Coronavirus: Florida mayor, city commissioner have heated exchange during meeting

LAKE WORTH BEACH, Fla. — A city commission meeting in South Florida got rather testy Thursday night, as a commissioner confronted the mayor over the city’s handling of the coronavirus.

Lake Worth Beach Commissioner Omari Hardy got into a name-calling, finger-pointing shouting match with Mayor Pam Triolo after they clashed over the disconnection of utilities, WPEC reported.

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Hardy accused City Manager Michael Bornstein of “turning off people’s lights during a global health pandemic,” and said Triolo was also at fault because she did not call an emergency meeting last week to discuss coronavirus crisis issues, the television station reported.

Hardy said Triolo then gave Bornstein emergency powers, which caused the commissioner to angrily address the mayor.

“This is a banana republic is what you’re turning this place into with your so-called leadership,” Hardy yelled when Triolo called a recess. “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."

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

Triolo told Hardy, “Out of order. You’re done. You’re gone.”

“Things got heated last night, but I don’t regret a word,” Hardy wrote on Facebook. “Not one.

“Sometimes, you have to get into trouble to stand up for what’s right.”

Cox Media Group