There is no conceivable reason for voters to approve paying the unreformable majority of county commissioners a living wage, except that there is no possible way of reforming the majority until they earn one.
This commission spit in the eye of the public by refusing to advance to a public vote any of the conservative recommendations of the Charter Review Task Force except one: more money for themselves.
What the unreformable majority of the county commission, lead by Natacha Seijas, said by rejecting its recommendations except for the matter of their own pay is, this: why should we do anything to upset the lucrative jobs we have-- in terms of other income and employment opportunities available to us, our families, and connected lobbyists-- if taxpayers only pay us $6000 a year? (I'm leaving out the annual $300K per commission office, free to be distributed as commissioners see fit, invented as a way of legitimizing the horrible co-dependency of non profits, unions, and the special interests who have wrecked Miami-Dade County.)
In Miami Today, Michael Lewis agrees: "Today, few can afford to seek what is, or should be, a fulltime role as commissioner. But if voters in November approve a fulltime requirement at decent pay, we'll open the doors far wider to candidates who might actually do what's right. Not that we mightn't still elect duds, but at least we'd have a fighting chance. Today we don't."
I strongly support the November 4th opportunity before Miami-Dade voters to increase the salaries of the county commission. But I know that public anger at government is running so high today, that giving this crew more money is the last thing that voters will want to do in November.
I bet that the unreformable majority holds slim to no hope for a raise. A negative vote by the public would keep them sleeping well at night; knowing that there is plenty more than $90K per year to be harvested at the margins and that they will always have the last word by simple fact of permanent incumbency.
Where are we headed, if the raise goes down? Probably to a petition drive by citizens to change the County Charter at the voting booth by referendum. But I'm getting ahead of the game.
November 4th, vote to pay county commissioners a living wage. It may not change anything in the behavior of the unreformable majority but would lead to some hope, where today there is none.
13 comments:
Look, I think term limits would have been nice, but, increase in salary and prohibiting outside employment is definately a step in the right direction. Lets not bite our collective noses to spite our faces...
I admit I don't know much about the commissioners, but wasn't there an article out from a local newspaper recently that found net worths of $500,000+ for most of the them?
I believe Barreiro had a net worth of about $1.5 million. If these people have their own means of getting by, and much better means than the rest of most Miamians, I don't see a reason why we should give them $90,000 more a year.
Your missing the point Abel. There are potential candidates out there that do not run because they cannot afford to. An increase in the salary would result in more competition for the positions.
I would love to find a part-time job, even only paying $6,000/yr, that would provide me all the perks that our sitting commissioners enjoy: A slush fund big enough to buy votes; excellent fringe benefits,car allowance, gasoline, etc. etc. and still be able to get outside job to supplement all those perks. Don't be naive, a salary raise will do nothing to attract candidates to compete for the commissioners' job. Just look at the campaign coffers of the sitting commissioners up for reelection and the meager contributions raised by their opponents. Do you see any developers, lobbyists, unions, etc. contributing to the campaigns of those running against the commish? For sure, I'll vote NO on the raise.
That's exactly it. People say "the commissioners make so much money without being paid to be commissioners, why should they get paid to be commissioners?"
That's the wrong way to think of the problem. The correct way is, "we should pay them, so they CAN'T have other jobs," and more people will think, "maybe I should run because I'll get paid a wage to make being a commissioner a full time job."
Hard to have talented people without money run for a position that only pays $6,000. The $300k discretionary fund should be left out in making this decision, because they can't give it to themselves as a salary increase, though that could prove to be interesting if they picked how to use the $300k to split between salary and discretionary spending.
Sorry, but until we have an ethics commision with teeth (and that isn't controlled by the commision),there will be no one to keep the them from stealing.
Rundle darn sure won't do anything to make sure the laws are followed...
You Knuckle heads can't understand that the only way to get better county commissioners is to open up the job to honest people that full well know they can only serve in the position if it pays a real honest....I repeat honest salary.
I fully agree that the current lot is not the best, but where do you find better at $6,000 per year. The current system obviously doesnot work, maybe trying to entice an honest work for honest pay will at least attract a field of candidates that are honest and willing to live and work within the reasonable means of $90K per year.
What are we getting at $6,000? Hoods, scammers, con men and women and G#$ D4*^ idiots......
Don't vote for these commissioners to get paid a real salary....vote to bring in better commissioners, because there has only been one or two creditable opponents to sitting commissioners in the last 15 years.
Remember, "we" have voted for these same Knuckleheads by an average of 65-35%......
We need better candidates to get better commissioners and I sure ain't going to give up my good job and cheat my way into a living......
Vote for Miami Dade's future cause we sure done F%^&*+ up the past ....
Bigfoot
No raise for the idiots until there is true campaign reform. You could pay a salary of 1 mil a year and still not change the status quo because they can't be beat; they have too much in their campaign bank accounts. We have some good people running now who probably will not be elected. They don't have the money to run buses to the polls after a free breakfast. New comers also do not have the discretionary funds to buy book bags,build roads, throw health fairs and all the other campaiging on your tax dollars not reported as campaign expenses. Wake up people, until there is a level playing field for campaign financing the developers, unions and lobbyists will select your commissioner for you.
It's a late for this cycle, but readers should cut and paste the following link from a news program this morning on NPR, where a guy running for a local office in Kansas figured out how to use the internet to raise $100,000 in small donations for his campaign:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93346096
The stakes are so high in Florida, and so high in Miami Dade, that I bet some ingenuity could make this model work here. It hasn't been tried before, and it should scare the hell out of the lobbyists and developers reading this blog.
Whatever happened to your column endorsing candidates on the August 26 ballot? You did not conclude it after the glitch in your website kept it down for a couple days.
I will not vote for Mayor Alvarez this time because I feel betrayed by his endorsement of Vile Natacha. Instead my vote goes to his opponent.
Does the ammendment bar outside employment with the 90K raise?
Last anon yes, one before, sorry we fixed the glitch today...
I too cannot approve the raise without term limits. I just can't do it. Sorry gimleteye. I would puke if I voted for it.
there is a wonderful person who has indicated that he will not run for commission unless there is a pay raise out of sheer necessity. He cannot even consider giving up his present job, and he would not be able to continue with his present job and handle the daily concerns of being a commissioner. There, you have it, folks. You need to pay a living wage to attract ethical people to run. The way I see it, if you are running for a $6,000 per year job you need to be a. retired and living on a pension b. living on the benefits of a significant other who can support you c. or intending to abuse the position for material wealth. Have I missed something here? Being a county commissioner is certainly not a part time job. What other scenarios could we have? Pay them a living wage and see who comes out of the woodwork to run in two years. It could get exciting. By the way, the good guys will vote in term limits.
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