Gainesville Taxpayer Denied Right to Public Comment by Mayor Harvey Ward
Today a Palestinian-Lebanese woman and Gainesville taxpayer, Bana Kabalan, arrived at Gainesville City Hall intending to give a public comment at the Board of Trustees meeting for the Gainesville General Employees Pension Plan Actuarial Valuation Report at 9:45 a.m.
The trustee board members are all the City Commissioners.
The board’s recommendation was to approve the 2023 General Employees pension report and approve the employer's pension contribution rating at 5.97%.
Kabalan wanted the Board of Trustees to obtain identification of potential additional risks.
Page 31 of the pension plan states, “The actuarial valuation reports the funded status and develops contributions based on the expected return of the plan’s investment portfolio. If instead, the plan switched to investing exclusively in high quality bonds, the low-default-risk obligation measure illustrates that reported funded status would be lower, perhaps significantly. Unnecessarily high contribution requirements in the near term may not be affordable and could imperil plan sustainability and benefit security. It is important to note that the actuary has identified the risks above as the most significant risks based on the characteristics of the plan and the nature of the project, however, it is not an exhaustive list of potential risks that could be considered. Additional advanced modeling, as well as the identification of additional risks, can be provided at the request of the audience.”
At 9:35 a.m., Kabalan walked into City Hall and began waiting to be allowed in the meeting with other public commenters.
For the past two public meetings, Kabalan has spoken against Palestinian genocide and told the Gainesville City Commissioners that they need to divest from all corporations so they could legally divest from U.S. weapons manufacturers like the Alachua County Commission has done.
Florida law prevents divestment for non-pecuniary reasons.
Before the meeting began, one of the security officers working the metal detector walked away. At least three other security officers were still present, but they said the officer who left needed to return before Kabalan could go in.
Five minutes later the security officer came back, and Kabalan was permitted to enter, but the meeting had already been adjourned.
Gainesville City meetings legally must be open to the public under Sunshine laws. Typically, anyone can make public comments, provided they are related to the agenda or during designated times for non-agenda items.
Kabalan tried to talk to the clerks and get her time for public comment back. City Clerk Kristen Bryant said she’d put in a request to Mayor Harvey Ward.
“They didn’t want us to come in,” Kabalan told GnvInfo.
Bryant returned and informed Kabalan that her request for public comment was denied because the meeting was “adjourned.”
Kabalan said she was legally allowed to come in as a taxpayer.
Bryant responded that another thing Kabalan could do was come in during general public comment.
Kabalan said she needed to make a request specific to the agenda.
GnvInfo asked Bryant if it wouldn’t be the standard procedure for commissioners to allow public comment before making a decision.
Bryant said Ward called for public comment, but Kabalan wasn’t allowed in the room.
Bryant said she was unaware of the situation.
Kabalan informed Bryant that the TV wasn’t properly displaying the meeting and said, “It seems like something is really wrong about why we weren’t allowed to come in [and I] couldn’t make public comments.”
Bryant said, “I agree with you; there was a breakdown in protocol.”
Kabalan said, “Can I make a comment because I don’t wanna do it at General? I don’t want to be dismissed because I’m continuously dismissed by the board. I would like to say something specific to the actuarial report.”
Bryant said, “I did talk about your request with the Mayor and he said the meeting was adjourned.”
Kabalan’s civil rights were violated, and she looked angry and sad at the same time. Ward could have rectified the error but chose to forbid Kabalan from making public comment for the meeting.
After the meeting, Kabalan said Ward blocked her from publicly commenting because “he’s racist.” “He absolutely knows who I am—a Palestinian-Lebanese American,” she said. “They know who I am, and they don’t want to hear us because they don’t appreciate us or anything their constituents say unless it is praising them; praising them for what? Putting us in financial debt? Screwing with the pension plan's retirement funds as a gamble to make investments in corporations that are complicit in violations of international law? What are they doing?”
In July, Ward received a letter from the President of the Alachua County Democratic Black Caucus, accusing him of “Bullying, Intimidation, Harassment, and [being threatening] toward Black Women”
Kabalan criticized the meeting’s short timeframe. “They just signed it. It happened in five minutes. We know for a fact they didn’t review it…. They dismissed the list of risks and just accepted the plan as it was. They’re risking people’s retirement while we have a 9.6% increase in people who are retiring and will live off the pension plan.”
GnvInfo was barred from entering the meeting along with Kabalan. The video of the meeting shows the board went with the recommendation.
Kabalan would return for vengeance, coming back an hour later with dozens of protesters. The protest was planned a few days in advance; however, Kabalan’s barring from public comment at the pension meeting reportedly caused the number of attendees and public commenters to increase at the general meeting. A full report on this protest will be released in the next few days.
