A pair of municipal appointees recently did the right thing, even if their bosses didn't.
We'll start in Dade City where retiring city attorney William Brewton retreated from his requested post-retirement vacation at the Florida Municipal Attorneys Association convention.
Brewton, after a week of negative press clippings, told the City Commission on Tuesday evening that he was declining the opportunity to travel on the public's dime to the luxury resort at Amelia Island Plantation. Sorry to have asked for an unbudgeted expense, lamented Brewton, who nonetheless defended the trip as fair since the city manager and commissioners also travel out of town at public expense. His statement to commissioners failed to acknowledge the conference is scheduled to begin 10 days after he ends 16 years of city employment.
Times staff writer Chase Squires previously calculated the cost at $658, plus food and transportation. Hardly an impressive figure, but it is symbolic of the commission's unsteady stewardship considering it surfaced simultaneously with a debate over a failed plan to assess new fees to pay for fire protection and streetlights and just a week after the departing city manager warned of the potential for a $650,000 shortfall in the budget year beginning Oct. 1.
Brewton must have known his initial request was controversial. Why else would he ask County Attorney Robert Sumner for a written opinion on the appropriateness and then forward the document to the City Commission as justification for the junket?
While Brewton didn't show the most astute judgment in seeking the trip in the first place, Mayor Scott Black and Commissioners Eunice Penix and Lowell Harris amplified the gaffe by acquiescing to the request. Only Commissioner Bill Dennis recognized the perk for what it was and voted against it two weeks ago. Commissioner Hutch Brock was absent at the time of the vote.
Now, Brewton has attempted to spare them political fallout for the embarrassing approval. Kudos for common sense winning out. Better late than never.
Across the county, Port Richey's City Council majority exercised its own dubious judgment earlier this month. Council members Pat Guttman, Dale Massad and Phyllis Grae declined an attempt to nominate neighborhood activist Lisa Vayre to its Code Enforcement Board and instead supported the appointment of former council member Joe Menicola.
Menicola, defeated at the polls in April 2002, served a two-year term marked by petty personal vindictiveness. It was topped off by revelations he declared "war," in a profanity-filled diatribe, on the city Police Department after an officer ticketed Menicola's adult son for speeding and not wearing a seat belt.
Instead of attempting to resurrect the public career of one of their political cronies, the trio should have considered what message they sent to their front-line officers. The appointment tells the public it is perfectly fine with the council to be profane and belligerent with police. The public rejected Menicola at the polls, the council majority should have done likewise.
That being said, we must note Menicola mitigated the council's poor judgment with his own level-headed thinking during the first case the board heard after his appointment. It involved a code violation accusation against City Hall gadfly Delores Felske, the same woman City Manager Vince Lupo sought to bar from the municipal building and City Attorney Paul Marino suggested suing to recoup expenses stemming from a state Ethics Commission investigation.
Menicola joined the board majority in dismissing allegations the Felske family's dump truck was parked illegally in a commercial zone. It is the correct ruling. The zoning ambiguity that allows a full-time residence in a commercial zone diminishes the city's ability to enforce residential rules in the mixed-use neighborhood.
For one meeting at least, Menicola outshone some of his former council compatriots.
