PB: It’s getting windy out there

by SDM

No, SDM isn’t talking about TS/Hurricane Isaac but local blowhard Beatriz Hermann.

SDM knows Ms. Hermann because she regularly rises at village council meetings to hum whatever tune Councilwoman Lindsay calls. Her comments also regularly include nasty blasts at village staff for various and sundry slights allegedly cast in her direction.

Now, Hermann’s windy vitriol finds new targets in the Miami Herald neighbors. SDM’s not going to excerpt it because it’s more of the same: personal attacks aimed at legitimate comments raised in last weekend’s Herald soapbox.

Instead, SDM will address comments directly to Ms. Hermann and her ilk:

Dear Ms. Hermann:

Your letter to the Herald demonstrates all that is wrong with the Village of Palmetto Bay. Where the writer you cite itemized a long list of serious issues that directly affect the church he serves, your letter merely attacks – incoherently – your perception of his motives.

Likewise in this village – instead of focusing on the NPO’s serious flaws – the Three Amigos disingenuously accuse their opponents of nefarious motives. On cue, you spit that a church is really a developer seeking to destroy Palmetto Bay’s way of life…pathetic.

The truth is that the NPO constitutes a threat to essentially one property owner in the village: Christ Fellowship Church. You intentionally mislead the public when you claim that other institutions will be affected because – as SDM explained in PB: Is the “Neighborhood Protection” Ordinance Necessary? – there is virtually no other land available on which one can build such facilities.

(Unless, however, you are speaking of a black helicopter conspiracy, which SDM rejects. That is the scenario where after a hurricane, institutional uses will not be able to rebuild because the new code will make doing so impossible. Even Dear Leader Lindsay has rejected that intent and promised to prevent such an outcome.)

On the lobbying question: It is SDM’s view that Palmetto Bay’s lobbyist registration ordinance, especially as applied to a church employee, is an unconsitutional burden on free speech. SDM would love to see the church test the law, though as a taxpayer SDM would hate to pay again for the village’s overreaching.

Nevertheless, a final point: Before you go running about questioning the political motivations of others, why not disclose your own special interest? SDM knows one of your clubs gets special treatment on fee waivers at the village library. You’ve made no bones about this issue and have lobbied the council heavily on this point. Let’s see, while you criticize another for not following the law, you are a member of an organization not exempt from the village lobbyist registration ordinance. You lobby the council in public and in private and have never proved that you were not retained or compensated in any way for this work. And, you are not registered as a lobbyist…hmmm…

Sincerely,

SDM

“When I refuse to obey an unjust law, I do not contest the right which the majority has of commanding, but I simply appeal from the sovereignty of the people to the sovereignty of mankind.” – Alexis de Tocqueville on the Tyranny of the Majority, “Democracy in America.”

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