Lakeland’s city commissioners did something unusual last week — they talked with each other.
Florida’s Sunshine Law bars commissioners from discussing city business with each other outside of public meetings. However, public meetings usually focus narrowly on the action items of the day, leaving little time for brainstorming or collaborating. So it was a new feeling when the seven commissioners, including the mayor, spent the entire day Thursday with a moderator discussing their priorities, frustrations, and visions for the city — many of which involved roads, traffic, and aging infrastructure.
The session, which was live-streamed, was held about six weeks before the city’s annual two-day budget retreat, in which department heads give presentations about successes in the previous year and plans for the future.
In one discussion, the City Commission and the Community Redevelopment Agency engaged a consultant to make a strategic plan for “Downtown West” — the area west of South Florida Avenue to Lake Beulah Drive, including Bonnet Springs Park and the RP Funding Center. The plan emphasizes nurturing and reconnecting neighborhoods that currently are divided by George Jenkins Boulevard, Kathleen Road and the CSX Railroad.
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