Shot across the bow: Riviera Beach’s fragile progress threatened

Well, that didn’t take long.

No sooner had Riviera Beach Councilwoman Julie Botel’s term ended and Glen Spiritis taken her place in the District 4 seat, then a newly reconfigured board majority immediately called a special meeting to fire a shot across the bow of City Manager Jonathan Evans. They made it clear that the man who has done more than anyone else to steer the city toward its promised land is once again threatened with firing.

Residents and business owners need to keep their eyes on this council or all the good work of the past couple years could quickly veer off course. Don’t let them go back to their old maneuvering.

This portside city of 40,000 is one of tremendous promise, with a strong commercial and residential tax base, a scenic waterfront with great potential and, most importantly, residents who love their community enough to show up in numbers at local events — and council meetings — to prove it. It’s also a city that, until just a few years ago, was awash in scandals, with money flowing out the door, some of it into the pockets of council members, in the form of bloated self-payments and benefits. They fired Evans when he threatened to get in their way, but a public outcry got them voted out and brought Evans back. Now there are new police and fire stations, a city hall and a water purification plant all in the works, and the possibilities of waterfront redevelopment and a better looking Broadway.

But with a five-member council, it only takes only three to cause trouble. The ones who stand up most forcefully for the reforms of recent years are KaShamba Miller-Anderson in District 2 and Shirley Lanier in District 3. Then there’s Tradrick McCoy in District 1, whose colleagues dislike and fear him so much they’ve asked the governor to remove him from office; there’s Douglas Lawson in District 5, who recently got in a fist fight with McCoy; and there’s Spiritis, a former Riviera Beach housing commissioner who once was a Long Beach, N.Y., city manager.

The council needs to set egos aside and mind its role as a policy-making body, one that keeps the city on course without interfering in day-to-day operations. Riviera Beach is making progress; keep it that way.