INDIAN ROCKS BEACH - With the city buzzing over the questions of questionable money paid to the city manager, one commissioner has asked for an investigation and other officials persist in the false idea that there is confusion over the Indian Rocks Beach and Indian Shores border.
Commissioner Jose Coppen sent an e-mail late last week to City Clerk Deanne O'Reilly asking her to poll the mayor and fellow commissioners for a special meeting to "clarify many unanswered questions regarding payments" to Al Grieshaber, the city manager.
Of perhaps equal importance in this city that is currently beset with activities that are highly questionable is the idea that there is confusion over the IRB-Indian Shores line and that a three-party agreement needs to be reached so that a private party can proceed with its plan to build a condo building that would impinge on what is in fact Indian Rocks Beach land.
A lawyer for the private party has approached Indian Rocks Beach and Indian Shores seeking a resolution of what is mistakenly described as "boundary confusion."
Mayor Bill Ockunzzi has joined in that tall tale with a communication to Mayor Jim Lawrence of Indian Shores suggesting a "joint workshop" between the governing bodies of the two cities to resolve the problem.
Apparently firmly believing that the boundary line of the two cities is firmly laid out in the charters of both cities without any question, Ockunzzi stressed that the matter be discussed so that other issues like setbacks, seawall, access ramp, beautification, etc. could be addressed.
That is getting pretty far down the road on a proposition that has a false premise.
Despite the contention by James A. Helinger, the lawyer for A. Parker Willis and his wife, who want to partly use IRB property, that there is "longstanding" and "continuing" confusion over the boundary line between the two municipalities, the charters or both cities destroy this idea.
Article I, Section 1.2 of the IRB Charter defines the city's boundaries and clearly states that the southern line of Whitehurst Street constitutes the southern boundary of IRB.
Article II, Section 2.01 of the Indian Shores Charter defines the southern line of Whitehurst Street in Indian Rocks Beach as the city's northern border.
Action by the Indian Shores Town Council in 1986 of mistakenly vacating the "south one-half of (Whitehurst Street)" as no longer needed "for a public purpose" was wrong.
After all, no entity can vacate or do anything with property it does not in fact possess.
Coppen's request for a special meeting seeks to look into the whole Grieshaber situation.
That may turn out to be not the only subject of investigation in a city where many questions are raised on many subjects including the performance of the city's lawyer.