Store owner at the Aventura Mall: Rents have doubled. Donny is trying to make the Mall more upscale. Lots of stores being forced out.
Firing Assistant County Manager
Roger Carlton, assistant County Manager is let go. I liked Roger. The curious thing, according to the Herald, Vile Natacha Seijas said something nice about him:
``To me, he's done a good job.''
City of Miami Waterfront Board Meeting
A decision was made to defer voting on the Sasaki Plan for the Coconut Grove Waterfront. The Sailing Club members, about 40 in attendance at the meeting, did not want to move to another building and this created an impasse. Are they intent on throwing the baby out with the bathwater?
City of Opa Locka
Commissioner Dorrin Rolle’s former Chief of Staff Dante Starks — Opa Locka Lobbyist now -- is arrested with Vice Mayor of Opa Locka, Terence Pinder (accused of getting kickbacks from Starks). Good. Pinder is already gone from the Opa Locka website but thanks to CACHE, I found this on Opa Locka's website cache:
Terence K. Pinder"Having received the highest number of votes in the 2004 November municipal elections, long time. Opa-locka advocate Terence K. Pinder was overwhelmingly elected to serve as the City of Opalocka's Vice-Mayor. He has diligently served the people of Opa-locka for over 10 years dedicating his time and energy to improve the quality of life for all residents.
Not yet a day in office, Commisioner Pinder immediately began to work for his City. With the support of his colleagues Commisioner Pinder spearheaded an initiative to beautify and irrigate the 22nd Avenue Corridor spanning from NW 151st and 22nd avenue to NW 135th street and 22nd Avenue Hundreds of tropical plants and flowers adorn the median strips providing residents, pedestrians, motorist, and visitors with a sense serenity as they embark on their daily destinations. Within the median strips were placed two beautiful modem (?) welcome signs, shinning and glowing daily welcoming on-comers to the "Great City of Opa-locka".
His dedication to beauty and green space continued with successfully having the Florida Department of Transportation to cut and hedge overgrown vegetation along the City's CSX railings. Commisioner Pinder's passion for his community reaches from road improvements right into the homes of the City's senior citizens and children."
Enough of this, and yes there is more drivel I cut!! In a community with so many problems they are talking about medians and flowers???
Back to Opa Locka
And wasn’t the former mayor of Opa Locka charged with an income tax crime in 2005?
The population of Opa Locka is 14,951 as of 2004. In 2005 it had 352 violent crimes and 1,529 non violent crimes. According to Wikipeida it has one of the highest crime rates in the US.
As far as taxes go, according to the St. Pete Times (April 28th):
The city already is charging residents 9.8 mills, or $9.80 for every $1,000 of taxable value, and the state cap is 10. This year, half of the city's $14-million budget will come from property taxes, with the rest from franchise and telecommunication fees and federal and state grants. The police department costs $4.45-million to run, as Opa-locka struggles with high crime.
This City should not have become a city, too small, too many problems. What were they thinking? With such a small budget, you would think it would be next to impossible to hide corrpution for more than a few weeks.
18 comments:
Opa Locka needs to be saved from itself. The City was formed because it was supposed to be cheaper for taxpayers. cough.
Here's my neighborhood in North Miami in the vicinity of W Dixie Highway north of 135th street. Medians laying fallow with weeds down W Dixie AFTER the road improvements(?!?), and since last Thursday, we've had armed robbery attempt with shots fired at 14095 W Dixie, car jacking at 137street and W Dixie, another armed robbery with shots fired and owner of store wounded right across the street from 14905 W Dixie! 3 serious crimes in 4 days! 2 in broad daylight ( robberies )!
Moral of the story? At least Opa Locka has flowers in their medians..
The wrong guy got fired.
Roger Carlton is a smug bureaucrat who should have never been hired. The couldn't deliver votes on the Watershed Study. That is what got him fired.
Re: Rodger Carlton... he is smart and his integrity is known.
that watershed comment is not accurate.
Roger Carlton did very well on the Watershed Committee there were some "difficult" people on it. That is me being polite.
genius od you are right. there were some very difficult people on that cmte. I can't figure out why he was fired. Someone wanted something in a gray area that he wouldn't back up... probably anyway.
It was coming back to haunt Rodger who promised a member of the watershed committee that he would help him out if he voted his conscience.
I guess good old Rodger didn't come thru.
Politics.
He was a good guy. He just took everything too personally. He made it personal.
I tend to concur with the negative comments on Roger Carlton. I watch the commission meetings. Most times, he was fidgeting at the microphone, trying to weasel his way out of things. He got called on the carpet too many times. They had to let him go. He was the most dispensible person in the manager's team.
Interestingly, the other assistant managers had a very hard time getting along with Carlton.
He is anti-woman, made it very difficult for some of the women who are higher up in County Hall.
Besides, Carlton has a retirement home out of state. He can unload his Miami Beach home and get the hell out of here.
My perspective on Roger Carlton is that he is a very bright and capable guy. However, he is also often imperious and condescending. Being a high level manager in any large organization requires a level of diplomatic skills that Roger lacks.
and if you are condescending with those room temperature IQ's that you have to deal with over there, you are going to get yourself in trouble!
I would have rather seen Alex "the Weasel" Munoz or Jennifer "The Cupcake" Glasermoon on the chopping block, but anything to get rid of the huge bloat in the CM's office. Perhaps the suddenly invisible (and under investigation) Cynthia Curry is next on the chopping block...?
I once worked for Roger.
He was our top dog and we were his peons.
I did not like him or respect his business attitude or his personal behavior.
But hey, that's just me.
Eight figures lost in housing. 4000 extra telephones at WASD and seven figures stolen. Eight figures lost on transit security. Seven figures lost or wasted on a Liberty City biotech park. Nine figures of overruns in airport and PAC. Why not eliminate 35 Audit and Management Services employees, hire a big five accounting firm, and have someone with an E & O policy to pay for failure to detect fraud instead of reading about it in the Herald?
say what you want about him, Roger is not the highest paid county staffer and is smart and a very intelligent person. there are SO many more waste-of-money, fluff employees at the county that need to go.Roger was not the one to start with. that's what tells me something else is out there on this.
what about Opa Locka?
Maybe miami dade should hire the big accounting firm that worked for Enron.
Why is it that Opa Locka commissioners are so corrupt? As hard as its is to prove public corruption it seems an Opa Locka commissioner gets arrested every six months.
Carlos Alvarez needs to fire Cynthia Curry and another hundred useless overpaid County bureaucrats.
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