March 10 2015 Commission Meeting

The good news from the commission meeting last night is that it ended in a record 1 hour and 51 minutes.  This accomplished a long held goal of discussing absolutely nothing.  But of course it was not nothing.  Let's break it down to the major themes:

• Ongoing issues with the Kennedy House
• The firing/not firing of Chief Robert Daniels
• Harbor Island which deserves its own post but won't get one today. 

 The Kennedy House

If you have been living under a bridge, in a coma, or visiting your in-laws in Central Florida, you might not know what is going on at the Kennedy House.  The full breakdown is here but to make it short, the management company and condo board president are facing charges of burglary, grand theft and assorted misbehaviors. 

Village Attorney Robert Switkes took great pains to explain the process of the arrests, that the decision finally lies with the state attorney and that no one in the village administration is privy to the particulars. 

Village Manager Rollason took great pains to explain that the Kennedy House did not figure in his decision to fire/not fire the chief of police and that the Local 10 report that he said it was a factor was wrong.  Rollason further explained that he had a "heart to heart" talk about "truthful reporting" with Bob Norman.  

Rollason also said that he had no idea of the status of the Kennedy House investigation when he fired/not fired the chief. 

Bob Norman of Local 10 ABC clarified for me that he stands by his reporting. 

Oh, the voices in my head
say they love me.

 Sidenote:  I asked Mayor Kreps if she was now willing to disavow the flier that her campaign supporters sent out trashing her opponent in the last election for bringing the Kennedy House issues as a way to attack him.  She is not.

With this guy vouching for
your integrity, how can you
go wrong?

However, Vice Mayor Jorge Gonzalez rose gallantly to her defense by saying that he knows her to be a woman of unquestionable integrity and that I have a political agenda.   So there.  The Gonzalez has spoken.  

Then the former president of the Grandview, former treasure of the Kreps Kampaign and former former vice mayor got up and explained that her campaign had nothing to do with the hit pieces and that they got 47 signatures from the Kennedy House not from the manager and she's good.  

So that settled that.  

 Fired/Not Fired, Definitely Suspended

Rootin' tootin', straight shootin' son of a gun Village Manager Frank Rollason then gave his report, a fair amount of it about the police chief who was not fired.   He is still the police chief.  He is on six month administrative leave with no return.  Maybe he'll get a new job and we won't have to pay his severance.  But he's not fired.  And Bob Norman reported that he was but Frank Rollason never said that.  Everyone clear?  Good.  Now don't ask again. 

Harbor Island

There were two big issues discussed about Harbor Island.  

Parking:  In his report, rootin' tootin', straight shootin' son of a gun Village Manager Frank Rollason explained that he will be  presenting the parking program to the commission in April.  For Harbor Island, it will be a three tier system.  

• Have Private Parking?  No sticker. 
• Have No Private Parking?  You get a sticker.
• Have Some Private Parking But Not Enough?  You can get a sticker for the extra cars if there are enough.  

The attorney explained that the 7904 Board are not showing up at meetings and apparently not answering the phones.   Since the Bayshore Yacht & Tennis Club Building is a major cause of the parking issues on Harbor Island, this does not bode well.  

Docking:  The commission authorized the administration to seek a $200,000 grant to build a dock at Vogel Park.  If we get it, the Village will have to match the grant for an amount between 25% ($50k) and 50% ($100k).   There is no demand for the dock from any residents and the commission acknowledged this and then voted to seek it anyway, taking an attitude of "some people won't like it."  

Other Stuff:  

Not much.  Wendy Duvall did not come for reasons.  They passed the  styrofoam ban.  They agreed that Ethics Training should be done online.  As the last item of the evening, they motioned to adjourn and voted "aye".  The mayor then shouted ROLL CALL but nobody knew why.  Then they went home. 

Kevin Vericker

March 10, 2015