Omari Hardy is going vial over a passionate argument during a board meeting in Lake Worth Beach Florida. The commissioner apologized for his tone during the meeting as he seen in a shouting match with the Mayor and City Manager.
Hardy was caught on video yelling ay Mayor Pam Triolo saying, “This is a banana republic is what you’re turning this place into with your so-called leadership”.
The argument occurred following the city’s handling of the COVID-19 virus outbreak.
In recent weeks, Commissioner Hardy had pushed his colleagues to take additional action aimed at protecting the public from the virus’s spread. After his calls for an emergency meeting on the issue, the Commission gathered Thursday night.
During the meeting City Manager Michael Bornstein admitted 50 people had their power turned off prior to a Wednesday announcement that those shutoffs were being halted.
As the two hour meeting extended past its halfway point, Mayor Triolo moved to stop debate on a resolution allowing Bornstein to have emergency powers even absent the city declaring a state of emergency.
It was at that moment That Omar Hardy became more passionate about the issue.
“This gentleman has turned off people’s lights in the middle of a global health pandemic,” Hardy said of Bornstein.
“We could’ve banned large gatherings. We could’ve closed the beach. We could’ve put a moratorium on utility shutoffs,” He continued. That prompted Mayor Triolo to abruptly call for a recess.
However, Omari Hardy was not yet ready to pause a much needed conversation. Hardy began by arguing Triolo was turning the city government into a “banana republic.”
Mayor Pam Triolo then accused Hardy of showing off, saying You got a camera on that?”
Omari Hardy made it very clear that it wasn’t about the camera. He continued arguing saying, “We should’ve been talking about this last week”.
“We cut off people’s utilities this week and made them pay what could have been their last check — to us — to turn their lights off in a global health pandemic. But you don’t care about that and you didn’t want to meet! But every other year you go around and beg people for their votes!”
The Mayor, then replied, “Point of order! Your are done. You’re done. You’re done. Disrespectful.”
At this point Hardy continued saying, “What’s disrespectful is what you’ve done to the working people in this city.”
While Hardy said he stood by his overall charges, he said he should have remained calm.
“Things got heated last night, but I don’t regret one word”, he said on Twitter
“And my colleagues didn’t want to discuss it all, didn’t want to acknowledge what we had done, and I lost my cool. But sometimes you have to get into trouble to stand up for what’s right. That’s called #GoodTrouble,” Hardy said, referencing a motto of civil rights icon and U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia.
Still, he reiterated, “Shouldn’t have lost my cool, though.”
As a result, the resolution was approved by a 4-1 vote.
