DELTONA, Fla. — Deltona commissioners are accused of continuing a meeting after a public notice went out saying it was canceled. Residents are now taking legal action against the city because they believe commissioners violated state law.
Eyewitness News tried to ask the City Manager if the city knew it could be violating state law, or if leaders were trying to avoid hearing public comment on a controversial housing project that was supposed to be discussed during that meeting. The city said it doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
A notice was posted on Deltona’s social media pages and website alerting the community the February 2 meeting was canceled because not enough commissioners could be in attendance. That meeting went on anyway.
A group of residents is now taking legal action. Their lawyer addressed the city during Monday’s meeting.
“I respectfully disagree with your attorney’s analysis that that last meeting did not violate the sunshine law,” said Attorney Martin Pedata.
Dozens of residents were planning to speak out against a development during the public comment portion on Feb. 2. Their notice of a lawsuit given to the city claims three commissioners still showed up and continued to discuss the project. David Sosa is part of the group taking action against the city. He said city should have re-advertised the agenda.
“Then they also have to make sure they publish it within the 30 days. Basically, they city manager tried to circumvent that process,” said David Sosa.
We went to city hall to ask the city manager what went wrong and a spokesperson came out and told us he wasn’t available for comment.
During Monday night’s meeting, a commissioner said the February 2nd meeting continued only because city staff said it was okay.
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