Eddie Lim and Connie Kreps Walk Away From the Commission

The regular commission meeting, scheduled for August 9, has been canceled. Dr. Vogel's health will not allow him to attend, and the twin commissioners Lim Kreps found themselves suddenly unavailable.

This has to stop. This is the third time this year that Lim Kreps have been unavailable for meetings without explanation. But we know the explanation. Dr. Vogel is not there to vote reliably on whatever issue the twins have decided.

In a democracy, governance is not about power. It is about the difficult and noisy process of finding the best outcome for the people represented, using the best judgment of the legislators and often making some very unattractive compromises.

I'm in Washington DC as I write this and possibly the worst deal since the Missouri Compromise has just passed Congress. Nobody likes the debt ceiling deal, including the reps who voted for it. But they stuck to it and fought it out and are trying to make the best of it. That's what governance is.

The North Bay Village issues, which are never discussed, are pretty straightforward:

Is a tax hike feasible? Two commissioners say No, two may be saying Yes.

Is the city well run under the current management? We know that two say Yes and that two have indicated No.

Are the commission meetings and the constant disruptions productive? Two yes, two no.

Your answer to the above may be mixed or firmly on one side or the other, but if the commission won't even meet to try to work these things out, we're in deep trouble.

And that's exactly what's happened. The going got tough for Lim Kreps and instead of honoring their promises to us and working to a resolution, they are bunking off.

Anyone else notice that the "Citizens for Full Disclosure" have not helpfully forwarded a message announcing the cancellation? They will now that I've mentioned it, but like the twin commissioners Lim Kreps, they'd rather not.

But the twins are conducting city business this week. We are paying for them to attend a lobbyist extravaganza in Orlando. A full two days of the League of Cities and the many social events organized by lobbyists. For this boondoggle they are taking their time and our money.

Why not use the new website to contact them? Click here. Ask them all why they will not be there August 9?

Kevin Vericker
August 3, 2011

The Limits of Trust

The City Manager has been unable to find a firm to do a forensic accounting of the checks he and the vice mayor signed illegally for less than $30,000. What the heck is he even doing being in charge of finding a firm to investigate him? Why has he not turned this over to the city attorneys or the city clerk to get the proper audit done?

This brings up so many questions but first let's review what happened.

According to the city manager, the charter specifies that the mayor or vice mayor can sign checks and wire transfers. So sometimes he'd ask one and sometimes the other.

But that's not true. A simple word "respectively" follows and "respectively" means "first one, then the other." So if the mayor can't or won't sign, then the vice mayor is able to. Not "whoever", first one then the other.

Now this is a big deal. If the mistake was an honest one, it shows a level of incompetency that leads one to wonder what else is going wrong. If it was deliberate then it was a legal and ethical violation of major proportions.

We have to be able to trust our city manager. And trust is earned. It is not about "gotcha" mistakes, but about what the person does when a mistake is made.

It's wrong that the city manager is the one charged with finding an auditor to analyze his own mistakes. It's wrong that the vice mayor has not recused herself from the vote. It's wrong what they did.

The illegal signings happened and the only issue is whether it's forgivable or grounds for dismissal. The only way to know that is to have a truly independent audit and explanation of the illegally signed checks and a plan to go forward.

That the city manager has not yet provided one is a huge warning not to trust him. Let's not be fooled.

Kevin Vericker
May 7, 2011

Social Notes From Tallahassee - City of Dreams

I will continue my notes on the commission later this week, but this week Vice Mayor Leon-Kreps and Commissioner Eddie Lim will be in Tallahassee. During their much needed break, they've been invited to dine with Alex Gonzales, CEO of Waste Management and major campaign contributor to the Lim and Trujillo campaigns.

I'm sure the twins won't be discussing the upcoming vote on the Waste Management contract. No news yet on what they are wearing but watch this space for more.

Kevin Vericker
April 5, 2011

Transparency

A weak commission form of governnment which is what North Bay Village has by design. This concept relies on some baseline assumptions.

1. The commission will be composed of local citizens with the city's best interest at heart and not professional politicians.
2. A professional city manager will be employed who will guide the execution of the strategy set by the commission.
3. The community will be involved and their involvement will be welcomed.

So far this has eluded some of our commissioners and many of our citizens.

Today, let's talk about Connie Leon-Kreps. It's important to remember that she did not win an election to her post - she won a lawsuit. Not one voter in North Bay Village ever had the chance to vote for or against her.

Kreps served a previous term as a commissioner in North Bay Village and other than Dr. Vogel, has the most experience on the commission. Yet at last week's special meeting with one resolution, she was unaware that if she wanted to put conditions on a resolution to pass, she needed to propose an amendment rather than simply saying her vote is conditional, which does nothing. An experienced commissioner of normal intelligence would know that.

That same evening during the commissioners workshop, she felt that information from a non resident was so urgent that she pushed through a motion to hear it, knowing full well that there was nothing germane to be added.

Connie Leon-Kreps spent the first part of the workshop arguing pointlessly that the meeting time has to be set for 7:30 no matter what.

In January, she sponsored a measure to reject the protest of the Waste Management contract and then voted against herself. It was clear she had not put the resolution on and never read it. That was disgraceful.

Kreps has consistently made unquantifiable and impossible to verify statements that she is hearing from citizens around the city about what a great job the city management is doing. Perhaps she is hearing this but she does not share when or from whom and is dismissive to the point of rudeness to others who disagree.

North Bay Village is stuck with her, for a while anyway, and I admit I don't like her. I believe her to be shrewd rather than intelligent. Kreps seems to believe that a position of power is the power to bully. Her comments and actions seem contemptuous of our governing principles. I doubt that she has the ethical or intellectual capacity to step up to the role she grabbed and sincerely hope I am wrong.

Kevin Vericker
March 28, 2011

Agenda for The January 25 Commission Meeting

The subject of the city manager will dominate tomorrow's special meeting of the North Bay Village commission. There are two items on the agenda regarding a permanent city manager.

The first is a clear, publicly laid out process to evaluate the role and qualifications for city manager candidates and to bring an open process to seek a permanent city manager.

The second is an attempt to write a permanent contract for the current interim manager and bypass public discussion and scrutiny.

The resolution to hire in the dark was put forward by Connie Leon-Kreps, vice mayor. In her return to the commission, Kreps has misunderstood the nature of a representative democratic government which does things in the open.

In the first meeting after the installation, she proposed a resolution to reject a bid protest on the garbage contract. Then she voted against her resolution as she clearly had not read, understood or been paying attention to the proceedings.

Then in the next meeting, she proposed a resolution to reject the protest without a hearing, in and of itself the wrong way to do things. First you hear the protest, then you decide to accept or reject it. Well, when that resolution came up, she once again had not been paying attention to the process and instead of discussing why she put this on the agenda, she reread the resolution, which had just been done by the city clerk and offered no public explanation of her reasoning. This confused the rest of the commission and the resolution was voted down.

Now, Ms. Kreps is stating that she wants the position of city manager filled without a search, without public input, without commission consideration, without process. Just draft a contract and sign it. Ms. Kreps may have good reason for her position. She may have carefully weighed all of the alternatives, come to the conclusion that we now have the best possible city management and that North Bay Village should think no further about it.

But that is unlikely.

There are really two possibilities. The first is that she is fundamentally unfamiliar with the power of the city manager and the need to ensure that the hire is done publicly. This is possible. Two resolutions in a row defeated because you didn't know what they were and what to do? That's a problem.

The second possibility is more disconcerting. Ms. Kreps might very well believe that the commission is not bound by the norms of democracy and process, nor is it accountable to uphold our city charter and our state's Sunshine laws. I sincerely hope that when Commissioners Lim quickly jumped in after Ms. Kreps reread her resolution saying "I support this." it was an exclamation of surprise and not a previously agreed statement of support agreed outside the commission chambers.

But I fear the worst. Ms. Kreps, as the secretary for the Citizens for Full Disclosure, a shadowy group of residents who never sign or take responsibility for their publications, sent out another distorted email blast this weekend, in this case regarding what the CFD ignorantly calls the "Commission of Ethics" when even a cursory view would show that it is the "Commission on Ethics and Public Trust." I will be writing more about that later this week. But as a founding member and current secretary of this group, she betrays her own disdain for doing things the right and democratic way.

Please, if you can, come tomorrow night and insist that the position of city manager be approached openly, without preconception, and correctly. If you can't come, then call and let your elected officials know that you expect them to openly discuss and evaluate the most important decision North Bay Village will make under their tenure.

The city phone numbers are as follows:

Vice Mayor Connie Leon-Kreps (786) 877-1163
Commissioner Eddie Lim (786) 877-1694
Mayor Corina Esquijarosa (786) 999-2816

I understand that Frank Rodriguez and Paul Vogel do not have city issued mobile phones but messages for both can be left at City Hall (305) 756-7171

Correction - Last week I wrote about John Quincy Adams returning the Senate after his term as president. I was wrong. It was the House of Representatives, a fact I have not only known since the sixth grade, I double checked before I wrote the piece and then for some reason, I typed "Senate". Thanks to one of my smarter readers (which is most of you - 279 of you last week!) for pointing the error out.


Kevin Vericker
January 24, 2011

The Commission Meeting Tuesday 1/11/11

Yesterday I wrote about the confusion over how to manage a resolution on the garbage and the exemplary clarity of the code enforcement activity reports. The two themes, confusion and clarity, continued through the meeting.

City Manager - Bob Pushkin deserves a great deal of credit for allowing our Code Enforcement Officer to publish his stats giving a clear picture of the job he is doing. Pushkin's decision to include these stats in the agenda for the commissioners is a good move towards the transparency we are all seeking.

But that same transparency did not extend to the rest of the agenda. The finance report covered the highlights of the operational budget. The projects were not included. Nor was their any voluntary discussion on the part of the city manager of the police department reorganization, a major move.

From the City Charter:

10. Make such other reports as the Commission may require concerning the operations of City departments, offices and agencies, subject to his direction and supervision;
11. Keep the Commission fully advised as to the financial condition and future needs of the City and make such recommendations to the Commission concerning the affairs of the City;

The information on the projects, the status of grant requests, number of foreclosures, sales in the city, and other metrics have been requested every month by the commission. It's not optional. The commission once again directed the manager to start providing this information at every meeting.

My take: I don't think he's holding back. Bob Pushkin was brought in on an interim basis, without a financial background, without projects background and without the breadth of experience required by our charter. He's held it together but if the city is ever to move forward, we need a seasoned professional with a strong track record of turning around a city. Bob Pushkin has held the city in place since the ill advised firing of our last city manager and for that he deserves our thanks, but holding the city in place is actually dragging it down. We need to move forward if we are to recover from this downturn and we need a permanent manager to do that.

On a related subject, Vice Mayor Connie Leon-Kreps thought she would use Rey Trujillo's favorite tactic and ambush the commission meeting by introducing a resolution under New Business for the city to make Bob Pushkin permanent. The attempt failed but it deeply worrisome, both the content and the style.

The City Manager is the single most important position in North Bay Village. Filling it requires deep deliberation, discussions of what the city needs to be and how it should proceed and clearly defined goals and expectations. It deserves a great deal of open and transparent consideration.

During the last commission, one of the most destructive and demagogic aspects was the constant series of "emergency" meetings and the constant introduction of unscheduled items. The voters spoke clearly against this in November and the Vice Mayor needs to fall in line. She should introduce the item on the agenda and be prepared to explain her reasoning and the need to the public.

Kreps has screwed up her first two resolutions and needs to get with the program. Like any new member of the commission, these can be considered rookie mistakes, although she has been on the commission before. But we don't need this ambush nonsense.

Fun fact: Rey Trujillo texted one of the sitting commissioners during the commission meeting saying "Bob Pushkin wants a contract to become City Manager and will bring it to the commission". Kreps obviously had spoken with Trujillo about this and given Eddie Lim's quick statement of support, it had been discussed with him too.

Bad things happen in the dark, Ms. Kreps. Try doing it right.

Tomorrow: What the Police Chief didn't know...

Kevin Vericker
January 13, 2011

Garbage Contract

The protest by Choice Environmental Systems against the awarding of the garbage pickup contract to Waste Management is scheduled to be rejected tomorrow night. Seriously.

Normally the way a protest is handled is that the deciding body resolves to hear the protest, then discuss the merits of the protest, and then decides to accept or reject the protest.

Not here. Item 9A on the Commission agenda available here is a resolution "rejecting a protest of award of contract" and was introduced by Vice Mayor Connie Leon-Kreps.

So no motion to review the protest, no motion to discuss the protest, just a motion to reject.

This garbage contract has been dirty since the beginning. Side yard pickup is a valued service among North Bay Village residents and we were not given the opportunity to express that. The City Manager on September 28 stated that there were $500,000 in savings to be realized from the outsourcing, even though the savings were estimated at about $80,000. Then Mayor Oscar Alfonse ran the meeting out.

It was not done in the open and transparent manner we need for such a critical decision.

I hope that the City Attorney, as the Parliamentarian for the Commission, reviews the correct process, that the motion to reject is withdrawn and replaced by a motion to review, and that this time the questions about the savings, the impact on the neighborhood and our long term strategies are discussed fully and honestly.

After all, a motion for a summary rejection of the protest without discussion of the merits of the protest would certainly be a violation of the spirit and perhaps the letter of the Sunshine Law. Government works best in the open.

Kevin Vericker
January 10, 2011