Dan Samaria Has His Day in Court. The Two Elephants in the Room Were Not in the Room.

Those of us (maybe 15, even including County Commissioner, Sally Heyman) who were there to support Dan had not even sat down after Judge Antonio Arzola invited us to, before the judge commented on the unusual number of members of the "public."  The judge was a bit stiff at first, becoming more relaxed as the hearing proceeded.  You can tell when Judge Arzola relaxes, because his very subtle accent gets a bit more pronounced, and he refers to everyone as "guys" and "you guys."  And he gets a bit more chatty.  The hearing lasted about 1 1/2 hours.

Dan's attorney, Village resident Drew Dillworth, made his presentation first.  Drew pointed out the obvious: that the hearing was about how to deal with a Commissioner who doesn't live in the Village, but Dan still lives in the Village.  Drew's request was simply that the matter be dismissed.  Not only is the issue only fanciful at the moment, but the petitioner, Village manager Krishan Manners, has no legal "standing" to bring this petition.

Next, it was Rebecca Rodriguez's turn to make a case.  I don't know why Rebecca does so many things wrong (well, of course I do) and gives such bad advice, but frankly, I think she's very smart.  She's also very fast-talking-- almost to the level of mumbling-- and it was hard to hear and follow everything she was saying.  But the dance she did was a lively one, and it was more about hypotheticals than it was about reality.

Then, because the judge had a sustained question as to where Dan lives, or would say under oath that he lives, Dan was sworn in to testify.  He lives at 1030 NE 121 St, Biscayne Park, 33161.  He's lived there 10 years.  But we all know Dan, and a simple question was never going simply to get a simple answer.  Dan has a story to tell, and he's going to tell it.  Dan doesn't leave out things like that the Haitian next door neighbor who agreed to rent him half of her duplex, and whom he paid, was evidently leaned on by some unnamed person who intimidated her by saying she would be deposed, at which she got scared, decided she didn't want trouble, and gave Dan back his money.  And she was the second BP neighbor who was going to rent to Dan, but reneged under similar pressure.

It's not that we don't all know, but we all wondered what person or people shook down our neighbors this way, to try to prevent Dan from finding an alternate place to live.  The alleged petitioner, Krishan Manners, wasn't at this hearing.  Rebecca Rodriguez told him not to come.  Krishan Manners, on the stand, under oath, would not have helped "the Village's" case.  And the ringleader/mastermind of this attempted hit job was also not there today.  She wasn't even mentioned.

Judge Arzola picked up all the clues, more or less all of them coming from Dan Samaria, that there were some nasty local politics at play, and he didn't want to know about them.  He was strategic, maybe even surgical, about avoiding or stifling any references to them.  He reduced the matter to its minimum, which was that the petition was to remove Dan, on the basis that he doesn't live in BP, but he does live in BP, so there's no issue.  The judge gave Dan a friendly reminder that Dan is in the "final stages" of losing his house, and he essentially advised Dan to figure out what he was going to do with himself once the house was gone.

The end of this hearing was that Judge Arzola did, in fact, dismiss the matter.  At least for now.  It's not "ripe."  But Dan was already told that the sheriff was at his house today, seizing it, and changing locks.  So, either that's true, and Dan's unhappy situation has suddenly gotten "ripe," or it's not true, but it soon will be.  In the meantime, we have an interesting Commission meeting coming up this coming Tuesday.  The new Commissioners have been sworn and installed, and Tracy Truppman cannot prevent this meeting from happening.  All she can do now is have a really busy rest of today, tomorrow, maybe the weekend, and Monday and Tuesday, and try to do something to get Dan Samaria removed from the Commission in the next few days.  It appears she's desperate enough, and pathetic enough, to try to do it.  Tick, tick, tick.

In the meantime, after the hearing, we all received news that 1) Gray Robinson have resigned as the Village's attorneys, citing, among unspecified other things, that they are worried about the safety of their attorneys, and 2) that Rebecca Rodriguez will be replaced by Julia Mandell for next week's meeting.  It was not explained why Julia Mandell presumably has less to fear from the fearsome, marauding, and frenzied BP Commission meeting-goers than does Rebecca Rodriguez.  But fortunately, Rebecca Rodriguez was instrumental in getting a gun-toting sergeant-at-arms right at the Commission table, so maybe no one has anything to fear.

Or, They Don't Have to Go Down Gracefully.

I wasn't sure whether to make this one more post for today, or two more.  But they're closely connected, so I decided on one.

My first inspiration came from a conversation I was having with a BP friend about other things.  We got to talking about our BP "problem," and the question was "why?"  My friend, who's known Tracy Truppman longer than I have, said Tracy has always been angry like this.  But no one knows why.  My friend asked me what presumed disturbance in Tracy's upbringing or background would have led to this.  We couldn't figure out, to look at it one way, what Tracy gets out of these antics.  And we kind of left it that way.

The second inspiration came from a small flurry of e-mails regarding Dan Samaria's court hearing.  It's this coming Thursday (two days from now) at 10:30 AM.  The address of the courtroom is 73 W Flagler St, room 1017.  We are all welcome to attend.  To make a long story, that's already been told, short, Dan is being sued by the Village (the name of the plaintiff is Krishan Manners, the Village manager) because, the suit alleges, Dan is a Commissioner, but he can't be a Commissioner, because he doesn't live here.  Except of course he lives here, and it's impossible to understand what is the basis for the legal action.

This really has nothing to do with Krishan Manners.  In fact, if the idea behind the suit is to remove a Commissioner who no longer lives in the municipality, our Charter (yeah, that) says it is the job of the Commission, not the Village manager, to remove him or her.  This is just Tracy Truppman, the chronically and inexplicably angry Tracy Truppman, hiding behind someone else.

Speaking of which, I'm told that Tracy has engaged two attorneys for this imagined execution.  She's got her Rebecca Rodriguez, but Rebecca is also bringing one of her friends or colleagues.  So the Village will be billed by two attorneys to do a job that has no merit and is not doable.  As I have said previously, Dan Samaria lives here.  He lives in his house, as we all live in our houses.  If, for some reason, he couldn't live in his house, he has already contracted to live somewhere else here in Biscayne Park.  If, for some reason, he couldn't live anywhere in Biscayne Park, all he would have to do is say he intends to return to living in Biscayne Park.  Either way-- he lives here in one place, he'd live here in another place, or he didn't live here temporarily, but he'd say he intends to return to living here-- he cannot be removed from the Commission.  Tracy Truppman is just angry.  Gray Robinson will do anything for money.  Krishan Manners does what Tracy tells him to do, so he can keep his job.  None of this has the remotest merit.  And the Village (that's the taxpayers, which is all of us) will be asked to pay for this moronic crusade of Tracy's.  The one that's supposed to save her from admitting she got the short end of a "checkmate."

One concern expressed by some BP residents is that if Tracy finally has to give up, and if she is removed as mayor, and if she dealt with all of this by resigning, as two of her stooges have already done, the Village would then have to pay another $16K for another special election.  I agree that's a shame, but as I have said to those who are concerned about it, considering the dramatic disruption Tracy causes, and the lack of accomplishment, and the extreme legal bills she creates, it would be well worth $16K to be rid of her.  Her non-stop chats with Rebecca Rodriguez cost us a lot more than that.

Oh, Those Pesky Religionists.

I know.  I'm breaking my own rule.  I have two rules for this blog, and the main one is that posts have to be about Biscayne Park.  (The other is that authors other than myself have to let me know as soon as they post something, so I can send out the new post announcement.)  This topic is about BP as much as it's about anywhere, but it's not specifically about BP.

On the radio this morning, I heard a spot about a Tennessee law that allows religious adoption agencies not to help same sex couples adopt.  This is in keeping with the religious beliefs of the adoption agency sponsors, but it is contrary to an "Obama era" ruling against this kind of prejudice.

This is, in my opinion, a real problem.  By "real," I don't mean big.  I mean genuine.  There's an actual dilemma and a conflict in this matter, and it has legitimacy on both sides.

The correctness, if you ignore the political incorrectness, of the religion-based adoption agencies is that for whatever are their reasons, and according to however they choose to interpret their religions, they think same sex unions are not in keeping with the tenets of their religions.  Yes, of course there's no such thing as "god," and religionists are commonly inconsistent, arbitrary, and hypocritical.  But within the structure of whatever beliefs they agree to hold, they've just decided they don't approve, or "god" doesn't approve, of same sex unions.  In fact, according to them, "god" doesn't even approve of homosexual people, whether or not they form unions.  So, the glaring question is why should they-- the religionists-- have to elevate to legitimacy people they think aren't legitimate, and who are whatever the religionists mean by the word "sinners?"  (If you want a glimpse of how ridiculous religion-based moralizing about this matter can get, look up the famous letter to Dr Laura Schlessinger.)

But, in any case, it's a fair question: why should a Catholic or Methodist or whatever adoption agency have to get babies placed in families of which Catholics or Methodists don't approve, when the disapproval is in any sense religious tenet-based?  Catholic and Methodist adoption agencies will get babies placed with Baptists, or Jews, or probably atheists.  They just have unique energy about homosexuals.  And if this is how they claim to feel, and they're remotely consistent about it, why can't they restrict in this setting?  As they generously offer, they don't in any way say homosexual couples or people can't adopt babies.  They can use public, non-religious agencies to help them.

And in one way, I don't argue with them.  I think that within the context of their twisted way of looking at things, they're not wrong.

But here's why there's a problem with allowing this matter to be this simple.

We're not just talking about religionists.  We're talking about American religionists.  America, the "free country."  America, where there's "separation of church and state," and this was considered so vitally important that it was mentioned in the Constitution.  And it's in this America that religious outlets and religionists get every benefit that everyone else gets, and they don't even have to pay for it.  If they successfully claim to be religions, no matter how fringy, they don't have to pay taxes.  They're underwritten, and they're entitled about it.  And many of them are plenty rich.  They don't owe the rest of us anything?  How entitled, how childish, are they?  They get all the benefits and all the protections this country has to offer, and they don't pay a nickel for it, and I pay for them instead, even though I think that what's at their core is a pack of primitive and irrational nonsense, but if I'm homosexual, and I want to adopt a child, they can refuse to help me?  As Pete Buttigieg says, if anyone doesn't approve of homosexuality, their beef is not with him.  It's with "god."  That, according to Buttigieg, is what made him homosexual.  But religionists can't bring themselves to recognize the fallacy of their belief system, so they take it out on people.  Homosexual people.  Homosexual people who want to adopt children.  And frankly, I think they're wrong.  I think that if they live in this country, then no, they can't refuse to help Americans adopt children.  I have a funny feeling that as much as religionists would like to refuse to help same sex couples adopt children, or as much as they would like to refuse to sell wedding cakes to same sex couples who get married, if their church or temple or mosque, or their business or personal home, was on fire, they wouldn't concern themselves with the sexual preference of whoever provided the tax money to pay for the public service to extinguish it, or with the sexual preference of the firefighter.  So let's not have it both ways.

Orchestra Miami to Honor Four Miami Women at Concert Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment

Orchestra Miami Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment with a Concert Honoring Four Prominent Miami Women

In honor of the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote, Orchestra Miami presents Miami Mujeres, a concert celebrating Miami's unique history and the women who made it great.

Orchestra Miami to honor four prominent Miami women who have greatly contributed to Miami’s culture and heritage: Aida Levitan, Arva Moore Parks McCabe, Enid Curtis Pinckney and Ruth Shack.

(MIAMI, January 15, 2020) – Orchestra Miami will celebrate the 100^th Anniversary of the 19^th Amendment which gave women the right to vote, by honoring four prominent women at a concert on February 8, 2020. The four honorees are Chairperson of U.S. Century Bank Aida Levitan, historian, author and preservationist Arva Moore Parks McCabe, Miami historian and first African-American President of the Dade Heritage Trust Enid Curtis Pinckney and former Miami-Dade County Commissioner and former President and CEO of the Miami Foundation, Ruth Shack. The honorees were selected for their service and contributions to the people of Miami and our collective society and culture.

The concert is called Miami Mujeres, and will take place on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2020 at 8:00 PM, at the historic First Miami Presbyterian Church, home to Miami's oldest congregation, located at 609 Brickell Avenue. The concert is part of Orchestra Miami’s “Discover Miami Through Music” series, which presents appropriately themed concerts in Miami’s places of historic interest in order to give us an opportunity to learn more about our city and each other through music. Founded in 1896, The First Miami Presbyterian Church was the first formal Presbyterian congregation in Miami, founded two months before Miami became incorporated as a city. Henry Flagler became the church’s biggest benefactor. Of course, Mr. Flagler would not have come to Miami if Julia Tuttle hadn’t convinced him of Miami’s vast potential and persuaded him to extend his East Coast Railroad to Miami in 1896. As a result of this, Miami is the only major U.S. city to be founded by a woman.

The concert features compositions by four note-worthy women composers: Afro-Cuban composer, conductor, educator and arts advisor Tania León, Amy Beach, the first successful American female composer of large-scale art music and one of the first American composers to succeed without the benefit of European training, Florence Price, the first black woman to have a symphony performed by a major US orchestra (The Chicago Symphony) in 1933, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Miami native and graduate of Gables High, and winner of countless honors and awards including the Pulitzer Prize. The 52 musicians of Orchestra Miami will be conducted by Orchestra Miami’s Founder & Artistic Director Elaine Rinaldi and features powerhouse Russian pianist Asiya Korepanova as the soloist on Amy Beach’s piano concerto.
 
As a tribute to each of the composers on the concert, Orchestra Miami will ask the four honorees to read a brief paragraph about each composer and be honored themselves at the concert. The four honorees will be Chairperson of U.S. Century Bank and Founder of ArtesMiami Aida Levitan, historian, author and preservationist Arva Moore Parks McCabe, Miami historian and first African-American President of the Dade Heritage Trust Enid Curtis Pinckney and former Miami-Dade County Commissioner and former President and CEO of the Miami Foundation, Ruth Shack.

The program includes music of a wide variety of styles from four major female composers. The concert begins with the exciting composition Ácana by Afro-Cuban composer Tania León, followed by the lushly romantic Concerto for Piano in C # Minor by Amy Marcy Beach, the first successful American female composer of large-scale art music and one of the most acclaimed composers of her era. Following intermission, the orchestra will perform the Concert Overture N. 2 by Florence Price. the first black woman composer to have a symphony performed by a major US orchestra. The Concert Overture is inspired by three spirituals: Go Down Moses, Ev'ry Time I Feel the Spirit, and Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen. The final piece on the program is the Symphony N. 1 (Three Movements for Orchestra) by Miami native and graduate of Coral Gables High School Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. The Symphony was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1983, making her the first female composer to win the prize.

“I’m so excited that Orchestra Miami is able to mark such a significant anniversary with this concert and honor four women which I admire greatly”, says Orchestra Miami Artistic Director Elaine Rinaldi. “As a Miami native and  conductor, this concert combines elements that are most important to me- love and pride for my city, gratitude for the women of the suffragette movement, gratitude to the women who came before me in fighting for equality and rights for women and gratitude for the women who preserve and protect our heritage for future generations. We would not be who we are today without their sacrifices.”

Following the concert, there will be a reception for the honorees in the church reception hall. VIP tickets, which include the post-concert reception and a reserved seat, are $60 per person. General admission seating for the concert only is priced from $5 to $40. Limited free parking is available at the church parking lot; spillover parking is available at the Bank of America parking garage adjacent to the church. Tickets and complete information can be found at www.OrchestraMiami.org or by calling (305) 274-2103.

As I See It, It's Checkmate.

Tracy Truppman avoided having a Commission meeting occur this past Tuesday.  Another one is not scheduled until the regular meeting in February, and I'm told that special Commission meetings can only be scheduled at regular Commission meetings, unless they're about qualifying emergencies.  So, since there won't be a regular Commission meeting until February, then there won't be any Commission meeting until then, barring one of those qualifying emergencies.

So, the question is, what does Tracy think she has to gain by avoiding or delaying having the Commission meet?

One thought was that she could somehow stall off, or somehow even prevent, the installation of two new Commissioners.  Well, that happened on Thursday, January 16.  Tracy did not accomplish that imagined goal.  And if it hadn't happened on Thursday, it would have happened at whatever would be the next regular Commission meeting Tracy would agree to attend.  And we'd have to have some Village meetings in the next several months.  There's important Village business that has to happen.  "Budget season" is coming soon, and we have to make arrangements for elections at the end of this year.  All of this requires the Commission to meet.  Even if the new Commissioners hadn't been installed this past Thursday, they'd be installed at some point.  This possible effort of Tracy's is a dead end.

Another idea is that Tracy, and her Rebecca, are stalling for time, so they can get Dan Samaria thrown out of his house, and, they tell themselves, even thrown out of the Village (because of the imagined possibility that he could no longer live in his house).  But Dan has already made arrangements to move into another house in the Village, if Tracy and her Rebecca get him thrown out of his own house.  So, that won't work for Tracy.  And even if Tracy and her Rebecca could somehow get Dan to have to leave active residence in the Village, there happens to be case law, and a precedent, from as nearby as Miami Shores.  In that situation, a Commissioner was able to remain on the Commission, even though he temporarily no longer lived in Miami Shores, on the basis of his assertion that he intended to re-establish residence in the Shores, which he did.  All Dan would have to do, if the girls could somehow pry him out of his house, and out of the Village, is say he intends to re-establish residence here.  So that scheme won't work.

But what if Tracy and her Rebecca could somehow get Dan out of his house, and out of the Village, and he decided, for some reason, that he no longer wanted to live here?  What if he resigned from the Commission?  Tracy's last shot would be to get elected someone who would be the third stooge.  Well, she already tried that.  And Rafael lost handily.  He lost to one person Tracy might or might not have thought she could manipulate, and another person she treats as an arch enemy.  Tracy simply does not have significant juice in Biscayne Park any more.

Anything Tracy can try, or has tried, is doomed to fail, or has failed already.

Is Tracy trying to hang onto that extra stipend for an extra month or so?  Is she that hard up?  Janey Anderson used to say a funny thing about Commissioners who implied that the meager stipend was so important to their livelihoods.  She would ask "what were they going to do if they didn't win the election?"

It's clear Tracy has not the slightest regard for Village finances, or for the taxpayers and, you know, "constituents," who live here.  Does she simply take a really short view of things, and want to hang on to the title for a very little bit more time?

Whatever is Tracy's intention, it seems clear she's not going to accomplish anything.  And every effort she makes turns more and more Village residents against her.  Maybe she just doesn't get it.  It's painfully clear that she doesn't care.

You think through every possible move, and you realize that anything you do leads to the same place: you lose.

"Checkmate."  Usually, the graceful loser lays down his or her king at this point, and concedes the match.  The graceful ones do that.

When You Find Yourself In a Hole, Stop Digging.

Oh, the goings on in Biscayne Park.

As you know, Tracy Truppman pathetically blocked a Commission meeting this past Tuesday.  Either she was warding off the swearing in of two new Commissioners, or she was buying a little time to finish getting rid of Dan Samaria, or both.

Tracy did not make any friends with her Tuesday antic.  Well, she slid her Rebecca Rodriguez a little more of our Village money, but she didn't make any other friends.  Will Tudor didn't make any friends, either.  Rebecca took considerable liberties regarding the Village Charter, and she interpreted that a Commission meeting would be necessary to certify the new Commissioners.  Will took Rebecca's advice, no questions asked.  He was about the only person in a packed room to be willing to do that.

Today, Ginny O'Halpin and Mac Kennedy demanded to be installed, which they legally could, because Rebecca's advice was grossly wrong, and that happened.  For incomprehesible reasons, Ginny and Mac were sworn in and installed separately, and neither was in the room when the other was sworn and installed.  After each of them signed their acceptance of their new position, each identically, and immediately, asked Village manager Krishan Manners to call a meeting for tomorrow, and each identically asked for one agenda item: election of a mayor.

Because the requested meeting would be a special one, and on short notice, four of the five Commissioners are required to agree to it.  It remains to be seen if Tracy and Will will coincidentally refuse to agree to this meeting.  (Note the title of this post.)

In the meantime, I received a link to a Miami Herald column all about Tuesday's aborted meeting, and the restless and angry natives who were there.  And the anger at Tracy Truppman.  (One of our former BP neighbors wrote to me regarding the Herald article, to ask me if BP had gone "bananas.")  The article included a prominent photograph of Tracy.  The author did not know about the movement to get Ginny and Mac certified and sworn.  And he certainly didn't know that happened today, and that both of them want a Commission meeting.  Tomorrow.  To vote for a mayor.  An effort Tracy has a chance to try to frustrate.  After her one hope, Rafael Ciordia, became an example of how little juice Tracy has any more in the Village.  But still, Tracy can try to delay this.  (Note the title of this post.)

So, we'll either have a meeting tomorrow (Tracy and Will will stop fighting the inevitable), or it will be some other day, or we won't have a January meeting, but we'll have a February meeting.  Something will happen.  And we can all breathe again.  No one will be blackballed from boards, or otherwise punished for criticizing Big Sister.  There won't be any more foolish efforts to push through Charter changes that no one supports, and grossly inappropriate Village residents to pretend to be interested in the Charter.  Or the Village.

We'll see whether or not Tracy, and Will, can have any decency and respect, or appreciation of which way the wind is blowing.  Or if they still want to crusade.  They don't take advice from me, but if they did, I would tell them to read the title of this post.

Oh, Janey, Forget About It. Don't Beat Yourself Up.

As we were all either milling around or making our ways out after tonight's aborted Commission meeting, Janey Anderson stopped me.  I'm not sure what her point was, but she said she hadn't realized three years ago that Tracy Truppman, et al, would be as bad as they turned out to be.  I have to admit here that I wasn't very interested in Janey's new understanding of the disaster she worked hard to help create, and the possibility that she was something like apologetic about it.  And I started out by saying it wasn't a surprise to me, although I agreed with her that Tracy and her stooges were even worse than I anticipated they would be.  But I knew they'd be bad, and they were bad.

But then, I sort of changed focus with Janey, and I reminded her that she didn't support Tracy/Jenny/Will because she thought they might be good Commissioners.  She supported them because it seemed to her essential that the Village Commission include "anyone but Fred."  "Anyone."  It shouldn't have mattered to Janey how bad she might have thought Tracy/Jenny/Will would be.  Their saving value was that they weren't Fred.  And for Janey, and a collection of others, we needed "anyone" but Fred.  I told Janey what would happen if we elected Tracy/Jenny/Will.  Janey didn't care.  I underestimated the damage.  If I hadn't underestimated, and I could have told Janey it would be this bad, she still wouldn't have cared.  We needed someone other than Fred, they weren't Fred, and the issue was settled.

Let's imagine, though, that Janey hadn't felt the way she did.  And let's imagine the collection of others hadn't, either.  In that election, Tracy and Jenny got the most votes, and Will got enough to come in third.  Fred got the fourth most votes, and Dan Samaria got the fewest.  But what if Fred had had enough support, from Janey and others, to have won a seat?  He would either have come in third, and just displaced Will, or he would have done better, and displaced Will, and knocked Tracy or Jenny down to third.  So the winners would have been some configuration of Tracy, Jenny, and Fred.  And they would have joined David Coviello and Roxy Ross.  David, Roxy, and Fred tended to be on the same page about most things.

But that would only have lasted for a few short months, until David resigned, which he knew in advance he was going to do at some point in the next two years.  And let's suppose, for the sake of discussion, that David had announced at the outset that he knew he was going to resign, and therefore, he declined someone's offer to re-elect him as mayor.  I will tell you with complete confidence that Fred would never have agreed to Tracy or Jenny as mayor, and I doubt Roxy would have, either.  So let's imagine that Roxy gets elected mayor.  And all of this lasts for those few months, until David resigns, sooner than he said he thought he would.

At this point, Harvey Bilt runs against Dan Samaria for David's seat, which is what happened, and Harvey wins, which he did.  We can't know what would have happened about the third candidate in that race; the one who dropped out: Mac Kennedy.  But let's imagine Mac doesn't run, or drops out anyway, as he did.

The Commission is then Roxy, Fred, Tracy, and Jenny, and Harvey joins them.  It turns out, amazingly enough, that Harvey has very major energy against Roxy.  I don't know why, but he just does.  If Tracy knew that, or if it took her less than five minutes to figure it out, suddenly, Tracy decides we have a new Commission, and we should re-elect the mayor.  Sort of like the thing she's bucking now, because this time, it's to her disadvantage.  But when it's to her advantage, she's all over it.

Then, she gets elected mayor, compliments of Jenny, Harvey, and herself, and she owns a majority.  It's not a supermajority, as it was when she controlled Jenny, Will, and Harvey, but it's good enough to allow her to trample and terrorize everyone, as she likes to do.  It's good enough to bring her to Sharon Ragoonan's office, to throw her out.  It's good enough to allow her to start ordering around all the Village's employees, and fire the attorney, and hire Rebecca Rodriguez, and start dumping Village money like it's counterfeit.

See, Janey?  If you had backed Fred, instead of working so hard to keep him out of office again, the result would have been the same.  It would just have taken about four or five extra months to get there.  Do you feel better now?

Wow, I Missed It Entirely!

Tonight was to be the big Commission meeting, the first of the year, when our two new Commissioners would be installed.  And take their seats.  And participate in votes about Village business.  Was to be.

We have a...um...funny situation here in the Village, with respect to our so-called Commission.  The Commission is, according to two of the three Commissioners, big enough to transact very momentous Village business-- a quorum is a quorum, Will Tudor pointed out-- but so vanishingly small that the absence of just one Commissioner, in this case Tracy Truppman, paralyzes the whole deal, by failing to produce that quorum of which Will was so proud and confident.

So, since Tracy decided not to show up tonight, her guard dog, Rebecca Rodriguez, told us there was no quorum, and would therefore be no meeting.  Which meant Ginny O'Halpin and Mac Kennedy would not be installed tonight, and would not take their seats on the Commission, and would not participate in transacting any Village business, which wouldn't be transacted by anyone else, either.

So, I'm sitting there, amused and annoyed, and trying to figure out what was Tracy's angle.  What we had been told, by Rebecca (I know, and you don't have to say it, but hold on, because I'm getting there), was that the new Commissioners could not be installed except at a Commission meeting, because it would take an actual meeting for the Village to "certify" the election results the County has already certified.  Maybe, Rebecca reassured, next time we try to plan a meeting.  Mac asked the question that sprang to my mind, but he was a bit more timid about it than I would have been.  He asked what if Tracy doesn't come to the next scheduled meeting, either.  I was thinking what if Tracy simply never comes to another meeting.  That question was not answered by Rebecca, who high-tailed it out of there while people were trying to ask her things.  She figured there was nothing more she was required to say.  It's not like she owes the residents of Biscayne Park anything.  It's not like she's our lawyer.  She's Tracy's lawyer, and she already did what her one client instructed her to do.  She had already invoked the clearly delineated requirement of the Village Charter regarding acceptance of newly elected Commissioners, and she didn't think she owed us anything more, like, for example, a citation in the Charter, which doesn't say anything at all like that.

But anyway, back to my musing about Tracy's angle.  As I said, I was thinking what Mac was thinking: is Tracy trying somehow to prevent the installation of a majority against which she would be on the short side, and her antic was not to come to meetings, so the installation couldn't occur?

No, I forgot about the other dynamic going on with respect to the Commission.  It was first Chuck Ross, then Gage Hartung, and finally, Gary Kuhl who all had the same idea, which I feel sure was the correct idea.  And I'm not saying this isn't pathetic.  I'm just saying I feel sure it's correct.  Tracy was trying to stall for time, so she and her Rebecca can do what they think is finishing the job of separating Dan Samaria from his house, and therefore from the Village, and therefore from the Commission, where he challenges Tracy.  Chuck and Gage and Gary were right, and Mac and I were wrong.

But here's the problem.  (And I'll refer you to the most recent post in Milt Hunter's blog, www.thebiscayneparker.blogspot.com, for a detailed explanation of what Tracy and Rebecca are trying to do.  Suffice it to say they're punishing Dan for challenging the regime, and they're trying to prevent the majority that's staring them in the face.  And that will cost Tracy her mayorship, and Rebecca and Gray Robinson the contract with the Village.)  The idea here is that Dan has issues regarding the mortgage on his house.  I've asked Dan if I could refer to this, and I hope Milt Hunter did, too, and Dan told me I could.  With vigorous help from Tracy Truppman and Rebecca Rodriguez, there is now an eviction demand against Dan.  And Rebecca has already synthesized a whole theory by which Dan, who will supposedly not be living in the Village much longer, cannot be a Village Commissioner.  What, you're complaining that Tracy and Rebecca are not nice people?  Yeah, and your point is?  Except 1) Dan still lives in his house, and 2) he has already committed to rent another house in the Village, if Tracy and Rebecca get him thrown out of the one he still lives in.  Dan still lives in the Village, and if he doesn't live in the house he's been occupying for years, he'll live in another one here.  Dan's not going anywhere, with respect to the Village, or with respect to the Commission.  Tracy and Rebecca are just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, as they say.  I wonder how much longer we have to put up with this, and with them.

What a Lovely Morning in BP

The clear “winter” sunrise in Biscayne Park was particularly lovely on my morning walk today. I got my first glimpse of mango flowers that promise their annual bounty, and the thick, sickly sweet fragrance of corn plants was still hanging in the air. I spotted several owls on wires scouting out their final snacks for the evening, and a lone fox scooted across the rec center field back to its den. I chatted with a friendly cop and visited with the regular cast of early morning dog walkers. This morning, I was reminded of the many things I love about our bucolic little village, and the day felt rife with opportunity for wonderful things. What a way to start a day.

The other thing that made this morning feel particularly special was the trust that my neighbors have bestowed upon me by electing me to fill a seat on the BP commission. I am humbled and honored and excited, and I already feel the weight of the responsibility as my inbox and phone are flooded with congratulations and suggestions and ideas and requests. I don’t take this new responsibility lightly, and I’m ready to live up to my promises for integrity, passion and hard work.

I’m writing to say thank you, Biscayne Park.

I’m also thankful for a campaign that afforded me the opportunity to make so many new neighbor friends, starting with the two engaging and insightful folks I ran alongside. My husband, Dan, and I are happy to now call Rafael Ciordia (and his husband Eddie Bridges) and Ginny O’Halpin our new Biscayne Park friends. We started this campaign with a drink in my living room promising positivity and we ended with hugs outside the rec center as we packed up our tables and went our respective ways to await the results. Ginny and Rafael share my enthusiasm for the future of BP, so I’m anxious to get to work with Ginny and will be calling upon Rafael for the community service that he so graciously offered when he wrote to congratulate me last night. As much as I’m happy to be elected commissioner, I’m even happier that we three neighbor/candidates showed BP what a clean campaign can look like and how that can bring a community together rather than divide it.

Another promise I made was to communicate: to be available, to listen and to respond. I have to learn how the Florida Sunshine Laws will affect how I can communicate with residents on Nextdoor, so I may not be as chatty as normal on some topics here. (Man, did I just make some of you happy villagers!) But, I am available now by phone and text (305.984.6864) and to meet in person. I’ll start that by inviting neighbors to join me on a weekly walk. If you want to chat village topics with a commissioner on a morning walk, I’ll be at the rec center front door at 7a every Wednesday starting next week. Meet me there and I’m all ears for an hour. Then, I’ll also be available every month for one hour prior to the commission meeting at the log cabin. That’s a great time to provide your take on agenda items for that evening. (Commission meetings are typically the first Tuesday of each month, 7p, but always check the village calendar: https://www.biscayneparkfl.gov/index.asp?SEC=A482E78D-C7CA-4E86-BD0D-AA20BD7CDAEB&Type=B_EV)

My first commission meeting will be this Tuesday, January 14, 7p, when Ginny and I will be sworn in. Then, we’ll join the other commissioners and conduct BP’s fully seated commission meeting in several months. As a show of support to the commission and the village, let’s pack our adorable log cabin with residents from every corner, every demographic, of every opinion on any given topic. I’d love nothing better than looking out on a sea of fresh faces to a commission meeting, including babies and kids. BP is a family village on a first-name basis, so let’s show that on Tuesday night! This village deserves a celebratory evening when we all come together to set aside differences, make new friends and move forward as a community. As a tiny microcosm of the current state of our country, this Tuesday let’s show everyone what “community” can look like in 2020!

Finally, in addition to thanking those who supported and voted for me, I want to thank those who challenged me yet chose other candidates. You kept me on my toes and you exposed me to new perspectives. Now, I’m just as much your commissioner. I want to know you better and understand how you feel on village topics. Please engage me in conversation and continue to challenge me.

Thank you, neighbors, and cheers to BP2020!

MacDonald Kennedy

Commissioner-Elect

Biscayne Park

PS: I’m as tired at seeing my name in front yards as the rest of you. I grabbed as many campaign signs as I could carry this morning, and the rest will be gone in short order. Apologies for the sign pollution!

"Results Are O-fficial"

The Village sent out an e-blast regarding election results.

Of 2104 registered voters in the Village, 448 voted. 

Ginny O'Halpin had the most votes with 323.  Mac Kennedy had just a few less, with 304.  Rafael Ciordia got 168 votes.

Ginny will have a two year, 11 month term, and Mac will have an 11 month term.

Congratulations to the winners.  Rafael Ciordia said he felt moved to help the Village, and I hope he meant it.  It will be great to have him on a board.

An Act of Kindness

Saturday, January 4, 2020, is the day Rafael Ciordia chose to suggest that he himself would perform some "act of kindness," and he suggested his neighbors might do the same.  He made a number of specific suggestions as to what acts of kindness might be, and he imagined that the Village might be abuzz with residents performing their own individual acts.

I thought this was a nice idea, although if Village residents are individually going to perform kind gestures, not in coordination with each other, there's no reason they should all choose to do this on the same day.  In fact, Rafael might better have suggested that Village residents simply strive to be kind people, and do kind things all the time.  But that's not what Rafael chose to suggest.

Rafael gave no indication as to how or why he chose the idea of people performing kind acts, and how or why he imagined Village residents performing these kind acts on Saturday, January 4, 2020.  I suppose it's a puzzle.

Rafael presented his suggestion in a post on Nextdoor.  And he closed his post with a curious comment.  He reminded Village residents that the Village is having an election on Tuesday, January 7, 2020, and he encouraged Village residents to vote.  He said there were "three great candidates."  Presumably, that means he considers himself a "great candidate," but he also reassures that his two opponents are great candidates.

Rafael's declaration of candidacy to be a Village Commissioner does not, on the surface, make any sense.  It doesn't seem to be about anything, at least it's not about anything evident.  Rafael moved here in 2012, he has had no activity or visibility in the Village, he knows nothing about the Village and its problems, and he never even came to Commission meetings until he decided to run for Commission.  One of his opponents has been very visible, and very involved, since the day he moved here, and the other has been here longer than has Rafael, and she's been on two ad hoc Village committees.  If Rafael considers these two candidates to be "great" choices for Commission, I wouldn't argue with him.  The fact is that apart from Rafael himself, they're the only other Village residents who declared candidacies.  So, if these other two Village residents are the only two other Village residents who wanted to be Commissioners in this election, and Rafael thinks they're "great," then it could easily appear that the Village has solved its immediate problem, without any help from Rafael.

And I'm not sure, frankly, that I would agree with Rafael when he says all three candidates are "great."  Rafael himself is frankly sketchy as a Commission candidate right now, and his offerings at the Meet the Candidates event were very concerning.  Rafael has clearly adopted understandings that are shared by almost no one, and they're not reality-based.  But Rafael, who is starkly uninitiated regarding the Village and its functioning, has allowed himself to rely on input from very, very few people, has apparently ignored input from others, and winds up parroting positions that are undermining to the Village.  Rafael hasn't seen much in terms of what's been going on, even at Commission meetings, but what he's seen should have allowed him to recognize what's breathtakingly wrong with the picture someone painted for him, reproductions of which he then peddles himself.

The Village is currently suffering from a disease.  Rafael has seen it.  He's seen two Commissioners, out of only three who are left, force through approval of Ordinances of which no one except those two Commissioners approves, over the objection of the remaining Commissioner, who suggested these Ordinances be put on hold for one month, until the two new Commissioners are elected, and they do it without even acknowledging the concerns of their neighbors.  And it is the momentum of these two Commissioners that Rafael is apparently seeking to join.  It is their non-reality-based assertions which Rafael repeats.

It may be too late for Rafael to perform a real act of kindness, and mercy, or maybe it's not too late.  If Rafael was feeling genuinely kind, and considerate of his neighbors, and dedicated to the best functioning for the Village, he would drop out of this race now.  Frankly, he would have done that weeks ago.  Rafael can deliver to the Village and its government two "great" new Commissioners ("great," by his own estimation), and he can save the Village $16K.  And the best result of this kind and merciful act Rafael could perform is that it will stop the Tracy Truppman, once again supported by Will Tudor, majority that is so badly damaging the Village and its functioning and finances.

If Rafael did that, it would be better for the Village than his raking a median, or bringing soup to one of his neighbors, things he could have done, and could do, any time.  Rafael might still be able to do for the Village something "great."  I hope he does it.