"Paralysis By Analysis" Well, More Attempt at Paralysis Than Real Analysis

Steve Bernard has sent out one of his famous e-missives.  He calls it "What's Been Happening in Biscayne Park," and his thrust seems to be to suggest Village residents have been deprived of information.  This is a fairly standard theme for Steve.

Steve goes on to talk about the $1.05M the Village got as a grant from the State, an "unspecified" special assessment, changes to responsibility for maintenance of swales, and an update on annexation.  It would take too much space to reprint Steve's whole screed here, but it you'd like a copy of it, let me know.  I'll send it to you.

In case you're wondering which of these areas was not clearly communicated throughout the Village, rest assured that they have all been clearly communicated.

One Village resident I know has for a long time characterized Steve as providing "paralysis by analysis."  It's a cute phrase, and it does, in fact, describe Steve's approach to things.  It's not so much that Steve's e-mail had this kind of effect.  He analyzed very little, and he paralyzed even less.  What's more to the point is that Steve has had unique opportunities in the Village.  There was a great deal he could have done.  He had the confidence of a lot of people, and he was a Commissioner himself for about five years.  But he didn't do anything.  It was then, when he had influence and prerogative, that he paralyzed by analyzing.

He's fussing now about the log cabin, and the grant to renovate it, but during his time of influence, he never said a word about it.  He made no effort to evaluate the considerable problems with the building, or to recommend any intervention.  And he's an architect.  This might have been right up his street.  Today, he whines about the cost of rehabilitation (a cost that would have been less during the years he had anything to say about it), and how we're going to cover a projected shortfall.  And in case there should be a solution to this problem, Steve proposes to disqualify every possibility.  (This is the "paralysis by analysis" approach.  If people approached this as Steve does, we would not do the renovation at all.  Which is presumably why we didn't do it when he was a BMOC.  Chicken Little was terrified that the sky was falling.  Steve Bernard doesn't seem to care if it does.)

Steve then turns his attention to a proposed assessment, which he calls "unspecified."  But then, he specifies what it is, apparently quoting from the advertised content.  So it's not unspecified, and it's not unadvertised.  It was never clear where Steve was going with this complaint.

Steve's next rant is about consideration of who is to attend to trees in swales: the resident of the property abutting said swale, or the Village.  Steve seems to warn, as if he didn't approve of it, that homeowners might be responsible.  Presumably, he'd like the Village to assume the maintenance burden.  But his long time overscrutiny of the Village budget, and his past efforts to deny adequate fiscal support to the Village, leave uncertainty as to how he thinks the Village will afford the extra responsibility he'd like it to have.

There are several--perhaps many--blog posts about annexation, and Steve's new project of trying to take this decision away from the Commission.  He is currently using Barbara Watts as his functionary for this effort.  As has been discussed already, at quite enough length, neither of them thinks this is a matter for the residents at large, and each of them has an established pattern of disregarding the public when he or she suspects the public will not agree with him or her.  Enough said.