February 14, 2025 • 18 mins
Segrich runs for a seat on the Lake Worth Beach Commission in District 4.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Joel Malcolm for WJNO dot com. My election spotlight
on the city of Lakeworth Beach and there are two
races in Lakeworth Beach and we are focused on City
commission District four three candidates, including incumbent Rinaldo Diaz Anthony Segrich,
one of two challengers to Commissioner Diaz. Thank you for
(00:20):
joining me.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Oh, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
All right, let's before we get into issues around the
city and whatnot, let's talk about Let's talk about you.
First of all. How long have you been in Lakeworth Beach.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, I moved to lake Worth Beach in twenty eighteen
with my awaiting wife, Cheryl, and we just fell in
love with it. It's historic charm, the beautiful shade canopies, vibrant,
walkable downtown and cultural events. It's our forever home.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
All right. Let's get some background on you, a little
bit of you know, bio work and everything else that
you'd like to share.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Sure, so, you know, one of the things that a
lot of people know about me, but take some some
people by surprises. You know, for the longest time, people
would call me shark bite and that's that's because I
got bit by a twelve foot bull shark while commercial
spear fishing right off of West Palm. So kind of
a true Florida story. And that's that taught me a
(01:18):
lot about perseverance and and really changed the course of
my life in my professional career. It led me to
start a business, shark Bite se O, where we did
digital marketing for law firms and doctors offices, dentists and
and and such. Before that, I have a strong background
(01:42):
in executive leadership, working on business process management consulting, so
basically going into businesses and helping them with their organizational dysfunction,
helping the companies developed processes and procedures to work more
efficiently and get the job done for less cost and
(02:03):
in less time and with less personnel.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Let's talk about some of the you know, some of
the things around the city. You mentioned the the historic
charm and whatnot. They've got a couple of issues. Uh.
And I mentioned this to you know, some of the
incumbents that I've spoken with. You know that over this
over several several election cycles, the two things always come up,
the casino building, the pool, uh. And then the other
(02:28):
one was the Gulf stream. I understand the golf stream
is well underway with the renovations, but I wanted to
get your thoughts on all of that stuff, especially obviously
the pool, because I know that's something that hasn't been
decided yet.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Yeah. So, you know, what we've what we've seen since
we've moved to Lake Worth is kind of a slow
and steady decline and the pool is just one example
of that decline. It when doing a public records request,
the city's actually destroyed all records that are over five
years old. So here you have a problem that's been
(03:00):
going on for well over ten years, and we're destroying
the records so that we can't even really get a
good picture of what the problem is. But in talking
with you know, architects and engineers that are very knowledgeable
on the subject, that pool is a minimum of a
fifteen to twenty million dollar problem. And unfortunately, over election
(03:20):
cycle after election cycle, our elected officials and candidates have
not been honest with the people of Lake Worth Beach
about it. When I talk to people, you know, they're
shocked and they basically say to me, you know, I've
never heard that. And the truth of the matter is,
you know, the pool wasn't built on piles. The casino
(03:41):
complex wasn't built on piles and sand shifts, and so
now we have ourselves a fifteen to twenty million dollar
problem minimum if you were going to even just replace
the pool as is, let alone trying to add some
of the many different features that the people of Lake
Worth Beach want. So it's it's it's definitely a problem.
(04:02):
It's it's definitely an example of where, you know, not
taking action and kicking the can down the road has
really cost the residents and citizens a lot.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
You know, there has been talk about maybe moving the
pool a little bit west. Is that something that you'd
be okay with or you know, what do you feel
should be done?
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Yeah, well, you know, if we're going to do anything
with the pool, it's going to require public private partnership.
The city financial financially, is just not in the position
to expend that that kind of money. So we need
to prepare the city to even to be able to
entertain such a partnership. But moving moving the pool to
the western side of the city, there's been a number
(04:46):
of proposals for it. You know, everyone has their own
idea of what the pool should be. You know, certain
residents want to have an Olympic sized lap pool. Other
residents like the high diving pool that was deep enough
where they could do scuba diving training. Some residents want
more of the recreational pool with a tiki hut and concessions,
and then you know, people are looking for more of
(05:08):
a splash park. The recent Copper Line proposal actually incorporated
all of those things in quite a nice design for
the Western Park Park in the city. So I would
be in support of something like that, but we you know,
we really need to involve the people of Lake Worth
Beach first, and I think oftentimes when we're when we're
(05:32):
tackling issues like this and looking at you know, development
within the city, we involve the residents last, after the
designs are already finalized, and kind of like, what do
you think, you know, this is such an important thing
to the residents of the city that I think we
really need to be taking steps now to involve them
and build consensus before we go out and find the
(05:53):
right partner to actually build it.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
You you kind of hinted on I guess in a
way transparent currency there the incumbent in the other race
District two, when I asked him if he felt there
was transparency among the mayor and the other commissioners, and
he essentially said said, no, how do you feel about that?
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Well, I mean transparency in terms of what right in
terms of money, you know, And his point was that,
you know, if a large amount of money is being spent,
we need to really make sure residents are aware of
what's going on and have input.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Essentially, Oh yeah, I mean, I mean absolutely, we definitely do.
You know. The thing that gets me about the finances
and so on. You know, we we have a eighty
eight million dollar utility bond, forty million dollars, and that
was for the roads. We were late in twenty twenty
one with our audit. Twenty twenty two was not completed.
Twenty twenty three was not completed until after a news
(06:54):
article came out, and then it was a mad rush
to get that done. And you know, the news article
that we were downgraded in our Moody's rating, and that's
technically not correct, but the other ninety nine percent of
the article was dead on and there's a letter from
our director of finance confirming it. And you know, the
incumbent and district for flat out called it a lie
(07:17):
and basically covered up to the fact that we were late.
And I believe, you know, in order for a city
to function, we have to admit we made a mistake.
We were late on those audit reports, and that's a
big deal. But we should be able to admit that
to the people. And I think, you know, it's things
like that that caused the residents and citizens to have
a little bit of mistrust and think that there's something
(07:37):
nefarious going on, when maybe it's just not. You know,
maybe it's just a pr problem that we're unwilling to
admit our mistakes. But financial transparency is a must. You know,
as a business owner, I looked at my books daily,
and I really think that the commission, you know as
it exists right now, looks at the budget on a
(07:57):
yearly basis and kind of sees it out a chore.
And you know, when investigating some of these larger projects,
it's not really front and center. You know, we vote
on these things and then never revisit them. You know.
The incumbent and district flour until that news article came out,
was not aware that we were laid on our audits,
And to me, that's unacceptable.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
You referenced a couple of moving the pool, and you
said there was a proposal. I don't know if that
was the same proposal as the one I'm going to reference.
I wanted to get your thoughts on it was an
unsolicited proposal from developers that wanted to put a beach
hotel up, a convention center, and in the city a
Jack Nicholas golf course. What are your thoughts on that.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I think it was a great conversation starter when they
when they made that proposal, they requested that the Commission
do nothing except for have two public meetings and invite
the public in to give their feedback on that proposal.
And the proposal was grand. You know, it had a
lot of great ideas. It had a lot of controversial ideas,
(09:05):
but I think it was great that we had a
developer willing to come in and accept public feedback and
adjust that plan and that project per the needs and
the wants of the community. I think for Lakeworth Beach
to move forward, we are going to have to be
prepared to entertain public private partnership. And you know, if
(09:27):
we look at that entire proposal, eight eighty five percent
of that proposal most people agree on, you know, if
you separate it out. And then there's some controversial things
such as the hotel on the beach or the hotel
at the golf course, where you'll see a mix of
that of people for it and people against it. But
you know, in order for Lakeworth Beach to really realize
(09:49):
its potential, and we have so much potential in our town,
we are going to have to be prepared to handle
these kinds of proposals, you know. And so for example,
we don't have the ability to offer ninety nine year
ground leaf, no public private partners. It's going to come
in with sudden, ambitious prosal unless they can get that
kind of lease. So there's some core steps that we
(10:10):
have to take, and in the end it's going to
be in the hands of the voters because all of
that stuff requires referendum. So a lot of people, you know,
there was a lot of buzz and a lot of
you know, saber rattling and people getting upset. But in
the end for us to even entertain the proposal like that,
the people would have to vote to accept it. So,
you know, I think it's a great thing. I think
(10:31):
that Lakeworth Beach is on the map, and I think
that we are getting a lot of interest. I think that,
you know, we don't necessarily have to jump at the
first thing that comes our way. We need to go
out and find the right development partner for the success
of Lake Worth Beach, and we need somebody that understands
we want to preserve the quaint and historic nature of
our city. And so that's what I'm excited for with
(10:53):
with some of these proposals.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Yeah, some of the people running, the incumbents running in
the city are saying when it comes to this proposal,
that it would there would be many charter amendments that
the voters would have to vote on if they were
to do this, including including building height.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Yeah. So, and the funny thing about that, you know,
it's kind of put in the car before the horse.
The renderings in that proposal are just there to take
up space. They were they're not architectural. They actually made
no suggestion of building height. But that's kind of like
a buzz a buzz that you can get people riled
up about, Oh my god, they're going to put up
an eight story building right in front of the beach.
(11:32):
You'll ever be able to see it, And it's simply
not true. You know, it was more of a conversation starter, saying, hey,
we're thinking of a building here, So you know, until
until something like that, you know, it gets to be
more concrete. It's a little premature to be talking about
building height. But you know, in our city we do
have some seven story buildings in per state law, other
(11:53):
buildings within the city can achieve that same height, So
you know, something like that probably wouldn't require charter amendment.
You know, the ninety nine year lease and other changes
definitely would.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
So you know, the voters in the end are going
to be in control since we're on the topic of
developing things. Another candidate in this race had made a
quandary about why you might be running, and I wanted
to run that by you give you an opportunity to
address it. Essentially, you come from, according to this person,
(12:26):
a family of developers, and they wonder if maybe that's
a reason that you're running.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Well. My father, James Segrich, was a pipe cover Local twelve,
worked as knuckles to the bone every day to provide
for us growing up. I grew up before. I am
a first generation to go to college. I worked my
way through college and it's shameful you know, you know,
(12:55):
I've heard some of these things, and they even tried
to demonize my wife because she is very successful. And
you know, here's the thing about my wife. When she
was in her teens, she was actually homeless, and she
fought her way tooth and nail to have success and
she's built a beautiful career. And you know, some people
look at success and they say, wow, they must have
(13:16):
been handed that or that it's easy, and they forget that.
You know, as a small business owner, you fight tooth
and nail every day and people don't see that. They
don't see, you know, the twenty four to seven work
work hours. They don't see all of the stresses, they
don't see all the times you almost went bankrupt or
had to eat Ramen noodles just to get by. All
they see is the success and go, wow, that's kind
(13:38):
of privileged. So, you know, saying I come from a
family developers, I don't know where they get that. You know,
my mom's sweetest pie. She was a hairdresser and worked
as a waitress, and my father was an insulator and
a union man. So you know, I can't address lies,
but if that's what you know, it's shameful that they
want to go there, just.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Just wanted to give you the opportunity. Is that, you know,
that was was suggested. So let me ask you this
and then we're getting ready to wrap up soon.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
And one more one more quick point on this, you know,
which is kind of funny. You know, the the incumbent
hasn't completed these financial disclosures, so you know, if anyone
has something that had you know, why is the Ethics
Board investigating your finances and then turn around and try
to you know, accuse somebody of being from dark money
or or development money anyway.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Well, that was actually it actually wasn't the It wasn't
the incumbent who referenced that, just so you know, But
what being you mentioned being a business owner, and that's
that's a good point I wanted to ask you, not
that I guess you wouldn't be the only business owner
on the on the commission, I don't think. But what
(14:47):
what what does that bring to the commission for you
as far as you know, could you give me a
list of benefits that has.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Yeah, you know, it's it's it's understanding process and process
improvement and how to get people to to get stuff done.
You know this, uh, you know, the incumbent went in
there and fired our city manager without cause and did
it suddenly without a plan. They've ambushed the head of
code enforcement and you know, totally unprovoked. And when it
(15:19):
comes down to it, when you're leading from the top,
you have to be able to set metrics, goals, and expectations.
You know, anyone who's ran a business knows in order
to get your staff to work properly, you got to
have that. So when we look at some of the
issues with code enforcement, you know, they like to talk
about the number of permits that they push through every month. Well, that,
you know isn't really a metric. A metric is, well,
(15:41):
what's our backlog and how long is the average time
to approve a fence permit? And you know, and looking
at that, we're at three months for a simple fence permit.
That's not a good metric. So, you know, when looking
at things from the standpoint of a business owner and
coming from a business background, you're able to see those
things and bring that to the table. The other thing
(16:02):
is getting deep into the issues. So you know, we
had Benny's on the beach lease being negotiated it was
eight months late, which, as any business owner, if your
lease negotiations eight months, that's a big stressor on that business. Well,
I did a public records request and the commission sent
five emails about it in eight months, and that's just
(16:25):
showing up unprepared, you know. So as a business owner,
I know, when there's an issue, you have to become
an expert yourself in that issue. And so you know,
those are some of the skill sets. And then also
you know on the finance side, you know, making a
good deal. Our city has not been known about making
good contracts. We tend to give money away and not
get any concessions in return. And you know that's another
(16:49):
aspect of where being a business owner comes into play,
knowing how to negotiate good contracts.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
All right, we're going to wrap up. I have one
final question. Get this to all of the candidates that
you know that I interview over the years. Three candidates
in here in this race, Why in a nutshell you know, briefly,
should folks give Anthony Segrich their vote?
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Well, you know, to draw stark contrast, we have an
incumbent who has a record of not really doing anything
and is most known for not answering emails, not answering
phone calls when I can trast myself with with the
other the other candidate. It's about temperament. You can go
and look at the Sun Sentinel where you know he's
been accused of having loud outbursts in Commission meetings that
(17:35):
required apologies and he even admitted it himself. You know,
I come in the middle of that road where you
know I've been able to build consensus. We've established such
a huge coalition of support within the city. We have
business owners, we have bartenders, we have real estate people,
we have retirees, we have old school lake Worthians, we
(17:57):
have new lake Worthians and they've all come together in
support because they want real change. They want to have
real leadership in the Commission. And I have the temperament,
I have the drive, I have the perseverance to make
that happen. It's gonna be a lot of hard work,
but we're ready to do it, and I'm ready to
do it for Lakeworth Beach. All right.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
This race open to registered voters living in District four.
There's been some redistricting. You could check with pom Beach
County Supervisor of Elections office and find out which district
you live in. Anthony Segrich, candidate for Commission District four
in Lakeworth Beach. Thank you for joining me.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Thank you
Hey, Joel Malcolm for WJNO dot com. My election spotlight
on the city of Lakeworth Beach and there are two
races in Lakeworth Beach and we are focused on City
commission District four three candidates, including incumbent Rinaldo Diaz Anthony Segrich,
one of two challengers to Commissioner Diaz. Thank you for
(00:20):
joining me.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Oh, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
All right, let's before we get into issues around the
city and whatnot, let's talk about Let's talk about you.
First of all. How long have you been in Lakeworth Beach.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, I moved to lake Worth Beach in twenty eighteen
with my awaiting wife, Cheryl, and we just fell in
love with it. It's historic charm, the beautiful shade canopies, vibrant,
walkable downtown and cultural events. It's our forever home.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
All right. Let's get some background on you, a little
bit of you know, bio work and everything else that
you'd like to share.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Sure, so, you know, one of the things that a
lot of people know about me, but take some some
people by surprises. You know, for the longest time, people
would call me shark bite and that's that's because I
got bit by a twelve foot bull shark while commercial
spear fishing right off of West Palm. So kind of
a true Florida story. And that's that taught me a
(01:18):
lot about perseverance and and really changed the course of
my life in my professional career. It led me to
start a business, shark Bite se O, where we did
digital marketing for law firms and doctors offices, dentists and
and and such. Before that, I have a strong background
(01:42):
in executive leadership, working on business process management consulting, so
basically going into businesses and helping them with their organizational dysfunction,
helping the companies developed processes and procedures to work more
efficiently and get the job done for less cost and
(02:03):
in less time and with less personnel.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Let's talk about some of the you know, some of
the things around the city. You mentioned the the historic
charm and whatnot. They've got a couple of issues. Uh.
And I mentioned this to you know, some of the
incumbents that I've spoken with. You know that over this
over several several election cycles, the two things always come up,
the casino building, the pool, uh. And then the other
(02:28):
one was the Gulf stream. I understand the golf stream
is well underway with the renovations, but I wanted to
get your thoughts on all of that stuff, especially obviously
the pool, because I know that's something that hasn't been
decided yet.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Yeah. So, you know, what we've what we've seen since
we've moved to Lake Worth is kind of a slow
and steady decline and the pool is just one example
of that decline. It when doing a public records request,
the city's actually destroyed all records that are over five
years old. So here you have a problem that's been
(03:00):
going on for well over ten years, and we're destroying
the records so that we can't even really get a
good picture of what the problem is. But in talking
with you know, architects and engineers that are very knowledgeable
on the subject, that pool is a minimum of a
fifteen to twenty million dollar problem. And unfortunately, over election
(03:20):
cycle after election cycle, our elected officials and candidates have
not been honest with the people of Lake Worth Beach
about it. When I talk to people, you know, they're
shocked and they basically say to me, you know, I've
never heard that. And the truth of the matter is,
you know, the pool wasn't built on piles. The casino
(03:41):
complex wasn't built on piles and sand shifts, and so
now we have ourselves a fifteen to twenty million dollar
problem minimum if you were going to even just replace
the pool as is, let alone trying to add some
of the many different features that the people of Lake
Worth Beach want. So it's it's it's definitely a problem.
(04:02):
It's it's definitely an example of where, you know, not
taking action and kicking the can down the road has
really cost the residents and citizens a lot.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
You know, there has been talk about maybe moving the
pool a little bit west. Is that something that you'd
be okay with or you know, what do you feel
should be done?
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Yeah, well, you know, if we're going to do anything
with the pool, it's going to require public private partnership.
The city financial financially, is just not in the position
to expend that that kind of money. So we need
to prepare the city to even to be able to
entertain such a partnership. But moving moving the pool to
the western side of the city, there's been a number
(04:46):
of proposals for it. You know, everyone has their own
idea of what the pool should be. You know, certain
residents want to have an Olympic sized lap pool. Other
residents like the high diving pool that was deep enough
where they could do scuba diving training. Some residents want
more of the recreational pool with a tiki hut and concessions,
and then you know, people are looking for more of
(05:08):
a splash park. The recent Copper Line proposal actually incorporated
all of those things in quite a nice design for
the Western Park Park in the city. So I would
be in support of something like that, but we you know,
we really need to involve the people of Lake Worth
Beach first, and I think oftentimes when we're when we're
(05:32):
tackling issues like this and looking at you know, development
within the city, we involve the residents last, after the
designs are already finalized, and kind of like, what do
you think, you know, this is such an important thing
to the residents of the city that I think we
really need to be taking steps now to involve them
and build consensus before we go out and find the
(05:53):
right partner to actually build it.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
You you kind of hinted on I guess in a
way transparent currency there the incumbent in the other race
District two, when I asked him if he felt there
was transparency among the mayor and the other commissioners, and
he essentially said said, no, how do you feel about that?
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Well, I mean transparency in terms of what right in
terms of money, you know, And his point was that,
you know, if a large amount of money is being spent,
we need to really make sure residents are aware of
what's going on and have input.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Essentially, Oh yeah, I mean, I mean absolutely, we definitely do.
You know. The thing that gets me about the finances
and so on. You know, we we have a eighty
eight million dollar utility bond, forty million dollars, and that
was for the roads. We were late in twenty twenty
one with our audit. Twenty twenty two was not completed.
Twenty twenty three was not completed until after a news
(06:54):
article came out, and then it was a mad rush
to get that done. And you know, the news article
that we were downgraded in our Moody's rating, and that's
technically not correct, but the other ninety nine percent of
the article was dead on and there's a letter from
our director of finance confirming it. And you know, the
incumbent and district for flat out called it a lie
(07:17):
and basically covered up to the fact that we were late.
And I believe, you know, in order for a city
to function, we have to admit we made a mistake.
We were late on those audit reports, and that's a
big deal. But we should be able to admit that
to the people. And I think, you know, it's things
like that that caused the residents and citizens to have
a little bit of mistrust and think that there's something
(07:37):
nefarious going on, when maybe it's just not. You know,
maybe it's just a pr problem that we're unwilling to
admit our mistakes. But financial transparency is a must. You know,
as a business owner, I looked at my books daily,
and I really think that the commission, you know as
it exists right now, looks at the budget on a
(07:57):
yearly basis and kind of sees it out a chore.
And you know, when investigating some of these larger projects,
it's not really front and center. You know, we vote
on these things and then never revisit them. You know.
The incumbent and district flour until that news article came out,
was not aware that we were laid on our audits,
And to me, that's unacceptable.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
You referenced a couple of moving the pool, and you
said there was a proposal. I don't know if that
was the same proposal as the one I'm going to reference.
I wanted to get your thoughts on it was an
unsolicited proposal from developers that wanted to put a beach
hotel up, a convention center, and in the city a
Jack Nicholas golf course. What are your thoughts on that.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I think it was a great conversation starter when they
when they made that proposal, they requested that the Commission
do nothing except for have two public meetings and invite
the public in to give their feedback on that proposal.
And the proposal was grand. You know, it had a
lot of great ideas. It had a lot of controversial ideas,
(09:05):
but I think it was great that we had a
developer willing to come in and accept public feedback and
adjust that plan and that project per the needs and
the wants of the community. I think for Lakeworth Beach
to move forward, we are going to have to be
prepared to entertain public private partnership. And you know, if
(09:27):
we look at that entire proposal, eight eighty five percent
of that proposal most people agree on, you know, if
you separate it out. And then there's some controversial things
such as the hotel on the beach or the hotel
at the golf course, where you'll see a mix of
that of people for it and people against it. But
you know, in order for Lakeworth Beach to really realize
(09:49):
its potential, and we have so much potential in our town,
we are going to have to be prepared to handle
these kinds of proposals, you know. And so for example,
we don't have the ability to offer ninety nine year
ground leaf, no public private partners. It's going to come
in with sudden, ambitious prosal unless they can get that
kind of lease. So there's some core steps that we
(10:10):
have to take, and in the end it's going to
be in the hands of the voters because all of
that stuff requires referendum. So a lot of people, you know,
there was a lot of buzz and a lot of
you know, saber rattling and people getting upset. But in
the end for us to even entertain the proposal like that,
the people would have to vote to accept it. So,
you know, I think it's a great thing. I think
(10:31):
that Lakeworth Beach is on the map, and I think
that we are getting a lot of interest. I think that,
you know, we don't necessarily have to jump at the
first thing that comes our way. We need to go
out and find the right development partner for the success
of Lake Worth Beach, and we need somebody that understands
we want to preserve the quaint and historic nature of
our city. And so that's what I'm excited for with
(10:53):
with some of these proposals.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Yeah, some of the people running, the incumbents running in
the city are saying when it comes to this proposal,
that it would there would be many charter amendments that
the voters would have to vote on if they were
to do this, including including building height.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Yeah. So, and the funny thing about that, you know,
it's kind of put in the car before the horse.
The renderings in that proposal are just there to take
up space. They were they're not architectural. They actually made
no suggestion of building height. But that's kind of like
a buzz a buzz that you can get people riled
up about, Oh my god, they're going to put up
an eight story building right in front of the beach.
(11:32):
You'll ever be able to see it, And it's simply
not true. You know, it was more of a conversation starter, saying, hey,
we're thinking of a building here, So you know, until
until something like that, you know, it gets to be
more concrete. It's a little premature to be talking about
building height. But you know, in our city we do
have some seven story buildings in per state law, other
(11:53):
buildings within the city can achieve that same height, So
you know, something like that probably wouldn't require charter amendment.
You know, the ninety nine year lease and other changes
definitely would.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
So you know, the voters in the end are going
to be in control since we're on the topic of
developing things. Another candidate in this race had made a
quandary about why you might be running, and I wanted
to run that by you give you an opportunity to
address it. Essentially, you come from, according to this person,
(12:26):
a family of developers, and they wonder if maybe that's
a reason that you're running.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Well. My father, James Segrich, was a pipe cover Local twelve,
worked as knuckles to the bone every day to provide
for us growing up. I grew up before. I am
a first generation to go to college. I worked my
way through college and it's shameful you know, you know,
(12:55):
I've heard some of these things, and they even tried
to demonize my wife because she is very successful. And
you know, here's the thing about my wife. When she
was in her teens, she was actually homeless, and she
fought her way tooth and nail to have success and
she's built a beautiful career. And you know, some people
look at success and they say, wow, they must have
(13:16):
been handed that or that it's easy, and they forget that.
You know, as a small business owner, you fight tooth
and nail every day and people don't see that. They
don't see, you know, the twenty four to seven work
work hours. They don't see all of the stresses, they
don't see all the times you almost went bankrupt or
had to eat Ramen noodles just to get by. All
they see is the success and go, wow, that's kind
(13:38):
of privileged. So, you know, saying I come from a
family developers, I don't know where they get that. You know,
my mom's sweetest pie. She was a hairdresser and worked
as a waitress, and my father was an insulator and
a union man. So you know, I can't address lies,
but if that's what you know, it's shameful that they
want to go there, just.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Just wanted to give you the opportunity. Is that, you know,
that was was suggested. So let me ask you this
and then we're getting ready to wrap up soon.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
And one more one more quick point on this, you know,
which is kind of funny. You know, the the incumbent
hasn't completed these financial disclosures, so you know, if anyone
has something that had you know, why is the Ethics
Board investigating your finances and then turn around and try
to you know, accuse somebody of being from dark money
or or development money anyway.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Well, that was actually it actually wasn't the It wasn't
the incumbent who referenced that, just so you know, But
what being you mentioned being a business owner, and that's
that's a good point I wanted to ask you, not
that I guess you wouldn't be the only business owner
on the on the commission, I don't think. But what
(14:47):
what what does that bring to the commission for you
as far as you know, could you give me a
list of benefits that has.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Yeah, you know, it's it's it's understanding process and process
improvement and how to get people to to get stuff done.
You know this, uh, you know, the incumbent went in
there and fired our city manager without cause and did
it suddenly without a plan. They've ambushed the head of
code enforcement and you know, totally unprovoked. And when it
(15:19):
comes down to it, when you're leading from the top,
you have to be able to set metrics, goals, and expectations.
You know, anyone who's ran a business knows in order
to get your staff to work properly, you got to
have that. So when we look at some of the
issues with code enforcement, you know, they like to talk
about the number of permits that they push through every month. Well, that,
you know isn't really a metric. A metric is, well,
(15:41):
what's our backlog and how long is the average time
to approve a fence permit? And you know, and looking
at that, we're at three months for a simple fence permit.
That's not a good metric. So, you know, when looking
at things from the standpoint of a business owner and
coming from a business background, you're able to see those
things and bring that to the table. The other thing
(16:02):
is getting deep into the issues. So you know, we
had Benny's on the beach lease being negotiated it was
eight months late, which, as any business owner, if your
lease negotiations eight months, that's a big stressor on that business. Well,
I did a public records request and the commission sent
five emails about it in eight months, and that's just
(16:25):
showing up unprepared, you know. So as a business owner,
I know, when there's an issue, you have to become
an expert yourself in that issue. And so you know,
those are some of the skill sets. And then also
you know on the finance side, you know, making a
good deal. Our city has not been known about making
good contracts. We tend to give money away and not
get any concessions in return. And you know that's another
(16:49):
aspect of where being a business owner comes into play,
knowing how to negotiate good contracts.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
All right, we're going to wrap up. I have one
final question. Get this to all of the candidates that
you know that I interview over the years. Three candidates
in here in this race, Why in a nutshell you know, briefly,
should folks give Anthony Segrich their vote?
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Well, you know, to draw stark contrast, we have an
incumbent who has a record of not really doing anything
and is most known for not answering emails, not answering
phone calls when I can trast myself with with the
other the other candidate. It's about temperament. You can go
and look at the Sun Sentinel where you know he's
been accused of having loud outbursts in Commission meetings that
(17:35):
required apologies and he even admitted it himself. You know,
I come in the middle of that road where you
know I've been able to build consensus. We've established such
a huge coalition of support within the city. We have
business owners, we have bartenders, we have real estate people,
we have retirees, we have old school lake Worthians, we
(17:57):
have new lake Worthians and they've all come together in
support because they want real change. They want to have
real leadership in the Commission. And I have the temperament,
I have the drive, I have the perseverance to make
that happen. It's gonna be a lot of hard work,
but we're ready to do it, and I'm ready to
do it for Lakeworth Beach. All right.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
This race open to registered voters living in District four.
There's been some redistricting. You could check with pom Beach
County Supervisor of Elections office and find out which district
you live in. Anthony Segrich, candidate for Commission District four
in Lakeworth Beach. Thank you for joining me.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Thank you
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