“At some point, we’ve got to quit throwing grenades at each other and say, how about we work together to accomplish something,” Seminole City Manager Steve Saxon remarked at the close of Tuesday evening’s city council meeting.

Saxon found himself on the defensive after a handful of citizens took the podium during the “appearances or petitions from the audience” portion of the meeting and voiced concerns about the state of the city and city hall itself.

Amanda Brown, a downtown business owner, was first to speak.

“I want to address the ongoing issue of dilapidated structures in Ward One. In the past several city council meetings, we have heard about lack of funds, and not being able to give the money to code enforcement to enforce the codes that we’re writing,” Brown said. “So, my question is, why are we writing codes that we can’t enforce? Why are we saying that Seminole is healthy if we don’t have the money to enforce these simple codes?”

Brown said she has heard city officials say, “don’t bring up a problem unless you have a resolution,” so she is planning to start a social media page where people can post pictures, along with addresses, of dilapidated structures and provide that information to the code enforcement office.

“I think it’s time for these codes to be enforced and the property owners face the consequences of their neglect,” Brown told the council.

Saxon addressed Brown’s concerns as he gave his city manager report at the meeting’s end.

“Things are really good in Seminole. I’m super proud of where we are and where we’re going,” Saxon commented. “Individual [property] owners are being persecuted. I can tell you I’m a big fan of anyone who takes a building downtown and spends their own money to renovate it. The alternative – and I don’t know that it’s realistic to expect – is for the City of Seminole to own every building down there. We’re going to continue to work with the owners downtown. We want to see more private investment and more traffic.”

Stephanie Davis, an often-outspoken critic of Saxon and the city council, followed Brown, and accused city hall of ignoring open records requests from her. Davis also handed out copies of the U.S. Constitution to each council member.

“I’ve stood up here on multiple occasions and have requested that you direct your city hall employees to respond to the citizens of Seminole,” Davis said. “You’ve all been copied on multiple email chains where I’ve requested items from city hall and received physical copies of previous meetings. The city attorney has been copied on my open records request. Why have none of you asked city hall why they are refusing to provide the taxpayers with their own public information, especially information needed for comment at city council meetings?”

Davis claimed that she recently observed two city workers smoking in a city vehicle, and when she confronted one of the employees about it, he “flipped her off.”

“I asked Steve [Saxon] what he would do if he caught a city worker smoking in a vehicle, and he said that he would terminate them, but both employees are still employed. Where have we heard before, thou shalt not lie? And why does the no smoking only apply to a small percentage of the citizens?” Davis asked the council.

Davis also told the council it is time for a cannabis events committee to be formed, referring to a previous commitment from the council that it would study allowing cannabis-related events in Seminole.

“This is an official request for the formation of that committee to commence immediately, because right now it looks like discrimination and hypocrisy coming from city hall,” Davis stated.

Although Saxon did not specifically mention Davis in his closing remarks, he said his office works “very hard” in giving citizens their proper respect despite “personal attacks” made against him and city employees. Saxon noted that one such attack against a city worker was recently made on social media.

“I expect some pretty nasty things to come at me. I’m in this seat, and every community has it, so I do expect it. However, I don’t expect it to happen to my boots on the ground employees,” Saxon said. “If you come at me, I’m fine. But don’t come at those boots on the ground guys. They are out there busting their humps trying to make this a better community.”

City Council meeting agendas include public appearances, and those speaking are given a five-minute time limit. Direct responses from city council members or other officials are not typically given. The next regular council meeting is slated for 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 10 at the Seminole Public Library.