Grumble, Grumble. Maybe I'm Just a Complainer. Commission Meeting, 3/4/14

I'm just going to state at the outset that once again, we failed to end at a respectable hour.  This time, it was about 10:30.  I wish I had kept notes of where the time went.

Things started well enough.  During public comment, one resident criticized the Commission for entertaining a Resolution scolding the government of Venezuela for mistreating its people.  This Resolution had been listed on the Consent Agenda, and the Resolution's sponsor, David Coviello, pulled it from Consent.  I naively, as it turns out, thought he was pulling it, because he took the criticism to heart.  No, he wanted to let us all know that the reason for this Resolution was that someone in the City of Doral asked us, and other municipalities, to be co-sponsors of the complaint.  My feeling was that this Resolution, like others our Commissions have passed, had nothing to do with Biscayne Park, or anything of relevance to us, and we should not take the time for it or place it on our public record.  It appears I was the only Commissioner who looked at it this way.  So I suggested we add language scolding the governments of Syria, Russia, North Korea, and others, since we're letting the world know how dissatisfied we are about mistreatment of citizens of places other than BP.  Oddly, that suggestion didn't get any traction, either.  So we have joined Doral and some number of other local municipalities in giving the government of Venezuela something to think about.

A piece of good news that took some time separate from the Consent Agenda was that we have reached what we all hope will be a mutually satisfying agreement with Joe ("Coach Joe") De Madet.  Joe has been a central part of the Village's recreation programs for several years, and it seems we may have staved off his fantasies about retiring.  We'll let you know if and when we can go on without you, Joe.

Leslie Reilly, one of our neighbors and a fitness trainer, introduced herself and hopes to provide fitness-related services to as many Village residents as want them.

Our storm water overrun problem will now be dealt with by the Craig A Smith company, who will use a subcontractor named R. P. Utility and Excavation, at Smith's discretion.  We hired Smith, and they hired R. P.  Barbara Watts pulled this item from Consent, because she wasn't sure R. P. had good enough credentials for her.  She was not distracted by the fact that they had good enough credentials for Smith.  As an aside here, I have a red car with clearly visible white letters that say "100% ELECTRIC."  It is remarkable how many people stop me or roll down their windows, and I roll down mine, so they can ask me if the car is really "100% ELECTRIC."  I don't tell them what a dumb question that is.  (Why would it say "100% ELECTRIC" unless it was "100% ELECTRIC?")  I just say yes, it is.  And so it was with Craig A Smith's defense of its selection of R. P. Utility and Excavation.  The Smith President was asked in a variety of ways, consuming way too much time, if R. P. was really an OK and acceptable contractor.  The Smith President did not tell us what a dumb repeated question that was.  He just reassured us that R. P. is really OK (otherwise, he wouldn't have hired them, kind of thing).

The discussion about how Board members are chosen was not, in itself, a problem.  It took time, but it was worth it.  There were some controversial issues, and they deserved attention.  What took plenty of time, and was not at all worth it, was the review of each Board, and the reconfirmation or addition of members.  Central to this exercise was the trotting out of each Board member who was present to give us the surprising news that he or she wanted to remain on the Board.  Gobble, gobble, gobble went the time.  Bottom line: Boards now full, and I'm very happy, delighted, actually, to say that several newer and/or not-previously-involved residents expressed interest, sometimes avid interest, in serving on Boards.  THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!

Our discussion of "traffic calming" measures for the Village, and especially around the park:  As you might imagine, the featured speaker for this item was our police chief.  As in, who would know better about traffic calming measures than a police chief?  And that turned out to be the operative question.  Oh, the inspired and perspicacious ideas offered by our Commission, who couldn't have been more helpful to our police chief when it came to thinking of ways to calm traffic.  I suspect he was grateful for all the assistance.

I'm sorry to say that I myself contributed to the "where on earth did all the time go?" show.  I thought Parks and Parkways should devise a Village-wide plan for median design and development.  In my defense, I thought this would take somewhere around two minutes.  It seemed kind of like an obvious and uncomplicated concept that would give P&P a very substantial and far-reaching mission.  Something they might be very proud of.  Nope.  It turns out this is practically impossible, as P&P Chair Dan Keys brought painfully to my attention, what with the time it would take and the fiscal scope of the work.  But I didn't ask for work, as in actual median development.  All I wanted was a plan, on paper: the 101 course.  Implementation was the 201 course, or maybe even the 301 course.  Well, we're not getting a unified or Village-wide plan.  We're getting attention paid to the "entrances."  And it took plenty of time just for that conclusion to be reached.

A bomb of sorts was dropped.  It seems FPL are planning to harden even more areas of the Village network of power lines.  Yup, more of those secure concrete poles.  Perish the thought: delivery of electric service that is more reliable than what we have.  Heidi Shafran misunderstood what the poles were all about, and she thought they would be considerably higher than the current poles.  They are in fact identical to the concrete poles we already have, which are identical in height to the wood poles they replaced.  But nothing could reassure one of our Commissioners, who apparently thought the world was coming to an end.

Finally, we do not yet have a contract with the City of North Miami for the delivery of water.  They are engaged in some form of thinking it over.