‘You turned off people’s lights during a global pandemic!’: City commissioner calls out Florida leaders during meeting

LAKE WORTH BEACH, FLORIDA — On Thursday night, a Lake Worth Beach city commission meeting devolved into a heated argument between Commissioner Omari Hardy and Mayor Pam Triolo and City Manager Michael Bornstein, with Hardy accusing the city’s leaders of inaction amidst the growing COVID-19 outbreak.

Hardy accused Bornstein of “turning off people’s lights during a global health pandemic” and said Triolo was complicit because she declined to call an emergency meeting last week to discuss issues related to the coronavirus crisis.

‘This is a banana republic is what you’re turning this place into with your so-called leadership,” Hardy yelled at Triolo. “We cut people’s utilities this week and made them pay — with what could have been their last check — to turn their lights off in a global health pandemic. But you don’t care about that! You didn’t want to meet!”

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“You care more about your relationship with [Bornstein] than you do about the people that are out there working,” he shouted.

Posting to Twitter on Friday, Hardy admitted that he “shouldn’t have lost my cool,” but nevertheless stood by his words.

“We could’ve directed the City [Manager] to stop shutoffs last week, when I requested an emergency meeting for that purpose,” he wrote. “The Mayor said no. And then we cut off lights dozens of families!”

Watch the full exchange below:

 

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.