Today the Miami Herald's Charles Rabin reminds us why the Miami-Dade Ethics Commission is such a joke.
The absence of “appearances of impropriety” in the enabling legislation is a loophole wide as a county commissioner’s smile.
Everyone is in, on the game.
We had tried to forget that the Ethics Commission, earlier this year, found no violation of ethics rules when Joe Martinez, Chair of the County Commission, received free work at his new mega-home in West Kendall from a member of the Latin Builders Association.
That, as he was steering amendments to move the county Urban Development Boundary supported by the Latin Builders Association.
The Ethics Commission has turned into another government program whose effect is exactly opposite of what was initially intended.
Affordable housing does not provide affordable housing.
Environmental protection does not protect the environment.
Planning does not plan.
What county commissioners do is react to what campaign contributors want, and then beautify the results, making it increasingly difficult—as the Herald points out—to learn what happened, when, and who was responsible.
(It makes us laugh to think that one of Governor Jeb Bush's main points of political philosophy is that power is better protected by local governance than by state authority.)
In truth, Joe Martinez and a majority of his commissioner parrots have made a better argument for a strong mayor in Miami-Dade county than Mayor Carlos Alvarez could make himself.
The strong mayor referendum will pass and commissioners know it. They've seen the polls. But here's a thought...
County commissioners might want to strengthen the ethics ordinance to ensure the enthusiasms of a new strong mayor are contained. Another way of looking at it: a neutered ethics commission made sense so long as there was no controlling authority messing with the fiefdoms commissioners created from public tax dollars.
Without strong ethics rules, a strong mayor could quickly make the thirteen members of the Parrot Jungle County Commission irrelevant. OMG.
And so the need for self-preservation might do more for ethics than the state attorney's office or inspector general or FBI sting. We'll see.
4 comments:
i like miami
FIU's Metropolitan Center found that 62 percent of surveyed voters supported the strong mayor form of government. The poll of 805 was conducted June 5-8 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent.
Gimleteye makes some valid points about the Miami-Dade Ethics Commission. They need real power and funding to successfully complete their mission. Like most agencies having anything to do with the law, they are woefully underfunded and understaffed.
Can you imagine if we have heard about the scandals we have heard of, how many go undetected and unreported in this town? Everyone seems to have an angle: cell phones in the Water Department, few affordable homes for millions, commissioners receiving sweetheart land deals and renovations, yet no one is really punished.
These are our tax dollars being wasted by people who have the public trust in their hands, yet neither the Ethics commission nor the State Attorney's Office can do much while our dollars are being ripped off by employees, fraudulant contractors, supervisors, gas thieves, you name it.
We have witnessed the rampant misuse of public funds and schemes over the years, yet where can CITIZENS turn for protection from our own government?
We have been promised Affordable Housing--and where is it? Wasted Millions is what we have gotten instead.
We have been promised controlled and reasonable growth, and where is it when developers are lining the campaign war chests of almost all the incumbent commissioners now that they can receive CORPORATE Donations again (big thanks to Sally Heyman)?
We expect a decent quality of life with public transportation accessible to all and adequate health care as well, but what we see is millions being offered to professional teams for stadiums and arenas instead.
Ultimately, the County's priorities seem out of whack. Many middle-income professionals are having difficulty staying in town because of the greed, graft, corruption and out of control real estate prices. Who is there to Defend the middle class? Who is there to defend the under employed who continue to be unrepresented at any level of government?
The Ethics Commission does need a new mission and a new budget item line to allow them the personnell to achieve that mission.
After all, we have seen how successful this manager, mayor, bureaudrats and commissioners have been at watching out for number one...and we aren't number ONE.
Truly Blue
Truly Blue asks:
"Who is there to Defend the middle class?"
Eye on Miami of course! The people speaking out on this blog, whether it is Gimleteye, myself, Truly Blue, or the many "Anonymous" WE ARE THE DEFENDERS IN WORDS. And words are powerful.
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