Monday, May 27, 2013

This Week in North Bay Village

There are three events happening this week. 

On Wednesday, at 6 PM, the Village is holding a Hurricane Preparedness Workshop at Treasure Island Elementary School.  Brent Cameron, the WSVN Meteorologist, will be presenting.  

Immediately following at 7 PM is the Citizen's Crime Watch Meeging, also in the cafeteria at Treasure Island Elementary School.  

On Thursday, at 7 PM, is a one item Special Commission Meeting where the commissioners choose their top candidates for Village Manager.  Each chooses two candidates for a maximum of 10.  The actual interviews will follow, I believe on Tuesday June 4.   

Kevin Vericker
May 27, 2013

Friday, May 24, 2013

News to Watch Out For

North Bay Village has several impending issues but two have taken center stage this month:

Fiscal:  Our reserves for the budget are getting lower by the week.  Not only do we have to lay out about $86k to break the village hall lease, the police lost another arbitration and we are on the hook for about $150k in back pay for a cop who should never have been fired.  We are also running about $175k net over budget.  So that's about a $400k hit to a $500k operational reserve.  

Operational:  The Fraternal Order of Police have filed a request for an impasse in the labor negotiations.  This means that the police contract will be either negotiated by a special arbitration or directly by the commission.   

These are setbacks.  North Bay Village has seen some progress in the last year and these have the potential to derail that progress.  

On the financial side, it's clear that the reserve money is there to handle just such circumstances (except for the back pay, that was entirely a bad management decision) but that we wound up here is a result of years of private interest overriding the common good.  

  • The lease on the Lexi space we have to leave was written so clearly to the landlord's favor that we have no choice but to pay an extravagant fine for leaving an unsafe building.  Just to recap, the move to the Lexi was pushed by then commissioner George Kane who was reprimanded for accepting a $25,000 commission on the transaction, approved by a commission that had deep ties to the developer and who never objected to the lease.  It was a move designed to pay directly to one commissioner and repay political debts by others.   The facility was never appropriate for our needs. 
  • The over budget comes mostly from our legal expenses, money spent pursuing legal matters that the village law firm advised against.   Additionally, we have been faced with lawsuits from the Lexi owner who is annoyed that the village puts restrictions on strip clubs.  

On the police side, the picture is even darker.   The police chief was brought in by the same commission that pushed the Lexi move, given a contract that pays him nine months severance if he is fired for anything other than criminal conviction, specifically exempts him from supervision and has no expiration date.  In the last three years he has:  

  • Pursued two routine personnel matters by firing the cops involved, both of whom were reinstated under state law and arbitration.    So far two cops had to be laid off to meet the spend for this and the total costs for pursuing these cases are somewhere around $1 million.  Two cases, both losers for the village.   
  • The chief created a new class of employee for one person, his wife.  He snuck this by as a so called volunteer position but in fact it violates the spirit of our strict antinepotism clause, directly violates our ordinances on Reserve officers, and puts the village on the hook for insurance and liability for an officer sworn in outside the normal legal processes.    
  • The chief shut down all community programs and began a campaign of gossip and innuendo against those officers who had worked with village youth, the condo associations, the crime watch and the outreach to the elderly.  The resulting drop in morale on the force has been evident to residents and businesses alike.   
  • His labor relations, probably his key job, are so bad that the union (the FOP) that pushed for his hire is now in legal action against the village because he has refused to negotiate with them.  
  • In recent act of chutzpah (cara dura for the Spanish speakers, brazen gall for the rest), the chief proudly presented the commission with the "Officer of the Year".  The same officer is currently suiing North Bay Village for hurting his feelings.  I'm not making that up.   The lawsuit is in response for his being disciplined years ago for not reporting a fist fight with another officer, a discipline that was never actually imposed.  

    It doesn't matter if you have Dick Tracy, J. Edgar Hoover and the Hardy Boys all rolled up in one package and working for you.  If someone is suing you for actual dollars because he was reprimanded for something he admits he did, you don't create a new award and present it with great ceremony.  
Except if you are the current police chief in North Bay Village.  Chief Daniels always was and remains a political animal, sneaking around the village promising board memberships to key political allies, offering but not delivering newly and illegally created "reserve" status to others, and using disinformation to shut out the community.   The chief's hire and the crippling contract were the put in place by the same bad commission that bound us to the Lexi contract and ridding ourselves of the past is going to be expensive once again.  But it's probably time to stop the bleeding and move along.  

There are good things happening in North Bay Village.  Our commission is not dominated by people seeking personal gain.  Our streets are cleaner (not as clean as we'd like but a damn sight better.)  Money long available to us is being deployed for rec and educational services.   Our finances are more transparent and getting clearer which is why we even know about this.   

In order to really move past it all, the commission has to deal with the corrupt legacy of the past and regain control of the PD, bringing it back to the vital part of our community it once was, and that is not going to be easy.  Not at all.  

Kevin Vericker
May 24, 2013


Sunday, May 19, 2013

LEOAFFAIRS Does my job for me.

 This was posted today on LEOAFFAIRS, an anonymous web site where people can let off steam about Law Enforcement issues.  It's a satirical take off on my last post about "How to Spend Money If You're A Government"

I decided to post it below in its entirety because well, unlike the poster, I don't hide.  

NBV Gross Reality

Postby Kev » 05/19/13 09:12:08
How to Spend the Money If You're a Government
We're at the time of year when we've spent the money from the fiscal year's budget and previously un-budgeted items are taking center stage. These usually represent unforeseen demands on services that require attention.

North Bay Village has been disciplined with approaching these and I think it's time to look at the process. It's pretty straightforward. For every time a resolution is brought up, the resolution should answer the following questions:

• Is the Item Budgeted?
• If not, why not?
• What is the source of the money, because it’s not coming from me?
• Can the budget support the item?
• When will the item be accrued? Who really cares?
• When will the money be distributed to me, I mean my childrens board?
• What is the impact on future budgets? Who really cares?
• What happens if the item is not approved now?
• What happens if I constantly act the fool?
• Why do I walk around all day with out a job?
• Where are my glasses?
• I knew I should have moved to Coconut Grove.
• What the hell color is my car.
• Who is going to pick up all the dead squirrels in my yard.
• You know squirrels are good eating? Never mind, don’t pick them up, I’ll get them.
These are standard issue municipal budget questions. As a routine, they bring clarity to the questions and keep them focused on the impact and the questions. Scotty Beam me up.

Simple example. Let's say a commissioner wants a single middle aged male to head its Youth and Education Services Board. (Not do to my knowledge can I explain why I would do this.) There is no reason for this. Well, if we answer this question and many more like this we will figure what is really behind the green curtain.

• The item is not budgeted.
• There was no need for the Farmers Market, but hey we all need bread.
• It will costs $5,000 from the General Reserve Fund. And much more.
• $5,000 is 1% of the Reserve and will have low impact.
• The Money will be distributed in August.
• There is no impact for next year.
• If we don't fix the stop signs, or the lunatics that walk around, cars will continue to crash into each other and the village will look messy. Then NASA won't move it's Moon Base here.
If you know that, then you can decide what to do.

But usually the commission doesn't know that. Staff should provide it but they are not asked to. I am hoping that at next week's meeting, where there will be several items for disbursement, both budgeted and not budgeted, that the commissioners will ask these questions and if there are no answers, don't move ahead. And if there are answers, then argue the value of Moon rocks to fuel our cars.

Kevins Very Sicker

This one is a better job than the stuff I usually get since it contains correctly spelled words and the original poster, hiding safely behind his burqa, shows basic cut and paste skills, so props for that.

My blog has and has always had an open policy. While it's weird to pick on a particular fiscal technicality as a point of satire, if the original poster would like to blog here, I'm open.  Feel free to do a point by point take down.  I get more hits than LeoAffairs so more people will see it. 

Two points of fact I feel I should comment on:  

1.)  I have always known what color my car is.  That's a strange remark.  
2.)  I often lose my glasses.  Caught me.  

The rest is just an attempt to discredit by stating the obvious or the irrelevant.  Except the squirrels.  What's up with the squirrels?

What do you think?  

Kevin Vericker
May 19, 2013

Thursday, May 16, 2013

How to Spend the Money If You're a Government

We're at the time of year when we've spent the money from the fiscal year's budget and previously unbudgeted items are taking center stage.   These usually represent unforeseen demands on services that require attention.   

North Bay Village has been particularly undisciplined with approaching these and I think it's time to fix the process.   It's pretty straightforward.  For every time a resolution is brought up, the resolution should answer the following questions:

  • Is the Item Budgeted?
  • If not, why not?  
  •  What is the source of the money?
  • Can the budget support the item?
  • When will the item be accrued?
  • When will the money be distributed?
  • What is the impact on future budgets?
  • What happens if the item is not approved now?
These are standard issue municipal budget questions.  As a routine, they bring clarity to the questions and  keep them focused on the impact and the questions.  

Simple example.  Let's say a commissioner wants new Stop signs.  (None do to my knowledge but go with it.)  There is no budget for this.  Well, if we answer these questions, it might look like this:

  • The item is not budgeted. 
  • There was no need for the Stop signs last year but this year they have started to look shabby. 
  • It will costs $5,000 from the General Reserve Fund. 
  • $5,000 is 1% of the Reserve and will have low impact.  
  • The Money will be distributed in August.  
  • There is no impact for next year.  
  • If we don't fix the stop signs, cars will continue to crash into each other and the village will look messy.  
If you know that, then you can decide what to do.  

But usually the commission doesn't know that.  Staff should  provide it but they are not asked to.  I am hoping that at next week's meeting, where there will be several items for disbursement, both budgeted and not budgeted,   that the commissioners will ask these questions and if there are no answers, don't move ahead.  And if there are answers, then argue the value not the unknown. 

Kevin Vericker
May 16 2013 

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

The Good, The Bad and The Silly - The Commission Acts

Last night's Commission Meeting was a roller coaster.   Like all good roller coasters, it finally came to an end with all the  riders intact after a number of scary twists, turns and drops.  This is a good thing for a roller coaster but may not be the best way to run a governing body.   

Let's plunge in.   

The Good:   

Our State Rep, David Richardson and Mayor Kreps lobbied hard and strong to get the chain link fence removed from the flat bridge between North Bay Island and Treasure Island.  Richardson wound up bringing it to the governor.  For reasons unclear to anyone FDOT put up that fence, which offers no protection, even took it down and then replaced it.  After we spent millions on improving the Causeway, this dog pound fence added a ghetto ambience to our bay views.   It will finally be gone.   

Our State Rep was also able to get us a $125,000 grant for economic development on the Causeway which should help to get us on track.   

Commissioner Jerry Libbin and Dr. Leslie Rosenthal from Miami Beach were at the meeting to support adding a Health Care Program for Treasure Island Elementary.  TIES was one of three Miami Beach schools that had no onsite nurse and Comm. Libbin found a grant from the Health Foundation and AETNA insurance to cover half the costs, then got Miami Beach to pick up the bulk, added in Surfside, Bal Harbor and Bay Harbor Islands to provide their proportional share.  North Bay Village was the last to be approached and last night the commission approved the expenditure of $3000 this fiscal year and $10,000 next year, which means for the first time TIES will have a school nurse.   

The Commission supported both unanimously.   

The Mayor as Chair reorganized the agenda to move the Permit Applications to the front, which allowed the petitioners to clearly state their non-controversial requests and moved the agenda along. 

The Bad: 

Items requiring new expenditures do not include a timeline.  In usual practice, every item requiring an expenditure includes the reason for the expenditure, the source of the funds, the amount to be accrued (held in reserve for the spend) and a disbursement schedule showing when the money is likely to be spent.   This seems like an obscure rule but what it does is bring transparency to the finances and it hit several times last night.  

Once was when the PD put in a request for additional funding for the motorcycle.  They are entering in a 2 year lease which is normal but they did not put a budget and disbursement schedule with the package.  It made voting on it difficult.   

In another item, the health program, the lack of a disbursement schedule made it difficult to see how much we needed to take from the reserve this year ($2166) and how much next year ($10,844)  This would have helped.  

A big one was voting for a comprehensive code review.  We are required by our charter to do this and we have needed it for years.  The commission was asked last night to allocate $50,000 for the review and update.   It passed, as it needed to, but it would have been less confusing if there had been a clear payment (disbursement) schedule and impact statement.   

 For the big one, the 600 lb. elephant, the village administration is moving.  

Here's why this is in the BAD column.  It's not the current commission's setup but the lease at the Lexi was always a sweetheart deal and it includes an $82,000 penalty for breaking the lease early.   The village is not leaving on a whim.  The village is leaving because employees were getting sick from a yet undiagnosed environmental problem.   People were getting sick in the office.  

The Lexi was always a bad choice.  The move happened so former George Kane could collect a $25,000 payout.  The other commissioners supported the move as a corporate welfare for a favored donor.  In fact, George Kane joined the ill advised move to fire the city manager when the CM reported the deal to Ethics.  We wound up paying more and getting less.   We are well rid of the place and ironically will be saving money by moving to the 1666 building and have better access.     

There were a lot of bad deals with poison pills in the 2008-2010 commission.  The Lexi deal, Vogel Park, the Police Chief's contract and we will continue paying the price for them.    

The Silly

There were two, one just weird and the other a little creepy.  

The mayor proposed a start time for the meetings of 6:30 PM rather than 7:30 PM.   The idea was to cover the agenda fully and still be out before midnight.  Certainly worthy  

One of the commissioners asked if the change was intended to be permanent and noted that he had a problem with being there at 6:30.  Instead of discussing it, the mayor replied, "Well, you're home by 4:30."  which was not the point.  Then the vice mayor expressed essentially the same concern and the item died for lack of a motion.  

Why it was silly:   If when the item was proposed, the mayor had made a motion to approve and had a second, then the discussion would have followed and maybe a compromise would have been found.  No great harm but good process works. That needs to be fixed.

The other "silly" thing was maybe not so silly.   The police chief has been under questioning for his creation of a special position for his wife with the NBV PD, under criticism for his complete lack of community policing efforts and under scrutiny for his budget busting pursuit of two routine personnel cases that have cost the city nearly a million dollars and that we lost.   

Instead of addressing these issues, he made a big PR move by awarding "Officer of the Year" to a policeman who is currently suing the city in a personnel matter, leading a solemn remembrance for  officers killed in the line of duty (just to be clear, we should remember and honor them but this felt like exploitation) and did not provide even the basic information to the commission.  It was the PR move of politics over substance.   It felt sleazy. 

There's more but if you read this far, you're probably tired.  I know I was when I left the meeting at midnight.  

Kevin Vericker
May 15, 2013