Thoughts from the Special Council meeting of Wednesday, September 10, 2020. Part of a series. Remember the number 30

Wednesday, September 9, 2020, was a very disappointing night. My initial concern is whether  the Palmetto Bay Village Council negotiating in good faith. There appeared to be little knowledge as to the substance or the seriousness of the issues surrounding LUXCOM from the Mayor or most of the other members of the Village Council. The LUXCOM proposal was circulated to the Village Council sometime in early to mid August, yet impressions were that some members of the council had not met with or asked questions of Village attorneys until 9/9. This after months of alleged negotiations (see prior posts on this blog regarding LUXCOM). It appears that was one of the attorneys who in reality called the meeting so they could actually for once get some uniform guidance from the Village council. The meeting went so poorly that after almost three hours 3 of the 4 council members voted to adjourn the meeting over the mayor’s objection (3-2 vote). The issue appears to be will this council take charge of this situation by making a decision or are they in reality just playing political games, dragging things out to try the patience of the LUXCOM lawyers, forcing LUXCOM to file suit and leave the decisions to the courts. This will provide the mayor and council with the next eventual scapegoat (the courts) for what goes wrong under their watch.

Here is a small bite from that meeting – unit numbers:

147:   Units the village council has offered LUXCOM through “consensus of the Council”.
177:   Units sought by LUXCOM
  30:  The number of units that separate the council consensus from LUXCOM 
  71:   The number that equals one unit an acre would be 71.

Has the current mayor, or have any member of the Village Council, disclosed or explained how there is a “consensus of the Council” offer of 147 came about without a public hearing? Or did I miss that disclosure?

For the record: 

177 units is 2.5 units an acre
147 units is 2.05 units an acre.
  71 units would be the promised 1 unit an acre

Note that the meeting of 9/9/202 was the 37th meeting of the village council (through 3 quarters of this calendar year). It was the 14th special council meeting since January 1, 2020, or the 16th special council meetings if you include the special budget hearings held in May, 2020. That is a lot of meetings. What is being accomplished, year to date?

And final note - there is not a single resolution or minutes posted for any of these meetings for the public to view. See the screen shot of the Village of Palmetto Bay's official Agenda Center (posted to the right). This screen shot was captured and is therefore accurate as of 2:30 PM on 9/10/2020.

The Mayor and council claim that this is where a member of the public can go to "View current agendas and minutes for all boards and commissions. Previous years' agendas and minutes can be found in the Document Center. Adobe Reader may be required to view some" What they don't tell you is you can read what they fail to post regardless of whether or not you have Adobe Reader. A minor fact that is left out.