Weekly Meeting List –Cancelled!

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The City would send notice of upcoming meetings and the last notice residents would receive was emailed June 7, 2021 and contained the Meeting List Week of June 7 2021 & Draft City Commission Agenda June 14, 2021.

“WEEKLY MEETING LIST June 7, 2021 – June 11, 2021”

Mon. 3:00 PM Mayor’s Task Force for Racial and Ethnic Equality: Time change to 4:PM.

Tues. 3:00 PM Mayor’s Task Force for Racial and Ethnic Equality: Cancelled

Wed. 1:00 PM Mayor’s Task Force for Racial and Ethnic Equality:  Cancelled

Fri. 8:30 AM Mayor’s Task Force for Racial and Ethnic Equality:     Meeting held

WeeklyMeetingList_2021-0607-0611_Correction(1)

There were 4 scheduled meetings to be held the w/o June 7 2021 on Mayor’s Task Force for Racial and Ethnic Equality. As you can see 2 were cancelled and 1 time change. This is consistent with other City notifications but at least we were kept aware of the changes by receiving updated emails and not traveling to City Hall for a meeting that was cancelled.

Until the new administration was sworn in and a new City Administrator was appointed I have never witnessed the amount of meetings cancelled, times and or dates changed, meeting location changed. The Mayor was so proud of his newest committee “Mayor’s Task Force for Racial and Ethnic Equality” that in 1 week 2 meetings were cancelled, but it will be a selling point when needed for re-election.

After receiving the last notice of City meetings this message was added.

“Going forward, the weekly meeting list and meeting agendas will be accessible on the website, “wpb.org”. Subsequently, this email will discontinue.”

I questioned why the City decided to stop sending notice of upcoming meetings, and received this response from Cheryl Robinson | Executive Administrative Assistant.
“The City is streamlining its processes. Meetings and agendas are posted to the website and available to all to be accessed at any time; therefore, it is redundant to send email notifications. Thank you for your inquiry.”

I emailed back:
I appreciated the emails you sent. Lately there have been changes to city business, like meetings being canceled, times and dates being changed. If I see a meeting I want to attend and travel to city hall only to find it’s been cancelled or time/date changed residents will not be happy. Can you tell me who made the change?

I received this response from Hazeline F. Carson, City Clerk
“Per your question to Cheryl, the change was made at my direction for the reason you mentioned in your email, that meetings were cancelled and the list had to be updated constantly. This is to eliminate all of the emails being sent out.”

Lets say Friday night I check the upcoming meetings on the City website and see a meeting I wish to attend for example the Mayor’s Task Force for Racial and Ethnic Equality to be held Monday @ 8:30AM.
I would be wise to re-check the City’s website early Monday morning to insure the meeting wasn’t cancelled, or time changed.

If you know “Chain of Command” both Ms. Carson and Robinson report to City Administrator Faye Johnson who reports to Mayor James.

If James and Johnson aren’t making changes to the way business is being handled they keep moving staff around, promoting and demoting, handing out raises, taking them back, all the while making room for friends.

It wasn’t broke, what are they trying to fix? It’s obvious to me and the rest of the City it’s not the water problem on their mind, but how to make it more difficult for residents to follow City business. Then again maybe James isn’t aware of the changes being made like he wasn’t aware of the water situation. Someone needs to inform him our City is going to hell in a hand basket.

The end