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Century Council Approves Mayor’s Request For Transcriptionist But Not Interim Town Clerk
May 8, 2024
Tuesday night, the Century Town Council approved the mayor’s request to spend perhaps as much as $40,000 for transcription services but did not approve his request to hire an interim town clerk.
Mayor Luis Gomez, Jr. said the town has fallen behind in the timely producing meeting minutes as required by Florida law. He said minutes need to be completed for about 40 meetings.
The council voted with council 3-1 member Sandra McMurray-Jackson absent and Shelisa Abraham against to allow Gomez to negotiate and execute a contract with Susan Owens, MPA, MMC, for provisional transcription services for the town. No bids were openly solicited for the services, and agenda materials did not state where the individual is located.
The council’s motion did not specify a dollar limit to be considered before allowing Gomez to execute the contract.
A “proposal summary” provided to the council states about 6,000 minutes needs to transcribed at a total estimated cost of $11,940. The proposal includes additional fees for document conversions, and low-quality audio, including garbled audio, mumbling, low volume and “people with accents”.
The staff recommendation on the proposal summary states, “Authorize the Mayor to negotiate and execute an agreement in an amount not to exceed $40,000 to retain transcription services.”
Gomez also asked permission to execute a contract with Lakisha Burch, MSL, MMC to provide interim city clerk services during the ongoing temporary leave of Town Clerk Leslie Howington, which is expected to continue about three months.
Burch proposed $26 per hour for up to 30 hours per week, with additional hours billed at $40.
A motion to give Gomez permission to move forward died due the lack of a second.
NorthEscambia.om file photo.
Comments
11 Responses to “Century Council Approves Mayor’s Request For Transcriptionist But Not Interim Town Clerk”
@Redfish
Yup! A 30 second internet search revealed someone with her name and letters from Indiantown, FL.
Why does that town sound so familiar?
@ Lisa Fuller
If the town uses rev.com would they be allowed to edit out what they don’t want? There might be some stuff they don’t want to be public. Asking for a friend.
So…. Century does have an assistant town clerk?
Gomez has the IQ of a rock , how is this pathetic human in this position …..then again look at the individuals that are elected along with him…..
6,000 minutes of transcription at $11,940 is about $1.99 per minute. The town could get transcription services from an online business called Rev. rev.com They charge $1.50 per minute transcribed from audio or even audio/video files. The beauty of this service is the town can upload all their meeting audio files, then Rev will make them available for transcribers all over the U.S. They wouldn’t be waiting for just one person to transcribe all the minutes so it would be quicker and at a lower cost than this individual. Just a suggestion.
“…the town has fallen behind in the timely producing meeting minutes as required by Florida law….”
TOC inability to generate meeting minutes has been going on for years, why are they fixing it now?
Where do they get this endless money supply? I would like some for me.
Why not a flat fee per meeting?
There appears to be a certain pattern to the new hires made by Gomez.
Anyone care to bet that Susan Owens is not from South Florida! All of Century’s money seems to be heading to South Florida these days! I am sure there are many firms in Pensacola that can transcribe meeting minutes!
This is run like a Little Rascals club house, not a city council. Alfalfa, Spanky, Buckwheat, Darla and Stymie have this kind of under control.
More no-bid expenditures. Wow!