Court Finds That Doug Hornsby Was Removed Illegally

As any competent municipal attorney could have seen, the courts have ruled that the removal of Doug Hornsby from the commission on January 29, 2018, was illegal. 

Following the advice of then Village Attorney, Norman C. Powell, the commission violated Sunshine, disregarded the actual legal process of forfeiture of an office and that Norman C. Powell's "theory" that Hornsby's appointment was not valid ab initio and therefore did not have to follow due process was wrong.   

Doug Hornsby served as Commissioner At Large, appointed by the commission to fill the seat in 2017 and was embroiled in a controversy over extortion attempts on him made by political opponents.   This set off a chain of events that led to 

• The firing of the Village Attorney Robert Switkes to be replaced by a strip club lobbyist with no experience as a municipal attorney but whose singular devotion to the Mayor was beyond question.  
• The resignation of the Village Manager, Deputy Manager and Executive Administrator the same night they became aware that they were to be terminated in a "special" commission meeting.  
• The firing of Police Chief Carlos Noriega and two detectives investigating the extortion matter.  
• The hiring and then forced resignation of Village Manager Martell.  
• The hiring through a third party of Chief Police Lewis Velken who was then put in as Village Manager.  The use of a third party was presumed to be a way around Florida Retirement Systems rules and has resulted in an attempt to revoke Velken's pension for misrepresentation.  (Case is under appeal.)   
• The appointment of Laura Cattabriga to a seat not legally vacant.  

This is the mess the Three Useful Commissioners walked into and have to deal with.  

So far, the police chief was reinstated, the two detectives rehired and now this.  

The court did not recommend a specific remedy, such as reinstating Hornsby, but the finding provides a strong basis for Hornsby to reclaim the substantial legal fees he incurred, sue for damages to his business and reputation and other avenues.   

The Two Useless Commissioners, Andreana Jackson and Mary Kramer's Husband, are still on the dais but will need to recuse themselves from any involvement in settlements or restructuring going forward.  They should just resign.  They barely show up anyway.  It would be best for all if they left. 

Andreana Jackson

Jose Alvarez

From the previous administration, we are blessed that Connie Leon-Kreps is reportedly no longer dwelling in North Bay Village and I sincerely wish us the best in her decision to move. 

But that still leaves the festering issue of the many bad decisions taken on the legal advice of Norman C. Powell.  Powell is still lurking around municipal governments looking for work.  Just yesterday, my blogging colleague Stephanie Kienzle published a piece on Powell and El Portal entitled El Portal: The shady alliance of Claudia Cubillos and Norman Powell 

Powell left here in a nasty meeting earlier this year at which he negotiated his own settlement, something the Commission on Ethics recommends against and the courts have found illegal, but just going away has not resolved the costs to the Village from his inexperienced legal advice.   

There will most likely be further repercussions from the shambolic mismanagement and it might be North Bay Village that has to take care of this.  

Kevin Vericker

July 31, 2019

I Got the Dog Park Wrong

Yesterday in the blog, I wrote about the dog park and 

I 

got

it

wrong.  

Specifically, I wrote:

Dog Park:  The money for the dog park planning was approved.  It will cost about $35,000 to create the plans, then another $120,000 to $200,000 to build a dog park.  The commission voted to move ahead.  

My view:  Just put up a fence, call it an open space and let the damn dogs run.  Also, the dog park proponents mostly weren't there.   

What I Got Wrong:  Shortly afterwards it was brought to my attention that the proposed space for the dog park has flooding issues, is not accessible for handicapped or older people, and could actually hurt the dogs and their owners if not properly planned.   

The first step, getting the plan, is the key and that's what the commission was voting on.  Once we have that, the dog park can start and that should be very soon.   

I should have paid better attention and now I'm updating my view:

My view:  Plan it right and get it going.  Also, dog park proponents - start showing up.  

Kevin Vericker

July 12, 2019

July 9 2019 Commission Meeting

I'm going to try make this brief.  

Tuesday night at the commission meeting.  

The main points:

Dog Park:  The money for the dog park planning was approved.  It will cost about $35,000 to create the plans, then another $120,000 to $200,000 to build a dog park.  The commission voted to move ahead. 

My view:  Just put up a fence, call it an open space and let the damn dogs run.  Also, the dog park proponents mostly weren't there.  

Treasure Island Community Park:   Mayor Brent Latham discussed the progress made so far in planning the green space use of the Treasure Island Elementary field in non-school hours.  The planning is well underway and should cost about $1,000,000 once it's ready.  

My view:  This is huge and opens up new space all around us.  

For Profit Prisons for Children in Homestead:  The commission voted 4-0 to express their concern about the inherent contradiction of for profit prisons in this government space.  One commissioner was in the ladies room for the vote.  

My view:  Prisons should never be for profit.  Ever.   

Discussion Item:  Advisory Board Interactions with the Commission.  The Mayor led a discussion about what the commission should expect from the boards and vice versa.  The boards are very active and bright, and were suppressed under the previous regime, and the commissioners spoke about what they would like to see.   

My view:  The commission should hold one joint session per year with each board to lay out the annual goals.   

Operational stuff - New Auditor, FPL Vault removal at the Sakura Lot, Parking Study for Harbor Island.    These were commission approval for doing what the village needs to do.  

Animal Control Advisory Board Feeding Registry:  The Animal Control Board has created a detailed and well crafted program to register and control the feeding of the feral cats, bearing in mind the needs of the cats, the sensibilities of the property owners, the control of the population.   

It was tabled.  

My view:  Seriously?  A group of intelligent concerned citizens under the government aegis does their job and the commission lets it slide again because a scuttle bug lobbyist now believes he's a cat expert.  Big failure.  

Scooter Rentals:  Never even made it to a vote.  Nobody wanted to own it.  

My view:  It's a stupid idea.  We are less than one square mile and we don't need people scooting aimlessly about.  

Unified Land Development Code:  Fixes the fencing rules so that 5 foot is the height limit for corner lots and temporary fences can be used in dog parks if we ever make one.  

My view:  How was this not part of our code already?  

Unified Land Development Code #2:  Allows administrative approval of dock variances within certain parameters rather than commission approval.  

My view:  Yeah, sure, why not?

Unified Land Development Code #3:  This is a change that as initially proposed would have changed the due dates on bonus height payments from approval time to building permit time, would have made the payments refundable if the developer did not develop, and approving mechanical parking lifts for fancy people with valets.  

It got whittled down and the refundability portion was removed but the two other parts stayed in.  

My view:  The refundable fees were always a flipper's delight so I'm glad they pulled it.  I'm sick of developers whining that they can't make money building in North Bay Village.  That's true but the people who sold them the lots made money.   They knew the rules.   The only developers with skin in the game are the Best Western.  The rest of them need to shut up and build.  And our Village Attorney and Planning Contractor should show up with some support for their claims that North Bay Village is somehow out of step with the cooler towns.  You got to qualify to signify and these guys are not giving the commission even the basic information.   Step up or step aside.  

Florida Friendly Fertilizer:  A carefully crafted proposal by Vice Mayor Marvin Wilmoth to stop people pouring polluting fertilizer into the bay while not harming the economic activity of landscapers was derailed by one lawn festishist and two commissioners who had clearly not read the ordinance.  The whole thing was cuckolded when the main provision, stop pouring pollutants on your lawn during the rainy season, was removed just because.  

My view:  Wilmoth did his homework, found the sweet spot, and for some reason having nothing to do with the ordinance, it was rendered useless.  A real low point.  

Ordinance Banning Single Use Plastics in the Village:  This was a straightforward ordinance banning the sale of single use plastic in North Bay Village.  After some discussion it was passed.  

My view:  Wilmoth again was reasonable, detailed and focused.  While there was a half hearted attempt to derail this one, the  other commissioners got bored and let it pass.  This was super unprofessional of them but lucky for us.  

7700 Miami View Drive:  The tenant, not the landlord, at 7700 Miami View Drive showed up to say his Short Term Vacation Rental License should be reinstated because he didn't know, he was putting in noise meters, and then used the Shaggy Defense on advertisements for the property  (Uh Uh, wasn't me.)  He was denied.  

My View:  Wow!

Kevin Vericker

July 11, 2019

The Right Way to Give

Who could possibly be against stopping AIDS?  Helping blind people navigate a world not designed for them?  Including people with intellectual challenges?  Ending world hunger?  and a myriad of causes.   

No decent person I'd dare to say.   

There is an entire industry to raise money for well intentioned philanthropic causes in the US and last year alone, Americans gave over $410 billion to support these efforts.   

But giving, especially with other people's money, has to be done judiciously. 

In the case of North Bay Village, we are a generous people and much of our $25,000 activities fund was directed at seemingly worthy causes.   

One donation was $7,500 for the AIDS Walk, an annual event to raise money to fight AIDS.  There were many organizations to whom we could have directed the donation, including Care Resources which actually provides services to NBV residents with HIV but instead the money was donated through SAVE, an organization which has never done anything for the North Bay Village Gay community although they have fund raised here and donated to elections.   

In addition, the money was supposed to be an activity for our residents to participate in the AIDS walk yet none were invited.  In exchange, all we got was an invitation to The Gala That Went Terribly Wrong and it seemed more of a personal branding exercise than a Village activity in support of a good cause.  

The Best Buddies walk, an amazing organization that has in fact helped place a valued new employee in the Village, was similarly not used for Village participation when it could have been.  

Other expenses have included Polo match tickets that I don't see how they build community or bring benefit to North Bay Village.  

We need to ask the question about what we want to accomplish.  Yes, supporting good causes financially matters and a sharp eye on how this builds up our community needs to be one facet of that equation.  

Before approving the moneys, the individual commissioners proposing the donation have an absolute obligation to ask and answer the questions.  

• Does this organization actually effectively provide the services they are asking us to support?   In the case of SAVE, they do not provide any direct HIV services and the money should have been directed elsewhere. 
  
  
• Does this donation enhance community life?  We have many residents with many needs.  It's not unreasonable to expect that organizations we support support us.   The Village recently paid airfare for a commissioner to attend the Daughters of the American Revolution conference in Washington DC.  It's hard to see how the DAR enhances our lives. 
  
  
• Does community input matter?  Our commissioners have discretion on these funds but the community should matter.  Otherwise, it's just personal branding and advantage.

Finally, we need to follow the money.  If the major purpose of an organization is political and not services, the entire commission should cast an eye on the proposed donation.   There are many great advocacy organizations but those organizations need to work from grass root support, not government sponsorship.   

We really haven't seen much overreach on these donations until now.  As the Village approaches next year's budget, it is incumbent for the administration to create a framework based on effectiveness and benefit as they decide how our tax dollars are distributed.   

Now is time to ask those questions.  

Kevin Vericker

July 6, 2019

SAVE and The Collateral Damage

SAVE, one of the longest established organizations advocating for LGBT equality, has flamed out in a spectacular fashion.  The now former director, Tony Lima, chose to showcase four men accused of bashing a same sex couple at last year's Miami Beach Pride.  This was after honoring the victims at last year's SAVE Gala and using the incident as a fundraising tool for SAVE.  

Whatever motivated Lima is unclear and he made something of a half apology on his Facebook page but the board took the step to fire him on Monday night.  In my view, this was the right decision.  

The whole sad story is well covered here in the Miami Herald.  

In short, the victims were three gay men, a couple and a Good Samaritan who tried to intervene.  According to the allegations against them by the state attorney, the three victims were set upon by these four SAVE honorees in a four to two "fight", really an attack, that put them all in the hospital and left one unemployed.  The alleged attackers are said to have used the common Spanish anti-gay slur "maricones" during the beatdown.  

It's on video here.  Note, the video is disturbing and the state attorney has added hate crimes to the charges.  

The victims have been clear that they feel betrayed by Lima's strange actions.  

This is also a North Bay Village story

North Bay Village and SAVE have a long and controversial relationship.  SAVE first endorsed in our local elections in 2014, choosing a candidate for mayor who did nothing for the local LGBT community over a candidate who actively sought the input and participation of the gay community. 

In a foreshadowing of the Gala incident, Tony Lima and SAVE refused to condemn a PAC mailer that attacked their endorsed candidate's opponents by associating them as puppets of an evil gay man.  Lima doubled down and cut me off when I asked him for help in getting such things as a contractor compliance ordinance in place, Pride acknowledgment, support for the LGBT youth in North Bay Village.   

These things are going forward here in spite of SAVE's resistance.  

But in the meantime, SAVE raised a lot of money in North Bay Village, provided small campaign contributions and endorsements to candidates, and acted as a channel for the Village's donations to the AIDS Walk, getting the credit while ignoring the North Bay Village community.  

So this sad chapter is drawn to a close and we'll see what's next.  

I have enough faith in North Bay Village and our current administration, in particular our mayor, our village manager and our police chief, that I know that they will continue to fight for all members of the North Bay Village community.  

I know that there are many straight allies who were taken in by the SAVE hustle, including Commissioner Strout.  Maybe it's my fault because I was unable to explain to the well meaning allies how toxic SAVE had become in our village.  Or maybe it's their fault for not wanting to listen.  

Even now, there are several self proclaimed straight allies loudly "straight splainin'" how Lima is a victim and spending no energy on the real victims, the couple and the good Samaritan who tried to intervene.  

This is wrong.  You cannot call yourself an ally while adopting the position of explaining away the real concerns of the community members affected as trivial in comparison to concerns about someone facing the consequences of poor judgment.  

It's a good time to listen and learn.  It's not about you.  

This incident also calls into question how we as a Village decide what community organizations and charities to support.   No matter how well meaning the intentions are, it matters to use discretion and judgment in making that decision and to be very careful that the support is not about personal branding or virtue signaling, but is about moving North Bay Village forward.  I'll be writing more about this later in the week.  

For now, I hope the Village understands the need to move forward.  Progress is not about one person or one organization and there is still much to be done.  I hope we can learn from this and move on. 

Kevin Vericker

July 2, 2019