Tensions around the World are already high because of Coronavirus. However, one of the places where you could feel it most was Thursday night at the Lake Worth Beach City Commission Meeting in Florida.
Before the meeting had started, Commissioner Omari Hardy had asked City Manager Michael Bornstein to hold an emergency meeting the week beforehand, and he refused. In fact, Mayor Pam Triolo did not want to hold the scheduled meeting for Thursday because of social distancing, but she finally agreed to do it on Tuesday.
Thursday’s meeting was about which city leaders have what powers during a crisis.
One of the speakers was City Manager Michael Bornstein. Hardy has a huge issue with the fact that Triolo allowed Bornstein to shut the power off to 50 customers the day before the city released a statement that shutoffs were being discontinued.
Hardy was pissed that the Mayor was more interested in her relationship with Bornstein than the 50 families who lost power. He had no problem calling them out for what they did during the biggest crisis in America since 9/11.
“We cut people’s utilities this week and made them pay — with what could have been their last check — to turn their lights off in a global health pandemic. But you don’t care about that! You didn’t want to meet!
“We cut people’s utilities this week and made them pay — with what could have been their last check — to turn their lights off in a global health pandemic. But you don’t care about that! You didn’t want to meet!”
Commissioner Omari Hardy
The Mayor accused him of grandstanding for the cameras before calling a recess as the three of them were shouting over one another.
According to The Palm Beach Post, the meeting reconvened 10 minutes later. The commission voted 4-1 to reaffirm the mayor’s right to grant emergency powers to the city manager, even without declaring a state of emergency.
As you can guess, Hardy was the one holdout. After the vote, he and Bornstein continued to argue, and both men got into each other faces. That is when Bornstein’s staff knew they had to get him out of the room.
“But I had just watched our city manager lie and mislead about shutting off families’ utilities, and they didn’t want anyone to say a word about it.
“It was too hard to take.”
Commissioner Omari Hardy’s statment to The Palm Beack Post
Am I the only one who hopes that they broadcast their next meeting live on social media for all of us to enjoy. You know it is going to be just as heated.
