On Wednesday morning, November 4, I received an e-mail which included the following: "I hope you realize your candidacy was probably the biggest factor in Will Tudor losing. And I consider that a huge win for the village."
So I responded as follows (I'm leaving out various things, because they're not my point, and I don't want to identify anyone else who was part of this conversation. I was not asked to identify them, and I didn't request permission): "I certainly consider that what I did might have helped [the election turn out as it did]. That was a very conscious and deliberate goal. Whenever I spoke to anyone, and if they asked me what my goals were, I always started out with the necessity of displacing Tudor. I would then talk about the necessity for real professional management, and that once we had an adaptive Commission, and a proper professional manager, we would be able to address the normal things municipalities have to address...But it was common that I let our neighbors know that the Commission that would most reliably address these things would have a majority of Mac, Art, and me. The William boys were out of the question...and I didn't trust Judi.
"I'm not sorry I didn't finish in the top three [the writer's other lament]. I'm just mostly relieved Tudor didn't. I have doubts about Judi, but I hope Mac and Art can bring her around. And not being a Commissioner saves me a lot of time and trouble...(When I didn't win a seat in 2016, I said I won, and the Village lost.) But Mac [loves] it...and he's great at it, and Art wants it, and I hope Judi will grow herself up."
I later wrote back to say: "I have to say it did occur to me I was sort of sacrificing myself for Mac and Art, by making myself the badder guy. I realized some Village residents might listen to me rant about Tudor, decide they couldn't vote for me, but take to heart what I said, and vote for someone else who wasn't Tudor, like the two people I was recommending, apart from myself. And really, that's very fine with me...I just wanted Tudor out. I admit I was concerned about, and am still concerned about, Judi, but I'm hoping Mac and Art can get some control of her, if she won't control herself, and make her adaptive for Village/Commission functioning. I think she could have something to offer, if she could just accept that there's a world outside herself."
The person wrote back to me to say: "Who knows about Judi. She may actually get up there and rise to the occasion. I really don't know her at all, but any time I've ever spoken to her...she started every sentence with the word 'I,' which of course is very telling."
And that was most of our e-exchange on 11/4. At night on 11/4, there was a pathetic Commission attempt to interview two of what turned out to be the remaining three manager candidates. On 11/5, there was another Commission gathering to interview the last of the three who hadn't dropped out yet. And on 11/6, there was another meeting. It wasn't clear to me what this meeting was supposedly for, but I didn't Zoom in. I did, however, hear from my correspondent:
"So I just watched Judi at her first Commission meeting. Art and Mac have their work cut out for them. She was a total wackjob."
And I responded: "I know she is. I told Mac and Art this wasn't going to be easy." And the doubt and ambivalence began to creep in. I added "I'm sorry I let you and the Village down." I added "I wonder how many Village voters are going to say 'oops,' as they did after they elected Truppman, et al."
The perfectly fair question is whether I should say "oops," for being willing to be the bad guy, with the bad attitude, and not being Mr Sunshine, like Mac is, or the non-threatening gentleman who provides only reassurance and an image of steadiness, like Art. The fact is that if anyone asked me what's Art's platform for the Village, I have not the slightest idea. I just think he's solid and sensible, and he'll address matters in a logical and adaptive way that will keep focus on good functioning. That's what we need now. That, and Mac's boundless vision and energy, and intention to take a great neighborhood, and make it greater, and greater. Mac is looking for imperfections, so he can perfect them. Art will join him.
The gamble I took was to put myself on a suicide mission to keep Tudor off the Commission. I would try to take him out, and I might take myself out with him. And if that happened, then Judi was going to get in, which she did. And we would all have to hope for the best, the best being that Judi would knock off her standard entirely personalized material, so she can focus on that part of the Village that exists outside her house.
Maybe I made a mistake. Maybe I should have trusted the process, and my neighbors, and myself, and thought that if I was nothing but positive, as Mac was, then it/I would win the day. And there were people along the way who told me that. One of our neighbors, who reads this blog, said that it seemed to him that posts had changed in the several weeks before the election, and they were less informative, thought-provoking, and stimulating, and had become more biting, and about me. I wasn't aware of that happening, but maybe it did. As I said to my recent correspondent -- and I said the same things to Mac and Art -- I thought Judi could be made workable, focused, and adaptive. I'd certainly like to think last night's reported performance is in the "too soon to tell" category. Very soon, there will be a meeting, and a variance request will be on the agenda. Someone wants to build something closer to the property line than the Codes permit. If Judi is an inaugurated and seated Commissioner when that matter comes up, I hope she'll realize, or someone will be effective in telling her, that no one cares about the construction project she herself had 20 years ago, and the trouble she was given. That's what we always get from Judi. But she needs to think outside herself now. It's not about her any more. It's about the people with the shed, or the pool, or the Village's drainage project, or 6th Avenue (which is relatively far from where Judi lives), or whatever. The VBP Commission is not the Judi show. She needs to figure that out, and really understand it.
And if I made myself sufficiently unpalatable to have engineered this, then I apologize. I hope Judi will settle down. I hope she's just a bit full of herself right now, but after enough boring meetings with enough agenda items that are not about her, she'll realize what the task is. I hope so. I rely on her to figure this out. We all do.
Fred, wasn't Judy on the the code review board with you years ago? there were so many boards, I may be mistaken?
ReplyDeleteShe sure was, Harvey. And I saw and heard a lot of this stuff there, too. No Code topic was ever raised without Judi recalling her personal experiences with something related, or loosely related, to the Code we were trying to review. And it was always about how she was mistreated by the system: she had to get a permit she shouldn't have had to get, it cost too much, or whatever. If you watched Milt Hunter's interview of her during the recent campaign, you saw exactly the same material, this time including how her driving students don't listen to her (and this has what to do with running for BP Commission?), and much of the material settled on what seemed to be her conclusion that people mistreat her or don't respect her because of her gender.
DeleteShe really, really needs to learn how to focus in her role as a Commissioner. As I said in a recent post, I knocked on the door of a Village resident couple, and before I could develop much of a conversation with the husband, who was the one who answered the door, the wife jumped in and said "we know Judi." Like that's what this is about. My fear is that that's what it's about for Judi, too. "I'm here!" Great, so what are your thoughts about the matters at hand?
We have a storm coming. That’s what we should be talking about is public works ready to help Biscayne Park residence Do we have gas in the trucks do we have employees ready to help Are drain sewer is being cleaned out today Are we renting some Pumps to help the flooded streets Are we pruning trees that could Damage private properties These commissioners new and old should be on duty 24 seven for the next 72 hours The last storm we had Publics Works had no gas in their trucks no pumps The police department didn’t answer the phone I personally called the mayor at 4 o’clock in the morning To wake her up and start subcontracting out pumps to help with the flooded streets I was trapped in my home I had to rent my own pumps to pump the streets of Biscayne Park That’s what we should be talking about get them to start working now start passing out brooms and shovels and cleaned drain fields !!!!
ReplyDeleteAll this nonsense talk about old wounds Talk about the storm that’s coming What’s the public plan for Biscayne Park heavy rain coming the last time this happened Biscayne park was not prepared massive flooding iin the streets !!!!!
ReplyDeletePlease focus, Luigi/Louie/"hot dog king."
DeleteI am Doctor very focused Are you aware that the Biscayne times was purchased by the Miami Times of fourth generation African American family called Reeves The main office was right down the street from my office a tremendous family i’m so happy for the voice of awareness doctor do you have a voice also why can’t we talk about the tropical storm that’s coming the clogged up rain storm sewers the dysfunctional public works department !!!!
DeleteWell aware of the purchase of the BT.
DeletePlease go to blogspot.com. Register yourself, and start a blog. Write posts all day about the weather, how much you don't like Mac Kennedy, and anything else that's on your mind.
You are much more than welcome to participate in this Village Voice blog any time you like. As should be obvious to you, the posts have titles, and they have content that is of a certain theme which is introduced by the title. (I love titles. They're almost my most fun thing about writing.) Please try, when you're here, to aim your comments at the title and content of the post. That is in no way to say that there aren't many other important things going on in the world, and in BP, but I'm not addressing all that in a particular blog post. Some other blog post, maybe that hasn't occurred to me, or been written, yet? Maybe so. But not here, in this post of this blog. Not right now.
So, if I'm talking about the recent Commission election, or my concerns about Judi Hamelburg, that doesn't in any way mean that there isn't a hurricane possibly coming, or that the possibility of a hurricane isn't important, and to the residents of BP. It just means that's not the topic of this particular post. But it can be the topic of a post you yourself write, in a blog you yourself will start. Go for it, man. Just not right here, and at this moment.
I like everyone Doctor !!
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