By Terry Witt -Spotlight Senior Reporter

            Levy County Commission Chairman Matt Brooks got testy Tuesday when a reporter asked him during a budget workshop to state the total dollar requests by each department or constitutionally elected officer for the public to hear.

            The Emergency Medical Services budget had been presented to the board but without any mention of the total dollars being requested by Public Safety Director Mitch Harrell.

            Brooks fired back at the reporter, apparently irritated by the question.

            “If you have any questions you can get with staff afterward and they can get what you need,” snapped Brooks.

            “Why don’t we do it in a public meeting so the public can hear what’s going on? the reporter asked.

            “We’re conducting a public meeting right now, so if you want to ask questions as the media, you can ask if afterward. This is not going to be a press conference. This hearing is for the budget,” Brooks shot back.

            “I know that. That’s why I want..” the reporter said. Brooks interrupted.

            “Thank you, Mr. Witt,” he said.

            The Levy County Commission no longer posts its agenda on the board’s website. It sends copies of the agenda and backup to anyone who contacts the board office and asks to be put on an email list.

            People listening to Tuesday’s board meeting on the internet broadcast couldn’t see the budget on the overhead TV screens in the board room because there is no video image of the meeting. Listeners can only go by what they hear from staff and board members and often the audio is garbled.

            The point being made by Spotlight was that this was indeed a public budget hearing and the public had the right to hear what elected officials and others were requesting in terms of public tax dollars for their budgets.

            Brooks, as chairman, often gets irritated when the news media asks questions during the meeting and cuts them off by saying the meeting is not a press conference.

            County staff, acting on a request by Commissioner Desiree Mills, is ordering microphones that attach to the lapel of commissioners to ensure they can be heard on the internet broadcast and in the board meeting room itself.

            Commissioners sometimes lean back in their chairs and get so far away from their desk microphones that they can’t be heard in the back of the meeting room much less on the internet broadcast.

            They also lose sight of the fact that they don’t often communicate in simple and clear terms during budget workshops or hearings about the dollar figures under discussion.

            Schonna McLean, a budget analyst who has been thrown into an unfamiliar position of presenting the budget to commissioners this year through no fault of her own, said she had provided a copy of the proposed budget “by cost centers and categories and it also has budget detailed for major funds.” Spotlight received a copy and understood what she was saying, but did people listening to board meetings on the internet understand what she was saying?

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Board of County Commission Regular Meeting June 20, 2023; Posted June 20, 2023