From Sira Ramos, Who Asked to Be Heard

In plain and simple English it is the commissioners that make the laws that the employees follow so the Village can operate properly. I am writing because I am sick and tired of the attacks as to the job I did while Code Enforcement Officer for the Village of Biscayne Park.

I took a department that was virtually non-existent and worked diligently to make it a legal and viable department for the Village of Biscayne Park. The Village with all its bumps and bruises never flourished more than in the years that I headed the Code Enforcement Department.

I laugh when whiners attack my job. As per some I was a gun toting bully that trampled everyone's civil rights, as per others I was a wimp that didn't do my job because I refused to illegally make people do what was not aesthetically pleasing to them.

I walked a fine line. I had to follow the law but make residents, commissioners and Village employees happy. I was told to "do my job" by Village commissioners even though the attorney had to tell them over and over that legally we could not go any further than my department had gone. I was told by residents to "get" their neighbors but then got upset when they did something wrong and got called out on the infraction.

Then there were the crazies, the yellers and screamers, the residents who threatened me, my family and my pets, the invasion of my personal privacy, the verbal attacks, etc. That was OK because I was an employee of the Village, and they felt entitled and empowered to treat me in that fashion.

I, through my lowly department that many thought did nothing, single handedly brought in thousands if not 10's of thousands of dollars through citations to contractors doing work without permits. I had to diplomatically handle neighbor disputes. The meanness that I witnessed was shameful how neighbors would turn their "good friends" in because they didn't like what their "friends" were doing. When residents had very personal or sensitive issues, I kept their confidences and worked with them whenever possible. I witnessed commissioners who bullied Village employees and tried to get them to do things that they knew were wrong and when the employee declined they would make their work time hell and at budget time would do everything possible to make sure that employee did not get a raise. Oh I guess no one noticed those things.

When I left the Village to retire from Code Enforcement I did it with my head held high that I always had the best interest of the Park at the forefront of all that I did in the 11 years that I worked there.

Sira Ramos