Ending the Year on a High Note

After three years, the Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzaa lights stayed on and the Baby Jesus has not been kidnapped.  It's a holiday miracle and I feel bad for my cynicism about how finding Three Wise Man and a Virgin in North Bay Village would never work out.   

Time for the year in review:

January - The Commission decided to start the year out by taking the month off.  Nobody noticed except me because I didn't have anyone to laugh at.  

February - Relaxed and refreshed from their January vacations, the Village decided to spend the small surplus to rent the bottom floor of the building at 1666 JFK Causeway

Then they tackled the parking issue head on in a large community meeting.  The police chief totally forgot to get the statistics and no more was heard on the subject.  

March - In order to streamline the commission meetings, the order of public comment was changed so that it  comes first, allowing the mayor to melt down as soon as item discussion begins.  

April - The rising concern about crime led the police department to approve the purchase of magic water to baptize our appliances so that when they are stolen, if they are sold to a pawn shop that may use the magic decoder ring, they will totally be recovered.   The police chief took the rest of the year off.  

The Village Manager made an oopsie and it turned out that the move from the school to the 1666 JFK Building was $49,000, not $9,000 as he said.  But hey, it's not his cash.  

May - The Barry Survey came out and discussed that the citizens want better parking, cleaner streets, a plan for flooding, and access to the bay.   The commissioners ignored the survey since it also said that they broke election promises and that's negative.  

The Mayor did not attend the May Commission meeting on May 13 since she had a trip planned two weeks later.  

June - Commissioner Jorge Gonzalez told us all about his May trip to Isparta Turkey, which was paid for by Turkish lobbyists, and where he represented North Bay Village.  Actually, he didn't bother explaining much other than to mention it.  He forgot to bring a projector.   Gonzalez did propose that we become sister cities with the pro-Islamic regime of Yusuf Günaydın, the mayor of Isparta, and the commission thought that was a splendid idea.   

The Village Manager assured the commission that he was making a plan to make a plan to clean up the Tot Lot.  

July - The commission voted to give $102,000 of taxpayer money to plan a plan for a park under the metal gate bridge to connect the Bay Walk that they are not going to build.   No report back yet on that.  

Shuckers reopened.  

Treasure Island Elementary fell to a "D" rating, its fourth grade decline in four years.  The mayor used the opportunity to blame "blogs" and the budget meeting on July 17 was derailed by a histrionic defense of the failed bureaucrat Sherry L. Krubitch.  No plans were presented or requested for the improvement of the school and when it was finally impossible to ignore, a presentation was set for September.  In the meantime, Jorge Gonzalez refused to add money for the PAL program or any youth services to his budget requests.   

August - exhausted from months of doing nothing the commission took the month off.  Fortunately the Village Manager was in charge and he did not try to persuade Shuckers to open their extended parking lot once per month to keep the food trucks, so they went away.  Scott Greenwald allowed his property to be used as a dog park and the village had only to provide help at no cost but the manager said, "No way." 

He was able to run an extension cord to the sign on Hispanola and there was a ceremony to light it.  

September - The election campaigns for Mayor and Commissioner At Large got into full swing.  The mayor went back to her roots and hired two strip club lobbyists to run her campaign and Jorge Gonzalez simply lied about his record.  

In the meantime, the budget passed almost unquestioned except, miracle of miracles, the commission decided to put $20,000 in the budget for the $76,000 PAL program.   As of December, the commission is surprised that this is not enough.  Still, taxes are up another 13%. 

The commission was annoyed at the many gifts they were receiving under the table being reported to the Commission on Ethics and so decided to raise the limit to $100 before they have to tell anyone about them.  That took care of that.  

October - It's all about the election.  Mayor Kreps could not find anyone to endorse her so she faked an endorsement from me,  sent out a filthy flier on her former bestie Richard Chervony and lied face to face to the voters.   

Jorge Gonzalez continued to dodge well documented facts about his bankruptcy, multiple judgments for unpaid debt, his lobbyist paid trip, his ignoring youth services, his arbitrary closing of the public walkway at the 360, his unpaid business taxes, his property taxes being sold at auction for two years in a row.   Oh, and he finally got the confused Mayor of Isparta on Skype so the twinning was complete.  

Developer and special money continued to pour into the campaigns.  

November - the voters decided that Jorge Gonzalez and Connie Kreps were the best they could do.  Both won the election.  

The commission celebrated by having an installation and no regular business was done.  

December - The parking problem on Harbor Island and coming soon on Treasure Island remain ignored.  The PAL program is postponed because there never was enough money.  The School has not reported on progress if any.   The 360 and other buildings continue to illegally seal off public walkways.   The sewers continue to rupture.   

But the lights.  At long last, the  lights have stayed on through Christmas.  

Happy New Year

Kevin Vericker

December 29, 2014