An Attempt to Share Values

The way it was told to me, it started with Janey Anderson, seemingly representing some others of our neighbors, approaching Mac Kennedy.  Mac had been unloading on "Nextdoor" about the Village's failure of "vision," and Janey reportedly contacted him to ask him to present his idea of vision, to a small group of BP residents with whom Janey was apparently having a parallel discussion.  So Mac met with the group, several times, and all of them composed a document to share with the neighborhood, by sharing it first with the Commission.

For what it's worth, the group Janey represented came to include Linda Dillon, Nicole Susi, Brian McNoldy, Brad Piper, and Art Gonzalez.  Mac was included in the final grouping, as was Dan Schneiger.  I'm told their strategy to go public with this was to divide themselves up into single person or two-person task forces, and each person or pair of people would approach a Commissioner.  So one or two of them would approach Tracy Truppman, one or two Roxy Ross, one or two Jenny Johnson-Sardella, one or two Will Tudor, and one or two Harvey Bilt.  The purpose of these outreaches was to inform the assigned Commissioner of this group effort, offer to explain it, and ask each Commissioner to co-sponsor a presentation of it.

Here are the two problems.  First, only Roxy Ross would even listen, look, or discuss the matter with whoever approached her.  The other four Commissioners ignored, blocked, or refused any effort to talk to him or her about it.  Apart from Roxy, we're talking about four new Commissioners who ran explicitly, and reassuringly, on a promise that now, with a new posse in town, Village residents would finally-- oh, yes, finally!-- be listened to.  There would be no more ignoring them, not listening to what's important to them, and "legislating" in spite of them.  Well, we've already been given several doses of what the fulfillment of that promise looks like, and several of our neighbors have just gotten a booster.  The message was clear: drop dead; no one cares what you think, or how much effort you might have expended; and most certainly no one cares about your vision for the Village, or your suggestion that anyone else form a vision for the Village; we only care what we think.  That was problem number one.

Problem number two was what happened to Roxy Ross' placement of this matter on the Agenda for the Commission meeting.  This group of new Commissioners has already deflected a suggestion for a visioning session (an exercise all or most Commissions do at the beginning of a new term).  They neither have nor want a vision.  But now, Roxy has imposed on them their neighbors' serious request, and they, or maybe just Tracy, have found it a little too delicate just to file it in the circular file, as they do with most or all of what Roxy tries on her own to introduce.  It's the kind of initiative that any other Commission would list as "New Business," for inclusion in the 12 section, with an expectation of Commission discussion, and possible voting or other action.  But that, too, was too much dignity to give this group of neighbors, so the matter was placed as a "Presentation," at the beginning of the meeting.  That way, Tracy and the bobbleheads could "listen" (zone out), thank the group for its thoughtfulness, and move on, without any discussion or real and meaningful consideration.

This is an interesting and different Commission.  It is unique in its refusal to acknowledge or honor anything past Commissions have done, anything its neighbors think or want, and even rules of government.    It's really been one bullish, insular, and autocratic move after another that have defined the attitude of the majority of the current Commission, from day one.

So the matter was heard as a Presentation.  Even critics agreed it was a wonderful and carefully crafted presentation.  Each member of the group read his or her part, until the whole project was shared with a room full of people.  At the end of the presentation, Janey Anderson suggested to Her Majesty, the Most Powerful Empress Truppman, that the group could maybe take comments or questions from the room full of people.  But Her Majesty was entering intense deflection and destruction mode, and she refused to permit such an activity, on her personal time.  She partially relented, though, and she agreed, reluctantly, that during the next section of the meeting, Public Comment, anyone in the room full of people could then make comments or ask questions, and the group could answer them.  But when people actually did ask questions or make comments, the Omnipotent, and now annoyed, Empress refused to allow the group to respond.  So the "discussion" moved to the Commissioners.

The group had asked really only for one thing.  That was that the Commission lend its endorsement to an imminent series of wider public conversations, to which Commissioners were enthusiastically invited, and then, perhaps the Commission would like to take up some of whatever turned out to be salient issues.  Roxy Ross thought this was a fine idea.  The rest of them retreated to sputtering, blustering, and drooling down their shirts.  Jenny Johnson-Sardella and Harvey Bilt generally didn't seem to like the idea, and both of them went on about some grossly irrelevant nonsense having to do with this informal group's not being a proper Board.  So what?  They never said they were.  And then, they added equally vapid dodges about how sudden this was, and what an unthinkable idea it would be to try to plan public gatherings, near, um, Thanksgiving.  Will Tudor could find a way to accept people's talking about things, but he, too, thought this was just too abrupt.  He thought maybe after the first of the year.  Her Highness, thought that was pushing it, too, and suggested maybe let's say spring.  Neither Will nor the Empress specified which year they were considering.

No, they were all just disinclined.  Except Roxy Ross, but she doesn't count.  But the fearless group "wouldn't take 'no' for an answer," one of them said, and they pressed and finally "won" permission to have two meetings in the recreation center, and have the fee to hold those meetings waived.  Unanimously?!  I wouldn't say so.  La Truppman and her sidekick Harve stuck to their guns.  But our new we-don't-care-what-VBP-residents-want-or-think-and-we-will-never-listen-to-them Commission only agreed to allow meetings to be held (as if they could stop anyone from having meetings), and a bare majority of them agreed that the fee could be waived.  Big whoop.  We can shut you down now, or we can shut you down later.

It was clear what kinds of values were shared by a group of eight of our neighbors,  Some others expressed values of their own, in reaction to the presentation the eight made.  And everyone had a reasonable point.  The "values" of our new Commissioners?  Tracy values absolute power.  Jenny values her resume.  Will is still trying to protect himself from having to create a driveway.  And Harvey found an easy way to get himself a Commission seat, which means who knows what to him.  But none of them value anything that is connected to Biscayne Park.