Q: How many Opa-locka city managers does it take to change a lightbulb?

A: One. But don’t expect any results.

That about sums up former-former-FIRED North Miami Beach/CURRENT Opa-locka city manager, Kelvin Baker’s resume. Fortunately, our City Council got rid of him years ago. Unfortunately, Opa-locka’s Commissioners got exactly what they deserve.

The latest news out of Kelvin Baker’s fiefdom does not bode well for his adopted city. As reported by the Miami Herald article, Liability claims haunt Opa-locka City Hall, “Since 2004, Opa-locka’s insurance company has paid more than $3 million in claims from people who said they were hurt from the negligence or wrongdoing of city employees.”

Needless to say, the company that insures Opa-locka, the Florida League of Cities, refused to renew its policy. The associate director for the company, Donald Lund, told the Herald, “They need to do a better job with some of their hiring and firing practices.”

Ya THINK?

For example, Opa-locka was home to inarguably the dirtiest cop in Florida, a state which the New York Times once ranked #1 in the highest number of convicted public officials. German Bosque’s only national competitor as America’s dirtiest cop might be AJ Ross, who was featured last July in a Veterans Today article entitled Tennessee Trooper Fail.

And yet, it took Bosque’s getting arrested last June for “kidnapping, battery and tampering with evidence,” as reported by CBS Miami, for the former Opa-locka Police Sergeant to convince his bosses that maybe, just maybe, this time he should stay fired.

Those charges don’t even include his previous termination for “letting his father-in-law handle his department-issued assault rifle,” as the Herald reported.

I guess the eighth time was the charm.

So, yeah, Opa-locka’s “hiring and firing practices” could probably use some improvement.

By far, Opa-locka’s biggest hiring mistake was the one they chose to run its city in the first place. If Opa-locka’s Commissioners thought they had problems before, they obviously had no clue what they bargained for when Kelvin Baker came to town. Not that they didn’t have fair warning before they hired him on July 3, 2012. As I chronicled in Mr. Baker Goes to Opa-locka:, during his tenure in North Miami Beach, Baker became infamous for:

1. Overseeing the largest employee heist in our city’s history to the tune of $2.6 million, which resulted in Baker’s employee Marty King’s extended vacation in the hoosegow (after Marty was given a three month paid vacation to stay home, courtesy of NMB taxpayers);

2. Accusing the city council and residents of racism for not believing his bullshit, and calling the NAACP to a budget meeting to amp up the intimidation factor;

3. Raping our water department’s reserves, which resulted in a downgrade of our credit standing with Fitch, in order to “balance” the budget; and

4. Accusing two council members of violating Sunshine Laws with no proof whatsoever.

Since he’s been in charge of running Opa-locka, he’s managed to continue his pattern of screwing things up royally. Under Baker’s reign, the short list includes such mishaps as:

The Commission’s failure to pass the 2013 budget, which was “in the red by $2.57 million.”
Baker hired, denied hiring, then announced the hiring of a couple of North’s Miami’s rejects, including former North Miami Police Commander Jeffrey Key as Opa-locka’s Chief of Police.
He enforced the city’s Code by telling residents to hide their tighty whities.
The city had to pay out a million bucks after four tourists were killed in a wrong-way crash on I-95 “by an Opa-locka officer who never should have been hired” (as Random Pixels so eloquently stated).

And now, this insurance fiasco.

Has Opa-locka had enough yet?

I doubt it.

As he did in North Miami Beach, Kelvin Baker will probably point the finger at someone else – most likely an elected official – for the city’s current problems.

If that doesn’t work, he’ll accuse someone of racism.

Unfortunately for Baker, those accusations probably won’t fly since four out of the five City Commissioners who hired him are also black. Unless he can somehow figure out how to blame the Hispanic.

Yeah, that might work.

Also unfortunately for Baker, the buck is supposed to stop with him.

According to Section 1.3 of Opa-locka’s Code of Ordinances, the city has a “commission-manager” form of government, and the City Manager’s job is to “execute the laws and administer the government of the city.”

In other words, everything – EVERYTHING – that happens in Opa-locka is Kelvin Baker’s responsibility.

If something goes wrong, it’s all his fault.