Commission - Special Meeting

All right, good evening, everyone. Welcome to Lynn Haven City Hall tonight for our special meeting. It's 5.30, so I'm going to go ahead and call this meeting to order. First thing on the agenda is an invocation, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. And Lynn Haven Police Department Chaplain Cameron Newman is going to lead us in prayer tonight.

Chaplain Newman, thank you very much for your prayer and thoughtful words tonight, sir. All right, this is a most unusual meeting, but this is a special meeting that I called for us to address the vacancy that is before us right now. Before I get started, I'd like to turn it over to the city attorney, Ms. Courtney Sangria, and allow her to explain and give some background here on the current legal situation as currently assessed by her and Eric Krebs, our other city attorney, and then we will go from there. So, city attorney.

Thank you very much, Courtney. So now what's before us is the city attorney has advised us that Ms. Tender's resignation last Tuesday night was effective immediately. And they've provided Florida case law, Supreme Court decisions to state that. So at this point, we asked for a Florida Attorney General opinion. That office declined to give us one. So we are working with what we've got. NINA WARD, OUR SUPERVISOR OF ELECTIONS OFFICE WAS ALSO CONSULTED AS WELL. BUT HERE WE ARE TONIGHT. SO BEFORE WE GET STARTED, A COUPLE OF ADMINISTRATIVE THINGS AND WE'LL GO FROM HERE. I LOVE THIS CITY. I KNOW EVER

Mayor, Ms. Tender is also considered as a, in lieu of the resignation, she's considered as a potential appointee, correct? Are you gonna give all the other appointees time to talk? I mean, this is unusual that you're giving her time to talk, but the other appointees, have they been?

Yes. So the intent here is, Commissioner Perno, is I want Commissioner Tender, for her dedicated service, if nothing else, I very much want her to have the opportunity to speak. We will move forward from there. And yes, anyone being considered, with a motion and a second, will certainly have equal opportunity to come up and speak tonight. I think that's fair.

Who is up for a motion, I absolutely agree.

Sure, so we can obviously go ahead and do that. As a matter of record, we have five volunteers, I believe, correct?

Okay, so the six, we'll go ahead and just identify the six volunteers at this time. We have Commissioner Tender, We had Mr. Scray, Ryan Scray. We had Mr. George Hines. We had Mr. Johnny Beshear. We had Mr. Jeff Snyder. And we had Corey Langford. That's one, two, three, four, five, six. Did I leave anybody out?

Okay. Is there anybody else for the purposes of identification, is there anybody else here tonight wishing to be considered at any part of this process? If so, please stand up, raise your hand, and identify yourself. Ma'am, come on up to the podium real quick and identify yourself. Good evening.

All right, so we have seven contenders in total, our applicants slash volunteers. All right, so tonight we're going to kick this off. Ms. Tender, I want you to have an opportunity to say what you want to say in terms of the resignation last Tuesday night. At this point, your last official act as a commissioner after a very long five-hour meeting. You say what you want to say to us, ma'am, and to the citizens of Lynn Haven, and we will go from there.

Okay, thank you very much. Can everybody hear me okay?

Yes, it is absolutely true that at the last five-hour meeting, things got a little overheated and whatnot. I really intended that night for it to be my last night, and then After over 300 emails and three texts and whatnot, I can't tell you how much I've been on the phone in the last week. I felt that if the people wanted me back, I should attempt to make that happen. I can't. tell everyone that's here how much I appreciate their support. It means, it's just amazing to me. I've always tried to speak the truth. I've always tried to speak with transparency and keep the public informed of what's

All right, ma'am. Any questions for Ms. Tender from the rest of the commission? Yes.

So any other candidate or volunteer that comes forward tonight as part of a motion, we'll also get four and a half minutes to address questions. the commission and the public. All right, any other questions among the commission for Ms. Stender? If not, I'll speak. I wanna thank you for your years and years of service up to this point. And I thought back, I thought a lot about last Tuesday night and kind of the, that came out of left field. I mean, we were all tired and frustrated and exhausted I actually remembered something you told me June 9th up here on this dais when Mr. Scray and I locked

in my heart of hearts, I truly do, to the point where I'm scheduled for a heart ablation next Tuesday. And when I realized it was the same day as the budget meeting, I thought, well, that's not gonna fly. So I did call, I changed it so that it won't interfere if I should be here next Tuesday for the budget meeting. And yeah, I think my run is up April of 29, which seems a lifetime away to me, it might be. But yes, in my heart of hearts, I think I can still do a lot of good. But I know for sure, if it's truth and transparency, and that's all I want to be known for, is truth and transparency. If

Just before we get started here, I'm just curious. Can I get a show of hands? If you're here to support Ms. Tender tonight, whether you plan to speak or not, would you raise your hand? City attorney, what would you call that? About 75, 80%?

So three quarters are a little better of y'all. Thank y'all for that. All right. So... There's no script for what we're doing here. We're kind of flying blind, so y'all bear with us. At this point, Commissioner Tender has said what she wanted to relay to the commission. I was the only one that wanted to ask any questions. At this point, I will move to see if there is a motion to reappoint her to her seat. Can I get a motion? If not, I will motion. And the new designated clarification that the chair can, especially in a small commission or small board like this, I will do the motion. So the cha

Without a doubt, Corey Langford. Without a doubt. Corey has always spoke up. He's always spoke up for what's right. He has no problem. with honesty or anything else. And we've dealt with Corey for many, many issues out in Southport and everywhere else.

And stormwater in particular. Put him to work. All right. Well, thank you for that, ma'am. So my motion failed. We will now dispense with the way ahead from here. Are there any thoughts from the rest of the commission?

Mayor, if I may, I'd like to make a motion, and I'd like to make the motion that we fill the vacancy of the seat of the commissioner, seat four, with Mr. Jeff Snyder.

Okay, I have a motion and a second. Any discussion among the commission?

Mayor, I read all the people who were of the emails that we got, and I felt like Mr. Schneider snuck out. His years of service to the city already were longer than any other person that I saw. So with that being said, that was my choice. We are filling a vacancy. And I wish, Ms. Tender, God love you. I wish you the best. I respect you. I love you. And come April, you can beat the pants off of whoever we have. Because I know when you get out there and run, you got all these people supporting you. But the subject was the final when you made your resignation. I mean, words are words. You can't ta

Okay, so any other discussion among the other commissioners with this motion?

I'm just listening his resume because that's what we're talking about right now So that's where I'm at Okay, so I acknowledge your hand mr.. Scrae, but hang on drop your hand you'll you'll be the first one to get up for comments on this Mr. Snyder, where are you at? Sir, we afforded Ms. Tender four and a half minutes. You will also get four and a half minutes if you would like. Okay. All right. So I've been advised that not just the person before the motion, but everyone that threw their hat in the ring will go that way. So we will do that. I don't have any preference on how we call the rest o

Thank you, Mr. Beshear. All right, number two, Mr. George Hines. Come on up, sir. Good evening.

Thank you, Mr. Hines. Number three, Mr. Corey Langford. Good evening.

Ms. Spates, come on down, ma'am. Good evening, Times 2.

So thank you for the clarification. Yes. There will be time when the motion is voted on. Thank you.

Thank you. All right, well that leaves, last but certainly not least, Mr. Jeff Snyder.

All right. So we've had a motion and a second, and all six candidates have been afforded the same opportunity to speak. Now we go to commentary. I'll open the floor, Ms. Parker. I see your hand come up first. What we will do is, because we have so many, and I'm anticipating this, it's gonna take a while, y'all, so work with me here. We'll do two minutes each, otherwise we'll be here till midnight. When I see a hand raised, I'll try to work on this side, then this side, and we'll go back and forth. You just raise your hand. And I'll call upon you and we'll come up from there. And if I don't kno

Yes, ma'am. So, Ms. McElroy, and then back over here, Ms. Marler, and then Mr. Prescott, in that order. Good evening.

Thank you, ma'am. Mr. Prescott, city manager, one point of order. Did not Mayor Nelson submit an actual resignation letter He did not. He just made a verbal statement and resigned. Okay. Thank you for that. Mr. Prescott.

Mr. The black shirt, come on up behind Mr. Hines. Sir, I'm sorry, I don't know your name, but come on up. Mitch? Okay, come on up, sir. I understood. I didn't say the other word. What I'm doing, y'all, is I'm alternating from one side to the next. So this speaker will come this side, next time it'll come from this side, okay? And we'll just back and forth until we get everybody a chance to speak.

Thank you, ma'am. Oh, I don't get my other minutes? No, ma'am. It's just two minutes. OK. I'll be back. Thank you, Ms. Speight. I appreciate you coming up, ma'am. All right. She was on this side, so this side. Ms. Garman, come on up. Good evening.

Thank you, ma'am. This side, lady in the back in the gray. Is that Ms. Day? Gina, can you grab a microphone, please, ma'am? Good evening, Ms. Day. Good evening.

Zach Detweiler. Zach, as you're coming up, you had stepped out presumably to the bathroom. Ms. Tender asked about you earlier if you were here. I was. I didn't want to cough while she was speaking. Good evening.

Sir, in the red shirt. George, a bulldog shirt. Good evening.

Mr. George, your Bulldog shirt. Your name for the record, sir.

All right, we're on this side, sir. I recognize you in the Hawaiian shirt. I'm going to go over here, and you're next on this side, okay? Do I have anybody here on my left side? Gentleman in the back, one of our newer Lynn Haven citizens. Come on down.

About this particular situation, filling the seat and the motion before us or Ms. Tender's resignation of that seat, that's all fair game, that particular topic.

Thank you, sir. Yes, sir. Come on up. Good evening, sir.

Thank you, sir. Anybody else on this side of the room? This gentleman in the cowboy hat, come on down.

Sure, sir. I have no problem with that. City Attorney, you had mentioned this up front, but I think another round of clarification there is a very good thing. And since Mr. Paul requested it, I have no problem with it. Would you mind touching on this again, please, ma'am?

Thank you for that question, sir. The lady this side, kind of in the back, looks like a pink blouse. Come on down. Good evening, ma'am.

Anyone else on this side? I see a hand, but I couldn't see who raised it. Is that you, Mr. Walker? Come on down, sir. Good evening, Mr. Walker.

Thank you, Mr. Walker. I see two hands on this side, the lady in the green, and then I see Ms. Day's daughter back there too, ma'am. You're next on this side. Good evening, ma'am. I like your shawl.

Ma'am, go ahead and pull you down so I can hear you.

Thank you, ma'am. Mr. Finch. Good evening, sir.

Ms. Day's daughter. I'm sorry, ma'am. I don't know your last name. Come on up. Good evening, ma'am.

Anyone else? Ms. Beshear. Come on up, ma'am.

constructive inputs are well received ma'am thank you thank you all right are we about i have two more on this side do i have any more on this side hearing none these will be our last two speakers and we will move forward with a vote so ma'am in the lynn haven reddish pinkish shirt and then there was another lady in the very back in the gray t-shirt i see you back there ma'am if you want to come on up sit here on the front row we'll get you staged right after good evening ma'am kathleen tinder

Ma'am, Ms. Tender, pull your microphone.

If that's not a tough act to follow, I don't know what is.

Thank you, ma'am. All right. We are an hour and a half into this now. Ms. Arlene, you're going to be the very last caboose, ma'am. Come on up for this round. I'm sorry if you raised your hand before I didn't see you. Come on up. Good evening.

And is there any further discussion amongst the commission before we vote?

This is what I was going to say is I fully respect Jeff Snyder. He knows that. I think you guys know that. In fact, last time Judy, Ms. Tender, stepped down to run for mayor, when we had to fill her seat back then, I was the one that actually made the motion for Jeff Snyder, and I couldn't even get a second for it. So I totally respect him. But my opinion, I think there's a better candidate out there. I talked about, When we originally talked about the city clerk putting on the referendum, I talked about leadership. Sticking your neck out, willing to take risks. And I feel that this person is

Yes, thank you, sir. If there are no further discussion, I'll ask the city manager to call the roll.

I'll make a motion to point Corey Langford to seat four.

And I will second. Therefore, we will now open another round. Any discussion among the commission at this point? Hearing none, We have a motion and a second. I will open the floor to comments on this. And Mr. Scray, I see your hand, sir. You come on down. No, sir. Try it again.

That's a very good motion, and I thank you for it and your role as effectively our parliamentarian. So thank you for keeping us in between the navigational beacons, as Jimmy Buffett would say. All right, I see three hands right now. I'm going to go from Mr. Hines to Ms. McElroy to Mr. Beshear in that order. So if y'all want to come on up here, Ms. McElroy, and just stage on the front row, please, ma'am. The other two are up here. Hey, Mr. Hines.

Thank you, Mr. Hines. All right, Ms. McElroy, come on up.

Thank you, ma'am. Mr. Beshear, good evening.

Mr. Detweiler, anyone else on this side? Hearing, I don't see any hands. Okay, Mr. Detweiler, and we'll try to wrap this one up, this round.

Thank you, Ms. Marler. Mr. Schweitzer, come on down. As he's coming down, do we have anybody on this side in the queue? Come on down, young man. in the back.

While he's coming up, do we have anybody here on this side that wants to speak? If so, come on up here in the front row on deck. Sir.

Thank you. All right. Anybody else? Okay. Hearing none. Is there any discussion, further discussion among the commission before we vote on this one?

Okay. Mr. Perno, you got any thoughts, sir?

Okay, you ready to vote? So I will say this. I motioned to allow Ms. Tender to get back into the seat that the people of this city voted her to twice, three times if you count the runoff. We did not move forward with that. I didn't get a second. When I turned around and asked her who was her handpicked successor, if she couldn't be in the seat, who did she want in that seat? She said very unequivocally, Corey Langford. Everyone here that was here heard it. That man's a retired Air Force senior master sergeant with not one, but two bronze stars for combat service in Iraq and Syria from Joint Sp

We have a motion and a second. Are there any, is there any further discussion amongst the commission? Hearing none, Mr. Scray, come on down.

Thank you, sir. Miss McElroy, then Mr. Schweitzer, anybody else? And then Seth, y'all come on up. Basically prime on the front row here, if you will. You'll be on deck. Hey, Miss McElroy.

Thank you, sir. All right. Is there anybody else? If so, I want to put you on deck and have you come on up here to the front row. If not, Ms. Parker, you'll be our caboose on this round. Thank you.

Ms. Gina, or Ms. Day? Okay. Sorry, ma'am, I couldn't see your hand.

Hey, Ms. Weaver, are you coming up to speak too, ma'am? Come on up and get on deck, please, ma'am. We're first row. Ladies first, then. Thank you, sir. Good evening, Ms. Weaver.

All right, anyone else? Sir, thank you for yielding to the lady.

Mr. Beshear, that's who we're discussing now, sir.

Yes, sir. Thank you. Anyone else? Ms. Garman? Good evening.

Point of order, Mr. Scray, you're not at the podium, sir.

Thank you, Ms. Marler. All right, is there anyone else? If not, any further discussion among the commission for the nomination of Mr. Beshear? Hearing none. I'm sorry. Is that Ms. Day's daughter? Okay, ma'am. No, no, come on up. What is your last name, ma'am?

Thank you, Ms. Day. All right, are we good? Come on up. After this procedural, I guess, quasi point of order, we will vote. Yes, sir.

Yes, thank you. Thank you. All right, any other discussion among the commission? If not, we will vote. Mr., or excuse me, city manager, call the roll, please.

I want to make a motion. People say I don't compromise. I will compromise. I will make a motion to appoint Jeff Snyder.

So who needs to make the motion for that?

Hey guys, some grace here, okay? We're trying to do this right procedurally. Give us a moment. A little grace, please. So one more time, city attorney.

Y'all, I don't think that's the right way forward. What we need to do is among the four of us, among the four of us, let's just be straight, let's be frank, and let's be men here. Let's be Lynn Haven residents, let's be men, talk straight, shoot straight, not back. Is there a consensus candidate? I motion to reappoint Judy to her seat. It failed with not a second. Then we've deadlocked on multiple candidates. Is there any candidate that clearly has a majority vote at this point we've we've gone through three of them already other than her so we have three others that have not been turned down

You got to get order, man. You got to get order. You got to get order. This is not the way to do it. You got to get order. Get order. No, I'm compromising. I'm compromising here. I already put my nominee out there.

So how about this? We can do exactly how Mr. Detweiler just said. If he's compromising and we need to get out of this hearing into another hearing, we can make the motion go.

Can we do a five-minute and then come back and do it, or you've got to do it all another day?

If we have a consensus candidate, let's have a consensus candidate. If we don't, I plan to just adjourn this meeting. We are in an effort of futility right now. You know, again, I'm going to ask. This is not a rhetorical question. Among us four remaining commissioners, is there any consensus person that we can come to?

I think the only one we can come to is Mr. Snyder. But the only way I think it's going to happen. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Point. Get order, please.

Would you please stop telling me how to do my job?

It's the quorum, sir. You have to get order, Mayor.

But I can't talk while they're talking at the same time. GO AHEAD. I THINK THAT IS THE ONLY ONE THAT WE HAVE ANY CONSENSUS ON, MR. SNYDER. THAT IS THE ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION, BUT WE CAN'T DO IT UNLESS WE SUSPEND ROBERT'S RULES OF ORDER. I DON'T KNOW.

AT THIS POINT, I AM ADJOURNING THE MEETING.