Frustration came to a head at Tuesday night’s Ocala City Council meeting after Mayor Kent Guinn surprisingly vetoed a landfill measure he initially had vowed to support.
The City Council on April 20 had adopted an ordinance to create a Construction and Demolition Landfill definition and a special exception with criteria in the M-2 and M-3 zoning districts. The request was made by Jerry Laurenco, owner of Friends Recycling, who is seeking to expand the landfill off N.W. 27th Avenue. He said he’s attempting to move forward as a good neighbor with the surrounding communities and trying to keep the landfill out of the public view.
Laurenco said he couldn’t understand why Guinn had said on April 6 that he would support the City Council’s decision and then nine days after it was passed, issue a veto of the ordinance. He added that Guinn, who wasn’t at Tuesday’s meeting, had been invited three times to come out and look at the landfill facility but had failed to do so.
“I have a hard time even understanding that and comprehending how you can veto something that you don’t even come and look at,” Laurenco said. “April 29, the mayor vetoed it, I guess not respecting your vote or being a man of his word.”
Council President Justin Grabelle said a majority of Councilmembers agreed with Laurenco and suggested they wait until the May 18 meeting for further discussion, since Guinn would be in attendance then.
Councilmember Jay Musleh, however, couldn’t contain his frustration with Guinn and said he saw no reason to avoid proceeding with the discussion.
“He vetoed it, which is within his authority, and I’m not knocking him for that,” Musleh said. “But anything he would have to say is irrelevant, I think, to our discussion.”
Musleh admitted he was irritated with Guinn because he blindsided the Council with the veto after saying during the April 6 meeting he would support their decision.
“He just makes his mind up at the last minute or afterwards,” he said. “That’s what is frustrating about dealing with someone who won’t be transparent and let you know how he feels. I think he knew that night what he was going to do,” Musleh added, saying he would gladly express his frustrations to the mayor’s face if he was at the meeting.
Grabelle agreed but said he didn’t believe the Council had the four votes needed to override the veto. He, along with Musleh and Councilmember Matthew Wardell support the measure, with Ire Bethea Sr. against it. President Pro-Tem Brent Malever appeared to be the undecided vote, suggesting he wanted to gather more information before making a final decision.
“It has been frustrating, but we’ve got to do the right thing at the right time for the right people,” Malever said. “Remember that.”
After further discussion, City Attorney Jimmy Gooding suggested the City Council should schedule a public hearing to discuss the issue rather than taking a vote Tuesday night. Musleh, who clearly was upset over the issue, said he didn’t want to go through another long, arduous hearing only to arrive at a 3-2 vote and see the veto override fail.
“All I’m advocating for is let’s know if we’ve got four people that want to override it,” he said. “If we don’t have four that want to override, no hard feelings. Let’s move on and do something different rather than schedule another public hearing and go through all of the song-and-dance routine of hearing the same issues from each side.”
Grabelle agreed to allow Malever time to do some “fact finding” and said the issue would come back up at the May 18 meeting when Guinn returns.