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the commission postponed any action for six months. The "new" was appointment of leaders for the Independent Police Advisory Panel (Eileen Normile) and the Police Complaint Committee (Bill Fuller). Normile replaces former Mayor Elmer Berkel, and Fuller was reappointed, both actions by unanimous consent. The functions and duties of the panel were expanded by ordinance through a narrower, 3-2 vote, with Snyder and Commissioner Paul Caragiulo again in the minority. The panels have been an experiment in civilian oversight of the Police Department. Commissioners listened but took no action on borrowed trouble. When then-Mayor Suzanne Atwell last year said she was afraid to walk downtown because of homeless- ness and vagrancy, she touched a nerve with downtowners who demanded action. After a flurry of fruitless police "Whac-A-Mole" actions, the city and county decided to hire a consultant, who then recommended a shelter in the northern part of the city. At Monday's meeting, there was much smoke and some heat but very little light at the end of the eve- ning. (Coverage of that is also elsewhere in this issue.) SOMETHING BLUE What could have been characterized as the sad part of the evening was the very last agenda item, as three commissioners prover- bially pushed one of their own out into the cold and possible bankruptcy by knuckling under to what has been called a bureaucratic bully. In October, a group called Citizens for Sunshine filed suit against the city and two commissioners for violating the state's public A number of people stayed to the bitter 11 p.m. end of the City Commission meeting to testify in support of Susan Chapman and to hear the commission deny payment of any further legal fees for her defense. Photo by Stan Zimmerman Sarasota News Leader March 7, 2014 Page 37