Recent opinions and media reports concerning the Royal Palm Beach Village Council and our Mayor Matty Mattioli have shown a distinct bias and/or an ignorance of all the facts.
While the mayor’s actions, for which he apologized, were uncalled for, they were clearly provoked numerous times by the actions of another council member. That individual frequently has overstepped the role of a council liaison and tends to vote for the good of the community just when it works for personal ambitions. The role of any liaison should be to communicate between two groups and not self-serving.
It should have been very clear to any of us who attended the recent council meetings or who watched on TV that the behavior of one of the council members was repeatedly antagonistic toward the mayor and, in many cases, did not represent the good of our community. For example, the proposal to replace an 18-year member of the Planning & Zoning Commission with environmental expertise who is doing a good job with a new person makes no common sense. Another similarly proposed candidate is claimed to have resigned because of the mayor’s actions. That person actually submitted a letter of resignation before the council meeting and is expected to be moving out of Royal Palm Beach in the near future. Conspiracy may be an evil word, but the constant pick-picking at Mayor Mattioli sure smells like one!
So I leave it up to you, my Royal Palm Beach neighbors, to decide who is really on our side: a person whose self-interest and ambitions come before our needs or a mayor who has given us two decades of unselfish service and whose sole ambition is to serve the best interests of this place we call home?
Arlene Olinsky, Royal Palm Beach
