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I apologize. I really should have explained that I was taking a month off from blogging because I've been traveling for work. But since this is North Bay Village, I was not willing to expose that I would be out of town. That would have been the perfect time for the commission to reluctantly pass the strip club. So I kept it quiet.

Okay, what's up on the agenda?

Still no action on the strip club - good or bad. The city has not taken steps to fix the the broken city planning process, so that's bad, but there is still no notice when or if the commission will hear the application again. This is probably because it will require a four vote supermajority to pass the club since P and Z voted unanimously to reject it. And I don't think they have four votes. Let's see.

There is a commission meeting on Tuesday March 13, 2012. The agenda is attached at the bottom of this posting. And guess what? I'm on that agenda.

The Citizens Budget and Oversight Board wants to kick me off. The reasoning is pretty simple. As one of the founding members, I became increasingly concerned about two things.

• The meetings are held during the working day, at 4:30 in the afternoon. Every other board meets at times when the citizens can attend.



• The city's largest tax debtor with $1.2 million in over due taxes, not counting the Lexi taxes, and strip club impressario Scott Greenwald, should not be allowed to sit on the board that oversees how the taxes he does not pay are spent.

Well, once I brought these up and stupidly mentioned that Thursdays are the one day I can't attend at that time, Al Blake, the nominal vice chair of the board but really the one who runs it, decided Thursday at 4:30 was the only time possible for the meetings.

This was of course a thin political excuse to avoid the uncomfortable questions about the budget. What's the reserve? Why are our police legal expenses so high? Should the city pay for a commissioner's family member to have a cell phone?

The commission, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Citizens for Full Disclosure, will not want these uncomfortable questions in the public view. So I think they will vote yes. They will see it as a chance to offer a personal insult to me, but it's really a slap in the face to the public. The pillaging of city coffers can happily proceed behind closed doors.

Here's the agenda. More tomorrow.

03-13-2012 REG COM MTG 3-13-12

Kevin Vericker
March 11, 2012