Last night, the Palm Beach Gardens city council voted 4-1 (with Matt Lane voting 'nay') to place an amendment on the March ballot to overturn the term limits citizens initiative approved in November 2014 by 79% of Palm Beach Gardens voters. Citizen after citizen took the stand at the meeting with the message "don't touch our term limits." But one of the most illuminating was by resident Sid Dinerstein, a prime mover behind the term limits initiative:
 |
| Sid Dinerstein |
SID DINERSTEIN: The first question I ask after having been here two months
ago was how do five very
well-intentioned city council candidates turn into five special interest
apologists in a wink of an eye. So, I do
what everybody does when they have problems like that and I follow the
money.
So here’s what I figured out: the
extra three years you want the electorate to give you is worth $200,000 to
each of you.
$30,000 plus for your base pay. $20,000 each of your own Cadillac health insurance packages. [To audience] How many of you people get one like that? And $10,000 for the pension that you get that we pay for that no one knows that you get. Then, additional thousands for mileage and giving reimbursements when you reach into our pockets instead of into your own.
Multiply that by three years and you
just pocketed a cool $200,000.
 |
| Marc Pintel's new cap, custom made for him at the Gardens mall |
Once I figured that out, I didn’t have to wonder anymore
what happened to you guys. And why you are so unappreciative of the work we did
when we put our hands in our pockets to get rid of the guys who were never
leaving so we can have five new people just like you.
Furthermore, something that I am guessing you don’t know, in
the David Levy term limits saga we the taxpayers, and this includes you, gave
the city attorney $232,000. That’s what it came to for the privilege of trying
to overturn the will of the voters.
No comments:
Post a Comment