Tuesday, December 4, 2018
When I'm Wrong, I'm Wrong.
I didn't offer to bet anyone money that Tracy Truppman would be mayor again, and that the vote would be 5-0. But I would have taken that bet, if anyone had offered it to me. I wonder how much I would have lost. Well, I'm getting ahead of myself.
There were two Commission meetings tonight. The first was the dissolution of the Commission of the past two years, and the second was the investiture of the Commission for the next two years.
The first meeting was mostly a goodbye and thank you to Roxy Ross, and a goodbye to Harvey Bilt. Public comment centered on two things in that first meeting. One was expressions of gratitude to Roxy, who was in a different orbit from the rest of any elected officials I've ever seen or heard of. Janey Anderson described Roxy as the "adult in the room" in the past Commission. That's to say the least. Janey and Gary Kuhl both mentioned that they didn't always agree with Roxy, but they always respected her. I didn't always agree with Roxy, either, and when I didn't, I almost always eventually figured out what I got wrong. There really wasn't enough anyone with a brain and a soul could say about Roxy. And Chuck was mentioned, too, as he very much should have been. What a team the two of them always made. Total brains and commitment, and endless devotion and generosity. And never, ever was it about them. It was always about the Village. Anyway...
The second focus in public comments was Tracy's continual mishandling of communication of the Village's wish list for our legislative representative. I'm saying mishandling, but it was really commandeering. The comments were as if it was Tracy and Krishan Manners, but there is no Krishan Manners. There's no anyone, but Tracy Truppman. I have never heard the phrase "Charter violation" mentioned so many times in such a concentration. Tracy does whatever she wants, and no one else really exists.
So then, there was the second meeting. Two new, and one re-elected, Commissioners recited their vows. It was all very painful. This looked like the final dumbing down of the Commission of the Village of Biscayne Park. And then, it was time to elect a mayor.
Procedurally, the Village doesn't have a mayor for several minutes. The old Commission, the one with the mayor, had been dissolved, and a new mayor hadn't yet been chosen. So there should be no one to lead the meeting. Normally, the person who would step in would be either the Village attorney, or the Village manager. But this being the universe that revolves around Tracy Truppman, it didn't go that way. Tracy ran the meeting, and the election for mayor, herself. It's not even worth pointing out the Charter violations. There is no Charter. So Tracy entertained nominations for, um, mayor, and dutiful Jenny Johnson-Sardella thought it would offer valuable continuity if Tracy was mayor again. After a bit of fumbling to figure out how to deal with this illegal nomination, Dan Samaria suggested maybe this wasn't the way to go. Dan started out saying that there is a new mayor more or less every two years. Tracy disagreed with Dan, but Dan was more or less right. And Dan further explained that there were some concerns, even open ones, about Tracy's management of the mayor's responsibility. For who knows what reason, Dan nominated Will Tudor. For at least a fleeting moment, Dan Samaria was the brains of the Commission, and the adult at the table. Think about that. And Will commented, too. But it wasn't to decline the nomination from Dan. Instead, it was to agree that the last two years have been what Will called "interesting" (I would have said dysfunctional, destructive, destabilizing, and illegal, but Will liked "interesting"), but still to be willing to have Tracy back on her throne.
So, that's how it went. Tracy had most of her reliable old and new stooges marshalled, and she righted her little lifeboat. She got the Village attorney to agree that she could take a vote, which she did. Well, not only did Dan Samaria stick to his at least temporary ethics and focus on what's good for the Village, but Will Tudor also voted against Tracy as mayor. Tracy won-- of course, she won-- but by the smallest majority she could have had. The girls did what Mama wanted them to do, and the boys got a little independent. I suppose it will remain to be seen in what way Tracy will punish them for their independence. Tracy was hoping for a Commission with less, not more, independence.
I was torn about whether or not to leave at that point. I could see how things were going to go. Maybe I was slightly interested to see what Dan Samaria would do with his effort to remain off the leash. I've seen Will Tudor's versions of independence before. They don't mean much, and they don't impress. But I finally decided not to stomach any more of this when Tracy launched into her defense of herself and her continual Charter violations by saying the "accusations" were all faulty. Yup, that's Tracy. Same old Tracy. I'll see if I can stomach a meeting next month.
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PS: In the first meeting, Tracy thanked Harvey for his dedication to the Village, and she thanked Roxy for her attention to detail. Man, is Tracy twisted.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was leaving the second meeting, when Tracy was declaring, in effect, that anyone who "accused" her of anything was either wrong or lying, she also mentioned all of her wonderful accomplishments over the last two years. Did I point out that Tracy is twisted?
I'm sorry we left but Rox just had to get out of there, she had enough.
DeleteI would have stayed to hear her excuses and or lies and asked for the right to refute them.
Nothing Rox or I said was wrong or a lie.
Chuck,
DeleteYou and Rox, of all people, have nothing for which to apologize. You don't have to make excuses. You don't have to defend yourselves.
And it wasn't just you and Rox who weren't wrong or lying. Janey Anderson and both of the Kuhls said the same thing, and made the same independent observations.
Agreed.
DeleteI have not been able to stomach sitting through even a portion of a commission meeting in quite a while, and I guess that will continue for the next two years. It's just sad. But it does free up those few hours every month for doing... well, anything else!
ReplyDeleteFred, you missed the best part. After Will showed the slightest glimpse of his balls, Betsy lifted her leg and showed her steel hangers to the room in their full glory. She pissed on the residents who had previously spoken about Tracy's multiple Charter violations but who then left after she was reappointed mayor. Watch the video, but she spit about that group without naming them (she doesn't know anyone's names yet, but she meant B&G Kuhl, J&B Anderson, DKeys, and R&C Ross), saying they must not really care about the village if they didn't stay for Tracy's explanation, to the "whoop whoop" of Tracy's little bizarro peanut gallery in the back corner. Talk about not caring, Betsy the one who didn't have the balls to participate in a debate. Winning was clearly about her and not the village. Oh, but she did agree to participate in Dan Samaria's pot luck "meet the new commissioners," which he admitted no one attended in the past.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you mean I missed the even worse part. It also sounds like Betsy is worse than I thought she would be. I guess I suspected as much when she caved and voted for Mama to be Queen again. Yes, it's not about the Village for any of them. Dan Samaria became a weak outside possibility, when he gave his little speech about how re-annointing Tracy might not be the best idea, but considering Dan overall, I don't expect anything of any further value. He seems to have shot whatever inchoate wad he might have had.
DeleteAnd for the record, even though you didn't assume I was part of the group Betsy tells herself don't care about the Park, I didn't leave after Tracy got re-appointed. I left after she made her vile cracks about how anyone who criticized her was wrong, and listing all of her wonderful accomplishments, of which there haven't been any.
Betsy turns out to be what I suspected from what you have described she did after we left. As to Dan, you may be in for a surprise, don't count him out, I thought his speech was right on the money. Jenny should be ashamed of herself for nominating Tracy. And as you say Tracy should not have run that portion of the meeting, it should have been handed over to the Attorney.
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ReplyDeleteAlso ... they set a special meeting to create their legislative agenda for Dec19, two weeks from today and less than a week before Christmas when folks are likely not able to attend. (I won't be available, and that's a rather critical meeting that I'd like to attend.) Two weeks' notice?? And, they are holding another village workshop on the driveway ordinance in January ... I almost laughed out loud when that was scheduled. They did nothing for two years on the driveway ordinance, but now they'll hold another workshop. Will reminded everyone that it's not the commissions job to write ordinances because we have "experts" to do that, by which I think he meant Krishan and Christina, our Code officer. Laughable. Our in-house code writing experts.
ReplyDeleteSure - let Christina write ordinances. It's not like we need her out in the field doing actual CODE work. It's not like we still don't have a replacement for Elizabeth. It's not like we aren't looking more and more like North Miami every day. IF we survive the next two years it's going to be a freaking miracle.
DeleteThe evening started out rather interesting. Bob and I were at the orientation meeting. One of the pieces of "advice" the attorney gave them was not to respond to negative emails. Now my guess is he meant really gutter nasty stuff but you know that's not how this bunch will take it. Their refusal to respond has now been legitimized.
ReplyDeleteAs for Betsy - I gotta hand it to her. She showed her true colors right out of the box. No faking that she actually meant all that positivity and inclusive stuff she had on her campaign signs - especially the one on her front porch that no one in administration had the back bone to make her take down. Every single person who left can measure their involvement and caring about this village in years - in some cases decades. She - who had ZERO involvement prior to her "John McCain" epiphany (for those who haven't heard the story she claims to have been inspired by McCain into public service!) is in NO position to stand in judgement.
So - Jenny wants continuity and Betsy thinks contentiousness is just all part of the territory....as they say "ignorance is bliss." What part of the title is mayor, not dictator, do they not grasp? And that Tracy is anything but inclusive.
Barbara Watts was sitting right in front of me and that too was quite the show. I thought her head was going to fly off when Dan mentioned the mayors position does often change every two years. Another Tracy kool aid drinking stooge.
Betsy is a total, total phony. That was clear from the day she registered. Apparently, we're going to get reminders of the fact every month. So, by the way, is Barbara Watts. And so is Jenny Johnson-Sardella. And Will Tudor. Dan? We'll see.
DeleteAs for Tracy, she had a way out of the spanking she got in public comment. Since she claims to have accomplished something during the last two years, all she had to further claim was that she was so busy trying to do whatever it is she claims she did that she got distracted from things like deadlines regarding legislative priorities, and communicating them to Dave Caserta. She could have claimed to have done it hastily, without the proper discussions with the Commission and with her non-Commission neighbors. And of course, the pseudo-apology, and it won't happen again, blah, blah, blah. But she's so grossly arrogant, and has so much disdain and so little regard for propriety, the rules, and her neighbors, that she didn't even bother to try to come up with an excuse. Of course, any excuse would have required her to acknowledge some imperfection, and she's not able to do that. Funny enough, she even commented that she's not perfect. But she apparently couldn't think of any examples.
Actually, when the second offence took place in April, only 3 months after they were admonished by Rox at the Jan. meeting it's a little hard to believe they forgot. It appears it was willful behavior. I'll listen to the meeting when it's published and hear what her excuses were and make a comment then.
DeleteIt's certainly patently true that Tracy has complete contempt for Rox, and she would instantly ignore Rox's admonishing her about anything. But worse, she has complete contempt for all of us.
DeleteTracy has complete contempt for anyone who is actually forward thinking, not afraid of the word "vision" and believes in goals and expectations for our village. Anyone who doesn't offer her blind allegiance. That's why she was so terrified of Jared.
DeleteAll thats missing here is a special prosecutor, russian hack and throw in a little collusion for good measure.
ReplyDeleteWe already got the Collusion.
DeleteMy P.S.: my only two official roles in BP since moving here in 2012 have been serving on the Charter Review Committee and on the Code Compliance Board. Interesting that both the charter and the code of ordinances are now seen as optional.
ReplyDeleteRegarding them not replying to negative emails ... seriously? They need to learn to accept criticism, to LISTEN TO IT, and to serve all residents, not just their bizarro peanut gallery. For the record, I have written my fair share of critical emails (few if any responses), but I have also written plenty of emails with ideas and offers of assistance, to which I also hear crickets.
ReplyDeleteYes, I was going to mention that as I understand, this group do not respond to e-mails anyway. The common story was that the same e-mail would be sent to each of the immediately past Commissioners, and only Roxy would reply. Look, these people really, genuinely, forcefully, in the most heartfelt way, don't care. They're doing this for themselves, not for the Village. They have no use for their neighbors, once they sucker them into voting for them. I'm curious to see if Dan Samaria will be any different, but I'm not making a bet on that. This is the Dan Samaria who won't participate in candidates' fora, especially if people like Harvey Bilt and Tracy Truppman tell him not to. But hey, who knows.
DeleteThe video is up. And wow did the BS flow from Tracy. Betsy's snide comments come at about 58:05
ReplyDelete