Tensions are on edge amid the coronavirus outbreak – and Florida is no exception.
A Lake Worth Beach city meeting on Thursday descended into a screaming match after Commissioner Omari Hardy accused Mayor Pam Triolo of botching the city’s response to the outbreak.
The video of the heated exchange, first published by the Palm Beach Post, has been viewed more than 4million times.
After being called disrespectful for interrupting people, Hardy flips out and accuses City Manager Michael Bornstein of turning off people’s lights “in the middle of a global health pandemic.”
“We could have banned large gatherings! We could have closed the beach! We could have put a moratorium on utility cutoffs!” he roars, causing the Mayor to bang her gavel and recess the meeting before walking away… but Hardy is not finished.
“You came up with new rules at the beginning of the meeting, and then you didn’t even want to follow the rules that you came up with! This is a banana republic, is what you’re turning the place into with your so-called leadership.”
Triolo comes back to taunt him that he is only doing it for the camera, but that only makes Hardy more agitated.
“We should have been talking about this last week!” he shouts. “We cut people’s utilities this week, and made them pay what could have been their last check – to us! To turn their lights on in a global health pandemic!”
“But you don’t care about that and you didn’t want to meet. But every other year you go around and beg people for their votes. But you care more about your relationship with that guy than you care about your relationship with the people who don’t go to work in this building!” he screams, pointing at a silent Bornstein.
“You’re done. You are done,” the Mayor says, walking away, before shouting back some poorly-chosen words: “I didn’t do anything.”
He immediately retorts: “When you are a leader – you failed to act. You said you didn’t do anything – you failed to act.”
“Omari Hardy for State House,” she comes back, further mocking his “performance”.
The two storm off, leaving their stunned colleagues to wonder when and if the meeting will reconvene.
Triolo told the Post in a statement that she was “very upset” at the meeting “about what I perceived as bullying and unnecessary attacks on the Commission and our processes by Commissioner Hardy.”
She said that the argument around the utility shutoffs had been “inaccurately portrayed”, claiming there had been a moratorium on shutoffs on March 18.
Hardy claimed he had requested an emergency meeting five days before that, but was denied.
After the clip went viral, Hardy’s Twitter following swelled from 400 to almost 200k.
He said on Twitter he was “overwhelmed and humbled” from all the messages of support he received – which included a DM from Shaquille O’Neal.
“I was heated, yes. I was loud, yes. But I was trying to get across an important point: that elected officials work for the PEOPLE,” Hardy wrote. “Everything we do is for the PEOPLE, and when the PEOPLE need us, it’s our job to step up for them.”
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