The new Miami Herald reporter, Paradise Afshar, posted her article this morning about the latest chapter of crazy being committed by former North Miami Beach mayor Myron Rosner.  As I’ve reported here on VotersOpinion in several blogs, Myron has been on a rampage in the last month or so on a mission to get even with the world at large.

It started with his showing up at Council meetings, at first babbling incoherently about how he’s back after being ill, then warning residents that he’s going to enforce the code for the entire city, working his way up to trying to get the Deputy Director of Community Development, Chris Heid, fired.  I’d say Myron’s “illness” is more than apparent.

The article, Former North Miami Beach mayor behind dozens of code ‘violation’ letters, tells the twisted tale of Myron’s “neighborhood group” that has “sent out dozens of letters to residents claiming to warn them that their homes have code violations.”  In the immortal words of The Blues Brothers’ Elwood Blues, Myron is on a “Mission from God.”

Myron told the reporter that Chris Heid issued “immoral” permits.  Okaaaay.  Nurse Rached, are you watching this?

He also told the reporter, “I started with people who complained and who spoke up against [me].”  Myron is obviously unclear on the concept that citizens are allowed to criticize their government, including the people who run it.  The fact that Myron can’t take the heat is just further proof that he’s unfit for elected office.

Myron also told her that “his group has been conducting public record researches on violators” and that there are “three members of the group.”  Seriously?  Myron has THREE MEMBERS?  THREE?  Is he talking about his “package” again?  That’s just wrong!

The truth is that Myron’s in hot water because did all kinds of illegal construction, including a swimming pool built to the property line, adding an entire room to his house while pretending it was a “patio enclosure,” illegally wiring a shed for electricity, installing an illegal second driveway which covered a septic tank that wasn’t built for vehicles to be driven on, and more.  He claims the city “never told him specifically to get additional permits.”  The truth is that he was supposed to apply for variances for most of these items, which at the time could have cost him up to ten thousand dollars per variance.  I have copies of Myron’s building plans and permits.  Clearly written on those documents are notes in the margin made by the former building official, stating which of his projects will require a variance application.  Myron likes to flash his original, unmarked documents that he presented to the city BEFORE they were reviewed by the building department, and then has the chutzpah to claim that he never saw the marked up copies with the variance requirements spelled out.  How convenient, eh?

Here’s the thing.  Well, actually two things.

First of all, Myron is a Licensed Contractor.  Okay, stop laughing.  As a Licensed Contractor, it’s his job to understand the construction business, including permits and variances.  Construction not only includes building stuff, but it also means that the person who builds the stuff is supposed to make it his business to know the building code.  A Licensed Contractor is also supposed to make sure that the stuff he builds complies with that building code.  While not actually rocket science, you have to have working brain cells to be able to do this type of job.

We all know that Myron is no rocket scientist, but for him to claim that he had no freaking idea what the building code required is laughable.  For him to claim that he had no idea his projects required variances, is nothing short of disingenuous.  Myron knew very well his construction projects encroached on easements, and he knew very well that easements are not to be encroached without asking for and receiving a variance.

Which brings me to the second thing.

The ONLY way Myron could possibly have been issued permits without the proper variances is if he used his position as an elected official to bully those people in charge of approving permits.  DUH!  That’s also not rocket science.

Hence the complaint that was filed with the Ethics Commission.  Myron managed to delay that hearing for about three years by switching attorneys and obtaining continuance after continuance, racking up over a hundred thousand dollars of legal fees (which costs he has already attempted to extort from the city), while claiming that all he owed was a $500.00 fine to the city.

Folks, is that even remotely rational?  I mean, if all his violations only amounted to a lousy $500.00, why the hell would he spend six figures to avoid paying it?  It just does not make sense.  The truth is that he would have had to pay nearly that amount to obtain the variances in the first place.  The bigger problem for Myron is that he dug himself a hole so deep (aside from the illegal septic tank hole in his front yard), that if he actually did the right thing by obtaining the variances now, he’d have to admit that he was wrong to begin with.  He will obviously go to any length to avoid taking responsibility for himself.  It’s easier to blame everyone else.  He obviously gets some sort of sick satisfaction thinking everyone else is out to get him.  Yeah, he’s one sick puppy.

As the Herald article states, Myron’s Ethics Commission trial misfired after years of delays because of the five voting members, one of them decided at the last minute to abstain from voting because “he had served with Rosner on the Miami-Dade League of Cities.”  Kerry Rosenthal, who was the former head of the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust, probably knew very well that he wasn’t going to vote, yet he allowed the sham of a trial to continue until the end when the final decision was made by four instead of five votes with no tie breaker.  Which is exactly what happened.

Coincidentally, and I’m sure this has absolutely nothing to do with anything, Kerry Rosenthal’s father just happens to be an attorney by the name of Alan Rosenthal, who appears to represent pretty much every developer that comes before the City of North Miami Beach asking for approval for their projects.  But, of course, that would have absolutely no bearing on the fact that Kerry Rosenthal recused himself from voting against the former mayor of North Miami Beach.  None whatsoever.  This is just a very random thought that just popped into my head out of nowhere.  I’m just saying.

As I told Rhonda Sibilia of the Ethics Commission, this last minute abstention was unconscionable and should never have happened.  If Mr. Rosenthal knew he was going to abstain, he had a responsibility to ask the commission to appoint an alternate BEFORE they deliberated.  A voting body should always have an odd number of people so that a tie could always be broken, if necessary.  Ms. Sibilia’s response was something along the lines of “we didn’t think of that.”  DUH!  Again, not rocket science.  Chalk that one up to Stupid Government Tricks.

In any event, Myron was not “acquitted” of anything.  As I reported in Deadlocked, the case ended in a “no decision.”  According to Ms. Sibilia, he was not exonerated.  He may not have been found guilty by enough of a vote, but he wasn’t found not guilty, either.  In other words, it was three years of time and taxpayer money flushed down the toilet.

You might be thinking by now that all of this is old news.  Yesterday’s headlines.  That it is.

But not for Myron.  He’s still out for blood.  And he aims to take down every last one of his enemies, real and imagined.

If you happen to be one of the MAJORITY who voted against him last May, you are most likely on his hit list.

Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”