Pulling an Aegean all-nighter for Lake Worth Beach civic duty

Seven hours ahead, City Commissioner Anthony Segrich squeezed two City Commission meetings into European cruise

Lake Worth Beach City Commissioner Anthony Segrich and his wife, Cheryl Spearling, in Santorini, Greece, on April 21, 2026 (CONTRIBUTED)

ON A TUESDAY afternoon last month, Lake Worth Beach City Commissioner Anthony Segrich walked along the white-washed clifftops overlooking the Aegean Sea on the Greek island of Santorini.

Much later that evening, he appeared at Lake Worth Beach City Hall, attending a City Commission meeting remotely from a cruise ship plying toward Athens, Greece.

Everyone needs a vacation, even local elected officials.

But instead of completely checking out, Segrich squeezed two City Commission meetings into his European itinerary, even though the meetings took place more than 5,500 miles away with a seven-hour time difference.

He did so with help from City Clerk Melissa Coyne and the city’s Information Technology staff, whom he credited for making sure he had the technological tools to conduct city business from afar with his fellow commissioners.

“I was halfway across the world and they made it possible for me to connect to all of the meetings I needed to connect to and get all my emails and documentation,’’ he said. “It was like I was right down the street.’’

Segrich certainly wasn’t the first municipal elected official to attend a commission meeting remotely. Mayor Betty Resch has attended via Zoom from the hospital. Vice Mayor Mimi May once dialed in from Breckenridge, Colo.

Commissioner Sarah Malega remembers using Zoom to attend meetings from her sister’s house in Michigan and the cabin of her cruise ship in the southern Caribbean Sea. Commissioner Chris McVoy has dialed in from Wisconsin and the Florida Everglades.

“We all try to make sure we can accommodate, especially when there are things on the agenda that are high-priority and we need to make sure we have everybody’s voices heard,’’ Malega said.

Segrich, though, had an extra challenge last month: He was seven hours ahead of his commission colleagues.

The time difference wasn’t a big deal on April 18 when he attended a pre-agenda work session that started at 9 a.m. EDT from his cabin aboard the Silver Muse in Istanbul (after he spent the day with his wife touring the famed Hagia Sofia Grand Mosque).

It was trickier three days later for the regular City Commission meeting. It started at 6 p.m. EDT — 1 a.m. in Greece — and ended at 10:30 p.m. — 5:30 a.m. on the ship as it was approaching the Port of Piraeus.

To avoid disturbing his sleeping wife during the 4.5-hour meeting, Segrich set up his laptop in the cruise ship’s card room on deck eight, where he pulled a busy all-nighter — from Interim City Manager Jamie Brown announcing his return to Public Works to discussions on mobility fees, The Beach Club lease and an educational grant.

He said he had the room to himself until about 5 a.m. when the ship’s staff arrived for a pre-disembarkation meeting — around the time Lake Worth Beach commissioners were voting to make Assistant City Manager Troy Perry the interim manager.

“He felt it was important to be on the meeting. I don’t think I would have been on it with that seven-hour time difference, so kudos to him. I think that’s amazing,’’ Malega said.

Segrich, who attended a commission meeting from Italy last year after taking office, said he tries to schedule vacations to avoid commission meeting dates. But it’s not always possible.

“We only get a couple of meetings per month and I don’t think it’s that unreasonable to attend one or both of those meetings even if you’re on vacation,’’ he said.

“It’s what we signed up for,’’ he said.

He also knows he has been pressuring staff this year to bring action items to the commission.

“It wouldn’t be a good look to not be at a meeting where stuff I was pushing for was being discussed,’’ he said.