Exposed. Pre-election – Sandbag photo op. Post-election, in the middle of a major flood event? Where are the sandbags? We need a focus on the needs, not failed photo ops.

Where are the sandbags? Palmetto Bay is one of many areas suffering the huge rainfall of Tropical Storm Eta. 

We can now see the difference between services provide by elected officials pre-election versus post-election. Pre-election Palmetto Bay promoted FREE SAND DISTRIBUTION at Coral Reef Park on Friday, July 31, 2020. Please take the time to review the embedded announcement as well as the PRIOR RELATED POST of August 3, 2020, The Tropical Storm Isaias Bread & Circuses show - Palmetto Bay edition. A few sandbags do not provide our residents with what we need: affordable windstorm/flood insurance, our largest expense in homeownership.

Hopefully people will wake up to the empty diet of endless 'bread and circuses'. I will continue to challenge the ‘bread & circuses’ of Palmetto Bay, but even as people love promises, Emergency Operations are important. So compare the ‘services provided' pre-election when I called out these same actors on August 3rd, for providing a mere small truckload of sand for the “lucky residents” that drove up. Those participants received about $15 dollars of sand for their use ( and offset the actual tax increases this current mayor and village council enacted for this new budget year). Many argue that the July 31st event set a precedent in that people expect consistent performance. Why then, was it appropriate for Village Officials to hand out sandbags in July but not in November? Is the answer anything but election publicity?

The July 31 sand giveaway was an awesome event, right? ... No, it wasn't.

Similarly, the July 31st sandbag event was far from disaster planning at its best.  And please don't tell me that Tropical Storm ETA differs from Tropical Storm ISAIAS as Palmetto Officials enacted a Declaration of Emergency in anticipation of "Hurricane ETA" on November 8, 2020.

Planning? Note that Palmetto Bay Officials passed the Palmetto Bay Budget nearly two months following the great sand giveaway, in September, 2020 (with the aforementioned tax increases). Surely the Mayor included funding for future sand bag distribution in this budget, right? WRONG.  

I get it now, and so should readers. The lack of follow up post-election in November confirm my comments and fears stated August 3rd, that the campaign time event documents the waste of employee time in distributing these sandbags in this “voluntary giveaway”. Taxpayers should not be asked to fund an election season photo op.

The Florida Legislature will convene the 2021 legislative session in early 2020. Perhaps it is time to put the foolishness aside and enact a realistic legislative plan, don't ask for money with a record for being vetoed; money that will certainly be vetoed for the third consecutive year, but instead, work for:

• Affordable windstorm/flood insurance, our largest expense in home ownership. Instead elected officials offer a limit of 5 sandbags 'while supplies last.' (paid for by taxpayers). 
• Affordable car insurance, instead elected officials offer a few sandbags. 
• Proper funding for SFWMD to fix the drainage canal for flood control, instead elected officials offered us 5 sandbags to a household, again, while supplies last. (and have continually threated a lawsuit against the SFWMD, but none has been filed to date.)