City Commission - Regular Meeting

We'd like to call a meeting in order. Can we do roll call, please?

Mayor Brunson.

Here.

Mayor Joyce Smith. Here. Commissioner Ben Smith. Here. Commissioner Everyard.

Here.

Commissioner Touchstone.

Here.

We have quorum.

Can we all stand for invocation and pledge?

Heavenly Father, we thank you first and foremost for life, health, and strength. We thank you for the ability to assemble ourselves here together in your presence. Now we ask that you would help us to govern and guide ourselves, meeting according to your divine will and purpose. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

I'd like to welcome everyone out to our September 16th meeting. This time we have an opportunity for the public to address the commission. Mr. Clerk, can you read the forum statement please?

When speaking before the City Commission, please make sure you give your full name and address for the record. There is a three-minute time limit for public comments. Please adhere to the City's normal laws to include Article 2, Section 2-24 of the City of West Park's Code of Ordinances. The city's charter provides the city commission may determine its own rule and procedure. Those rules impart that persons participating in any regular or special meeting abide by standards of conduct or may not continue to participate in that particular meeting. Speakers will be called in the order in which they are received. The city clerk is charged with notifying each speaker of the time limit. It is unlawful for any individual to disturb or disrupt a meeting of the city commission or refuse to obey the order of the mayor or presiding officer during the meeting. Any comments or questions by the public shall be directed to the mayor presiding officer. The mayor is invited by the laws of the city to order from the room any speaker who refuses to comply with the quorum and regulations of the city.

Thank you. At this time, again, it's an opportunity for the public to address commission. We do have one, Carolyn Hardy.

Good evening, Carolyn Hardy, 4030 Southwest 18th Street, 61719 Southwest 27th Street. This evening I'm coming once again to ask that the... Commissions and Mayor, please maintain the millage rate at 7.9 as it was last year, and also serve as a reminder that even though the millage rate was reduced, lowered, I should say, lowered, THAT THE TAX BILLS WERE HIGHER LAST YEAR AND THEY WILL BE HIGHER AGAIN THIS YEAR BECAUSE AS I STATED AND UNFORTUNATELY SOME OF YOU MISSED THE PRESENTATION BY THE REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE POPULAR APPRAISAL OFFICE LAST WEEK. The assessed value of our home, property values, is the driving force of why tax bills are the way that they are. Yes, granted, the millage rate helps some, but at the end of the day, it's based on the value of the property. And we all know that the value of properties, nowhere is going down, they're going up. And I would appreciate, as a...

property owner of three separate properties i would appreciate if you would maintain the millage rate at 7.9 thank you thank you the opportunity for the public to address the commission is now closed we'll move on to item number six resolution under consent mr clerk

A resolution of the City Commission of the city was part Florida continue the budget hearing September 3rd, 2026 to September 16th, 2026 as p.m. rescheduling the second final hearing date, authorizing the administrator taking necessary and expedite providing for adoption of representation for an effective date. Madam mayor, yes, most of the pool.

Motion is there a second.

SECOND FOR DISCUSSION.

IT'S MOTIONED AND SECONDED. DISCUSSION.

YES. ONCE THIS GETS APPROVED, ARE WE GOING TO GO RIGHT INTO THE BUDGET?

I'M NOT UNDERSTANDING YOUR QUESTION. CAN YOU ASK IT AGAIN, PLEASE?

ONCE THIS RESOLUTION 6.1 GETS APPROVED, Are we going to write into continuing the discussion of budget?

If I may this after this one to the next item, which is millage rate while you have already considered the military in abundance of caution, we want you to read that that millage rate because it is required to make sure the both the budget and the millage rate is adopted at the same mean. So we have to reconsider that which is item number 71 and then we go to the budget ordinance.

Mayor, I'm not understanding why this resolution is coming before us now because we're here at this meeting on September 16th at 6 p.m. So I need to understand why this resolution before us now we're here at the meeting. So the way that I understand that it's authorizing this meeting for tonight at 6 p.m. that was already noticed without it being approved by the commissioner.

Okay, if I may.

Yes.

This resolution was more than just that. If you look back up on the item, having the meeting we had last time stayed, and I'm going to, Chris can find and give more Opinion is we have to consider the state. I collect the state Department of Revenue It is actually a violation to not adopt both the resolution and the military that is in meeting to avoid in the in the attachments you have from the Department of Revenue to avoid a Can you put that on the screen? No, it's in your packet. Yeah, can you put it on the screen? I don't have it set up.

My computer is not operating right now. Can you put it on the screen?

Staff can, we can try to do that, but I can go ahead and continue to staff try to do that.

Well, for full transparency, let's put it on the screen so I can have a line of sight to what you're talking about.

Okay. The email, you click on, for those who can, if you click a second exhibit from the Department of Revenue, to allow to avoid receiving notice of term violation, you may consider to is telling us to continue today from last time and then have a date for the meeting. So the resolution you have before you not only speaks to continuing today, it's also scheduling the final hearing for September 28th. It's part of the section of resolution you have. So if you look into the resolution, you see it also scheduling this final budget hearing for the 28th, which is at 6 p.m. Because we have to use this to continue.

So 8.1 is a continuation of the public hearing for the budget meeting?

You said 8.1?

Mm-hmm.

8.1 is the continuation of the meeting we had and we want to use that opportunity now not only to continue but also address some of the questions in the last meeting.

Is there anything else, Ms. Manager?

That's it. Okay.

Anybody have a question? Go ahead.

No, the thing is that, you know, before you set the date for the city manager, you know, it's good for once you know we have, we can reschedule the meeting according to the state of Florida. It's imperative for you to contact us, what date that we prefer, and even the time. Because when we try and arrange this in one hour, when you know that we've got a lot of questions that we had and concerns before we can even decide to, you know, adopt the... You're talking about today? Yeah.

Today is already, you already scheduled today, approved this by resolution. You approved today's meeting by resolution. So today is supposed to be when we meet for the second, but we're using it to continue the last meeting. Otherwise, you'll be confound in violation of the state statute by not adopting both. So because you have today, so we decided to use today for that date to continue because the states, they will avoid the violation of not finishing the last meeting.

Okay, but we could have gone here from yesterday or on Thursday, as opposed to today, correct?

No, you cannot, because then for the next meeting, you have to also place a notice. We cannot place a notice for a second hearing, for a final hearing, until we finish this one. And to place a notice is a publication in the newspaper. And that publication has to, before that publication has happened, we have to finish this meeting. And that publication will now happen after we finish this meeting. And then the notice in the newspaper.

Any other questions on item number one?

For this item also, I have a scheduled conflict for the 28th. So that's not going to be considered for me.

Okay. The newspaper will have to be, it's going to be a challenge for us to get a newspaper to move, but what will be the dates? Then we're going to have City Club have to run and start seeing the newspaper works. They may have a challenge.

Well, according to the email, it says it could be done in two days, right?

No, that's referring to this meeting. The one that has to be posted two to five, five, two days before the next meeting. So I have to give it. No, not this one. The one you're reading in this email is this meeting. It's for this meeting we have it. That has already been posted. The next one, the next meeting for the potential, we added 28, but let's discuss that, is the way they said at the hearing, you will readapt the millage and then you will then proceed with the normal process for the advertising notice of final hearing. The normal process for advertising notice of final hearing is what, two to five? Before the meeting, so we need the time we needed time to be able to advertise in the newspaper. Now, newspaper also has their requirement that you have to let them know in advance. So that advance gave us the 28. That's why we're making it the 28th. Otherwise, we may not be able to do it on another date. However, if you change the date, it's going to run and try to find out if another date 29th, but you can't go past that. Those are the three days we have. What's the date of the 30th? Well, if we do, if we 30th, it depends on the paper having that date. They may not have that date. So state, we have to do it. Our choice here is to be able to do it the 28th, 29th. The reason we went to the 28th is because the newspaper has a restriction, and that restriction threw us on the 28th.

What restriction?

They have to have it yesterday or by some days to be able to get it for the 28th. The date that they had to have it back, we reserved it. They reserved it. It only met the 28th. So we're pushing it if we set another date. Now, it's up to them because it's a display ad, right?

Yeah, they're both display ads that have to be adjacent to each other. So it's a question of placement and meeting the Sun Sentinel deadlines for that. Yeah.

But today is 16th, so you have more than one week.

Oh, no. The newspaper, they want their stuff at a particular time on a particular date. and they do not move. That's why we're stuck with that. He can't care with us. If you tell another date, we'll go find, give an option of what, and I mean, if they have those dates, this is the one fell onto that date. We were scrambling just to get this one from the state of revenue and the newspaper, all of those two people.

So you'd have to submit it by this week for it to?

They gave a deadline of when we have to submit after this meeting. We have to start putting the display out by Friday. We're going to get it to them so they can have it for that date. It's a display. It's not a little thing. It's a whole display in the paper, the full page, and that's very premium.

Yeah. This email appears to have been corresponded on September 11th. I'm just... Also, sharing the sentiment of Commissioner Everlard, why was there no outreach by you to us as individual commissions to make us aware of this so that we can be prepared with a potential date to be able to provide?

We can't do that. We don't... Wait, wait, wait.

Can I just... You mean you cannot communicate with the missionaries about... Anything pertaining to forwarding emails to make us aware of information as you received it?

Let me address. Number one, we discussed stuff like this in open meeting. Like I just said, you can change it all you want, but we discussed something like this. Also, we communicated this to the Chris community immediately after the meeting, the last meeting we had. It took them to when we were doing. You notice that date? That's the date we published. That's the Friday or Thursday, whatever it is we published the information. So we have to scramble between them and the newspaper to be able to get the date. That said, you can go ahead and give all the dates, and then we'll ask the newspaper and see where we are.

Well, I'm available on the 30th, September 30th.

That will be cutting it extremely close, not only for here, but for the stream itself. But that's one.

I don't know if anyone else is available on the 28th or what day is conducive for the entire body, but I am unavailable on the 28th. I am available on the 30th.

28 is fine with me.

28 is fine with me. What's the pleasure, Commissioner Everlard?

Vice Mayor? 30 is okay. Vice Mayor?

30 is fine.

Is that date too close or is that OK? I mean, then when is the deadline?

We will have to ask the paper if they have something that's not already reserved for it.

So if they don't have availability, do you need to have a backup another date just in case?

Yes, you can. Yes, you should.

So we have the 30th as the first request. Is there another date that we could possibly move to just in case the newspaper says no? I think someone mentioned the 29th.

Mayor, someone mentioned the 29th, but I want to just Say, according to the city manager, the first date that we could have it will be on the 28th as proposed at the newspaper constraints. I am only available on 30th.

So, again, I say, we also, Mr. Balagon, so you're saying you're going to ask them about the 30th? And so if we can ask them about the 30th, then I know that you said that you had already turned in for the 28th. No.

No.

We're going to do that based upon today. Upon today. Yes. So... I'm sorry, go ahead.

Yeah, we had them lock that in since they said that's what they have available. Now, if we go back and see if they also have the 30th, we'll do that. That works with the time frame of the state. Okay, it works with the time frame of the state. That much we know. It just depends on the newspaper.

Okay, and then if that's not available, then you'll let us know?

Well, it's either it's going to be either that the 38th or the 28th.

Okay. Okay. So again, I just want to state this record. Mr. Balcon, you're going to ask. If it doesn't work, it'll have to go back to the 28th.

Correct.

Okay. So does everyone understand?

No, because. It should be a bill because it's a longer term. And the 28th is the earliest. So it's not like you're cutting it short. It's like, you know, you're extending it. So if you extend it for the newspaper, I don't see as to why it should not be available. Because the earliest is the 28th, so therefore, the 30th should be, you know, should be available.

Commissioner Smith.

Yeah, this is exactly why. we can't afford to be playing these type of games because had this tentative budget would have been approved the same way we approved the millage rate, then we wouldn't be in this predicament where now we're subject to someone else's availability. We're putting ourselves at the availability of... the newspaper being able to have availability in for the particular reason that we wouldn't have had otherwise had we approved the tentative budget and we could have gone and made subsequent adjustments or changes, you know, how we see fit for the final budget. But when we start playing these games like we did on the last meeting pertaining to the budget, because you know, people wanted to have their own way, these are the consequences. So we can't say, oh, it should be available because it's a later date, because we're still at the mercy of that particular entity. That's why we, when it's come time for us to decide what we can control here, we need to take care of this then because as we know, and this is no one here on this commission's first budget season. You know, at the beginning of, well, prior to budget season, there's a list of dates that we must meet. Every year, that's within certain time constraints. And we do it all the time, and we make sure that we meet those deadlines so we don't run into situations like this where we're now scrambling at the last minute. Had we taken care of business in the last meeting, we wouldn't be in this predicament today.

Mayor, I need to speak. Mayor, I need to speak.

Vice Mayor wanted to speak, and then I would like to speak there.

Go ahead.

Okay, so this is what civility is all about, right? The fact is that we had that meeting on the 3rd and no communication to say that, okay, we're going to have this meeting on the 28th. Are you guys available? Anybody available? Not available? Because of the poor communication from our administration, this happens to happen. So when Commissioner Smith talking about NOT TAKING CARE OF THIS FROM HERE AND THERE. YOU HAVE TO HOLD EVERYBODY ACCOUNTABLE, INCLUDING OUR ADMINISTRATOR, OUR CITY MANAGER, IS TO BE ACCOUNTABLE AS WELL. YOU'RE TELLING ME THAT YOU COME HERE TONIGHT WITH DATE FOR THE 28TH OF SEPTEMBER AND YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT THE OTHER DATES AVAILABLE FROM THE NEWSPAPER? YOU SHOULD HAVE THOSE INFORMATION. YOU SHOULD HAVE AT LEAST HAVE the deadline for the newspaper that we have to submit. What are the dates? You come here just tripping because what? You just put a date and everybody has to be here. That's ridiculous. That is ridiculous. So, I mean, talking about You know, when y'all want to find information to go out there and do stuff and to give to information, give to people to post on social media, that takes precedence over doing the business of the city. Really. That's ridiculous. Come on now, we need to do better. If we're not available here, a commissioner is not available, who needs to contact the commissioner? You're talking about, oh, you have to do it in the public. That doesn't make any sense. That's what the commission, emails and stuff like that, we get the phone to contact. You're trying to tell us, because you're not on speaking terms with, Three commissioners up here, you decide to put it in the actual meeting and then talking about we have a deadline. Then you come up with a deadline from the paper. So you want to blame us for it. Come on now. That's ridiculous. Mayor, I was next.

I was getting ready to call you. Go ahead.

Okay, because you were pointing at the manager.

Please speak.

So I share the sentiment of my colleague. I think that it's a travesty that every time, Commissioner Smith wants to blame the commission for decisions made by the city manager unilaterally. It would have been appropriate for the city manager to email us after getting the response on September 11th. There's nothing that precludes the city manager from communicating with us as individual commissioners on issues that are time sensitive and which he should have done. In addition to that, he's here at the meeting ill-prepared, knowing that we have up to the 30th to get this done. It would have been prudent for him to quarry the newspaper to tentatively hold each day the 28th, the 29th, and the 30th to be able to put them in paper, knowing that he was coming to the mission to ask us at the meeting that we would be available on any of those days. He did not do that. He has now happened to go back and do work that should have been already prepared for us to opine on at this meeting. So in addition to that, the reason why the tentative budget was not approved at the first budget hearing was because three of the commissioners admittedly said that we did not meet at any point with our city administrator to discuss the items that was in the tentative budget. We had only gotten the tentative budget two weeks prior to the first budget hearing and we had no time allotted to speak with our city administrator about our concerns with the budget. Then when we were at a budget meeting, all of the concerns we had was written down. It wasn't even addressed at the allotted time it was supposed to be addressed in. The city manager was ill-prepared to even address our concerns of the budget that he prepared. He didn't even address the commission's questions at the meeting in which we asked those questions. He now wants to give a synopsis of what our concerns were to respond to them today. So how could we in good faith approve a tentative budget that we had so a plethora of questions concerning the budget and the allocations of funds? Just found out on Monday that we have undesignated funds coming from our reserve that was not part of the original presentation. So I still have additional questions because we keep finding out information piece by piece. But yet Commissioner Smith is not concerned with those valid points that are being made by his colleagues. He's only concerned with attacking his colleagues. And this is contributing to the divisiveness that all of the residents are concerned about. You have no valid input concerning the concerns of your colleagues. If you have colleagues that are working together that are saying to you, hey, the city manager is not corresponding with us concerning city business as he should. That's a concern of yours, but evidently not a concern of yours because he's communicating adequately with you, but not with three other colleagues. You're cool with that. You have never stated on record anything that you should concerning the actions of the city administrator is foul, is wrong, is unprofessional. And this is what is delaying business. Because I would not be voting on something that I'm not clear on. I'm not going to be voting to approve something just to come back and be bamboozled like he did a couple years ago. I still don't have the cost savings analysis that we are supposed to be reviewing for our residents. I still don't have the breakdown of the city administrative budget as far as who's getting paid, how much those benefits are going towards. Mm-hmm. It's a lot of things that are still not transparent that I personally and professionally do not feel comfortable approving a budget when we don't have all of the variables in order to make a sound decision. If you feel comfortable making a blinded decision on the behalf of the residents that you say that you are advocating for, and by the way, you never advocate for anything for residents, okay? You never do. You never ask any of our vendors any questions. YOU NEVER ADVOCATE FOR ANYTHING POSITIVELY FOR OUR RESIDENTS. EVERYTHING THAT COMES FROM YOUR COMMISSIONER SMITH IS NEGATIVELY DRIVEN TOWARDS YOUR FELLOW COLLEAGUES, OKAY? I'M NOT FINISHED BECAUSE THIS IS MY TIME TO TALK. EVERY TIME I GO TO TALK, Mayor, you want to interject with what I'm saying? But you should have told Commissioner Smith to focus on the budget. No, it was not about the budget. Can you go ahead and finish, please? Stop interrupting me because our charter says that you cannot interrupt a speaker. I'm asking you to finish. Okay, so let me finish. Stop ruining my train of thought. Okay? And the next thing with you, Mayor, you have to understand that this commissioner's meeting is the commission's meeting. Every time you want to run and give latitude to the city manager and what's the pleasure of the city manager, let me remind you that the will and pleasure of this commission is the authority of the city and not the city manager. It is not beholden to him to make decisions on behalf of this commission. The commission makes the decisions and the city manager follows those directives. Make sure that you know that that's clear. Because that's the oath that you took. Thank you. Thank you.

Madam Mayor, if I may, I have to address all the comments that were made, which are not totally false. Number one, something about, and I'm going to go down the list. It is not appropriate. It is not appropriate. IT IS NOT APPROPRIATE. STAY ON THE BUDGET. STAY ON THE BUDGET. STAY ON THE BUDGET. STAY ON THE BUDGET.

STAY ON THE BUDGET. STAY ON THE BUDGET.

STAY ON THE BUDGET. STAY ON THE BUDGET. STAY ON THE BUDGET. STAY ON THE BUDGET. STAY ON THE BUDGET. STAY ON THE BUDGET.

STAY ON THE BUDGET. STAY ON THE BUDGET. STAY ON THE BUDGET.

STAY ON THE BUDGET. STAY ON THE BUDGET. STAY ON THE BUDGET. STAY ON THE BUDGET. STAY ON THE BUDGET. STAY ON THE BUDGET.

STAY ON THE BUDGET. STAY ON THE BUDGET. STAY ON THE BUDGET We will allow him to respond. We will not interrupt. Mayor, we will allow him to speak.

We will be able to interrupt. No, you will not. Yes, we can.

Because we allowed you to speak and no one interrupted.

If it's not germane to the budget, then he will get interrupted. You can answer. You can respond now.

It was mentioned that the that the issue that send the email to the Commission, it is not appropriate to send an email asking for people to vote. The appropriate thing is to bring it on.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

Let us know.

So here's what we're not going to do. We're going to allow each person to speak out being interrupted. Now you've said your piece. Let him respond. Then the next person to speak is Commissioner Brandon Smith. He wished to speak after that. Then you just let me know and you will be add to it. But give them the respect that you're desiring.

Mayor, Mr. Major, just a point of order, Mayor. Point of order. You're not recognizing the point of order? He needs to be stopped, and the point of order needs to be addressed.

Mayor, I have a point of personal privilege. He cannot so appoint. He's not a member of the council. Yeah, I can. He cannot. The code is clear.

Only the Lord follows Robert Luther King. Mayor, you are ignoring my point of order as a commissioner of this body. The point order takes precedence.

The point. Yes, it is. It's more.

I was mayor of order. You are out of order for recognizing the commission's point of order. When you start calling point order dates, you are asked for a point of order. Okay. To that end point of order. It's recognizing mayor. Point of order. Point of order. Point of order.

Point of order. Point of order. Point of order. Point of order. Point of order.

Then you will be next after that. Point of order. Point of order. That's ridiculous. Point of order. Point of order.

The process is actually clear.

as to ICA and make. Point of order. The correspondent. I sent email to every commission member. Point of order. Nobody said question about the budget. You did not say question about the budget. Point of order. The budget came here. So people need to know that. What email did you send? Because I didn't receive any email. Point of order. I'll print that. Send the email to everybody. There's a point of order. Point of order.

Point of order.

Point of order. Point of order. Point of order. Whose job is to prepare the commission? Point of order. It was so clear that you did not read, and I'm going to point that out to you. Point of order.

Belgon, are you finished?

No, I'm not.

Okay. Point of order.

It was at this meeting today. Point of order. Undesignation of violence was clearly discussed several times. Point of order. That's not correct. The ill-prepared is not part of the staff. Point of order. All we want to do is make sure you have it in writing so we can have it in record, just like we did last time.

Point of order. Commissioner Smith, you have the floor. I have a point of order. Do you not understand Robert's Rules of Order, Mayor?

You have the floor after Commissioner Smith.

That's not how Robert rules go.

Commissioner Smith was your...

That's not how Robert Roods go. Commissioner Smith, comment? Madam Mayor. And that's the thing. Smith knows that that's not appropriate what you're doing, and he's not calling you out. He understands that a point of order takes... takes precedence. And yet he does not call you out to let you know. Commissioner Smith, you know that a point of order takes precedence and it interrupts the speaker. Yet why aren't you holding the mayor accountable to her not following Robert rules of order? Why are you a contributory party to this foolishness?

This is ridiculous. Madam Mayor, proceed with the meeting. This is ridiculous.

Because you know that the point of order was supposed to be taken up before allowing the city manager to speak. Just like you guys continue the meeting without a quorum, you cannot continue a meeting without a quorum. You call it a point of order. I called a point of order and it was not recognized. Again, Commissioner Smith, are you finished? Commissioner Smith, are you finished?

Yes, you're finished. Commissioner, touch down.

What is your comment? My point of order is that you are out of order, Mayor. See, you're rude and you're disrespectful.

I said okay. Go ahead.

You don't speak at all when I have the floor. Thank you.

Can you say your comment and keep it moving?

Stop interjecting.

You're being rude and disrespectful. That's you. Yeah, so go ahead and say your comment. Say your comment. She wants the control, so say your comment. Say, I need for you to be quiet from the audience also. No, I'm serious. You should not be speaking from the audience. That's your first warning.

Make sure you apply that pressure to everybody that's speaking in the audience. Okay, third time BSL. Now, who wants to be in control now?

Commissioner, touchstone, you have the floor.

My point of order is that you were out of order for allowing the city manager to speak when there was a point of order on the floor. The city manager cannot throw a motion because he is not a part of this body. He cannot make a point of personal privilege. He cannot make a motion because he is not. He is not. See how you're allowing him to inject. Provide him with the same warning. Provide him with the same warning. Can you finish, please? Provide him with the same warning. Can you finish? You're out of order, Mayor. You just heard me say to him to stop so that you can finish. No, you did not say that. Will you finish, please? finish your comment. And like I said, you continuously allow the city and manager that works for us to to have a derelict of duties and responsibilities and to demean the body in which he works for. I understand you would not tolerate for him to speak to you in the same tone, in the same manner that you allow him to address this body as. You continually allow him to disrespect this body, right? But when the shoe was on the other foot, When you were not in the mayor's seat and the city manager was treating you some type of way, you was crying from the mountaintops to all the pastors and everyone trying to say that we need to get rid of the city manager. You had Carolyn Hoodie on the charter review committee saying that we need to reduce the super majority of the charter because you wanted to get rid of the city manager and the city attorney at that time. Now, since you're in the mayor's seat, you're allowing him to do everything that you spoke highly against him doing in regards to you. Withholding information and needing transparency, not being accountable. But yet you think it's funny and cute and cool now, right? Right? Because now you're using the city manager as a scapegoat to throw the rocks at you and hide your hand. It's not going to be accepted, okay? Not going to be accepted. It's time for your foolishness. You need to conduct yourself in decency and in order. And the same... application that you want residents to apply to all. Because when you had the audience here on the last meeting applauding and being aroused, you never want to hold them to maintain order. You have a bias that you need to address with yourself. And you needed it together. You needed it together. And apply the rules that you have took an oath to abide. Okay? Robert rules of order is what we abide by. Our charter does not specify differently. So when there's a point of order, On the day, it is your responsibility to abide by Robert rules. All commission is to stop. The one could be interrupted with a point of order. The point of order is supposed to be heard. You are supposed to rule on the point of order. And if a member of the commission decides to go against your rule, then we could do so by majority vote. That's what the charter said. Start applying by what the charter is. And maybe we won't have, we will have less crowded meetings. But it starts with you, the chair. You allowed the chaos to go on and then you want to act all innocent. You're not innocent, okay? You're not.

So, Mr. Balagon, let me just make this state before we move forward. First of all, we model what we want our community to see. We're up here acting crazy and acting a fool or going at it with feature. That is what the community sees that our city is so half of the city of West Park as your mayor. I apologize for this play because this is not we're supposed to be up here to do up here to run the business of this city and to the city better. So on behalf of myself, I apologize on behalf of the city for this behavior because this is not what we're supposed to do. We have wasted two minutes of your time on foolishness. We could have been deciding our budget. So we will continue to move city forward. We will continue to do the business of the city. So please remain calm and let us allow... the process to go through. Mayor, can you please continue?

I'm going to suspend everything I'm about to say about the runs and I'll do that when I'm making my comment. I know I've been, I have the code states, I have the authority to be able to speak every meeting 16, over 16 years I've been here, several elected officials, and I will put on my chest to say these guys will not, don't want to be on these guys if I have not been here to make sure this city runs. That said, that said, we have an item.

Excuse me. Stop talking foolishness.

That's it. The decorum, the culture that does not allow for decorum and civility, that's what we're saying. We all kept quiet and let the campaign go on. Nobody wanted to, but when I speak, somebody wanted to interrupt me. That's totally, that's my job to make sure I call the commission when that's happening. It's clear states in my scope when that is happening, I have to let the commission know. But it continues to happen when I'm talking. That's it. The item is before you. Let's move past the item. I will suspend it and I'm going to address every item that was said here. I'm going to address it during my presentation because I will indicate that again. If you have a date, we have a date for the 28th. The newspaper, just like we reserve, they reserve with others. Commissioner, you had mentioned earlier that it's further down because they reserve for others. However, like I indicated, if you pass, have the 28th as a date, and then the 28th as a second option, we'll go and try to see if they can move things around and accommodate that because I had a city clerk sit with them for it. And we wanted to make sure we abide by the state of Florida. Like we waited for them for so long from the third until they left before they responded. They were going to rule the city in violation of the trade violation. And it stays there in there. So we quickly captured a date that they will agree to. So we had to do all of that gymnastics to make sure we get a date on here. That said, if you... When the 38th is out of the 28th, we go to the newspaper. We try to see if they can move things around as a priority and have the city clerk do that. If that happens, then we'll put it in there. But the best date they have is this date. But if they can make the 38th happen, we'll push for that. That's why I said that earlier.

Why don't we just make it easier, Mayor, and see whether or not we can just put a notice in for the 28th, 29th, and 30th. There's nothing that precludes us for canceling meetings as well. If we want to make sure that we're capturing all the dates, just put a notice in that we're going to have something on the 28th, the 29th, and the 30th. But you understand that the consensus of the body is that the availability is on the 30th.

So, Mr. Manager, the manager has stated that he will, the first dates that we provided were the 20th and the 30th. He will check. Oh, Chris, I'm sorry.

Go ahead, Chris. I'm sorry. We can only have one ad.

One ad.

The state actually will preclude us from having multiple ads.

No, what I'm saying is in the date of the one ad, why can't it state? more than one date. Even if we could have one ad, the state doesn't preclude what dates we include in that one ad.

I wish we had that flexibility, but the state is really specific on the nature and the display of those ads. There's actually a manual about this. So it has to be to it. Right.

You know, at the end, can you speak up a little bit louder?

Okay. Sorry.

Thank you.

At the end of this meeting, we have to notify the public of the date, place and time of the second budget hearing, because this will be the first budget hearing continued from the third. The reason the 18th, you had until the 18th to have your first budget hearing, and today is the 16th, so that barely made that date. Suffice it to say, we do not have the option what the language of the ad should look like or the dates. It can only be one date, one time, and one place on that ad and cannot run on multiple dates. We would be in violation of the statute to do that. So we're going to have to choose a date. I think, though, from what I'm hearing, 30th was, like, fine for everybody, and I'm pretty sure that that's going to be acceptable to the paper and fall back to the 28th. I know that's a conflict for you, but I don't think it's going to happen in any case.

Okay. The other thing that you said that was just interesting, Chris, was the fact that we had until the 18th. So being that you all knew that we wanted to need to have this additional meeting because it was a continuation meeting, Why didn't we schedule something by the 18th?

Well, that's two days from now. And I think the issue for the state is the original meeting, you have to adopt the millage rate and the tentative budget at the same meeting. That wasn't done. The statutes actually don't contemplate that event. So when we contacted them the day after this meeting, they said, well, this is going to have to be kicked up to management because there's no cure that's specific. So they're going to have to make a decision.

Mm-hmm.

The time of that had been a little bit better because that fell on Labor Day weekend. So Friday, like, you know, in Tallahassee was there. Monday, they were working. And they still didn't get back to us because they really, I don't think they knew what to do. But they knew we were having a meeting on the 18th. They figured, well, that, I'm sorry, the 16th I spoke. They knew they were having a meeting today. And they were like, okay, that's probably no already. So let's just go with that date. with actually saying that because I think that's, they're just trying to accommodate what was a problem and they didn't really know how to address it. So there was a cure. You know, when I went back the next day to look at the statute and the trim manual, which is an administrative adoption of the law, it just wasn't addressed. So I went to Tallahassee, well, what's the cure for this? Bizarre things happened in the past with on this issue. And they're usually pretty reasonable. Like, for instance, I had one city where the city manager actually put his home address as the base of the first public hearing. And that went out to all 40,000, you know, property owners. But the state said, well, just, you know, just put a sign in your yard. I mean, I asked the manager, well, how big is your house, just to see if we had to have the meeting there. We didn't think that funny. So here they were just trying to accommodate you under the structure without finding you in non-reliance. So that's just the way it evolved. But at the end of the day, arguments aside, and I understand the emotions on this, it sounds like you're all kind of inclined to do the 30th. I believe that will probably ultimately work out anyway. I don't see arguing about it and if everyone's fine with that.

I'm going to have to interject here. We are at 659. Meeting has to end. We will have to close out this meeting, open up our regular meeting, recess, and then come back and open this meeting back up again in order to follow specific guidelines. Are you going to reopen it? Well, yes.

Since we are on this item and finish it because there was a motion in the second, Mayor, I would like to move to amend the motion to change the date to December 30th from the 28th.

This one is not about a date.

I would prefer that we come back because the time is over right now.

The motion is on the floor.

So, but it's seven o'clock. So we, and I finished. So we will close. No, the second came after I hit the, the,