A press release just crossed my desk — yes I do sit here at a desk (albeit unprofessionally in my pajamas). A PAC called “Eight is Enough” was formed last week to put a very important question before the good people of the County: Whether voters want to impose term limits on their dysfunctional County Commission.
What a splendid idea!
Ed Ludovici, Chairman of “Eight is Enough” said: "Unfortunately, the incumbent commissioners have an ever increasing stranglehold on elections making it all but impossible for credible challengers to win.” Ed is right. The last time a sitting Commissioner was unseated was in 1994. The only way we seem to unseat any of them is when they get arrested (Alonso, Kaplan, etc.).
I would rather throw most of the duds out now, but that will never fly. Too bad.
We have one commissioner verging on dementia — he often rambles on incoherently and gets shriller until he gets to the democracy section of his speech. He always closes with something about democracy (even if he is talking about a school lunch program). When he gets started on one of these monologues most of the other Commissioners chat with each other or leave the dais. So the 2 terms the PAC is proposing – eight years - at least will get this commissioner home with his family where he belongs. He might stay on until he dies otherwise.
The Eight is Enough group has to go that tedious, expensive citizens petition drive route. It is the only way because you know the self-serving commissioners wouldn’t put term limits on the ballot for us. Most City Commissioners and Mayors are term limited including the City of Miami, North Miami and Miami Beach. What do you think readers: Limits or not?
P.S. Just saw a funny post by Francisco Alvarado Cup and Joe on the New Times Blog: I guess I might as well 'out' the Commissioner I have been referring to today, via a quote from Francisco's Blog on the Strong Mayor vote:
"Consider the following gem from the county commission meeting this past Tuesday, provided by Miami-Dade’s favorite rambling man, Javier Souto: 'So all these euphemisms of strong, weak, quasi-weak, super strong. What are we talking about here? Are we talking about coffee?! Super strong coffee?!'
Yes commissioner, its called the (mayor) Carlos Alvarez cortadito.”
Thanks Francisco for making me laugh. Readers should note: We both used the word "Ramble" when referring to Souto.
12 comments:
Truly Blue
As for "Eight is Enough" I strongly disagree with term limits as a solution for removing "bad" legislators from office. What these sorts of limits do is further empower lobbyists and bureacrats to run our government. Neither of whom is responisble to constituents in any was shape or form.
Who argues these days that our state legislature is better than it has ever been thanks to term limits? Have you ever heard anyone say, wow we sure have a great state legislature? Yeah, they make things happen!
Schools are great (49th out of fifty states), access to good health care is wonderful (41st out of 50 states), and our water situations is great thanks to the legislative planning over the past few years. [none of these statements is true...and they won't come true because 8 year term limits limit a legislator's ability to have long range planning as part of their agenda]
Come on now, just look at the caliber of people who have presented themselves for office since term limits became the law of the land in the state of Florida?
Is our current group of Representatives and Senators from the Miami-Dade Delegation better than in years past? At least previous elected officials had real life and professional experience before presenting themselves for office. At least most earlier legislators carried themselves professionally in public and private.
Before term-limits, partisanship wasn't as rampant in Tallahassee either. Legislators had a familiarity with each other, respected each other and negotiated well with each other regardless of party affiliation.
I am a firm believer that the best way to insure fair elections is to seek REAL campaign finance reform. Limit Campaign Contributions to $250 per person and remove corporate donations from the mix. Limiting donations makes it more likely that qualified candidates have a real chance to present their platform, while not being financially overwhelmed by incumbents.
It is financial advantage, in my opinion, that guarantees that most incumbents win.
Our community must realize that if we pay commissioners a real salary, better qualified candidates will present themselves for office. Who wants to give up successful careers to earn $6000 per year and a few perks? It just doesn't make any sense.
As community activists, concerned citizens, environmentalists, whoever we are--it is imperative that we recruit and train good candidates for office. We become part of the problem if we don't recruit talented people to present themselves for election and run serious grassroots campaigns.
Placing ones name on the ballot doesn't guarantee that a candidate will win. It does, however, guarantee that someone will collect more votes than if he/she wasn't on the ballot. Good people must run for office if we want good elected officials.
Ask good people you know to consider running for office. We can make a difference at every level of government if we recruit good people to run for everything from city commission, community council, county commission to congress.
And finally, publicly finance campaigns too. I know this group of commissioners gutted Public Financing of campaigns in December of 2005, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't organize again and do the right thing. When campaigns the size of our county commission races are publicly funded, better people present themselves for consideration.
GOOD CHALLENGERS CAN WIN
Twelve years ago, Katy Sorenson and her band of PTA/Soccer mom's ran a great grassroots campaign, beating a long-time entrenched incumbent. She was outspent 10-1 in the primary and 5-1 in the run-off, but the good people of District 8 knew it was time for a change.
A few years before that almost all the county commissioners were defeated as voters became dissatisfied with their local county commission.
Throwing the bums out is absolutely possible.
Don't do it by limiting the time people serve, or you will be term-limiting out the good ones too.
Some municipalities have term limits, but that doesn't mean they have better government. It just means they have more turnover and less institutional knowledge on the dais.
Don't sign the petition for term limits just yet. It isn't the best solution to our problems in government.
And as for the caliber of commissioners in office right now, those commissioners must be doing something right in their districts to keep getting re-elected.
Perhaps the problem is the type of seats that exist, promoting parochialism instead of cooperation. Perhaps the type of government our county has is the problem.
Earlier versions of the "district" model also included a few super district commissioners. Perhaps we just need to be more creative all around.
Until then, RECRUIT, RECRUIT, RECRUIT!
Points well taken! But how do you get campaign finance reform when every single effort is one step forward and two steps back, because incumbency is so powerful? I mean, even the couny commission blew a hole big enough to drive a big Mack filled with cash through, in its campaign finance "reform".
And we would all benefit from curtailing the election season and requiring that any media which requires a public license must provide air time at a greatly reduced fee.
This spectacle of spending hundreds of millions to watch 20 second spots saying the same thing over and over again is an insult to the founding fathers of our democracy!
In a perfect world illimited terms might work. The problem is what M-D County is experiencing now -a group of dictators that feel they are entitled to rule us "for life" and any person that dares to challenge any of them instantly becomes their enemy. The senile member of the BCC calls his former challenger a criminal, left-wing Castro follower, a bad Cuban, etc. etc. with no consequences for slandering people from the dais. Where is the Ethics Commission? Finding excuses not to act against those demented actions. The BCC has "rules of decorum" when conducting their public hearings, but they only apply to the citizens -the "untouchable" commissioners spit venom with their sharp tongues and are out of control.
I'm for term limits and when the BCC approve this, the citizens will gladly increase their salaries subject to serving ONLY as commissioners without any outside employment or gifts from "friends" whose projects are also approved by the BCC.
Genius of Despair said...
This thread is wonderful, of course I disagree with Truly Blue. I agree with Anonymous 1, when the county commission all but gutted what campaign financing we did have -- that was it. They had their chance.
I guess we all know now who the demented one on the Commission is -- Anonymous 2 surely knows. That is a good point, why doesn't the Ethics Commission look into this commissioners behavior Anonymous 2? Maybe because the Ethics Commission is useless (see previous posts by entering "Ethics" in our search at top). I have heard this borderline senile Commissioner many time lump together all Anglos who took the time to address the commission as "elitists", not representative of the "real" community. He doesn’t use the word “elitist”, I think the buzz words he uses is rich people living near the coast. “Coastal Dwellers” I like it. I digress (like he always does), I agree he is divisive in his rambling as our reader, Anonymous 2 pointed out. Ick to him. Should I out him by name? Gimleteye, what do you think?
May I suggest that instead of anonymous gentle readers, that you think up a name for yourself like "truly blue" did so we get some personality into reposts. Just a suggestion.
Truly Blue you said...
" I am a firm believer that the best way to insure fair elections is to seek REAL campaign finance reform. Limit Campaign Contributions to $250 per person and remove corporate donations from the mix."
WE HAD THIS TRULY BLUE. THE COMMISSION CHANGED IT BACK TO $500 AND CORPORATE ALLOWED, LATE LAST YEAR -- BEFORE THEIR ELECTIONS. WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY TO THAT?
Eight years is more than enough.
Hard to believe some of the stupid things coming out of these commissioners mouths.
Truly Blue
The point of Democracy is that people participate. I realize that we had campaign contributions limits at $250 and no corporate donations and that this commission gutted it, with Katy Sorenson voting against the change.
We citizens must protest and hold the commission accountable. Where were we when this vote occured? We were no where.
The commissioners [elected officials at every level] must understand that there is a price to pay for irresponsible voting records and poor representation.
There were capable challengers this election cycle who started a little too late and were a little too disorganized. Imagine if they had started earlier and had been better funded and better organized.
I have no doubt that Phillip Brutus would be a better county commissioner than Dorrin Rolle. But where were the reformers in this community to support him with dollars and volunteer hours to make it happen? Rolle ran a better campaign, plain and simple. Of course he had the huge advantage in money. But upsets don't happen without hard work.
Again, remember Katy Sorenson's victory twelve years ago, or Charles Dusseaus before that. Even Miguel Diaz de la Portilla was a reformer when he was first elected, and look how hard he worked to win.
The electoral process works with increased participation, not less. Incumbents get thrown out of office when voters get upset enough to vote the bums out. That is what we need--to be upset enough and organized enough to vote the bums out.
Don't wait to organize in a year if you want to challenge an incumbent. Get ready now.
Citizens can reform the process if we chose to--my point remains: do we reform the process by organizing or by critizing and staying in the background?
I have a friend that criticized her local commissioner once too often. When she was challenged to quit her bitchin and run, she did. She won. Though she was outspent 6 to 1 and challenged a long time incumbent in Coral Gables, she became a commissioner and more recently its vice-mayor. That is what courageous activists like Vice-Mayor Maria Anderson have won. She picked the right race at the right time and ran hard. That is a huge accomplishment. One that many other can achieve with the right timing and effort.
Today, I challenge all you anonymous authors and "genius of despair" to quit your bitchin and RECRUIT great candidates for office. One day, you might be happy you did convince them to run and support their reform minded agendas.
Nothing in Democracy comes to us for free. We must think harder, longer and better than our challengers and make more cogent arguments to convince those we need to win to our side to get these reforms passed.
Do it today. Participate. And again, I say...no to term limits and yes to reform. Hold elected officials today and everyday.
Track their votes and inform them when they have done badly. Find people in their district who are like-minded and organize.
Happy Sunday Democracy!
Shorter comments please. There is a button I can push somewhere to limit length of comments but I would prefer we do it by asking.
There is no way that we will ever get rid of a sitting Commissioner, unless of course they are arrested. Ludovici was almost right but when Katy Sorenson defeated Larry Hawkins, it was because he had been accussed of inappropriate sexual behavior. I can not think of the last time a sitting Comissioner was not re-elected. The only way they leave is to be arrested or decide not to run for re-election. The time has come for Term Limits, I for one will be voting for it. If it is good enough for the President, Governor and the Mayor, it is good enough for the County Commission.
And speaking of Souto, ever since Millie Herrera ran against him this past summer - the first time anyone DARED to oppose him since he was elected to the commission 13 years ago - he also rambles on about "that woman" the communist, left wing terrorist, liberal, and similar droolings. He can't get over the fact that someone opposed him. I guess he forgets what country he's living in.
Eight years is enough. Term limits save us from our own stupid mistakes when we elect idiots to represent us. It would be nice if we could also change the US Constitution to impose term limits on our Congress members!
We need term limits. 8 years should be plenty. Commissioners make $49,000 to $60,000 per year from the County and whatever they can steal. Sad.
I agree the next crusade should be term limits. If you want to sign up for that: write to me with your contact info:
geniusofdespair@yahoo.com
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