Uncategorized | South Dade Matters

May 17, 2013

PB: The Mayor Problem Strikes Again

Way back in December of 2011, this blog took Mayor Stanczyk to task for closing down a hearing for an applicant known as Shores at Palmetto Bay, LLC. We wrote back then:

You may not be surprised that the opposition to this application was pre-cooked. Insipid Mayor Stanczyk reminded the applicant repeatedly that she had offered him a six-month deferral but that he had committed to being “ready” by December 12.

According to Palmetto Bay, the applicant was not ready because he did not have a site specific charter. The applicant countered that he was ready and met the requirements of the code. Stanczyk demanded a motion for denial despite the Village Attorney’s statement that the council could hear the item.

Here is the language in the Palmetto Bay code that Stanczyk relies upon for her opposition:

All public charter school facilities shall submit the following information to the village’s department of community development for review by the department and for consideration at a public hearing…

A copy of the charter approved by the Miami-Dade County Public School Board.

Allow SDM to break the “code.” The applicant has a charter that can be applied to the site by administrative act of the school district. Moving charters around happens all the time because otherwise they would expire before the sites are ready. The Mayor knows this fact and also knows the Palmetto Bay code does not require a site specific charter.

On May 20th – FIFTEEN MONTHS after the fateful hearing – the village council will take up an agreement to settle the pending lawsuit that Shores filed against the village. Below is a direct quotation from the memorandum explaining the item:

The Application, if approved, would allow a concession to the Owner: the usable charter does not have to be produced at the hearing, but, must be produced prior to a building permit being issued for the charter school portion of the site.

So, our Mayor Problem did the following damage because of her little tantrum:

A village property owner’s developable downtown site has sat fallow for almost a year and a half;
A village property owner has been paying legal fees, taxes, insurance, maintenance and other costs for an extra 15 months for no reason at all;
Children, including some who live in our village, did not get the chance to enroll in an alternative to the local, traditional public and private schools for at least two school years; and
The village has been paying attorneys to defend against the lawsuit in exchange for zero benefit to taxpayers.

SDM read the agenda item to mean that Shores will appear at the next council meeting and either be approved or denied to proceed with its 2011 application. If the village votes against or alters the project, then the lawsuit continues unabated. If the application is approved, then the lawsuit goes away.

SDM Code Breaker: The council met in a shade session before the May 20th special meeting was called. While the council cannot vote at shade sessions, they clearly can have their temperatures taken regarding whether they want to continue to fight or accept a settlement. Logic dictates that at least three council members decided to terminate the lawsuit, which also probably means that at least three of them believe that cutting the village’s losses will be better than risking an expensive judgment. So, SDM will wager that Shores will get their votes and the project will go forward.

Bonus Prediction: Some very vocal residents will come out screaming bloody murder at the next council meeting. They will rant and rave about developers, how the school will wreck the village and their property values, and how traffic will be a nightmare, etc. At least one of the three council members who agreed to end the lawsuit will waver as the Mayor panders her backside off to this tiny minority of residents. The Mayor will vote no all the time knowing that the village must approve the application to avoid a disaster of her own making.

SDM Says: Being shameless and devious may get you elected, but it doesn’t make you a leader. If Shores isn’t resolved next month, you alone, Mrs. Stanczyk, are to blame.

10 comments

May 14, 2013

PB: The Silence is Deafening…and Instructive

SDM watched the tape of the Village Council’s budget meeting last night and observed the following:

Not too many people are interested in the budget apparently. Only one person spoke and he was concerned about speed limits being too low.
The Mayor responded that she would like to see “30 MPH speed limits village-wide, strictly enforced.” (12:20) SDM Says: Great, now the village can spend all of its time ticketing its residents for speeding, which is perfectly consonant with their intent of driving every living person in the village nuts.
The only real proposition SDM heard was the Vice Mayor’s terrible, wasteful idea of hiring two additional police officers. (3:56) SDM Wonders: Are you going to be Palmetto Bay’s new “pander-bear” Mr. Dubois? Last year, the police chief asked for one officer and the village gave him two. If he asks for two, will you give him four? Do any of you care about the “budget,” really?
Kaptain Kreepy must have been sleepy last night. The meeting tape starts right in the middle of the foolish police proposal.
The Mayor apparently is going to stone wall her association with pbcheckstherecord.com. SDM heard nothing on the subject.

Our Mayor-Problem

SDM found this observation by Jim Geraghty, a writer for National Review, quite applicable to our “Mayor-problem” as SDM calls it now:

When there is evidence of scandalous or bizarre behavior on the part of a political figure, and no reasonable explanation is revealed within 24 to 48 hours, then the truth is probably as bad as everyone suspects.

Nobody withholds exculpatory information. Nobody who’s been accused of something wrong waits for “just the right moment” to unveil information that proves the charge baseless. Political figures never choose to deliberately let themselves twist in the wind. It’s not the instinctive psychological reaction to being falsely accused, it’s not what any public communications professional would recommend, and to use one of our president’s favorite justifications, it’s just common sense.

Of course, Geraghty was writing about the President’s problems with Benghazi, the IRS and the Justice Department’s investigation of the Associated Press, but the quote resonates nonetheless.

SDM Wonders: If Mayor Stanczyk is not guilty of creating, funding and writing her devious blog, then why isn’t she vehemently denying involvement?

12 comments

April 15, 2013

Silly SDM Speculations

Some silly person commented on one of our blogs earlier today with a list of several people supposed to be SDM. SDM made an error when the comment was approved and apologizes to the persons named, none of whom participates on SDM.

3 comments

February 4, 2013

PB Agenda Quick Bites: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

EDC Getting Some Love

SDM was glad to see that the village will be sponsoring the Economic Development Council’s golf tournament, which is a major component of the annual EDC’s funding. For those not familiar with the EDC, it is the only economic development organization dedicated to our area and it is where local businesses go to learn about opening their doors here.

Palmetto Bay is right to participate in the fundraiser and should consider doing more.

Karyn Cunningham Staying Involve

Former Vice Mayor Candidate Karyn Cunningham looks to be appointed to the village’s educational compact committee, which is good for all of us. Ms. Cunningham deserves the opportunity to remain involved in village politics so that we may see her run again. SDM was favorably impressed by her campaign and is glad to see that she is willing to donate her time to village causes.

Tying Auto Insurance to Property Insurance is a Bad Idea

Councilman Fiore has included on the agenda an item urging the legislature to require any company writing auto insurance to also write property insurance. What Mr. Fiore may not know is that this experiment in exercising regulatory muscle was tried and failed in New Jersey.

New Jersey residents faced increasing auto insurance rates because many companies chose to exit the market rather than expose their businesses to the complexities and risks associated with the property insurance market.

Before the village council assents to Mr. Fiore’s idea, they should spend some time researching the issue to see if it will serve the purpose intended.

Other Bad Ideas in the Legislative Package

Supporting the school district’s legislative package in toto. This is not a bad idea in the sense that assisting the school district is a bad idea; rather, this is a bad idea because SDM would bet a campaign contribution that none of the council has read the district’s legislative package. Our school district is a political body just like all the others and they deserve scrutiny and not blind assent.

Supporting expansion of early voting sites and hours. SDM has only one question: Who will pay for this? It’s as if our elected officials have no interest in digging into these questions when they push for new ways to spend our money. Do we even know if this will actually work?

Opposing legislation that restricts or eliminates municipal revenues generated through communications services taxes and by local business taxes. SDM’s readers are a wise and intellectual bunch. Do you understand what this item means?

SDM Codebreaker: We will be sending our village lobbyist to Tallahassee to support these taxes being imposed upon our businesses! We are paying our taxes so that the Mayor can go and keep us paying other taxes. Doesn’t this make you feel good about your government?

The First Fix to the Broken NPO: Give the Village Special Treatment

Item 12C is an ordinance that grants village parks – including Wedding Central at Thalatta Estate – special dispensation. If the ordinance passes, village parks will be permitted to violate the supposedly sacrosanct maximum decibels as written into the NPO.

You see, the village just figured out that children playing in the parks may be occasionally loud enough to violate the village’s noise pollution standards so – of course – Mayor Stanczyk and Councilwoman Lindsay have decided to exempt themselves.

But what about children playing at churches and private schools? Well, their joyous laughter will continue to be squashed by the village because Councilwoman Lindsay wants her peculiar version of peace and quiet.

SDM Wonders: Do Councilwoman Lindsay and Mayor Stanczyk believe that the folks living near Palmetto Bay’s parks have rights inferior to those living near Palmer Trinity School?

SDM Says: In a hyper-regulatory environment like we have in our little village, residents face a choice: silence all the children or silence none. SDM supports the latter.

2 comments

January 11, 2013

PB: Big Expensive Plans, Big Expensive Disagreement

The January 7th Palmetto Bay Council meeting offered viewers the rare opportunity to listen to an actual policy debate. The topic was somewhat dry: an item to purchase equipment used for maintaining parks.

At approximately 1:04 into the meeting, Village Manager Ron Williams interrupts Vice Mayor John Dubois as he explains his philosophical opposition to in-sourcing what historically have been outsourced services. SDM found Mr. Dubois’ arguments to be both carefully considered and respectfully delivered.

Apparently the manager felt the need to interrupt the Vice Mayor to say that he totally disagreed with Mr. Dubois’ arguments. In a direct contradiction to Mr. Dubois, Mr. Williams said his staff could repair in-house the John Deere equipment the village proposes to purchase! (Now the village is going to create a John Deere motor pool?)

Around this time, Mr. Dubois attempted to regain the floor, but Mr. Williams’ temper flared as he demanded “let me finish, please!” Mr. Williams went on to say that many local governments have been hurt by outsourcing and by throwing “contracts out to folks with no controls…”

Aside – SDM Wonders: If the village is throwing out contracts to folks with no controls, whose fault is that Mr. Manager?

After the village manager’s outburst, Mr. Dubois continued (1:05), noting that the village’s employee base had jumped from 29 to 49, largely based on“bloating of our budget from in-sourcing projects like this…”

A moment later, the manager confirmed that the village has 49 full-time employees now, though he disputed the 29 figure.

Well, this little contretemps got SDM to thinking… SDM’s first thought was that this manager is really asserting himself all of a sudden. That he did so in such a rude fashion was out-of-bounds and misplaced, but at least he is growing a pair.

SDM’s second thought was to wonder whether Mr. Dubois was right, so SDM looked through some past budgets and came up with the chart below. (Ron Williams’ first budget was the 2007-08 Fiscal Year.)

Year Proposed Final Adopted Total Employees

Year	Proposed	Final Adopted	Total Employees
05-06	16 FT – 14 PT	18 FT – 13 PT	31
07-08	31 FT – 17 PT	23 FT – 19 PT	42
09-10	37 FT – 23 PT	37 FT – 23 PT	60
10-11	42 FT – 23 PT	43 FT – 27 PT	70
12-13	49 FT – 38 PT		87*

*If the Manager fills all slots and does not add any additional positions.

Village expenditures for Williams’ first budget were expected to be $14.4 million. His latest budget calls for expenditures of $22.2 million. This is a 35% increase over a five-year period. Over the same period, full-time employees have increased by 63%, part-time employees by 66% and total employees by 64%, assuming Mr. Williams’ empire grows according to his plans.

Even if SDM is to correct for taking in-house the building planning and zoning functions, which account for about 17 employees, Palmetto Bay’s employee base has still grown dramatically.

For comparison, neighboring Pinecrest has more employees but also operates an in-house police department. Pinecrest had a total of 85 non-police employees in the 07-08 fiscal year and is projecting 94 such employees for 12-13. This represents a five-year growth pattern of 10%.

Mayor Stanczyk commented at 1:08 that Palmetto Bay residents want quality, not a “thrift store” government. A price increase of 35% over five years certainly qualifies as luxurious in SDM’s mind.

SDM Says: Vice Mayor Dubois is right and his point is timely. Clearly the early plan of Palmetto Bay’s founders to operate a lean village is gone, replaced by a budgetary growth rate that might make a Congressman – though apparently not a village manager – blush.

4 comments

December 19, 2012

SDM’s New Year’s Resolution

SDM is no fan of cynical politicians. What constitutes cynical behavior in SDM’s world is when a political figure intentionally misleads the public by twisting facts – or ignoring them altogether – knowing that the general public doesn’t know the truth.

Let SDM give you a current example. Some national political figures insist that extending the Bush-era tax cuts for 98% of taxpayers will resolve the “fiscal cliff.” Of course, the truth is that if this wish were granted, the result would be trillion-dollar deficits for as far as the eye can see; yet most regular folks are either too busy or too ill-informed to understand this basic law of math. Thus, the political figures get away with the ploy, knowing that all they are doing is borrowing from the future.

Certainly, this type of cynical manipulation is nothing new. What SDM feels to be new is how those who challenge such cynical behavior react to it. SDM has noticed that instead of reacting with intellectual outrage, sometimes even the lowly SDM reacts with a personalized outrage – a dislike of the person doing the cynical act, occasionally manifested in a blog post.

Sure, some may say that a blast from SDM’s pen is exactly what the cynical politician deserves. Fight fire with fire, they might argue.

But the problem with fighting cynicism with aggression or, worse, in kind, is that doing so further coarsens an already too coarse public dialogue.

Therefore, SDM resolves that in 2013 this blog will maintain a laser-like focus on argumentation based on facts. This blog will concentrate on correcting misleading statements and avoid the temptation to wallow in personalized observations about the speaker’s faults.

But, there is a caveat: Politicians use their various platforms to verbally express their individualized political philosophies. For example, Palmetto Bay’s Mayor often lectures speakers on her understanding of village laws and procedures. She often stumbles on her words and misstates those laws and procedures. SDM will continue to point out those mistakes, along with those of her colleagues, because someone must.

From all of us at SDM, happy holidays and our best wishes for a wonderful New Year.

Publication Note: SDM will be publishing only occasionally until after the first of the year. Even curmudgeon’s deserve a little time off.

23 comments

December 11, 2012

PB: COW Meeting Tomorrow Night – Following Flinn

It’s always interesting to watch a politician trail in the wake of another, trying desperately to live up to the leader that went before her. Americans become tired quickly of cheap imitations, which is why Vice Presidents who attempt to follow popular Presidents never seem equal to the challenge.

Palmetto Bay has its own version of this succession problem as Mayor Stanczyk flails desperately to appear to be a leader cut from the same bolt of cloth as that which gave us former Mayor Eugene Flinn. Now, don’t get SDM wrong here, Mr. Flinn made many mistakes during his tenure. He voted along with Stanczyk to punish Palmer Trinity. He often ran his meetings with an imperiousness – or at least the appearance of same – such that residents walked away thinking him pompous.

Even given those negative, however, it is undeniable that on balance Flinn’s tenure was a success. The village was stable financially. It worked through innumerable disputes with the county as it became an independent government. Village leaders rallied to Mr. Flinn to invest in parks and many other projects that will benefit the community for years to come. Flinn didn’t do it on his own – folks like Neidhart, Feller, Robinson, Breder and others tweaked the ideas and added their own. But they did so as a relatively unified group.

The Stanczyk example is blatantly opposite. In a pathetic attempt to follow the leader, Stanczyk will hold a COW meeting tomorrow night in an attempt to justify her term in office…measured against the standard Mr. Flinn continues to set. Let SDM explain.

In Mr. Flinn’s post-election blog post titled A holiday wish list for the new Palmetto Bay council, he laid out his wish list – really an agenda for action for the next council. Following are some of the key points he raised:

1. The status of two fire stations that the original Palmetto Bay village council worked with Federal, State and Local (County Commission and Fire Department) officials.

2. The status of the implementation of the new permit fee schedule and other recommendations of the Palmetto Bay Building and Permitting Advisory Committee Final Committee Report.

3. Should Palmetto Bay purchase bayfront land that is currently available?

4. It is time again for a village-wide strategy session. Goals need to be set. … Pinecrest recently completed a major update to its strategic plan. It is time for Palmetto Bay to do the same.

5. A public meeting needs to be held on the Franjo Triangle and US1 Island zoning district area.

6. The future of committees needs to be discussed.

7. Greater transparency on appointment to village boards and committees.

Now, let’s compare the first COW agenda with Flinn’s agenda:

1. Status on hiring of new employees including parks, and police, special events programming, and impact with the upcoming hiring of new special events person (Mayor Stanczyk)

2. Coral Reef Playground equipment (Mayor Stanczyk)

3. Coral Reef Park Concession stand and concessionaire information including income,hours, and status of contract (Mayor Stanczyk)

4. Health fair updates (Mayor Stanczyk)

5. Accountant’s response to financial criticisms and Town Hall Meeting (Mayor Stanczyk)

6. Sound ordinance regarding Palmetto Bay Village Center (Mayor Stanczyk)

7. Zoning of parks (Mayor Stanczyk)

8. Review of zoning designations that affect rebuilding of homes, such as at Paradise Point (legally non-conforming) (Mayor Stanczyk)

9. Disc golf (Mayor Stanczyk)

10. Review of possible changes, recommendations to FT & I district and update process (Mayor Stanczyk)

11. Implementation of the recommendations of the Permitting and Building Committee (Mayor Stanczyk)

12. Meditation Garden (Mayor Stanczyk)

13. Fire stations (Mayor Stanczyk)

That’s pretty good, three of thirteen items directly taken from Flinn’s blog. Items 3 and 5 were raised during the campaign by Recall Palmetto Bay and the candidates.

Stanzcyk’s item 1 appears to SDM to be a discussion of the un-requested police officer and another hidden attempt to turn Thalatta Estate into a full-time wedding venue.

Item 2 is a perpetual problem that village residents have been complaining about at every meeting, or at least so it seems to SDM. The issue is that the village installed new equipment at Coral Reef Park tailored for small children and all the toys for older kids have been removed. Village staff blamed the situation partially on the ill-advised moratorium. What goes around comes around.

Item 6 looks like the beginnings of a new controversy to assuage CCOCI and the SOPs. Perhaps Stanczyk wants to make the Palmetto Bay Village Center less attractive for weddings so that she can hold them at Thalatta.

Item 8 will be very interesting given the public hearing that SDM covered in the blog post: Palmetto Bay – Paradise (Point) Lost. The NPO has forced the issue of what to do with nonconforming uses into prominence.

Item 12 came directly from an appeal to the council by former Councilwoman Linda Robinson who was concerned that this lovely little garden in Coral Reef Park has been deteriorating. The garden is in memory of Robinson’s late husband Ken, a village founder.

So, if you’re counting, Mayor Stanczyk has essentially entertaining 75% of the agenda of Flinn, the opposing camp, and other former council members.

SDM Says: Mme. Mayor is either wisely stealing the agenda of the opposition or coming late to the notion that Flinn’s method of hearing all sides really works. SDM will withhold final judgment on whether Stanczyk’s COW agenda is just another cynical ploy or the beginning of a political turn.

The Stanczyk items contain some topics worthy of discussion. What is the issue with “zoning of parks”? Is the village going to attempt to exempt its own properties from the constraints it applies to our property? Perhaps they don’t want to conform to the fencing requirements, or the noise limitations? The king always prefers to make rules for others while not applying them to himself.

And what’s this about disc golf? SDM understands that a disc golf course was installed at Palmetto Bay Village Center. Can Palmetto Bay be trying to eliminate disc golf, too? SDM can’t wait to find out.

12 comments

December 6, 2012

PB: Block Billing – More Than Meets the Eye?

One of SDM’s keen-eyed readers observed the exchange at the last council meeting regarding the village attorney’s billing practices. SDM went back to the tape and agrees that the Mayor made a very telling comment.

But before SDM gets there, let’s set the stage. The village for a long time has placed its legal bills on the agenda under the “consent” section. The consent agenda is like a negative check-off, meaning that if a member has an issue with an item in the consent section, she must pull the item and place it on the regular agenda. Otherwise, everything on the consent agenda passes.

Usually, the items on the consent agenda are simple, noncontroversial and require little deliberation. Before Palmetto Bay became litigation central, it may have made sense to put its legal bills on the consent agenda. Today, given the substantial drain on resources these bills represent, SDM thinks they should be given more scrutiny and apparently so does Vice Mayor Dubois. The Mayor thinks not, apparently, but again we are getting ahead of ourselves.

Vice Mayor Dubois did his own review of the legal bills and using a businessman’s eye noticed a problem:

I pulled this item from the agenda because I wanted to make a point. In the spirit of transparency, we need to avoid any future block billing. That is, [the] billing where a four or five hour block of time is associated with 5, 6, 7 different projects with indefinite time amounts that we’ve seen on the bills. So… [the village attorney] has accommodated us on the most recent bill and I believe on a going-forward basis that it will be addressed. The issue is the inability to audit the billing records as well as the inability to reconcile them back to projects to do project-specific cost accounting. So I think it’s very important that we get away from this block billing that’s been instituted relatively recently.

Sounds eminently reasonable to SDM, but Mayor Stanczyk didn’t think so. She asked the village attorney if this practice was recent. The village attorney replied that it had been the billing practice for over ten years. The Mayor then continued:

Alright, umm…well as long as we’re not busy doing billing as opposed to giving attention to legal work. I think, uh, legal work is the priority here.

SDM Code Breaker: There are a couple of interesting things to notice from this exchange:

Vice Mayor Dubois, in his first meeting, noticed a billing practice that the manager should have flagged years ago. When the attorney bills the village four-hours of time on several matters, there is no way to allocate precisely those costs to the projects or matters addressed. Legal costs, then, are not considered when the manager calculates the total costs of the projects or matters under his purview. That the village may not be doing project-specific cost accounting should concern every member of the council, including Mayor Deputy Amigo.
It’s bad enough that the Mayor missed the point of Mr. Dubois’s observation as she busily attempts to protect her flank. What’s worse, however, is the implication of her question: because the misleading billing has been going on for a decade, that makes the practice okay. The practice is not okay and the village leadership should have caught it sooner.
To top off her performance, Mrs. Stanczyk displayed a further misunderstanding of the issue with her nonsensical statement regarding the village attorney “giving attention to legal work” versus being “busy doing billing.” The village doesn’t give a darn how much time the village attorney spends on billing because taxpayers don’t pay her to compile her bills. This is Management 101 for crying out loud.

SDM Says: Mayor Stanczyk perpetually ignores the compulsion to opine on every topic under discussion, even when it is obvious she hasn’t thought the matter through. SDM thinks the Mayor should consider adhering to the old adage, it’s better to stay silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.

10 comments

December 3, 2012

PB: Council Meeting Quick Bites

New Village Council Members

Tonight’s village council meeting will see two new faces sworn-in: John Dubois as Vice Mayor and Tim E. Schaffer as Councilman.

It’s not clear how the village’s political landscape will change given that Mayor Shelley Stacnzyk is joined at the hip with Councilwoman Joan Lindsay. These two dragged former Vice Mayor Brian Pariser into a series of difficult votes on controversial subjects. SDM believes Mr. Pariser was retired from office precisely because he failed to distinguish himself from Stanczyk and Lindsay.

On the other side sits Patrick Fiore (who is making noises about running against Stanczyk in two years). Dubois benefited from Fiore’s support in the past election, though Fiore couldn’t pull his candidate Jim Araiza across the finish line. Therefore, Palmetto Bay’s second new face is the unknown Schaffer. (SDM calls him Marathon Man because of his fuel purchasing habits.)

So what exactly can residents expect from this new council? SDM suspects Mr. Fiore and Mr. Dubois will work in tandem and that Stanczyk and Lindsay will stay in their camp. This will leave Schaffer to either join the Amigos, to stand independently, or to join the Fiore-Dubois group. Schaffer owes his election to the Stanczyk-Lindsay operation so early money says he will step directly into Brian Pariser’s empty loafers.

SDM Says: If Schaffer becomes the third Amigo, nothing much will change in Palmetto Bay. Property owners will be under the gun of the crazies that support Stanczyk and Lindsay and village government will continue on its intrusive, hyper-regulatory course. If the Marathon Man breaks from the Amigos, residents might see a more reasonable government…and Schaffer will grow a target on his back from the SOPs and CCOCI folks.

Decorum Rising

In addition to swearing-in the new members, the village council will take up the crucial issue of reading the decorum statement before each meeting starts. If adopted, the decorum statement will be read as the second order of business, right before the Mayor starts handing out her proclamations and honors every local sports team that wins anything.

SDM Wonders: The decorum statement is pretty straightforward but it is incomplete because it is not addressed to the council itself. From SDM’s perspective, most of the indecorous behavior at village meetings comes from the dais and from the spouses of those on the dais sitting in the back of the chamber. Let’s hope the council listens to the decorum statement and applies it to themselves.

Misapplying the First Amendment

The minutes of the November 5, 2012 council meeting (Item 12A) contains an interesting misapplication of this provision of the U.S. Constitution: ”Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

Village Attorney Eve Boutsis’ was asked a question about the village’s sponsorship ordinance:

Councilman Tendrich noted that on page 4 of 9, line 36, to state that an illegal business would be prohibited from advertising seems obvious. He asked about churches that volunteer in Palmetto Bay.

Attorney Boutsis explained that this is a matter of separation of church and state. (Emphasis added by SDM.)

SDM Wonders: How would a church’s purchase of a sponsorship of a village event “establish a religion” or “prohibit the exercise” of a religion? Of course, it wouldn’t and Ms. Boutsis should know this. In fact, SDM would argue that by singling out churches, the village is actually preemptively prohibiting speech based on content, which is a constitutional no-no.

SDM Says: Most village churches by now have zero interest in supporting the village’s events, but Palmetto Bay leaders cannot say with a straight face that they support local churches while at the same time they limit their freedom of speech.

6 comments

November 29, 2012

Lynda Bell’s Excellent Idea

Ok, SDM is not a fan of Lynda Bell, one of South Dade’s county commissioners. However, she has introduced an excellent piece of legislation that should be implemented immediately. First, recall this scene:

This picture was taken several months ago when Occupy Miami invaded the grassy area that surrounds the county building downtown. SDM walked by the “campground” several times while these “protesters” were living there. SDM could not understand why the county permitted these folks to set up shop like this.

Apparently, the county lacked authority to arrest and move these miscreants. So to resolve this obvious hole in the code, Commissioner Bell introduced legislation to make overnight camping illegal on county property. A no-brainer, right? Not so fast, SDM.

While SDM applauds, other crazies in this town are castigating the commissioner, if you can believe it. The ACLU and some so-called homeless activists criticized the law as unfair to those who have no other place to live. What?

Just for giggles, let’s walk down the road that the ACLU wants us to travel. Let’s assume that Mrs. Bell’s legislation fails and the county code remains free of the prohibition on overnight camping on county property.

These “homeless” will now be free to move their campground to the Key Biscayne Golf Course or one of the county’s natural forest communities, right? Sure, SDM is resorting to a slippery slope argument, but why couldn’t such a result occur? All the campers would have to do is put up a couple political signs, and voila, it’s a protest!

Public property must be reserved for everyone, which means it cannot be monopolized by any individual regardless of how compelling the individual’s personal story is. Should we as a society and a community assist a legitimately homeless person? Of course, but once any society permits its public spaces to be colonized, there is no going back. If you don’t believe SDM, buy a plane ticket to almost any Third World nation and you will see what happens when public spaces are “occupied.”

SDM Says: Palmetto Bay should adopt an ordinance mirroring Bell’s measure (assuming such activity is not already illegal in our parks and public spaces). Now, this is a matter worth litigating over.

9 comments

South Dade Matters

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