They're called elections!

Dear Southwest Ranches Friends and Neighbors:

Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening and if I don't see you later…well then…Good Night!

A fairly quick Town Hall meeting 1/8/09 revealed a civil and logical Town Council actually listening to the residents of the Town…refreshing.

A few items of interest. Alyn Kaye will "oversee" so to speak, and advise the town on such things that he is most conversant with, for no actual income, therefore saving the Town scads of money. I tip my Gnome hat to Mr. Kaye for his obvious love of his town and his unselfish contribution to it. He has taken on this commitment without the intention of using his affiliation with our town for personal or professional gain, directly or indirectly. However, of course, this Gnome will keep watching Mr. Kaye to make sure he is true to his commitment and avoids any conflicts of interest obvious or otherwise and acts with irreproachable ethical behavior.

The issue of Golf Carts tooling around in and around Southwest Ranches will have to sit on the back burner for a while and I again tip my Gnome hat to the council for their cautious approach to this nightmare waiting to happen.

Anti-tethering still cannot get the support of Councilman Aster Knight; however, it would appear that the Town would work on an ordinance nonetheless. I tip my Gnome hat to the council for moving forward and asking the right questions about this important issue.

In public comments, all of the Town of Southwest Ranches resident's who spoke about an anti-tethering law supported creating an ordinance for our town, but some maniac from Hialeah crawled out from under a rock and started spouting the same words the ousted disgraced former councilman (who vehemently opposed and anti-tethering law, which I still believe contributed to his "removal" from the Town Council) spoke last year. Those words like PETA, terrorists, and activists, dangerous and for the most part touted the fact that animal sacrifices saved his pathetic life due to medical research. This fellow was scary to watch before he spoke. Before public comments, he paced the council chambers for an hour like a tethered dog in the hot sun, circling a dry water bowl. He muttered comments to himself and made remarks to other citizens with a sense of familiarity as if he was a well-known, life-long, close friend.

When his turn came up, he started with an unintelligible comment to all in earshot indicating some self-placating way he could be found via Google. He wasn't clear but there may have been some reference to a recent jailbreak and his name mentioned in the news as an escapee. He may have said it was a facility for the criminally insane. He referred to his name and Google many times in his ramblings. Your Gnome Google him by name and could not find any hits, even when paired with keywords like Hialeah, animal rights, anti-animal rights, even Chewpacabra and Elvis, but nothing. The most disquieting and worrisome concerns about this nut job were his theatrical tactics of using shock and awe! The citizens in attendance were remarkably silent for this whacko's tirade of non sequiturs (Al – that is an inference that does not follow from the premises; specifically: a fallacy resulting from a simple conversion of a universal affirmative proposition or from the transposition of a condition and its consequent or a statement (as a response) that does not follow logically from or is not clearly related to anything previously said.) while he kept turning to audience and aggressively scolding a non-existent heckler. As he concluded his "remarks", the pensive audience clapped apprehensively only to have this supporter of some unknown anti-tethering position shout "drop dead" as he left for his return trip to Hialeah. Fortunately, there was a uniformed officer in the room bearing a firearm.

I believe that he tried to convey a message to the Council that if they pass an anti-tethering ordinance, all biomedical research will stop, Orwell's Animal Farm will come true by Sunday, and dogs that spend their lives at the end of a six-foot length of chin will be fine.

Quick question for the Town Council and Sergeant at Arms. Can any non-resident yahoo get up at our Town Council meetings and speak during public comment time? Well this is still America, free speech and all that. I guess we have to let the non-violent nuts in too. Then, my follow-up question is "when is an appropriate time to TAZE these crazy bastards?"

If you want to see this cretin's circus act, watch Comcast Monday night, he may provide more laughs that Al Avello night last month.

Speaking of Al, he also graced the Council with his presence and wisdom. He was on hand to assure the Council that there were ways to insure the Town would not be held liable for golf cart incidents as the town attorney politely squirmed in his chair.

A final tip of my Gnome hat to Rae White. In one month, she has better organized the Education Committee than Al Avello did in the year he was at the helm. She spent her five minutes at the podium providing detailed information and excellent analysis about our educational situation. All Al ever did was plead for help on causes that were not though through and situation that moist in the room would not support. It amazing what the competent people of this town can do when motivated. It also fantastic to see what the Council can do by seeking out the right people, as Ms White Sets the example, to serve on it advisory boards.

Finally, the president of Sunshine Ranches HOA addressed the issue of the Town Clerk setting Town Hall policy and disposing of Sunshine Ranches Waggler. Her inappropriate action was mentioned in one of my earlier missives. Much of our town probably does not know that our Town Clerk has very strong personal ties with the family of our disgraced former town administrator John Canada. Many say she is still loyal to Canada. The scuttlebutt says that she continues to take her orders from Canada and she provides a conduit of information back to Canada and his close personal associate, our former Mayor. In espionage terms, she could be considered a spy for the enemy or at best a mole. Perhaps someone informed the Gnome why she remains on the interested.

In any case, after the SRHOA president made his appeal and another vocal SRHOA officer made a passionate appeal to the council, our Town Clerk called both residents outside for a side bar conference. Both followed her with puzzled looks and open minds. They returned shaking their heads with a look of disappointment. Time will tell on our Clerk, history has a long memory and I believe her history will be foreshortened because of her ongoing relationship with Canada and his associates. Lets hope she recognizes that if her relationship with Canada does prove inappropriate her credibility as a town administrator will be destroyed, she would be unemployable in the state of Florida in an official capacity and only career opportunity may be chief groundskeeper for Ronnie's Swamp!

Finally the Parks Board. Yes, it will be increased in number from 9 to 11, however, of the two new appointees; none of them is Lil Sayre. Therefore, this too gets a tip of my Gnome hat. I applaud that the Mayor recognized the fact that many Sunshine Ranches residents had a huge problem with Lil Sayre's name being considered as an appointee to the parks board. Many Sunshine Ranches resident signed a petition to keep Lil Sayre off the parks board due to her previous track record within the community of Sunshine Ranches. Unfortunately, Leslie Thiele has not had the decency to step away from the Comp Plan Board that she has disrupted with her shenanigans. She still has time, since the Board has not yet met, to do the right thing as Lil Sayre apparently has seen fit to do in her own right or through pressure and coercion by her neighbors.

The Mayor said he was "disgusted" that the petitioners would have the audacity to single someone out like that and that there was no place for that kind of thing here in the Town of Southwest Ranches. If I may comment here (and you all know I would), Mr. Mayor, I don't know what community you live in, but I do know it can't be Sunshine Ranches because Ms. Sayre wreaked so much havoc on that community that those residents who signed those petitions had every right to do so. Those residents watched 40K of the Sunshine Ranches Homeowners Association bank account get flushed away when Lil ran the show. Those residents were sued at the hand of Lil Sayre costing the Sunshine Ranches Homeowners Association 10K plus when Lil ran the show. Those residents were not permitted to write articles (censorship at its best) in their own monthly newsletter when Lil ran the show. Those residents have every right to say they don't want Lil Sayre involved in the decision making process for our town. Mr. Mayor, I'm sad that you are disgusted that the resident's of the community of Sunshine Ranches have no problem making their voices heard; but insofar as your comment that keeping someone out of a position within this town just because they are not liked has no place in this town, I beg to differ. This town does do that…they're called elections!





That's All Folks!!!