{"id":26281,"date":"2022-10-17T14:55:50","date_gmt":"2022-10-17T18:55:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=26281"},"modified":"2022-10-17T14:56:35","modified_gmt":"2022-10-17T18:56:35","slug":"the-appointment-of-samuel-simmons-has-several-questions-behind-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2022\/10\/17\/the-appointment-of-samuel-simmons-has-several-questions-behind-it\/","title":{"rendered":"The appointment of Samuel Simmons has several questions behind it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Editorial<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This editorial has nothing to do with any one candidate or candidates, it has to do with the way the Lakeland City Commissioners handled this process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-vivid-red-color has-text-color wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>At the end of the interviews on Oct 10, 2022, it was decided that all current commissioners would pick their top four picks \u2013 and rank them, #1 meaning their top choice.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">See the Video below: conversation starts at 1:51:13 on the video<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"vimeo-player\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/758001639?h=217443c871\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-vivid-purple-color has-text-color wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>But during the Agenda Study on Friday 10\/14\/2022 the commissioners decided not to rank the top four candidates<\/strong>. <strong>Why would they change the process a second time?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/759520168?h=78c25e74e4&#038;title=0\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/759520168\">Agenda Study &amp; Committees &#8211; October 14, 2022<\/a> from <a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/lakelandgov\">City of Lakeland<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\">Vimeo<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">See round one paperwork<\/p>\n\n\n        <div id=\"ep-gutenberg-content-261c9a840b266f283dc2f991ba5d6e59\" class=\"ep-gutenberg-content aligncenter ep-percentage-width   ep-content-protection-disabled\" data-embed-type=\"PDF\" data-embed-url=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Round-1-Results.pdf\">\n            <div class=\"embedpress-inner-iframe emebedpress-unit-percent ep-doc-261c9a840b266f283dc2f991ba5d6e59\" style=\"max-width:600%\" id=\"embedpress-pdf-1666031432549\">\n                <div >\n                    <div class=\"ep-embed-content-wraper\"><div class=\"position-right-wraper gutenberg-pdf-wraper\"><iframe title=\"Round 1 Results\" class=\"embedpress-embed-document-pdf embedpress-pdf-1666031432549\" style=\"width:600%;height:600px; max-width:100%; display: inline-block\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/embedpress\/assets\/pdf\/web\/viewer.html?&#038;file=https%3A%2F%2Flakelandgazette.info%2Fnews%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2022%2F10%2FRound-1-Results.pdf#key=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\" frameborder=\"0\" oncontextmenu=\"return false;\"><\/iframe> <\/div><\/div>                <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    \n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the commission meeting on 10\/17\/2022, the commissioner changed the way they were doing it because they had five names come up. So the commissioners did a second round<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">See round two paperwork<\/p>\n\n\n        <div id=\"ep-gutenberg-content-dd679a377b81d57600271627cd7154f0\" class=\"ep-gutenberg-content aligncenter ep-percentage-width   ep-content-protection-disabled\" data-embed-type=\"PDF\" data-embed-url=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Round-2-Results.pdf\">\n            <div class=\"embedpress-inner-iframe emebedpress-unit-percent ep-doc-dd679a377b81d57600271627cd7154f0\" style=\"max-width:600%\" id=\"embedpress-pdf-1666031611566\">\n                <div >\n                    <div class=\"ep-embed-content-wraper\"><div class=\"position-right-wraper gutenberg-pdf-wraper\"><iframe title=\"Round 2 Results\" class=\"embedpress-embed-document-pdf embedpress-pdf-1666031611566\" style=\"width:600%;height:600px; max-width:100%; display: inline-block\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/embedpress\/assets\/pdf\/web\/viewer.html?&#038;file=https%3A%2F%2Flakelandgazette.info%2Fnews%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2022%2F10%2FRound-2-Results.pdf#key=dGhlbWVNb2RlPWRlZmF1bHQmdG9vbGJhcj10cnVlJnBvc2l0aW9uPXRvcCZwcmVzZW50YXRpb249dHJ1ZSZsYXp5TG9hZD1mYWxzZSZkb3dubG9hZD10cnVlJmNvcHlfdGV4dD10cnVlJmFkZF90ZXh0PXRydWUmZHJhdz10cnVlJmRvY19yb3RhdGlvbj10cnVlJmFkZF9pbWFnZT10cnVlJmRvY19kZXRhaWxzPXRydWUmem9vbV9pbj10cnVlJnpvb21fb3V0PXRydWUmZml0X3ZpZXc9dHJ1ZSZib29rbWFyaz10cnVlJmZsaXBib29rX3Rvb2xiYXJfcG9zaXRpb249Ym90dG9tJmZsaXBib29rX3J0bD1mYWxzZSZmbGlwYm9va19oaWdobGlnaHRfbGlua3M9ZmFsc2UmZmxpcGJvb2tfaGlnaGxpZ2h0X2NvbG9yPSZzZWxlY3Rpb25fdG9vbD0wJnNjcm9sbGluZz0tMSZzcHJlYWRzPS0xJndhdGVybWFya190ZXh0PSZ3YXRlcm1hcmtfZm9udF9zaXplPTQ4JndhdGVybWFya19jb2xvcj0lMjMwMDAwMDAmd2F0ZXJtYXJrX29wYWNpdHk9MTUmd2F0ZXJtYXJrX3N0eWxlPWNlbnRlcg==\" frameborder=\"0\" oncontextmenu=\"return false;\"><\/iframe> <\/div><\/div>                <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    \n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Questions:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Was race a factor in the decision?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How can the top three of the top five in round two be all African American?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Lakeland City Commission then ranked the candidates in the following order:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\" type=\"1\"><li>Sam Simmons<\/li><li>Veronica Roundtree<\/li><li>Tracy Faison<\/li><li>Guy LaLonde<\/li><li>Ricky Shirah<\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Editorial This editorial has nothing to do with any one candidate or candidates, it has to do with the way the Lakeland City Commissioners handled this process. At the end&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[3697],"class_list":["post-26281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial","tag-the-appointment-of-samuel-simmons-has-several-questions-behind-it"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}