Government shut-down

Dear Editor:

Shutting down the government is the most unpatriotic thing Congress could do.

We elected the 535 men and women who serve in the House and Senate to do a job – and that job does not include such extreme partisan bickering that they become incapable of rectifying their differences to keep the government running.

Congress had a deadline: 11:59 PM EDT Monday night. Since they failed to meet it and the government has shut down, every single one of the 535 members should be voted out in their next election.

Lt. Col. Allen B. West, USA (ret)

U.S. Congressman (2011-2013)

Praises for devoted teachers

Dear Editor:

I hear so many stories this school year about good/bad teachers and it is only a month-plus into the school year.

So I wanted to write this letter and show those who speak poorly that there is good … even great, out there.

On a recent Wednesday there was a torrential downpour as I was driving my son to school. As I pulled up to the car line, I noticed the lot was flooded and yet teachers who were drenched to their hips, cold and holding umbrellas as lightning hit all around walked to each car and sheltered each child to the school. Some carrying the littlest one to the door. Now that’s devotion to each and every child! It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a WHOLE school come together and take care of their own. It all works under the direction of the principal, Dr. Kaye at Somerset Pines Academy.

So know although its early in the school year, there are MANY wonderful teachers out there and I am grateful to ours!

Let’s start praising those who do so much for our children because, like our children, they too need a pat on the back every once in awhile to make them feel appreciated.

Dana Wade

Deerfield Beach

“Taxation without representation”

Dear Editor:

My father, who was a college professor, once told me that you could be the smartest person in the world, but if you do not have any common sense, you’re not going far in life.

This [city] commission needs to make some hard choices. Stop the spending — you can’t just raise taxes or the fire fee every time you need more money. You can’t spend more than you take in, period. Where are the people supposed to get the money? We can’t just go ask for a raise when we need more money with the insurance, and just about everything is going up. What are we, the people, supposed to do? Isn’t that what the revolutionary war was about — taxation without representation?

Steve Fabrizio

Deerfield Beach

RE: Fire fee, taxes

Dear Editor:

I have to respond to the comment made by one resident [“Deerfield passes NEW $175 fire fee, Sept. 19 Observer] concerning how unfair it is for people from Century Village to pay the $175 fire fee when they only occupy units comprising 1,000 sq ft.[or less].

The fact is that Century Village [in District 3] uses the services of fire-rescue more than any other district in Deerfield Beach, and, aside from District 2, they pay next to no real estate taxes.

District 1 presently pays approximately 48 percent of the total taxes in the city and yet those people who contribute the least – Districts 2 and 3 — constantly complain!

The reason that Deerfield Beach is going broke is that out of approximately 74,000 residents who live in Deerfield Beach, only approximately 35,000 actually contribute to its tax base!

Allowing Century Village to be developed here in Deerfield Beach has turned out to be one of the most fiscally irresponsible decisions ever made! This development is a burden to our city and has caused and will continue to contribute to the financial downfall of Deerfield Beach!

Pat Jolivet

Resident of The Cove

Deerfield Beach

Dog owners: Control your pets

Dear Editor:

I have a note that I would like posted in the newspaper about warning dog owners to be in control of their dogs. My small dog was attacked by two large dogs. The owner did not have control of the dogs and they belted out of their collars to attack my dog. Luckily, my dog survived!

Joan Murphy

Lighthouse Point

Back to Work!

Last month, we got back into the swing of things with the first meeting since June when we broke for Summer Recess.

A great deal was accomplished over the summer. With unemployment rates lower than the state and national rates, a seaport that makes us a relevant force in the global community, and with investments into county assets that draw tourism and create even more economic growth; Broward County is hard at work for you, and it is indeed working.

As we plan the future use of your tax dollars in a series of two budget hearings on Sept. 10 and 24, the Board of County Commissioners will discuss and vote on the Fiscal Year 2014 Broward County Budget. The County’s General Fund reserves are in a healthy state and have received favorable ratings from multiple credit reporting agencies. In fact, Standard and Poor’s (S&P) has revised their Financial Management Assessment (FMA) from “good” to “strong” based on the county’s financial management practices. The common theme from all the reporting agencies is that local governments are strongly discouraged from utilizing onetime funds, such as reserves, to fund recurring expenses such as personnel salaries and benefits for other constitutional officers in the county. The Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) recommends that regardless of a county’s size, at a minimum, their reserves should maintain no less than two months of General Fund operating revenues or General Fund operating expenditures. The informal policy of the Board of County Commissioners has been to not expend funds from the reserves unless there is a dire emergency. This practice negates the need for short-term borrowing during the first two months of the fiscal year before property taxes are received.

Our responsible budgeting leaves us in a stable position to handle any and all situations we may face here in South Florida with the threat of disastrous hurricanes such as Katrina, Rita and Wilma. We’re still waiting on reimbursements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) related to Hurricane Wilma, and, despite that, we still thrive in the economic climate the rest of the nation is facing.

We owe it to the residents of Broward County to continue being responsible with county’s millage rates, even during an economic uptick.

The real economic stimulus is when tax payers get to keep more of their-hard earned money and spend it how it best suits their needs. This is what really helps to make Broward County a better place to live, work, play and raise a family.

Chip LaMarca

Broward County Commissioner

Deerfield Jackals are waiting!

Dear Editor:

Our elected officials need to watch closely what they say, how they vote, and who they are seen with in public, because the voters may be watching/listening … closer than they think.

Our elected officials need to understand that they REPRESENT the people, and need not always follow the administration’s wishes, nor vote what they want for themselves. I listen to some really dumb things come out of the mouths of supposedly intelligent elected people, who profess to know it ALL.

And when they are talking, they expect voters to believe they’re working in our best interest.

Today’s voters aren’t as naïve as many elected officials may think, and it’ll be proven at the polls next time around, just like the last Mayoral race.

The old saying is, “You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool ALL of the people ALL of the time.”

One major problem Deerfield Beach is having is the nonchalant, casual manner the vast majority of our voters take toward our twice-per-month commission meetings at City Hall. Our four commissioners also hold quarterly meetings in their respective districts, and often have fewer than a dozen residents attend. We’ve done nothing to increase attendance at these meetings over the past several years. Only when a major neighborhood issue is being confronted do the voters show up in large numbers.

We desperately need a change here in Deerfield Beach, and you’d best believe that it’s coming soon. The poor attitude/climate found in our current city administration and their ‘deceitful’ ways dictate a change long overdue.

These executives tend to shut out any public input, or distort the facts so badly that the average John Q. Public is frightened away.

How can we be polite and respectful to those kinds of leaders?

We cannot and we will not allow our city to be run by a pack of Jackals feeding in our wallet!

Nancy Foreman

Deerfield Beach

RE: Millage rate, BUDGET

Dear Editor:

I was quoted in your Sept. 5 issue. However, I needed to be quoted in total. [At the Sept. 3 city commission meeting,] I began by stating I do not want people who pay little or no taxes telling me I should pay… Later, I agreed with Mayor Robb that there needs to be cuts in the budget, if I have to pay higher taxes.

Judy Giller

Deerfield Beach

Editor’s note: Due to space and deadline constraints, it is not always possible to run every speaker’s quote in full on a late-breaking story. We reserve the right to make editorial decisions based on length and content.

2013 Property Tax Rate Increase!

Dear Editor:

Citizens of Deerfield Beach, have you noticed that the city commission wants to raise the city property tax rate by more than one mill? What happened to the promise that the Utility Tax would help to avoid increases in the property tax rate. We’re now back to the pre-utility property tax rate in just one year.

The new mayor even campaigned against the Utility Tax and now she wants both that and a large increase in property taxes. I guess we were fooled again by promises from politicians that seem to vanish once elected. Other surrounding towns (Lighthouse Point and Pompano Beach) have held their rates. Why can’t Deerfield Beach? What can be done?

Attend the hearings and voice your objection.

David Nace

Deerfield Beach

Why are your taxes going up?

Dear Editor:

This budget cannot be considered without touching the conclusions brought about by the Fitch ratings downgrade of our municipal bonds.

[Regarding the merger with BSO fire-rescue], the former commission was sold a bill of goods and voted with the city manager’s endorsement to merge the fire dept. with BSO in 2011. They were told to expect an immediate savings of $1.6 million in addition to long-term savings. The projections were based upon a cursory, one-year cost analysis that was provided by the county. There are not any savings that have been clearly identified to-date.

With the passage of the 10 percent Utility Tax, the commission figured they could lower the millage rate by 1 mill – not knowing that it was creating financial chaos.

Please do not blame this newly-elected commission for the sins of the past.

We are now faced with cleaning up the mess.

Jean M. Robb,

Mayor

Deerfield Beach

How to be RIGHT and WRONG at the same time

I had a dream. No, it was not a “bad” dream, where you wake up and find that it was just a dream and everything is really okay. Just the opposite. This was a “good” dream, from which I awoke and found that everything was the way I had left it: personal fears and indecisions, worldwide chaos and an America ravaged and heading for the imperial dump heap.

In my dream, I was in a band playing a guitar. The leader was a guy named Evie, who was with me overseas in WW 2, and who I liked very much. In my dream, Evie was the band leader and I was a musician in the band. The music we were playing was dreary and dull, and the audience was responding with yawns and squirming in their seats, and wondering how any music could be so dull and uninspiring.

Having been an entertainer most of my life, I knew what that band needed to perk the audience up and give them a lift. So I picked up a pair of drum brushes and began filling band sounds with rhythmic swish beats, and the audience, feeling the difference, began to swing in their seats and were immediately all smiles.

Then, I told Evie the band also needed a singer who could vocalize with power and class. And maybe a number that called for audience participation. With that, Evie got upset and brought in some musicians who made the band sound more and more non-listenable. Next, Evie told me I was fired and asked what he owed me. I was flabbergasted, but I managed to say: “A hundred bucks,” which he gave me.

Then I woke up, the dream still hanging on in my mind like leech.

I couldn’t help, in my waking mind, analyzing the dream and trying to discover what this crazy incident was trying to tell me. Having been a musician and entertainer, I knew in my mind and heart that what I had done for the band was right. I say again, I KNEW I was RIGHT.

Then, like a mental flash I realized that I was also WRONG. Evie had an idea of what a band should sound like and I had tried to change the sound…HIS sound to MY sound, which told me in unmistakable terms that, although I was right, I was also WRONG. And I had better understand that and learn to live with that DUAL opinion…in music, and in all things in life. It was proof that dreams do teach us something. This doesn’t mean I forfeited my opinion; that will always be sacred to me. But it also means that every human being (even Evie) has an opinion that is just as sacred to them. And, whether I agree with it or not, I should respect that.

Jim Moore,

Tallahassee

Citizens, take an interest in your city

Dear Editor:

I sit in the audience during many Deerfield Beach city commission meetings listening to our leaders tell us what a wonderful job they’re doing, and saying our city is in great shape.

Transparency in our local government just isn’t there, folks. They don’t answer letters promptly, forget to return phone calls, or just plain ignore anyone who has a problem or something negative to say about operations.

At meetings, they talk down to citizens making a complaint or they have an inappropriate remark about the person’s appearance, spelling or discredit their background any way they can.

Those actions alone discourage many of our voters from attending city meetings or volunteering … folks don’t want to feel public scorn or reprimanding from our commission.

The only time we seem to get a “full house” at one of our meetings is when the public has a major complaint about how things are being run in our city government.

Things like the Utility Tax passed without a public vote, or the transfer of our Deerfield Beach Fire-Rescue Dept. to Broward County, leaving our firefighters with a pension program second to none …It will probably bankrupt this city in a few years if not corrected immediately in this current budget.

The rapid addition of upper management personnel, BIG salaries, secretaries and expenses, while at the same time “outsourcing” almost half our budget just doesn’t make any sense to me at all.

Citizens of Deerfield Beach, rise up, accept the challenge to take back our city government now, or forever pay the price for your lack of involvement!

Trust me, you’ll be glad you did, and you’ll be many dollars ahead.

Fred Foreman

Deerfield Beach

Anyone else receive a high water bill?

Dear Editor:

I am sending you the same letter that I sent to the water department of Deerfield Beach. I would like to know if you know or have any information of any other person who received a bill this high like I did or any other problems with their water bill.

To whom this may concern:

I’m writing this letter to inform you that I’m disputing the amount owed on my water bill dated June 25, 2013. I received the bill on July 1 and it was addressed to Felix Rodriguez, my deceased husband, but the bill itself doesn’t reference my address but rather an incorrect service address.

Please note the bill is in the amount of $116 and due July 25. When I received the bill, I was surprised to notice a $10 service fee on the statement; therefore, I called your office on July 2 and spoke to Sandra Leone to discuss the fee. Sandra informed me the $116 was not my bill, that I had a bigger problem, and recommended I come into City Hall to discuss.

On July 3, I went to City Hall and spoke to Sandra. She informed me the amount owed on my account was $525.22! … I was shocked! Sandra first told me I had a leak in the water line, but later confirmed my meter had been checked and there was no leak. She then informed me that someone stole my water!

I have resided at this address since 1989 and I have never paid a bill of this extent.

I also have a lock on the faucets outside the house, therefore refuting that someone stole my water. I find it coincidental the address on the original bill never had grass on the front of the house before; but, in the month of May, they added a new lawn. One can surmise the owners had to water extensively to get the new lawn to take.

There are too many things that don’t add up on this water bill and I am not paying the amount of $525.22 that it states I owe. I request you to perform an investigation into this issue and inform me in writing of the results.

Rosa M. Rodriguez

Deerfield Beach

RE: Proposed millage, fire fee increases

Dear Editor:

The city of Deerfield Beach has proposed a 20.17 percent increase in the millage rate and a 29.63 percent increase in the fire assessment fee.

This is on top of the increase in property assessments because of rising values. I urge the commission to say “no” to any increase and the resulting out of control spending.

Robert Lloyd

Deerfield Beach

Minimum wage discussion goes back to FDR

Dear Editor:

In 1938, FDR passed a bill establishing a minimum wage of 25 cents.

And in 1953, I received 75 cents as minimum wage. Wow! FDR did so many great things for working people it is amazing…

One was appointing the first woman to the cabinet [in 1933 — Frances Perkins as Secretary of the Dept. of Labor]. And later, the first JEW in the cabinet in a land full of bigots like Henry Ford, William Randolph Hearst, etc.

Frances said she would only take the job if she could pass child labor laws. Wow, for that time period. Today, in many countries, they still employ young children.

Currently, we want to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $9.00. That is what our President wants to do to help the working poor.

If you think $7.25 is a fair wage, try living on it. In a land of corporate greed, CEO retired from McKesson, Mr. Hammergren, gets the highest pension on record at $159 million. And, the other day, a CEO who bombed out received $90 million.

Yet, working on minimum wage means barely paying for food, shelter, etc., and often being on food stamps and Medicaid.

Whenever this comes up, many lies are told: 1. Increase is still small due to inflation, and won’t make people rich. 2. Increase would go back into the economy for basics not overseas into tax shelters. 3. Many small businesses already pay more than minimum and would increase everyone a slight amount. That would help the economy as money would be spent quickly, not stored in Swiss banks. 4. Businesses would not go out of business — Walmart in Canada pays more than workers here, and still makes record profits. 5. Many small businesses want their workers to make more and spend more. 6. With unions weakened today, many companies try to screw workers calling them contractors, refusing to give them health benefits, and cheating them on overtime, as stated in the book Wage Theft.

Thank God FDR appointed the first great woman to the cabinet — and had Sam Rayburn as Speaker of the House. He makes the present speaker look like a fool.

Marty Weisberg

Coral Springs

Local Youth Sailing Program

Dear Editor:

Learning to sail has been the most rewarding experience of my life and has opened many doors to opportunities that I otherwise would have never been exposed to.

I have had the chance to crew on a variety of boats with many amazing people not only near home, but also all over Florida and in the Abacos.

I owe all of these amazing experiences to my parents, who signed me up for sailing lessons when I was 7 years old and encouraged me to continue, despite my initial protests.

The Youth Sailing Program is a non-profit program run by Hillsboro Inlet Sailing Club (HISC) that teaches children how to observe boat safety and how to sail small boats. Now that I am older, I have been given the opportunity to instruct other kids; this experience has made me realize how educational and fun the Youth Sailing Program is. The most rewarding aspect to me is being able to get the shyest of kids out on their own by the end of the four weeks, instilling a new feeling of courage and independence. But in the same breath, I love seeing naturally outgoing children who show up, ready to start and eager to learn.

Our lessons are open to children older than 8 who are interested in learning how to sail Prams, Sunfish or Lasers. All instructors are volunteers who greatly enjoy seeing the children out on the water despite the occasional crying or screaming.

I strongly encourage all HISC members, and non-members alike, to bring their children, grandchildren, nieces, or nephews to try out sailing.

The next four dates are our fall series — August 3, 10, 17, and 24 (weather permitting). On the fourth date, we always have a picnic. We encourage everyone to come out and celebrate with us! I hope to see old and new faces this coming fall out on the lake!

Mikayla Scott

Deerfield Beach