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04-19-2006, 01:28 AM
Fort Pierce city officials dine on taxpayers' dime
By ALEXI HOWK
alexi.howk@scripps.com
April 16, 2006
FORT PIERCE — Whoever said there's no such thing as a free lunch never worked for the city of Fort Pierce.
City officials spend thousands of taxpayer dollars a year to feed themselves while doing the public's business, payment records show. Two boards particularly ring up big tabs:
• City commissioners, before meetings of the Fort Pierce Redevelopment Agency, dine on everything from roast pork, black beans and rice to penne with blush sauce and veggies — topped off with cannolis and triple-layer chocolate cake. Lunches run from $150 to more than $200 — and total about $3,000 a year.
• The Civil Services Appeals Board — a five-member citizen panel — sometimes eats several times a month at taxpayer expense, favoring a "very good" chicken salad, pastries and fruit trays with strawberries and honeydew melon.
That board also spends about $3,000 a year, with meals from $95 to more than $200.
For the civil service meals, there may be something sweet besides the pastries.
The meals are catered by Dal's Catery, on Oleander Boulevard, which doesn't give the city an itemized bill for specific food charges — like the cost of the chicken salad.
It doesn't seem to matter. Dal's is owned by a city employee who works in the Administrative Services department. Her boss approves the payments.
Most city officials said the free food is no big deal.
"I really never gave much thought about the lunches," Mayor Bob Benton said. "If we're going to meet at noon, yes, I'd want to be fed. It might be something that we have to change."
Commissioners, acting as the redevelopment agency, spend between $200 and $250 a month to feed 25 people before the agency's noon meetings on the fourth Wednesday of each month. Most of the CRA lunches are catered by Pizzoodle's on Orange Avenue.
The agency lunches, served in the city's engineering conference room, provide food not only for the entire City Commission, but also for the city manager, deputy city manager, city attorney, city engineer, agency director and a few staff members.
City Attorney Rob Schwerer said he didn't see anything wrong with the city using tax dollars to provide the meals because he considers it "a working lunch."
More on this Story (http://www.tcpalm.com/tcp/local_news/article/0%2C2545%2CTCP_16736_4624671%2C00.html)
By ALEXI HOWK
alexi.howk@scripps.com
April 16, 2006
FORT PIERCE — Whoever said there's no such thing as a free lunch never worked for the city of Fort Pierce.
City officials spend thousands of taxpayer dollars a year to feed themselves while doing the public's business, payment records show. Two boards particularly ring up big tabs:
• City commissioners, before meetings of the Fort Pierce Redevelopment Agency, dine on everything from roast pork, black beans and rice to penne with blush sauce and veggies — topped off with cannolis and triple-layer chocolate cake. Lunches run from $150 to more than $200 — and total about $3,000 a year.
• The Civil Services Appeals Board — a five-member citizen panel — sometimes eats several times a month at taxpayer expense, favoring a "very good" chicken salad, pastries and fruit trays with strawberries and honeydew melon.
That board also spends about $3,000 a year, with meals from $95 to more than $200.
For the civil service meals, there may be something sweet besides the pastries.
The meals are catered by Dal's Catery, on Oleander Boulevard, which doesn't give the city an itemized bill for specific food charges — like the cost of the chicken salad.
It doesn't seem to matter. Dal's is owned by a city employee who works in the Administrative Services department. Her boss approves the payments.
Most city officials said the free food is no big deal.
"I really never gave much thought about the lunches," Mayor Bob Benton said. "If we're going to meet at noon, yes, I'd want to be fed. It might be something that we have to change."
Commissioners, acting as the redevelopment agency, spend between $200 and $250 a month to feed 25 people before the agency's noon meetings on the fourth Wednesday of each month. Most of the CRA lunches are catered by Pizzoodle's on Orange Avenue.
The agency lunches, served in the city's engineering conference room, provide food not only for the entire City Commission, but also for the city manager, deputy city manager, city attorney, city engineer, agency director and a few staff members.
City Attorney Rob Schwerer said he didn't see anything wrong with the city using tax dollars to provide the meals because he considers it "a working lunch."
More on this Story (http://www.tcpalm.com/tcp/local_news/article/0%2C2545%2CTCP_16736_4624671%2C00.html)