Remarks by Douglas Lawson
171 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 6 of 7
- Play at 42:36
“Why don't we have the data yet? And the reason I ask is you've only been here two years. I've served on this board since 2019. And the day I was elected, the very next meeting, I asked for a disparity study. It's 2026. I don't have the data to reference a disparity study. I don't care what the national conversation looks like in regards to DEI, minorities, women businesses. This is the city of Riviera Beach. So what does our data look like so that we can substantiate where our money is going for our local minority women businesses? Even if we have to call it local, I'm fine with that. I need…”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 46:17
“can you identify and see if the board would be interested in putting that back into the collection? Because I understand that they said Tyler could possibly collect the data, but since I've been here, it hasn't been able to do it. And there's been shortfalls in that. So if we can't identify what is the cost of that data, I know that we did reference you cutting your budget, but collecting this data is so important to showcase the numbers because without, as my dear friend would say, my chair, data, documents, and evidence, i don't have any factual information to justify what the city is doing…”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 58:44
“Thank you. And just to close out, while I appreciate you cutting the budget, Your department is responsible for getting the money into our community and for all the dollars that's coming out. So we have to make sure that we have all the data necessary and you have all the tools necessary. So you've done a phenomenal job just in two years. You've done more than I've seen of any procurement director here. I want to keep pushing that because you're the most important piece in the city and in any city when it comes to spending for local vendors. And we have probably the most spending in Palm…”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 1:55:27
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 1:57:43
“So where in the budget can we point to where you're going to be able to accomplish that last 30% hurdle? Because if you do need or staffing constraints, I would assume that we would prepare with putting in a staffer, a consultant, or even an interim individual to be able to fill that need. Because we want to accomplish that. We've been trying to become automated. We're kind of behind the eight ball when it comes to technology. across municipalities. So if we can touch on that and point it in the budget to say I need these dollars to get that done, that would be the first thing. So that would…”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 2:01:51
“But to that point, the staffing constraints are also costing the city money that could be generating, getting more properties on the tax roll at a quicker expedited rate, departments where it comes to development services and the fees and the fines that are coming in. So that one staffer that may cost us 150, 200,000 annually could be generating more money for the city. So I want to make sure that we're operating at full capacity and efficiency in every department. Because if our staffing constraints can reflect a direct dollar amount that's going to increase for the coffers of the city, it…”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 2:06:15
“And to that point, I mean, automated systems. I was just reminded that Amendment 3, even though we're cutting our budgets for the sake of possibly passing Amendment 3 on this ballot, it doesn't impact us our fiscal budget until next fiscal year so right now we need to implement as many processes as possible automated systems services address and plug any leaks that we have in the system and make sure we've brought enough staff to cover all of the roles necessary to generate more money for the city um processing the the the permitting making sure that we have everything automated for permits…”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 2:12:20
“I'm going to say a big shout out to Bishop Thomas Masters.”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 2:12:26
“I'm going to continue with this. While we're talking about the EV process, you said that you were converting all of our vehicles to EV?”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 2:12:39
“Converting our vehicles, all of them to EV?”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 2:13:18
“Okay. I definitely want to, As we look into that upgrade, I want to make sure that we're upgrading facilities, especially charging stations as well and access to actually charging up these vehicles there and throughout the city. I did have some questions about the maintenance plan, but I'll wait to get to the rest of the presentation. But I did want to address the EV since I did hear it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr.”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 2:24:01
“Do we currently have a comprehensive facilities plan for the city facilities and city buildings? Because we're building all these pretty new buildings, but maintenance has been an issue and a topic of discussion for a number of years. And a lot of the buildings we had to demo were because we didn't properly maintain them. Do we have a full comprehensive plan now?”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 2:25:51
“elevators, generators, technology, security systems, any major equipment. So every year we need that update because it seems like every year we always get an update to our budget to say we need to do new flooring we didn't account for, or we need to upgrade this and we didn't account for. We had leaks. So we want to make sure that we have that incorporated in an annual comprehensive maintenance plan so that we as a board every year can include this into our budget to see what it's going to be to maintain all the buildings. Because if we're building a life expectancy of a new building of 20,…”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 2:59:05
“CHAIR. MS. JENKINS WHO'S CURRENTLY DOING THE WORK FOR RISK MANAGEMENT? Because that position has been vacant since about March, I think.”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 2:59:46
“Okay. And you were saying that it's difficult because some of the individuals for the risk management don't have all the scopes of work that we're looking for. Why don't we just bifurcate the job and separate the scopes of work to hire two separate positions?”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 3:00:43
“And that position is currently, I thought you were, you're eliminating, aren't you eliminating the assistant director?”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 3:00:54
“Okay, so. I think that just the current staffing concerns with HR being the heartbeat behind the city, a lot of the discussion amongst all the departments all matriculates through HR. We have to fill all the staffing issues. Brother Good has been here for years doing a phenomenal job and welcome back. But I think our goal right now is to fill all the departments, especially with the staff that we have there now. We're essentially overworking the staff because they're doing everybody else's scope of work. and they're not being compensated to do everybody else's work. So whatever these staffers…”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 3:03:48
“Okay. So we're going to replace them with these new positions that you saw more of a need in certain departments. So what I really wanted to look at also is hiring and training from within, seeing if we have any staff that's available inside the department or inside the city that we could hire and bring in, properly train and elevate them. Because I think that would give us an opportunity to keep staff, keep people from within the city, elevate and train them up, and prepare them. So any of those options, I like to change it based upon your explanation. So thank you for that. And if we can…”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 3:10:39
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 3:11:34
“DO YOU HAVE A POLICY WHEN AN EMPLOYEE HAS TO ABSORB THE SCOPE OF WORK OR THE WORK FOR OTHER DEPARTMENTS THAT ARE MISSING? IN REGARDS TO COMPENSATION AND SALARY INCREASES? BECAUSE IT SEEMS LIKE WE'RE MISSING A LOT OF POSITIONS IN YOUR DEPARTMENT RIGHT NOW, AND EVERYBODY IS KIND OF FILLING IN THE GAP FOR YOU. WHAT IS THAT COMPENSATION, WHAT DOES THAT POLICY LOOK LIKE?”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 3:12:03
“NEW SPEAKER THE TEMPORARY EMPLOYEE? NEW SPEAKER YES.”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 3:12:40
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 3:16:05
“Chair. The public relations discipline, who's handling any of that now in the department?”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 3:16:15
“Discipline, more so relations, relations in the city. Employee relations.”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 3:16:22
“Okay. So Jasmine's handling employee relations. Yes. What's her position?”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026