Firmenich Issue Forces Schedule Changes For Monday's Safety Harbor Commission Meeting

With a large crowd and a lot of time expected to be devoted to the Firmeich property proposal at Monday night's city commission meeting, Safety Harbor city officials have reorganized the schedule for the evening's agenda.

First, the Roberts Rule of Order meeting, in which the city attorney goes over policies and procedures for new commission members, has been moved to Feb. 18.

This meeting was originally scheduled to take place at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 4. The change will push the Audit Committee meeting that was scheduled for Feb. 18 back to Mar. 4 at 6:30 p.m.

In place of the RRO meeting, the City Commission meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. on Monday to cover all the agenda items other than the Firmenich issue. 

The meeting on the Firmenich proposal will begin no earlier than 7:30 p.m., the regularly scheduled time for the bi-weekly commission meeting.

This change will leave just one hour for the commission to handle all the other items on the agenda.

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In light of the amount of time the Firmenich issue is expected to take, and in the wake of an ordinance that the city passed in 2011 stating that "the regular meetings of the City Commission shall end on or before 11:00pm on the same day in which they have commenced," officials felt the changes were necessary.

"This (change) will allow those who were coming for other items to be completed prior to 7:30 p.m. and allow those who come for the Richman item to be completed in a timely manner without waiting for other items," City Manager Matt Spoor said via email.

"We apologize for any confusion, but believe this will truly help move Monday night along and allow the proper time and consideration for all items and parties," he added.

To reiterate, all agenda items other than the Firmenich issue will be handled from 6:30-7:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 4. The City Commission meeting on the Firmenich agenda item will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 4. The meetings will take place at Safety Harbor City Hall, located at 750 Main St. in downtown Safety Harbor.

Previous Coverage:

• Check out Patch's complete coverage of the Firmenich property saga