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