Friday Roundup

It's been quite a week. I want cover three big things.

The Settlement With The Deputy Village Manager

Let's start with the big controversy.  

There was a settlement agreement reached with the Deputy Village Manager, one Yolanda Menegazzo, that in exchange for agreeing not to sue the Village (it was never clear for what), she would receive 2 month's pay, approximately $21,000.   

Ms. Menegazzo had been hired by previous Village Manager Marlen Martell and after Martell was driven out for her failure to deliver fireworks on two weeks' notice to celebrate the mayor, Menegazzo was pushed out.  

Menegazzo was only at the Village for 40 days so this seems like a pretty generous settlement.

In my opinion, it wasn't.  Ms. Menegazzo had been brought it to take on the dual role previously occupied by Jenice Rosada (also driven out by a toxic work environment) of Deputy Village Manager and HR Director.   Menegazzo has a certification from the Society of Professional Human Resource Manager's, a Masters of Public Administration and nearly a decade's worth of HR experience in public sector.  She was brought in specifically to get the Village out of the current HR mess and instead wound up a victim of it, having left a stable and well respected position to take on that challenge.  

There's a lot behind it.  Our Village Attorney failed to allow the commission to vote on her contract in spite of the Charter which requires that department heads, e.g. Human Resources, be confirmed by the commission.  Although she was deputy village manager with some credible experience in the area, the police chief was (illegally) appointed to interim Village Manager.  He has no experience and was forced the next day by law to reject the "dual appointment" since it's illegal under the Florida Constitution.  

Anyway, there's been a lot discussion over on the Facebook page, with some people apparently taking the view that this was inappropriate.  

I respectfully disagree.  

Menegazzo was wronged by our shambolic and poorly run commission and financially we got off easy.   It is much worse that our mayor's ego and our poor attorney got in the way of using the talents of a bright professional who could have led us through the labor mess they have created.  

How Much Are We Paying Our Police Chief?

The second fun thing is that at the very special meeting, interim Village Manager Lewis Velken said out of nowhere that his salary was $130,000 and the previous chief was $170,000.  You can see it here on the Commission recording.  Go to 3 hours and 3 minutes.  

When Mayor Crazy Eyes heard this, she shouted "Put that on Facebook" and then cackled maniacally.  

Well, of course I will but I requested clarification since the published information does not bear this out.  Here's the email I sent, still unanswered:  

Kevin Vericker
Aug 1 (2 days ago)

to Connie Leon-Kreps, LVelken

Madam Mayor, in reviewing the video of the Monday's meeting after I left, I noted your request to post the information about the police chief's salary on Facebook and of course, I would be happy to do that.


But I'm not sure what figure is being referred to.  In looking at the budget figures for 2017-2018, the base salary for Chief Noriega was listed as $118,289 and in looking at the budget figures for 2018-2019 I see the base salary figure for Chief Velken at $130,000. 


I do note that when benefits, taxes and expenses for are added in, the budget figure for 2017-2018 (Noriega) came through fully loaded at $169,072 and that the comparable budget figure for 2018-2019 is $$171,889. 


Now Mr. Velken stated on the video at 3 hours and 3 minutes (plus a few seconds) that Noriega's salary was $170,000 last year and his own (Velken's) is $130,000. 


But I'm not sure if we are comparing the same figures.


Is Mr. Velken's $130,000 a fully loaded figure including base salary, benefits, and expenses and was Mr. Velken saying that Chief Noriega's base was $170,000?


Thank you for your prompt response and I will post as as soon as I have clarity on the numbers.  

As of today, I have no answer but Velken has told several people that I am wrong and he hopes they will tell me that.  But as of today, Friday,  no answer from either one.

The Election Race

Laura Cattabriga has filed to run for mayor and a fellow resident, Brent Latham, has also pulled papers for the seat.  At this phase, the key is to get 50 valid signatures to be on the ballot.  

The qualification period closes August 17.  

Julianna Strout, candidate for Commissioner at Large, has qualified.  No one has yet pulled papers to run against her.  

Marvin Wilmouth, candidate for Commissioner from Harbor Island, has also qualified and no one else has filed.  

Assuming no one else files, then the qualified candidates, Strout and Wilmoth, are both considered elected.  

It looks like the big race will be on the mayoral ticket.  You know I'll be writing a lot more about that.  

Kevin Vericker

August 3, 2018

Tangled Webs

Here's how not to run a government.  Do what North Bay Village has on the Boards and ADA Issue.

Step 1:  Create a fake crisis.

Step 2:  Don't back down from the story.

Step 3:  Set fire to taxpayer money to prop up the story.

What Happened?

Since this is the "Reality Based Community", let's talk about the known facts.  

Last Wednesday, a resident had a discussion with the Village Chief of Staff and expressed his concern that not having captions on the live broadcast of meeting could leave the Village vulnerable to a lawsuit.  The conversation was reported to the Village Manager, discussed with the Village Attorney, and then the Village Clerk cancelled all the board meetings.  

That was last Wednesday.    

When the board members reacted badly to this and the members of the commission reminded the staff that they did not have have the authority to cancel these meetings, the Village Manager, the Village Attorney and the Village Clerk refused to back down.  

They even refused to put the item on the commission agenda for nearly six days.  

Finally, reluctantly, and incompletely, the Village Manager put an item together on Monday night that was a hastily written quote for closed captioning to be installed at some undetermined future point.  

Committing To The Pretext

George Constanza Commits To The Lie

Remember the Seinfeld Episode where George lies about having a house in the Hamptons and won't back down?  Yeah, it was a little like that last night.  

The staff ran out and hired two ASL interpreters for the Zoom meeting.   This was an absurd move for reasons I will explain below.  

Anyhow...

The item came up for discussion.  It started with our Village Attorney explaining that he heard rumors that someone might could be sending a demand letter.  He spoke with the Manager and the Clerk and he recommended that the board meetings, none of which were scheduled between then and the commission meetings, be cancelled.   He really wishes he could say more but you know, legal.   

Apparently, the Village attorney has extensive experience in this area, experience that he never thought he might share with the commission prior to this.  He regrets very much that the statement was "terse" and that people didn't understand for some reason.  

The Village Clerk then stated that it was not her intention to make it a "harsh email."  Sorry about that.  

At no time did either of them discuss whether they have the right to cancel the meetings without consulting the village commission who has the only authority to do that.  None of the dais members expressed any concern about that either.   

In the meantime, the ASL interpreters were showing on the screen, except for when the comments about the situation were read.   

Solving the Wrong Problem

An important part of a power grab is to aggressively solve the wrong problem.  Okay stay with me here.   Warning, there will be numbers.  

There are an estimated 2 million Americans with profound hearing loss that cannot be corrected with devices such as hearing aids.   The vast majority of these people lost their hearing later in life and consequently, only about 25% of the profoundly deaf community are fluent in American Sign Language.   And American Sign is a different language with different syntax, grammar, and sentence order. 

You will often see ASL interpreters at live events because that is the best way to communicate in person and live but it does not account for 70-75% of nonfluent signers.

Of the 3% of the deaf population who claim ASL as their native language (meaning language from birth), most consider themselves functionally bilingual which in the United States means fluency in written English/Spanish. 

So last night, in order to prop up the pretext to cancel the boards, the Village spent a fair chunk of change on a service for ASL interpreters.  A service that was not likely of any benefit to anyone.

What About Closed Captioning? 

Yeah, what about it?   Well here's the thing.   At least two of our platforms already have machine generated closed captioning.   Facebook Live, for example, where I was watching, was busily generating captions, for free.   YouTube Live will also machine caption the broadcast if you have more than 100 subscribers.   

Closed captioning will allow all hearing disabled people to follow the meetings, as long as they are English fluent and additionally help those with limited English.   

It's not a perfect solution.  Machine Captioning is good and if you follow our meetings on Facebook Live you can quickly turn it on to get a sense of how good it is.  Here's a quick screenshot while I was watching.  I noticed very few errors although there were omissions when the participants did not speak clearly into the microphones.  It was a lot like Voice to Text on my phone or Google Translate Live.   

In Yellow, the Manager is Talking and the text is in the lower left hand corner.   For Free.  

The estimated accuracy of Voice to Text Captioning is 85% under normal circumstances but with proper elocution and awareness that usually goes to the mid 90's.  You train the machine and it trains you.   

The big advantage is that reaching 95% of your hearing impaired audience is better than just reaching the 25% who may be ASL fluent.  

But Does That Comply With ADA Section 508?

Maybe not.  It might.  It might not.   But it is good and shows intent.  

Generally, the gold standard is Live Captioning.  That is when a stenographer captures the conversation and using a specialized machine like in the courthouse.  That same stenographer then reviews the transcript, compares it to the recording and makes any necessary updates.   That's like 99% and has consistently been regarded as fully compliant and is generally considered best for remote and broadcast meetings. 

It's more effective, cheaper, less intrusive and accessible to a broader audience than ASL.

So That's The Decision For The Short Term? 

No.  Naturally not.  That would make too much sense.  The short term solution will be to contract ASL interpreters.    

At Least The Board Meetings Are Back, Right?  

Well, probably.   None of the three charter officers brought it up, the commission did not instruct them by motion to do it, none of the commissioners clarified if the charter employees have the power to preempt the commission's rights.   

The mayor did say he thought the boards were back on and the Clerk kind of nodded, so maybe?  

As of today, at 2:54 PM on May 13, the meetings all show as cancelled.  

2:55 PM on May 13

This morning the mayor did send an email saying they were back on in due time.   The Village Clerk followed up an hour later not specifically stating the meetings were back on but that she is looking forward to them being back on.  

Of course, the charter officials may find other circumstances to cancel the boards because apparently that's their prerogative now.  

Recap

The Village Staff finds the boards irritating.   Actions must be taken:

Step 1:  Create a fake crisis.

As soon as the "lawsuit" word was mentioned, the Attorney, Clerk and Manager sprung into action and cancelled the board meetings.   The information was second hand and then third hand.   The resident being cast as the villain has stated that he never threatened a lawsuit but inquired if we are at risk of legal action.  

Even though there were no board meetings to be affected, and even though the staff specifically does not have the right to cancel the meetings, they figured it was best.   

Step 2:  Don't back down from the story.

To their apparent surprise, the volunteer members of the boards did not appreciate being treated this way and at least the mayor made clear that this seemed a lot like usurpation on their part. Insubordination is the word I would use. 

Rather than doing what responsible people do when caught up in a conflict, which in this case would have been to say "Sorry. We over reacted.  We'll put the item on the agenda and let the commission decide." they took it to a new level, ignored the commission item for 6 days, hired ASL interpreters for the commission meeting, kept the board in limbo, smirked their way through the item, did not agree until pressed to reinstate the board meetings,  and then didn't think it sufficiently important to set up the board meetings this morning until prodded by the mayor.  

 For its part, the commissioners did not assert their powers, left the over reach unremarked and in one stunning comment by one of the commissioners, expressed  that the board members should be "taken care of."  Uh, no.  The Board Members are writing the proposals for funding, creating and executing programs to help Village residents facing the crisis, trying to keep our wildlife in control and helping small businesses.   The Boards are the unpaid caretakers, but I digress.  

Step 3:  Set fire to taxpayer money to prop up the story.  

Now let's go really nuts.   The Village staff found two amazingly expensive captioning systems and in all fairness, appeared to recognize that even a commission as compliant as this one would not pay that, so they are working full steam ahead on finding a solution.  

Among the people they are not working with to find the solution are the Board Members, the resident who innocently asked the question about legal exposure, the National Deaf Center who kind of wrote the book on it, any hearing impaired individuals in North Bay Village, the Boards, The National Association for the Deaf, or any other useful resources.  

Nope.  They have just proposed useless and expensive stopgaps rather than just admit they thought they'd get away with it and focus back on the critical issues. 

My Apologies

I sincerely hope that this posting does not come across as "terse" or "harsh." and I'm very sorry if the staff for some reason feels that way.    I understand that the key to success for important, secure, well paid employees is to never, ever back down.  As long as they can count to 3 on the dais, why should they? 

To those who wonder how I got all these facts and figures, I Googled them.  Unlike our staff.

Alright, If They Have To.

At tonight's streamlined commission meeting there was one item of substance.  A completely fake "discussion" about the role the Village might play or might not play in Social Media.

Actually, they were talking about the Facebook page, North Bay Village Residents Speak, and whether or not issues brought up on the Facebook page should be addressed by the Village.  

Our very well paid attorney, Dan Espino of Weiss Serota, who so far has not found the time to brief the commission on the financial risk presented by the Velken case nor to explain what it means to the Village that our public easements have been stolen from us by private property owners,  found time to research an opinion that "oh oh, talking to people can be dangerous so best not to engage."   

Our Deputy Village Manager, Mario Diaz, presented a compromise plan that I worked out with him and managed to speak for 20 minutes without once acknowledging that the only trusted source of information in North Bay Village is the Residents Facebook page or that the plan was worked out with the Facebook administrator - uh humm - ME.  

Our Village Manager, Ralph Rosado, who wouldn't have his freaking job if it wasn't for the combined community efforts of the Facebook page only heard ONE THING - DON'T POST ON NORTH BAY VILLAGE RESIDENTS SPEAK.  

Our commission members, three of whom don't bother to talk to residents in any forum and I am specifically referring to Vice Mayor Marvin Wilmoth, Commissioner Andreana Jackson and Commissioner Mary Kramer's husband, sat there just staring, while Commissioner Julianna Strout talked about reading the page and reaching out (not  borne out by any activity on her part but whatever...) and our Mayor at least had the grace to acknowledge that the page has been a civic good and that it was damn hard work to keep it going through one of the most corrupt administrations in North Bay Village history but then started complaining that sometimes people bring issues there that belong elsewhere.  Which is precisely the point.  It's the Village Administration's job to get the conversation to the right place.  No different than if someone told them about a problem while on line waiting for coffee.  

Instead of Doing Their Jobs, They Sit Around Worrying About Other People

The fundamental issue here is trust.  The Village has not yet earned the trust of the residents to get the right information at the right time.

They are working on it.  Hard.  And making strides.  

Latham has seemingly been everywhere at once and Rosado has finally started to communicate the successes he has led, but both of them rely on a volunteer force of Facebook moderators and community leaders to get their message out.   And then feel free to dismiss the efforts with no acknowledgment.  

A Little History

The North Bay Village Residents Speak group began 10 years ago when we were being lied to about the developer's plans to put a strip club behind Channel 7.   After that threat went away, I decided to keep it going because there was literally nowhere else to get any information about North Bay Village.  Without any publicity or marketing, it grew to over 2000 members and over the years was the place where it was brought to light that:

• We didn't have Police Chief or Village Manager because Lewis Velken was working informally as a contractor without any written agreement.  
• Commissioner Douglas Hornsby was removed illegally from his seat.  
• Treasure Island Elementary crashed and without the pressure of the Facebook group would either be a D school or shut.  
• During Hurricane Irma, it was the only source of information in the Village.  

And too many issues to enumerate here.  Just scroll through the posts from 2018.

No wonder that commission hated it.  

Andreana Jackson

Mary's Husband

Andreana Jackson walked away when she decided that it was more personally beneficial to try to please the former mayor than do the right things by the people who supported her.  

Mary Kramer arranged for her husband to be on the commission, where he has done virtually nothing.  NO, PEPE, YOU HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE DOWNTOWN EXPRESS.  

Both of these were active collaborators in the mismanagement of North Bay Village.  Read the transcripts and the depositions.  It's no surprise they don't like the information out there.  

But What The Hell Is Wrong With This Administration?  

In a dizzying change from the lies and cover-ups of misdeeds in the last administration, I find myself  fighting for the last year to get out the information about the things that are going right in North Bay Village.  Not what I expected.  

In spite of management's best efforts to keep under wraps the success of our police department, the professionalization of our staff, the long overdue dog park, the free transit WHICH HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH PEPE, the streets finally being mostly done, the excellent work on the hurricane, the airily dismissed North Bay Village Residents Speak  has persisted in getting out the information that for some reason this successful management wants covered up.  

I think our Village Manager, Commission, and Attorney are so deeply ingrained in believing that the people who pay them, the people they serve, are nothing more than bothersome noise, to be managed, not spoken with.  

I'm pretty disgusted.  

Kevin Vericker

February 11, 2020

The Delusion of Progress - A Reply to Jorge Gonzalez

Commissioner Gonzalez, currently running for re-election put a long, articulate post on his Facebook page about what are the key issues in the North Bay Village Campaign.  You can see it on his Facebook page.  You can but I can't, Gonzalez blocks his page from people who might disagree with him but he thoughtfully put it up on the group North Bay Village Residents Speak, a page that I run and where I don't block anyone.   So go on over and read it and then come on back from there as I have something to say about it.  

Gonzalez points really come down to saying:

• The streets are neither dirty nor unsafe.  
• Dr. Vogel Park is almost complete and the Tot Lot will be done next. 
• Treasure Island Elementary is under county control, not village, but that the village has advocated for improvement.  
• It is an insult to the staff to ask for accountability.  
• Financial Transparency is not a problem because we can get accounting reports.  

Now Gonzo's posts are definitely truthy in that they contain correct words, but are really unrelated to the issues brought up.  Let's unpack those.  

Dirty Streets/ Clean Streets/ Unsafe at any Speed:  The criticism of the dirty streets is absolutely correct.  It's been four years without being swept at all and it is only in the last few months that the street sweeper is back in action.  And the only reason it's back is because we kept complaining about the dirty streets.  So they are cleaner.   

SFM since 2012 has been obligated to pressure clean the sidewalks and the walls twice per year.  We pay them for it.  They've only done it once.  It was nice, but if you pay for something six times and they only do it once, you usually ask for a refund.  Not here.  

The dirty streets meme is also about the sidewalks overgrown with shrubbery and impassable.  It's better but you still can't walk the sidewalk for a full block without at least once having to step into traffic to avoid blockages.   

Then Mr. Gonzalez paints the safety concern as though it were about armed gangs in the street.  He didn't listen.  It's about speeding and bad driving.   That's the safety issue and when the police chief was questioned directly at the commission meeting about the speeding and lack of enforcement, he replied testily that he was busy keeping the homes safe and didn't have resources for the speeder.  

Mr. Gonzalez claims he see families and young couples and children rolling hoops in his daily jog/walk/bike around the islands and on the Causeway but I think those are in his head.  He has never done a systematic, on the sidewalk complete walk around the  village.  He would have noticed that most people who are out are walking in traffic and no one is strolling the causeway.  

The Parks:  Mr. Gonzalez describes the Vogel Park as a work in progress.  It's more like the construction of the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose Ca.  When will it be done?  He puts up pictures of the trees but really, why can't this just be done with?  The Tot Lot doesn't need renovation.  It needs cleaning and that should be top of the list.  It's like saying, I won't bother dusting because I'm going to have a new house someday.  

The School:  In 2013, the school fell from a "B" to a "C".  This was a huge warning sign that something was not right.  The new principal came in and busted up the furniture, criticized her subordinates, alienated the community who supported the school enrichment programs, refused to provide the village with progress reports on the program we are funding, Jorge Gonzalez himself became outraged when a simple request for reports on performance be made to the community, dismissing the request as an insult.   

In 2014, the school fell to a "D" with the largest FCAT point drop in the county.  

It's nice that he's had meetings "private and public" but we are now two months into the school year, the principal is on indefinite leave, the School Board has an emergency school improvement program in place, and we are 2 months into the school year.   There has been no public presentation at the commission so far.  Last week, not one of the sitting dais members mentioned school progress.  Instead of asking us to "stay tuned", he might explain what he has learned in his "private" meetings. 

Accountability:  It is not an insult to hold people accountable, and by the way that does not mean fire them if there's a problem.   Here is a partial list of things that have happened for which the commission has never requested an accounting:

• The move to the 1666 chambers was passed when the commission was told it would cost a net $9,000.  It did not.  It cost $49,000.   
• Breaking the lease at the Lexi cost over $100,000.   It was never established that there was an environmental problem.   
• In 2013, it took 3 tries to comply with state law on the process of how to pass the budget.   
• This commission hired then fired village manager Dennis Kelly and gave him a severance of $80,000 even though state law limits severance to 3 months pay.  
• Jorge Gonzalez negotiated the legal contracts terms with our village lawyers and then less than a year later, claimed he didn't remember the terms and pressed our attorneys to leave.  
• The village illegally monitored employee phone calls for a period, then current staff hid the evidence, and nobody is accountable.  

It's not an insult to say that in any private company, the behavior above would be noted, discussed and the employee corrected for the problems their own inaction or poor actions caused.  It's called "Management"

Which brings me to the grand finale:

Our Finances Are Not Transparent, They are Balanced.  

There is an enormous disconnect here.  The accounting records are open to all but neither the commission, the village manager and certainly not the public get anything remotely resembling an operational report.   Don't believe me?  Ask Commissioner Gonzalez the following questions:

• How much  has been spent on Vogel Park in the 2 years you've been on the dais?
• What is the cost to the village of issuing a code permit for a single family house project? 
• How much of that cost is recovered? 
• How much money was spent on two lawsuits since 2012?  All costs specifically related to 2 cases where fired police officers were reinstated with full back pay and benefits long after the village had been advised that we would lose these cases.   Under which category was the money - nearly $1m - charged to?  The police department?   What is the dollar amount, Mr. Gonzalez?  We don't know.
• Do the utility bills rise only by the billed amount from Miami or do they rise proportionally?

That list goes on but the point about Transparency is that accounting balances don't show why you're spending what you're spending.  Most cities have gone to performance costing which is a simple operational method that says "Show me all the money involved in an outcome, regardless of source." so you might show "One police patrol costs (salary/time, overhead/ time, training/number of trainings, cost of uniforms, etc)"   When you look at it that way, you know what you're spending on.  Gonzalez won't know because he never asked.  

Finally, this race is about the issues.  Why have our taxes gone up 35%?  Where is the money being spent?  Why did the school decline so dramatically?  Why do we pay for sidewalk cleaning and not get it?  How much does all this cost and can we do it better?   These are the questions Gonzalez can't answer.  More importantly, he doesn't even think these are legitimate questions. and that's why he does not deserve his seat.  .  

Kevin Vericker

October 22, 2014

Zooming In On The Commission

Doing It Remotely

The North Bay Village Special Commission Meeting for April was held on Zoom, the video conferencing software with a viral spread outpacing Covid 19.   

Zoom is everywhere hosting cocktail parties, weddings, classrooms and government meetings.  

It actually went okay with no major incidents.  

I am amused that the commission which comprises a much younger demographic than most of the involved residents did not seem to be familiar with some of the basic tips and tricks about tele-meetings.  Camera angles matter, people!  Lighting is important!  Backgrounds should match the theme and tone!  Digital natives, indeed.  

Seriously, when several of them were not in the dark, the cameras were jumping and the background kept shifting.   Here's a helpful article on "How Not To Look Like A Hostage" during a remote meeting.  

The Future of Meetings in North Bay Village

For the foreseeable future, the Village will be meeting on e-platforms and that was the first order of business.  Village Attorney Dan Espino reviewed the legal technicalities of complying with Sunshine, the procedures for quasi-judicial hearings, and how the Village meetings can be conducted.  

Mostly legal stuff but it is part of the "new different" as new ways of conducting government business moves forward.  

All board meetings are scheduled in May and will be done remotely and most likely the commission meetings will be online as well.  

On To The Work At Hand (In Order of Interest To Me)

My Favorite Part:  No snark.  No sarcasm.  There was an example of how well a staff and a commission can work together.   When Commissioner Strout brought up her concern that the Village Emergency Order is open ended and stated her desire to put a time limit on the order so that the commission would be in charge, it was immediately brought out that having an Emergency Order that might not be in place could interfere with FEMA funding, the ability of the Village Manager to respond quickly to new circumstances and could impede operations.   

Here's the thing.  Both concerns, Strout's that the Village Commission needs to be in charge of extraordinary measures and Rosado's that extraordinary measures need to be, well, extraordinary, could have resulted in both sides digging into position and forcing a useless shutdown.  

The Village Attorney, in his role as counselor, stepped in and helped the commission and staff get to a place that satisfied the needs.  Essentially the Commission will at each meeting review the existing Emergency Order and decide with the Village Manager if it needs to be amended, eliminated or continued.   

This was a great example of what being useful looks like and I think it should happen more.  

Not everything has as clear path to effective compromise as this issue but the first step should always be how to get the mutually agreed upon goals in a mutual process.   

Well Done!

Fiscal Uncertainty

An area that didn't go so well was the discussion about what happens now to our finances.  

The well thought out concerns of our Financial Advisory Board were brought forward and they paint an alarming picture of potential shortfalls in the money available in the next year.  

The Village has been running its own projections with identified cost savings that show substantial mitigation of the problems and potential cost cutting.   

But for the discussion on this, it felt like everyone was talking past each other.  The Village staff were focused on how the year will end up and starting to project cash inflow based on near normal projections for next year while the FAB is focused on the potential for massive economic downturns.  

In my view, the bottom line is we have no way of knowing and at this point, the Village needs to working hard with as much possible expertise as it can find to chart this out.  The Financial Advisory Board needs to understand and challenge these assumptions.   Combined they have to figure out:

• What the Village needs to do - Keep the Streets Clean, Keep the Public Safe, Balance the Books, Issue the Permits, and so on while figuring out what it takes to do that.  
• What the Village can afford - this scenario planning.  Once we agree what's important to do, figure out what it costs and what revenues will cover that.  
• What the Village should do - most organizations cut the obvious first - layoff employees, cut salaries, cancel customer facing services, etc.  These cuts are like sugar rushes.  They quickly dissipate and leave everyone poorer.  Instead it's time for an honest look at where we can improve our processes and get the most for every dollar spent.   It's complex, tedious work but we need to know the value of every outcome and the effect of cuts before any decisions are made.  
• For its part, the Financial Advisory Board needs to be less focused on specific tactics and sharper on desired outcomes.  How we get to the goal matters.  

Nothing definitive came out of the meeting regarding finances and we should worry.  

And "Jesus, God Almighty, Why Are You Wasting Everyone's Time" Moment - The Hornsby Matter

Actual Screenshot of Commissioner Jackson as she
explains her reasoning for reconsideration of the Hornsby
matter (lower left hand corner)

Last month, following the court decision that the removal of Douglas Hornsby was a straight up violation of due process rights and that the absurd justification used by  Commissioners Alvarez and Jackson that Hornsby's appointment was invalid ab initio (Latin for "sez me") was utter nonsense, the Commission voted 3-2 to approve a settlement for Douglas Hornsby that partially repays some of his legal fees in fighting this removal.   

In a weird twist, Commissioner Jackson voted Yes to settle while Mayor Brent Latham voted No.  Latham cited his concern about the ongoing cost to the Village from cleaning up the messes that these two scurrilous commissioners made.   

Anyway, Commissioner Jackson went searching for her soul following the March 12 meeting and announced on March 13 that she wanted to change her vote.  Of course she thinks she found her soul on Facebook and used that medium to announce her discovery.  Specifically she reached out to Laura Cattabriga, admin of an odd little Facebook Group and failed candidate,  and had it posted by her.  

 So the commission had to take time to deal with this shameless nonsense in the middle of important work about like lives, health and safety.  They did take the time and voted 3 to 2 to let the settlement stand.   

Naturally, the two commissioners, Jackson and Alvarez voted No because they broke it.  

The past should be past but you can't move forward without dealing with it.  

At the next commission meeting, someone should introduce a Resolution of Censure for these two.  Their feckless behavior as they presided through the chaos of the last administration needs to be noted and acknowledged.  Our government and community are still suffering the fallout and it's time for the three useful commissioners to draw a line in the sand.   

Well, that's what I got.  See you online!

Kevin Vericker

April 27 2020

Short Term Vacation Rentals and North Bay Village

Listening to our commission and what they choose to emphasize, you would think that the most important issue facing North Bay Village is Short Term Vacation Rentals offered by companies like AirBnB and VRBO. 

The subject was brought up several times in the last commission meeting, by Commissioner Mary Kramer's Husband and squatting Commissioner Laura Cattabriga.  Both of them congratulated our Code Enforcement for enforcing our current ordinance requiring registration of short term rentals properties.  And it is an issue.  

But there are some important points that need be understood about the position and North Bay Village.  

1. We are preempted by state law from prohibiting or tightly regulating the short term vacation rental market.   We had our chances before 2011 to put legislation but never did.  Florida then passed a state law which governs the process and does not allow cities or counties to prohibit STVR's.   
2. The very limited things we can legally do are require that STVR's register with the Village and require that they have a 24 hour contact for issues arising.  
3. The major issue is in the multiunit buildings - condos and rental buildings - and the Village ordinance does not address these, leaving the decision on STVR's to the building owners and management.   There are very few STVR's in the single family neighborhoods on Treasure Island and North Bay Island.  

But those single family STVR's have been the subject of intense concern, particularly on North Bay Island, and the Village has responded.  By passing an ordinance requiring registration and enforcing the ordinance through fines for properties listed without being registered.  Here is the coding report on the single family homes known to be renting for STVR.  

What jumps out is that there are 12 on North Bay Island and 10 on Treasure Island, again they only count single family homes so the impact is clearly higher on North Bay Island.   

But I think our enforcement is missing the mark.  A simple search on AirBnb shows the following  128 available so the bulk of them are in apartment/condo buildings.  

And that's where the problems are the biggest.  

There are several things that the Village can legally do.  

• The Village could expand the ordinance to require that buildings register their STVR's.  
• The Village could embark on a campaign to educate the owners and renters of the Village parking, noise and other ordinances.  
• The Village could aggressively enforce noise ordinances, fining both the owners and the renters who violate them.   

Imagine a program whereby each time a home was rented, the occupants received a "Welcome to North Bay Village" packet.  It could include listings of our few businesses, an overview of parking and noise regulations, a number to contact if there are issues, and maybe even some coupons and tips for the local area.   Something friendly but clear about the expected behavior.  

Then with proper enforcement where the police show up and check noise levels from outside and ticket for infractions, the internet would quickly do what the internet does best - disseminate information.  

My disclosure:  I'm too nervous to rent out my house to strangers but I do rent places through VRBO and AirBnB.  I read the reviews and if I saw a review that said something like "I got a ticket for noise at 11:30 PM and the party was ruined."  that would probably be a property I would rent.  Were it 20, oh hell, truthfully, 30 years ago back when I was getting funky with my friends, I'd avoid it like the plague.  Alright, maybe it's 35 years since I got funky but you get the idea.  

If on the other hand, the reviews wrote about the peaceful neighborhood, the waterviews, the easy access, I'd sign right up.   

The Village is limited but it looks like what we have is a tactic for North Bay Island and no strategy at all for the Village. 

As the candidates come asking for your vote this fall, be sure to ask each of them what they think of this issue.  

I've started this conversation over on the Facebook page and I hope it will continue either here in the comments or on the Facebook page.  We have to have it. 

UPDATE:  Regular Contributor Ritch Holben and the guy who everyone tells George Clooney he looks like posted a really important point.  I quote it here. 

To those of you who have not used a short term rental service, like AirBnB, you should know that they have a 5 star rating system that is based on reviews of actual stays. But more importantly, every guest gets a rating from the host also! One does not see the other's review until they've both completed the process. This means that a host has the ability to evaluate a potential guest BEFORE they accept their reservation, and usually they have several direct conversations too... completely unlike a hotel reservation system. What this should mean is that a host can and should have the ability to deny any guest with a rowdy or destructive behavior, and has more control in being sure that they treat their neighbors with respect and courtesy. But in the end, it is the responsibility of the HOST to be sure they run their business in a neighborly way. If they do not, repeatedly, and complaints are on file with the police department, the village has the right to deny their license.

Thanks Ritch. 

Kevin Vericker

July 16, 2018 

Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life

The most positive thing North Bay Villagers did in 2019 was to soundly reject the shrill inept administration of the past.   After years of the commission being led by resentful and incompetent leaders, supported by people out to make a fast buck, after all the chaotic hirings and firings and purges, after a campaign that sharply contrasted the vision of Brent Latham and Julianna Strout with the negative  and substance free campaign of Laura Cattabriga, the self identified protege of Kreps, the voters said overwhelmingly "Enough."  and kicked the old guard out.  

There is now an ongoing row over how to fix the toxic administration the previous commission put in place, but that's for another post.  

The important thing is the voters said "Enough."  

Laura Cattabriga, who got less that 1/3rd of the vote in last election, has not gracefully accepted the referendum on her style and cronies.  This is surprising because during the mayoral debate, where Laura spent most of her time making false claims of residency fraud against her opponent, Brent Latham, Ms. Cattabriga took time out to compliment herself on her "critical thinking abilities."  

You think she would apply that now to understanding why she lost so severely.   But like her mentor, Connie Kreps, Cattabriga (CattaKreps?) is now skipping around the Village announcing that what she heard during her disastrous campaign was the people only want to hear bright shiny news about North Bay Village and she is taking on the task by creating an all good news blog and Facebook site to disseminate bright shiny information and not the dank, nasty information she sees elsewhere.  

Here's a link to the  blog:  http://nbvrising.blogspot.com/2018/12/editors-corner.html

Here's a link to the Facebook group:  https://www.facebook.com/NBVRising/

Now it's not clear in her first post on the new blog if it is a singular or group effort because she/they write "We decided to start this newsletter to fill a void in North Bay Village life." I can't tell if Laura is using the Royal We, The Kreps Multiple Persona We, or is referring to herself and her backers, but Cattabriga then goes on to extol the virtues of positivity in the Facebook group rules and announces that anyone not meeting this measure of positivity will be banned.   

False positives actually can hurt

As readers of this blog may have discerned, I am not a big fan of "positive thinking."  I find it tyrannical, as the kids say, it's gaslighting. 

It's bullying practiced by people who are doing harm and then announce the real harm is that you don't look on the bright side of things. When you point out issues, they find themselves "offended" by your negativity.  

The way to create positive news is to do the right thing, something Cattabriga demonstrably did not do during her short tenure nor in her disastrous and expensive campaign.  

But doing the right thing has not really been at the core of the Cattabriga universe.  

Still, I'm a reasonable person and while there is no question that this blog is not a place to come to for Sunshine and pictures of kittens, I regularly look at the Facebook group North Bay Village Residents Speak, which I moderate, with a critical eye.  Is the group doing more harm or good?  What are people saying and how are they saying it?  Should I intervene or let the sometimes combative discussions play themselves out?   

And here's what I find, and I believe an honest look will bear this out.  

The group is mostly discussion, some complaints and criticisms, but overwhelmingly it breaks down broadly into Information like when the  next village meeting is, recommendations like what restaurants have opened or where to find a housecleaner, photos of life in North Bay Village, and a lot more on pets than I ever expected.  This has been true for years.  

Don't believe me?   I just went through the last 40 posts on the site and this is how they broke out:

-->

Category	Count	Percent
Information	10	25.00%
Recommendation	10	25.00%
Humor or Inspiration	7	17.50%
Complaint	5	12.50%
Nature	3	7.50%
Review	3	7.50%
Pets*	2	5.00%

*Pets:  I think this is an anomaly.  There are more posts about pets as you go further back.  

Yet I know that there is an impression that is a small group of malcontents.  It's not.  With 1,839 members it follows the usual social media platform patterns with about 5% of the members posting actively and most reading the posts.  And these conversations are often from different perspectives, except everyone agrees on the manatees and dolphins.

North Bay Village Spirit Animals

The group has for years been the only regular source of information in North Bay Village covering school events, road construction, power outages, bridge and traffic closures, public safety and village events and reaching out to the residents.   

That in a large, and largely unmoderated group, there are people who would rather blame the messenger than read the message is not the fault of the group.   

Ms. Cattabriga will find that out.  People want news they can use, not puffy pieces with a one way slant.  But still, I wish her luck.  

Kevin Vericker

January 5, 2019

  

Norman C. Powell North Bay Village Attorney

I'm just here for the money!

At tonight's very special meeting of the commission, the first item discussed was the settlement with Yolanda Menegazzo, who was our Deputy Village Manager for 40 days.  The settlement is for $31,666.66 in exchange for not suing the Village.  

Well, why should she sue the Village, you ask.  Good question!  

For one, when the Village hired her, they were under obligation to confirm the hire with the commission.  It's in our code of Ordinances, Section 3.06 (g). " the Village Manager shall submit appointments of all department heads to the Commission for approval."  In June, when the Village Manager mentioned this, the Village Attorney Norman C. Powell, shook his head "no" and the commission did not take the vote required by law.   This was a big sign that something was wrong and would be held in great suspicion by a court if Ms. Megenazzo chooses to sue.  It was wrong.  

So I suggested that since Mr. Powell was the source of the error, he should be held responsible for paying for the error.  Why not take the $31,666 out of his billings?  

Powell then either straight up lied or is truly ignorant of his obligations as Village Attorney and said he had no idea what I could be talking about.  

Laura Cattabriga, who never misses an opportunity to ask a "concerned" question, asked a concerned question "Does commission confirmation apply to non-chartered positions?"  and Powell smugly said "No."  

But it does.  And I can show it.  I texted the information to the commission pointing out where it specifies such, but Cattabriga who is part of the collusion never mentioned it.

In the end, the commission voted to offer Menegazzo two months' salary and gave her until Friday to accept it.  If she doesn't, we're in court.  Many people would have expected their attorney to discuss the terms with them before presenting them with the offer, but not our pal.   

If this was the first bad advice Powell gave, well, maybe it could pass.  But it's not.  Not even tonight.  

Let's move on to the "final" item of the evening.  A quickly cobbled together Charter Resolution that you will have to vote on that changed the charter provision prohibiting nepotism to the second degree of consanguinity to simply prohibit hiring anyone related without specifying what relationships constitute nepotism.  

Now just to explain how this piece of bullshit wound up on the radar of the commission, Mayor Crazy Eyes was informed by one of her personalities that Laura Menegazzo's mother worked with a step-cousin of Marlen Martell so the hire must have been nepotism.  

Powell then drafted a proposed change that would expand the definition of relationships to "whatever."

  

After I brought up to the five members of the dais how dangerous this is and pointed out that in one sense, we're all related, Norman took a break and came back with a compromise offering prohibitions against the hiring of third degree relationships, which nobody on the dais even bothered to understand although Laura Cattabriga asked a "concerned" question or two and they all obligingly voted for it.  

A real lawyer would have provided them with the information about the implications etc. but Powell, well, you know, he rolls easily.   Not accurately or well, but he doesn't sweat the details.  

The rest of the evening was just as bad.  They were voting on Charter resolutions ranging from the technical to the ridiculous.  I can't even tell you what a waste of time it was.  

I think the moment that best summed up the meeting was when Acting Village Manager Lewis Velken commented, apropos of nothing, that his salary was only $135,000 per year compared to former police chief Carlos Noriega's of $170,000 and Mayor Crazy Eyes cackled "Put that on Facebook" and laughed maniacally.   

Carlos Noriega's salary was $117,000 per year, $18,000 less than Velken's.  

They didn't understand a single damn thing they were voting on.  The staff gave them little information and they asked even less.  

So after wasting our time and money, the Mayor moved to adjourn the meeting and with a great cacophony of Ayes, they disbursed into the night.  I'm pretty sure at least one member of the dais was high and looking for her next hit or a quiet place to crash while another drove off in car suspiciously similar to one used in an extortion crime.  It was that kind of night.  

Kevin Vericker

July 30, 2018

Walking the Walk

The main goal of my blog has been to bring out issues in our city that require discussion and examination.   In addition to the blog, there is also a Facebook Group called North Bay Village Residents Speak, open to anyone who wants to post about North Bay Village. 

I do this because I am fascinated by process, because I care about the Village, because I have seen residents ignored and bad decisions imposed over the years.  I have no official position nor do I intend to run for one, and I don't have any business interest in the village.  I think of this as a hobby that interests me.  

Over the last couple of years, I have irritated some, pleased others, caused controversy, helped  resolve some controversies, afflicted the comfortable and called out the pompous.   I've been wrong at times;  that comes with being opinionated and I have apologized and corrected where needed. 

This week on the Facebook page, I posted two pictures of cars parked on lawns.  I took the pictures on the morning of February 18 during my usual early morning walk.   I walk almost daily and the 2 pictures I posted were culled from the 14 similar pictures of houses with cars parked on the lawn.  

I was surprised by the reaction and I've decided to take the post down because the owner of one of the houses felt creeped out that his house was now on a public forum.  I can understand that so that's why I took the post and photos down.  

In fact I was accused of “crossing a line” by publishing these pictures, something I reject because the front of our houses are the face we present to the community, and every house in this village is already up on Google Street Views, but it was not my intention to go to war. 

The other reactions though really interested me.   To break them out roughly, the responses were “why concentrate on this when the village does not clean the streets?”  “It's trivial compared to public safety.” and interestingly a concern about the cats and public health. 

If you read me regularly, you'll see that I have brought all of those issues and more up.  Just last week I was at  the Commission meeting challenging the commissioners to take a walk around the islands and see the problems for themselves. 

Now I'm still convinced that parking on the lawn detracts from the community and looks shabby, rundown really.   In a city (yes I said city) where the majority of sales are foreclosures and we have that hulking abandoned building at 7525 E. Treasure Drive and the garbage strewn lots on Harbor Island, we don't need even more distressed houses.   I never said  lawn parking  was the most pressing issue but it is real.

In the same way that I challenged the commissioners to take a walk around the islands to see it from the street level, I'm challenging the people who commented that they were offended by my observation to show up.  If you're really concerned, put a little effort into it.   

Be at the next commission meeting, March 12, a Tuesday, at 7:30.  Good & Welfare starts at 8:30 PM.  Talk about your concerns about the dirty streets, about the public health issues, ask questions about why the priorities are being made.  Then be consistent.  Look for answers.  Be prepared to come back in April if you haven't gotten them.  Otherwise, you're really not part of the discussion, are you?

Kevin Vericker
February 20, 2013

Cross Posted at North Bay Village Residents Speak

Moving Forward on #NBV100

The Special Meeting at 6 PM Tuesday October 15 

This was the high level overview of the work done during the #NBV100 Planning Workshops,  was a summary of the concepts for the short term, medium term and long term to develop a plan with concrete actions.   

The plan roughly breaks down into three areas:

1. Resiliency
2. Quality of Life
3. Economic Growth

For a detailed view of the presentation, go to the Village website at https://northbayvillage-fl.gov/nbv100  and click on the presentation entitled "Nbv100 Master Plan Design: Charrette Progress Summary"   It lays out a vision of the projects and this is part of a continuing and evolving study to get to a plan that North Bay Village can work.  

It's All Set Then, Right?

The plan is a series of stated goals and models that could achieve those goals.   In the plan, there are short term (starting now), medium term (3-5 years) and long term (more than 5 years) tactics.   They range from the very simple short term - fix the walk timers on the traffic lights, put proper signs in the right places and remove useless ones, build a dog park - to the grand scale of creating new construction on flood resistant raised landscapes and seeking energy independence.   

There will be further meetings with the residents, including one to be scheduled in November for the commission to review and start budgeting and planning for the goals.  First up is to fix the current coding.  

Residents can participate, if not in person, then through one on one conversations.  There is even an email set up by the Village.  Click here to send an email.   The team will discuss this one on one with residents who are not able to attend the meetings.   It will be early next year before full action starts.  

It Mostly Looks Good But Is It Realistic?

Each of the major impacts must be questioned but they have to be questioned at the right time.  

For example, there is an idea that the Causeway could become a two lane road as it passes into North Bay Village.   Doing that would allow room for the sidewalks, the bike paths and increase the parking.   

The big question is what the impact on traffic would be and that question needs to be asked.  But already there are people rejecting it out of hand before the math and the routing are done.  I've noted personally that the Causeway at rush hour seems to have a math problem of time and space rather than an inevitable bottleneck.  The lights are not timed optimally.  The left turn to Harbor Island line exceeds the lane allotted and the variable speed limits mean large open spaces in the traffic flow.  Getting this right while slowing the traffic could flow the traffic humanely through the Village.   It's a bad idea to dismiss this out of hand.  

I am also concerned about people demanding "How much?" and "How will it be funded?"   

These are important questions but like so much in life, timing is critical and the time to ask these questions is when you know what "it" is.   It's impossible to answer without the actual information.   

The phrase "Stop Stopping" was brought up by Jack Rattner and it is so good that I am coming to believe I said it.   (Note I did not say "Stop stopping".  Jack owns it.)   

In our last attempts to redevelop the village, each project died from a thousand cuts.   And it shows.  

Our then BayWalk requirements were ignored with impunity because it was not profitable.  A storage facility was seen as the best and highest purpose for our causeway.  Our sidewalks remain unsafe.   Traffic continues to flow as though on a highway.   All of this happened because any sacrifice was not weighed against the benefit and individual profit was put above community development.   

Then It Was On To The Regular Meeting.  

After some histrionics by the owner of a salvage company operating without a license, the people who actually live here spoke about their concerns.

The Hornsby Matter is nearing a conclusion.  The court found that the Hornsby removal was illegal.  Now the question is how the village will settle with Dr. Hornsby.  Several residents spoke about the need to find the solution quickly so the village can move on.   There will be a "shade" session for the commission to consider their options and it looks like they are on track to do it.  It's very important.  

I brought up a specific piece of legislation that I admire greatly.  Commissioner Julianna Strout proposed a deal with Citibike/Deco Bike to create stations in North Bay Village for Bike Rentals.  This is and always should have been the approach as it give us natural places to go in Miami and Miami Beach.   I'm glad it was passed and see this as exactly the small and transformative type of action needed to move the Village forward.   We are the sum of our small choices.   

On the agenda, there was really little of note but in the reports, the new North Bay Village is streaming along.   

One important discussion item was deliver the budget with more transparency, specifying that money spent be focused on what the outcome is.   It was uncontroversial and adopted unanimously.  

The Village is actively seeking the collaboration and money from outside sources including $11 million from FEMA to harden our utilities, there was a presentation of a grant for the dog park, money has come in for sidewalk improvements from grants, and the Green Space award from the Miami Foundation.   It's not raining money.  This is money carefully and fully sought and it is what will allow us to build the foundation we need.   

Special Note:  The Village Manager commented that the Green Space project received more votes in the Miami Foundation's contest than any other project and then thanked everyone but the people who actually publicized the need to vote at the Facebook Group North Bay Village Residents Speak.  It would be nice to thanked.  

Overall, North Bay Village seems to be on course but it will require open resident participation and strong leadership to achieve the vision.  

Kevin Vericker

October 16, 2019