Lake Worth Budget Workshop -

Comment Up

Budget Workshop #4 took place last night.  Under every circumstance, a budget workshop is where staff presents and commissioners ask questions and set the policy as to what they will be spending and where they will be spending it as well as to understand all the particulars. This is the time that they do that--during the workshop--not after the Budget has been formulated.

Last night, however, was another exception to normal protocol that we have always expected. When questions were asked or comments were made by Commissioners McVoy and Mulvehill, they were shot down by the mayor, Pam Triolo, and told to move on...questions would be answered at a later meeting. When asked "when" by Commissioner McVoy, it was left unanswered...time and date unknown. Then she would roll her eyes and then Scott Maxwell would follow suit.

Normally Maxwell is tough on any budget presentation (he has never approved of any Budget in the past) but last night the only thing he seemed to focus on was having a baseball field in the south end of town.  Commissioner Mulvehill came well prepared to ask the questions and to get to the bottom of the discrepancies but she was stopped in her tracks. Even McVoy asked about transparency and the eyes would roll again. Commissioner Amoroso made some good points.

The City Manager Bornstein intimated that he had not been able to meet with them one on one--ran out of time-- and that is how he likes to do it (answer their questions) prior to the workshop and then just present his numbers. Meeting with commissioners prior to a public workshop meeting is alright but all that communication should be in the Sunshine. Telling commissioners that they are not allowed to ask questions that involve the spending of tax dollars, is outrageous in itself.

The Sunshine Law is applicable to a workshop meeting held by the city commission to discuss future city business. "The obvious intent [of the Sunshine Law] was to cover any gathering of the members where the members deal with some matter on which foreseeable action will be taken by the board." The public has a right to know what questions were asked and what answers were given and how Staff wants to spend all of the revenue.

In the Town of Palm Beach v. Gradison, 296 So.2d 473, 475 (Fla. 1974), the Supreme Court expostulated: "Every meeting of any board, commission, agency or authority of a municipality should be a marketplace of ideas, so that the governmental agency may have sufficient input from the citizens who are going to be affected by the subsequent action of the municipality. The ordinary taxpayer can no longer be led blindly down the path of government, for the news media, by constantly reporting community affairs, has made the taxpayer aware of governmental problems. Government, more so now that ever before, should be responsive to the wishes of the public. These wishes could never be known in nonpublic meetings, and the governmental agencies would be deprived of the benefit of suggestions and ideas which may be advanced by the knowledgeable public."

This workshop meeting was a farce and a total waste of time especially when the city manager told the commission that they could make recommendations during their one on one meetings out of the Sunshine. All this boiled down to was a budget presentation by the Finance Director on behalf of the City Manager...all were to sit there like good little subjects...questions were not going to be tolerated.