Monday, February 05, 2007

It is because of Developers like Pedro Adrian that I support term limits. by Geniusofdespair

I like to see who contributes near the end of a campaign.

When Rolle was running for reelection, at the end of his campaign, he received many donations from addresses 4000 Ponce De Leon and 2450 SW 137th Avenue. Pedro Adrian’s companies use both those addresses.

Rolle got 7 $500 donations from 4000 Ponce de Leon and 3 $500 donations from 2450 SW 137 Avenue. That is $5,000.

Sally Heyman, at the end of her campaign, got $2,000 from the 4000 Ponce de Leon address and $3,000 from the 2450 SW 137 Avenue Address. Again: $5,000.

The legal limit for donations is $500. However, if you are a person with 50 or 100 corporations, you could legally given 50 or 100 $500 donations. Yes you could give $50,000 or more to one Commission campaign.

This is why we need term limits for the county commission. If developers insist on skirting the system, taking advantage of self-serving legislation like this, we have to do something. There was a law prohibiting Corporations from giving in the County. The current Commission UNDID that law in 2006.

When Pedro Arian goes to Commissioner Rolle’s office or Sally Heyman’s office, I suspect they will roll out the red carpet for him. A developer once bragged to me: "The commissioners come see me. I don't go see them." I believe him.

Adrian, through his various companies, helps to keep Commissioners in office. And, Pedro Adrian is not the only one. I could do the same things with many, many other developers. His name just came up easily. The system is broken and the change in campaign, election law in 2006 made it worse.

P.S. Souto got the same $5,000 for his campaign: $2,000 from Ponce de Leon and $3,000 from 2450 SW 137 Avenue.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Same group gave the same way to the reelection campaign of Manny Diaz and Joe Sanchez.

Anonymous said...

at least the city of miami has term limits. we need term limits in the county. you only have to look at a few more years on sanchez. that should make you happy. in the county we have to see them in office forever...

Anonymous said...

by Truly Blue

Again this would not be an issue if Campaign Finance Reform were the rule of the day. I disagree strongly with term limits as they unnecessarily displace the good along with the bad.

I wish that the activists crying for Term Limits would reform the process of campaign donations yet again.

Shame on County Commissioner Sally Heyman and her colleagues for undoing that last election cycle.

It is still up to us to find decent candidates with the right stuff/skills to serve in office. We must convince more of them to run for office. Surely, Katy Sorenson cannot be the only decent commissioner or candidate in this county. Can she?

Where are the environmentalists, nurses, teachers, successful business people, retired millionaires, etc. who are perfectly capable of being good candidataes and great commissioners? Why aren't these folks offering themselves for local office? We know them, so let's recruit them.

Please find more decent people to run for office and put some of the yahoos you talk about out of office upon their next election. Don't you understand that every election cycle is a term limit?

Anonymous said...

Good people don't run for 2 reasons: They can't stomach being a lone ranger in a commission that is mainly made up of bad dudes and; they can't win! When commissioners take in a half million bucks from special interests and spread it around their districts like peanut butter, who can compete, even with public financing?
We need term limits AND campaign finance reform.

Geniusofdespair said...

Truly blue:
You sound like a broken record... it is broken system. In a perfect world you would be right. Not perfect here. Get the bums out. read last Anonymous..

mkhall said...

I'm at work and can't check, but how much was given to Carlos Alvarez by those addresses? I'm not being snarky, I honestly don't know.

Also, I assume you would support term limits for mayors, too?

Geniusofdespair said...

mkh: we already have term limits for mayors. I checked those addresses for the mayor -- they didn't pop up; HOWEVER, THIS WAS WHEN CORPORATIONS COULD NOT GIVE. Remember the crappy commissioners changed the law allowing corporate donations.

mkhall said...

Ah, yes, I got the timing wrong on the change. Thanks for the clarification.

Term limits I have pretty mixed emotions about. I like getting new blood in, and am personally a fan of the Jeffersonian model of public service wherein elected office is a responsibility you undertake for the good of the people, not a permanent job and/or retirement plan. But the byzantine rules of governance often prove a hindrance to first-term officials at any level, making it a challenge to get anything done at all until you've been around a few years.

Term limits also tend to concentrate power in the unelected officials running party machines, since they are the only continuing characters with the right connections to all the players.

Anyway, those are just a couple of thoughts. Thanks again for the clarification.

Geniusofdespair said...

Hello mkh...we are talking about the county commission here. You can't talk about Jeffersonian principles in the same comment as the Miami Dade Commission. These commissioners start off bad and remain bad so let's just rotate them.

mkhall said...

Term limits aren't an effective way to remove a person (or group of people) you don't like -- that's what elections are for. Term limits should be applied when you have doubts about the efficacy of the position, without regard for the office-holder at the moment. This new trend toward "let's change the law and if we don't like the results we'll change it back" -- among both the commission and its detractors -- is counter-productive.

On the other hand, if you think the county commission should be completely and permanently abolished, that's your business.

Anonymous said...

There is support in the study of American politics against term limits. When they are enacted it seems that lobbyists actually become more en powered and big donors more important. Without name recognition to get (re)elected, the experience necessary to know background of the issues, or how to utilize the legislative process officials are more easily manipulated by entrenched issues. Also, attacks on politicians and office holders staffing budgets further demonizes the independence of the government and make its more reliance on well funded special interests.

Anonymous said...

This is Phillip J. Brutus. Reading the various comments addressing the County Commissioners’ blind subservience to developers and ethical lapses, it is becoming clear that many in our community truly want to rid County government of corruption, greed and incompetence. However, had these individuals displayed the same sense of outrage before the last County Commission elections and assisted those of us courageous enough to challenge the incumbents, we might have elected one and as many as three commissioners who would stand up to big money interests and help restore pride, dignity and sanity to our County Government. I hope, in the next county elections, we will remind our elected officials that they were elected to a government of the people, by the people and for the people.Let's reclaim our government