At the last Royal Palm Beach Village Council meeting, you would not be watching democracy in action or see anyone rise to defend one of his fellow residents’ right to address a grievance, but what you would witness could only be described as a man without benefit of counsel and whose grievance would not be addressed.
Most residents would believe that the mayor would have risen, in the interests of harmony, to explain to the resident why his grievance would not be heard, but alas, all that fell on the resident’s ears was the sound of laughter coming from the mayor in private conversation with a council member, which may or may not have been related to his dilemma.
Someone did explain at the meeting, but not before the meeting, that 4 to 5 days was required to “review” his grievance and the pictures he had.
Mr. Blicksilver, who appeared in a previous article in the Town-Crier, brought pictures and was prepared to voice his concerns about a problem he was experiencing in the canal behind his property. The problem was that unlike other areas in the village where spraying had been ordered by the village, not only were the weeds being killed, but the fish as well. Mr. Blicksilver recognized the need to control the overgrowth of grasses but wanted an explanation of why, unlike in other areas sprayed, the fish were dying as well.
Mr. Blicksilver brought pictures and was prepared to voice his concerns about the problem, but he wasn’t afforded an opportunity to address the council.
As a longtime resident of RPB and as an observer of this mayor, I found the expectations of Mr. Blicksilver to be naive and that passive requests as in “one concerned neighbor to his neighbor” and any low-key overture to be largely ignored.
The answer seems to be that if you want a fair hearing under this mayor, you must as in a court of law, hire an attorney, build a case, which should be totally unnecessary in my opinion, and change the tenor of what should be a simple hearing of a resident’s grievance before people who you elected, and just enter into litigation with the village and go after the contractor who did the spraying and question in a court of law the village agent who hired him.
Richard Nielsen, Royal Palm Beach
We’ve all read too many negative stories regarding the behavior of this mayor. But, he’s just been re-elected by the people!
Unprofessional behavior, unkind behavior should not be tolerated by any member on the dais. They are at fault, also.