The commission meeting
of October 8, 2013 held at the North Bay Village Elementary School at 7:30 pm
was a mixed bag of politics; absurdity, rhetoric, bullying and good decision making. Welcome to
North Bay Village commission meetings, just a regular day in the neighborhood. Commissioner
Wendy Duval was out and very much missed, without her at the meeting, things
are just lopsided. Mayor Connie Leon- Kreps, Vice Mayor Eddie Lim and
Commissioner Jorge Gonzalez appear to have a very robotic and cookie cutter mentality
that at times makes you wonder how they can possibly agree on all the issues
that come up. I will not bore you with the Commissioners’ report filled with
grandstanding and political speeches.
Our Interim Village
manager was deservedly promoted to permanent Village manager. Mr. Frank
Rollason is committed to shrink the budget where possible. He promised to
continue working hard and to negotiate contracts that are more favorable to the
village’s financial needs. The village
manager pledges to not leave any stone unturned to accomplish this difficult task.
I believe he is capable and willing to do a great job for North Bay Village. Good
Luck Mr. Rollason! We are counting on you.
Commissioner Chervony
proposed a resolution prohibiting the expenditures of funds for unbudgeted
capital improvement projects, unless they are of an emergency status. Non
emergency unplanned expenditures would have to wait to be included in the next year’s
budget. I was pleasantly surprised when Vice Mayor Lim voted in favor. However,
with Commissioner Duval out and the Mayor and Commissioner Gonzalez voting against
it, the resolution went nowhere! The Village manger expressed willingness to exercise
constraints and was committed but explained that the commission needs to do the
same.
The Budget Oversight Board
was finally formed and the members appointed. However at one point it appeared
that another month was going to pass by without the appointments. After downsizing
the requirements from 7 members to 5 members and getting rid of some ridiculous
educational requirements or its equivalent in experience, Commissioner Richard
Chervony and Mayor Connie Leon-Kreps engaged in a long discussion as to how it
was best to pick the members.
Commissioner Chervony suggested that since the board consisted of five members
that each commissioner and the mayor pick one. The mayor wanted to continue
doing it the old way, were each commissioner votes in 5 members then the votes are
counted. Commissioner Chervony’s way was too difficult for the mayor to
understand or perhaps not to the mayor’s liking. The cookie cutter mentality prevailed.
Qualified,
key residents that attend just about every meeting were overlooked and left out
of both boards; purposely! Never the less we finally have a Budget and
Oversight Board and a Community Enhance Board.
Congratulations and good luck to:
|
Budget Oversight Board
Members:
|
Community Enhancement
Board:
|
|
Robert Breiner
Maria Haviland
Temante Leary
Myra Perez
Oliver Pfeffer
|
Doris
Acosta
Odalys
Becerra
Andreanna
Jackson
Benjia Morgenstern
Diana Quintero
|
Commissioner Chervony
proposed a resolution recognizing October as an anti-bullying month in an
effort to acknowledge and heighten awareness about the serious issues and
negative effects of bullying. The Mayor,
Vice Mayor and Commissioner Gonzalez could not just accept it as presented by
Commissioner Chervony. They recommended expanding
it to adult bullying as well; a novel idea but not the intended concept. What
do you think? Should adults have been added to Commissioners Chervony proposed resolution?
Here is some information obtained from the
internet.
National Bullying Prevention Month
From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
National Bullying Prevention Month is a campaign in the United States founded in 2006 by PACER's
National Center for Bullying Prevention.[1] The campaign is
held during the month of October and unites communities nationwide to educate
and raise awareness of bullying
prevention. Traditionally held the first week in October, the event was expanded
in 2010 to include activities, education, and awareness building for the entire
month. National Bullying Prevention Month is recognized in communities across
the United States, with hundreds of schools and organizations signing on as
partners. Face book,[2] CNN[3] and Yahoo! Kids[4] have supported
the month through media outreach and dissemination.
PACER developed the initial campaign National Bullying
Prevention and Awareness Week in response to the need to raise awareness of
bullying, as it was historically viewed "a childhood rite of passage"
and believed that bullying "made kids tougher", when the reality is
that bullying has devastating effects such as school avoidance, loss of
self-esteem, increased anxiety, and depression. PACER reached out to the
community through partnerships with education based organizations such as
National PTA, American Federation of Teachers and National Education
Association to provide schools, parents and students with resources to respond
to bullying behavior and to begin the shift of societal acceptance of bullying
to social change of addressing the issue through education and support. PACER
disseminated nationwide press releases through the partners and media channels,
encouraging a call to action to educate the community about their role in
bullying prevention, which provided the groundwork for the campaign to be
consistently recognized as an annual event.
There is more
to come, stay tuned....Vice Mayor Eddie Lim wants to terminate the Business Development
Board or start over with new members. Today I officially resigned and step down
as Co-Chair of the BDB effective immediately.
The commission
passed an ordinance that will renew the franchise agreement with Peoples Gas
System to provide natural gas service for North Bay Village. The agreement
needs to be renegotiated because it was not as favorable as once thought. The
actual moneys returned to North Bay Village are obtained by surcharges that are
paid by North Bay Village TECO gas consumers. In returned Peoples Gas does not pay for
permit charges that are pulled when doing work in North Bay Village. TECO’s gas wins, North Bay Village loses. Our
Village Manager Frank Rollason promised to look into this matter and will
report back to the commission.
Honestly opinionating
PUTTING NORTH
BAY VILLAGE FIRST
Mario Garcia
October 9, 2013
