North Bay Village - Is It Over?

The Herald printed two articles recently about North Bay Village.  

The first one, available here, is about the shambolic revenge firings and the desperate attempts to keep a resident on trial for fraud on Village boards while trying to keep the extortion investigation from reaching the dais.  

The second one is about a thought experiment on the part of Miami Beach to annex North Bay Village.  Proposed by Ricky Arriola, a Miami Beach commissioner, the article which is available here talks about the pros and cons of such an annexation but most importantly addresses the question of why this would even be considered.  

And the answer to that is very simple.  Our mayor, Connie Kreps, is a failure.  For eight years, she has presided over a dais that she is constantly ripping apart, proposed no serious plans for North Bay Village, attacked any and all residents who have questioned how the village is run, disappeared during hurricanes and in a final sprint before her being termed out (or removed) from the dais, has replaced three of our key officials with people who have no experience in the position.   Kreps is also gunning for Village Clerk Yvonne Hamilton's job to complete her revenge cycle.  

And it is revenge Kreps wants.  

That's pathetic.  When accomplishment fails, revenge is not the solution.  

The bottom line is the annexation discussion needs to be about what's best for the NBV residents.

The mayor should not be trying to shut it down.  If she were any good at her job, she would be coming forward with why it's a bad idea, not snark and childish retorts.  

I have no doubt that our village attorney, Norman Powell with his $204,000 annual contract, our police union with their old fights and generous salaries and benefits, and the developers who use North Bay Village to park their money will fight this tooth and nail but for the residents, we want to have this discussion.  

The government chaos has left us with less confidence in our PD, we see dirty poorly maintained streets, no plan for sea rise, a declining school and no rec services and we question why our taxes are higher than the beach and our values are so much lower.  

I hope this moves forward.  I have reached out to Ricky Arriola and I hope he will hold a series a public meetings in North Bay Village about what the vision and next steps are.  

The beach is not a paradise but it runs a hell of a lot better than we do here.  NBV's government owes it to us to have this discussion with the Beach and with the residents, then let the residents decide.  

Kevin Vericker

May 31, 2018