FlaglerLive.com by FlaglerLIVE
March 22, 2018
On Friday, Palm Coast is marking the reopening of its Community Center on Palm Coast Parkway, an $8 million project that turned a relic into a showcase. On April 3, Mayor Milissa Holland will present a State of the City address at the center, the first such event in the city’s history, but at $40 a ticket for the catered lunch, with the profits going to the Palm Coast Observer, which is producing the event.
The city is buying at least $600-worth of tickets, possibly $900, for two or three tables on behalf of its city council members, the mayor and its executive staff. The city is also promoting the event on behalf of the Observer through its marketing office, a “news release” disseminated to local media, a prominent “State of the City” logo on its home page and on its Facebook page, with links to ticketing and to Observer contacts “to arrange for sponsorship of the event or to purchase a table.”
“The content of the meeting is produced entirely by the city,” Palm Coast Observer Publisher John Walsh said, with the city providing the printed program of the event, Holland set to speak about the city’s accomplishments over the past year and project plans for the coming year. Those paying the $40 fee will receive a copy of the city’s annual progress report (a city document and a public record), printed at the city’s expense, and a gold and red-accented commemorative coin, produced at the Observer’s expense, highlighting the community center and first “annual state of the city,” in Walsh’s words: he hopes to make it an annual event. [READ MORE]