After more than two years of stalling, former North Miami Beach mayor Myron Rosner is FINALLY going to answer to the charges of abusing his power.  A hearing before the Miami-Dade County Commission on Ethics and Public Trust was held last Thursday, September 22, 2011.  I have the video and, boy, was it ever entertaining!

The Commission’s published Agenda for this hearing (http://www.coemiamitest.net/ArchivedMeetingAgendasSummaries/september_11_summary.pdf), stated the following:

In other action today, the COE confirmed that a hearing on complaints against former North Miami Beach Mayor Myron Rosner charging exploitation of official position will begin at 9 a.m. on Thursday, September 22, 2011, in room 820, 19 W. Flagler St. The complaints (C 09-02 & C 09-04) allege that Rosner, who was a licensed building contractor and a member of the Miami-Dade County Board of Rules and Appeals, proposed and completed several additions to his private home that required zoning variances. But, while a member of the City Council, Rosner discussed his displeasure about the variance process with the city manager at the time, who allegedly told his staff to resolve the issue. Building permits were issued for the improvements that included expansion of the residence, several awnings, a swimming pool, patios and a driveway, screening and electrical wiring, in violation of the city code.

Let’s break this down very simply:

• Myron decided to make certain “improvements” to his personal residence while he was a councilman.
• These “improvements,” which included additions to his home, required that he obtain zoning variances and permits from the City of North Miami Beach.
• Myron was “displeased” that he had to comply with the rules.
• Myron complained to the then City Manager Gary Brown that the rules shouldn’t apply to him.
• Myron alleges that Mr. Brown “told his staff to resolve the issue.”

Well, it certainly doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see where this is going, does it?  The way I see it, Myron doesn’t like rules, unless they only apply to someone else.  Just because a silly little ORDINANCE is on the city’s books, which is the equivalent of a municipality’s LAW, that doesn’t mean Myron has to comply.  Those ridiculous ordinances are in place for us mere residents to abide by, but certainly not Myron!  He actually believes he is above the law.  We already saw him do this with the now infamous “Happy Holiday” bus benches, which everyone knew were really Pre-Campaign Campaign Signs in disguise.  He then completely disregarded the campaign related ordinance regarding the number of signs allowed within the city when he miraculously turned those fake “Happy Holiday” bus benches into Official Campaign Signs.  Myron then somehow escaped paying any fines for violating the sign ordinance, which is a real mystery in and of itself.  Considering that he got away with doing all these illegal things without any consequence, it only stands to reason that he’d come up with some sort of twisted defense to clear himself of the ethics violation charges.  He’s gonna need more than a Street Furniture defense on this one.  But, leave it to the old conniving, dastardly dirtbag, you just know he had to have something up his sleeve.

Right out of the box, Myron played the sympathy card by claiming he only wanted to make his home more “livable” for himself because he was disabled.  Prompted by his high priced, high powered attorney, Kendall Coffey, he went into his tale of woe about his construction accident and that he went to Israel for an experimental surgery, complete with crocodile tears for dramatic emphasis.  Ethics Commission Attorney Mike Murawski tried to put a stop to the staged scene by asking that Myron’s “elaborate explanation” be halted since “his soliloquy is not responsive to [his] questions,” but Mr. Coffey immediately jumped up to state that Mr. Murawski was insensitive, that the questions were “drop kicked” (huh?), and asked that he “refrain from any comments that are dismissive or a denigration of Mr. Rosner’s disability.”  Earning your generous salary, eh, Mr. Coffey?  Nevertheless, Myron sensed that his sympathy card ploy was working on the Commission so he plodded on.

Can anyone please tell me how this has anything at all to do with his alleged abuse of power?  This ploy might work on unsuspecting people who have no idea what a dirty rotten scoundrel Myron has always been – disability or not.  But, for those of us who have been on the receiving end of Myron’s abuse, either as a resident or an employee, we are not fooled one bit.

During his “emotional” crying jag, Myron added that he needed the “accommodation” of an awning, which clearly violated setback rules, to cover his thirty thousand dollar wheelchair, which he conveniently forgot to mention was taxpayer funded.  Myron also said that he told Planning & Zoning official Chris Heid that if he had to go for a variance he wouldn’t build the awning  AHA!  He actually knew a variance was needed, but he somehow built it anyway.  Gee, isn’t that something?

True to form, Myron could not or would not answer most of the questions asked of him by the Commission Attorney Mike Murawski.  He had frequent convenient memory lapses when it came to details of conversations he had with former City Manager Gary Brown, as well as former Code Department head Tom Vageline and, of course, Chris Heid.  Myron swore that rejections for permit applications he received were somehow magically approved a short time later.  He had absolutely no idea how that happened!

Myron also blamed the City of North Miami Beach for EVERYTHING by stating that the city “issued THOUSANDS of permits for things that were not code compliant.”  Thousands?  Really, Myron!  Thousands?  You mean we’re all just a bunch of law breaking criminals?  Of course, he had absolutely no proof to back up such an outrageous statement.  That didn’t stop him from saying it.

In addition to accusing every resident in North Miami Beach of being guilty of code violations, Myron’s defense also included throwing current and former employees the bus.  Well, isn’t that special?

By sheer coincidence, former city manager Gary Brown resigned sometime after Myron’s bullying him to fix his variance problem.  By yet another sheer coincidence, the next city manager, Keven Klopp, was fired by Public Humiliation engineered by none other than Myron.  At the time, I thought it was mere jealousy because Keven was good looking, respectful and respected, and intelligent – all the things that Myron isn’t.  I’ve since learned that it was because Keven refused to be bullied into submission by Myron, and Myron saw Keven as the only roadblock to his unquenchable thirst for power and his upcoming bid for the mayor’s seat.  Unfortunately, this little scheme cooked up by Myron worked.  Fortunately, the gig only lasted one term.  In two short years, Myron earned the dubious distinction of becoming the most hated mayor in the history of the City of North Miami Beach.

The truth is that if Mr. Brown “told his staff to resolve the issue,” as Myron alleges, he would have clearly violated North Miami Beach zoning ordinances by not following proper procedure.  The city manager cannot merely direct “staff to resolve the issue.”  Even an incompetent council member like Myron had to have known the proper procedure.  Ordinance changes MUST be voted on by the council!  If his proposed construction didn’t meet building code, he should have applied to the Planning and Zoning Department for a variance.  The P&Z Department then would have either recommended that Myron’s petition either be approved or denied, at which time the petition would have to be brought before the Planning and Zoning Board for its recommendation.  Once the P&Z Board considered the petition, it would then have brought the issue before the city council for a vote.  None of these things EVER went before the council!

But by far the most despicable thing about Myron’s “defense” is the fact that he is a LICENSED GENERAL CONTRACTOR.  If anyone should have known the procedure and the rules it’s Myron!  If he really doesn’t know what he should have done, I pity the poor schmuck who hires him for construction work.

Myron’s “defense” that he “discussed his displeasure about the variance process with the city manager,” and actually expected Mr. Brown to circumvent the law, is completely outrageous.  I suppose I could use that same “defense” if I got a ticket for driving 50 in a 30 mile per hour zone and tell the Judge that I have “displeasure with speed limits.”  Yeah, that should work!

Myron’s allegation that the city manager “told his staff to resolve the issue” is his way absolving himself of any wrongdoing and passing the blame onto someone else.

Gee, that sure sounds familiar.  Where have we heard that one before?  Oh, wait.  I know!  When Myron suffered his humiliating loss to newcomer George Vallejo in his bid for re-election, he blamed everyone else but himself.  In fact, he’s STILL doing it!  As unbelievable as it may sound, Myron is deaf, dumb and blind to the fact that he lost the election because not enough suckers voted for him.  DUH!

His trial before the Commission on Ethics is supposed to be scheduled for the sometime in the next couple of weeks.  As soon as I find out any more information, I will keep you posted.  Stay tuned…

Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”