Century Charter Review Committee Fails To Produce Recommendation, Fails At Attempt At Open Public Meeting Access

October 27, 2020

The Century Charter Review Committee failed to deliver a recommendation to the Century Town Council in time to make the November ballot this year, and Monday night they failed at an attempt to hold a meeting that was completely accessible to the the public.

The Century Town Council appointed the committee in August 2019 to explore the town charter – the document that establishes the town, outlines its powers and spells out how it should operate. The charter has not been updated in almost 40 years, and that often creates problems in the operation of the town.

The committee held their first meeting in October 2019, two months after it was established. The early meetings were spent learning about the Sunshine Law, orderly meetings and background information. Most of the discussion at the committee’s sporadic meetings since have centered around one central topic — the form of government and the possible addition of a permanent city manager.

The COVID-19 pandemic slowed regular meetings for the charter committee and any chance of moving forward this year, preventing any charter change from making the ballot.

Monday night, the Century Charter Review Committee held another meeting. The number of members that attended the socially-distanced meeting in person was not immediately clear.

Public notices indicated that the meeting would be accessible over the phone (using the Zoom platform). At least two members of the committee — Shelisa McCall (who is also a candidate for the town council) and Evelyn Hammond — called into the meeting. NorthEscambia.com joined the meeting via both a phone call and only by Zoom.

Very, very little of the meeting was audible remotely as publicly noticed. McCall and Hammond were clearly audible on Zoom, complaining repeatedly that they could not hear or understand what was being said at the in-person meeting.

NorthEscambia.com was not able to hear or understand hardly any of the meeting. We were able to establish that Chairperson Mary Hudson Bourgeois and former interim town manager Buz Eddy were present. Eddy has acted as consultant for the committee.

Under an order from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, governmental bodies are legally allowed to hold meetings by electronic means thought the close of business on October 31 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Effective November 1, governments must return to in-person meetings.

Pictured top:  Century Charter Review Committee Chairperson Mary Hudson Bourgeois (right) and member Evelyn Hammond at a 2019 meeting. NorthEscambia.com file photo.

Comments

5 Responses to “Century Charter Review Committee Fails To Produce Recommendation, Fails At Attempt At Open Public Meeting Access”

  1. judy on October 29th, 2020 12:40 pm

    I try so hard to be positive, bu honestly….has Century succeeded at ANYTHING in the last 5 years?

  2. DLo on October 27th, 2020 4:26 pm

    I have a recommendation, abolish the charter, dissolve the town government, make the recommendation now, get it on the ballot for 2022 and be done with this. How long do the citizens of Century have to be punished?

  3. chris on October 27th, 2020 2:37 pm

    As soon as I read “fail” TWICE in one headline, I knew the story was going to be about Century. What an embarrassment.

  4. Kevin on October 27th, 2020 8:37 am

    I believe they are waiting to see who wins the mayor election. If a certain individual wins then they will push to have a special election to change the type of government body century has running it. If another individual wins they will let this go to the wayside and continue business as usual. Passing laws to cripple a certain individual will surely cripple the entire town in the future. This is just my opinion, I guess everybody has one,

  5. sam on October 27th, 2020 6:19 am

    can you say dysfunctional?

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News