The county’s right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. Until they get a better grip on themselves I think the County should cease funding any non-profits. I say: Moratorium! Why? Scott Hiaasen reported today that a Haitian activist is facing theft charges from his County Funded non-profit. There is so much more in this article but I was particularly horrified at seeing the following use of our hard earned tax dollars:
“Detectives also said Cayard took $26,500 from the account of the Greater Miami Mardi Gras, an annual downtown music festival run by HAFI and paid for largely through COUNTY GRANTS. HAFI received more than $1.4 million to stage the event from 2002 to 2006.” And:
“While some of the Mardi Gras money went into Cayard's pocket, investigators say, some of it was also used to buy political influence. Detectives traced $3,500 from the Mardi Gras account to four Haitian radio hosts, who said Cayard paid them to support former Miami-Dade County Commissioner Jimmy Morales in his unsuccessful 2004 campaign for county mayor, the arrest warrant says. Months before those payments, in February 2004, Morales gave HAFI a $20,000 grant from his commission discretionary account -- money earmarked for the Mardi Gras festival, county records show.” And:
“The arrest report also says Cayard orchestrated a scheme to bill the COUNTY for phantom meals HAFI was supposed to deliver to elderly Haitian residents under a contract with the county's Alliance for Human Services. Cayard and a HAFI employee submitted fake monthly invoices six times between April 2003 and January 2005 when his nonprofit failed to deliver any meals, the report says.”
Let’s face it, when non-profits fund county campaigns with county money and put Dorrin Rolle and vile Natacha Seijas on the payroll, you have to know there is something very wrong with the system.
P.S. Same date in Miami Herald - another case of our County tax dollars at work: "Prosecutors and police say (Rev. Gaston) Smith took the money from a nonprofit agency called Friends of MLK, which received $25,000 in 2004 from the Metro Miami Action Plan Trust, a county-affiliated anti-poverty agency. The $10,000 was taken out in ATM withdrawals over three months, including a $500 withdrawal at a Las Vegas martini bar."
12 comments:
More to come I'm sure, they all have cronies running them and with no oversight it is open season. Shut them down as they are and let the audits begin. Three years to find out nobody was getting fed???
How very Republican of GoD.
What about those non-profits who actually do feed the poor, or service the disabled, or house the homeless, or those with HIV, etc...
I'm as conservative as the next guy in many respects. But I do believe there are a number of non-profit agencies who do a wonderful job. However, there are some who are rife with waste and graft, and those are the ones we all pay attention to when their stories are told.
Go on over to the Human Society, which I know is in your neighborhood, and then come back and tell me they don't deserve any public assistance.
moderate
Anyone know what the county budget for this type of charity is? I remember at budget time a number like 50 million was mentioned by the groups that protested cuts to their funding.
Anyone know the correct amount?
As for the moderate above: How much of our tax money should we give to organizations like this? How does Miami-Dade county compare to other counties as far as percentage of overall budget giving like this?
Notamoderate: Yes Republicans I can embrace when it comes to corruption. Because the county has proven itself so inept, I am for throwing the baby out with the bathwater until we can get a grip on wasting our tax dollars. What happened to the 1,000 points of light, are they not taking care of our hungry and our poor well enough? Let's let Marty Marguilies dole out the money to chartities...he seems to know what he is doing in that realm, he couldn't do any worse.
The same Marty Marguilies that is funding Michelle Spence-Jones' legal defense?
I'll pass. Me thinks his judgement is no so good.
I recall that in the last budget cycle, Alvarez recommended cutting funding to "all" CBOs by 33% across the board, and the Commission would have none of it.
Moderate
Those worthy institutions NEVER get a penny from the county and are mostly supported by private donors. The corrupt ones are those that take money from the county with the understanding that a percentage has to be given back to the commissioner that sponsored the grant for his/her campaign. The same goes for the Cuban radios and community newspapers that make the commissioners appear as the reincarnation of Mother Theresa or Pope John Paul II.
last anon
You are flat wrong. "Those" institutions get a very healthy amount of money from the County.
Do your research.
moderate
Not a moderate - We don't doubt SOME good non profits would not be funded but let's have a moratorium and let the bad ones die out... remember this is the county that gave money to billionaire Jorge Perez:
On City of Miami and Miami Dade County giving $1,000,000 each to Jorge Perez’s Related Group (The Group's 2005 revenues were $3.25 billion.):
"It makes as much sense as me donating half my paycheck to Warren Buffett.”
May 6, 2007 Miami Herald Columnist Ana Menendez
Moderate
If you know the numbers why don't you prove me wrong by disclosing your obvious "insider's" knowledge?
The list is over 100 organizations long for last year alone.
If you are interested, you can go to the Human Services Coalition website. Since they administer most of the CBO grants for and through the County, they probably have it listed.
m
Haitian Ringo Cayard was well known for being a poverty pimp. Every time he got another big check from the hapless taxpayers he would upgrade to a newer more expensive Range Rover. And what happened to the $1.8 Mil Cayard took? Where is it? Who is guarding the taxpayers money?
Watch Miami Art Museum and Miami Science Museum browbeat County Commissioners for more taxpayer money. Neither can raise money privately.
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