Scheduling Difficulties
Keep Public Off-Balance
City Dropping the Ball: "That's the way it
goes"
Posted July 18, 2016 05:32 pm
LAKE
CITY, FL
– City
Manager
Wendell
Johnson
is
responsible
for the
day-to-day
operation
of Lake
City.
The City
Manager's
Office
is
responsible
for
preparing
City
Council
agendas
and
forwarding
them to
the City
Clerk
for
distribution.
The City
Manager
is also
responsible
for
seeing
that the
City's
calendar
is kept
up-to-date
and has
the
overall
responsibility
of
scheduling
meetings
so they
are not
in
conflict
with
those of
other
jurisdictions
in
Columbia
County.
Lately,
City
Manager
Johnson
and the
City
Council
have
been
dropping
the
ball.
Background
During the May 16, 2016, City Council meeting, Mayor Witt mentioned that the summer meeting agendas are "pretty brief" and he had discussion with the City Manager about having one meeting a month during June, July, and August and a "second meeting if something came up."
City Manager Johnson followed up on the Mayor's remarks. He mentioned something about being able to have adequate notice if a second meeting was necessary.
The failure of the City Council to invest in microphones that work and the tendency of the Council to forget that the Sunshine law requires that they be heard resulted in many of the Council's comments being unintelligible in the audience.
This is not new for the City Council.
Minutes: The Summer Schedule
The May 16 meeting minutes state:
Ms. Moses made a motion to approve a summer Council meeting schedule for the months of June, July, and August consisting of one regularly scheduled meeting to be held on the first Monday of each month at 6 p.m. Mr. Paulk seconded the motion. A roll call vote was taken and the motion passed.
The City Calendar
Throughout the weekend and until approximately 2:20 pm today, the calendar on the Lake City website showed the City Council meeting at 6 pm. Then, like a puff of smoke, it disappeared from the calendar.
As can be seen in the minutes, there is only one meeting scheduled for August. While the City's adjusted the July calendar and finally removed tonight's meeting, the August calendar remained unchanged.
Last Month: "That's the way it goes."
Last month, City Manager Johnson scheduled a City meeting for the same time as the Governor's monthly Lake Shore Hospital Authority Board meeting.
This was pointed out to Mr. Johnson, who was out of town. There was plenty of time to adjust the starting time of the City meeting to begin after the Hospital Authority meeting concluded. Hospital Authority meetings rarely last more than 45 minutes. Mr. Johnson refused.
His secretary explained, "That's the way it goes."
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