City of Lake Worth News !!!

Code Director still at it - not only has Armand Harnois proved to be an incompetent but continues his reign of hostility and harassment not only in word and manner but deed by posting a cartoon image of a supervisor shooting an employee asking for overtime. This cartoon might seem funny to the average person but placed at the entrance of his office he again displays his lack of sensitivity for those that work under his despotism.
If he would work as hard on code compliance issues as he does to undermine the heart and mind of code employees the department would become a productive city entity again.
Previous complaints to the city have gone unanswered for all intent and purpose. Someone needs to follow up on this!
Copy of letter and cartoon mailed to me.

Lake Worth gets OK to pay missing stop sign settlement - A Lake Worth family will receive the rest of a $500,000 settlement from the city, from a 2004 missing stop sign car accident that killed their 5-year-old daughter. "Lake Worth Mayor Jeff Clemens, elected last year, was not familiar with the bill becoming law, but offered sympathies to the Salazar family."

What Drought? Palm Beach Is an Island of Green. This article is dated 11/07, has anything changed? Take a drive through Palm Beach. See more on the forum.
 

Out of the past...Paul Boyer......Columbia Daily Herald reports

The Lake Worth Herald - 04/24/08
Grievances? LW Officials Simply Ignore -read the article in the April 24, 2008 publication and see the documentation here.
 

	Open letter to the City of Lake Worth  04/12/08	16K
	A very prompt email reply from David Vespo and email author clarifying questions   04/14/08	53K
	Email exchange between LW Herald, Jeff Clemens and Open Letter author    04/15/08	19K
	Consulting Service Agreement with MT Causey Inc - Three month $425,000 contract	445K

The Lake Worth Herald

Code Director gets Thrashed - read the article in the February 14, 2008 publication and see the documentation here.
Copies of public record documents converted to PDF format for viewing. The second and third files in the list below are the enclosed attached documents in the 02/12/08 Email to Cara Jennings, Dave Vespo, Jeff Clemens, Jo-Ann Golden, Retha Lowe, City Manager, Laura J. Hannah and Leonard Saffir.
The only reply to date" Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently: citymanager@lakeworth.org." Where's the IT Department? Email the city manager? Why bother it doesn't go anywhere! He works for the city and we should be able to communicate with him.
Only three of the seven city officials had the courtesy to reply. I can only assume the other four were on a sabbatical or didn't feel it was important enough to click Reply and give the typical city of Lake Worth cursory response.

	E-mail correspondence from Jo-Ann Golden, Jeff Clemens & Cara Jennings  02/27/08	51k
	Latest highlighted complaint referenced to in the article.	29k
	Unsigned complaint of 06/11/04 referenced in the article.	20k
	E-mail from employee dated 07/20/07	17k
	E-mail from employee dated 02/08/08	15k

Palm Beach Post articles of interest

Lake Worth city manager contract up for vote
 

Lake Worth's laxity invites corruption, acting leader warns
If you read the article you might be curious to see where Finance Director Anne Costello relocated to?

Is this Mark Bates (Interim Finance Director) for Lake Worth??

NORTH PALM BEACH VILLAGE COUNCIL MEETING 6/14/07

Texts copy of meeting highlights below:

Council livid over ‘inordinate’ number of change orders during golf course project

Former Village Manager signed off on 28 change orders for Nicklaus course in 2006 - without formal Council approval

By Denise Jaegers

WeekDay Staff Writer

As he had been previously directed, Village Manager Jimmy Knight presented North Palm Beach Council members with an “Executive Summary and Review” of the 2006 Nicklaus Signature golf course project during last Thursday’s regular Council meeting.

“There was an inordinate amount of change orders during this project that were not done correctly,” said Knight as he started off his report. There were 28 contractual change orders in excess of $753,000 made without explicit Council approval during the 2006
project, he went on to specify.

This news was not well-received by the Council, especially Vice Mayor William Manuel, who voiced his disgust most frequently.

“This was clearly a violation of Village purchasing policies,” said an incensed Manuel. “This was a project that was out of control, and the highest level of management was responsible for this.”

Although none of the officials spoke his name, the ire was clearly directed at former Village Manager Mark Bates, who had signed off on all the change orders, never putting any of them out to bid.

After the air had finally cleared, Knight assured the Council, “deliberate measures have been taken to prevent this type of mismanagement from ever happening again.” In addition, former Police Chief Knight opined he did not believe any criminal acts had been committed by Bates, regarding these specific actions.

The council reluctantly accepted the report by consensus from Knight, after making it clear they were not condoning its contents, nor blaming him for the obvious malfeasance demonstrated by his predecessor.
 

 Random selected news bits:

Our tax dollars at work?

¹ Interim Lake Worth manager to earn $30,000
By Nicole Janok

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 02, 2007

LAKE WORTH — Lauderdale-by-the-Sea town manager Robert Baldwin is expected to make about $3,000 a week after city commissioners met in an emergency meeting Thursday to approve his pay in a 4-1 vote. Commissioner Cara Jennings dissented.

Commissioners chose Baldwin over three other candidates to temporarily lead the city after former city manager Paul Boyer was forced to resign Jan. 17.

Initially, recruiter Colin Baenziger, hired by the commission for its interim and full-time city manager search, estimated that it would cost about $10,000 a month to fill the interim position. So labor attorney Allan Sirmans met with commissioners to approve the additional $2,000 a month that Baldwin had requested.

Commissioner Nadine Burns said she thought Baldwin, who has worked in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea for 11 years, was the best candidate and didn't mind paying him a little more than what was expected. She requested that Baldwin's contract clearly state that he is to perform an assessment of each department during his 10-week tenure with the city.

But Commissioner Cara Jennings disagreed that the city should spend up to $30,000 for an interim city manager and suggested Fire Chief Paul Blockson should take the position. She also said the full-time city manager should be in charge of assessing the city's departments.

"The new city manager will be fully capable of assessing the city and getting the city moving forward," she said.
Commissioner Retha Lowe said she was unhappy with how negotiations had gone with Baldwin but didn't want to delay his arrival.

Baldwin is expected to start in the city by Feb. 13. He will continue to work in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, as he has a clause in his town manager contract that allows him to do outside consulting work. Baldwin will be permitted to apply for the permanent job.
¹ Palm Beach Post

Palm Beach Post Editorial
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Excerpt from P B Post

Lake Worth's suit against residents is outrageous

Conflicting stories have emerged in Lake Worth. The Post just reported that the city is considering cutting 42 positions for lack of money ("Lake Worth officials scrutinizing budget to keep bonfires, egg hunt," Aug. 16). For budgetary reasons, the commission expects to reduce police and fire overtime, emergency rescue staff and recreation activities.

At the same time, the commission determined that it can afford to sue citizens who oppose letting developers take over our beach. The city is suing five residents. People in Lake Worth feel strongly about our beach. Many do not want it developed. But the city commission recently approved a contract with a west-coast Florida company that allows increased beach development ("Lake Worth boosts beach plan by OK'ing new zoning district," March 3).

A group of residents then used its all-American right to circulate petitions asking the commission to reverse its vote or let voters decide whether they want this development. On Aug. 10, the county supervisor of elections reported that they had obtained enough signatures to bring the issue to a vote.

Five days later, the city sued these citizens over the legality of the referendum. I am appalled. What kind of government sues its own citizens for petitioning to keep their park a public park? The city cannot afford to retain staff or current levels of essential services but can afford big legal fees to sue five community leaders? Why are commissioners wasting our tax money to attack people who are working to save our beach?

MARTHA NUNGESSER

Lake Worth

¹Palm Beach Post

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