Where Did The Money Go?

A Picture of A Picture

In May 2014, the Commission voted to spend $105,000 of taxpayer money to award a contract to Kimley-Horn to create a plan to create a plan to create a Bay Walk under the Miami Beach Bridge to link the south side of the causeway with the north side of the causeway by walking under the bridge.  

The vote was 3 to 1 - Mayor Kreps, Vice Mayor Gonzalez, and Commissioner Eddie Lim voting for it, while Commissioner Chervony voted against it.  

The money came from two sources:

1. The Village Recreation Impact fund paid half. 
2. The State matched the amount.  

The contract was drawn up and Kimley-Horn agreed to the following:

• A Survey of the Area
• Geotechnical Engineering (basically a look see to make sure it's not radioactive land)
• Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (look at the sea grass)
• Conceptual Design
• Contract Documents
• Electrical Engineering (can you plug stuff in?)
• Sail Structure Conceptual Design (A status of a sail)
• Permitting
• Opinion of Probable Costs.  

In October of 2014, they presented the conceptual design, the drawing above.   

They were supposed to take the information back and come back with a more specific design, then execute on the rest of the contract once the commission had reviewed the plans.  

They never did.  They never came back.  But they did bill us for $95,851 for all the work.  

Kimley-Horn made this proposal in spite of the fact there is no other city that has done this, that the space under the bridge does not belong to North Bay Village.  The commission, 3-1, knew this and also knew that nobody in their right mind would build a dank, dark park under a metal grate bridge.   

They spent our rec money and we have nothing to show for it.  

Now, they are telling us that sadly, the new budget for 2016 cannot contain money to renovate the basketball courts or for dog runs  ($50,000).  This is the exact amount of money they gave to friends at Kimley-Horn to produce nothing.   

In other news, the mayor wants to include $50,000 for a "marketing video" for North Bay Village.  No one is questioning it but it seems like a good idea to ask what exactly are we marketing and since the going rate for for such videos is typically $1,000 per minute, how long will this video be?   One assumes 50 minutes but since there is little to market about North Bay Village other than, "Pay to Play" we could just skip the whole thing.  

Kevin Vericker
September 23, 2015 

Budget Blasting

Mayor Kreps on the hunt

Tuesday night was one for the books.  The two meetings of the Commission back to front to back as they considered the budget for 2016.  It was as usual attended by 4 of the 5 commissioners. 

First up - the Budget.  

From 5:30 to 7:20, Mayor Crazy Eyes took every opportunity to rant at Frank Rollason, who she wants to get gone soon, about his plans to hire an office generalist to provide backup to the other employees when they are on vacation or sick or otherwise engaged.   

For his part, Rootin' Tootin' Straight Shootin' Son of A Gun Frank Rollason explained that he needed to spend the moneys on village stuff and we can't afford resident stuff like dog parks, basketball court fixin' up and senior programs.   

Mayor Crazy Eyes then went back to her rant about how Key Biscayne and all the cool cities use menu based automated phone systems and how she herself has stopped by the Village Hall and enquired of the workers "Are you busy?" and they said 'No" so no more people.  

By 7:20, they had gotten nowhere so they suspended the Budget meeting until later so they could hold the regular meeting.

The Special Presentation.  

As regular readers of this space know, Vice Mayor Jorge P. Gonzalez filed a complaint last year that his opponent's mentioning the completely substantiated and absolutely factual information about Gonzalez's record of:

• Bankruptcy
• Failure to pay Taxes
• Rebuke by the Commission on Ethics
• Lobbyist Paid Trip To Turkey  
• Cutting PAL and Youth Services
• Raising our taxes 30%

was totally unfair because even though he did all of these things, they made him look like a sketchy political hack with a bad record.   You can read the details here.  

Joe Centorino Lets Us Know

Well, anyway even though the Commission on Ethics after breaking its own rules and lying in its final judgment has tried everything they can do without going to jail themselves to protect the Gonzalez but the Truth is the best defense against accusations of slander and they were sadly unable to punish people who tell the  truth.  So the commission invited Joe Centorino to ramble incoherently about how hard it is to prove actual malice in a campaign complaint about falsehoods.  Mr. Centorino did not address Gonzalez's false claim that he had been slandered but sent the message clearly and loudly to North Bay Village residents that if you see an ethical violation against Mr. Centorino's friend, STFU!  They won't do squat about it.  

Having established that we are not governed by either ethics or law, the commission moved along to consider various items including approving the elevator parking for the new building on Harbor Island, advising the State Department on International Affairs, and approving the use of a vacant lot for Shuckers parking.  

Mayor Crazy Eyes had long since lost control of the agenda, losing her place, calling the wrong votes, and shouting non sequiturs at various points so the vice mayor took over the chairing as best he could.   

Around 10:30, they needed to vote on the appointment of a P&Z member and they deadlocked two to two.   No one would budge on the issue and so a long time resident with an unblighted history of civic involvement was deliberately insulted by Mayor Crazy Eyes and Jorge Gonzalez because they know she can't be counted on to pay back their political debts to developers. 

They of course would not have deadlocked on the issue if we had five commissioners but Wendy Duvall is currently vying for the Paul Vogel Award in Commission Absences and seldom appears at the meetings.   

I did notice that this time, for the first time, the commission did not vote to excuse her.  Most people believe she'll be resigning soon.   

Back to the Budget.  

That started about 10:40 and went to 12:30.  There was some compromise and by compromise, I mean the things residents want like a dog run ($10,000) and other rec opportunities were eliminated while the things the manager wants were mostly kept.   

The commission did tell the manager that 11% tax hike was probably enough and go back and find some more cuts which he might do if he feels like it.  

In the end, nothing got done right and the final budget set for September 24 at 6:30 will pass with increased taxes and diminished services.   

Kevin Vericker

September 10, 2015

September Opens With A Mushroom Cloud

Next Tuesday, the Commission has two meetings.  Agendas are here:

1.)  5:30 PM - The Commission discusses the whether to raise our taxes !5% or 22%.   They really can't decide.  

What they do know is that the only things negotiable in the budget are the things the residents want like Open Space, a Dog Park, Youth Programs, Clean Streets.   Those will get cut because the village needs to pay the commission's political debts and we can't expect those to be postponed.  

2.)  7:30 PM or later.  After the Commission takes the time to not consider how to better spend our money, they will launch into their regular meeting.  What a meeting it will be.  

Up first under special presentations, the Commission will hear from Joe Centorino, spokesmodel for the Miami Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust.  He was invited by Vice Mayor Jorge Gonzalez who has been censured by the Commission on Ethics and whose most recent false complaint was dismissed not once but twice by the COE.   Gonzalez invited Centorino to show that no matter what he does, the COE will do everything in its power to keep Gonzalez from facing the consequences of his actions. 

Then State Rep David Richardson will get up and talk about his upcoming campaigns.  

This will be followed by the the Bayshore Yacht and Tennis Club about why they sadly are not able to move forward on getting all their cars parked and asking for more time.   

Then the commission will get to its regular business of deciding international policy and handing out favors to developers.  

That's right.  In the same month that they are raising your taxes, North Bay Village Commissioners Chervony and Vice Mayor Jorge Gonzalez have decided that the most important thing they could do was weigh in on the Iran Nuclear Treaty.  

If you remember, our last foray into international politics left us twinned with the Pro-Islamic, right wing mayor of Isparta Turkey, who Jorge Gonzalez met during his lobbyist paid important international mission to Isparta.   That was a proud moment.  

More next week.  

Kevin Vericker
September 4, 2015

 

 

This Post Is A Lie

It's August.  It's hot.  I've been busy.  I haven't been blogging.  Sorry about that.  I was actually thinking that like our commission I would take the month off but the most interesting thing happened today.  

I got a call today, actually two calls, from the US Postal Service.  

The subject was the rotted out mailbox at 7525 East Treasure Drive.  You see, I had submitted a question on the USPS website about how this might be fixed and replaced.  And the people calling, Paula from the Miami Beach 33141 Post Office and Jim Croce from the district office,  with the same message that the Post Office is aware of the problem and the boxes are scheduled to be  repaired and replaced before the end of the year.  They also added that it was not true that they do not replace street mailboxes and couldn't understand why anyone thought that. 

Good news, right? 

Why though, you might wonder, did I take my time to do this? Well I'll tell you.  

You see on July 30, there was a meeting of the Community Enhancement Board where the subject was brought up.  Our Village Manager, Rootin' Tootin' Straight Shootin' Son Of A Gun Frank Rollason told the Board and the people in attendance that he had personally talked with the Post Office and the USPS would not for any reason fix or replace the mailboxes and if the village did, the USPS  would take the mailboxes away and then we would have no mailboxes.  (He speaks in bold font when he's condescending to people he doesn't seem to respect.)

Except, I kind of knew that couldn't be true.  I'm actually a fan of the USPS.  They've been reliably delivering my VISA bill every month since 1975 or so and I've worked in places where there is no effective postal service and I see how it hurts the quality of life, so I thought, "that's not true".  And sure enough, a few internet clicks away I found out "that's not true."  

 

So why the weirdness?  I mean even if somebody told Rootin' Tootin' Straight Shootin' Son Of A Gun Frank Rollason that, why would he accept it as an answer and think the matter was closed?  

In the same meeting, Rootin' Tootin' Straight Shootin' Son Of A Gun Frank Rollason also explained that Howard Tonkin of Urban Habitat, who did the native plantings at our "monument" signs, had dropped out of sight and the village had no way to contact him and that's why the native plants are being butchered by SFM, Rollason's favorite gardening partner.  

Also, There Are These Signs Around The Village

Except that's not true either.  Howard Tonkin is easily contactable at his email, phone number, number on his signs and in Facebook.  In fact, when a member of the Community Enhancement Board reached out to Tonkin, he explained that Urban Habitat had tried to take care of the plants and was ignored.  No return phone calls, nothing.  

What's going on here?  Why is the manager lying on things that are so easily caught out?  And when there's no purpose to be served?   I mean, look, Rootin' Tootin' Straight Shootin' Son Of A Gun Frank Rollason was never a real municipal manager and he has a dismal record in his current position but man, how dumb does he think we are?  

Oh wait, Mayor Kreps recruited him so maybe Rootin' Tootin' Straight Shootin' Son Of A Gun Frank Rollason thinks that's the norm.  Yeah, maybe. 

Kevin Vericker

August 26, 2015

Spending Money

If Only The Tax Hike Were 7%

The 2016 Budget is being worked on as we speak.   

You've already heard the news, supposedly good news, that the Miami-Dade Property Appraisers Office said our values went up  last year.  

What that means:

2015 Spending Money $4,041,217 

2016 Spending Money $4,329,530 (if we don't change the millage rate.)

Now I sure we all got 7% raises this year and heck, we know inflation is eating up some of that.  Oh what's that?  Inflation so far this year is in THE RED and running at -.08%.  Well, still, it's getting more expensive somewhere, like fuel.  North Bay Village costs for fuel keeps rising because they buy at special places or something.   

Anyway, with its new found money, the Village can do a lot of things.  It could for example, fund all of the resident requested new programs like:  

Animal Control

Halloween

Winterfest

Egg Hunt Spring

Scholarship Program

4th of July

Dog Park Run

Senior Programs

PAL

Causeway lighting

Plant Maintenance at Entrances

Basketball Court

Holiday Lighting

Deco Bike Program

For about $211,000 of the increased tax revenue.  

But that's not what happening.  

First of all, the Village Manager and the Commission proposed new programs totaling a cool $1,473,000.   That's right 26% more spending.   And just to put that in perspective, only 3% for things that we either used to have (Animal Control, PAL), things we like to have (Holiday celebrations) or would love to see (Deco Bike)  

Well, when Rootin' Tootin' Straight Shootin' Village Manager Frank Rollason presented his list to the Commission on July 28 and the Commission in turn said "Hey, we should totally do something for the residents." he came back with the bad news that if the village does stuff for the residents, then the tax rate has to go 6.29, plus the water and sewer have to go up because our costs dropped.  

A 26% Tax Hike

The Mayor and Commissioners Lim and Chervony were all "No Way! How come?" and told the manager to go look at what he could cut so Mayor Crazy Eyes can run for a fourth term the residents aren't taxed out of their own homes.  

Vice Mayor Jorge Gonzalez likes when other people pay taxes (he occasionally pays his own taxes in fairness) and only was worried that there might be pedophiles riding around in cars.  

So  Rootin' Tootin' Straight Shootin' Village Manager Frank Rollason is sitting down now and thinking about how he could finds cuts in:

Animal Control

Halloween

Winterfest

Egg Hunt Spring

Scholarship Program

4th of July

Dog Park Run

Senior Programs

PAL

Causeway lighting

Plant Maintenance at Entrances

Basketball Court

Holiday Lighting

Deco Bike Program

The Cuts being discussed Categorized by impact

 Because clearly there's nowhere else to look.  The key thing is to punish the residents and make life less enjoyable for them.  Surely you don't expect him to find the savings by carefully evaluating the value of the marginal spend?  He doesn't even know what that is not being a professional city manager.

This cost cutting will go on throughout August.  Our commission is super bored and disengaged exhausted and so is taking the month off and the new budget will be presented in September to the Commission on September 8.   By that time, the current village manager will either be a memory because the mayor is determined to get rid of him, or the mayor will be helpless because she lost.   

But it doesn't matter.  Your taxes are going up and your services are being cut.

I'm sorry I don't have any funny graphics but I thought I would show you in a chart how little the cost of the services we want are.  A mere $211,000 out of a budget of over $5,000,000.  

Total Budget on the Left, Increase in the Middle, Resident Services on the Right.

 Kevin Vericker
August 4, 2015

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

The Mayor was at the Community Enhancement Board last night.  So was Commissioner Chervony.  It was clear that the Mayor wanted to watch the tear down and provide valuable input to help.  But because of laws and stuff, she couldn't.   Still her presence was felt and there is NO TRUTH to the rumor that she snuck away during the meeting and created this post it art on Frank Rollason's door.  No truth at all and I will not be party to spreading the rumor that the mayor snuck out of the meeting and created this post it art which says QUIT NOW on Frank Rollason's door.  Cause she didn't.

Good.  Now that's cleared up, lets get to the meeting.  

The Community Enhancement Board agenda comprised a variety of old and new items with a single overarching theme - why is nothing getting done?  Specifically, why has the village manager, one Rootin' Tootin' Straight Shootin' Son of a Gun Frank Rollason, sat in all those meetings and not reported back the progress or executed on any of the items?  

The items on the agenda included a discussion of dumpsters occupying public land on Harbor Island, a building that summarily took over public parking spaces and marked them "Private", the failing decal program (sidenote below*), Village signs, landscaping, the Apartheid Wall on North Bay Island, and a review of the minutes for the last 7 months.   

But the theme was the same.  Why is nothing getting done?   Now if it were anyone else but Rootin' Tootin' Straight Shootin' Son of a Gun Frank Rollason being questioned by the board members, I might have felt sorry for him.  Heck, I even did feel a twinge of solidarity towards him during the barrage but then he did what he does best  - lied and condescended.   

For example, during the discussion about covering the excrement collectors for dogs, RTSSSOG carefully explained that the bags and baskets had changed and he was surprised that no one had seen that on the web site.   

I was there.  I have one of those new fashioned Smart Phone thingamabobs and so I called up the Intertubes and searched the site, WWW.NBVILLAGE.COM,  and there's nothing there.  Nope.  

Then in response to the other complaints, well, what's a guy to do?  He explained that either the complaint had already been addressed and if the board was smarter they'd know that, or would be addressed just like he told them he would, or it couldn't be addressed because other people wouldn't let him address the problems or that they should take it up with the commission or someone else who gives a a rats patootie but Cheese 'n' Crackers stop busting him.  Now the Board's  all over his posterior too, really?  It must be their lady time.  

The Board for their part were not buying it.  After all, they are only one of two remaining boards in the  village and they won't go down without a fight.  They didn't survive by buying into lies. 

Back in the day, when the Mayor and the Manager were starry eyed and believing in each others promises, they jointly destroyed every other board - The Budget Oversight Board , The Animal Control Board, The Youth Services Board - because they weren't going to let anyone rain on their parade.  But now that the Mayor's eyes have been opened, she is glad that this one board survived so she could have allies in her decision to finally divorce.  A Mayor needs friends and not just the imaginary ones.  

During his apologia (Latin word - cost me $5 - means "explanation" but this is a smart blog and my readers demand the  good words), the manager touched on a few themes.  

• Did the board know that the parking decal stuff was all complicated?  Well he didn't but now he knows that people have more cars than two sometimes and that some people who own property but not a condo or house want access to their property and that some people hire home health aides and baby sitters to help them at home and sit on their babies and they need a place to park so there's a lot to consider.  Of course, every other city that has implemented a parking program knows this but we have to be all North Bay Village Special.
  
  
• The website is being redesigned to do things.  The things were not discussed but it totally will.
  
  
  
• The Tot Lot is being redone and will open again someday.  Not in the summer when the kids are out of school but someday.   

 The long painful march towards the inevitable breakup continues.  We all know how this turns out and it won't end well for the mayor or the manager.  It's just a question of time.  

In most breakups, those not directly involved try very hard not to choose sides as that never ends well for them.  In this one, it's easy for me.  I choose the sidelines.  Pass the popcorn!

Kevin Vericker

July 31, 2015

D.I.V.O.R.C.E

July Is Budget Time

 

It's Budget season again and time for the annual tax hike.  This year there's great news for people who really love municipal spending.   The county said that our values had gone up 11% so we can use our current millage rate (5.474) and still get 11% more revenue.  Hearing that, our administration said "Hooray, huzzah, let us be like the other cities in Miami-Dade and hold the rate steady while wisely using the extra 11% to improve our village."  

Hah, hah. no.  Instead the proposed budget will gobble up that extra 11% and increase the tax rate to 6.2904 to pay for things.  Yep, that's right.  We need more.  

This increase, nearly 26%, was quickly noted and the additional $1,261,000 was mostly agreed.  The commission set the top tax rate and then agreed to meet on Sept 8 and Sept 24 to discuss the details.  

Drama Time!

The meeting itself was sparsely attended by the public.  I was there.  The mayor invited her posse to sit in the front row so that was four more.  Two new residents were there and then another pal of the mayor's showed up.  Yep, 8 people, half of whom left before the end. 

Nevertheless, the Mayor who has decided that she wants to fire Village Manager Rootin' Tootin' Straight Shootin' Son of a Gun Frank Rollason used the platform to address the assembled multitude and show just how bad things are.  

It started out with the Mayoral Invocation of  Wrong Things.  (Book of Common Complaints, 1928)

1. It's too hot.  Why can't the Village Manager get the landlord to fix the A/C?
2. We should have more money for Code Enforcement and less for other stuff.
3. Why are we hiring a new administrative generalist and she better not be attractive?
4. Other cities use fancy automated phone systems and it's embarrassing when people call North Bay Village and a human answers.  What are we?  Hooterville?
5. For the record, when the Mayor said to the Village Manager, "Please look into body cameras for the police."  she didn't mean it and she's glad it's gone.  Why did anyone think she meant it?
6. How come the GPS for the police didn't get purchased last year?
7. Was it just laziness? 
8. And what's with the meeting time?  The mayor had to field many, many calls from her imaginary friends to explain the time to them. 

But like in any bad relationship, the fight was not about the fight.  No.  It's about the Note Cards that he didn't get for her and his complete refusal to support her in her mayoring.  So Frank Rollason must go, just like all the managers she once loved and who finally disappointed her.   The campaign to get rid of him has started.  My email is flooded with "anonymous" complaints.  The mayor is being sweet to Chervony because if the Rootin' Tootin' Straight Shootin' Son of a Gun won't quit, she might need the votes to fire him. Last night was not about the budget, it was about the divorce.  

Now for his part, Rootin' Tootin' Straight Shootin' Son of a Gun Frank Rollason patiently explained that he needed the new person to backup those employees with specialty certification, that the items proposed were by the commission, and other stuff.  But that's not what the fight is about.  It's about the relationship, dude.

It's always a bad idea for family members to get involved in a divorce.  It just doesn't turn out well for anyone but still two of the other commissioners, not understanding I think that this is not about the budget, tried their darnedest.  

Vice Mayor Jorge Gonzalez looked at the $1.261,000 and zeroed in on why we are spending $10k for the dog park, why does it cost $50,000 to bring in CitiBike,  how come it costs $30,000 for the basketball renovation, and what's the deal with the $15,000 for the License Plate reader.   That's right.  Fiscal Hawk Jorge Gonzalez was concerned that 7¢ of the new dollars was going to stuff the residents want, and something that the police want.  

Rootin' Tootin' Straight Shootin' Son of a Gun  Frank Rollason explained that the $15k was because Pedophiles.  And the rest is because the commission for some reason want the residents to get something out of the tax hikes too.  Gonzalez immediately got on board about the anti-pedophile license plate reader but remained unconvinced until the  mayor slapped him right in the concerns.  

Eddie Lim simply warned the Mayor to let the manager do his job.    The mayor did not hear him.  

  

A Resident's View

From the hot, stuffy seat in the audience, this drama unfolded like a refreshing winter breeze as I sat watching the Mayor, Vice Mayor and Village Manager snipe and snarl at each other.  These are not good people.  These are not people who put their positions of trust above all other considerations.  

These are three competing egomaniacs each of whom in their own way have targeted residents who care about the village, pushed meaningful discussion of how to improve things around here off the agenda, love the sounds of their own voices and have no civic pride.  

Given all that, the best we can hope for is that their utter inability to keep their delusional egos in check will mean a standoff as they destroy each other.  It keeps them from doing the very serious damage they are capable of were they to unite.  

So I say, pass the popcorn!  Let's keep this show running.  

Kevin Vericker

July 29, 2015