We don't know what to think about Michael Lewis, long-time publisher of the conservative Miami Today, where businesses flock to read about progress and growth and visionary leadership.
For this reason, we read it infrequently. We fundamentally disagree with news that reads like a Chamber of Commerce press release.
Nevertheless, we are always impressed with the publisher's tight-rope performance on the editorial page. We suspect that Mr. Lewis, like us wants the Miami-Dade county cesspit to be pumped out and doused with lime.
(Would some please just put the Miami Dade Ethics Commission down ... if county commissioners won't tighten its charter, and they won't, the fairest thing to do would be to put the Ethics Commission out of its misery.)
Like his brethren at the Miami Herald, Mr. Lewis is ever careful to nudge but never push or poke the powerful who advertise in his paper and are mostly responsible for the mess of Miami--as described for a national audience in the recent edition of Time Magazine.
No doubt, Mr. Lewis would cite the fiscal necessities of running a newspaper as a main reason for editorial caution. It is a business-friendly world after all.
But Mr. Lewis shares our disgust with the county commission--which we have nicknamed astringently: the Parrot Jungle County Commission.
In a recent editorial, Mr. Lewis lambasts the county commission for one delay after another, at taxpayer expense, of the vote for a strong mayor.
In its pervasive incompetence, corruption, and mismanagement of the public health and welfare of Miami Dade county-- Florida's largest county-- a parrot-like majority the thirteen commissioners have made a better argument for a strong mayor than Mayor Carlos Alvarez could ever make himself. On this, we agree.
But we disagree that a strong mayor will only further politicize county departments.
In reality, the pressure on county departments right now, under the supposedly "professionalized" selection of county department heads, could scarcely be more extreme.
The influence of lobbyists on behalf of meddling county commissioners-- the worst of whom is Natacha Seijas-- has created a pervasive climate of fear, especially among agencies and staffers charged with regulatory responsibilities. That is how commissioners like Seijas want it.
Mr. Lewis does not begin to understand how destablized county departments are today.
The problems didn't begin with the current county manager, George Burgess. Not at all. Steve Shiver, former Mayor of Homestead, county manager, and now a lobbyist for developers, can claim that responsibility. What Shiver proved to county department heads was that all local government is political.
Miami's mainstream media executives, like Mr. Lewis and executives at the Herald, imagine they are part of a delicate balancing act with big law firms, big developers, and the public interest.
But the balance to which they are committed is a construct imposed by a wealthy, insulated elite.
In this behavior, we are reminded of Jared Diamond's excellent book, "Collapse: how societies choose to fail or succeed" and evidence that a repetitive pattern of failure is the presence of an elite insulated from criticism and unwilling to adapt.
Miami Today reinforces that pattern, along with its companions at One Herald Plaza soon to be another condo in the sky.
2 comments:
Michael Lewis isn't always wrong - for instance:
Nov. 23
"While government leadership is iffy at best...:
Nov. 16
"A broker in our pages last week blamed the media for the residential real estate slide. And a developer wrote to us that press warnings of a condo bust had killed the market here and driven him out of it.
Folks, don't shoot the messenger.
The press didn't build tens of thousands of condos, then contract with speculators who now are stuck with units — or might never close."
Nov. 9th
"That deadly double-barreled shotgun at their backs — recall and a strong mayor — is forcing commissioners to meet a legal requirement that we review the charter every five years. It's been more than five since the last review.
But set aside the impetus. The output could vastly improve the way this county operates — if done properly.
The county attorney's office is to give commissioners a framework for a review. That office undoubtedly will suggest rules that make commissioners happy. But while that may meet the law, that's not the purpose of a charter review.
As they select a process, commissioners should remember that this is the people's charter. It is aimed to benefit the whole county. Therefore, ground rules should not tilt toward retaining and enhancing commission power and status but toward making Miami-Dade a better place to live, to work and to do business."
from gimleteye
Points noted. Thanks.
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