The Commission Meeting Feb 10 2015 - Wasting Time

North Bay Village Commission Chambers

I don't know what's worse - when the North Bay Village Commission does something or does nothing.  The North Bay Village Commission has stalled.  It's dead in the water and the commission meetings are so not useful that I wonder why anyone, including the dais, show up.  Maybe my previous criticism of the mayor missing three meetings last year (out of 12) and the erratic attendance of the Treasure Island Commissioner were misplaced.     

The February meeting agenda was nothing but a series of small technical changes covered under the consent agenda, with only one (1) piece of legislation on the floor and even that got screwed up.  First the one piece of legislation.  

Sponsored by Commissioner Chervony, this ordinance prohibits the village from using or contracting for services that serve food in polystyrene containers - the styrofoam that never breaks down.  It was supposed to be a second reading but it turns out the first reading was not valid.  There was no disagreement on the subject and it passed unanimously.  In fact the Herald covered this in a well typed article by their local news gatherer, an article that makes no mention of the fact that the administration could not even manage a single ordinance correctly.   

Look, the styrofoam ban is good and I hope the first step of us getting more responsible here.  But it does not include penalties and during the discussion, the village manager was already talking about leeway.   

The rest of the meeting was a showcase of whining incompetence and excuses.  The Village Manager went through an extensive list of issues that he's looking at, explained how hard things like scheduling bulk garbage pickup are, that if the property owner with the garbage pile in front says, "Hey, not mine.  I don't know who left it there." then what can the village do?  Not a single accomplishment or closed issue was mentioned.  

The Police Chief got up to explain that yeah, really soon, there might be action on complaints of burglary at the Kennedy House and that his department is working really hard on this.  This was in response to concerns from residents that the police are not working on the problem at all. 

In the one thing the commissioners had to do, appoint members to two boards, Vice Mayor Jorge Pablo Gonzalez thought it would be good if the commissioners had the chance to interview potential members.  Well, they did.  That's what the meeting was for but not one of the applicants showed up.  So instead of saying, "Let's have a session to interview applicants and establish board goals." the commissioners just picked a bunch of names randomly and filled boards to which they will never listen.  

Finally, the Mayor.  She's is melting down.  During Good & Welfare, as the residents from the Kennedy House addressed their government and asked for help, she was ticking and twitching hard to pointedly ignore the speakers and their requests.  Seriously, she was contorting her neck to avoid any eye contact.  

Mayor Kreps had two items on the agenda - an award to the passport auditors in gratitude for them giving us an award (No, I did not make that up.)  and then a special presentation to the Leukemia Society recognizing their work, she completely forgot the second piece and had to be herded back.  

Not a surprise since her own contribution to the agenda was a resolution recognizing February 4 2015 as World (anti) Cancer Day.  The few rational people left pointed out that since the meeting was February 10, they could not reasonably do proclaim February 4 2015 anything but over and so they substituted a nice plaque instead.  

In a nasty little move, she pulled a routine item from the consent agenda supporting green space because Richard Chervony sponsored it and said she couldn't vote for it without permission from Sally Heyman.  Nonsense of course but she has to punish.  Then she didn't know the form for pulling items from the agenda EVEN THOUGH THE FORM IS PRINTED ON THE AGENDA ITSELF and she has been on the commission for eons. 

The Mayor is the Chair.  Yet she loses control of the agenda earlier and earlier each meeting. I make no secret that I have always found Mayor Kreps feckless and of limited intellect.   But watching her overwhelmed on the dais, avoiding conversation and eye contact with anyone, not able to follow a simple agenda,  spouting nonsense answers ("I have to check with Sally Heyman before I vote." "Some people told me that Facebook can block people so we can't have a Facebook page") and her sniping at the other commissioners, makes me worry for her sanity.  Maybe a month off for her would be a good idea.  

Kevin Vericker

February 13, 2015