Just a reminder!!Deerfield Beach

Some people keep saying that District 2 has been plagued by the "same old tired regime" in the form of City Governance and Community Leadership.


These are the same folks who voted for Peggy Noland as City Commissioner of District 1 for twelve years.  Twelve years which saw the City bring back that pesky Defined Pension Plan for the Firefighters, The Public Works building, and numerous other expenditures that we as tax payers are still paying for today.  This City is now focused on DBHA, District 2, and making sure that all residents pay their fair share and yet nobody focused on the fact that the Mayor, Peggy Noland, herself is one of the main contributing factors to the downfall and short fall of the City of Deerfield Beach. 


Some want to blame past City Managers, but my take on the subject is...the tax payers didn't hire the City Managers to protect our interest, we hired (well elected) City Officials such as the Mayor and our Commissioners to protect and fight for our best interest.  Well, I can tell you that more often than not our City Officials have not done their jobs and have placed the blame on the City Managers.


Chaz Stevens is quick to point out Lauderdale Lakes, which is a City in peril, because it is bankrupt and scandal after scandal have proven that there was a mismanagement.  The Commissioners placed the blame on the Manager, but the Manager's job is to run the day-to-day operation of teh City w/ oversight and approval by the Commissioners.  The Commissioners, did not check any facts or numbers provided by the Manager and staff and therefore they voted the City to ruin.


Whereas, it may be the Lauderdale Lakes Managers fault that the City is bankrupt, but ultimately the fault remains with the Commissioner for relying solely on faulty information and did not do any work themselves.  We do not pay Commissioners to only make a yea or nay vote.  We pay them to represent us and even when we make a decision/investment with the suggestion of a friend it is still prudent of us to check the facts and numbers to make sure that the investment is worth it.  


The Deerfield Beach City Commission seems to be playing the same games that Lauderdale Lakes played and lost.  


Have you seen the new flyer supposedly answering the questions the residents may have about the City's imposition of the 10% Utility Tax.   Apparently, the City is stating that they imposed the Utility Tax to bring some form equality to the tax base and equalize the financial burden of taxpayers for services like Public Safety, which are utilized by all residents, visitors, passerbys, and other.  I guess the next thing will be a pass thru Deerfield fee, since not all cars who crash on I-95 are Deerfield Beach residents and yet we pay for our Fire Department to service these accidents and admittedly our Fire Department sometimes helps out on crashes on I-95 in Pompano and Boca and their departments do the same.  It's not fair that we pay for that, so with their logic do we now put up a toll to ensure that all vehicles that pass thru Deerfield pay their fair share of these services...


What property owner does not pass on the estimated cost of property tax and fire assessment fees to each renter.  So, every time the renter(s) pay their rent they are paying their fair share.  Conversely, when the property owner receives a benefit or a deduction in property tax, they are not going to pass that savings along to the renter.  Again, with that logic has each property actually utilized the service that they pay for, because if not then the City could use that same logic to charge a visitor fee, just in case any visitor might possibly use the service.


The only thing these Fliers do, is answer the question that the City really does not want unity among the Districts and that a united Deerfield Beach is detrimental to their plans.  That is why they have expended more money that they said we didn't have to enrage District 1 and 4 enough to get them to support this tax imposition.  


If you read the Flyer closely all it says is that we need this tax because 

• District 1 and 4 foot the bill for over half of the services provided by the City
• Deerfield is the only City of it's size that doesn't have a one
• There are other Cities that depend 13% less on property tax because they have a Utility Tax
• So Deerfield can have money to pay competitive wages for mismanagement of tax payer's hard earn dollars.

That's is all it says to me.  

It actually pisses me off that our City would waste money like that to send, post, and distribute that flyer and then strategically place them on the Beach and in District 1 and 4 areas.  

I haven't seen one at any of the parks in D2, I wonder why...

Maybe, if in teh 12 years Peggy Noland was City Commissioner and the last few years that she has been Mayor, the individuals complaining about the leadership in D2 spent half that time actually monitoring and complaining about their leaders maybe then the whole City wouldn't be in the situation we are in.  If their is any truth the stories that the management has been telling about the dire financial situation we are in or are they taking a page from Lauderdale Lakes...

Broke people don't get credit cards, broke people don't make additions to their houses, broke people don't take out loans..unless they know they have the funds already to pay it back or they just don't care...Deerfield Beach City Management and Commission is trying to do just that and they want all the residents to foot the bill for their mistakes and past and present fiscal irresponsibility.

It's time we tell them and show them how we feel about it and make sure that we sign the repeal the tax petition because this is the wrong time to be taxed to fund silly expenditures that do not make us more competitive it just makes us more in debt.