The Nomination of President Of The City Commission


April 12, 2015

Congratulations to Commissioner Sylvia Moffett on her appointment as president of the city commission for a second consecutive term. The commission president chairs the city’s audit committee, serves as temporary mayor, If the mayor dies or leaves office early and he or she runs meetings, If the mayor is unavailable.

 

There are clear indications to me, that Commissioner Moffett’s appointment has a lot to do with the Universal Law of Karma . . . . what goes around, comes around and the very few who closely follows the inner workings of our local government, will remember what happened in April 2013 and will agree. Within the city of West Palm Beach, there has been a tradition of rotation for commissioners to serve as president of the commission but in April 2013, a precedent might have been set when Commissioner Moffett was next in line to serve but was snubbed and publicly demeaned by Kimberly Mitchell’s remarks and nomination of another.

 

Commissioner Keith James was the current president of the commission during the time Kimberly Mitchell nominated him to serve a second term, with her saying, the city has major issues in front of It and that she would consider re-electing Commissioner James for a second consecutive term as Commission President. Because Mitchell had a rein over the commission at that time, It was a cinch for her to get the support she wanted. Commissioner James certainly does have ample leadership skills  and served as president very well. The problem was, Ms. Mitchell’s demeaning remarks towards her colleague and stepping outside of rotation, which opens the door for the same.

 

After this years March 10th Elections, a Special City Commission Meeting was held on April 2nd , for the swearing in of the newly elected commissioners, Cory Neering and Paula Ryan and incumbents, Mayor Jeri Muoio and Commissioner Keith James, who both won their races by landslides that spoke volumes. Muoio easily beat Kimberly Mitchell and James easily beat Len Fintzy. During the ceremony, Commissioner James nominated Commissioner Sylvia Moffett for a second term, as president of the commission and that was a gate previously opened by Kimberly Mitchell, when she snubbed Moffett and lead the charge to skip over her as next in line, only to have the same thing happen to her friend and team player, Materio.

 

It is ironic that the recipient of Mitchell’s bad act, skipped over Shanon Materio, who was next in line for the position of president of the commission and that is not something Kimberly Mitchell would have wanted and she was there to see It. The ceremonial day of April 2nd, was a cascade of failures for Mitchell, starting with her huge loss to Mayor Muoio, after vowing to forum audiences, to show us how to win an election. That evening, her parting comments were surprisingly few, compared to her normal spiel and only two on the dais walked over to embrace her.

 

There is still work to be done to recruit a candidate for the March 2016, District 5 race, to make sure Mitchell and Pinsky does not have a direct line to WPB city business.