answer your questions.

The meeting takes place at Believer's Victory Church, 10th Avenue North and north Lakeside Drive.

Everyone is welcome to attend.

Local Results

Commissioner Dist No. 2 - LAKE WORTH(1)  
17 of 17 Precincts Reporting
                         Percent  Votes
Christopher McVoy 57.68% 4,419
Jim Stafford         42.32% 3,242

4 men arrested in Perrysburg for stealing Romney signs while driving sheet metal union truck | cleveland.com

Click title for link to see what happens in another place if you steal political signs.  I'd just like to note that there are very few Stafford signs left in the city and much random placement of McVoy signs in their place.  In walking neighborhoods, many times McVoy signs are planted on properties with vacant houses or ones without registered voters in them.

Character is determined by what you do when you think no one is watching.