I have been a resident of Royal Palm Beach for less than two years. My wife and I specifically selected Royal Palm Beach after living the previous 12 years in a northern United States county where more than 200 officials and government contractors had been convicted of corruption during our tenure there.
We lived in a municipality where the city fathers have yet to meet a tax they can’t increase — resulting in the highest tax rates in the state. So when I met Mayor Matty Mattioli and he told me that he will never support a tax increase in Royal Palm Beach, I was thrilled.
Needless to say, honest government with a stable tax rate and a really safe neighborhood were very important considerations in selecting a place to live in Florida.
Matty Mattioli has pledged to never raise our taxes. He hasn’t voted for a tax increase in 20 years. His promises are based on a 20-year track record. We can take his word to the bank.
Also important to us are municipal services. When we were negotiating to buy our home, I asked about services like garbage collection. I learned that garbage is collected twice a week as part of the services Royal Palm Beach provides its residents. Not only is it collected twice a week, but anything you can put at the curb is hauled away. In Ohio, garbage was collected once a week and you had to make special arrangements, and pay a fee, to have anything hauled away that would not fit in a garbage can or typical garbage bag.
Matty Mattioli was on the village council when the decision was made to turn garbage collection over to Republic Services, a company that does a fantastic job, as far as I am concerned.
We also learned that the city fathers (and mothers) in Royal Palm Beach made a decision several years ago to turn public protection in Royal Palm Beach over to the highly professional Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. I sleep better at night knowing that a deputy sheriff resides two doors from me and his marked cruiser is parked in the driveway. Matty Mattioli was a leader in the movement to make our neighborhoods safer. That is why the police and fire unions support him.
In addition to all the above, we have here in Royal Palm Beach a public park system that any city of any size is hard-pressed to match. My wife and I attended West Fest last weekend and just marveled at the outstanding public asset that this incumbent government has created. Mattioli was a prime mover in the creation of this magnificent Commons Park.
As a resident and business owner, the future direction of Royal Palm Beach is very important to us.
We are fortunate to have strong leadership and good government in this city. The elected officials have done a marvelous job of keeping our little piece of paradise a fantastic place to live.
I urge support in next week’s municipal election for Matty Mattioli. He has served this village in an exemplary fashion for 20 years. He was a driving force in all of the positive developments I describe above.
Public service is not new to Matty. As a young man, he volunteered and earned his stripes in World War II as a member of our “greatest generation.”
He spent a career working and supporting his family. He has lived in Royal Palm Beach for more than 30 years. He has been part of the leadership of this community for two decades.
If you strip away the campaign rhetoric and bluster, all three of his opponents say basically the same thing: I am going to do what Matty has been doing. Each opponent puts a slightly different spin on it, but that is the basic message.
As for me, if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it. Re-elect Matty Mattioli. I like my low taxes, excellent public services and safe neighborhood. I will vote for this honest, capable leader who has helped make Royal Palm Beach what it is today — one of the greatest places to live in the USA.
Dan Splain, Royal Palm Beach
