Miami Dade Politics 101 by gimleteye

The Miami Dade county commission is comprised of “venal fiefdoms”. Feudal times may be tough for some to square with Miami’s modern skyline. But anyone who has tried to breach the impregnable walls of county government knows that indeed, we do live in feudal times.

Here is a primer on how it happened and why, in the end, an executive mayor form of government is a change essential to secure a hopeful future.

One characteristic of a feudal form of government is the permanent incumbency. It is very rare when a rotation of a county commission seat is made without the guidance of a king or queen-maker who represents the incumbency.

The purpose of those king or queen-makers is to ensure that campaign contributions from OUTSIDE the district are channeled to preserve the status quo.

This logic underpins the single member district system of governance because the cost of running a county commission race is so high (and ever increasing): $250K to $500K per district. You can't get to that number in our feudal society with $25 or $50 dollar contributions. You can't give a pastellito. You have to provide the whole pastry factory.

That is why campaign contributions are organized by industry: by builders and developers, rock miners, lobbyists and big law firms that represent them. These would be the Knights of the Roundtable (who, we add, Miami Herald executives hob-nob with...)

The fragmentation inherent in thirteen member districts serves big campaign contributors’ goals very well: other than special interests dialed into the $6.9 billion budget for the county, no citizen groups can approach the sophistication it takes to coordinate around an effort to change a majority, or for that matter, a supermajority.

One or two county commissioners might break through, but that's it. They are tolerated by the Knights of the Roundtable: it is good for public morale to have a Katy Sorenson. It is good for an individual conscience or two.

From the inside, each county commissioner district has a multi-hundred thousand dollar office budget that can be and is distributed to “non-profits” that act as political anchors within their districts to secure a base. The base energizes political volunteers and provides a network through which county commissioners can supplement their meager salaries, working for non-existent housing agencies, or, no-show jobs at the YMCA.

The net effect has a further consequence: each commissioner completely controls the policies in their districts. There is a code of conduct for commissioners not to intrude on other’s turf—you hear it repeatedly from the dais—but the organizing principle is NOT WHAT IS BEST for Miami Dade county, and certainly not under the principle that individual decisions by each district commissioner cumulatively make decisions that add up to the best public policies.

No, no, no.

The glue that holds this all together is the unspoken agreement, awareness and knowledge that incumbency depends on campaign contributions FROM OUTSIDE INDIVIDUAL DISTRICTS. Every commissioner is in the same rowing boat: the oars are bought and paid for by the Knights of the Roundtable.

Make sense so far?

To get along, you have to go along. Put another way, you can make decisions for your own district but you have to vote the same way as the campaign contributors want, if you want to stay in office.

It so happens, it is very clear what the Knights of the Roundtable want: just look down through a commercial jet window when you are leaving Miami International Airport: every square inch that is not paved or used for a rock mine to make pavement will be paved.

This is the goal of the feudal system and this is how the feudal system of district commissioners is enforced.

Those outside interests (developers, lobbyists, etc.) control the overall agenda of the county while allowing commissioners to dole out special interest money within single districts in exchange for getting their way on countywide policy.

This is why, in theory of this historic context, today's county commission makes the best argument for a strong mayor.

Some worry that an equally evil form of feudal government will arise under an executive mayor.

None of these special interests are in favor of changing the paradigm because it involves risks that their status/opportunity/standing could change in the process.

But for people who need affordable housing and have gotten shafted for more than a decade, for people who want relief from traffic, pollution, bad parks and a declining quality of life—there is nothing to lose from changing the structure of government in Miami Dade county today.

This is not a case of the devil you know being better than the devil you don’t.

It is time for change.