Email Oddities

Yesterday, I sent out an email discussing what NBV Reality is about. Within a few minutes, the same email was sent out from a Hotmail address adiosalfonso@hotmail.com edited with the last few paragraphs (including my name and link to this blog) removed.

I didn't send the second email, the one from Hotmail. Adiosalfonso@hotmail.com is not my email address. It seems to belong to the website WWW.ADIOSALFONSO.COM.

I don't mind my stuff being circulated, really by any means, but it should be attributed. This is all very strange.

Here's my original email. The from line reads "North Bay Village Reality Base" with an email address of "nbvrbc@gmail.com" and you can see that it is longer and contains contact information:

North Bay Village is facing the same crises that towns and cities nationwide are facing – falling revenue and increased demand for services. The issues are complex and controversial. How North Bay Village deals with these problems will affect our community for years to come.

The North Bay Village Reality Base is an ad hoc group of citizens concerned about the future of our city. We are diverse and represent a broad spectrum of opinions with a few unifying points of view.

But one view consistently held is that civility has died in North Bay Village politics. You see it in the paper, hear it on the streets and worst of all see it in the commission. Rudeness and shouting have replaced discussion and we believe this is self destructive. It's time for the stakeholders, the citizens, to show up and have our voices heard, calmly and clearly, over the cacophony of the police union, the complaints of people who don't live here, and the shouting of those who simply don't like the result of the 2008 election.

Tomorrow night, there is a critical commission meeting at 7:30 at Treasure Island Elementary. Come to it and urge your neighbors too as well.

One item planned to be discussed is the firing of the City Manager. (Item 12 A on the attached agenda). The story is short. The City Commission is prohibited by our charter (our local constitution) to interfere in the personnel decisions of the police department. Two commissioners disregarded this and gave specific instructions to the CM, which he would not agree to follow. Now they want to fire him.

You may not like the mayor, your commissioners or the city manager, but he's done nothing illegal. In fact, North Bay Village is one of the few cities in Miami-Dade still moving forward in our economic development and our CM has reduced our bond indebtedness by close to $11 million, taxes we don't have to pay. Please, get interested and show up. Remember elections are this November for Mayor and that's the time to decide on the administration.

On April 27, there is a special Community Forum to cover the issues of the revenue shortfall and discuss the needed cutbacks. It's at the Lexi at 6:30 PM on April 27. Come and learn and speak and influence. If our city goes broke, all our investments suffer.

As I mentioned, North Bay Village Reality is ad hoc, not a formal organization, just a group of citizens who want the discussions civil and the issues clear. I have a blog at http://www.nbvreality.com/ Feel free to peruse it – it's highly opinionated and is designed to lay out positions based on facts, not rumors.

But most of all, start getting involved. If we don't get the people who live here and care about the city in the mix, we're all in trouble. Cities can and do decline. The need is urgent.

If you can't go, write your commissioners – their email addresses are in the TO line and you just have hit reply all. Tell them to stop fighting and get back to work.


Kevin Vericker

Then a few minutes later, this email:

From: Adios Alfonso [mailto:adiosalfonso@hotmail.com]
Sent: Monday, April 12, 2010 6:50 PM
Subject: ADIOS MATTHEW SCHWARTZ AND OSCAR ALFONSO‏



North Bay Village is facing the same crises that towns and cities nationwide are facing – falling revenue and increased demand for services. The issues are complex and controversial. How North Bay Village deals with these problems will affect our community for years to come.

The North Bay Village Reality Base is an ad hoc group of citizens concerned about the future of our city. We are diverse and represent a broad spectrum of opinions with a few unifying points of view.

But one view consistently held is that civility has died in North Bay Village politics. You see it in the paper, hear it on the streets and worst of all see it in the commission. Rudeness and shouting have replaced discussion and we believe this is self destructive. It's time for the stakeholders, the citizens, to show up and have our voices heard, calmly and clearly, over the cacophony of the police union, the complaints of people who don't live here, and the shouting of those who simply don't like the result of the 2008 election.

Tomorrow night, there is a critical commission meeting at 7:30 at Treasure Island Elementary. Come to it and urge your neighbors too as well.

One item planned to be discussed is the firing of the City Manager. (Item 12 A on the attached agenda). The story is short. The City Commission is prohibited by our charter (our local constitution) to interfere in the personnel decisions of the police department. Two commissioners disregarded this and gave specific instructions to the CM, which he would not agree to follow. Now they want to fire him.

You may not like the mayor, your commissioners or the city manager, but he's done nothing illegal. In fact, North Bay Village is one of the few cities in Miami-Dade still moving forward in our economic development and our CM has reduced our bond indebtedness by close to $11 million, taxes we don't have to pay. Please, get interested and show up. Remember elections are this November for Mayor and that's the time to decide on the administration.




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