It’s bad enough that Opa-locka is thisclose  to losing its City Hall in foreclosure.

Even worse, the county just took control of the city’s water department.

But horror of horrors, the Governor’s appointed oversight board now wants to take away the Mayor’s car!

Oh, no!  Say it isn’t so!

Last week in Opa-locka mayor to oversight board: Show respect — and let me keep my car, the Miami Herald reported that on August 26, 2016 the Mayor sent a righteously indignant email to Melinda M. Miguel, the Chief Inspector General of the Governor’s Office.  Speaking of herself in the third person, and citing scripture to boot, the “Grand Dame” of Opa-locka reminded Ms. Miguel that it was the Mayor  who invited the board members in after the Mayor  allowed the Governor to “help” the City of Opa-locka with its pesky little financial difficulties.  But, this is the Mayor’s  house, and now they are taking advantage of her generous hospitality.

Myra Taylor is clearly appalled by the attitude of the the Governor’s appointees.  In her email, she insisted they were only supposed to list “our needs of help to bring our city up to financial stability” and nothing more.  She chastised them for overstepping their bounds by “exerting power that belongs to our City Commission!”

I mean, seriously!  How dare those outsiders tell these fine, upstanding elected officials how to run their own city?  The very nerve  of them!

The Mayor furiously continued to berate the oversight board over such shocking deeds as (1) asking for financial disclosure reports, (2) forcing the elected officials to sit in the audience while the oversight board “looks down” on them from their own dais, not allowing them to speak, and (3) “sending an person to ‘watch us’ from the inside.”

The Mayor has every right to be insulted!

After all, it’s not as if Opa-locka’s elected officials are criminals or anything!

Oh, wait.  THEY ARE!

Mayor Taylor certainly didn’t ask for the oversight board to take such “drastic measures.”  All she wanted from the Governor was “a low interest Bridge Loan with payback terms, to carry us to January 2017.”

After all, it’s not as if the city doesn’t repay its loans or anything!

Oh, wait.  IT DOESN’T!

And never mind that the city’s troubled water department deliberately failed to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars  from “preferred” businesses, including the private Vankara School, which owes $119,000.00 in unpaid water bills.

After all, it’s not as if that school belongs to the Mayor or anything!

Oh, wait.  IT DOES!

But, the biggest transgression, according to the Mayor, is that the oversight board wants to <GASP!> take away Her Majesty’s “city issued vehicle” of all things!

After all, it’s not as if the city isn’t in debt for more than $8 million dollars or anything!

Oh, wait.  IT IS!

Taylor further pointed out in her email that Opa-locka’s general fund will be depleted “at the end of this month October [huh?],” and that there will be no money left to make payroll.

But, just don’t take away her damn car, OKAY?

I don’t know about any of you, but I am completely floored by the stunning combination of stupidity and arrogance displayed by this Mayor!

How is it even possible that she’s this clueless?  Is she that ignorant to the fact that it was her own greed and irresponsible spending that caused Opa-locka’s financial crisis?

Even more ridiculous, how does this woman keep getting re-elected?

According to the Herald article, her critics “traced the city’s decline to Taylor’s re-election as mayor in 2010, when Opa-locka’s government last showed a budget surplus.”

Myra Taylor may have managed to escape arrest so far, but just earlier this week a second city official pleaded guilty to accepting bribes.

A press release issued Wednesday by U.S. Attorney Wilfredo A. Ferrer, announced that the now former Assistant Public Works Director Gregory Harris, along with “former Opa Locka City Manager David Chiverton, and others, to use their official positions and authority with the City of Opa Locka to solicit, demand, and obtain thousands of dollars in illegal cash payments from businesses and individuals in exchange for taking official actions to assist and benefit those businesses and individuals in their dealings with the City of Opa Locka.”

It’s probably only a matter of time before the feds get around to obtaining arrest warrants for Mayor Taylor and at least one or more of her colleagues, if they haven’t done so already.

In the meantime, Opa-locka’s troubles are far from over.

As noted in the Miami Herald’s most recent article, Steeped in scandal and debt, Opa-locka hands over water billing to county,  the city can’t even be trusted to run it’s own water department.  By taking over the utility, Miami-Dade County will be able to “protect its own financial interest” since it is owed “$4 million in overdue bills” by Opa-locka.

More importantly, the county “will serve as a watchdog of a department that had been riddled with illicit activities, including employees who shook down residents and business owners for cash in exchange for water services.”

Water plants are usually great sources of revenue for municipalities.  But because of all the rampant corruption, Opa-locka’s utility managed to lose “an average of $1.7 million annually over the past three years,” according to the Herald.

Not so coincidentally, those devastating losses began less than a year after the former (and fired) North Miami Beach City Manager Kelvin Baker was hired by the Opa-locka Mayor and Commission.

As I’ve already mentioned a time or two, and as recently as last month, “no one should be shocked that such rampant corruption took place under Kelvin Baker’s watch.”

By the same token, no one should be surprised if an arrest warrant is in his future.

Just saying.

The real losers here are the city’s residents and business owners, who have been bilked out of millions of of their tax dollars over the years.

Unfortunately, until the voters of Opa-locka realize that elections have consequences, nothing will ever change.

Stephanie