Our City Manager will not attend neighborhood association meetings.

City Manager Susan Stanton

A couple of weeks ago, I happened to attend a neighborhood association meeting.  It turned out that I was downtown and saw some familiar faces around Brogue's and they told me that the South of Sixth Avenue (SOSA) neighborhood was meeting in Brogue's Banshee Room.  (Ironies are everywhere in Lake Worth, aren't they?)  I was told that the City Manager was to attend the meeting and talk about the study commissioned to re-examine police services in the city.  I didn't have anything in particular going on that night, so I decided to stay and hear what the City Manager had to say.  I hadn't attended the previous City Commission meeting when the study was discussed and voted upon.

As the meeting began, there were about 4 or 5 people from the Sheriff's department there, a total of 4 or 5 people who lived in the neighborhood, Commissioner Maxwell, Jack Simons and Mark Parilla - Mark is the head of the Genesis Neighborhood Association which abuts the SOSA area.  Interesting that Commissioner Maxwell attended as the neighborhood was not in his district but is in District #4.  That district is represented, supposedly, by Commissioner Mulvehill.

The first part of the meeting consisted of a report by the Sheriff on crime in the area, operations currently going on and progress over the past two years in the control of crime.  There were some questions and answers.  After that presentation, all but one of the Sheriff's representatives left.

That was when Ms. Stanton began speaking about the city's need to live within its means and there are some things that the city just won't be able to afford in the future.  She said that the biggest cost the city faced was the cost for Sheriff department services - 56% of the general fund budget.  The study is meant to identify alternatives to the Sheriff department contract, including the possibility of re-starting the city's own police force, along with a varied array of other alternatives.  In her talk, she also mentioned, disjointedly, about how people will be surprised by the small amount of the Casino building that will be left as part of its reconstruction.  She also strangely predicted the oncoming end of her tenure with the city - saying that just now she has been here as long as most recent managers and that she might not be here much longer.

There were questions and answers.  I told her that the negativity she is getting from residents about getting rid of the Sheriff is that people have already experienced - the entire town has already experienced - drastic decreases in their property values.  Many people see the only thing preventing a further fall in property values in Lake Worth is the existence of the Sheriff.  They have no confidence in the city being able to run its own police department with more limited resources.  I said that I was tired of the city saying that they are the victim and have had no control over the drop of property values in the city when many of the actions/inactions of the Commission have exacerbated the problem.

There were other questions as well, then she left the meeting.  People stayed and talked a while and then I left.

The reason why I present this here is that this meeting is being cited by the City Manager as the reason she is not going to go to future neighborhood association meetings.  She felt "insulted" by what took place here, thinks that there were only 2 people from the neighborhood there and the other people - including me - that were there were "political operatives" or people that "express dissatisfaction in their blog."   There is an e-mail between Ms. Stanton and a resident to this effect.

I am now hearing from others that somehow I am being portrayed by Ms. Stanton as being the "ringleader" of the group and that she felt that I was insulting to her.  While I didn't agree with much of her position, I never felt that I was "insulting" to her and kept to the subject at hand.  

I am a city planner and have dealt with many a rowdy and riled-up crowd.  I am sure that during Ms. Stanton's long career of being a City Manager she has had to deal with an angry crowd of people.  While the people at this meeting were indeed concerned and upset at the prospect, it was not what I would consider a threatening environment.  I also don't see a problem with people who live anywhere in the city being able to attend any neighborhood association meeting - especially when the topic is one as important as the Sheriff's contract and the city administration's point of view.

So, instead of finding ways to open the valves of information to communicate to the public, the City Manager has managed to villainize a group of residents and is using it as an excuse to curtail further appearances before similar groups.  Thus, public input and dialog is stifled. 

Like I said, this meeting happened a couple of weeks ago and, up to this point, I hadn't felt compelled to talk about it here.  But since it is being used as described above and that I am being unfairly portrayed, I thought I would share my point of view of what happened.  Anyone else who attended the meeting is welcome to share their impressions by commenting below.