Town Council needs to practice what it preaches
To the editor:
At the Sept. 10 FMB council meeting, one agenda item was to consider an amendment to their policies and procedures manual, because two council members wanted to add a civility section. They already had such a section in the manual, but council members Anita Cereceda and Joanne Shamp had a desire to bring more attention to it. If only they had practiced what they preached.
During discussion of the agenda item to approve the contract to hire the new town attorney who had been selected at a prior meeting in a divisive 3-2 vote, the two councilors who did not select Mr. Thanas as their first choice spoke about his lack of experience in practicing law in Florida while he was seated in the audience section. Anita mentioned how it was SO important for the town’s attorney to have “the Florida experience”,which Mr. Thanas, who is from Illinois, did not have. Council member Butcher felt the fact that Mr. Thanas who lived in Bradenton, left the Town without a local legal adviser on a daily basis. They both questioned his ability to serve FMB adequately, while he was forced to sit and listen. When one council member asked if they should give him a chance to reply, Joanne Shamp said, “No, I don’t think so”. This discussion of him publicly certainly did not fulfill their own pledge of civility! It is not surprising he saw this lack of consistency as an undesirable feature of working for FMB and has refused the contract!
I believe at another meeting Vice Mayor Shamp verbally condemned the Code officials in their enforcement of turtle lighting, questioning employee Rae Burns publicly why she and others were issuing tickets for lights on the beach when those same lights had been lit for many years without receiving a citation. This public rebuke by the council member for enforcement of an Ordinance which the Town had enacted, exhibited a double standard and was not civil or friendly. Isn’t this an example of the elitist attitude of those in gov’t showing they want to control others, but don’t want to live under the law themselves?
Leon Moyer
Fort Myers Beach