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Stew Lilker’s

Columbia County Observer

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Lake City

Lake City Keeping the Public in the Dark
12th hr. Notice Not a New Event for City Manager


City Manager Johnson

LAKE CITY, FL – City Manager Wendell Johnson prides himself on being an expert on many facets of municipal government. That appears to be one of the reasons the City Council hired him in June 2009. Seven years after being hired, City Manager Johnson has been consistently unsuccessful in keeping the public advised of its meetings or giving them timely access to meeting material.

Mayor Steve Witt, Lake City's popular Mayor, runs model City Council meetings which demonstrate the respect the Council and the Mayor have for the public. Everyone gets their chance to participate and under the leadership of Mayor Witt, City Council meetings are a market place of ideas. 

City Manager Johnson is responsible for preparing City agendas and providing supporting information to the public and the council members.


The City web calendar. At 1:55 this afternoon it had the wrong meeting time.      ++enlarge

City Manager Johnson has said that he would have no problem preparing City Council agendas a week in advance. However, history demonstrates that he is incapable of doing that. 

The City Council has not objected to the City Manager's 12th hour agendas. It is not clear if they read them. 

The City meeting calendar is simple to operate and update. It is a Google calendar which is used throughout the world. 

Tonight, October 13, 2016, Mr. Johnson's scheduled a City Utility Advisory Committee meeting. 

Related article:
Scheduling Difficulties Keep Public Off-Balance - City Dropping the Ball: "That's the way it goes"

The agenda is jam-packed with important information and includes millions of dollars of expenditures, as well as the City Manager's suggestion to pack the committee with three City Council members.

The agenda for the meeting went out yesterday afternoon at 5:03 pm and was posted to the City website sometime the morning.

The City did not post the meeting on its web calendar until sometime this morning, giving the public no meaningful notice of the meeting and giving both the committee members and the public no meaningful access to the meeting material. 

Finally, by the time the City did post the meeting time on its calendar, it posted the wrong starting time, listing the meeting to begin at 5:00 pm rather than 5:30 pm. 

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