After a ‘horrible year,’ Key Biscayne government is losing the public’s trust | Opinion

Troubled Village

Queen Elizabeth II famously referred to a tumultuous year of her reign as “Annus Horribilis,” a horrible year, a term that encapsulates Key Biscayne in 2024.

Last February, 66-year-old ✓Megan Andrews, a beloved resident, died tragically when she was struck by a motorized bicycle driven by a child. This incident highlighted the danger of government inaction.

Then came the alarming revelations about ✓Oscar Olea, an alleged sexual abuser who was allowed to conduct gymnastics classes even after accusations. This has damaged trust within our community. Furthermore, the investigating detective categorized one victim’s mother with a derogatory term. In another episode, a police officer turned to social media to advise a group of concerned residents who were voicing their fears to simply leave Key Biscayne.

Meanwhile, the Phase 1 costs of the Village’s proposed sustainability program have ballooned from $30 million to an outrageous ✓$90 million.

Such crises should prompt immediate corrective action, coupled with an increased level of policy oversight. Yet, the response has been to engage a “crisis communications” firm, at an annual fee of $120,000, rather than address the genuine concerns of residents. However, the Village already has an employee whose function is community engagement and communications and receives an annual salary of more than $100,000.

Additionally, the Village manager unilaterally imposed a “gag order” on staff, effectively stifling communication with the press and the community. In Key Biscayne, the manager serves as chief executive officer, responsible for daily operations, while the mayor and council set policy agenda. This system is failing. Most of our elected officials have relinquished critical authority to the manager, leaving many pressing issues unresolved. This governance model is entirely unacceptable.

The mayor and council must take decisive action to wrest control and prioritize the interests of residents. Our financial future and the health of our community depend on it.

Fausto B. Gomez,

Key Biscayne

Careless policy

Ending birthright citizenship for babies born in the United States, assuming it survives legal challenges, will have unintended consequences. If the parents are in the U.S. legally and on working visas, the baby will be undocumented upon birth, as it has not been admitted, inspected or paroled and cannot derive status off of the parents. The U.S. Congress would need to amend the law to provide for status of the newborn, which can take decades (the last major immigration legislation was passed in 1996).

What parent would want to immediately depart the U.S. upon having a baby? What if there are complications?

What parenting-age foreign national would want to work in the U.S., knowing that any child they give birth to here will become undocumented?

President Donald Trump’s order will deprive the U.S. of much needed births to sustain our population and Social Security and is not well thought out.

Tammy Fox-Isicoff,

North Miami Beach

Thin-skinned

We have all attended religious services throughout our lives in churches, temples or mosques. I don’t recall anyone ever being offended by sermons about mercy and compassion.

Harry Emilio Gottlieb,

Coconut Grove

Small voice

Watching Donald Trump’s inauguration was too painful. I have tried to reason that he was able to convince certain segments of the voting population that he was their better option. Some voters thought he favored the State of Israel more so than Democrats (which is patently false). Others felt abandoned and ignored by the Democratic Party (which may be true).

The reality is that many voters would simply not vote for a woman, much less a woman of color. Those who voted for Trump did so because their vote allowed them to behave as badly as he behaves, to say the absurd things he says and to lie about facts as he does.

Now that he is in the White House, I hope he listens to his better angels. However, if his first day in office is any indication, that will not happen. Releasing felons who invaded the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was an egregious act.

Some have said, “don’t listen to his words, watch was he does.” Now we know.

We can only pray that in time he will listen. If not, maybe those who voted for him 2024 will listen to their better angels next election day.

Peter M. Brooke,

Doral

Name that Gulf

Arbitrarily renaming the Gulf of Mexico as “The Gulf of America” is a profound discourtesy to the people of Mexico, whom we will no doubt shortly be calling on for cooperation with drug and border issues. If they are disinclined to cooperate in any way, it will be no wonder. No doubt we will have some unbelievably arrogant response to this prepared in advance.

I apologize to Mexico on behalf of the people of the United States. Obviously, no one in Washington will do so.

Robert Gray,

Tamarac

Falling standard

As a daily volunteer at an elementary school in Miami-Dade, I frequently hear teachers complain that they spend too much time chatting with parents throughout the day, which, of course, did not exist before cellphones. Now, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether or not teachers will have to notify parents if they want their child to opt out of a lesson, on religious grounds, if it deals with LGBTQ issues.

Besides creating extra work for teachers (such as reviewing materials, then advising all parents), classmates will likely ask the child being excused why they are being excused. Perhaps worse, any LGBTQ child will feel, at this early stage of education, even more like a pariah, even if closeted.

In the school where I volunteer each month, a student from each class is chosen to exemplify a certain virtue. One such virtue is tolerance. I guess we can strike that one now.

L. Gabriel Bach,

Key Biscayne

Standing by?

President Donald Trump, “Dictator on Day One,” just pardoned most the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrectionists. Among all the dreadful things he did, this is the most disgusting.

Talk about weaponizing the Department of Justice; he let his army of criminals go free, perhaps to do his bidding another day.

Melissa Nelson,

Palmetto Bay

School raids

ICE raids in schools will traumatize all children. It is unnecessary and cruel. Please explain how traumatizing our children will “Make America Great Again.”

Republicans, how can you say you are pro-children and pro-families and support this?

And don’t dare call yourselves Christians.

Judith H. Casale,

Miami

Break the chain?

Instead of rewriting the 14th Amendment and undoing the Constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship, how about undoing the coy gambit of “chain migration?”

This allowed President Trump to sanction his wife Melania’s parents to tag onto her citizenship during his first term.

Norma A. Orovitz,

Bay Harbor Islands

Bullseye for Buckeyes

Congratulations to the Ohio State University Buckeyes, my alma mater, for winning a thrilling championship on a new college football playoff format. During their four-game run to the championship, the Buckeyes knocked off Tennessee, Oregon and Texas before outlasting the fighting Irish of Notre Dame in the title game.

The team was counted out after losing to their arch rival, Michigan, but came together for a post season run that will be remembered forever in Ohio State history.

Waseem Quadri,

Plantation

Amok time

The message is loud and clear: it is alright to commit mayhem by attacking the police and destroying property as long as it is for President Donald J. Trump.

If Trump’s opponents are hurt or killed, or if property is destroyed in the process, it is permissible, as Trump suggested in his pardon of all those convicted criminals of the Jan. 6, 2021 riots at the United States Capitol.

Bill Silver,

Coral Gables