By Willie Howard
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Updated: 3:19p.m.Tuesday,Feb.1,2011
Posted: 12:25p.m.Tuesday,Feb.1,2011

LAKE WORTH The city could begin laying off employees and cutting hours as early as March to cut spending, City Manager Susan Stanton said this week .
"Our problem in Lake Worth is we spend money we don't have and demand services we can't afford," Stanton said in an e-mail. "We are slowly losing the ability to say it does not matter what it costs...be it recreation, beach development or police protection."
One reason: The taxable value of city property has dropped nearly 47 percent, from a building boom peak of $2.2 billion in 2007 to $1.1 billion in 2010, according to Office of Management and Budget Manager Ed Fry .
For the budget year that begins Oct. 1, Fry is projecting a budget gap of $4.5 million, meaning that spending cuts and new revenue sources will be needed to balance the city's general fund budget.
"I anticipate we will experience another double-digit decline in taxable values," Fry said. "I do not believe it will be a 20-percent-plus decline like the past two years, but it will be significant."
Stanton said fights with the city's three unions are likely to continue, despite a recent ruling that the city must reimburse employees for health insurance costs related to reductions in health benefits during the 2009-2010 budget year.

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By Willie Howard
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Updated: 10:42p.m.Sunday,Jan.30,2011
Posted: 9:03p.m.Sunday,Jan.30,2011

LAKE WORTH The city must reimburse employees for out-of-pocket expenses paid for health insurance during the 2009-10 budget year and must reinstate two former employees, arbitrators ruled recently.
Even though the city provided health insurance to employees, the insurance provided did not constitute no-premium health maintenance organization coverage as required under collective bargaining agreements with three unions, arbitrators ruled.
As a result, the city must identify which of its approximately 300 employees suffered financial losses because of the health insurance change during the budget year that ended Sept. 30 and reimburse them.

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By WILLIE HOWARD
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 6:20 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012
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LAKE WORTH — The $60-per-dwelling fire assessment, approved by the city commission in October to cover the cost of firefighter pensions and widely debated during the fall election, is dead.

In a 3-2 vote Tuesday night, commissioners agreed to $1.5 million in budget cuts and fund transfers to make up for the revenue the fire assessment and a proposed street light assessment would have raised.

Commissioners directed Acting City Manager Steve Carr to bring back at the Feb. 7 meeting language that will officially repeal the fire assessment and amend the budget to cover the cost of firefighter pensions. They also directed staff not to pursue a proposed assessment for street lights that would have raised about $300,000.Click Here To Read Complete Article

By WILLIE HOWARD


Palm Beach Post Staff Writer


Updated: 10:02 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 5, 2012


Posted: 12:57 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 5, 2012


LAKE WORTH Second Avenue North opened to eastbound traffic this morning at the Florida East Coast Railway tracks after being barricaded for about five months.

The road remains one-way for eastbound traffic from A Street to H Street.

City commissioners decided in April to convert Second Avenue North to a two-way road, then backpedaled on the plan when they learned it would cost about $230,000 to modify the railroad crossing arms for two-way traffic.

Commissioners decided Dec. 20 to convert most of the road back to one-way for eastbound traffic, at least for the next year or so.



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By Willie Howard
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 8:34 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2012
LAKE WORTH — Business owners interested in moving to Lake Worth are less likely to pay parking impact fees under an ordinance approved tonight by the city commission.
The ordinance eliminates the $7,500-per-space parking impact fee for businesses that move into existing buildings in some areas of the city.
Zoning regulations require businesses to pay the city for parking spaces based on square footage. A restaurant, for example, is required to have one parking space for every 250 square feet, while a store must have one space for every 500 square feet.

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Posted: 11:03p.m.Sunday,Dec.26,2010
 
A person who has bled to death is not having a health crisis. The crisis was when the blood was gushing. A doctor who doesn't start treatment until the patient has bled out commits malpractice.
 
Lake Worth's unions note that, financially speaking, the city has not bled out. It still has $5.1 million in an emergency fund. The city has not raised its tax rate to the max. Therefore, the unions claim in a lawsuit filed this month, Lake Worth is not, as the city claims, in a state of "financial urgency" and should not use that status as an excuse to cut pay and benefits for employees and managers.
 
The unions also argue that, in any case, the state law defining "financial urgency" is vague, so cities should not be able to use it as an escape clause allowing them to alter collective bargaining agreements. We argue that if there is no good definition of "financial urgency," the law should say: "See Lake Worth."

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