I Ain't Got Nobody That I Can Depend On

Once a month when I get my Board of Adjustment packet from the the City of North Miami I take things seriously and go out and look at the properties where people have applied for variances, at least those I don't see nearly every day in my normal travels. I'm usually the only one at the meeting, board member or city staff, that remembers why a particular variance was given thirty or forty years ago. Back then city hall was part of my beat when working for the newspaper.

Back in 1960 or there abouts the city adopted a new charter and listed the "pay" for board members and the mayor and council. For my board it's $10 a meeting. Back in 1960 ten bucks was plenty to take the wife out to dinner at a nice restaurant. Now it ain't enough to feed myself at the local diner if I want to leave a decent tip for the waitress. Hell, it ain't enough to pay for the gas I use touring the city, checking out those properties on the agenda. But I do it anyway. And the mayor and council? They can't give themselves a raise but they've given themselves an expense account, a nice benefits package, lifetime medical insurance...

Well, if you read down through the posts that follow you can read all about my wonderful neighbor, how city staff lets her get away with all kinds of illegal crap, and then hounds me for minor bullshit, for causing them "more" work because I expect them to actually do their jobs.

But like many other things they can't seem to recall because they're too new to the city, they don't seem to remember what happened about thirty years ago. Heads rolled. The council finally hired Larry Casey as city manager, and for a few years we had good responsible government. We had experienced department heads. Well, we seem to be back to square one, the rats guarding the hen house. It's time for heads to roll again.