WTF is Wrong With These People?

I can formulate a fantasy as to why four of the five* Commission candidates refused to participate in a Meet the Candidates event I intended to organize.  It's much harder to imagine why the same four refused to participate in a similar exercise David Raymond and Art Gonzalez tried to organize.

After all of this, Milt Hunter wanted to interview the five* candidates for a post he wanted to do in his blog.  Bizarrely, the same one candidate agreed to be interviewed, and the same four refused.  Milt's description of this odyssey can be found at www.thebiscayneparker.blogspot.com.

These are people who are running for office here.  Supposedly, they want to connect to their neighbors, and impress them.  Meet the Candidates events always occur in the Village.  They're not just an opportunity, they're essentially an obligation.  This exposure is something Commission candidates owe their neighbors.  So WhereTF are they?

Clearly, they're trying to hide something, and clearly it's their lack of fitness for the job they seek.  Also clearly, they have reassured themselves they don't have to submit themselves to this kind of exposure.  Presumably, someone has told them they can get elected without bothering.  And apparently, getting elected is their only goal, and if they can avoid the risk of appearing (foolish) before their neighbors in the conventional way, they are relieved and eager to avoid it.

And this is the nonsense that's going to wind up on the BP Commission?  If we've recently become known for convicted past police officers, we can now add this to our resume.


*Today, Manny Espinoza sent out an e-mail informing various people that he is withdrawing his candidacy.  He will still be on the ballot, but presumably, he would decline a Commission seat if he won one.  He did not say why he made this decision, but it's tempting to think he may have come to realize his candidacy, and the way he's handled it, are wrong.  Since he doesn't appear to have done much actively to campaign, he isn't saving himself any time or trouble by withdrawing.  It's a shame the other three insecure and contemptuous candidates aren't able to have the same level of insight, and respect for their neighbors.


Jared Susi it is.  And what a sad day for the Village that we're getting anyone else.

BP Median "Design"

Mac Kennedy asked me to post this for him?  Anyone in the world who has to ask me for technological help is in deep trouble.

I'd like to know who's "decorating" our medians, specifically the 119th St. median between 5/6 Avenues (and other medians with new wooden posts). The design is horrific and the execution is worse. And, from what I can determine, the posts were installed without PZ authorization or a permit. BP is required to follow the same Code and permitting process that the rest of us are required to follow. 

- wooden posts are crooked, different heights, misaligned

- plant material added between the posts without PP input or authorization ... the materials are horrible choices and sickly to boot (half-dead clusia, an irresponsible, cheap choice)

The aesthetics of BP are spiraling downward fast, and BP is driving that, not merely allowing it. Whoever is playing decorator at village hall (Krishan, Tracy), please stop and get the help of professionals. You are tasked with elevating the village, but you are making this place look like a dump. Go ahead and let your front yards look like crap, but leave our public spaces alone. If you can't do anything right, just don't do anything at all.

Dan Schneiger Goes Upside the Heads of Will Tudor and Krishan Manners.

Dan either offered to let me post this, or he requested that I do.  Although Dan didn't specifically highlight the discrepancy between his extensive and expert volunteer work, and the money-grubbing and inept "job" Will does, I kept thinking about it.  Also, I kept wondering if Dan would point out to Will that a more fitting expression of respect Will could make to the P&Z Board, and to the Village, would be to install the driveway the Village's Codes require of him.  "Blow[ing] smoke up [our] ass[es]," indeed.

Dear Will,

I write this letter from me personally and not on behalf of the Planning and Zoning Board.

I am writing to let you know that I did not appreciate your campaign event last night at the beginning of the Planning and Zoning meeting. You are a candidate running for office and need to govern yourself accordingly. The Village has four other sitting commissioners, any of whom could have presented your certificates of appreciation to the Planning and Zoning Board and two of whom have never attended a P&Z meeting that I can recall. (Tracy didn’t even attend for her own driveway permit, which would have been the perfect opportunity to voice her support of our hard work.) If you want to publicly grub for votes, please feel free to hand out hot dogs at the Rec Center rather than taking up valuable time at a meeting of the board where I volunteer my time. The P&Z board had an extremely long agenda last night, with many residents waiting patiently. Unlike Commission meetings, we are a highly focused, productive and efficient board with a long agenda, and I, as a resident volunteer, don’t appreciate my time being monopolized for the purpose of furthering your campaign. While I appreciate my service being recognized, it should have been done by any commissioner who is not currently running for office or after the election itself.

And note to Krishan: By introducing Will at the podium, you have shown the board and residents in attendance that you fully endorse Will as a candidate. What will you be doing to further the campaigns of the other four candidates this week? If nothing else, you can all see that the optics of the situation are unacceptable. It’s long overdue for the current commission to consider how their dubious actions are interpreted by residents who are becoming increasingly disenchanted by the lack of accomplishments.

Secondly, I must point out that the Commission and Village Manager have shown, through their words and actions, that they absolutely do not appreciate the work done by P&Z. If you did appreciate the work we do, you would at least acknowledge the emails I have sent, requesting that Planning and Zoning be consulted on your failed attempts to put together a driveway ordinance over the past two+ years. As I have stated many times in the past, P&Z is the board that is most effected by a driveway ordinance, as we are tasked with interpreting and implementing any changes to how driveways and swales are permitted. While you delay the new driveway ordinance, we are forced to pass eyesores that will blight our community for decades.

Do not use this email as a way to question my dedication to the great work we do on P&Z or the hours and dollars I have donated to other efforts to improve the village. I am a highly credentialed designer with a Master of Architecture and  Bachelor of Environmental Design degrees with a minor in Urban Planning from a top ten architecture school. I spent twenty years thoughtfully designing mixed-use residential, commercial and government buildings and overseeing the construction of these projects for a Fortune 50 corporation. I’m the type of person with knowledge and expertise that this village sorely needs. Three long-term members of P&Z are life-long design professionals with extensive experience in the building codes, but we continue to be marginalized by a myopic mayor who still, after two years of no accomplishments, refuses to utilize the valuable resources at her disposal necessary to move the village forward.

In summary, I simply ask that all sitting commissioners please refrain from using meetings where I volunteer my time to grub for votes and blow smoke up my ass in front of residents. It’s transparent, inappropriate and just plain tacky. Rather, how about engaging in an actual debate of the issues with all candidates in the room? What are you afraid of, other than a two-year empty commission record?

Dan Schneiger

I'm Calling Out the Rest of You, Too.

Manny, you and I spoke for a while at the meet and greet.  Your theme was that because you're an accountant, you have special skills to reconcile the Village's accounts and accounting.  But we already have an accountant, and an auditor.  We don't need a Commissioner to triple check the work of the people we already hire.  We don't need you to track the money.  We need you to decide how it should be spent.  We need to know what you want for the Village, and how you would propose to get money we don't have.  So tell us more.  What's your vision for Biscayne Park?

Dan, I don't get it.  You offer to "[work] for the Village," but you already do that.  You've been doing it for years, in your role on the Recreation Advisory Board, and we appreciate it.  What's different once you're on the Commission?

Will, we've been watching you for two years, and I think we've seen it all.  Yes, you agree with whatever Tracy wants almost all the time.  And when you position yourself as not agreeing, it's without explanation, and only on condition that you're part of a minority that does not outvote her.  Your few initiatives are tentative, and without evident result.  Do we get anything different for the next two to four years of Commissioner Tudor, or is that it?

Betsy?  Betsy?  An attorney, and a stand-up entertainer.  Yup, it's not hard to see.  You're a great talker.  But "where's the beef?"  You tell us your forte is "branding."  Great.  If we need a PR firm, we'll call ya.  What do you charge?  But what's our brand?  You say you've lived here for some bunch of years.  You must have formed some sense of what the Village is about, and what its strengths are.  So?  You live across from the recreation center and the park.  Do you like living there?  Is that our brand?  Should we put more into the recreation capacity of the Park?  I've seen your property.  It seems clear to me you're not focused on anything like lushness, or the "Tree City USA" image we had been trying to cultivate (excuse the pun).  So I assume you're OK with the Village's public spaces being as spare and uninspired as you keep your property.  Our brand, in Commissioner Wise's opinion, is not about medians.  So what's it about?  We don't need you to write copy for us.  We need you to help us identify our image.  What is it for you?

I'm Calling You Out, Jared Susi. The Gauntlet is Down, Dude.

Sure, Jared, you look good compared to the competition.  Dan Samaria is the only other one who showed anything like interest in the Village.  Ever.  Apart from you.  But neither Dan nor the rest of them have any self-confidence or willingness to face the voters.  It's only you.  Will Tudor is the only one with a Commission track record, such as it is, but he won't step out on his own, without protection.

So you're it, Jared.  But what have you got?  You gave us all a superficial sampling, but I want more.  I want depth.   We all know you're a good guy, and you and Nicole are involved and productive, but you can do that without being on the Commission.  You've done it already without being on the Commission.  You and Dan Samaria are the only candidates who have lifted a finger for this Village, off or on the Commission.  And you're going to donate back your stipend?  You think you're the first Commissioner to do that?  You're not.  You might be the second.  OK, fine, it's way better than what most of the current Commissioners have done, but it's not completely unique.

What are you really going to show us, when you're a Commissioner?  (And I realize fully that if you get on the Commission, and you don't just do whatever Tracy tells you to do, she'll marginalize you in a heartbeat, and make you irrelevant.  I know that.)  But what would you do, if you could?  What do you want?  What's your vision for the neighborhood?

For example, "2-, 5-, and 10-year plans" for what?  What would you like to see happen in the Village over the next two, five, and 10 years?  And make the Village safe and pedestrian-friendly how?  What are the "character and charm of our public spaces and architecture," and what would you do to maintain them?  I mean, if you could.  Imagine that you were part of a Commission that had goals and an agenda, that wanted for the Village what you want.  Or that was available to want anything at all for the Village.  You won't be on that kind of Commission, but tell us how you and like-minded Commissioners would plan.  And what efficiencies would you like to maximize?

You know how politicians and office-seekers are, Jared.  They give the voters ethereal double talk and pablum.  But some of your neighbors are adults, and they want more than pablum.  Give it up, Jared.  What kind of neighborhood is this, once Commissioner Susi, and an imagined Commission of ambitious and visionary neighbors, get their teeth into it?

Trump's Tax Returns. And BP Elections.

Donald Trump has done something no one has done since it started.  He won't reveal his tax returns.  Anyone can imagine why he won't.  The prominent guess is that he has something compromising to hide.  That, in itself, looks like guilt to some people.  Other people say they don't care, and they suggest it's not important to know how Trump handles his money, and his reporting about it.  Still others say that maybe he's guilty of tax mischief, and maybe he's not, but they don't care, because they're more interested in something else they think he represents, and it's something they think they want.  Anyone can guess whatever they want, but we're still left with a noteworthy peculiarity.  It's the behavior of someone who's trying to hide something, and presumably, he would only want to hide it, if it was compromising to him.  Or if it might make people not want him in office, or not trust him.

Here in BP, we have five Commission candidates, and three or four of them refuse to participate in a Meet the Candidates forum.  This is almost unheard of.  And on the rare occasion in which it's happened, it's been maybe one candidate who wouldn't participate.  But most of them?  Or almost all?  Not around here.

So the question really is, what are three or four of them trying to hide?  And for the record, and those keeping score, Jared Susi was immediately agreeable to both of two Meet the Candidates fora that were proposed.  Manny Espinoza expressed agreement to one of them, but did not respond to a request about the other.  The other three-- Dan Samaria, Will Tudor, and Betsy Wise-- either refused or didn't respond to a request.  And also for the record, two of the three-- Will and Betsy-- have told some people they prefer the "one-on-one" experience to the open discussion/debate format.  The problems here are that we don't experience them reacting to each other, which is supposed to happen among Commissioners, and no one can monitor what they tell voters, for accuracy.  I, for one, have already heard about assertions that are flatly not true, or are not in accord with assertions made to others.  But if the isolated listener is not familiar with the issues, and there is no potentially corrective or differing feedback from anyone else, then very wrong impressions can be left.

In the same way that any skeptic would assume Trump is trying to hide something compromising about himself, we might guess the same thing about our secretive Commission candidates.  And what are they trying to hide?  Are they trying to hide the fact that they don't know the real issues, and are not in a position to comment intelligently about them?  Are they trying to hide that they do not have adequate skills, when it comes to interacting with a group of similarly positioned colleagues?  Are they trying to hide limited or defective thinking or rhetorical skills?  Isn't this precisely what the voters need to know?

One candidate said he would only consider participating in a Meet the Candidates exercise, if issues were not presented as if they were Ordinances to be discussed.  What?!  This is exactly what a Commissioner has to do.  And they don't want us to see how they would do it?  That really answers the question right there, doesn't it?

Only one candidate happens to be an incumbent.  In theory, he should have nothing to hide.  We've seen it all already.  So what's his concern?  Could it be that he is only willing to function, or pretend to function, as a Commissioner, if the issues have been presented to him in advance, and he has taken the opportunity to receive some form of guidance as to how to respond to them?  Or could it be that he only trusts himself among a very select group of people, but that if he had to be on his own with another group of people, he doesn't have confidence that he would look functional?

Some candidates expressed reluctance to participate, because they couldn't control the questions, or would only participate if they could.  Commissioners don't control the agenda of what they are required to consider on the Commission.  If they can't take what comes, then they're not right for the job.

So, for me, four candidates have disqualified themselves.  They are unreliable and useless to the Village.  Unfortunately for us, we're going to get at least two of them on the Commission.  Woe are we.

Big Mama Protects Her Little Brood.

Last week at the budget meeting, David Raymond wanted a few minutes for a special request.  He and Art Gonzalez wanted to organize a Meet the Candidates forum, of the type we always do here, and he wanted to request the fee for use of the log cabin be waived, as it always is for such events.  But Tracy Truppman wouldn't allow David to get on the record to make his request, and she told him he'd have to come back tonight, for the regular Commission meeting.

David wasn't there tonight, and neither was Art.  I had already heard they were having trouble getting the candidates to agree to a forum (what?!).  I wanted to do a forum, too.  Mine was to be structured a little differently from theirs.  And I wanted the fee for use of the recreation center waived.  So during public comment, I made my request, for David and Art, and for myself.  Tracy decided to shift the matter to the end of the meeting, during New Business.  And so it was.

This should have been a simple matter.  For as long as I've lived here, every Commission has unflinchingly waived the fee for use of whatever building this forum occupied.  And there has always been a forum.  Always.  All the Commission had to do was say what every Commission says: of course.  David and Art would have planned their event, if they could, and I would have planned mine, if I could.  And for the record, this election season was remarkable for an almost complete lack of cooperation and commitment on the parts of the candidates.  Only Jared Susi instantly agreed to both fora.  The other four either balked or refused.  Or didn't respond to the requests.

The matter was introduced by Roxy Ross, who explained that this is so typical and unquestioned as to be a no-brainer.  Harvey Bilt had other ideas.  He formulated for himself some concept of political liability for the Village, if it waived the fee for such an event.  No one-- not the other Commissioners or the Village Attorney-- understood Harvey's point.  Tracy then glared at Jenny Johnson-Sardella, signaling to her that it was her responsibility to come up with some obstacle.  Presumably, Jenny will later get spanked, or whatever Tracy does to people who don't do what she says, because she couldn't think of any problem.  So Tracy went on a little rampage, in which she constructed various theories having to do with candidates either being coerced or excluded, as if something unfair was being perpetrated on them.  Tracy did not want this to happen.  She wants to spare her old and new pets from any problematic exposure.  So she hit upon her tactic.

She had Roxy make a motion.  Roxy's motion was that the fee would be waived, if at least three candidates agreed to participate.  And this is where I learned what cards Tracy has.  She, and Harvey-boy, voted against Roxy's motion.  If the motion doesn't pass, then it fails.  And with Will out of the room, because someone told him he had to recuse himself, there were only four.  Two-two is a defeat for the motion.  Tracy asked Roxy if she wanted to try again.  And Roxy fell right into Tracy's trap.  Roxy adjusted her motion to waive the fees, if at least four of the candidates participate.  Tracy, and Harvey-boy, agreed to this one.

Tracy knows her cards.  She controls Will and Betsy, and she'll instruct both of them not to participate.  That leaves a maximum of three, which means the fee doesn't get waived.  It doesn't mean the event can't happen.  It just means the room has to be paid for.

But in the meantime, David and Art withdrew their request, because only Jared was willing to participate.  And only Jared was willing to participate in the event I wanted to hold.  So, because all but one of our Commission candidates this year are children who have no material, and are terrified that anyone should witness this, we will, for the first time in my memory, not a have Meet the Candidates forum.

And I will retract my earlier position about voting for three people, because we're going to get three Commissioners.  Mac Kennedy and Janey Anderson were right, and I was wrong.  The other four really are equally useless and meaningless, and it really doesn't matter which of them are on the Commission. And too bad for Jared, if he wins, and if he accepts a victory, that he will sit there, as Roxy has sat there, and allow one dictator to run the Village, with the mindless acquiescence of three stooges.  Well, now we know.