I missed last night's Commission meetings (two). I just forgot. But I heard about them today. Most of what I heard came from Dan Schneiger. The rest came from Chuck Ross. I'm going to have to listen to the recording.
The first meeting was to set the TRIM (ad valorem millage) and to deal with a proposal for a planner. The second meeting was to consider what ambitions the Commission has. "Better [over a year and a half] late than never?" Not really.
Dan Schneiger summarized the meetings as follows: "You missed an unbelievably pathetic special commission meeting last night. The only people in attendance were Bob and Janey, Barbara and Gary, Linda Dillon, Chuck Ross, David Raymond, and myself. Every person [who] got up to speak (Bob, Janey, Barbara and myself) told the commission they were on the wrong path. Bob wanted to know why the commission was incapable of properly noticing meetings. Barbara told them they were all derelict in their duties with regard to code enforcement. Both Barbara and I asked what happened to the campaign promises regarding communication between the commission and residents....I asked why we now have two full time code officers and yet the Village still looks like shit and commissioners and the manager don't respond to emails from residents. It was ugly and, as usual, Tracy droned on and on, got angry and defensive, and looked ridiculous...Harvey announced last night that he and Krishan have met with FDOT and have gotten sidewalks approved for 6th Avenue. They have yet to contact any residents on 6th Avenue and get their input, but Harvey confirmed that the project is 'approved,' much to the chagrin of the other commissioners. I'm guessing he is mistaken, as usual, but that's the story he stuck to last night... I left the meeting out of disgust after the first hour [it lasted three hours] so I’m not sure I’d be able to give a very good summary of what happened at the meeting other than Harvey telling everyone we’re getting sidewalks (and possibly crosswalks) on 6th Avenue, and Rox asking when all of this was discussed and approved. Tracy seemed unfazed by Harvey’s announcement and just wanted to know if we are 'getting any roundabouts?' Apparently Tracy really likes her roundabouts, not that we have any sort of plan or reason to have one, but she sure was excited to find out if Harvey got us one! Seriously, Fred, wtf is going on with these people? I honestly can’t determine if they are devious or just really stupid. How can a commissioner and the manager do this without getting approval (or even informing the other commissioners) from the full commission and looping in residents? It seems like Harvey, Tracy and Krishan have their own agenda and to hell with how things the supposed to be done."
Chuck confirmed everything Dan said, except he said Dan clarified in his comment that one Commissioner did respond to e-mails. That Commissioner, of course, was Roxy Ross. As for Dan's question and dilemma, are we allowed to choose both? You know, "devious" and "really stupid?"
The TRIM was set at our old and demented friend 9.7. This number has no meaning. It happens to be the same number as last year and several of the years before last. But it is not the same amount of tax dollars from property-owners, it is not the same revenue for the Village, and it continues to fail to meet the Village's needs. This was the standard mindless and meaningless exercise it always is.
No, the Commission cannot informally and without seeking and evaluating applications simply tack on a planning function for someone already providing service for the Village. Yes, that insight, too, came from Roxy Ross. What was the word Dan used? "Pathetic?"
The Commission did manage to avoid the real visioning exercise. Instead, I'm told, they (mostly Tracy) plunged into micromanaging details.
So now, I have to go back and listen to the recording, so I can find out what else went on at this meeting. I'll let you know. In fact, WTF is wrong with these people?
Let's be honest: Our commissioners aren't smart enough to be devious ... except for Rox, so thank god she's not devious. If they accomplished something nefarious, at least it would be an accomplishment. Another month of lost opportunity in BP ... nearly a full two-year commission cycle of lost opportunity. A lawyer, a federal marshal, a teacher, a [not sure what Harvey's credentials were], and this is all we get. Hope they all dropped bread crumbs so they could find their ways home from the log cabin.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how a commission could get any worse but we need to recognize the fact that the previous two commissions (since we have lived here) were also failures. Yes, we did get a new log cabin and city hall but that's about it. Lack of code enforcement and poor city management has been a problem in Biscayne Park for years with no action. The speeding continues and some streets /front yards look like a parking lot. We have a city manager that is not doing his job and when will the commission address this issue? Probably never. I am not even addressing the latest police scandal and the lack of transparency by the city and commission which was cited in a news article recently. We have serious problems in Biscayne Park and no one's paying attention.
ReplyDeleteMac, Harvey's career is as a photographer. Not art photography. Portraits and celebrations.
DeleteBrad, you didn't mention outsourcing sanitation. You might have favored that, or you might not have. But it was something the last Commission did.
I agree with you that we had management problems. They were not easy to deal with, and we eventually parted company with the manager, which was the right thing for us to have done. Not to get too much more into it, but when the then manager came to understand she had lost the support of the Commission, she resigned. I also agree with you that among the things we did not do better under that manager was tighter code enforcement. I think we all had very high expectations of what would happen under the new manager the prior Commission hired, since she was a specialist in codes and code compliance. The current Commission arbitrarily and without cause fired the new manager, so we won't know what we might have accomplished. I agree with you also that the current manager has not been effective, but it's at least in part because he couldn't be, even if he wanted to. Tracy won't have it, and she calls all the shots. The current manager does not want to lose his job, so he stays with us and does whatever Tracy tells him to do.
The "latest police scandal" was resolved four years ago. I have no idea why this is being treated as big news now.
Fred
Fred, I stand corrected regarding the outsourcing of trash which I supported and still do. The big deal regarding the "latest police scandal" is finding out details that it was racially motivated, that our police officers treated the police department like "a fraternity house" drinking on duty, gender bashing women, homophobic behavior, and the authorities are still investigating past cases for more misconduct, hmmm what else is going to come up? After years of residents complaining about poor policing and questioning our police department's commitment, I think this is a big deal. Instead of managing our police department, our city managers have allowed the department to spiral into a crises before taking any action. We need more oversight and need to set our standards as a community much higher.
ReplyDeleteI take offense to that, Brad. The MINUTE I learned of the racism, homophobia, violence, etc. I, the Manager, took immediate action. The result of that action was 2 years of a cold shoulder and behind the scenes of vicious attacks by one commissioner and their spouse, questioning of my judgement continuously of how I handled it by one of my public supporter commissioners and their spouse, etc. I stand by what I did and will take full credit for taking action. There were things I was allowed to say and things I wasn't allow to say --- the FBI gets to make those decisions. But while there may have been perception of speeding, etc....from March 2014 forward there was no illegal police activity. I will stand by that fact. Heidi
DeleteHeidi, thank you for your comment.
DeleteHaving been there, I totally support and agree with everything Heidi said. She was as prompt and responsive as she summarizes. She did exactly the right thing.
DeleteCan't speak to and don't care about 2014, but NOW there is no "perception" of a speeding problem in BP. We simply have a speeding problem ... and with drivers running stop signs. Someone got the two buildings done back then. Can you imagine our current mayor and manager pulling that off? They can't even get porta potties off front lawns.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely not a perception issue and using that defense will prove to be irresponsible when someone gets nailed by a car blowing through a stop sign. Just this morning, I watched 3 cars run through signs at the rec center 115th and 9th, another on 11 PL and 115th, and that was just in my daily 30 min while walking my dog. We also have 5 cars parked on their front lawns and 3 commercial vans and truck on 115th at one residence operating a plumbing business out of their home (then their employees drive to the residence and park their 4 cars on the swale). There is no consistency with code enforcement or policing which is just setting us up for another failure which is one reason why I am focused on the 2014 Issue. We also had police issues in 2016 with McKenna and Pineda.... it goes on and you can not give these guys complete autonomy and expect they are not going to bend the rules.
ReplyDeleteCan you imagine what BP would look like with code enforcement!? More MS, less NoMi.
ReplyDelete