Friday, April 10, 2015

Rules of Decorum out the window with this commission in Lake Worth

Comment Up

The mayor and this commission has not followed the Rules of Decorum.  I have spoken about this on several occasions--have written the mayor, city attorney and the city manager.  What occurred in the city chamber on Tuesday night by a volatile resident who is well known in the judicial system, was an abomination to all decency.

When you have senior citizen James Addison, well known resident from a pioneer family, getting thrown out of the chamber for using the word "shit," Mr. P should have been stopped dead in his tracks before he was allowed to continue with his 2 minute hate speech/rant, directly threatening unnamed citizens with his vile and intense promise to inflict retribution (he succeeded in his mission to get someone fired from her job and bragged about it) on those for something offensive that only exists in his own  "mind" on legally unproven "he said; she said." He says he won't accept hate in our community but by his acts, he is committing the most hate of all. He has mentioned the names of his targets on his Facebook page and a few are senior citizens one of whom is 80 years old.

It has been a trend of this commission (no other has allowed it) to allow citizens to make personal attacks towards others in this chamber and these attacks have become more brazen. We want to know when the commission, especially the Mayor, will follow its own rules and insist on civility.

415 RULE 14
DECORUM FOR CITIZEN PARTICIPATION

(a) In support of and respect for an open, fair and informed decision-making process, the
City Commission and Administration recognize that:

(1) Civil, respectful and courteous discourse and behavior are conducive to the
democratic and harmonious airing of concerns and decision making; and

(2) Un-civil discourse and/or discourteous and inappropriate behavior have a
negative impact on the character and productivity of the decision-making process.

(b) In an effort to preserve the intent of open government and maintain a positive
environment for citizen input and Commission decision-making, the following Rules of
Decorum for Citizen Participation have been established.

Compliance with these rules is expected and appreciated. The Rules of Decorum for
Citizen Participation will be included in the agenda and will be referenced at the beginning
of each Commission meeting and Commission Work Session by the Chair. A written list of
the Rules of Decorum for Citizen Participation will also be printed and mounted upon the
walls of the Commission Chamber and Conference Room and upon the speaker’s podium
in the Commission Chamber.

(1) Speakers will conduct themselves in a civil and respectful manner at all times.

(2) Speakers will address the Chair.

(3) Questions to Commission members or City staff will be facilitated by the Chair.

(4) Speakers will refrain from the use of obscene language, “fighting words” likely to
incite violence from the individuals(s) to whom the words are addressed, or other
language which is disruptive to the orderly and fair progress of discussion at the
meeting.

(5) Speakers will refrain from making comments of a personal nature regarding
others.

Pg 35
(6) Name-calling and/or obscenity is forbidden.

(7) Shouting, yelling or screaming is forbidden.

(8) Commission Work Session or Public Hearing attendees (audience) will refrain
from commenting, shouting, booing, clapping, stomping feet or other
inappropriate and/or disruptive behavior. Brief clapping is permissible at the end
of a speaker’s comments.

(c) It is the intent of Commission to maintain order and enforce the Rules of Decorum for
Citizen Participation for its meetings. Disregard of these rules will be met with the
following consequences:

(1) The Chair will identify out loud the out-of-compliance behavior and request for the
behavior to stop;

(2) The Chair will ask the speaker to have a seat if he/she continues to disrupt the
meeting;

(3) If the speaker refuses to have a seat, the Chair will recess the meeting; and

(4) Will instruct a law enforcement officer to instruct the speaker to stop the
disruptive conduct and escort the speaker out of the meeting venue.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

I guess the city just likes lawsuits. this one could be very serious.

Anonymous said...

I think it is important to remember that at first Dee denied she said it, but then after being confronted by the City Manager and the employee offered a halfhearted apology.

Lynn Anderson said...

THERE YOU GO AGAIN. You can't prove what you just said.
This blog is NOT about Dee.

Anonymous said...

It is very difficult to enforce decorum rules as citizens have the right to speak in commission meetings. Trying to stop someone from speaking would likely draw a lawsuit that the City would lose regardless of what the rules are. Free speech is awarded special protection in government meetings.

atelise said...

Anonymous really likes to hang out on your page.I'm not anonymous. Guess that means I'm brave. Hiding behind an anonymous moniker destroys credibility in my opinion.

atelise said...

Our litigious society is like an animal that eats it's own young. When someone starts threatening lawsuits, I imagine them as small and week. Even if they win, they lose. What goes around comes around and next time, they will be the one that goes down.

Weetha Peebull said...

It's also important to remember ya don't know what ya don't know.

There is no audio or video to prove Dee's comment and EVERYONE should remember that any one of us could've been outed w/out proof to a news source (debatable) and featured on the front page. Like the Mayor who doesn't even KNOW the rules, claims we all have to obey them but if she is ignorant of them - how could she follow them?

Now you have seen the rules of decorum; watch the 4.7.15 video! There is proof that you can comment on and be taken seriously!

Hearsay hits the trash can before you've finished the 'dumb dump'.

Anonymous said...

What I am saying is that rule is unenforceable. There is plenty of case law and news reports that document that regardless of decorum rules, free speech is protected in government meetings. I don't want the city wasting my money defending free speech lawsuits.

$450,000 to defend a decorum/free speech lawsuit, even if the Plaintiffs don't recover damages it still very expensive.
http://articles.latimes.com/2014/feb/23/local/la-me-dollar-lawsuit-20140224

Lynn Anderson said...

@9:24--you either have a rule or you don't. This is not a free for all. The meetings are to conduct city business with the citizens going before the commission to talk about those sorts of subjects--not to entice a damn riot.

And atelise, in this country you have the right to defend yourself especially from someone who is threatening your civil rights although I believe it was Szerdi who said he was looking into a lawsuit the night he gave his speech right before he stepped down from the dais.

Lynn Anderson said...

Then all this commission has to do is enforce the rules in place. You are not allowed to threaten people in this country. You are not allowed to smear them and take away their livelihood because of an allegation. This is not justice and it needs to be litigated.

Anonymous said...

We are not talking about name calling towards the city council for its decisions, we are talking about threats and ugly remarks made towards another resident that was allowed in the commission chamber based on zero proof. This should never happen. I hope someone sues.

Anonymous said...

I guess that's the difference between Parilla and you and the Mcnamaras. It wasn't that long ago the you the macs and a couple of your other bully friends tried to get a private citizen fired from her job for having a different political point of view. You also tried to get a sitting commissioner fired and tried to prevent a former city manager from getting hired 2,500 miles away. Naturally you failed and he succeeded. Why?
I also told you when this first happened that if dee dee didn't use the racial slur they would be suing the city because everyone knows they love frivolous lawsuits. I also predicted there wouldn't be any lawsuit because she knows she said it. Where's their lawsuit?

Lynn Anderson said...

I think I know the incident to which you refer. It had to do with a person stealing petitions in front of city hall right out of the hands of James McCauley and stealing political signs...there were police reports. I actually defended her at the time saying that LW politics is very contentious and chalked it up to that. I should have told the truth.

Who was the city commissioner?

A former city manager who was fired by Nadine Burns at the time millions of $$$ went missing? That one?

As far as Parrilla goes, there is a huge difference between him and any of my friends. That's a good thing. Can't imagine throwing out the Race Card to anyone just because I don't like them.

As far as lawsuits, they cost money, a lot of money. Dee did not use the N word against anyone. This entire matter has been blown all out of proportion. Thanks, C.M.

Anonymous said...

All of the decorum rules seemed to be aimed one way and one way only -at the CITIZENS. What about the Commissioners, like Scott Maxwell, that rant,rave and spew ridiculous accusations and lies? Commissioner Maxwell has accused me of being a racist in TWO consecutive city commission meetings ! What recourse do I have ? The Mayor goes into hysterics and nearly breaks into tears about Italian cooking,for God sakes and we have to just sit there. NO RECOURSE ! Are these people even in their right minds when they sit down to vote on some very important issues? Do they even know what they are raving about? (Scott Maxwell's famous"there has been no road construction in Lake Worth for a hundred years")I think it's time for random, mandatory drug testing before meetings. And this includes CM Mike Bornstein. Katie Mcgiveron

Anonymous said...

Katie, I to hope we have drug testing, Ryan looked like he was in La La land at the beginning of the last meeting. And was grinning like the Cheshire Cat through the whole meeting.

Lynn Anderson said...

Thanks for another attack. Ryan is just a pleasant fella. Cheshire cat? Wasn't that Szerdi's description of him? Can't get over it yet, huh?

Anonymous said...


atelise above you condemn anonymous posters but you are anonymous yoursslf. click on your profile and not one bit of info about you. Where do you come off, anyway?

atelise said...

I don't post here as anonymous. My name is Telise. I'm not sure why you would say so. How many Telise's do you know?

atelise said...

Ok, I filled in my profile. Thank you for making me aware of how to do it. I was simply going by your title. I usually, go by my real name as it's very unique, so if you see atelise, then you know me. I don't generally, pry into people's profiles, I just expect a real name to be attached to a comment, even if your name may be a common one.

atelise said...

I seem to be unable to click on YOUR profile at all. Hmmm. Must be nothing there, like under a rock.

Lynn Anderson said...

Nice profile, Telise. Thanks for posting.