That's Curious. They're Supposed to Be Candidates Trying to Engage the Voters.

On Monday, September 24, I sent an e-mail to each of our Commission candidates.  Four of the e-mails went through, and one failed.  The one that failed was to Dan Samaria, who appeared as if he had changed his e-mail address.  So I called him and left a message for him to call me back, so I could get his correct address.  The e-mail I sent is as follows:

Hi,

I want to do something that I envision structuring as a Commission meeting, with the five of you as Commissioners.  The agenda would be four issues.  They are essentially the ones I described in the blog post of 3/13/17.  I would have to adjust them a little, since the circumstances have changed since then.  The blog address, if you don't know it, is www.biscayneparkfla.blogspot.com.

I would not impose time limits on speaking, but rather let you discuss these issues as a group, exactly as you would if you were Commissioners.  You would say as much or as little as you want.  You would come to conclusions, or not.  Someone would make a motion, or not.  This would be an opportunity for your neighbors to see what you would look like as Commissioners.  We already know that about Will, but not about the rest of you.  And maybe Will interacts differently with a different group of colleagues.

So let me know ASAP if you're willing to do this.  If you all are, or even if most of you are, I'll schedule a date, time, and place.  It would be best for everyone if it could be in the log cabin.  And sooner is better than later.

By the way, my role would be like a silent mayor, or like the manager.  All I would do is get the topics introduced.  I would have no contribution about what you do with the discussion.  The only possible exception to that, which I would have to consider, and maybe discuss with you, is if I wanted you to specify something or go further with something you said.

Let me know today or tomorrow, if possible.

Fred

PS: It's possible someone else might want to do a different Meet the Candidates event, more like the ones we typically do.  I find them stilted and inadequately productive, and I think this is better.  But there's certainly room for both.

I heard back fairly promptly from Jared Susi, agreeing without reservation to this exercise.  His exact response was "Count me in."  I never heard back from any of the other four, including that Dan Samaria did not return my call.

I proposed the same exercise last year, when we had a special election to fill David Coviello's seat.  At that time, Dan Samaria, Harvey Bilt, and Mac Kennedy declared candidacies.  Mac immediately said he would participate, and the other two declined.  It was my impression that Harvey was suspicious, and he somehow convinced Dan, his one remaining opponent after Mac dropped out, also to decline.  I have to this day failed to understand why Dan took the advice of his opponenet over the advice of a completely unbiased person.

I saw Dan Tuesday night at the Commission meeting (don't even ask; it was unbelievable), and he told me his e-mail had been hacked, and he also hadn't gotten around to returning Monday's messages until then.  But he didn't return my call.  Anyway, he didn't ask what the e-mail was about.  Will Tudor, Manny Espinoza, and Betsy Wise were also there, at least for part of the time.  None of them approached me with an answer to my e-mail proposal.

In the meantime, I learned that David Raymond and Art Gonzalez are putting together a different Meet the Candidates event, and Milton Hunter is doing interviews.  David told me everyone eventually agreed to participate in his and Art's event, but only on condition the issues not be presented as Ordinances.  That's pretty weird, because discussing Ordinances is exactly what a Commission has to do.  So why wouldn't they want to show what they got?  Unless they know they got nothin', and they don't want it to be that obvious yet.  And Dan reportedly started to balk, because he doesn't want to have to do three things (two events and an interview).  I wonder if he plans to limit the number of meetings he's willing to attend as a Commissioner, too.

The whole thing seemed to me very twisted, because people who should want every opportunity to show themselves to their neighbors seem to be balking a lot.  Maybe it's like two years ago, when discussions would happen on Nextdoor, and there would be comments to the effect that readers wanted to know what Tracy and Jenny and Will thought, and the "three pack" were very careful not to reveal anything.  It's pretty clear now what that meant.

So David and Art will try to get their event planned, and I'll try to get mine planned.  It may work out, and it may not.  The Commission meeting Tuesday night was the final acceptance of the millage and the budget, and David Raymond wanted a quick word at the end, to get the Commission to agree to let him and Art use the log cabin for free.  But Tracy refused to listen to him, and he'll have to wait until next week, at the regular meeting.  I guess I will, too.