Town Hall Meeting April 4 2018 With The New Village Manager

Wednesday night, April 4, 2018, recently hired village manager Marlen Martell is holding a Town Hall Telephone meeting at 7 PM.  To sign up, click the link here.   

The meeting will be to discuss her goals coming into North Bay Village.  

Now as regular readers know, the Village has been in turmoil ever since the disclosure of the extortion attempts against Commissioner Douglas Hornsby and subsequent public identification of Mayor Connie Leon-Kreps and the wife of Commissioner Jose Alvarez as "subjects of interest" in the same investigation.   

That investigation has reached the federal level and is ongoing but in the meantime, the former Village Attorney Robert Switkes has stated that he believes he was fired in retaliation for his cooperation with the investigation and I have learned that there are at least two whistleblower claims being made by village employees who are being threatened with dismissal for their cooperation.  The whole ugly mess will come out in time.  

But in the meantime, it's important for the Village Manager to know that from a community perspective, the North Bay Village Police Department has reached a new height of community service.  Just some of those accomplishments include:

• The progress towards full accreditation.  
• A Crime Watch program that has been brought back to life. 
• Friday night movies and basketball nights. 
• In school service programs. 
• Senior wellness checks. 
• Bicycle Rodeos. 
• The motorcycle patrol on the Causeway.
• The boat patrol to protect our waterfront properties.  
• The relationship with our neighbor cities
• Our already low crime rate has dropped and more cases are cleared.  

I believe our police chief's job is in jeopardy and it would be a good time to let the new Village Manager know what you think of the service the police are providing here.  Even if you don't agree with me that it is a great service, you should speak.  

There's a very good argument that the only reason for North Bay Village to exist is our police services and we can't let some sleazy, half assed extortion attempt kill that.  

Kevin Vericker

April 3, 2018