Meeting schedule poses ethics question

When Lakewood Ranch Community Development District 4 supervisors voted in June to go back to having two meetings a month, they didn't specify how long those meetings would last.

So when they held their second of two meetings on July 20, and it lasted just one minute, it raised the ire of District 4 Supervisor Joe Sidiski.

In April the CDD 4 board voted to go from two meetings to one, but the supervisors didn't consider their compensation ... $200 per meeting ... was going to be cut in half.

So on July 20, after a 90-minute, agenda review workshop, the supervisors started a board meeting that ended 60 seconds later. Compensation for the month, for two meetings, would be $400.

“This is absolutely unethical,” said Sidiski, who has declined compensation because he felt the second meeting was a way for supervisors to be compensated at their previous rate. 

By law, supervisors are compensated $200 per meeting, up to $4,800 annually, out of CDD assessments.

The other members of the board who were present — supervisors Nancy Johnson, Keith Davey and Chairman Michael Griffin (John Freeman was absent) — said there was nothing wrong with the action. Holding separate meetings, one agenda review and one business meeting, is standard practice for Lakewood Ranch CDDs.

“For the record, I think this is a tempest in a teapot,” Griffin said of Sidiski’s complaint. “It’s just a matter of timing. It’s a matter of an overnight meeting versus a meeting the same day.” 

Historically, CDD 4’s second business meeting, held the day after its workshop, has lasted 10 minutes or less each month.

“The meeting change was never intended to have any impact on compensation, positive or negative,” Davey said. “Joe’s point seems to exclude all the workshop and special meetings which are also included in the ‘per meeting’ compensation calculation.”