Meet Your New Village Manager

Sharon Ragoonan

Last night the Commission selected our new Villager Manager. After discussion amongst themselves and allowing the public to share our final thoughts (thanks for that by the way), we arrived with a 4-1- decision in favor of Sharon. However, after the initial vote was in, the Commissioner then decided to change her vote in order to make it unanimous. I think that sent a good signal of unity. Both for our residents, and also to Sharon.

Of course, her contract now needs to be ironed out and her start date seems to be scheduled for September 1^st, 2016. Please join us in Welcoming Sharon to our Village!

UPDATE- 7/25/15:

Many residents have been asking about where they can learn or see more about Sharon. Besides a Google search to view her past accomplishments, below is the link from our 7/12/16 meeting where she answers the Commissioners qualifying questions. Starts at the 23:00 minute mark-

Link Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixl5KcQvSR8

 

Standing Watch-

Milton Hunter

The Biscayne Parker

 

  

 

Good Neighbor???

 



Good Neighbor… North Miami? Think again.

 

Yesterday I, along with others had the distinct pleasure of spending most of our day downtown watching our County Government in action. And it was a 3 ring circus.

After sitting through, what seemed like countless hours of an endless stream of people pleading for more money for parks, the zoo, drug rehab centers and too many other groups to remember, we finally had our moment for consideration regarding our Annexation proposal. And it wasn’t pretty.

First, our Mayor was asked to speak on behalf of our proposal. Soon thereafter, the process was interrupted by the County Chair to bring up some delegation from Kenya to speak. Really? What? How was this in any way relevant to our agenda item, again after sitting for hours waiting just for this moment? I don’t know, but the Chair thought this was the proper time to wheel them out. After a time we tried to get back on track and had comments heard from both our Biscayne Park residents and staff. I didn’t keep count, but the majority of our people spoke honestly and openly about our needs and reasoning for annexation. The few who spoke against it, one... after spending all day waiting to be heard, simply bailed out of making any comment other than “yea, I agree with them” (or something to that effect) and the other spoke... outfitted in sandals. Remember I told you it was a circus? But the best was yet to come.

One of the North Miami Commissioners rose up, against the previous vote of BP support from her peers and council of their attorney to wail about the “injustice of it all.” But, wait... there’s more. The attorney (representing one of the commercial buildings) spewed misinformation to include that we were planning (or in the works of as he told it) the erection of an $800K wall adjoining the railroad tracks!! I kid you not. [ASIDE] I assume he conferred with G.R.R. Martin about the erection of such a structure [END ASIDE].



Of course, everyone wanted to get in on the action at this point... to include those who had no ties with either proposed area, but spoke just the same. And of course, there was no fact checking of their comments but hey, it’s a free for all at this point. Blood was in the water... our blood. And the sharks were all coming in to take their bite.

But the Big Tent went up with a bus load (yes, literally a full bus load) of people, decked out in their red anti-annex tee shirts (reportedly from the Advenir at Biscayne Shores property) leveraging the Commissioners with their dog and pony show. Who these people were and where they were picked up off the street remains a mystery.  One of our residents actually asked them what was going on and the answer was “I’m here to save our parks.”  Yup, that makes total sense. Thanks for playing.  And it was also reported, (and photographed) that they were all standing around in a group after the hearing receiving what I assume were their payment vouchers.

So, in this telling Goliath ruled the day and our annexation bid went up in smoke. What’s next remains to be seen.
 

Standing Watch-

Milton Hunter

The Biscayne Parker



Crime Watch Meeting- Crime Statistics





Greetings All,

Please see below the video links from yesterday’s Crime Watch meeting. The main purpose of this meeting, since we kinda just had one, was to disclose and discuss the crime statistics for our Village.  The format was a discussion/explanation from the Chief followed by a Q & A period from those residents in attendance.

Links Here:

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9nPvjJyn4s

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srXjnQ6_LYE

Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05kNOZeolFE

As I mentioned yesterday, my thanks go out to both Chuck Ross and the Chief for their proactive approach in dealing with our Communities concerns generated around this subject.

Standing Watch-

Milton Hunter

The Biscayne Parker

miltonhunter@gmail.com





Seeking Feedback on Proposed Parking Changes

Written by Gary and Barbara Kuhl-
 
The Commission is in the process of revising an ordinance concerning driveways and swales that will have a significant impact on the community.  For some residents it will be a financial burden and for others a logistical dilemma considering the variety of conditions that exist. 

To clarify the terms, swale refers to the area from the property line to the street and is public property.  Off street parking refers to any parking surface located on private property which does not include the swale. 

 

Last year there were community workshops concerning off street parking (driveways), parking surfaces and the use of the swale area.  The Code Review Board  (Gary is a member) and Parks & Parkways Board (Barbara is a member) worked together to agree on recommendations for the commission to improve the code.  The workshops were well attended by residents who were allowed to comment on issues.  The administration was also present.  These were some of the recommendations forwarded to the commission. 

·         Prohibit parking within the property line of a residence unless it is on an approved parking surface (grass is not an approved parking surface for private property). 

·         Defined approved parking surface materials for the swale and off street parking (grass was an approved parking surface for the swale but it had to be maintained- not dirt).

 

Nothing was recommended that would prohibit a resident from creating an impervious parking surface on the swale but it could take up no more than 40% of the swale.  This was already in our code. The existing code did not require every property to have a driveway and no recommendation was made by the committee to require a driveway.   

The commission, on their own, added that every property, including duplexes, must have off street parking.  They have now added that all parking surfaces on the swale will be deemed non-conforming.

·         Residents will no longer be permitted to construct parking surfaces (pavement, gravel, etc.)  or change the materials of existing parking surfaces on the swale. 

·         Residents will be required to remove a parking surface on the swale if 50% or more of the surface needs repair.

·         Residents that have a parking surface on the swale must obtain a release from the adjacent property owner. 

·         Residents that do not have a parking surface in the swale can no longer park on the swale. 

 

We live in a community without uniform setbacks.  It's very difficult to take a one size fits all approach.  Many of our duplexes already have paved swales which are used for parking and shallow front yards.  To require all duplexes to now add driveways to their front yard would decrease the green area and increase the paved area.  

Previous proposed revisions to ordinances (fences, boats and RV's) that had the potential impact that the driveways and swale restrictions will have on the community were subject to workshops.  What is being proposed is contrary to what came out of the workshop last year and has had no input from Code Review and Parks & Parkways or workshops on these changes.  

We will be hiring a new Village Manager in the next month and in November we may have three new commissioners.  Is this the right time and process to make significant changes to an ordinance that will have substantial financial, aesthetic and practical implications to the village? 

Think of this as a survey:  

1.      Do you think every property must have a driveway?  

2.      Do you park on your swale and do you want to change that?  

3.      Do you have an improved parking surface on your swale and want to change the material?  

4.      Do you think no one should park on the swale, grass or parking surface material?  What other concerns do you have about this? 

Below is the proposed ordinance that will be discussed at the July 12, Commission Meeting. 

http://www.biscayneparkfl.gov/vertical/sites/%7BD1E17BCD-1E01-4F7D-84CD-7CACF5F8DDEE%7D/uploads/Agenda_Item_11.a_Regular_Commission_Meeting_07_12_2016.pdf 

We would really like to hear your opinions.

 

Thanks, 

Barbara & Gary Kuhl
 

Biscayne Park Crime Statistics 2012- 2015

I’ve had the perception over the past couple of years that our crime rate in Biscayne Park has increased in frequency. Perhaps this is due to now having two sources reporting crime events (Crime Watch and Next Door) and receiving duplicate notices. Other than that, I’m not really sure where this “feeling or perception” has come from. Be that the case or not, please see below our crime statistics for the period from 2012-2015. These stats were obtained from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement- link here:  http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/cms/FSAC/UCR-Reports.aspx - under County and Municipal Offense Data.

For this review, we will focus more on an overview of the Total Crime Index, Crime Rate Percentage Index Change, and the Percentage of Cleared Cases. For those of you that want to see all of the various crime statistics broken down individually, please visit the above link.

Total Crime Index                   % Index Change (year-to-year)                        % of Cleared Cases  

2015- 65                                    +80.6%                                                                   1.5%

2014- 36                                    +33.3%                                                                   27.8%

2013- 27                                    -25.0%                                                                    85.2%

2012- 36                                    -25.0%                                                                    69.4%

So, based on the numbers, my suspicion was indeed correct in that we are experiencing a higher Total Crime Index (number of crimes) over the past several years. However, I will add that based on the other 39 municipalities in Dade County, our numbers remain fairly low. Last year, 2015, we were the 8^th lowest crime rate city in all of Dade County. 

Here are a couple more information points to consider. Last year we led ALL other Dade County municipalities in the increase of crime rate index change 2014-2015 (+80.6%) and had the lowest % of cases cleared at just 1.5%. The average for all other cities in cases cleared in 2015 was 20.8%.

 





Let’s now look at some other local municipalities for comparison:

Total Crime Index                     % Index Change (year-to-year)                     % of Cleared Cases

2015

El Portal- 94                               -13.0%                                                                    9.6%

Miami Shores- 622                   +5.8%                                                                     15.0%

Aventura- 2172                         +5.7%                                                                     35.4%

North Miami- 3170                   -8.2%                                                                     15.2%

Surfside- 137                            -13.3%                                                                     28.5%

Bal Harbour- 95                       -12.0%                                                                     36.8%

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------               

Of course, the overall population is higher in all the cities excluding El Portal and Bal Harbour.

Population Total

Biscayne Park= 3,147

El Portal= 2,334

Miami Shores= 10,806

Aventura= 37,473

North Miami= 62,380

Surfside= 5,703

Bal Harbour= 2,778

Proactive or Reactive?

This is a point that has been brought up by residents during the past several Crime Watch Meetings. Meaning, how are we planning and preparing to deal with a higher crime rate frequency? What, if any change of strategy are we (our police department) putting into action?

 

The answer that we have received from our Police Chief is to “remember to lock your doors as that is contributing to 95% of all of our crime.” And that response sounds reasonable. It boggles my mind to think that anyone in this day and age doesn’t know to lock up their cars and homes.

But, what if it’s now “too late” for simply the locking of windows and doors as it seems that the word has gotten out to the criminal element that Biscayne Park is an easy target. And if this is true, then how do we deal with this situation?  To review, our crime rate has increased by +33.3% in 2014 and by +80.6% during 2015.

During 2015 we had (3) Robberies – (19) Burglaries – (42) Larcenies and (1) car theft.

For 2012    there was (1) Robbery- (14) Burglaries- (8) Larcenies and (0) car thefts.

Beyond providing the statistics, I have no answers as to what we should expect in future or how to turn the tide on this rising crime activity within our Community. Our police department represents 39% of our overall budget and is by far our largest tax expense. For any specific questions, I would suggest to contact our police department directly. For more general questions and or discussion, please feel free to use the comment section below.

Standing Watch,

Milton Hunter

The Biscayne Parker

miltonhunter@gmail.com



 UPDATE: Friday 7/8/2016

All,
For whatever the reason, the discussion of this blog post is taking place on another location- the Nextdoor site. For anyone wishing to follow the comments from our neighbors and aren't signed up  there, please click here:

https://biscaynepark.nextdoor.com/news_feed/?lc=7741&is=nce&mobile_deeplink_data=action%3Dview_post%26post%3D28252423&s=&link_source_user_id=7317286&post=28252423&ct=Kx1oKeYtyp76gS7iPL3vOgzQmlQgh-ZPM8lN8DmBTx77O4XULIZIMLy_dk0Q1uWY- copy and paste into your browser if needed.