On Tuesday December
11, 2012 @ 7:30 PM North Bay Village had its commission meeting. Election of the
Vice Mayor pursuant to section 3.05(B) took Place and Eddie Lim was again
confirmed as The Vice Mayor for North Bay Village. Presentations and awards were handed out to
the board members that were not present at the award dinner. The different
boards that were ready and present presented their reports.
Chief Robert
Daniels offered his usual explanation regarding the increase in car theft; “lock
your cars”. The traffic light camera program is up for renewal. The contract needs
to be renegotiated because should the declining trend continue it will wind up
costing the village money for 2013. Yet the real issue regarding the police
department cost to the village continues to be ignored.
The Commissioners
report offered nothing useful or beneficial for the village. The commission acted and voted through some
clean house resolutions that were no brainers: Grant Funds for the Police Department
Record Management Project.
Ordinance to
expand “The Youth Service Board” to “The Youth and Education Services Board”
was adopted by a vote 5 to 0.
The unreserved reserves
continues to shrink and only Commissioner Richard Chervony appears to be concerned.
Vice Mayor Eddie Lim asked the commission to award $ 5000.00 from the unreserved
reserves to subsidize the vendors at the Farmers Market. It is not even January
1, 2013 and the dipping into these funds has started. It appeared to be about two hours back and
forth regarding the $ 5000.00 and with no one putting an end to this madness. Mr.
Bert Rains Financial Officer for North Bay Village finally offered part of the savings
from position opening salaries not filled and already approved in the budget.
The nightmare came to an end; after all North Bay Village’s future depends on the
Farmers Market, according to Vice Mayor Eddie Lim. Get our financial house in order and pay attention to what is
important; but I guess it is too much to ask from our elected officials.
SFM Services,
Inc. will be North Bay Village landscaping company to manage the upkeep of our
common areas; pending requests to reduce the contract amount by $ 6000.00
without affecting quality.
Commissioner At
Large Jorge Gonzalez and North Bay Village Commissioner Wendy Duval were
unprepared to participate on the North Bay Village Manager Performance
Evaluation. It appears that they were not present as residents throughout 2012 commission
meetings. If they had taken an interest on our village before they were commissioners,
maybe they would have been able to do their jobs. This was again evident
regarding RFQ for Legal Services; which appears to be a legal mess all on its
own. The Old Commission had already pointed this out, but do politicians
listen? Or care? Mayor Connie Leon-Crepes likes to see things as negative or
positive; Yin and Yang. However finances need to be real and numbers need to be
real and if these numbers show up in red then we will be faced with a financial
crisis.
Mayor Connie
Leon-Kreps and Vice Mayor Eddie Lim were chosen to represent North Bay Village in
the Miami-Dade County League of Cities.
An item that
really jumped out under the parks and open space availability that scared me is
that the commission took interest in a property own by Dr Jonas. The North Bay
Village commission is contemplating paying close to a million dollars for the
property located on South Treasure Drive. General Obligation Bonds will mean
higher taxes and we certainly don’t need any more parks and open areas. Instead
we should be planning for the building that eventually will house the city
hall. There is plenty positive to accomplish for NBV, but it will require the
commission to work together “Putting North Bay Village First”. We need real leadership and vision and our
elected officials need to step up now.
Mario Garcia
“PUTTING NORTH
BAY VILLAGE FIRST”
December 12,
2012
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