Tomorrow Night's City Commission Meeting - Agenda Highlights

Some of the items of interest on the City Commission agenda are highlighted below. Click here for direct access to agenda on City's website. The City's website has been slow all day, so you might have to be patient while the .pdfs load.



On the Consent agenda, Item F is a conceptual design of the Snook Islands Public Use Facilities and authorization of the City to execute County permit applications. I'll post the design concepts in the next post.

Consent Item J is the creation of a Centennial Steering Committee to develop and plan for the City's 100th Anniversary celebration. This is a great idea, but I am asking myself why you have to be a graduate of the Lake Worth Municipal Institute to be appointed to that Committee. The program hasn't been in existence for at least two years. By limiting membership on the Committee to that group, they exclude a pool of people that have a lot of knowledge about things Lake Worth. For example, I never went through the program. Unless that is the intent, to exclude and not include people.

Under Unfinished Business, big item in reaction to the crime wave we are perceiving - a transfer of $100,000 to the Police Overtime account to expand police presence and address hot spots. This would be to the end of the current fiscal year. I'm not sure how much that amount is going to help. I wonder if we will find out about the status of the Sheriff's negotiations? The jury is still out with me whether or not that is a good idea or not, but we need to have some way to objectively assess the pluses and minuses.

The very next item relates to public comment and revisions to the current policy. Here is wording from a portion of the back-up related to this item:

On May 20, 2008, the City Commission rescheduled discussion of the
procedure, placement and order of public comment concerning agenda items
and the minute allowance for public input on all items. Comments made by the
City Commission during the discussion included the following:

place public comments after Commission comments;

limit public comments to two minutes; and

allow public comments only during Public Participation on Non-
Agendaed Items, Public Hearings, and New Business.

In addition to the comments already made, below are additional items for
discussion:

limit each Commissioners comment on agenda items, including
Presentations, to 10 minutes;

create a procedure to bring back an agenda item at a future meeting by
the prevailing side;

Presentations items be placed on an agenda only at the request of a
member of the Commission; and

accept public comment cards until the Commission meeting begins.

I have a real problem with the last one as that would be tought for anyone who comes late for a meeting. Couldn't we get rid of the cards altogether?

The Mid year budget review should be interesting - note that there is no public comment allowed under City Manager's report.