Respect!!! (A Florence City Council Review)

 

The comedian Rodney Dangerfield used to have a line in his stand-up comedy act: “I can’t get no respect.” That could have been printed on a placard and put in front of Kaytrina Simmons chair on the podium at the Oct. 17th council meeting. 

Starting with the agenda as presented before any meetings actually began, Ms. Simmons and District 1 seemed to be having what was about to take place thrown in their faces. On the regular agenda appeared the resolution to accept bids on the partial renovation of the Handy recreation center which required a separate vote while on the consent agenda was a resolution to approve a contract to spend 7.5 million dollars on new baseball fields among other things at the Sportsplex. 

What was particularly evident in the amount of shade thrown was the Sportsplex resolution being on the consent agenda, lumped it in with paying of bills by the city treasurer and reimbursing travel expenses. Ms. Simmons did manage to get the item moved to the regular agenda but from the look on the other council members faces it appeared passage of this was a “done deal”. From there it went downhill for Ms. Simmons and those in her district who wanted a totally renovated recreation center.

It has been reported about the mysterious meeting of the parks and recreation committee that Ms. Simmons was not invited to attend where the decision was made to only remodel part of the recreation center. In a more public original meeting where Ms. Simmons and several representatives from District 1 were in attendance, it has been stated that a total remodel of the center had been decided which could cost up to 2 million dollars. The final figure in the 2nd meeting settled upon by the mayor Andy Betterton and Jimmy Oliver and co., was more in the 950k region. 

Ms. Simmons stated her frustration at being left out on these financial decisions and with that Jimmy Oliver attempted to explain why this took place. Let’s just call this double talk. But, one thing that was very telling during this exchange between these two city councilpersons was the total look of disgust and lack of concern on the faces of the others on the podium. At one point where Ms. Simmons practically begged to be included in meetings not one of the other councilpersons even looked up. Their eyes were firmly fixed downward.

From there, votes were cast and all was approved as is the case in all matters where the mayor and certain council members are involved. During one of the remarks from the public at the end of the meeting it was stated by an apparent exasperated resident of District 1 to “go ahead, do us wrong in District 1 and ignore the kids in Florence but I promise you this, I’m going to meet you at the polls and you are not going to like it.”

The council can disrespect Kaytrina Simmons, but they cannot disrespect the voters in the city of Florence and expect to keep their jobs.

𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔽𝕝𝕠𝕣𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝔻𝕖𝕥𝕖𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕧𝕖

*****