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Century Council President Says He Won’t Check If Meetings Were Legally Noticed
July 20, 2023
Following the cancellation of July’s first public meeting due to a probable Sunshine Law violation, the president of the Century Town Council says he will no longer bother to check and see if a meeting has been correctly noticed under Florida’s Sunshine Law.
“I think everyone in Century knows what time when we have the meeting,” council president Luis Gomez, Jr. said.
The council’s July 5 meeting has halted because the town’s public notices did not include the time of the meeting as required.
Beginning with meetings in February 2023, a standard notice for regular meetings and bill review meetings had been posted on a bulletin board outside town hall providing dates but no times. Sometimes an adjacent notice was posted with times, but those notices repeatedly had meeting dates listed as being in 2022, making the notice appear outdated.
One of the few members of the public at Tuesday’s council meeting took issue with Gomez and the lack of required public notice.
“There are new people coming into Century, every month, every week; I am one of them,” resident Evelyn Deterville said. Recently married, she was an unsuccessful candidate (Evelyn Webber) for a council seat in the March 2023 special election. “For those of you that have been here for a long time, you’ve got to keep in mind this city has grown, this town has grown. So I would like for you to continue to get the word out…When I talk to people and tell them about the council meeting, different things that’s going on, they ask me when it is, where it is also.”
“Everybody that lives here knows. Now, I agree, new people that come to Century, they’re going to have to get it just like everyone else,” Gomez said. “If there’s a problem and you actually want to attend, you would put in a little effort to find out when the meetings are.”
Gomez then proceeded to “say it for the record in an open meeting” the days and times.
The council president then said going forward he will skip the standard agenda opening item to confirm that a meeting was properly advertised. “I’m not going to do that to halt business and slow up the time in these meetings ever again for the rest of the year to December.”
“You can call and ask when the meetings are,” he said. “It’s on our agenda, but I’m not going to do that (check for proper public notice) because I will no longer let this council be your topic of discussion on nobody’s newspaper, blog or whatever. We’re missing the town’s business because of this.”
Florida’s attorney general says every meeting, each and every one, must be noticed with date, time and place — “Notice is required even though meetings of the board are “of general knowledge” and are not conducted in a closed door manner”.
The Florida Attorney General’s “2023 Government in the Sunshine Manual” states that:
- “The notice should contain the time and place of the meeting and, if available, an agenda, or if no agenda is available, a statement of the general subject matter to be considered.
- “The notice should be prominently displayed in the area in the agency’s offices set aside for that purpose, e.g., for cities, in city hall, and on the agency’s website, if there is one.”
Town Clerk Leslie Howington said the meeting notice is only being posted at the town hall and website.
“It’s not the council’s place to publicize the meeting; it’s the town hall’s meeting,” council member Sandra McMurray Jackson said. “The council members do not send out advertisements for the meetings. It’s the town hall, in the office. That’s where it starts.”
Pictured: Century council president Luis Gomez, Jr. reviews agenda items Tuesday night. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Comments
32 Responses to “Century Council President Says He Won’t Check If Meetings Were Legally Noticed”
REGARDING:
“if you can’t be trusted to do even the simplest things, like placing a correct council meeting advertisement on a board so the taxpayers can have accurate information…..how are you going to be in charge of major (or even minor) decisions regarding their hard earned money?”
Luis has a point. It is not really the job of the town council to do all the paperwork involved in running the town. The burden for posting times and dates is on the clerk unless she delegates it to someone else. She needs to make sure the designated one does the job, but actually doing the job is not the job of the town council. They obviously need to let her know if there’s a change and make certain that she notifies everyone according to the law. The town council’s job is to decide what courses of action need to be taken in the broad sense.
The same applies to employees responsible for assorted departments. Water department needs to make sure water is dependably delivered and safe to drink. They need to make sure that the water is measured so the people who use it pay appropriately. The gas department needs to do the same thing: look out for leaks, make sure users are billed appropriately, make emergency repairs as needed, install new lines as needed, replace equipment that needs to be replaced. They need to make certain that they plan ahead for problems that may come up. Each one of them does.
Each department needs to make certain they inform their overseers what their budget needs to be — how much it’s going to cost them to operate properly. That’s one of the decisions that the town council needs to deal with, what kind of a budget to have, do they have enough money coming in? Do they need to raise rates? if so, how exactly? Is there something they need to order now before it becomes critically missing later?
If any of them try to wear too many hats, do too many jobs, you can be certain they will miss something because they were too busy with something else or because someone thought that somebody else was going to do it. So people need to stay in their own lane have a particular, specified , designated job that they worry about and do it very carefully. Keep the house in order.
That’s why Luis is being reasonable when he says he’s not going to try to to do everything himself or not expect the counsel to. He might be better served wording it more diplomatically, but the basic idea is sound.
David for many hands making light work
On tonight’s episode of Town of Century – Dumpster Fire in Progress.
On this week’s episode, will Little Louis get put in time out for not following the rules?
Will his tantrums continue because he’s being required to follow the law or will he gain control of himself and follow the simple rules to present an appearance of professionalism?
Will the town ONCE AGAIN be before a grand jury for sunshine laws?
Will the State of Florida become involved?
Will the charter finally be revoked?
Seriously though, if you can’t be trusted to do even the simplest things, like placing a correct council meeting advertisement on a board so the taxpayers can have accurate information…..how are you going to be in charge of major (or even minor) decisions regarding their hard earned money? The taxpayers have a right to leadership that understands the reasons for the rules and sets an example by following them, not someone who has a temper tantrum when they are called on it for not doing things right. You’d think by now you could get at least the simple things right.
This is a good example of the egotistical attitude of a lot of people who erroneously believe THEY set the rules. Guess again!!!! Sad to say that Century continues to be the laughing stock of the north end of the county. Sad sad sad. PEOPLE of Century deserve better and they need to be ringing the phones of elected officials non-stop.
You can’t fix stupid.
I’m sorry Anne. But Louie is not Mayor.
YET. !!
Century sounds like the reverse of Mayberry on steroids. The council makes no sense whatsoever.
So…has anyone bothered to call the State Attorney’s office and notify them about this, and other issues regarding the Town? Has anyone contacted your County Commissioner Steve Barry, Representative Michelle Salzman, Representative Matt Gaetz or perhaps Governor Desantis?? Until you do, nothing will change!! https://escambiavotes.gov/elected-officials-in-escambia-county
I predict he will have an attitude adjustment in the very near future.
High Time to put the “GO” in Gomez to use and oust this guy from the Town Council.
He does look somewhat important there in his fine clothing and gold doo-dads.
C’mon man, and this is for Real, the Sunshine Laws are in place for a REASON and you can’t just ignore them no matter how important you feel, and that’s not a lie, it’s the truth.
I have just about lost all confidence in the town hall. I went to them in May and told them they were charging me for two garbage cans since back to February, I only have one. They took the amount of the overcharge off the bill and said they knew about it and would correct it. Here it is July and I’m still being charged for two cans. I just said, I’m not going to keep trying to have it corrected, I’ll just pay the bill and maybe they can use the overcharge to pay for some of the free services some people got for years.
Wonderful world of Disney…I mean Century!!!
This Florida native is old enough to remember when and WHY the FL sunshine law was passed!! It was arrogant, good old boys like this that thought they could do anything they darn well wanted to and no one could stop them. The law has teeth. FL attorney general, do your job!
The taxpayers deserve better than this. Withhold all grants and funding until they are in compliance!
I think this one needs to be fired and replaced with a responsible person !!!
Two things.
One, you would think someone had asked the city council to turn lead into gold or something difficult. How hard can it be to properly comply with this requirement. They could have complied with it a hundred times in the amount of time it has been discussed and apparently ignored.
Two, it Mr. Gomez is willing to publicly ignore this State requirement of the Sunshine Laws, one must ask the question what other Sunshine Laws does he not agree and is not in compliance with.
Has anyone reported this joker yet? Maybe if he understood the penalties a little better, he would actually do his job and not skirt responsibility.
“Violations of the Sunshine Law can result in removal from office, noncriminal infractions, and criminal penalties (possibility of a second-degree misdemeanor which can include imprisonment and/ or a fine).”
“If there’s a problem and you actually want to attend, you would put in a little effort to find out when the meetings are.” How about “If you actually want to be council president, you would put a little effort into doing your job and not sulk like a child.”
Just think about it; This is the administration that Ms. Saltzman and the Fl. Legislature keep handing millions of tax dollars to.
The council appointed Gomez to be the council president, can remove him at any time and has not done so so they must approve of what he is doing. I’m surprised that no one has not already filed a compliant with the State Attorney in south county. In addition, Century voters can use the state law recall process to remove Gomez or all council members. The law is Section 100.361 Municipal Recall, Florida Statutes. A few Century voters would need to ask the Town Clerk for a recall petition form. The grounds would probably be Misfeasance – negligent discharge of an official duty. Century has 941 active voters. Whoever starts the petition and those who sign it would be considered part of a Recall Committee. It should be pretty easy to describe the grounds for recall in 200 words. It would only take 100 signatures to start the process. Supervisor of Elections David Stafford would verify the signatures for a small fee. If the councilmember does not resign, there would be a second recall petition. It would require 142 signatures. Then there would be a special election.
It’s always a circus and it’s not going to change. I agree they all need to go and convert all to county . I don’t understand why someone hasn’t done something before now this has been going on since 1990’s it’s not going to stop and then they got a grant , ” Do the Math ” they gonna be happy
Where is the Mayor and the States Attorney? Time for them to step up.
Notice has been served that intentional, ongoing crimes will be committed in the town hall of Century, Fl.
Arrogance and ignorance walk together. Disband Century government, it doesn’t care about its constituency.
Typical wannabe Politician thinking he is above the law. He needs to go!
Mr. Gomez it is time for you to leave the position if you are not going to go by the rules. You got called out for violating the law by someone and act like a little child. You need to resign. You are part of this towns problem.
From the article….. “I think everyone in Century knows what time when we have the meeting,” council president Luis Gomez, Jr. said.
Mr Mayor, obviously, what YOU may “Think” and Reality are often very different.
What an ARROGANT, BULLYING, type of Statement to boldly say you feel the power to Ignore State Law.
Seems your words are basis for dismissal.
So instead of doing what is supposed to be done, he publicly turns his back on the law? He needs to find another way to spend his time.
You folks in Century need to read up on the Battle of Athens.
And by the way…where’s the mayor? Haven’t seen him address any of this. Is Gomez running the show in Century, now?
What a bad attitude from a public servant. Guess rules don’t mean much to the council.
Rules are for the ruled, not the rulers.
It is past time the charter should be pulled from this failed little town.
Maybe someone from the State Attorney’s Office should attend the next meeting.
Gomez said. “If there’s a problem and you actually want to attend, you would put in a little effort to find out when the meetings are.”
Wow, he just doesn’t care… have the first meeting without a time on the notice and see if this gets reported, Mr Gomez. You are not above state law sir. You are a special kind of lazy or incompetent to not just post the time on the notice. Put up fresh new notices of schedules. Are you doing this just to assert your dominance, sir? Do we need a fire hydrant or a tape measure?
Well well well I think this guy is a mad animal at this point where is the professional side brother you are making the town look real bad how do we vote him out CENTURY WE HAVE TO SPEAK UP.
I don’t live in Century, but Mr Gomez and the Board are putting themselves in jeopardy of Sunshine Law violation. They need to do some research on what they are doing.
WHAT ARE PENALTIES FOR VIOLATING THE SUNSHINE LAW? imprisonment up to 60 days and/or fines up to $500.