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Century Botches Meeting Time Public Notice; Finishes Meeting Before Posted Start Time
February 5, 2020
The Century Town Council, sitting as the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA), held and completed a meeting Monday earlier than the time publicly noticed in some locations.
The town posted a notice at locations including the town hall and emailed on January 15 it to media including NorthEscambia.com, WEAR 3, NewsRadio 1620, Pensacola News Journal and WKRG that indicated a yearly scheduled for CRA meetings – including February 3 at 6 p.m. The notice stated “until further notice”.
It was immediately followed by another email to the media outlets with a public notice stating the February 3 CRA meeting would be held at 6:15 p.m. Monday night. The notice indicating the 6:15 p.m. time was still posted after the meeting in the Century Post Office. It was also published on NorthEscambia.com.
The CRA meeting was held at 6 p.m. and complete before 6:15 p.m. Only one person, who chairs the CRA’s Hope Garden project, attended the full meeting in which the CRA’s annual report for fiscal year 2018-2019 was presented and approved.
Town Clerk Kimberly Godwin said the 6:15 p.m. meeting time was wrong, and after first publication was corrected in the local weekly newspaper. No correction was sent to NorthEscambia.com.
Florida’s Sunshine Law requires public boards to provide proper public notice of meetings. In 2016, four members of a Century Citizens Advisory Task Force were charged with non-criminal violations of the Sunshine Law after a public meeting advertised for 4 p.m. was actually held at 2 p.m.
“There was a clear violation of the Sunshine Law by holding a public meeting at a time other than what was advertised in a public notice,” Assistant State Attorney Greg Marcille wrote following the 2016 meeting.
Pictured: A public notice still posted Monday night in the Century Post Office indicates the CRA would meet at 6:15 p.m, but the board actually met at 6 p.m.
Comments
12 Responses to “Century Botches Meeting Time Public Notice; Finishes Meeting Before Posted Start Time”
If no one files a complaint, the state attorney won’t do anything. Somebody needs to send this article to them so they will open an investigation.
To: State Attorney’s Office. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? I feel that the State Attorney’s Office is now Criminally Negligent in carrying out their duties to protect the citizens of Century from the criminals who continue to run this poor town. Get off your duff and start arresting these people who continue to flaunt the law.
To Be embarrassed or not be embarrassed . That’s purely a rhetorical question . HOW UNPROFESSIONAL DO THEY NEED TO BE ? That’s the REAL Question before everyone in Century is tired of it and actually does something about it !
why is this place incorporated? Cantonment is a suburb of Pensacola, Century should be as well. that way all the services could be from ECUA and Pensacola government. Escambia County already polices the area and sends public transportation there, the public library sends bookmobiles, also, right? so it should be a smooth transition to do away with every last scrap of podunk town government that is there now.
That new interim manager sure is working out well for them. Great ROI.
Ok, so they made a mistake on posting meeting times.
I bet they did not make any mistakes when they issued personal loans to board members.
Let’s get our priorities straight folks.
Let’s go “Back to the Future” an shut this corrupt town down!!!
TO Assistant State Attorney Greg Marcille, THE BALL IS IN YOUR COURT.
geeeez! everything related to the running of the town is dysfunctional. for the city hall leadership that means, ” you ain’t doing your job.”
This town is, at best, a joke at this point.
If they can’t even hold a meeting properly, how can they be trusted to run the town properly?
It’s long past time to clean house up there.
“The train that goes to morrow, left yesterday afternoon”; relatively.
Century, reality TV?
Century – enough said. The town council and staff getting slaps on the back of their hands obviously aren’t working. It is time for those responsible be charged with sunshine law violations and to have their wallets relieved of their cash by the courts.