Martino: Hear the Messages
Posted by Michael Martino on September 3, 2018 · 1 Comment
For the voters and City Council of Palm Beach Gardens the August 28th election has come and gone. Again in a loud and certain voice the voters sent two succinct messages to the City Council and its Administration. Approximately, 70% of the participating voters in the August 28th election affirmatively communicated…
DO NOT MESS WITH OUR TERM LIMITS
And
DO NOT MESS WITH THE CITY MANAGER RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT
This City Council has been tone deaf when listening to the majority of the voters as it relates to these two issues. However, their hearing seems to be well tuned to the frequency of the developers and special interests whose money and attitudes are not in tune with the desires of the voters. The deceptive, political, and somewhat conspiratorial campaign that was waged against the above messages by the City Council bears witness to their deafness. To make matters worse the City Council used public tax money to support and pay for their crusade against existing term limits and City Manager residency requirements. Augmenting the City’s position in opposition to the messages above, a Political Action Committee, PAC, miraculously surfaced with an employee of the City’s public relations firm as its Treasurer, and lots of developer and special interest money underwriting it.
The reality of and results of the election apparently did nothing to improve the deafness of Mayor Marino. A City Council appointed Mayor, Marino’s comments in response to the results of the August 28th election suggest no improvement can be expected to her and the Council’s hearing. In a Palm Beach Post article she lamented “It looks like every five to six years, we’ll have a brand new council, so we’ll have a limited amount of institutional knowledge.” Marino blamed the term limit election results on a reaction to national politics. Apparently, Marino did not hear well the sounds of the election results concerning the City Manager residency either. She again opposed the voters’ desires as after some simplistic commentary she said, “That’s why it should be a contract item and not a charter item.”
My suggestion to the City Council is to listen and HEAR THE MESSAGES of the voters. Leave term limits alone, leave the City Manager residency as is, and quit messing with the City Charter. Enough is enough
Thanks to the residents who met the challenge again to come out, vote and make their concerns known!!! We have set term limits for a reason and that applies to the residency requirement of the City Manager, too. Now to the Charter, it should be reviewed on a regular basis, no less than every tree (3) to five (5) years so that we do not fall into conflict with any changes in the State Statutes. We have a City Attorney and City Manager that should /could be reviewing and advising on any area that causes a conflict and then presenting corrective action. With the number of successful business owners living here it should not be difficult to find people qualified to review and advise from the residents perspective and that are not beholden to the Council member that recommended their service. Hopefully we will have qualified, concerned residents offering themselves to be candidates for our next city election-2019.