To the surprise of some, the Deltona City Commission’s next regular meeting has been moved from Monday, March 17, to Tuesday, March 18.
City Manager Dale Dougherty admits he changed the meeting date because of St. Patrick’s Day. Although it is not an actual federal or state holiday, St. Patrick’s Day nevertheless is an occasion for some, including city employees and others, to celebrate.
“Some people want to go out to dinner,” Dougherty told The Beacon, when asked about the movement of the commission’s meeting from the 17th to the following evening.
In fact, the commission’s second meeting for March was almost canceled altogether, and Dougherty has the authority to do it.
Will other cities turn green with envy?
The possible scrubbing of the commission’s second regularly scheduled meeting in March created another furor in a city known for excitement in government.
The City Commission normally convenes in regular session at 6 p.m. on the first and third Mondays of each month.
As the commission March 3 discussed the possible scrubbing of the next business session, freshman City Commissioner Dori Howington decried the idea of eliminating a meeting.
“I’m increasingly hearing the city staff and the city manager are making decisions that should be left to this commission,” Howington said. “Let me be clear. The city manager and the attorney work for us, the seven of us, the elected body of this city. Not the other way around. We set policy. We do not simply rubber-stamp decisions made by the staff.”
“The decision to hold a regular meeting should rest with the commission, not staff. We could regularly schedule meetings,” she continued. “We had a regularly scheduled meeting on the 18th of this month. Yet I was told staff has determined that there’s nothing on the agenda. That is simply not the case. We have lots of work to do. I was notified by email at 5:15 this evening that that meeting is back on the calendar.
“So, to my knowledge, at this point in time, Vice Mayor Heriot has made a motion to review our city travel policy within 30 days. And this commission voted and agreed on that. The 30 days expires on March 19. And my understanding is the full commission voted in this and expected to have this item brought forth in 30 days. By canceling a meeting, that would not happen.
“Commissioner Colwell previously tabled a final plat for the Eloah Estates project. That project was going to a path to resolution concerning the derelict properties in Deltona that many of our residents are concerned with, and that request was to be done at the next meeting. This is the next meeting, so the 18th would be the following meeting after that.”
Howington added the commission was supposed to review Deltona’s travel policy, in light of the controversy over Mayor Santiago Avila Jr.’s trip to Washington for a meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and activities related to President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
At this writing, the agenda for the City Commission’s March 18 meeting has not yet been posted. Dougherty said one item coming forth is the commission’s acceptance of the final plat for Phase 1 of Vineland Reserve, a residential planned-unit development. The 20.3-acre parcel is to be the site of 126 townhouses. The City Commission was supposed to vote on the final plat March 3, but city workers had failed to post signs on the property notifying the public about the public hearing. Although the public hearing was advertised in a newspaper, the law requires that a sign or signs — the hot-orange attention-getting signs — be placed on the land in advance of the meeting.
As for the criticism for the initial word of canceling the City Commission’s next regular meeting, Dougherty said, “The recommendation was to call the commissioners to see if we have a quorum. The developer was called today [March 3] to say it’s being pushed to the next meeting, which is the 18th, so it was actually not the staff that made that decision in the end.”
“But I’d like to point out that many things that are asked about during the day to the staff, and we’re here all day. Nights, weekends, holidays most of us. So, I don’t know if it’s necessarily correct to wait until the meeting to ask those questions that can have the answer to you about … rather than just waiting ’til the meeting,” he concluded.
