IT’S DA BOATERS…DA SHED(ERS)…THE ?(ERS)….STUPID…WHO WILL DECIDE …2010…

At the 12/16/08 commission meeting we had the latest round of the Town Administration’s “clean Sweep”… sweeping through the town for revenue…carrying out the “Code”…and churning out terse letters and citations so fast and furious …that it’s enough makes an old investigators heart pitter-patter with pride for the best Manager/ employees around!….WHOA….

We spent a huge amount of commission time listening to the many  neighbors who came …filling the hall….to come to the podium and deal with the latest revenue generating citations going on in this town……..before this item was tabled……even after…the “right question” was finally asked specifically by Comm. Silverstone to Assistant Town Manager Olinzock…that…. YES…Broward County allowed them to have their boats…etc…in the very place they remain today on their property…….before the annexation….and…. YES… we allowed them to continue after….annexation…

This was just the latest “sweep” and as the Manager has repeatedly warned …from the dais…(this meeting included the same dire warning)…it was not the beginning and certainly not the end…

She had quite an outburst….ala her pal the Vice Mayor…..(Although it was quite amusing to watch him at the end of her long “slap”down that had included him in the fray….take issue with the fact the Mayor ignored the “no discussion after the table’s been seconded”…in allowing the Manager to rant..never mind that a question from Comm. Dodd  to the Town Attorney…who said he was “kicking it over” to the Town Manager to respond to took place) ….. over the very idea that these “sitting duck”-homeowners would require a “hold” on the citation “gravy train”…process due to the Commission tabling the agenda item…until the new year!…

From The Town Manager……

” Commissioner Dodd this is not a cookie-cutter community. I have brought to the attention of this dais that we have a conflict in the code. This is not the beginning, this will not be the end, but that being said we have a job to do. We have a code in place we have to follow the code. If this commission continues to disregard the code, the code in this town is the law. We are following the code. If individuals think we are being selective, we’re not being selective. What we’re doing, we’re doing a job enforcing the code. When the first complaint came about, that gentleman (Mr. Hart), Commissioner Dodd, if you will recall we did an inspection and he had no compliance issue at this time. We do code sections. What we went out and we did was inspected all the properties pertaining to that code. We don’t do selective enforcement here. We don’t do selective inspections here, we address codes. When we go out there we do a section at a time. Obviously you know we only have two code enforcement people. One is Kermit Connoly doing the north part of town and the other one’s doing the south. We have a code workshop on January 13th.”

“Personally, if the Town Attorney doesn’t want to agree with me, which he doesn’t have to I have asked this question. I believe that this commission cannot give me an unlawful order. This is not the first time that I am told not to follow the code. How can we have a law on the books and you’re telling me and my staff not to follow it?”

” We have a code enforcement workshop. If this is something that needs to be addressed and I respect Commissioner Clottey because she’s right. Maybe not everyone knew this issue was going to be on this agenda. Maybe we need to make everyone who has an interest in codes in this town come to the January 13th workshop.”

“Because this boat issue has been an issue of more than two years. This commission, the prior commission and I am not going to turn my face because  one person complains more than another or because a Commissioner or Vice Mayor says this resident is upset. We have a job to do and we will do it fair with everyone. If people get upset with me and my staff doing my job Commission, they can get upset.”

“I am not breaking the law and the code is the code and I have to follow the code. If this commission wants to break the law and not enforce the code, just let me know.”

(Finished…this is where the Vice Mayor rubbing his head …makes his “point of order” to the Mayor for letting the Manager speak….)

Black and White…she is…and she will not “break the law”…..( no one was asking her do so)…but neither would she entertain…that these residents are now at the mercy of a date certain on the one hand to comply and a date uncertain for the Commission to enact a solution!…So they will face the consequences either way…complying with citations……..and incurring the expense…only to find…that maybe it was unnecessary…if the  Commission votes go their way…YIKES!…

The Manager said she is not being selective…HUH?…This writer calls it “selective” when just as happened months back…in town after a code violation was found on one individual for a shed…that situation led to a “sweep” of sheds throughout the town for code enforcement…this too  (as stated by the Manager herself …in her above statement)…was a single code citation, found to be in compliance…which then followed the same “protocol” of a mass sweep for boat …code violations…in the aftermath…that folks…seems very selective…and very lucrative to the town coffers…thus making her words…This is not the beginning, this will not be the end” all the more frightening….

We already know a “sweep” is coming by way of the town wide fire inspections…and we hear that on the list ….front foliage and anything else on one’s property that impedes into the town’s swales…easements…or right of  ways….on all streets……

So be ready residents…and take a gander at your fellow boat owners…shed owners…For even if you do not own a boat…or have a shed…take a look at your own property…are you next?….

Now really, for all the…..” I am the law” and “follow it by the book”…we are a community…first, a non- conforming  community…that needs to put our neighbors first…

We should employ an Administration that plans these issues out…no “gotcha”tactics  should be necessary….letting open the floodgates of calls to Commissioners…Town staff…and visits to the podium….No law breaking is being asked…just a plan…to include those are affected …before the uproar…and the uprise…when it comes their way…becomes their turn…

All that was being asked, by Commissioner Dodd….for the second time in recent weeks, the first being the Laundry By The Sea/Walgreens fire lane fiasco…was a way to give these impacted boat-owning residents…the same ability to “table” as the commission decided to do….

There should be an inquiry, by someone…as to the unsettling assertions..made at this meeting …. by the Town Manager …in thinking she was or has been asked to “turn her face” and act “unlawfully” by an elected official…

In conclusion, Commissioners….residents…in 2010…the election in Lauderdale By The Sea…will be decided by da boaters…da shed(ers)…and the rest of those left reeling from this Administration…so highly regarded by the “Broom Boys”…as they continue on with  a town wide “clean sweep”….

more to come…

Tags: boats, LBTS Agendas/Meetings, Local Politics, Scoops
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