Tuesday night’s Loxahatchee Groves Town Council meeting was reminiscent of an episode of “The Twilight Zone.”
The most important item was an award to highly respected, if a little deformed, Loxahatchee Groves’ own Quasi Modo; apparently the “World’s Ugliest Dog.” Go Quasi.
In a side issue, the trivial matter of deciding the town’s future, the usual three councilmen scaled even dizzier heights of insanity than usual.
Only two applicants were mad, greedy or desperate enough to reach out for the poison chalice of town management. Both, to any intelligent observer and most at the meeting, hopelessly unsuitable.
Vice Mayor Ron Jarriel stated categorically that he would never vote for any management company who could not name their town manager, then two hours later did precisely that.
Councilman Jim Rockett, still under investigation for alleged election fraud and rambling even more inanely than usual, was so one track on dumping the current town manager that he completely forgot his worthless pledge to the people to get the best bang for our buck and voted for a much-less-effective package, which will cost the town (that’s you and me, folks) an extra $4,000 a month.
Hapless proven crook, “deer in the headlights” and Rockett’s alleged election co-fraudster Councilman Ryan Liang looked desperately from Jim to Ron for a clue as to which way to vote, eventually maneuvering himself into last place by asking both applicants to re-affirm their unsuitability, which they obligingly did, enabling Ryan to mumble a pathetic yes, in line with his puppet masters, who had already voted for disaster.
Councilman Tom Goltzené and Mayor Dave Browning were again the voices of reason and sanity. They tried valiantly to move the vote to a rational rejection of both applicants in favor of extending current Town Manager Bill Underwood’s existing contract.
The nasty cabal currently in control prevailed in a sadly familiar and predictable 3-2 vote. The clowns are running the circus!
More than 30 public comments were brilliant, intelligent, rational and worthy of their own sitcom. Resident after resident spoke in favor of the status quo; all but two declaring Bill Underwood’s team the best option.
Ron, Ryan and Jim, determined to hammer the last few nails into their political coffins, ignored the people, smirked and avoided eye contact, as yet again they trampled roughshod over the opinions of the residents, who also happen to be the voters in the next election.
So where does that leave Loxahatchee Groves?
Well, in sinisterly concurrent events, we have the resignation of our law firm, the nonrenewal of our code enforcement contract, the departure of the town clerk, the termination of the current town management contract, three shameful councilmen running the show, and coming soon, a new management company that disqualifies itself from capability on the grounds that it still wants the job!
No fit council, no town manager, no lawyer, no code enforcement, no town clerk. The ship is sinking.
All we need now is a hurricane.
We must all hope and pray that it comes soon in the form of the arrests of Liang and Rockett, the dismantling of the evil in our town, and a march of the people to a correcting election. It can’t come soon enough.
Tim Hart-Woods, Loxahatchee Groves
Well done TIM… You hit all of the nails on the head. It is truly unbelievable that the Town we all created 9 years ago is in these dire straits.