Op-Ed Piece - Lake Worth Herald - 2/28

After the actions of the past two weeks concerning the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA), it becomes obvious that the great ship S.S. City of Lake Worth is now going at full speed – only in the wrong direction. Why do I say this? Ever since the new Commission was seated in April of last year, we have witnessed the eroding of the opportunity for public input and engagement. Instead, the Commission has made systematic efforts to restrain public comment and citizen involvement in the governing of our city. When the limited opportunities for public comment are offered, they are in controlled and condensed three minute packages that might deal with five or more items. When a commissioner or the Mayor wants something to go their way, rules are overlooked and normal informative conversation with those who might be affected by those rushed decisions are only made aware of the discussion at the last minute, if at all.

One of the first actions taken by the new Commission was the reformatting of public comment during City Commission meetings. Instead of being allotted three minutes to discuss any given topic on the agenda after the Commission has already discussed the item, the Mayor and Commission now only allow public comment at the beginning of major headings on their agendas (e.g. Public Hearings, New Business, etc.) before they discuss the matter. Comment for consent agenda items is only allowed if “pulled” by our elected leaders – not if the public has a question on an item.

This does many things that make public input difficult. One is that you have to get everything out there you think you need to cover since you have no real idea what the general direction of the commission is on that item. You also have to budget your time between various items under that major agenda heading. There might be five items you want touch on, but all those items have to be squeezed into the allotted three minutes.

In their defense, the Commission did move up “Public Participation on Non-Agendaed Items” to a position that comes earlier in the agenda, but comment is still limited to three minutes. The Mayor, who is charged with running the meeting, has the responsibility to inform the public about how the meeting works. At the last Commission meeting, some people who do not normally attend Commission meetings turned to me and asked when they could speak on an issue. I explained the system to them and they suddenly realized that they had already missed their opportunity since the public participation section had passed. They left the building disappointed by not having the opportunity to be heard by their elected representatives.

The Commission also steadily eliminated opportunities for citizens to serve in a volunteer capacity on advisory boards. In the past year, the Mayor and the Commission eliminated the following boards: Ad Hoc Committee, Affordable Housing Task Force, Stakeholders Advisory Committee, and Community Improvement Committee. Now, for a number of reasons and following their already established pattern, the Commission has reduced a former autonomous appointed board – the CRA – into an advisory board.

Without going into a great amount of detail, let’s review how this demotion happened. Few that are active in city politics would argue that the CRA was not a target for
Commission take-over. Even as it completed one of its most ambitious projects ever (on-time and under budget), you could hear the sabers rattling during the last election and the under-current had been growing ever since. What did our Mayor due in response to this murmuring discontent? Very little – he allowed this crisis to happen. As former Chairman of the CRA, he of all people should have been carrying the banner for the CRA, informing the four commissioners and the public about the actions of the CRA and solicit their input on the CRA’s actions. Our Mayor could have led in the form of educating the public and calling for a joint meeting with the CRA since he was elected. Instead, he allowed public discontent to fester with a reduced amount of opportunities to let off steam and hear what the citizen’s real concerns were.

What was going to be a simple request to advertise for volunteers for vacant positions on the CRA (Consent Agenda Item J – Feb. 5 meeting) turned into a special meeting on whether the already over-burdened city commission take on the duties of the CRA. This would amount to yet another responsibility beyond their $136 million all funds budget and the host of problems faced by our residents. After the special meeting, one left with the impression the commission effectively halted a controversial CRA project, would hold a special meeting specifically on that project and give the CRA more direction as to goals and priorities. This outcome had merit and involved the members of the CRA board and its Chairman.

But, no, that was not to be. At the next regular city commission meeting, Commissioner Golden (who ran on the slogan, “I will have people talking to each other again.”), asked that this item be brought up again and that the takeover of CRA responsibilities be voted on again. Granted, the Mayor played a role in this with the cavalier manner in which he ran the meeting the week before concerning the same subject. But, no one from the CRA was notified of this 11th hour potential addition to the agenda.

The point is that we are fortunate to be a city with talented residents. Do you think that all the answers to the city’s major problems lay at the hands of these five elected representatives? I do not. We have to encourage public participation at all levels. This includes a reasonable opportunity for public input during public meetings. We must revamp our public participation system – it is broken! We need to empower boards to review issue details and make recommendations to the commission. Lastly, we ought to be encouraging talented people in our community to contribute their time in the form of service on appointed boards. Beating them over the heads for decisions made after the fact is no way to encourage more participation in our local government.

What the great ship S.S. City of Lake Worth is begging for is a call from the captain saying, “All hands on deck!” Blind-siding members of appointed boards and restricting public comment amounts to sailing the ship in the wrong direction.