Wednesday, February 14, 2018
Harvey Bilt Takes Some Initiative. Sort Of. Big Mama Lets Him. Sort Of. Harvey Offers "A Step" Toward Addressing the Feral Cat Problem. Well, No.
It's almost over now. The little Villagers are still allowed to complain about things, for a firm three minutes, but the Commission's hand around Villagers' throats no longer provides even for the fake dignity of a response. It's no longer on the Agenda. And Tracy "Big Mama" Truppman now dictates the motions she wants made: "Do I hear a motion to say...?" One of the bobbleheads-- almost exclusively Harvey Bilt, last night-- dutifully gives Big Mama what she wants. If the other bobblehead doesn't second it, Big Mama does it herself. For the second time in a row, bobblehead Will Tudor wasn't there. We're not given an excuse. He's just not coming.
Nothing on last night's painfully weak Agenda failed to get way too much discussion. The vast majority of it was rambling. It all seemed to be speakers who wanted to listen to themselves talk. Fortunately, the attorneys acted as a tag team-- one had to leave, and another relieved him-- so we were never without an attorney to pay.
One Agenda item that got some advance attention was Harvey Bilt's proposal about the open feeding of wild cats. Dan Schneiger, who was beside himself, and Mac Kennedy thought they understood that Harvey was proposing the more liberal feeding of wild cats. That's wild cats roaming Biscayne Park, which is one of our really bad scourges. Harvey smirked and shook his head, as if to say they were all washed up on this one, but Dan and Mac were so incensed that they couldn't stay for the discussion, which was a couple or more hours away. But the time finally came. And Harvey clarified.
No, Harvey reassured, he was not expanding the concept of the open feeding of feral cats. Just the opposite. He was limiting it. From just any-old-where to the back yard. Where no one has to see it. I don't know if Harvey has a pet cat, and if he "keeps" it outside, but he seems not to understand much about outdoor cats. A couple of people tried to explain to him that "wild" cats are wild, and they don't confine themselves to back yards, so Harvey finally offered that his proposal was a "step" toward controlling the problem. And Big Mama agreed with him. Big Mama says she has or had cats. But she also complained about what she alleged were problem feral cats somehow associated with her neighbors. So you'd think she would know better.
Let me explain, Harvey and Big Mama. The reason they call feral or wild cats feral or wild is because they're feral or wild. If you feed them, they'll eat what you give them. In between times, they cull the profuse and unruly avian population of the Village. And they leave, as Mac Kennedy so indelicately put it, "cat shit" all over the Village. And these are cats we're talking about. They're not horses. They don't stay tidily in your back yard. If you feed them behind your house, and they're interested enough to eat what you leave for them, they're there for a few minutes. Then, they're all over the neighborhood. where no one wants them. Tragically, I've been watching two large dogs for the past month. I walk them four times a day. I have never seen feral cats eating in the open. But I spend a tremendous amount of time and energy restraining those two large dogs from chasing all the feral cats we encounter. Do you want to know how many we see?
Harvey, and Big Mama, do you remember the experiment called "smoking sections" in restaurants? Airplanes, psychotically, too. It was someone's idea that some people would smoke, and the smoke would stay where the smokers were, and not affect anyone else. We're talking here about smoke. It's like feral cats. The big difference is that smokers control how much smoke there is. But the cats "control" how many cats there are. And it looks like cats are more addicted to making more cats than smokers are to making more smoke. Do you want to know how many cats there are?
Harvey and Big Mama, if you really want to control the feral cat scourge in BP, either get firmly behind a sterilization program, or have them killed. Feeding them in someone's back yard, and pretending they're now out of sight, is so naive as to be childish (except even children know better than that).
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Smoking sections, great analogy! The entire discussion went on too long, this is an example of Tracy not knowing how to control a discussion.
ReplyDeleteShe's either over or under, huh? The problem is that she has no reason to be there, and no idea what to do there. She has no agenda. So she makes it what everything always is for her: just about herself.
DeleteBy the way, I forgot to mention the bright light last night. Roxy Ross is careful, knowledgeable, insightful, and level-headed. Everything becomes a different kind of discussion, when Roxy enters into it. It's so sad that Tracy can't recognize Roxy for who she is. I know Roxy feels to Tracy like competition or the enemy, but this is Tracy's construction. It's not real. Roxy only wants what's best for the Village. She's the only one on the Commission who wants that. The rest of them are mindless and aimless, sort of like feral cats. But the cats want something. The rest of the Commission doesn't.
Fred
Harvey Bilt is a moron.
ReplyDeleteOpen feeding is currently not allowed in the village… Not in your front yard and not in your backyard. Allowing open feeding in your backyard, which is what Harvey proposed, means that open feeding is now allowed in the village as long as it’s in your backyard. No misunderstanding there.
We have a 6 foot solid fence around our backyard and it is regularly re-filled with cat shit because we have a cat hoarder on the corner of 117th St. and North E. 11th Pl. and a couple other moronic neighbors who insist upon putting food out for them. Every day I step into our glorious backyard only to be met with the sight and smell of fresh cat shit. Mac and I have sent no less than a dozen emails to every commissioner explaining what a problem feral cats are in our immediate area. Big Mama actually responded to one of my emails several months ago and said that she agreed completely that the feral cats are a problem but that any program to get rid of them would not be “popular.” Can someone please let big Mama know that being a leader is not a popularity contest?
My favorite moment in the short five minutes I could actually tolerate being at the latest shit-show of a commission meeting last night, was when Harvey started to answer my question as to whether his agenda item was a misprint or a joke… As soon as Harvey opened his mouth to respond, Big Mama stepped in and told Harvey not to “answer any questions.” Harvey took it completely in stride that he had been publicly neutered by our autocratic mayor, mainly because he seems to be completely at home in his cuckold relationship with Tracy. It was a truly beautiful moment, Basically, Tracy tells Harvey to shut up and Harvey looks down in his lap, and does exactly what Big Mama tells him.
From now on, I will only attend commission meetings in five minute intervals during public comment to make my thoughts known, and will watch the remainder of the meetings online, so I can fast-forward through Big Mamas droaning, one-woman monologues, Will’s absence and Jenny Johnson Sardellas rabid debate of whether something should be a colon or a semicolon. And of course, Harvey’s brilliant proposal to allow open feeding of feral cats. I said it last night and I will say it again: this commission is a fucking joke.
Dan,
DeleteOur current Code does allow open feeding of cats or dogs: up to four of them. One day when Mac and I were out walking, we happened upon a woman who was providing for her feline brood. We asked her how many cats she feeds, and she artlessly gave us the correct and honest answer: she had no idea. That's the problem. If you feed one cat, you're feeding lots of them. And if they happen for two minutes to be in your back yard while you're feeding them, they're everywhere else immediately after that.
Yes, it was a sick joke the way Big Mama pulls the strings of her puppets. You should have seen her dictating motions into Harvey's mouth. And as you say, if an elected official can't stand the heat... Harry Truman had his problems, but he had the guts and sense of responsibility to know where the buck stopped.
Fred
Well then, I guess it comes as no surprise, that the information given to me by our affable yet utterly incompetent village manager, Krishan Manners was incorrect. I have spoken to him and Elizabeth the code officer directly and they both told me, in no uncertain terms, that open feeding is not allowed. Of course, I have come to expect this from Lrishan, also known as, Big Mamas lapdog.
ReplyDeleteDan,
DeleteI know what you're going to say, but I continue to be on the fence about Krishan. He is most certainly friendly and engaging. I don't know how to tell if he's incompetent. He wants to keep his job-- and maybe that shouldn't be his highest priority-- so he does whatever Big Mama tells him to do. He knows the consequences if he flinches. Maybe he's incompetent, because he doesn't do the right thing, even if he knows what the right thing is. Clearly, he would be incompetent, if he didn't know what was right, and didn't have the wherewithal or interest to find out. But what he knows doesn't matter, as long as he's willing to suspend proper functioning in order not to get Big Mama mad.
It was a (not very) funny thing about Heidi Siegel. She had a desk toy that you pressed, and it would say "off with their heads." Big Mama probably doesn't have the desk toy, but she's more dangerous to staff than was Heidi. And she's an uncontrolled autocrat. At least Heidi answered to the Commission. Big Mama doesn't answer to anyone. She's got stooges/bobbleheads that make it so she doesn't have to. What that's all about is anyone's guess.
Fred
I pasted the code below about open feeding, it is allowed.
ReplyDeleteHowever, more importantly, I share Dan's and Fred's observations, yes, you have noted what I have. Tracy seems to have set up a system to direct others how to vote. On more than one occasion Jenny has leaned in a direction different than Tracy (Usually with Rox) then at some point during the discussion Tracy interjects, interrupts or proposes a motion that Harvey usually makes as Dan indicates above. She often must articulate it for Harvey, so he gets it correct. Harvey then regurgitates the motion and suddenly Jenny changes her position. It happened last night, it’s become obvious.
Tracy does not run the meeting in accordance with Roberts Rules of order, as I pointed out in December, we do not have an ordinance that guides how to run a meeting. However, the ethics board will tell you it is bad practice for the chairperson of the meeting to suggest or make motions, to interrupt others while speaking or to cut off a dialog when the chair doesn't like the direction the discussion is heading. If you watch the videos over the past year you will note all these behaviors.
We must do all we can do to make sure she is in the minority after the next election.
BP code --Open Feeding:
14.1.7(f) The village commission finds that aesthetics are paramount to maintaining an attractive and marketable community. The violations enumerated below severely damage the aesthetics and livability of the community immediately upon their commission. Such damage cannot be repaired or reversed. Therefore, the village commission hereby deems a violation of this section an irreparable and irreversible violation. As a result, the Village of Biscayne Park adopts supplemental and alternative code enforcement procedures pursuant to F.S. §§ 162.13 and 162.22, as amended, to authorize code compliance officers to issue administrative citations for review before the code compliance board. A code compliance officer shall have the sole discretion in determining whether to issue an administrative citation or a notice of violation for the following offenses:
(1) Open feeding that causes a gathering of more than four (4) dogs or four (4) cats or combination thereof totaling four (4), in violation of section 3-4 of the code;
A point of clarification, most municipalities do not run meetings strictly according to Robert's Rules, so I'm not suggesting that it is wrong to not use Robert's Rules. It is a very formal means to run meetings, so most cities adapt portions of Robert's Rules, in other words they use it as guide to run meetings. We need to adapt some of Robert's Rules and look at how other Cities conduct meetings and formalize rules so we run meetings in a consistent manner.
ReplyDeleteI have also read the code regarding the open feeding of animals, and it sounds like it's only a violation if four or more animals congregate. Idiocy. However, when I have spoken with our village manager and code officials directly (including to report open feeding in our immediate area), I have been told by them that open feeding is illegal altogether. I have taken pics of the bowls of food, which our code officer said was proof of illegal open feeding, even with 0 animals present. And, that same code officer told me she took video of someone putting food down and used that as evidence of open feeding violations. So what is it: open feeding not allowed at all (per code officers) or not allowed if four+ animals congregate? Stupidity regardless. And, the notion that open feeding in backyards is somehow better is moronic. Sorry to be so blunt, but the fumes of cat shit and piss in my yard have soured my brain cells on this topic. As I stated at the commission meeting, Harvey, in his infinite wisdom, thinks feeding cats outside is our "hot topic" for 2018, as cars fly down our streets and blow stop signs, and we wait for the next hurricane so we can tape handwritten signs on poles to tell residents what to do. We got the government we deserve.
ReplyDeleteMac,
DeleteYou read the Code, and Chuck cut and pasted it for you. Up to four beasts can be fed in the open. Yes, this is nonsensical idiocy, for the painfully obvious reason, and I was against it, but that's the rule.
It was only yesterday (2/20/18) that the Florida legislature, in its wisdom, which is similar to Harvey's, decided that gun violence was not a problem that needed legislative attention, but pornography is. Ah, some people's sense of priority and perspective.
Fred