Dear Readers……

On Wednesday November 9, 2022 at the Town Commission Meeting in Jarvis Hall our Town Manager under New Business wants to receive authorization and approval from the Commission to negotiate a contract to purchase a 9- unit  multi-family property on Bougainvilla that the Town already received two appraisals for between $2.4 million and $3.75 million for future use to build a new multi- million dollar Public Safety Complex!……

We  heard from this same Town Manager, town staff and some Commissioners a few months ago that we needed to raise the millage for lack of funds!…..

As a result of those Commissioners who listened to those they represent and prevailed to not raise the millage we were told we needed to remove capital improvement projects due to this loss in revenue….

There was no discussion when these claims were made….as once again the Commission left it up to thIs Town Manager and staff to cut out items…..

What did they remove?…. Resurfacing our streets along with some erroneous and unneeded new town events….

This came after the opening blow at the first budget meeting last summer…. when the Town Manager and this Commission took away the $1.6 million dollars that was “ earmarked”  ( as stated when they put forth the 2022 town budget archived on video…)…for El Mar Drive to be refreshed in 2023!…..

El Mar Drive has now been relegated for yet a third round of costly design plans in 2025 with possibly being implemented in 2026  if this time it succeeds…..meaning El Mar Drive will sit dormant for 2-3 more years with a few handfuls of paltry “ fixes” such as the piecemeal sidewalk and swale patchwork witnessed since the demise of the 2nd costly and unwanted incarnation El Mar project! …..

Unfortunately this travesty was aided and abetted in large part by two stake-holding hoteliers who decided to put all their time and effort towards fear-monger in order to remove Aruba Beach Cafe’s outdoor dining in the Ocean Plaza, in my opinion…

This purchase of yet another town property after paying $5 million for the parking lot across from Walgreens shows we have money and that the money is being designated for more parking and possibly now for those who work in the town rather than for those who live here and pay the taxes!…..

This town has not grown…..It is no larger than it ever was… due to our town limits…north to south and east to west….

This  town has a volunteer fire department that is handsomely paid for what they are able to do here….. Just look at all the equipment that now is need of  a state- of- the- art complex to house it….

This town has a small BSO police presence and AMR ambulance service….. due to its size and population….

Why would we or should we purchase land and even contemplate building a Public Safety Complex based off of only one Public Safety study?….

We will still be the same size town and we will still require mutual aid….. that won’t change….

Also, on Wednesday night’s agenda is a 90 day extension for the VFD contract…..and once again this commission has chosen not to look at alternative fire department coverage from Pompano Beach and/or Fort Lauderdale or the BSO…

If the ultimate plan of this administration, and commission is to build a multi- million dollar Public Safety Complex then surely alternatives should be up for discussion and executing bids…….such as using other municipalities as Sea Ranch Lakes does and seeing what BSO would offer as a comparison …..

We will always have a finite number of taxpayers footing the bill……

As I have stated in the past, I believe in the future small municipalities such as ours will be to incorporate with the county for public safety services and to become satellite towns due to the lack of sustainable funding for these services….and the retirement funding for our increased town employees….

It is time to stop the purchasing of more and more land for parking lots and future mega structure builds… and step back to fulfill the fiscal responsibility owed to our residents and our small town….

It is long overdue for this Commission to finally step up and take back the control of the dais, the agendas and to represent their constituents by turning down this purchase and any monies planned for building an overblown Public Safety Complex and/ or Town Hall Complex…..that does not fit the town character, town size or town needs….

Are we at a crossroads in our town which will determine its future….. Will we retain our low- rise heights and charm? …..

For those who think of course we will…..maybe you need to think again….

To this resident….when you really take a hard look at these ongoing Town staff led acquisitions… I sure wouldn’t bet on it!….

More to come….

Link to Agenda item purchase..

https://d3n9y02raazwpg.cloudfront.net/lbts/184007b4-93d1-4455-a046-0ebfcb6f6f86-7696ef63-1e0d-4391-b610-4fac8121a64c-1667588328.pdf

https://legistarweb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/attachment/pdf/1641344/11-9-22_AM_4512_Bougainvilla_Property_Purchase.pdf

Dear Readers…..Did we witness a reprieve or a do-over….and we can get on with it?….

Tuesday night’s LBTS Town Commission meeting was just a scintilla size improvement over the previous two meetings with our newly seated commission……

Again on this agenda was 12B to revisit and /or to continue to allow Aruba Beach Cafe outdoor dining in the Ocean Plaza …… It was put on by Commissioner Oldaker, a vocal opponent to allowing Aruba the space ….A careful read of his agenda item put forth a short- term reprieve to ” transition” out….With that…. Commissioner Oldaker tried to rewrite history of what took place on April 26th….. in my opinion and  if that wasn’t bad enough …..he proceeded to put his new fellow Commissioner Poloupoulous on the hot seat with Oldaker’s interpretation of this writer and others calling for a separation of what Poloupolous can and cannot vote on…. Which is exactly what was rectified following this unnecessary time wasting diatribe!….

If you were in the hall you heard the groans loud and clear that Oldaker’s “ line of questioning “ was a bust and you witnessed Commission Polopolous’ robust response to it clearly indicating he was none too pleased to be put in this position especially with what Poloupolous had planned and carried out once this finally concluded…

After this painful droning on by Oldaker that has become his M. O.  ….Commissioner Poloupolous finally did what this writer and so many others gave been calling for and did indeed separate out Aruba thus allowing him to vote due to his having no conflict in doing so requiring him to abstain…..

He seconded Commissioner Strauss’ motion for Aruba to continue for 6 months……

Unfortunately, the commission again confused and with no real guidance from the Town attorney overlooked that they could in fact have put forth a year extension due to the agenda item for Aruba allowing for it as it was not designated under the same extraordinary circumstances 6 month requirement the downtown restaurants were per the agenda item they fell under….

Commissioner Poloupolous offered up the year extension but it went fell on deaf ears and was not enacted…. A big mistake and real missed opportunity that could have gone a long way toward compensating Aruba for the unnecessary blind-sighting thrust upon them by the Town manager…

The vote was called and passed 4-1 with Oldaker surprisingly voting with the majority…..Vice Mayor Malkoon voted against…. This writer believes he only joined to be on the prevailing side which allows for him to bring it back and further torture us all with his long winded  pontifications..that repeatedly run counter to those he swore to represent…

Commissioner Poloupolous then went on to ask the Town Attorney that he be allowed to separate out Mulligans Restaurant ( a family benefit connection) from the rest of the downtown restaurants in order to vote on their extension which he did ….This should have been the case from the get- go of his taking his place on the dais in March and  preventing the ensuing fiasco we all witnessed from the previous two commission meetings and the unnecessary fallout that resulted from not separating conflict properties from non- conflict properties…

Our… Town attorney who has been in her position since 2009…..should have been advising for the separation of properties and of issues concerning Commissioner Popoloupolous’ conflict properties from non- conflict properties before any items were addressed rather than six weeks in and the Commissioner asking ( although it was certainly planned ahead of the dais exchange) it be allowed!…. What a disservice to this commissioner, the dais, the business owners and the residents!…. Maybe it’s time to look for another Town attorney….as it seems that being in this position too long has diminishing returns….as we saw with the last longtime Town attorney we dealt with prior to 2008…..

This separation can and must continue throughout Commissioner Popoloupolous’ time on the commission to assure us we will have the full representation of all 5 commission votes and to assure his required abstaining does not adversely impact the businesses or the Town unnecessarily….

Let’s hope this puts an end to the massive time consuming mess we all witnessed last month and we can get on with the much desired and wanted upgrade of added and integrated dining space in the plaza and downtown and not an overblown  pie- in- the sky- redevelopment scheme …..that is not needed….

This separation of voting allowing for the 5 commission votes came along with the surprising but much needed appointment of Public Works Director Ken Rubach as Deputy Town Manager….He will now be the point person in charge of  the Ocean Plaza/ Downtown Revitalization / CIP ….. This should rectify the ongoing insufficiencies and debacles brought about by Town Manager Connors inability to lead as her predecessors Hoffman and Bentley!…

Unlike Connors, Rubach has the experience and the personality to be a Town manager…in my opinion…

One final note… it is now time for real guidance from our Town attorney on procedures on the dais for this commission when it comes to motions, seconds and discussion … She used to provide it and now seems to sit back and does nothing … why?…. Too long in her job?…..

Monday May 16,2022 at 6:30 the third community outreach for downtown takes place in Jarvis Hall … No telling what this will unfold …. Fingers crossed!….

In the meantime the massive amount of people for the extension of Outdoor dining in the Ocean Plaza and our Downtown can not let down their guard and must keep up on its progress to make sure that this commission and this administration follow through with what was and is clearly non- wavering overwhelming support!….

More to come…..