Video from last night's Special City Commission Meeting—Commissioner Szerdi Responding to Election Results

The Economic Impact of the Arts and Historic Preservation in Palm Beach County

Jan Sjostrom, the Palm Beach Daily News (aka, The Shiny Sheet) Arts Editor, has this story today on the economic impact of the arts and historic preservation here in Palm Beach County:

     Cultural and historic preservation groups are coming off a banner year. In 2014-15, elected officials fully funded the grants recommended by the Division of Cultural Affairs, setting aside nearly $43.3 million for the purpose. Another $9.2 million went to Division of Historical Resources grants.

[and . . .]

     Not long ago, dollars were much scarcer.
     “All hell broke lose during the recession,” [emphasis added] said Frank Meiners, Florida Cultural Alliance’s lobbyist. “We got cut by 92 percent. That’s when it became necessary to say not just that the arts are an intrinsically valuable thing, but that they bring tourists and create jobs.”

Look no further than the Red Cross Designer's Show House in the little City of Lake Worth to see the impact of the arts and historic preservation. For more on this, the Lake Worth "Birthday Cake Castle", read Mary Lindsey's special assignment in the Lake Worth Herald. 

Quaker Meeting House, 823 North A Street, Lake Worth, FL 33460

"We can build the world we want - BUT FIRST WE GOTTA SHUT THIS ONE DOWN!"

Do you want your world shut down? 

Swearing in Ceremony - Special City Commission Meeting - 3/16

 Video on the way!

Palm Beach Post editorial board circumvented the news division—a very bad precedent

"It’s healing time, folks."

—Rick Christie, Editor of the Palm Beach Post editorial board, 3/15/2015

Prior to March 3, 2015, there have been no news reports in The Palm Beach Post concerning alleged inappropriate activity by Lake Worth City Manager Michael Bornstein, Mayor Pam Triolo, Vice Mayor Scott Maxwell, or Commissioners John Szerdi and Andy Amoroso. Not one single reference.

However, that didn't stop Stacey Singer at The Palm Beach Post editorial board from "making news" in her endorsement of Commissioner Christoper McVoy and candidate Ryan Maier.

Here's some 'new information' from Stacey Singer in her endorsement of McVoy/Maier on March 3rd:

For a couple of years, City Manager Mike Bornstein has been hosting a private buffet for commissioners before the public meeting.

[and . . .]

The problem is his [Commissioner John Szerdi's] business relationships with a major city developer.

[and . . .]

[Candidate Serge] Jerome is focused on taking needed steps to raise property values. He’s likely to side with the majority.

Note that there is not one single citation to a news item backing up the conclusions of Stacey Singer. If there are, from another source possibly, they are not referenced.

• City Manager Bornstein's "private buffet"? Vice Mayor Maxwell addresses that. 
• Commissioner Szerdi's "business relationships" aren't with a "developer" in Lake Worth. He works for Hudson Holdings in Delray Beach.
• Candidate Serge Jerome, Jr. "likely to side with the majority"?

The most disturbing part of Ms. Singer's endorsement is the unfair treatment of City Manager Michael Bornstein. She writes this:

[Michael] Bornstein insists the meetings are innocent of Sunshine Law violations. That’s probably true, but McVoy has asked the county’s inspector general for an opinion.

Ms. Singer has my email address. My readers would be very interested in proof that McVoy had sought an opinion from the PBC Inspector General, prior to March 3rd.

Ms. Singer, with the data/information she had available, made her endorsements in the City of Lake Worth elections. That is fine. What is not right is damaging the reputation of City Manager Michael Bornstein, including others. The words "Sunshine Law" should not be used lightly, especially by a member of The Palm Beach Post editorial board.

Get the Latest on the LW Golf Course

Chris Fletcher, Golf Operations Manager at the Lake Worth Golf Club, will speak at the regular Kiwanis breakfast meeting, Tuesday, March 17 at 8 AM at TooJays.

Question and answer session follows. Public welcome.

Town of Palm Beach Council President Michael Pucillo: telling it like it is

In a story by Lulu Ramadan in the Palm Beach Daily News (aka, The Shiny Sheet) titled, "Town Council to watch, wait as projects take shape across Intracoastal" is this excerpt addressing residents concern over development projects in West Palm Beach:

     Council President Michael Pucillo suggested limiting council action to “monitoring and staying informed.”
     “There is a significant issue for one municipality to get involved in another municipality,” [emphasis added] Pucillo said. “I think we would take some offense if other municipalities started doing that with us.”
     Pucillo said that individuals have the right to support the lawsuits or object to development, but “as a governmental entity we have to be extremely careful about intervening in the affairs of another municipality.”

 Well said.

CBS12/WPEC reporter JONATHAN Beaton is our local beat reporter

On January 2nd, in the spirit of the New Year, was ebullient with hope that CBS12/WPEC was ushering in a responsible journalistic standard after this report by Lauren Hills I posted on my blog:

     On New Years Eve, Lauren Hills did a story from the American Legion on Dixie Highway here in Lake Worth. It was a good story and she interviewed some local veterans who shared their wishes and concerns on the war in Afghanistan.
     The good people of Lake Worth look forward to many such stories from Channel 12 in 2015.

Earlier in that blog post made this reference to "Matthew Beaton's take on the panhandling issue". The CBS12/WPEC reporter is not Matthew Beaton, it is Jonathan Beaton. I've gone back to the blog post and made the correction.

That said, and on the subject of names, was reminded of Jonathan Beaton's story on February 10th. Three times in the text of the story Mr. Beaton misspells Commissioner Andy Amoroso's as "Amaroso". That was pointed out here. After checking again today, it's still wrong.

FPL's proposed nuclear units 6 and 7: "a major step in the process"

From Susan Salisbury at The Palm Beach Post:

     Florida Power & Light Co. first proposed adding two more nuclear reactors, dubbed units 6 and 7, at its Turkey Point plant on Biscayne Bay 20 miles south of Miami six years ago.
     Now in a major step in the process, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s staff has reached a preliminary environmental recommendation that the licenses should be issued. There’s nothing in the report submitted by FPL and reviewed by NRC staff, to prevent the granting of the licenses, the NRC said.
     The NRC and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are seeking public comment on that conclusion. Interested people can comment on the draft environmental impact statement until May 22, and meetings will be conducted near Homestead sometime in April. The dates have not been announced.

If you're interested in reading the report or making a comment there is a link in the story by Susan Salisbury which includes the docket number.

St. Patrick's Day Parade in the little City of Lake Worth

If you weren't able to make the St. Patrick's Day Parade, AnnaMaria was there and took these wonderful pictures. You might see a few people you recognize. See if you can find Mayor Pam Triolo in one of the pictures; hint, she's wearing green and has a big smile.

Aioli’s Restaurant Ribbon Cutting

Even though the Aioli Restaurant is located in West Palm Beach, the owners are Lake Worth residents. I go there on occasion for lunch and it is always tasty. Convenient by bike or car. 

Commissioner-elect Ryan Maier: Having to live up to Post's editorial board's expectations

Alexandra Seltzer at The Palm Beach Post included this line in her story about Ryan Maier and his exaggerated/false claim of experience on a City of Lake Worth city board:

     While this was his first political run, [Ryan] Maier is a member of the Lake Worth Sister City Board [emphasis added] and is a AmeriCorps VISTA Volunteer.

The Lake Worth Sister City Board no longer exists.

It's not my intention to rehash old news but it's interesting that Commissioner-elect Maier IS NOW "a member" of a Lake Worth city board. Look, Maier and his supporters are not the first ones to twist the truth and/or greatly exaggerate experience to attain a political office. It's been done a few times in recent American history.

However, as Stacey Singer wrote in her endorsement of candidate Ryan Maier:

     The key issue in Lake Worth’s municipal election seems to be trust, or the lack thereof. The question is, which candidates are best positioned to improve that trust?

Rick Christie at the Post editorial board now claims, "It’s healing time, folks."

Mr. Christie: Tell that to the three remaining members of the majority and the city manager ("Mike" Bornstein) who've had their reputations and integrity unfairly questioned. How do you "heal" that?

City of Lake Worth Commission Meeting 9/23/14—Discussion of Invitation to Negotiate (ITN) vis-à-vis the Casino/Beach

This happened to be one of the rare times that I missed recording a City Commission meeting (due to another work-related appointment). Of course, it had to be the day the City Commission discussed the Invitation to Negotiate vis-à-vis the Lake Worth Casino/Beach. A 'enhanced' transcript of this portion of the meeting was used by persons to "connect the dots" to form conspiracy theories about the process prior to the election on March 10th.

By the way, the Lake Worth Municipal Pool is still very much there, as this picture taken today attests. There is a self-described 'journalist' (Margaret Menge) in town who opines that she is not "satisfied with the explanations of Invitation to Negotiate so far. . ." and she asks, "When and where was that discussed in a public meeting?" It should be pointed out her lack of satisfaction and ignorance of the process is by choice, given the information presented here and by the city thus far.

Hopefully this provides some answers, along with the press conference the Mayor held on March 9th in full view of the public and not behind a locked door as was alleged and is completely false.

Below, again, is a video of the discussion on the ITN at a subsequent meeting held on October 7th:

And no story about the Invitation to Negotiate would be complete without noting that Commissioner McVoy voted for this process that he now claims was "fuzzy":

Hey, Ms. "Community Newspaper Journalist", look over here . . . No locked doors!

As seen in the video below, the Mayor appeared in the Commission Chambers, with doors unlocked and no barriers to entry. Anyone who really cared about what was happening could have been there. I was there with a camera to record what was being said. I don't think me being there makes me a "political supporter."; didn't think the truth takes sides.

Mark Easton, publisher of The Lake Worth Herald was there, along with two television crews. [I think that Eliot Kleinberg from The Palm Beach Post was in the corner, but my back was to him and I was sitting in the front row so I couldn't get a real good view.] I was concentrating on what was being said. This press conference occurred at 3 p.m., in the middle of the afternoon on March 9th. Any community newspaper 'journalist' worth their salt would have made sure to be present. It was not a secret meeting. Within a few hours, it was on YouTube for everyone to see.

Oh No, Not Again. Could Charlie Crist run again?

From the Crowley Political Report is this post titled, "Charlie Crist Gets Serious About Florida Senate Race". Here is an excerpt:

     Charlie Crist adviser Kevin Cate is telling CNN that Crist is "being encouraged to seriously consider bringing the people's voice to the U.S. Senate."
     Cate's statement is being seen as Crist's first attempt to go public with the notion that he would be a Democratic candidate in 2016.
     Crist lost a 1998 Senate bid as a Republican running against Democratic incumbent Bob Graham. He lost again in 2010 against Marco Rubio who all but booted Crist from the Republican Party and forced Crist to run as an independent. Last year, the newly converted Democrat lost a close race for governor to Republican incumbent Rick Scott.

On the same topic, from a piece in The Florida Squeeze worthy of a political disclaimer is this:

     Florida’s political media, for whatever reason, sought to pain [sic] Cristt [sic] as a political opportunist. But in this era of term-limits and single-member districts the vast majority of those elected to state offices are opportunists that are constantly office-shopping. Crist was a publicity hound in the 1990s, a young Republican State Senator with ambition and in a hurry – but as a statewide elected official from 2002 to 2009 he showed the type of independence and leadership that Florida’s brightest Democrats of the 1970s and 80s had demonstrated.

It's official: The Florida Squeeze has been squeezed dry.