Wednesday, September 25, 2019
David Hernandez Couldn't Understand Why I Had Any Trouble Getting Commission Approval For My Solar Panels.
If you haven't yet encountered our new speed tables, they were annoying me. I couldn't comfortably drive over them going faster than about 8-9 mph. Our speed limit is 25, and we should be able comfortably to negotiate speed tables/humps at that legal speed. So, I wrote to Krishan Manners and Luis Cabrera. Neither of them got back to me, but Krishan apparently passed my e-mail along to David Hernandez, who is our Public Works Director, and David called me to discuss. (The speed tables were apparently David's idea.) In fact, he offered to come by. So, he came over, we took a little field trip in my car, and I demonstrated the problem.
In the meantime, David also wanted to discuss my solar panels. He could easily see the ones in front of the house, and he wanted to know more about my solar system. While we were out road-testing speed humps, he asked me if anyone else in the Village has solar panels. Three other houses that I know about have them, and I expanded our field trip to show them to him. They're all very easy to see from the street, and David was impressed. But he came back more than once to the question of why my variance application got the reception (rejection) it did. Solar panels seemed to David like such an obviously great idea, and there was no problem with the fact that they're visible from the street at all four properties, and he remembered my presentation, which he thought was sensible, and he just couldn't understand the resistance.
David didn't get it. He thought this was about solar panels. I explained a few times that it had nothing to do with solar panels. It had only to do with the fact that I was the one asking for something. The rejection was not technical. It was not a reflection of Code, or appearance, or what's best for and in the Village. The rejection was simply personal. Tracy Truppman and her girls told me no, because I criticize Tracy, and Tracy won't accept being criticized.
I pointed out to David that not only do I predictably get a "no" about a request I might make about, let's say, solar panels, but I get a "no" about applying to be on a Board. And to show David that this was personal, but not uniquely personal, someone like Mac Kennedy gets the same "no," for the same reason. So does Nicole Susi. So would Jared Susi. So do Roxy and Chuck Ross. "The answer is no. What's the question?"
I think that by the time David left my house this morning, he understood this better. He understood that this has nothing to do with solar panels, or appearance, or Codes, or the Village. It's just Tracy's personal campaign of vendettas against people who criticize her.
And to make the matter of solar panels even clearer to David, I showed him command central on my computer, where I keep hourly track of how much solar power I get for the day, and daily track of what's happening with my FPL bill, and monthly track of how that bill compares with the bill from the same month last year. It's pretty compelling. David doesn't read this blog, so he didn't know how much money those panels saved me. But once I told him about that, and showed it to him, he said what anyone else would say, and what I say: the Village should have solar panels. And then, he better understood the consequences of diverting so much Village money to Tracy's protectors and staff of lawyers. We can't have solar panels, because they're not cheap, and Tracy gave all that money to Rebecca Rodriguez. And Krishan Manners. And Christina Caserta. Because they protect her, and carry out her aggressions.
Not that it's David Hernandez's call, but I do think he much more clearly understands what a great thing solar panels are, and how much they do for property owners, and how much they could do for the Village of Biscayne Park. If only...
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Solar panels are great, but so are speed tables! I hope we get 50 more houses with solar panels and 50 more speed tables. :-)
ReplyDeleteI hope a lot of us get solar, too.
DeleteI have much less enthusiasm about speed tables. It turns out (Chuck thought of this, and David later told me he realized it, too) that the tables that were a problem to me (10th Ave) were not installed properly. Chuck says the ones on 11th Pl are much smoother at appropriate legal speed. So David will adjust the 10th Ave ones. I walk on 11th Pl, but I don't have reason to drive there. So I didn't realize they're more workable.
David is a great guy. Smart and proactive. Shows tremendous respect for us - the residents of this community. None of which can be said about 4 of the 5 current commission members. I just hope Tracy doesn't end up running him out of town - especially after she finds out he's "consorted with the enemy!" (Just kidding!) Control freaks are tough to deal with. Insecure, egomaniacal control freaks - which she is - are even worse.
ReplyDeleteJaney,
DeleteYou are in no way kidding. Or you shouldn't be. We're talking here about Tracy Truppman. One Village resident contacted me yesterday to ask if I'm "trying to get David fired." I'm certainly not, but it did occur to me Tracy works that way. "Insecure, egomaniacal control freak," indeed.
And Tracy is not subtle. At a meeting a month or two ago, Bob publicly announced he had initially supported Tracy. As I said, she's not subtle. I wonder why he supported her. What he says he's now come to learn about her I could have told him in advance. In fact, I think I did. It wasn't obvious to him? Wow, I wonder how he missed it!
Fred
And as if things weren't bad enough she now has almost full control of the charter review committee thanks to Wil pushing that whole issue forward. A charter that's only 13 years old and was reviewed just a few years ago surely doesn't need reviewed right now to the tune of $5000 that they have budgeted for it. Now she will get to legalize everything she's been doing. What's that they say about better to be lucky than good??
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah - my first reaction to your post was the same as that other resident regarding David.
I suspect she expects to be in office/charge for a long time, and she plans to arrogate as much power as possible to herself.
DeleteBut as I said before, she and her bobbleheads don't get to make Charter changes. They can only recommend them, and actual changes have to be by referendum, which would be next year in November. The last Charter change we made was to move the election to the general election, and the majority of the then Commission, stimulated by Steve Bernard, resisted it. But the voters saw past the control intention of a few residents and what happened to be a majority of that Commission. That was the Jacobs/Cooper/Watts Commission, I think.
By the way, Janey, I fully recognize the legitimacy of the other resident's concern, and your echoing of that same concern. But your referring to David Hernandez as a "great guy," who is "smart and proactive," and who "shows tremendous respect for us...none of which can be said about 4 of 5 of the current [Commissioners]," runs the same risk to David as my discussion about him. Once you tell Tracy you like David, and you don't like Tracy, you might have signed David's death warrant.
DeleteYou and Bob complain about the current Commission-- or you do now-- so you're in the same "enemy" boat as I am. I don't think you get sustained points for once having been big supporters. Once you flinch, you become an "enemy of the people," as Betsy likes to characterize anyone who criticizes.
Fred you are exactly correct. First on the last charter change. It was the Jacobs, Watts, Cooper, Bob and Rox commission with only Bob and Rox supporting the election change. But - Tracy's big ticket item - a strong mayor - will be easier to spin. The whole "it's better to have a resident in charge small town feel" thing. Oh well, we can always hope for some sanity at the polls.
ReplyDeleteAnd Yes - Bob and I have actually been on the public enemies list at least since the election. Our support for Jared drove Tracy to trash talk us though out the village. Real class act that girl is. And my attitude toward code (or lack thereof) cemented my position high on the list.
And I realize Tracy is not smart enough, nor in any way introspective, to ask herself why so many people who once supported and helped her have turned away.
"The whole 'it's better to have a...small town feel' thing" was exactly the pitch Village residents rejected regarding the election.
DeleteInterestingly, one of the selling points then was that elections piggy-backed onto the general election was cheaper. Tracy can try to suggest we don't even need a manager, and that will save us money, too. (Although I guess she'd then have to explain why she keeps giving Village administrative staff unsupported raises, over the objections of the rest of us.) But it then becomes incumbent on the rest of us, as it did regarding the election, to point out how much money the money-saving Tracy has been wasting just to prop herself up. We've lost more than not having a manager at all would save us.
As for the rest of your comment, I still fail to understand why you and Bob were ever Tracy supporters. If someone said to me today that they have lost confidence in Donald Trump, and they now consider him a con man and a liar, I would say "duh." Why wasn't that obvious to them from the outset? It was obvious to me. And I'd say the same thing about Tracy supporters. On what basis did I see what they/you didn't see? I thought it was obvious. I said so.