The county commission... by gimleteye

Another profoundly banal day of bad decisions at County Hall. Sally Heyman was the bad commissioner. It was her vote that allowed a supermajority override of Mayor Carlos Alvarez's veto of the applications to move the Urban Development Boundary, that Bruno Barreiro tied in with all the other CDMP applications.

Mayor Alvarez was in attendance, like a guest of honor. He's learned to be a good guest.

The vote was quickly taken, on the motion by Joe Martinez: "We have talked about this ad nauseam."

Martinez wanted a voice vote and Barreiro was happy to oblige: it was over before anyone could count. When votes are taken that way, it is hard--almost impossible--to figure out who voted which way.

But the commissioners know how the game is played, and the minority would be heard. Dennis Moss piped up, and Gimenez too. The vote was retaken as "recorded". Souto slunk in his chair, mumbling assent, practically out of view. Heyman turned out to be the bad vote (and if her constituents pay attention, they should turn her out too at the next election.)

Mayor Alvarez, after the vote was taken, made light of the result at the microphone. And all the lawyers in attendance shuffled off, knowing that the drama now goes to lobbying Tallahassee where Governor Crist and Tom Pelham, the DCA secretary are on the hot seat. Who knows what deals will be cut, now, behind Tallahassee's tall walls.

There was nary a word about the UDB applications in conjunction with the issue of water supply. Or drought.

In 2005, water was the threshold issue that killed the frenzy to move the UDB except for Hialeah's. And that lack of discussion was interesting, because the first agenda item of the day had Chip Merriam, of the South Florida Water Management District, racing through a presentation on the 20 year consumptive use permit that was several years in the making and which, the developers will claim, reinforces the justice of the decision to move the UDB: ie. all our water supply needs are taken care of!

And even during Merriam's presentation, he and the county commission raced like banshees through the slide that showed FPL's proposed nuclear reactors requiring 70 million gallons per day, without any explanation of how to fill that need. Wow.

So, praise was heaped on county commissioner Natacha Seijas for the "great work" she did as chair of the environment committee to hammer the deal through with the water management district, when it is common knowledge--if you pay attention--that for a decade it was Seijas who personally held up any progress on modernizing the water supply infrastructure in Florida's largest county.

Chip Merriam pitched the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan as delivering benefits to the cities, and if you listened to the environmentalists, you would know that the Everglades plan is more about supplying developers with water than protecting natural resources.

There was no mention of how badly government agencies have failed to protect either the environment or the public interest, except to fob off whatever unpleasantness might have existed between the agencies as a function of "management issues": ie. letting former Dade water czar Bill Brandt take the fall for Natacha's intransigence on behalf and as a reflection of the preferences of the Latin Builders and South Florida Builders Association.

I didn't stick around for the megaplan vote: Miami Mayor Manny Diaz was hobnobbing with the county commissioners off the dais, waiting for his star turn. The hall was thick with lobbyists.

And not a word. Not a whisper about the economic reality-- the housing bust in which the county commissioners and city commissioners played a major role, as the zoning authority that let all this excess go into the ground against all reason, against the complaints of citizens and environmentalists.

The bottom line can be framed this way: government is a staged act, on the order of a seventh grade school play. What you see on TV, or in the audience at County Hall, is all laid out for the electorate in ways that make everyone shine and accountability vanish.

Have you signed and mailed in your petition for Florida Hometown Democracy yet?