Florence City Government is 99% Opaque

 

Let It Shine

The agenda for the Florence city council meeting on Tuesday October 1st was a long one. It had 46 items on the consent portion and 3 on the general portion. The notice for the meeting with the agenda was published on the city of Florence Facebook page at 10:46 a.m. on Tuesday. The work session started, as usual, at 4:00 p.m.

According to the Open Meetings Act of Alabama: Act # 2005-40 subsection 6 states that “meetings called pursuant to Section 11-43-50, Code of Alabama 1975 shall be posted as soon as practicable after the meeting is called and in no case less than 24 hours before the meeting is scheduled to begin”. It goes on to give exceptions due to emergency circumstances but barring these the law is very clear. And the city of Florence seems to violate it every time a city council meeting is held.

This gets brought up very frequently in the public comment section by David Carson. Mr. Carson did so once again at this past meeting. He asked how an agenda with 49 items could be viewed and researched by concerned citizens when it is posted less that 6 hours on the day of the meeting. He also brought up the practice of the city posting notices on a bulletin board with thumb tacks in front of the city clerk's office about committee meetings to be held.

Transparency. That is what seems to be lacking at Florence city hall. Whether it be the lack of concern for citizens to get notices in a timely fashion or Mayor Andy Betterton blocking all comments during the live stream of the council work session and meeting itself, it all seems designed to keep the citizen in the dark. But some citizens are taking figurative flashlights to dark hallways at city hall and looking for information. After all, sunlight is often the best disinfectant. We need some things brought into the spotlight. And thank those who show us the way.

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