Lake Worth Beach will need to enact big budget cuts to find the money to repair public buildings, one elected leader is saying after voters rejected ballot measures he championed.
Voters on March 10 overwhelmingly rejected ballot proposals that would have removed their right to have the final say on leases for organizations seeking to rent public land for up to 99 years. That will make it more expensive on taxpayers should the city move forward with much-needed fixes to city-owned properties such as its golf course or old City Hall, City Commissioner Anthony Segrich said.
Segrich had hoped voters would give him and his fellow commissioners the power to give final approval to leases to companies or other organizations seeking to rent sections of the golf course or the beach. That would have enticed businesses to invest in city-owned property, paying for repairs and upgrades instead of leaving that cost to taxpayers, Segrich said.
But almost 80% of voters said “no” to the measures Segrich supported.
“We already don’t budget enough for our roads and infrastructure,” Segrich said. The municipal government would need to cut spending 5% to 15% “across the board” to pay for upgrades and repairs, Segrich said city staff members have told him. He estimated that golf course improvements could cost taxpayers $750,000 to $1 million.
“I think the results represent a deep-seated mistrust of the commission and its performance over the past several decades,” Segrich said. “It’s incumbent on us to earn that trust.”
Tackling smaller projects, such as the K Street parking garage downtown, will help with that, he said.
Former City Commissioner Kim Stokes, who led the effort to reject the ballot measures, said the results send a clear message to commissioners.
“We’re hoping the commission will now understand it really is the majority of residents who cherish our public spaces,” Stokes said.
Stokes and the organization she leads, Lake Worth For All, told voters for months that public access to city-owned beaches and parks would be threatened by private takeovers if the measures pass, leading to expensive fees for visitors and the loss of public control over the properties.
Segrich called that a “bald-faced lie” due to legal restrictions on city-owned properties limiting what can be built there.
Stokes and Lake Worth For All asked voters to reject all five ballot proposals. But voters approved two changes: one changing the city charter to state that the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections is in charge of certifying the city’s election results, and another requiring city commissioners to start searching for a new city manager within 90 days if the sitting one leaves the position.
“I don’t think it makes sense to give city power to a county organization,” Stokes said. “I don’t want to make things partisan, but we are seeing across the country a race to gerrymander and influence elections outside what we’re used to. We have seen our governor remove elected supervisors of elections and replace them with his own.”
Lake Worth Beach and the county’s other municipalities already have the county elections office certify their election results, but Lake Worth Beach had not codified that into city law. When Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, first took office in 2019, he removed Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher, a Democrat, replacing her with Republican Wendy Link, who has since become a Democrat.
Stokes wanted commissioners to form a committee to review the city charter and come up with ballot questions.
One ballot question asking voters to remove references to the city-owned police and fire departments sits at a tie, unofficial results from the Supervisor of Elections show. A machine recount of ballots will be conducted, as state law requires, followed by a hand recount if the result shows a difference of less than 0.25% of all ballots cast.
Email news tips and article ideas to Chris Persaud at cpersaud@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Lake Worth’s no vote shows ‘deep-seated mistrust,’ city official says
Reporting by Chris Persaud, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
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