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When the Polk County Commission met for itspublic agenda review workshop on Feb. 25, there weren't enough seats in the small, crowded conference room to accommodate the public.

In a set-up that continues to troubleopen government advocates, some attendees were forced to standthroughout a portion of the meeting while others gathered in an adjacent lobby where they couldn't see or hear presentations and discussions about wastewater management,expensive road projects, legal settlements, abacklog of pendingbuilding permitsand more.

A day earlier at a commission retreat, Polk County Commissioner Neil Combee pushed to move these twice monthly meetings to the commission boardroomwhere they would be more accessible to the public.

Not only would this venue accommodate more people it seats 175 but these meetings where government business is conductedcould be video recorded, streamed on the county's Facebook page and posted on the county website for the public to watch like every other public county meeting, Combee noted.

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But Combeefailed to get support from the majority of his peers to move the meeting.

"I could care less," Commissioner Bill Braswell said.

Commissioner Rick Wilson said those meetings where commissioners have discussedongoing trash collection problems, COVID treatment options, recycling, fire rescue challenges, how tax dollars are used,and state and federal legislative priorities aren't designedfor the public.

"The agenda briefings were designed for us," Wilson said. "It's for us to get knowledge of what's going on so...when we get intothe board meeting we can be up on the issue. Then it's public. I say we keep those (agenda review meetings) where they're at."

The county has budgeted$692,925 in this fiscal year to provide its24-hour cable channel called PGTV.

That video technology is set up in the commission boardroom which recently underwent a $338,334renovation not the cramped confines of the fourth floor conference room where agenda review sessions are held.

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Combee said at the Feb. 24 retreat that the county is doing the public "a disservice" by not holding thesemeetings in the boardroom where they can be videoed.

"I think we need to move the agenda review and worksessions back to the boardroom," he said. "We have a great asset there, we have plenty of room there. People could see the same things we see in those work sessions. They will see these presentations."

Another concern to Combee:Agenda review workshops often feature presentations about items to be voted on by commissioners that are never offeredduring regular board meetings, which are streamed on the county's Facebook page.

The March 1 commission meeting was viewed 544 times on Facebook as of Thursday morning.

"We discuss items (in the agenda work session) and then we move them to the consent agenda," Combee said. "We move them to the consent agenda and when we get to the boardroom, nobody ever hears anything about them. We discuss them just as if we need to know what they'reall about it, but it's as if the public doesn't need to know all of this."

Commissioner George Lindsey said he agreed with Combee, adding that the agenda review workshop should not be the place for presentations.

CommissionChairwoman Martha Santiago suggested that presentations in the future occur during Tuesday's regular board meetings.

Friday's agenda review workshop featured several presentations to commissionersthat weren't given at Tuesday's regular board meeting.

They occurred in a room without enough seating for everyone in attendance.

That's "problematic" toVirginia Hamrick, a lawyer with Florida First Amendment Foundation, a non-profit that advocates for open government.

She saidFlorida's Sunshine Law requires government meetings to be open to the public, and therefore "meetings should not take place where the public is effectively excluded," she said.

She cited Section286.011(6)of Florida Statutes.

"It specifically prohibits boards from holding meetings at a facility which operates in such a manner to unreasonably restrict public access to the facility," she said.

"The Attorney Generals Office has advised boards to take reasonable steps to accommodate all who wish to attend if a large turnout is expected," she said. "If such space is not available, boards should use technology to allow those who are not able to enter the room to view and hear discussions and proceedings

Hamrick said the public interest should be front and center of a government meeting.

"The whole purpose of the Sunshine Law is to let the public know what their government is doing and open up every step of the decision-making process," she said.

Polk's agenda review meetings are conducted in a "bizarre" fashion,according to Barbara Petersen, the executive director of the Florida Center of Government Accountability.

In a Ledger article published in December, she took exception to the county locking the door to the conference room where the meetings are held.

"If yougo a meeting where adoor is not just closed but locked, how many people walk away thinking it's closed off?" she told The Ledger. "It's poor public policy, thats for sure, and the practice is legally questionable. If it doesn'tviolate the Sunshine law it certainly violatesthe spirit of the intent of the law."

Petersen also voiced concerns about inadequate seating in the conference room, saying, "The courts have said that local agencies have to hold meetings in facilities largeenough to accommodate the anticipated turnout."

Since that article ran, the door to the meeting room has been propped open by a plant.

But public access to what happens in this meeting is still less than what's provided for regular commission meetings and the county's planning commission meetings. Since agenda workshops aren't video recorded or posted online, residents trying to find out what happened have to request a CD of the audio from the county.

Up until Friday's agenda meeting, the county charged the public $5 per CD. On Friday, Commissioner Lindsey asked that the county stop charging this fee.

"If the consensus is to stay here (in the conference room) ...I'm suggesting we simply waive that $5. If someone wants a diskof the proceedings, let them have it."

Dustin Wyatt covers Polk County government and county-wide issues.He can be reached at dwyatt@gannett.com or on Twitter @LLDustin_Wyatt.

Originally posted here:
Polk commissioner tried to make meetings more accessible to the public. His peers said no - The Ledger