Rick Patrick
rick@greenepublishing.com
The Fellowship Hall of Greenville Methodist Church was filled with concerned citizens on Friday, Aug. 6, as Florida Representative Jason Shoaf and his staff hosted a community forum in order to hear from the citizens of the Madison County community.
Rep. Shoaf said he was prompted to call the meeting due to the number of calls, letters and emails his office has received regarding the local government of the town. Citizens spoke on a wide variety of topics, ranging from water quality to a seeming lack of responsiveness from the members of Greenville's Town Council.
One of the first citizens to speak was long-time Greenville resident and former town leader Elesta Pritchett. “We have no voice,” said Pritchett of the current Town Council.
Greenville Town Council member Calvin Malone had originally signed up to speak, but when it came to his turn to address Rep. Shoaf and those citizens present, he declined his opportunity to speak. Other members of the Town Council were present at the meeting but none of them chose to speak. Greenville Town Manager Lee Jones did not come to the meeting.
“We need civic-minded people [on the Town Council],” added Lucille Day, another long-term Greenville resident who spoke to Rep. Shoaf.
Rep. Shoaf commented on the number of headlines regarding Greenville that had appeared in the local newspaper. He made a point to comment on the fact that the Town Council and Town Manager had denied access to the news media and the fact that the First Amendment Foundation had gotten involved. Several citizens also raised concerns over the fact that citizens had not been able to participate in meetings. Up until recently, the only way citizens were able to participate in public meetings was through the internet on the “Zoom” platform. This essentially excluded those citizens who did not have internet access or access to a computer. The legal counsel for the First Amendment Foundation brought to the attention of the Greenville Town Manager and the Greenville Town Attorney this was in violation of Florida's Government in the Sunshine Laws. The Greenville Town Council has chosen to allow limited, in-person citizen access to meetings; beginning with the meeting on Monday, Aug. 9.
Another Greenville citizen, Patricia Hinton, spoke about the town's recent financial audit. Hinton stated that in recent years, the town had approximately $400,000 in reserve, but no longer. Hinton questioned what had happened to the funds. Rep. Shoaf suggested that a state audit may help reveal where the seemingly missing funds went. Rep. Shoaf did state that such an audit would likely take a great deal of time to complete, perhaps close to a year. “I want to give the city the benefit of the doubt,” said Rep. Shoaf. “We're going to address these concerns with them [the Greenville Town Council]. I'm going to work with committee staff at the House [of Representatives] and give them the information we have and if there is enough, which there likely is, to start that audit, then that will be something that we will do. I will be communicating with the city and the county all the way through that process. It will be in the sunshine, I promise. We will make everything available to you.”