PBSO supporters were encouraged to come to city hall last night and speak to the PBSO issue during Public Commentary. Everyone who spoke said the same thing--keep the PBSO. One from College Park, while sitting in her pew, said that the city manager was no good. People are very passionate about this "spread the word" philosophy and when that happens, it can lead to all sorts of unpleasantness. Another commenter said that if the "three of you get rid of the PBSO, I will start a recall process." Good luck. These commissioners are taking the common sense approach to our financial crisis.
Why is everyone so passionate about the PBSO when it virtually consists of the same people we had before? Perception is the reality. The PBSO has never given us a comparison on crime stats from when they took over to now. Crime is down across the State so it is impossible to factor in that stat. PBSO, as is every other policing agency, is reactive. They do not prevent crime.
I think Seniors understand expenses much more than any demographic group. Most of us end up downsizing as we are now living on fixed incomes. Some are lucky, like former Commissioner Honey Duncan, who just up-sized, moved from Lake Worth, and now lives in Atlantis. Probably Lake Worth taxes were getting too much. :) During this recession, incomes have gone down and the City of Lake Worth is in the same boat as we are and has been trying to operate our city with less revenue as property values continue to plunge. When our income is reduced, we cut our expenses so that we can pay all of our fixed costs and items to sustain ourselves like rent, mortgage, electric, water, food. We don't have the ability to raise more income unless we take a 2nd or 3rd job.
What has happened to get us into this state of affairs? Yes, past city administrations made some bad mistakes that cost us plenty but the bigger picture dictates that is was the banking industry that brought us all to our knees. We have employed a strong city manager who was hired under impossible conditions to make the decisions that will help us be healthy once again. The Unions have not cooperated. The PBSO says that it might.
If everyone knew the circumstances of our dilemma, I wonder what the other 35,000 people in this city would think when they know that services will be cut, we might have to close the library afterall, close the beach and all recreation, etc. We have already closed our pool. What would they think if they knew that certain services we receive from the PBSO already were received when we had our own police department. What would they think if they knew that PBSO costs are unaffordable and escalating year on year while our City income is going down? Would they tell the City to keep spending tax dollars on something we can not afford?
We know that the City is now looking to shift some costs onto all of us on our tax bill because some of us don't pay taxes (our properties are assessed under $50,000 and then there are the homesteads to deal with. Poor people tend to live in affordable housing as do most Seniors). Their argument is that we all should be paying the same for certain services when in actuality, the City can't afford to pay for the cost of that service because of badly negotiated contracts of the past. In tough times you make tough choices. When you spend 50% of your budget on public safety, it is at the absurd. It would be like comparing it to you spending one-half of your monthly income on housing. You would have the common sense to move to something affordable. The City, on the other hand, must raise fees to pay for your desire to keep the PBSO whose cost is unsustainable.
Commissioner Maxwell was right last night when he said that this was political. I couldn't agree more. When you see three commissioners on the dais who have not been the least bit political on this issue get slammed by one who is, and the constant lobbying from irrational people in the community whose only desire is to fire the city manager, doing the right thing by the people becomes much more challenging.
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