Whether the Village Council of Palmetto Bay knows it or not, they are being enlisted as low level pawns in the grand plan to use the economic crisis to reverse decades of progress on the environment in the United States. That the EPA is finally taking on pollution problems in Florida, that the state will not solve in order to protect polluters, is long, long overdue. But if the polluters get their way, EPA will be permanently hobbled. And Palmetto Bay elected officials could play a role, which is strange because there are many, many Palmetto Bay voters and taxpayers who are in favor of protecting the unique attributes of their communities: one of the reasons that Palmetto Bay incorporated in the first place, not so long ago.
The full court pressure against the EPA has rippled down through the state legislature to local municipal governments. Palmetto Bay is poised on June 6 to take up a resolution opposing the U.S. EPA plan to clean up Florida waters because the state of Florida won't. I wonder who the polluter lobbyists are, pushing this measure.
Let me tell you what this whole nutrient issue is about: giving polluters a free pass so that taxpayers will have to cover the costs of pollution.
Florida's waters would not be such a disaster if the state had done what it is required to do for the public in the first place, by law: protect us and protect our water quality. The Council should vote no on the resolution sponsored by Council Person Howard Tendrich. The Council should reject being used as a pawn by rich polluters. Let the EPA do its job because Florida won't. And when Tendrich is elected out of office, Palmetto Bay voters should lift a glass of dirty canal water in his memory.
15 comments:
Not Tendrich only. I fear Lynda Bell is picking off Palmetto Bay politicians one by one -- they would follow her off a cliff with their eyes glazed. She talks a good talk but the under-pinning is evil. Repel her charms (cough, cough) Village Council!! This consent agenda item is right out of Lynda's playbook. Cindy Lerner would never fall for this...be strong Palmetto Bay... Let the force be with you.
I would have expected this from Fiore NOT Howard. Howard two words: Get Smart!
If Palmetto Council votes for this, it will confirm that empowering local governments brings out all the little thugs and thuggery. We had Homestead as an example of how this worked, for so many years. Maybe it turns out that Homestead politics, driven by the local yo-yos, will be the model for the rest of the state. God help us all.
Howard Tendrich did not think this through. He is our most environmental councilperson. I would be interested how he came up with this. The lobbyist or Bell should be thrown under the bus. Howard: Take it back. And Shelly: Take a leadership role.
What's up with Howard? Shelley, I heard she was sitting in the Miami-Dade Commission Box at the Ericsson Tournament and heaven knows what else since then, so obviously, she can be bought with a few tickets and trinkets from the Evil Linda Bell (and has apparently completely disavowed and disowned Flinn to pursue her own agenda, whatever it is), but I thought Howard was better than that.
Don't presume that Howard was fully informed before he submitted this Resolution. some of the more well informed enviros should ask him to meet and learn more. There was no one at their committee of the whole meeting to speak against the issue and there should have been.
Where are the activists when we need them to be educating the elected officials.
The activists are fighting 20 issues at once. There are not enough of them.
If politicians have a question they should call Laura Reynolds at Tropical Audubon or write an email to Alan here: He is the conservation chair at Friends of the Everglades and was the Conservation chair for the State Committee on the Everglades for Sierra Club for many years. He is one of the most informed environmentalists that I know.
That is unfair to say that Shelly was bought off with Tennis Tickets from Lynda Bell. I do think city leaders are trying to get along with Lynda because she is the County Commissioners for their Cities/Villages...BUT you have to draw the line and set boundaries with her.
I pity poor Councilman Tendrich. I think this is an error that will be cleared up, but damage has been done. He and Flinn were great enviro allies together. That team has been lost.
Tendrich was largely respopnsible for the Deering flow way, having worked to locate the distant relatives of the late Mrs. Powers so the property could be purchased and made part of the CERP project. Tendrich is the main reason that property was not sold to developers to be subdivided into multiple estate homes.
I bet you Mayor Shelley Stanczyk wil be taking credit for this project at the expense of Howard Tendrich when they cut the ribbon on this project. BTW, this project may not have occurred, the powers property could have remained land banked property hidden behind fences, had then Mayor Eugene Flinn not pushed hard for the project to include the educational wetlands. The SFWMD tried several times to "cost engineer" the educational wetlands out of it.
That was then, when Palmetto Bay had pro environment leadership. This council lacks the same focus and sense of purpose. There is no team work. It is all about Mayor Shelley Stanczyk.
First off, how many people know that there is EVEN a committee of the whole meeting? (or when they meet?)
How many people even know what one is???
Can I tell you what the CoW meeting has become? It is an un-sunshined council meeting at time when family folks are trying to eat dinner.
The real council meetings have become a time to just vote on what they already decided they were doing during the COW.
Just like this item... they discussed it in a more or less private setting, then they decided to put it on the CONSENT agenda which means that it will not have public discussion...Unless someone one pulls it.
Since our council has seemly forgotten the environmental roots of our village, no one will have the nuts to pull the item off the agenda and risk offending our anti-environmental commissioner Bell.
Speaking of the our commissioner...she is not an environmentalist and she wants county DERM, DCA and the FDEP gone-gone-gone. And now the village council and mayor are drinking Bell's dirty water.
This highlights another issue of extreme influence by the commissioner over this village council and the elected wanna-bes. She has everyone afraid of her "hurting" the village's management through her county position. Well, guys and gals, that is called extortion in some circles or misuse of power, in other circles.
Sure wish the people of the village would wake up and see who is influencing our "activists" and our village.
You can not trust the ones on the council anymore and you certainly can't trust the last group of council candidate losers .... they are all on their OWN personal agendas...
Palmetto Bay has become exactly what I thought it would be and this illustrates the reason that I refused to support incorporation.
Palmetto Bay is no longer a village that was working well with our other surrounding cities. PB has gone from an leader in Dade county to a community of elected officials and elected official wanna-bes that are petty and self-serving. Environmental issues apparently are not a priority anymore either.
We, the people of Palmetto Bay, have been screwed by egos, greed and a total disregard for the honor of public service. Wake UP!
Shame on the whole bunch of "in office elected officials" and evil "elected official wanna-bes" who lost the last election! None of you care a rats ass about the good of the community and preserving our way of life that we had created.
Howard, by the way, is one of the nicer council people. However, he totally off base on this agenda item. He has bowed to someone who has fed him a whole bunch of crap!
The way Palmetto Bay is heading sucks. I am embarrassed and disgusted by all of it.
That is my rant for the day.
Comments coming in are nasty character assassinations...VENDETTAS
This sounds like a whopping serving of "we didn't think through this" with a side of "they aren't going to figure this out" (if you subscribe to the evil-doers theories). So now PB voters need to step up and fix this thing. WHIle you are at it, I would fix that "un-sunshined" committee thing too. That sounds like a fertile garden where stupid ideas will grow.
As far as "working with" Bell, the vast majority of Palmetto Bay voters did not vote for Bell and are happy to have their own government so they don't have to accept everything the county hands down. The Council should remember it. The old council fought the county tooth and nail to incorporate and do away with mitigation. Now that we have a commissioner who is far LESS friendly to Palmetto Bay voters' viewpoints than Sorenson, it is NOT the time to lie down.
I'm hoping someone will see all this and take it off the consent agenda. E-mails from voters might help.
I am sorry, but I don't see the residents of palmetto bay connecting to the issues that will affect them personally. It seems that they are expecting the village to run on auto-pilot.
When you have a thoughtful and visionary government in place, auto-pilot may work, however, in palmetto bay, you have a combo of new people on the council and then those that do not grasp their roles which require a broader vision of governance, not their own agenda (an agenda which no doubt is outside the sunshine).
I see too many personal agendas in the group of former council candidates (who criticize and are positioning themselves for the next election) and in the current council, too.
The community activist clan has changed as well; they are no longer fighting for the common good of palmetto bay, but for their own personal wants, needs and give-mes.
You will not see me in council meetings as I am not one of the groupies that follows my elected pals around. I am not a dramatic temperament and I am not going to weep and
wail in council meetings. I expect my elected official to do what I elected them to do without corruption or personal agendas.
I expect that my elected official to be thoughtful and progressive (yep, that dirty word, progressive) in representing me. They should do their homework, research the issues and NOT believe everything they are told by special interest driven souls. They have village staff to help them, they don't need lobbyists of any sort.
I am discouraged by the fact that the council did not reach out beyond their kitchen cabinets to fill the vacancies on the village boards. The residents of palmetto bay really do number in the tens of thousands, not just the 30 fans who kiss the councils butts ever chance they get.
Reading these comments about Palmetto Bay makes one realize what a sham the whole incorporation effort is: sold on the promise of limiting the obnoxious effects of county government, what it turns out to be is just another form of insider cronyism at the smaller level. Just like those nested Russian dolls.
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