CRB Parrilla Still Standing but on a Wobbly Chair

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The very thing that the Community Relations board is supposed to do, listen to citizen complaints, mediate and hopefully arrive at a solution, was discarded as trivial, irrelevant and personal by Chair Mark Parrilla when two official complaints were filed against him, only one getting into the record. He didn't want to hear about it nor did he want it discussed.

Parrilla, a street fighter from New York, learned the act of survival at an early age--fight for what you want. He did that last night even interrupting a board member on four occasions and then stating that he never interrupted anyone.

Parrilla only allows public participation one time during the meeting. You are not allowed to comment on any other agenda item that has been motioned and seconded. I guess you are to use your crystal ball to figure out what this Board will say on the issues. With this Parrilla policy, public participation should be put at the end of the meeting for fairness to the public. Parrilla also said that he sets the agenda without input from the rest of his Board.

Parrilla has deleted his e-mail address as supposedly he was receiving mail that was not of his liking and now has directed his Board members to go through Mary, the City Manager's Administrative Assistant, if they want to communicate with him digitally. Mary probably just loves taking on more work by a "volunteer" Board member, a fact that Parrilla loves to remind us as often as he can--he is a volunteer for heavens sake. Openness and transparency as well as communication from the community at large has become nearly impossible in this digital age with this Chair.

His only weapon these days is his gift? of gab and it goes on and on. Last night, he promised that he would not stop commenting on blogs, attacking private citizens or even Commissioners as this was his right as a private citizen, absolving himself all together from any responsibility or standard as Chair of the Community Relations Board. Later he said that he would stop only after Commissioner Herman Robinson's strong suggestion. He even voted yea at one point to replace himself as Chair, telling the rest of the Board to shut up or "shit and get off the pot." The outcome of the discussion is that the Board will vote on new officers at their next scheduled regular meeting in June, a motion made by Deborah Smith. Parrilla promised to check with the City Clerk to see if this was legal. He was rattled but the mouth kept on.

I'm undocumented, so?
If you have anything to say about that, you are probably a racist, bigot.

The press was there last night, the Palm Beach Post as well as the New Times Broward/Palm Beach on the racist/bigotry presentation. The Board was in support of allowing this group to present but did not want to be a platform for the other side of the argument. Some actually thought there was no other side and agreed with the PB Coalition of Human Rights that certain groups were, shhhh, "racist." Some wanted Commissioners to be present at their next meeting and singled out Commissioner Scott Maxwell, bringing back the erroneous charge during the last election that he was a racist. Some members of the Board insinuated that a racist charge against a sitting Commissioner was true and he needed to explain himself. Go to FAIR and hear what they have to say. This was one of the groups cited as "racist."

It was no wonder they did not, in the end, even sanction Mark Parrilla for verbally attacking a sitting commissioner and citizens of Lake Worth. Even Karen Tribendis, new Board member who made some logical arguments on the "racist" discussion earlier, slapped down her hand on the conference table indicating a "no" vote to replace Parrilla.

This is a Community Relations Board. Even some Board members can not put aside their own personal beliefs and agendas. Everything that the Board’s name implies does not exist.

Near the end of the meeting, Maria Uribe resigned citing better things to do with her time. Carla Blockson, candidate for Commissioner District 2, had resigned at the beginning of the meeting due to public pressure to do so because of possible conflict of interests, also a possible campaign strategy by Diana Demarest, her campaign manager. Both Board members made the right move.

I might be back just to see how things are shaping up but under this leadership, I don't anticipate anything improving.