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They switched the order of the items on the agenda and will be dealing with the Justice Action Grant first and then the Complete Count Committee.

Commissioner Maxwell made a motion to discard both bids from the RFP. The motion failed due to a lack of a second. He questioned the need for this process. Discussion is going and they will be discussing the applications tonight. This even though both are considered incomplete.

Annabeth Karson stepped to the podium and is asking for questions from the Commission. Commissioner Golden asked why the signature page wasn't signed. She responded that it was in done in a rush and there were problems with the indemnity clause - after consulting with professionals. They received word late that the Commission could delete that requirement.

Interesting. Commissioner Maxwell is asking about what other community organizing activities, specifically, Ms. Karson has been a part of in the City of Lake Worth. He is asking questions about many of issues that I raised in the previous post.

Commissioner Maxwell made a motion identical to his previous motion, which failed for a lack of a second. This was after public comment. Commissioner Jennings then made a motion to give the contract to the Karson/Coolican team. Commissioner Mulvehill seconded it. Many people commented on the political nature of this issue. Guess who is up for re-election this year and look who made the motions. Commissioner Jennings thought the response from Karson/Collican proposal was very complete and addressed the city's needs.

Commissioner Mulvehill says that this decision "vindicates" the City Manager and reinforces that this is a political decision. She thinks this might create problems within the CRB, if the board was given the task.

Commissioner Maxwell made a plea to focus on doing the city's business and not be political all the time on every issue. He says that this is going down the way everyone predicted. He is also concerned about the goal of hitting 50,000 as our population - the result is the result, not whether we meet a "goal."

Commissioner Golden says that people work on elections in a democracy. She delivered some very nit-picking questions about the CRB operations and did not clearly understand the actions of the board.

Mayor Varela thanks those that applied and wonders why there weren't more. Wants to change the tone about how we treat folks here tonight and how they treat staff. He knows we are going to get a good job done here. He will be consistent with his views on process - these were two non-responsive bids. He is voting against this due to that and would do the same for either respondent.

City Attorney says that any action should be contingent upon them signing the response and agree to the indemnity and a hold harmless clause. This would protect the city if the two commit a negligent act, it couldn't come back to the city.

3-2 passed, Commissioner Maxwell pledged the city's cooperation.

They then went to discuss aid to Haiti related to the earthquake today. He is pushing for releasing of the emergency apparatus (ambulance/fire truck)