NO APPOINTMENT NECESSARY …. DISCOUNTS FOR 3 OR MORE … ….
Dear Readers … the continuation of the November 10, 2009 commission meeting took place last night on December 7, 2009…and being out of whack turned out to be the “theme” of the evening…
We began with Commissioner Clottey still on her Hillsboro Inlet “bent”… to throw Commissioner Dodd off the board…It was combined with the new business item put on by Commissioner Dodd…He tried unsuccessfully to ask her why she would proceed with this change…and gave the facts of how this appointment was historically made and how it has and is a long term appointment from most municipalities including LBTS……Her ridiculous statements and her tone in response warrant more and more concern that this woman is not dealing with a full deck…Her shrill “explanations” …don’t make any sense at all…She met Oliver Parker and he asked her to put this on and he wants his old job back and she said she would do it…Is that “sound” decision making?…Never mind the history of the CIC and former Mayor Parker…(Recall)…She tried to say it is a job to be rotated like the others that the commissioners attend ….despite being informed otherwise……She tried to say it was to get “us” known out there beyond town limits…..Really?… If that’s her reasoning…how does she justify nominating Parker to return once “out there” again?….With Comm. Clottey, up is down and down is up…getting defensive over all her “time” spent for Town duties…5-6 days a month…and sometimes they go from 9:30-2:30… WOW!…Give the commissioner one of those cheap “medals” the Vice Mayor wanted for the “heroes” among us!…Give me a break!… The Mayor was right on target and said the new representative would most likely be on for a month….But Clottey being Clottey did not care…she was going to move forward for her new best friend..Mr Oliver… or maybe galpal, Maria… With her majority on the dais, she, Silverstone and McIntee voted to put this through…with a cutoff of Jan. 7th …SEND YOUR APPLICATION IN !…. http://www.lauderdalebythesea-fl.gov/ …The Mayor responded this was “unfortunate”…Get this woman a couch!…
Too, too funny in order to make up to those long ignored Jews among us in LBTS …(this writer is Jewish)…the Town did a mea culpa by putting on the agenda to change the date of a meeting in Sept. to accommodate the Jewish Holiday of Sukkot …not an important holiday for most…and after the Mayor asked if this was under the direction of the Jewish Federation and found it was from the long-term calendar the received 2 years ago Town ignored (prev. post)…Commissioner Silverstone motioned to defer it until the 2nd meeting in April…. saying it wasn’t that important…A vote was made 4-1…Vice Mayor McIntee voted no…to the deferred action…perhaps thinking a no vote would “score” him Jewish points…this election year!… Get this man a couch!…
The Cone of Silence…Commissioner Dodd read from his prepared notes …
“I have reviewed the video of the end of the previous meeting several times. I am not going to get into any controversial discussion or argument at 11.15 p.m. after a 4 hour session. I can tell you I will always put the unresolved issues on a fresh agenda item to be discussed at another time. After careful consideration it appears the town manager was trying to imply a commissioner had broken one of the rules regarding the “Cone of Silence”. She stated verbatim – I guess we forgot about the cone of silence that was handed out in January 2009. She state shortly aft verbatim – If this town commission is going to allow or is going to communicate with vendors and accept bids that are non responsible ( I think she meant non responsive) the issue is on this dais.
First I would never dream of interfering, negotiating, and making false promises during any part RFP process. The bids were opened on the parking RFP months ago and I was contacted by the vendor with a problem with our town staff and I chose to reply and send a copy to the town as a public record. I received the following – E-mail from a vendor bidding on a town RFP. “ What in hell is going on in Lauderdale by the sea” . She expressed how rude the caller from LBTS was. He said the person was short and requested the contract and just hung up the phone. The caller from LBTS didn’t even provide sending instructions. This was the second call – It must have been bad ….. The rudeness and unprofessional contacts with our customers however – has no acceptable format.
I replied – On behalf of the commission please accept my apologies. I asked on September 11th for the evaluation and reason behind the town staff’s strange choice when your RFP to the casual observer to be in the best interests of the town. Please accept my personal apologies……….
I’m sorry Commissioner Silverstone if this e-mail apologizing on your behalf has upset you and that you want to be excluded from any situation where an apology is in my opinion required. If you receive a personal e-mail that requires an apology on behalf of the town I would ask you kindly to include me in. Remember it was an e-mail addressed to me and I had no way of knowing whether it was also sent to anyone else.
We are public servants and the correct solution in my opinion would have been for the town manager to call the vendor, apologize and ask the vendor whom from the Plantation PD called him with the complaint but it appears from the memorandum we all received that this didn’t happen and the vendor hasn’t yet had an apology nor is he likely to ever bid on any future town contract after the treatment he received publicly from this town
I personally feel my actions in no way infringes any Cone of silence or other rules regarding RFP’s and is in fact the code of decency to apologize unless you believe the vendor made it up. We are public servants and should act and behave as such.
If we are raising the cone of Silence – I feel the Vice Mayor telling Armelio – “We just have to go through the motions” even before the bids were opened to be a blatant and far more serious infringement. What about all our conversations with Minto where all the commissioners privately met with Minto to discuss changes to their next building phase. Does that constitute a breach of the cone of silence?
What about conversations with Choice representatives after the bids were opened
Does that constitute a breach of the cone of silence?
I will not be accused of anything by innuendo by the town manager or anyone else – get the facts straight and ask the question if you have something to say. I have said before – if you have a problem call me and I will come and see you in your office and with a witness if you want – I’m not the one with the problem.
Also for the record the cone of silence was actually in the ethics ordinance back-up that I tried to get this dais to introduce earlier this year.
Also for the record this town does not have a Cone of silence ordinance as adopted by other municipalities into their code, this town has no reference to cone of silence in the purchasing manual and there was no reference to the cone of silence in the parking RFP. I fail therefore to see how this commissioner could be accused of breaking it by sending an apology after the bids were closed months ago.
I yield”
Commissioner Silverstone as usual was his befuddled, incomprehensible self…”I will never speak for you or anyone commissioner.”…. Does he have a limited Rolodex in his head…and this time…he rolled it to T for Town Manager form of g0vernment?…He stated the commission is not to “interfere” with the Town Manager by contacting the vendors…that to do so was “totally irresponsible”…He brought up the Miami ethics materials brought forth to deal with the “2-Hats” ethics problem, and laughably to those who know his M.O. tried to say he read it!…No way…the portion on the “cone of silence” was buried pages back…and RFPs were not even on the radar until the following summer !..OOPS!… And if you follow Commissioner Silverstone’s thought process (stop laughing, readers)…He would have you believe that the commission should “adopt” a “cone of silence” because it was included in a backup!…No Ordinance required…Good God!… He actually tried to say that he has read the Charter many times since he became a commissioner…OK, maybe he did…but did he retain it?…This writer thinks not!…He has said the same for the codes…pretty funny that he ended up removing his item that followed this…for a change in the Town Code to deal with uncompleted building sites…after sheepishly admitting the Town Atty. told him it was already “on the books”…OUCH!… Get this man a couch!…
The Town Manager did her repeat performance…it’s her staff…they did nothing…and she too stuck with the buried Miami-Dade “cone of silence” as her premise to admonish the commission (prev. post- LBTS agendas,meetings) …in October…She said if a “certain Commissioner wanted to believe a Vendor”…so be it…she stands behind her staff…Get this woman a couch!…
Then it was Vice Mayor McIntee’s turn…
“You know I’ve listened to some outrageous statements but this was one of the worst. The bottom line here is that a gentleman who didn’t get a bid was very mad and very upset and he sent a very nasty email and claimed a lot of things happened. And when he sent that email to Commissioner Dodd he responded by saying I’m sorry. The problem with him saying I’m sorry is there was never any attempt to determine if the staff broke any rules or did anything wrong. That’s where the problem lies. The staff was thrown under the bus by Commissioner Dodd by him apologizing for their actions when in fact they did nothing wrong. And that’s wrong. That’s absolutely wrong. If you have a situation you get a nasty letter from a purveyor or person trying to do contracts with this town, I would go to the Town Manager and say Town Manager please do an investigation for me. See who talked to this person. Get their side of the story. I would never, never accept the side of a,a purveyor of contracts to this town as being truthful and completely legitimate without verifying it! I have complete trust in our employees. They’re pretty good people. In the dissertation that, that he read to us he never said it ain’t so! Plantation sent a letter back saying none of their employees said that our employees were nasty to them.They did an investigation and they consulted all the people in Plantation who contact, who were in contact with our employees and each and everyone said they were congial, conga, excuse me…they were very nice to each other, friendly, appropriate activities. That was never mentioned yet Commissioner Dodd had that letter which said it didn’t happen in Plantation. So everything Mr. Hood said which is in my hand were lies. But yet, he apologized for the lies that Mr. Hood generated against our employees and that fact is just terrible. Our employees are good hardworking people and to take their word without an investigation with our so much as a say so. Maybe it was Nilkki? Maybe it was June? Say June did this happen? Could you tell me? Because I believe if they went to the Town Manager and said can I ask Nikki if it happened she’s probably give her permission to do it. But I couldn’t do it without the Town Manager but I would at least go to the complaint. I would never, never send a letter that I apologize for the whole commission.! I wouldn’t accept that. If the complaint came to me I would have gone right to the horses mouth. Did you do this? And when did it happen? I would have called Mr. Hood up and say Mr. Hood could you be more specific? What was said? What time was said? I would see who was working that day. I would see it was documented. But most of all when I finally got a letter from Plantation, the government of Plantation saying it ain’t so. Your employees were nice to us. Then I would have senbt a letter back to Mr. Hood saying I’m disappointed in what you said. Apparently your accusations are not true.”
Commissioner Dodd -“Point of information , nobody ever contacted Mr. Hood from this town. That’s the point that I’m trying to make.”
VM- ” You contacted him! They don’t have to.”
CD-” He contacted me! He sent me a letter!”
VM- ” And he accused the town of breaking the rules and being nasty!”
CD- ” Why didn’t the town contact him?”
VM- Did you go to the Town Manager?”
CD- ” I sent a copy of my email to the Town Manager for her to follow through.”
VM-“Did you apologize before you investigated?”
CD- It doesn’t cost anything to apologize. You said talk to her [TM] personally.”
VM- Wait, wait that’s the nit of the problem! You have to investigate!”
CD- “The Town didn’t investigate.”
VM-” But, but before you apologize for an action you investigate to make sure the action occurred or else you’re putting all the responsibility on those poor Town employees and you threw them under the bus and that’s why there’s problems!”…
BC-First…Commissioner Dodd forwarded the email he received about the situation (prev. post)…Mr Hood would not have sent such an email if he had not been contacted in the vetting process…There was no approved bid at this time……The town received no letter…and what McIntee had amounted to emails between Plantation and Kaola King consisting of a few line exchange….No investigation in Plantation…..and the “person” responsible …this writer believes…was neither of the women accused…He is taking cover…and being covered by his mentor!… Comm. Clottey is on record at the final award of the RFP saying she had spoken to Mr Hood while it was in process…..Commissioner Silverstone, Commissioner Clottey and the Vice Mayor all shook hands with Mr Hood at the end of the process…In fact Commissioner Silverstone sent Mr. Hood an email…
………………………………………………………..
“Wednesday, October 28, 2009 9:19 AM
Mr. Hood,
I was wondering why you stayed for the entire 5 hour ordeal. Turns out you made the effort to meet each one of use and to thank us. That was a step above and beyond. I was most impressed and further more after I received your email below.
Thanks for achieving your intent. It benefits both of us.
Best regards,
Jim Silverstone
Commissioner LBTS”
……………………………………………………
As for the above statements. made by the Vice Mayor…..folks…read them again…and then see the (not quite so) anonymous, letter about the Mayor (prev. post) and what the Vice Mayor did with it…on Dec. 8th agenda…and you will see…THIS GUY NEEDS A COUCH!… TALK ABOUT HYPO-CRISSIE!…
Commissioner Clottey added her 2 cents..putting her foot where it’s spent a lot of time..saying the “gal” at the end (Nikki) never said a a nasty word to anyone (not true…prev. post…it’s a Colon trickle down Town Administration, with the exception of Kaola King, the Finance Director whom I do not believe was involved until after the rude hang-up)….. Commissioner Clottey said you have to judge someone on their prior action…and on that we all agree…This woman needs a couch!…
The Mayor thanked Commissioner Dodd for putting this on…
Back the Commissioner Clottey and her phobia of the BSO police …her phantom phone calls and phobia of “those people”, the homeless… She spoke of calls she received from residents “uncomfortable” around “Washington Beach Park”…(that would be Washingtonia …Commissioner)…She admitted she again did not contact the police and it was obvious she did not tell them to contact the BSO police…BSO Police Chief Llerena came to the podium and said “there is no easy answer” …and that one gentleman in that area is there everyday reading and not doing anything that is a disturbance…He spoke about the massive lawsuit in Miami for harassing the homeless…and said he and his men have never witnessed anyone sleeping… We hear the person Clottey almost “tripped over” was also a resident…This woman needs a couch!…
The Mayor asked the Chief if residents should contact the police…and the Chief that the vast majority of calls produce nothing suspicious,,,that they have a right to be there..The Town Atty. spoke of case law and confirmed the Chief’s words of caution…
The Vice Mayor ever the diplomat said “I don’t think we should go near this. The Lieutenant’s out there on the ATV, I don’t know if they’re looking at the girls!”… Crass, VM really crass…This guy needs a couch!…
Commissioner Silverstone went counter to Clottey’s assertions saying his phone calls have decreased…and asked about shutting down access to the beach!… This guy needs a couch!…
The Mayor asked about signs…and the Town Atty. addressed overnight parking restrictions…(which we already have on the books)…OOPS!…
Vice Mayor McIntee I don’t think we should direct the Town Attorney to spend any money…Pretty funny after the anonymous letter and Greenfest…etc…Get this guy a couch!…
Then it was time to address Clottey’s item concerning this writer and her unfounded and unsubstantiated accusations that I called her “inappropriate words”… “Despicable and disgraceful” for her actions toward Commissioner Dodd and the Hillsboro Inlet…Appropriate then and appropriate still!.. Comm. Clottey dialed it back but fraudulently contended that it was heard by others…Could not be…cause it did not happen… More of her empty political accusations…By the way Note to the Commissioner… please stop trying to talk to me….off the dais…those days are long gone ….You made your decision to be fully complicit in Mc-Furth bad behavior…This woman needs a couch!…
Clottey again…disingenuously acting as if “slogans” for the Town suddenly came to her…( a McIntee- type epiphany…courtesy of the Furths)..The slogan contest was a regular item in the BTSTimes this last year…and need not be an issue at this point in time…No surprise the Vice Mayor and Comm. Silverstone were for it… They’re all late night “regulars” at Town Hall east…no matter where they park…Get these guys a couch!…
We ended had less than 24 hours….before we all headed back…for the last LBTS Commission meeting of the year….It turned out to be …the meeting that put the nails in the CIC- coffin…so off the wall…that a couch is no longer an option…
Vice Mayor McIntee…Commissioner Silverstone and Commissioner Clottey…need to be committed!…
more to come…
Tags: Lauderdale By The Sea Commissioner Birute Clottey, Lauderdale by the sea Commissioner Jim Silverstone, Lauderdale By The Sea Commissioner Stuart Dodd, Lauderdale By The Sea Mayor Minnet, Lauderdale By the Sea Vice Mayor Jerry McIntee, LBTS Agendas/Meetings, local government, Local Politics, Scoops, scoops. Lauderdale By The Sea cont. Commission meeting of 11/10/09- on 12/7/09
