Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Charter Review Task Force is almost staffed. by Geniusofdespair

According to a June 28th "Miami Today" article:

"Among those who will serve on the board are former mayors Maurice Ferre of Miami and Raul L. Martinez of Hialeah, Miami Beach Mayor David Dermer, attorney and former Jackson Public Health Trust Chairman Larry Handfield and two retired county attorneys, Murray Greenberg and Robert A. Ginsburg.

The task force's membership consists of one member appointed by each of the Miami-Dade commissioners, one by Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez, one by each of the county's four largest cities and three by the League of Cities, representing smaller municipalities.

Commissioners Carlos Gimenez, Sally Heyman, Barbara Jordan and Javier Souto appointed themselves. Victor Diaz Jr., a Miami attorney, becomes chairman as the appointee of Miami-Dade commission Chairman Bruno Barreiro. Commissioner Audrey Edmonson initially appointed herself but later reconsidered and Tuesday appointed attorney H.T. Smith.

Also agreeing to serve are former Sunny Isles Beach city attorney Lynn Dannheisser (Sorenson), Miami attorneys Miguel De Grandy and Carlos Diaz-Padron and retired police division chief Ignacio Jesus Vasquez.

Pending are appointments to be made by Miami and Miami Gardens city officials and the League of Cities."

With 16 appointments, they are expected to start as a report is due by October 31.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who gets appointed? How can someone get appointed who wants to get appointed?

Geniusofdespair said...

Ask the Mayor or a commissioner

Anonymous said...

The Charter Review Task Force only has four females members, who make up 55% of the electorate in Miami-Dade County. The original Charter Board had two female members. In 50 years, females have grown from 8.5% to 17% when recognizing citizen particpation. At this rate, by 2107 females will have comparable representation on issues of the charter in Miami -Dade County.

I am skeptical in the short time period allowed (17 weeks to make recommendations), that the current task force will be unable to review the entire charter as a document and will end up making numerous unrelated and half-cooked reccommendations that will further divide this community again and leave us with the same hybrid disfunctional metropolitan regional government that we already have. The Commission Chair and his predecessor should have put this task force together while the strong mayor issue was being discussed and petitioned.

Can't the task force make its recommendations in time for the August/September 2008 elections. That will give them ample time to review the entire document and maybe have real input from citizens, other elected officials and those esteemed scholars.

And finally why are there so many (10) attorneys on the Charter Review Task Force?

BIGFOOT

Geniusofdespair said...

Bigfoot:

Sounds like a joke:

How many attorneys does it take to review a charter....

Can't think of a funny ending because the task force includes some real idiots so it is not funny....Javier Souto?? Natacha Seijas?? Could it get any worse.

Geniusofdespair said...

Genius of Despair said...
Some other members:
Richard Kruper, Executive Director the The M-D League of Cities.
David Dermer - that is a good one.
Larry Handfield
South Miami City Manager Yvonne Soler-McKinney (Odd choice).
Franciois Illas, Manny Diaz's Chief of Staff
Robert W. Holland
John M. Hogan
Carlos Diaz Padron

Anyone know any of these?

Anonymous said...

The charter review commission is designed to be sure that the lobbyist culture at County Hall remains intact. Only Katy Sorenson had the guts to propose a review that would have challenged it. Sad for Miami. We deserve to be underwater with sea level rise.

Anonymous said...

Larry Handfield - Private Practice Attorney & former Chair of the PHT, does not lobby the BCC

Robert Holland - Private Practice Attorney & a current member of the MDX. Generally does not lobby BCC, but represents clients before municipalities and code enforcement boards

BIGFOOT