City Manager Robert Daniels

To the surprise of no one, the twins, Commissioner Eddie Lim-Kreps and Vice Mayor Connie Lim-Kreps, along with Dr. and Mrs. Vogel, installed Police Chief Robert Daniels as the "interim" city manager.

There is a fake search on for a replacement city manager to be done by August, but we all know that come August Lim-Kreps will be so pleased with the interim that they will instruct Mrs. Vogel to make sure her husband votes for Daniels' permanent installation.

As I say, no surprise. This was planned in a place where the sun doesn't shine and executed carefully last night.

The chief did speak briefly about his past experience with budget cuts - they made him so unhappy that he quit his last job after only nine months, read about it here - and made clear that he was not going to look at salary concessions as an option. The new interim city manager then spoke about the need to evaluate what services might be cut from the greedy North Bay Village residents instead.

No surprises. The deal was worked out before the meeting and executed according to plan.

There were however several notable points.

• When it came time to vote to install Daniels to the position, Dr. Vogel initially voted no and it was necessary for Mrs. Dr. Vogel to yell "Vote Yes" which he quickly did.


• One of the Lim-Kreps twins (who can tell them apart? Not me.) pronounced the mayor's idea to take a week to evaluate what services will be needed to get us through the budget crunch as "idiotic."


• Connie Lim-Kreps wandered outside during the discussion of the permanent city manager search and then came back to complain that she didn't know what anyone was talking about.


• As the items regarding the out of budget police expenses were discussed, one of the twins let the commission know that asking questions about these wasted everyone's time. It was pointed out that part of the commission's job is to clearly state the issues at hand for the audience and ensure that things are done transparently, a concept foreign to the twins. The twins merely grunted to acknowledge the remark but clearly do not believe the commission should transparently do anything.

And one final note on last night. During the discussion of the Charter committee, Connie Lim-Kreps wanted to restrict the committee to people who are single subject matter experts rather than having it open to citizens with a strong interest in constitutional government, you know, the way Americans do it. But why should she know that? As far as she knows, being a vice mayor means winning a lawsuit, not an election.

Kevin Vericker
May 24, 2011