Last Friday, July 9, one of our neighbors wrote to me privately. The title of the e-mail was "Were You at Tuesday's Meeting?"
The content was "I think Dan Samaria is becoming increasingly addle-brained. It's just painful to watch and listen to. Not that he ever had much in the way of cognitive skills, but it's getting worse. As long as the majority of voters in this city(sic*) stay uninformed and/or treat electing someone to the commission as the equivalent of a participation trophy in little league, we are so screwed."
*Municipalities in Florida can be either cities, towns, or villages. Biscayne Park has chosen to call itself a Village. We are either a village or a municipality. We are not a city.
I responded as follows: "You answered your own question. Did I listen to Tuesday's meeting? 'It's just [too] painful to watch and listen to.' And it's not just Dan. It's also Ginny and Judi, and I'm disappointed in Art's minimal participation. Mac is great, but he can in no way contain himself."
To which our neighbor replied: "Agree on all counts."
We've had good Commissions and not as good ones. But we crashed badly at the end of 2016, and we have not recovered. If some of us thought Ginny O'Halpin would help us get back on an adaptive path, we were wrong. And if we thought Dan Samaria would somehow find a way to stay on the adaptive path onto which he had stumbled, and was being propped up, we were wrong about that, too.
And we've had the same problem with managers. We stumbled at first with Frank Spence, but it was an honest mistake, and we had to figure ourselves out, in terms of turning over functioning and a good deal of decision-making to a manager. But then, we had three excellent managers in Ana Garcia, Heidi Siegel, and Sharon Ragoonan. And we gave it all up for meaninglessness and mediocrity. If we thought Mario Diaz would get us back on track, we guessed wrong again.
I always regretted, or complained, that Village residents who had been Commissioners stopped attending Commission meetings once the meetings were no longer about themselves. And at this point, I myself have stopped bothering. I was faithful through the Truppman et al years, and at the beginning of the next phase, but the whole thing has become too frustrating, too infuriating, and too tragic, and I've just quit tuning in. Would I go if I could go in person? I don't know. Maybe. Maybe not. The stalwart of all stalwarts was Dan Keys, and he's quit going, too. Although I think he quit because he was no longer a member, and Don, of the P&P Board. Bob (and Janey) Anderson also used to come after Bob retired from wanting to continue to be a Commissioner. As far as I know, they still watch virtually. So maybe Bob will take the torch from Keys. But whoever is there to observe is doing no more than watching a train wreck happen.
The person who wrote to me said it seemed as if voting for someone to be on the Commission was like giving them the empty prize that otherwise represents a "participation trophy in little league." Yeah, that's one way to put it. And in its way, it's not wrong. But I think it misses the point. The point is that some kids really like little league, and either they're good at it, or they're not. Other kids are bored, or they want to do what their friends are doing, or their parents urge them to play. Others maybe just want that participation trophy. And that's our problem. That last thing. We've had way too many Commissioners, especially lately, and now, who don't want anything. At least they don't want anything that has anything to do with the Village. What they want is that participation trophy. So they can pat themselves on the back.
I've seen it elsewhere around here, too. There are some people who join boards like high school students who want to go to good colleges join clubs: it pads their resumes, and makes them appear more than they are. Do you want to know what they do once they get appointed to a board? Nothing. That was never the intent. I know of one new board member who, after one meeting, which was attended "virtually," decided that s/he should be the vice president of that board.
We do have some neighbors who talk as if they wanted something (for the Village). Some of them join boards. And they criticize the successions of Commissions and Commissioners. But the ones I have in mind steadfastly refuse to run for Commission. Claiming to know the right answer to everything, and wallowing in criticism of everyone else, is easy. Being at the place where the buck stops? Um, apparently not. I know people who bitterly criticized the Commissioners who preceded me, and they supported me in my first campaign. Then, once I became a Commissioner, they criticized me exactly as they had criticized my predecessors, and they advocated for the Truppman wrecking crew. Then, they criticized the Truppman squad, just as they had criticized me, and just as they had criticized my predecessors. But never, not once, will these people themselves show us all how it's done correctly.
So, no, I did not tune into last week's Commission meeting. If you did, I hope your life is empty enough that it didn't seem to you to be a waste of your valuable time.
Is there anyone other than the Rosses and Mac that you DO like? Been reading this blog for about 3 years now, and yes, I watch the meetings. Fred, you are always complaining about everyone who is serving or has served, sounds a whole lot like sour grapes to me. Why don’t you write something uplifting, encouraging instead of spewing such hatred constantly. That is if it is possible for you to do so.
ReplyDeletePicabo, thanks for the thoughts. Yes, there are many people I believe would make good Commissioners. For reasons I don't know, they don't run for Commission. Some have been Commissioners in the past, and I've mentioned them in this blog within the past three years (so I don't know why their names don't come to your mind), and some have never been Commissioners.
Delete"Sour grapes" about what?
I have written about many topics that I think most Village residents would consider uplifting and encouraging. A common recurring one is better medians. If you don't find the idea of better medians, and a mechanism to get that to happen, to be uplifting and encouraging, I hope you'll say more about why this seems to you to be a bad idea. And you'll have to be delicate about how you explain this, so you don't turn out to be the one who appears to have the bad attitude.
Fred
No bad attitude here, but your attitude leaves a lot to be desired. I would imagine that many people refuse to run because of people like you. Running people down constantly (except for those 2 families I mentioned) in no way encourages anyone to do anything. Physician, perhaps it’s time to see your own to work out your anger issues. This probably will come as a shock to you, but you are absolutely no better than anyone else
ReplyDeleteGeneral, not substantive, ad hominem, not of value.
DeleteYou really shouldn’t speak like that about yourself, Fred. Your ravings are somewhat entertaining, sort of like watching paint dry. Of course you would consider my comments to be of no value. That’s because they have to do with you and in order to get better, you would necessarily have to make changes in your life, but, OH YEAH, why change anything that is the perfection found only in Fred?What a miserably unhappy, disappointed man you must be. People are leaving the Village in droves and there are very few who have a kind word for you. That’s on you.
ReplyDelete"People are leaving the Village in droves," and that's because of someone who has no authority, no power, little influence, and writes blog posts no one has to read? You'll have to explain that better.
DeleteActually, I believe they are leaving because of All the of the negative spewed by you and the fact that there is so much negativity among the residents, again, from the hatred you constantly spew.. Oh, and don’t even try to put words in my mouth. You implied that I discussed the medians. Those are your
Deletewords, not mine. Oh, but that’s what you do best, what a manipulator you try to be. Perhaps you should slow down when you are reading so that you can comprehend what is actually in peoples’ post. Then you wouldn’t embarrass yourself so often.
Again, I'm confused. You're blaming me for people's experience of negativity, but you've said I express my negativity in this blog, which no one has to read. In fact, what does anyone care what I say? How would they even know what I say, unless they're like you, and they don't like it, but they read it for three years. I won't ask you why you do that to yourself.
DeleteI never said or implied that you discussed the medians. I said I discussed them. I gave that discussion as an example of the "uplifting and encouraging" conversation you think is not to be found in this blog, and I asked you what about improving the medians didn't seem uplifting and encouraging to you. You never responded.
Please specifically correct anything I said that you think was erroneous.