Did I Ever Mention That I Moved Here in 2005?

So, I've seen X number of Commissions.  I was a member of one.  And I've heard about some that preceded my moving to the Park.

Until 2006, Commissioners were assigned to manage departments (police, recreation, public works, finance).  That was their Village job, and those were the areas they had to oversee, and for which they were responsible.

In 2006, we switched to a form of government in which the Commission set general policy and direction, and a professional manager was hired to manage all of the specific departments and functions.  The Commission still had a job to do, but it wasn't "hands on," so to speak, and it had only to do with what we came to call "vision."  As an aside, the Commissions, which had lowered their own stipends before anyway, made the symbolic gesture of lowering them again, now that Commissioners had a different task, which was in some ways an easier task.  All they had to do was figure out where they wanted to see the Village go, if anywhere, and how it should evolve, if it should.  They had to figure out what areas of Village functioning to prioritize, since we're very, um, modestly endowed financially, and we can't do everything.  It was then up to the paid professional manager to make happen what the Commission wanted to have happen.

Did I mention that I moved here in 2005?  It was in July.  I first voted in a BP election at the end of that year.  So there was a lot I didn't know about the Village, and how it had functioned.  I don't know how efficient and successful were individual Commissioners at running Village departments, but presumably, they themselves didn't think they were particularly efficient and successful at it, which is why they voted in favor of professional management, and to lower their own stipends.

Our first professional manager, Frank Spence, was our Keystone Kops phase.  We didn't know what to do with a manager, or how to use one, and Frank was sort of half in and half out anyway.  But we erected a Public Works building on a site that had been an embarrassing disgrace and an insult to our employees.  The Commission was fully supportive of Frank, and it may have done at least as much following as leading.

Our next manager was Ana Garcia.  The first Commission that worked with her largely stayed out of her way, and let her work.  She had a lot of work to do.  The first thing Ana did was slash a bloated Public Works Department, and she saved us a good deal of money.  The unfortunate position Ana took was to support the church's effort to establish a day school at the church.  In my opinion, the then Commission didn't know any better than to take Ana's advice that there was nothing we could do to prevent it.  But other than that, the Commission and Ana worked very well together.  Everyone wanted the same thing, which was a better, more functional, and fiscally leaner Village.  It was at this point that we started to think about annexation, to increase revenues.

And that was where the first functional problem developed.  Just there, as an opportunity to apply to annex a nearby tract was presenting itself, we got a new Commission.  And this Commission (majority) didn't want anything.  Well, one of them did.  Bryan Cooper wanted the Village to end as an independent municipality, and he imagined some scenario whereby Miami Shores would annex us.  And in a weird way, Barbara Watts wanted something.  She wanted BP to advocate for environmental causes in various places in the county.  But her focus was never on BP, except that she liked Earth Day, and liked the little shows we put on for ourselves, with acoustic instruments, and no lights.  Noah Jacobs wanted one thing, and it was to be Noah Jacobs.  Specifically, Noah wanted to be Mayor Noah Jacobs.  He insisted upon it.  He wanted everyone to call him Mayor Jacobs, even after he left office.  But other than trying to get the Village to fail, singing songs in the dark on Earth Day, and being called Mayor Jacobs, the three of them -- the majority -- didn't want anything.  They didn't want annexation (so they refused to apply), and they obstructed much of what Ana Garcia was trying to do.  So she quit.  And that Commission hired Heidi Siegel.  And we soon got a new Commission majority that didn't include Bryan Cooper or Noah Jacobs.  It was a majority that wanted something.  And so did Heidi Siegel.

That Commission (full disclosure?) accomplished a lot with Heidi Siegel.  But that Commission -- well, one member of it -- ruffled some feathers, and the balance changed three years later.  We got ourselves a new Commission majority that didn't want anything.  It...wanted...nothing.  Anything desirable, or helpful, or useful, or satisfying was verboten.  The Village slid.  There was no desire, no vision, and nothing to hang onto.  That Commission hired a manager who wouldn't complain about nonfunction, and it hired a lawyer who provided lots of "defense."  It was the bunker mentality, circle-the-wagons kind of defense.  In fact, if I'm misrepresenting the lack of desire of that Commission, then the only thing it wanted was to be there.  And to have power.  It was sneering, vindictive, self-aggrandizing power that did nothing for the Village.  To the Village?  Oh, yeah.  There was nail-biting fiscal compromise, and it came from not wanting anything positive.  We paid a lot of money to prevent anything good from happening here.

But then, it appeared all to come crumbling down.  The majority was four, and first one, then another, then a third quit.  We replaced them all.  For the second time in three years, we made the mistake of agreeing to "anyone but..."  And we thought we had an ace in the hole, because one of the Commissioners left standing was the one who seemed to be on a positive track.  So, with that Commissioner, and the three new ones, all of whom we thought wanted something, we were back in business.  The last holdover, who didn't want anything, would simply be outvoted.  Except...

The ace in the hole turned out to be a joker.  And he flipped the other way.  And one of the new ones we personally liked, and who had what we allowed ourselves to believe was something related to municipal experience years ago in New York, didn't want anything at all.  The two of them joined the holdover from our worst days, and we were instead back to inertia and obstructiveness.  The majority didn't want anything, and they hired an interim manager who didn't want anything.  Except a mirror.

We recently had one more chance to elect a Commission the majority of which wanted something.  That was in November, 2020.  We chose to continue aimlessness and meaninglessness instead.

We struggled from 2011 to 2013, and we've struggled consistently since 2016.  It's a bad business when the people in charge don't want anything.

It seems to me I've told this story before, but I'm moved to tell it again.  I particularly like a movie called "Household Saints."  It's about an Italian Catholic family in NYC, and the daughter wants to become a nun.  The father, who owns a butcher shop, is very disapproving of his daughter's ambition.  He explains that most women who come into the shop want something in particular.  And they get upset if it isn't available, or if it isn't just right.  Nuns, he says, are different.  They ask for something, and if it's not available, they just settle on anything, without complaint or disappointment.  They don't really want anything.  They don't care.  Nothing upsets them, or disappoints them.  (And thus, nothing really pleases or excites them.)  The symbolism is pretty clear: they're nuns, and they're disconnected, sexless, empty, without desire.

That doesn't work well in government.  We see it at every level.  We see electeds whose only real desire is to stay in office, and have a title, and get paid by the government.  It's in their interest not to do anything, because anything the government does will upset someone.  The result is stagnation, and failure to address the needs of people.  That's what we've been doing to ourselves, continuously since 2016.

See you at the polls in 2022.  We'll have a chance to replace three Commissioners who don't want anything with at least one (ideally three) who want something.