Should Lake Worth Beach commissioner use city meetings to raise Alligator Alcatraz concerns?
Christopher McVoy's colleagues say he should stick to city issues, not federal or state ones
In an exclusive story for Stet News Palm Beach County, the Lake Worth Independent’s Joe Capozzi reported how Lake Worth Beach city commissioners are trying to prevent Commissioner Chris McVoy from using his comments at commission meetings to criticize federal immigration policy.
McVoy this year has devoted some of time at commission meetings to sharing concerns about Lake Worth Beach residents are being detained without due process at Alligator Alcatraz, the detention center that popped up this month at a rarely used airbase in Big Cypress National Preserve.
But his public bullhorn is annoying critics who say city meetings aren’t the place for his politically charged commentary.
“To get world view stuff is sometimes, frankly, time consuming and counterproductive to what we are trying to do, which is run our little city,” Mayor Betty Resch said July 11 when Malega broached the new rule at a pre-agenda work session.
Citing complaints from residents, Vice Mayor Sarah Malega suggested the commission consider new rules for the kinds of comments individual commissioners give at the end of meetings. The changes would restrict “Commission Liaison Reports and Comments” to topics directly related to Lake Worth Beach business and affairs, not state, federal or international issues.
“The idea of the majority of the commission deciding what a given commissioner can talk about I think is a very unhealthy undemocratic approach,” said McVoy, a research scientist who has discussed climate change at city meetings and unsuccessfully sought a city resolution supporting a Gaza ceasefire last year.
The new rules were scheduled to be discussed at the Aug. 19 commission meeting but the item was pulled from the agenda on Aug. 12.