I personally have. I'm glad Roxy Ross didn't bet me money that most of the business on tonight's agenda would be concluded tonight. I would have taken the bet, and I would have lost. Roxy was right. The meeting got off to a weird start, and it seemed to stall a time or two, but it exploded at the end, when the majority of issues were passed on the Consent Agenda.
The meeting was called for 6:30, to accommodate one presentation. But the presenter was 1/2 hour late, and for some reason, Noah Jacobs chose not to start the meeting anyway, and do other business. Commissioners were there, except for Bryan Cooper, who was about 1/2 hour late himself, and Barbara Watts, who was seen somewhere in the building, but didn't somehow make it into the meeting until also about 1/2 hour late. So Noah sat, with Roxy Ross and Bob Anderson, and the second presenter, and an agenda full of business, waiting. It was never clear why.
I thought I would win my non-bet with Roxy, when Manager candidate interviews, which Roxy said would take about 45 minutes, took almost 1 1/2 hours. In fact, it seemed the whole meeting was bogged down.
During public comment, which Steve Bernard apparently thought would largely be about annexation (one of two issues not taken up tonight), Steve warned the Commission and the public about all the unanticipated and unknown dangers of annexation. County Commissioner Sally Heyman had already made her own presentation, in which she again urged annexation, and the three Manager candidates had not spoken against annexation. But Steve was mostly preoccupied about the debate he apparently found out he and I had today. He referred to this blog and my comments, and how I made up facts, like that we ever had a $1.4M reserve. He also complained about neighbors speaking harshly and disrespectfully about each other, again a swipe at me. When he was done, he came back to where I was standing, to bestow on me one of his patented smirks. He didn't believe me about the reserve? No, he didn't. Did he want me to demonstrate it? Yes, he did. And by the way, since he was saying he didn't approve of neighbors speaking harshly and disrespectfully about each other, and accusing each other of one thing or another, did he think his public accusations of me in which he called me a liar qualified as bad interacting? Actually not, he informed me. According to Steve, I actually am a liar, so it is perfectly acceptable for him to say so. Ah, yes, of course, I can see that now. So I read out the demonstration of the one time $1.4M reserve, and Steve left. It turned out he wasn't really interested after all. He was just content to call me a liar. Apparently, I don't have to lie to be called a liar. I don't even have to be wrong. The $1.4M reserve, by the way, was in 2001. In 2002, it was $1.1M. This year, it will be about $410K, which is just over half the recommendation for municipalities like ours. Last year, the reserve was about $370K. And Sally Heyman let us know that with the County having its own fiscal problems, there will be no more decent police cruiser hand-me-downs. The clock is now ticking, as we wait for the first problem we can no longer solve. Unless you ask Steve, who will tell you this is all invented.
(Which reminds me of a story. A couple of nights ago a husband and wife who are BP residents left the P&Z meeting in the room next to where I was waiting for the Foundation meeting to start. The husband commented to me about my running for Commission. The wife, whom I have met a couple of times, did not remember my name or exactly who I was. She timidly asked my name, and when I told her, she was surprised to find that I was the person about whom she had been receiving so many very nasty e-mails. "Terrible things" were said about me. "Oh, yes," I confirmed, "I'm despicable. Did you get the e-mails from Steve Bernard?" "Yes," she replied. "Well," I reassured her, "I'm pretty sure I'm the anti-Christ, but I'll ask my friends to be completely sure." The woman then said she remembered me from one event or meeting or another, and she didn't think I was anything like the way Steve portrayed me. Her husband didn't think so, either. He wished me luck on my campaign. I gave them the address of this blog, so they could learn more about me. Well, just a funny story.)
The big discussion tonight was about that school, or day care center, or nursery arrangement, or whatever accommodates children six weeks to four years old. This was very slimy. We started out a few years ago with a church in which school-related use had lapsed, so was no longer permitted, and an exemption that allowed us not to have to have a school in Biscayne Park. By the time our planner and attorney Eve Boutsis got through with us, we had surrendered our exemption and approved a school. Furthermore, the school/church people materialized some traffic consultant who reassured us that there would be no significant traffic problems at our only intersection that is already very problematic. A real song and dance were done. And Eve somehow persuaded the Commission to force the school never to sell their parking lot across the street. It was unclear to me why Eve manipulated this until the guy standing next to me pointed out that if all parking had to be in the lot across the street, that would allow the church/school to expand. Oh, right. And the planner, who is very clearly advocating for the school/church/school, offered us an "interpretation" of the Code that suggested that when the setback demand is 50 feet, that means 42.5 feet are good enough. It's a funny thing how John Hearn is the attorney who attends almost all of our meetings, except when the church/school/church is involved, in which case it's always Eve. And she herself provides patently clear advocacy for the school/church/school/church, always at our expense. For a while, it was literally, fiscally at our expense. Eve had arranged for us to pay for legal services for the church/school/church/school/church. So the school/church/school people were finally delighted and patting themselves on the backs when they got everything they asked for, as well as Eve's extra little gift tying them to the parking lot. It seemed as if we had thrown them into the briar patch.
And the funnier thing is that the same Commissioners who approved all this sleight of hand about the school/church, which will make a dreadful mess out of an already problematic intersection, and who advocate for us to erect a commercial building right on Village property, at this problematic intersection, somehow resist annexation, because it will change the Village. Go figure. At least the annexation change is somewhere else, doesn't affect us at all, and produces revenue. What these people agreed to will do actual and palpable damage to the real functioning of this neighborhood. I'd like to think there's something I don't understand about all this, but I can't even recognize what it is.
And all that was required to get as far as we did with this dreadful and frustrating meeting was to extend it. Twice. So it ended at about 11:40.
Linda Dillon wrote to me to correct me that the upper age limit for whatever is paying the church rent is six years. This is true, and has always been the referred-to cutoff. But last night, maybe only for illustrative purposes, the school marm talked about the oldest children being four years old. I think when you win battles like the one she won, or the one Eve Boutsis and the Bell David people won for her, you learn to say whatever you want. Imagine the hot water they'd be in if Steve Bernard ever paid attention to them. But he's distracted with me right now.
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