If you are a regular reader of our blog, you are aware that our local county government is frozen in time and space. It is the worst effect of watching the county commission meetings, either on the web, or TV, or at County Hall: on matters large and small, the commissioners act in such stylized roles that all might as well be performing in a grade school pageant play.
Nothing changes.
It wouldn't be a problem if the consequences didn't cost taxpayers so much; either in terms of real deficits on the backs of taxpayers or quality of life. The chief culprit is a campaign finance system that preserves a permanent incumbency and orders the priorities of senior agency managers.
The campaign finance system will not change: just look at the imbalance between challengers and incumbents' campaign finance reports in which incumbents outmatch challengers in dollars raised by 10 or 20 to 1.
One blue ribbon panel after another has recommended changes to improve the function of county government, deformed from protecting the health, safety and welfare of citizens to a mill for zoning and development permits. The county commissioners, insulated by high walls and moats guarded by lobbyists, view their privileges as inviolable.
The way out is clear: a county-wide drive to collect petitions to change the County Charter because the unreformable majority of the county commission won't.
How can you help?
The first way is share this blog with your email lists: we already have a substantial number of daily readers but the number must grow.
The second way is to email us directly, with suggestions/ recommendations/ and offers of support. There are enough citizens who care about the future of Miami-Dade to help put our issues directly to voters.
It took a federal court to slam the door on the unreformable majority of county commissioners determined to raise the bar blocking petitions drives by citizens. It will take thousands of citizens to return our democracy to a semblance of normalcy in service of the public interest.
The third way, of course, is to vote out the bums, but it is not clear whether the backlash by voters against incumbents has gathered enough force to defeat the power of money.
It is not all pictures of incumbent county commissioners on the side of buses and sidewalk shelters.
Help us spread the news.
19 comments:
You know, this may seem insignificant because its a Community Council candidate, but I think I might just have met a guy who could make a difference. Don Kearns, CC11. Check out his website and perhaps consider sending a check. He might just be our next gatekeeper of the west. Hey, its a good place to start.
http://www.donkearns.com/
Dear gimleteye,
I tend to agree with what you have to say about the county commission/bureaucracy being corrupt and useless. You say you want us to help you by directing readers to your blog, yet I cannot in good conscious steer anyone to this extremely politically biased site which oftentimes misrepresents the views of Cubans, conservatives, and Republicans. If you decide to make this blog about changing Miami-Dade county for the better you cannot alienate potential allies.
You have to remember that Carlos Alvarez, probably the most anti-commission politician out there tried to impose term limits and a salary increase in the hopes that we could get a more dynamic, ethical and effective commission. Mayor Alvarez has also been a staunch opponent of moving the UDB. However I have yet to see nary a positive mention of his efforts form this partisan blog. One wonders of he were a liberal democrat with the same record of (or lack of) accomplishments as Mayor if you'd view him more favorably.
My advice to you: Pick your fights wisely.
Previous blogger - did someone not give you the rules? Anyone is welcome to come and comment here.
I don't consider this blog a hostile site for the Mayor. Hello, it's a political blog site.
So blog. Give your opinion. Stop whining. Truely, I am interested in what you have to say.
I will vote for change, light a candle, genuflect, cross my fingers, make a wish etc etc. It simply won't change the facts: 1. low voter turnout 2. undereducated voters who do turn out 3. easily mis-led voters who do turn out 4. voters paid to vote a certain way
Have you ever been a poll worker? My god, the stories..one could fill a book with them. It still wouldn't make a difference.
oops sorry - this thing stuck and then posted twice!
Annoymous above: You are being very unfair to this blog. You obviously pick and choose what you read because you are not accurate. We have had 70 blog about the strong mayor -- supporting it --- and most of our blogs are in support of him. We have had 33 blogs on him since the strong mayor vote, most supporting him.
We don't agree with him, Katy Sorenson, or Carlos Gimenez 100% of the time. You never agree 100%. Let's face it, a little criticism is a good tonic for change. And to say that anyone here is anti-cuban is ridiculous. We might not agree with the hardline Diaz-Balart brothers but that does not make us anti-Cuban. We are pro truth, ethics, and good government. There are bad politicians in every community and ethnic group. We don't pick on them because of their background we pick on them because of their lousy voting records.
I tend to agree with ANON 2, not on the Alvarez issue but on the including more moderate, conservative, and Republican supporters. I started to visit this blog looking for information on the strong mayor inactivate and have kept coming back and sometimes posting. This blog covers many areas outside of the local county and city governments and that’s well and good. I also would have a hard time referring this blog to even moderate friends. The blog gets quite left of center when it comes to things of a more state wide or national topics. I would think that a “sister” blog devoted to changing Miami-Dade government would be more appealing and rally more people who are not so left of center. Although I consider myself a moderate I have leanings, sometimes to the extreme, on both sides of the political spectrum. I may be wrong but I don’t see the Miami-Dade issues and resolutions favoring solutions that are far left or right.
I may be wrong but I don’t see the Miami-Dade issues and resolutions favoring solutions that are far left or right.
Give examples, i have no clue what this means.
What I was trying to say was that I think, no really hope, that people across the spectrum from the liberal far left to the conservative far right can find solutions to solve the issues with county government without left vs. right bickering and name calling. There is no political party in the elections for county officials.
Agree. I think we are all on the same page: To borrow from Superman -- we want truth, justice and the American way.
I would hope that we can all come together on trying to make our County Government responsive to all of the people who live here. We all want county commissioners to conduct themselves professionally, in the sunshine and not cater to special interests. They shouldn't hold grudges when people disagree with them. I don't think this is a liberal or conservative view, I think it is a right view for both ends. Yes, sometimes we rant on...the nature of blogging...but we are all for a good, honest County government body -- non partisan -- and there is no politics in expecting the best from our elected leaders!
There are times when the Cubans on the Commission make me crazy. When they do wrong I attack them. Unfortunatly that is almost all the time. But I helped Cubans get to this Country and gave some positions and jobs. So just like all other people there are some I like and some I could do without. Getting rid of the bunch now inpower is so important that we should ignore every thing else. We can argue over our personal feelings at another time.
For me, this blog represents a pivotal moment in our SoFla life. We realized two things after stumbling on this blog. First, from the information presented here, we feel we are well informed on the issues that are important to us: quality of life, environment, conservation, community planning, etc. Second, and maybe most importantly, we discovered we are not alone! That other people in this beautiful place feel like we do! We don't want to move the UDB. We want more money sent to our school systems to help find good teachers and good programs, and invest in our future. We don't want to fund a ballpark for a private organization with deep pockets. We don't want to underwrite more greed. We want clean water, better public transportation, a solid educational system and the protection for everything that Florida 100 percent depends on for its revenue and strength: our natural resources.
So thank you, eyeonmiami. We share this blog every opportunity we have. Let's see if we can really affect the change so desperately needed. Save Miami.
The Duchess to Alice: Be what you would seem to be -- or, if you'd like it put more simply -- Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise. Quotes from Alice in Wonderland
I would like to see more lay-it-on-the-table truthful talk from our politicians. Although, the very nature of the political beast allows all of them have egos (or grow them) and that is where the issue starts for us, and unfortunately, ends most of the time.
These politicians start out all starry-eyed and full of love for the community. Then, they start feeling all warm and fuzzy about seeing their own images and hearing the resonance of their own sound bites.
Subsequently, they begin liking being recognized at the store, on the street or at meetings, and the next thing we know, they want us remember that they are important, while they forget how or why they have the opportunity to be soooo important.
Vanity is evil. (Although, one has to admit that commission and mayor would not win any beauty contests!)
Vanity and ego results in some of the poorer governmental decisions on all levels of government; from the city to the federal level. Vanity and ego, by the way, are equal opportunity corruptors; male or female, tall or short; Democrats or Republicans; liberal or conservative, whatever the politician is. It doesn’t matter. It is all the same.
It is beyond frightening to look at the changes that have occurred in our community as the result of abuse of power. There is no sense of individual well-being, nationally or locally.
Who is to blame?
Is our community to blame for being so divided by nationality instead of being American? (Where is that Old Melting Pot, anyhow?)
Are our commissioners and mayor at fault for not being the leaders we thought we voted into office?
Or is the fast world we live in responsible for our politicians being allowed to set up fiefdoms while we snooze?
No matter what the cause; our government is simply the reflection of our community values. And to be honest, that is one ugly image I see in the mirror.
Out of sight, I agree with
"These politicians start out all starry-eyed and full of love for the community. Then, they start feeling all warm and fuzzy about seeing their own images and hearing the resonance of their own sound bites"
Take a drive around town and you can see those large county project signs everywhere with a commissioner's name on it as a sponsor. BS - These are all long over due improvements delayed by the commission so they can make a big show & display the signs when it's election time.
Moss, Martinez, Diaz and the others have their names on these huge signs as if they came up with the idea to make improvements to our roads. We all know road improvements are funded by our voting for the bonds and have been a major problem in Miami Dade for as long as I can remember.
Now these people use the system to work for them, when they are the ones that need to work for all citizens, not just those in their district.
The first thing I would like to see everyone push is the TERM LIMITS.
Not necessarily 2 terms (8 years) but maybe 3 terms (12 years is more than enough.)
Muchas gracias!
Cleanmiamidade@bellsouth.net
I'd just like to welcome all my new friends from the cemter. It was getting pretty lonely around here being the only person who doesn't blame Bush for everything from the Lincoln assassination to my neighbors dog barking all night.
Keep comming back folks. This blog needs more balance.
moderate
Gimleteye,
This is Anon #2 (call me el jedi). You're right, I did not check everything you had to say about the Mayor, and I'll take you at your word that you were fair in covering him. However, my main point- as so eloquently stated by genius of despair- is that there are local political issues which transcend your party/ideological leanings at the higher levels of government.
However, this blog's vehemently leftist bias against good public servants like Ileana, Lincoln, Mario, Mel, Jeb, etc. (notice I don't mention GW, lol) make me question whether I should ever recommend a site like this to others. Hence defeating your stated purpose of bringing everyone together to this blog to do somethign positive for the county.
Again I reiterate: pick your fights wisely!
There are Maria Elviras, Perez Rouras, Bushies, hardcore right wing, conservative, Bible thumping, gun toting, pro-life, hardcore Cuban exile people in this county who like most of (if not all) the readers in this blog would love to unite to hold the UDB where it should be, protecting the everglades, aquifiers, and the Bay, stopping urban sprawl, improving transportation, cutting all of the useless bureaucrats on the County payroll, and tossing out the corrupt commission.
So it's up to you ladies if you wish to turn people away with your county-irrelevant leftist political biases or make this a focused forum where everyone with your stated goal of cleaning up the county feels welcome and willing to share. Politics is all about people and you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.
El Jedi
Interesting group of comments...but Jeb as a good public servant? Not! Crist is a good public servant. Jeb hurt Florida in too many ways to count. And the Balart's haven't done squat. Like Ileana however.
Moderate - you're back?
And to the Kearns fan -- thanks, checked out his website as you suggested.
Anon #2:
Leftist? Pick fights wisely?
Let me let you in on a secret about blogging:
In a blog, you don't have to read or reply to a blog if it annoys you.
It is very similar to the television set in your house. If you don't like what you see, you flip the channel.
So, stop with the whiny name calling, as well as the threats, and go find a blog you feel comfortable with.
The door is that way ----->
PS: You can use the little red box with the X in it, if you need to leave faster. It will not be considered impolite.
Post a Comment