Attending a City Commission meeting is an experience! Try it…you’ll like it!
The Boynton Beach Commission Chambers in City Hall is pleasant and inviting and COLD so bring a sweater. Preparing should be easy as you can get the AGENDA online. Is The City’s website user-friendly? What do you think?
Let me explain how I did it: Went to http://www.boynton-beach.org/city_contacts/index.html and clicked on the “Public Meeting Calendar” which took me to: Download Public Meetings Calendar – February 2009 (59 kb PDF). From there you click on the “2009 agendas” where you are taken to the “heartbeat” of our City, the City Clerks records. You click on the most recent date.
BUT trying to read it from there will probably get you discouraged. My suggestion is to click on the “download PDF” icon…the colorful one at the top on the far right. Yes, it gives you EVERYTHING but if you slowly scroll down you will find what you are interested in.
I did ITEM IX. CITY MANAGER S REPORT A Follow up report on possible relocation of City Offices.
I had read that our City Hall may be moved. “This is faulty from the start”, I thought, “Visit any city of our size, which is well planned, and you will find its City Hall is at its center. Why put our City Hall on the outskirts of our City?”
So on the February 17, 2009 I attended the City Commission meeting. Others did too. We got up and spoke. You can “read all about it” in the minutes online….but that’s another “how-to” trip. Do let me know how that goes.
Another comment from myself. I am getting feedback but it seems that no one wants to write.
If you followed my instructions about getting the AGENDA online you may think that something is wrong. It isn’t and here is the explanation I got from City Hall via Wayne M. Segal, Public Affairs Director, (561) 742-6025, “You’re doing everything right. Depending on the number of pages you’re trying to retrieve as a PDF file, the process could take a very long time.”
Yes, it does…but it is worth your time because you are given so much information. To us readers, we can learn what goes on behind the scenes. The AGENDAS online gives us information that is not usually given to the public which just walks into a meeting. If you have a need to know how government works, this is the way to go.
Attended the April 7th Regular City Commission meeting on Tuesday. The parking lots were overfilled. Wondered if the proposed increase in water rates brought out our residents. Actually there were a lot of presentations on the agenda. The room was back to normal numbers once that was over. There were parents and their teenagers who left after their presentation. Staying just a bit longer to hear citizens speak at the Public Audience would have given those teenagers an insight on how our democracy works.
Looks like our water rates will increase. Our City Manager explained that there is no way that our City could pay our bond debt and cover expenses at the current rates. There was a presentation. I had expected to find that information online when I viewed the agenda before I attended our Commission Meeting.
Right now newspapers are cutting staff and we will become more dependent on websites for information.