Setting Course In Record time - Tuesday Night

There were two meetings of our lame duck commission this week, both of them on Tuesday night.   

The first one, at 6:30 PM was to approve the budget for 2018-2019.  As this is the commission's most important job, and we are at a critical time where we have an interim village manager without the experience of municipal budgeting*, you could have easily expected the meeting to last until midnight as it often has in the past.  

*In fairness to Lewis Velken, he has been clear about this.

You would be wrong.  

The meeting was done in a record breaking forty  one minutes.

   

The commission simply doesn't have questions and with their new policy of not listening to advisory boards and ignoring public comment, it was a highly streamlined process which none of them understood.  

Mayor Connie Crazy-Eyes and Mayor Candidate Laura Cattabriga desperately tried to get Bert Wrains to find a property, any property, in North Bay Village that would not be facing a tax increase for next year but Wrains, who is a finance guy, not a magician, could not produce the unicorn.   

Still, they congratulated themselves on cutting taxes (they didn't) and Cattabriga sent out an email claiming she had.  

They took a break and then moved on to their next meeting, at either 8 PM if you get your information from the Village website or 8:30 PM if you get your information from the LED signs around town.   It was just a small matter - a complete rewrite of our code regarding construction on the causeway.   Highlights include:

• Allowances up to 400 feet (~40 stories) for new buildings
• Less parking
• Decreased setbacks so buildings can be closer to the Causeway
• Loosening the restrictions on how money collected from developers can be spent
• Decreasing the size of units
• Allowing mechanical parking
• Swimming pool sizes

And a laundry list of other changes including dock sizes and pavers on the sidewalk.   

This wholesale change was deemed so important that the commission spent a cool 1 hour and 15 minutes.  And they even had some questions.  

Now why this is all important is that developers feel that they cannot profitably flip their parcels without a loosening of standards.   

We've been through this before of course.  The building of the Lexi, the Fortress 360, the Bridgewater and other condos were all going to bring great tax revenues, large impact fees that would surely develop a baywalk and parks, and allow us to fix our sewers without raising taxes.  But they didn't.  

Tuesday night they simply wrapped virtually everything the developers have wanted into one ordinance, called a special meeting and passed the first reading.  

There will be a second reading, sometime in the future, October 9 maybe?, where they will consider if it needs fine tuning.  Shuckers has already told them that Shuckers won't participate in the Bay Walk project so they can be expected to put that in but the simple suggestion made by two North Bay Island residents was ignored.  The suggestion was that since the commission were dealing with a variety of separate issues - public spaces, buildings, finance, traffic, parking, docks, sidewalk colors - the commission might want to consider breaking them up into separate ordinances.  The members stared blankly and wondered whether to have them removed but finally decided to ignore them.   

After passing it 4 in favor and 1 against:  Commissioner Jose Alvarez, on whom I have been very hard, voting against.  (I may need to rethink it.) 

Mayor Kreps took time to praise that it's a "New Day in North Bay Village" and sadly I think she believes it.  

Mayoral candidate Laura Cattabriga wasted no time sending an email touting her view that this the smart development that North Bay Village needs.  I bet she spent more time typing the message than she did at the meeting.  

Unmentioned Tuesday night was that Laura Cattabriga's campaign manager, just like her political mentor, Kreps, is being run by the same lobbyist who represents almost all of the developers who want to do flip properties in North Bay Village.  She made it easier for them.  

Kevin Vericker

September 29, 2018

Why Settle?

While Laura Cattabriga slithers around the Village claiming that our current fiscal strategy of hiring and firing people as fast as we can is working wonders for our money, tonight we are facing yet another "waiver of the right to sue" disguised as a settlement package.  

We have had two of those executed this year, most famously when the Village Manager was requested to resign 4 months after starting and she received $127,000 plus a year's insurance to agree not to sue, then the Deputy Village Manager who had a mere 30 days got $21,000.   

In another situation, the former police chief was offered a settlement but he turned it down preferring to keep his dignity and integrity unbought.  

That's a lot of money not to be sued.  It's 30% of our current operating reserve and about 4% of annual budget.   

Tonight, the commission is meeting yet again to approve another "waiver of the right to sue" for the Village Clerk, Yvonne Hamilton, who was brutally disrespected by our mayor and vice mayor in the September 11th meeting.  You can watch the bogus attacks on her here at 1 hour and 44 minutes.  

Problem 1 - This Is Not Normal:

The cliché is that anybody can sue for anything.  But the question is will they prevail?   Can you imagine any company you ever worked for giving away hundreds of thousands of dollars in waiver settlements and the top management never asking "Why?"   Yet that's exactly what's happening in North Bay Village.  

None of our commission members are asking why and to his great credit, Commissioner Jose Alvarez, who I have criticized strongly in the past, has taken a No position on each of the settlements because he knows it's not normal.  

Eddie Lim has also voted against it.  

Laura Cattabriga, who is a consummate politician which means that tells you what you want to hear, voted for the Martell settlement without asking a single question.   After all, it's not her money.  

I predict tonight she will vote for the settlement "reluctantly" because it is of great benefit to her politically to have the honest clerk removed from office.  I hope I'm wrong.  I'm not wrong.  

Problem 2 - The Village Clerk Is The Elections Supervisor

In North Bay Village, the Village Clerk is also the Elections supervisor.  This is a usual dual role and ensures that our elections are done to form.   

I am deeply concerned that the reason Yvonne Hamilton is being forced out is to clear the way for a clerk who will manipulate the election.  It's common belief that Laura Cattabriga is likely to lose the election, and if she does, several very highly paid Village employees are likely to find their gravy train off the tracks.  

An elections supervisor can raise doubt a candidate's legitimacy and even disqualify them.  The process is then expensive and time consuming to fix and in the meantime we continue to pay all involved.  

Assuming that the settlement passes, watch for shenanigans closely.  It's going to get crazy.  

Kevin Vericker

September 21, 2018

What's Worse Than Getting SLAPPED?

Given that today's article in the Miami Herald about the Village Attorney's attempt to sue me into silence is forefront in my mind, it's probably a good time to remember that I am not alone.  

If you haven't seen today's article, I recommend that you go to the Miami Herald by clicking here.  I am one often loud and always clear voice in the village.   But there are others who are not loud and who are not showy.  

On the video from September 11, you can watch the mayor's authoritarian ruling that citizens do not have the right to speak during Good & Welfare, a time that is set aside for residents to bring governmental issues forward that are on not on the agenda, if the mayor does not like what you have to say.  

You can see it here.   Go to 44 minutes in the video and watch through 56 minutes and you will see two residents who are concerned about close mayoral confidante being appointed to and remaining on village boards after her arrest.   

The issue is real but far more important is that Laura Cattabriga, who is running for mayor, stood by and said nothing as this act of suppression was carried out in plain sight.  

This is scarier than what's happening to me.  

Our mayor knows or should have known or should have been reminded that Good & Welfare is open to all residents and their concerns which may not be on the agenda.   The mayor's claim that residents must not speak because the item was not on the agenda was wrong and possibly illegal.   

But the other commissioners, including Cattabriga, sat silently as this was carried out and our attorney/parliamentarian said nothing.   

Later in that same meeting, at 1 Hour and 44 minutes, a different version of distortion and silencing happened.  Yvonne Hamilton, our Village Clerk of 16 years, was the target of a deliberately misleading attack by our mayor and vice mayor who were demanding she be fired.  

The misleading part was that Jackson claimed that Julianna Strout, candidate for At-Large Commissioner, and Marvin Wilmoth, candidate for Harbor Island Commissioner, did not have the right to film their interaction with Yvonne Hamilton as they submitted their petitions.  But they do.  

In Florida, under the Sunshine Law, citizens have the right to record and video almost all their transactions with the government and had the clerk tried to stop them, Hamilton would have been violating the law.   To attack Hamilton for transparency was chilling.  

This time Cattabriga spoke but appallingly, she took the view that this exercise of free speech was "disturbing."  

Our legal counsel, who should know the law, instead spoke about how this matter was with the State Attorney's Office instead.   

Laura Cattabriga has been going around town "forget about the past.  Let's move forward." but she is both the past and the present.  The future, well, we can predict it and there's every reason to believe it will look just like the present.  

Kevin Vericker

September 17, 2018

Miami Beach and North Bay Village

Last night I had the opportunity to be at the Miami Beach Commission meeting.  I attended because they were considering a discussion about annexing North Bay Village.  (It was on their public agenda.  Anyone could have attended.)  

The Miami Beach Commission decided to refer the matter to their Finance Committee to study and report on the impact.  

During the discussion, the attorney made it clear that this was a long process, one that would involve the Miami Beach Commission deciding if they want to propose an annexation.  If they do, then it would have to be voted on by the North Bay Village Commission, the residents of North Bay Village, and approved by the Miami Dade Commission.   It's not the hostile takeover that our mayor characterized this as but a considered discussion at to whether or not North Bay Village and North Beach should be a mutually beneficial entity.  

We have bigger problems than a less than square mile village can handle.   Sea level rise is real and a regional approach is needed.  We have nowhere for recreation.  We are split in our school feeder patterns.  And that doesn't even consider our shambles of a government.  

They may not even want us.  We face huge infrastructure and legal issues.  North Bay Village has historically prided itself on not being Miami Beach.   And we risk being lost in the behemoth of Miami Beach.   

So I said last night that I hope this discussion goes forward regardless of where it leads.   It needs to be had and we need to figure out what's best for all of us.  

What pleased me was the curiosity of the dais and civility of the discussion.  

This is big and unlike our knee jerk reactions, is being considered in a logical and dispassionate way.  No screaming about "hostile takeovers", no doomsday predictions, no insults, just an often contentious commission discussing the value of a thought.   That was pretty cool.  

Kevin Vericker

September 14, 2018

September 11 2018

The Commission meeting reached a new low tonight.  During the section known as "Good & Welfare", where residents are specifically allowed to address their government, two residents spoke objecting to the continued presence of Ana Watson, who is facing four felony charges, on not one but two Boards.   

The Mayor, prodded by the Vice Mayor, shut them both down on the grounds that the item was not on the agenda.  In fact, the purpose of Good & Welfare is for residents to bring up matters of concern that are not on the agenda.  This concept is well known to Mayor Kreps.  In fact, the first time I ever saw her at a commission meeting, her face was twisted in rage and she was demanding that she would speak about whatever she chose.  

These two residents were expressing their genuine concern that there continues to be a presence in the Village Commission inner circle who is facing prosecution.  The residents were legitimately concerned about this situation.   

It should be noted that elected officials facing felony charges are routinely removed from their posts, not as a presumption of guilt, but as a precaution against them using their public position to help their case.  

It should also be noted that in an earlier meeting, Laura Cattabriga did not join Eddie Lim in setting an Ethics Requirement for Board Members.   Apparently she does not consider ethics useful.  

Worse than the Mayor and the Vice Mayor shutting them down during their established right to free speech was the silence of Mayoral Candidate Commissioner Laura Cattabriga.  This is the person who constantly talks about the need for communication and open discussion but when it comes to her friend.  Silence.  

Worse, far worse, is that the Vice Mayor took over an item prepared by the Mayor to try to force the firing of Village Clerk Yvonne Hamilton.  Hamilton is a 29 year employee of the Village and has served as an exemplary Village Clerk.  In fact, she is often the only adult in the room and has tried consistently to bring order to a shambolic and poorly run commission.  

The motion was "deferred" until the next meeting, with Laura Cattabriga not willing to take a stand.  

This is bad, people.  

The Mayor does not even control the meetings.  The Commission is going after residents for being concerned.  The longest serving senior employee is being threatened.  

But there's this.  Andreana Jackson is leading us all in the peaceful practice of Yoga next month.   

Kevin Vericker

September 11, 2018

North Bay Village Ugly™

There are a series of vile and violently themed videos on YouTube designed to intimidate those people in North Bay Village who are perceived to be against the candidacy of Laura Cattabriga.  

My best guess is that these are from an semi-anonymous troll involved with the Cattabriga campaign, and previously by the Kreps campaign, and are designed to be divisive and crude.  

Note that the videos are not aimed at people who are actually running for office. 

Instead they smear residents who are not running with the purpose is to make the campaign uglier, not to bring information forward.  

They send the message that if you don't line up to support Cattabriga even though you are a private citizen, you're next.  

In one, the video attacks the only veteran we have had on the commission in years, Doug Hornsby, twice wounded in Vietnam, and attempts to paint him a bully and a sleaze.  

In another video, they attack Richard Chervony, former commissioner, using the old classic homophobic tropes.   

Mayoral Candidate Laura Cattabriga signed on to Fair Campaign Practices Pledge not to engage in dirty tactics and while this video series is not directly from her campaign, it is clear that these are designed to disparage people who do not support her.  I call on Cattabriga to denounce the use of anonymous trolling in this campaign.  There are words to be said and issues to be discussed but they should be said and discussed publicly and focused on the Village, not the people.  

No I'm not linking to the videos.  If you want to see them, email Laura Cattabriga and ask her. 

Kevin Vericker

September 6, 2018