Change at the Miami Dade County Commission? by gimleteye

On November 20th, Dennis Moss became the first African American since Barbara Carey Shuler to be elected chair of the Miami Dade County Commission. The chair is arguably as powerful as the position of Executive Mayor. The moment lacked the drama that can accompany the election of the chair by his or her peers (in Teele's case, it was joined by a fistfight with a lobbyist later turned reformed crack addict). Moss' competition was Pepe Diaz, who has been under a cloud (and lately a federal investigation) for accepting a free fishing trip to the Caribbean from Sergio Pino (ie. Parkland, Krome Gold, US Century Everything).

Moss is low key in comparison. He has skirted the ethical storms tied to the rampant overdevelopment of South Dade farmland encompassing his district (ie. Barbara Jordan / Florida City Commons). Unlike his neighboring commissioner, Katy Sorenson, Moss attracted none of the straw-men opponents pushed forward by the developers, land speculators, and blow-hards. Where Sorenson has been a consistent critic of the costs of development plaguing Miami Dade during the late, great building boom and housing bubble, Moss was mostly quiet even when voting against applications to move the Urban Development Boundary.

In 2005, he chimed in on the side of then county chairman Joe Martinez who had gone on a holy war against environmentalists on UDB issues, accusing them of "lying" to the public. One result: the expense of county money to put out a county newsletter to "tell the truth", unlike the mainstream media.

The past two chairs of the county commission-- Martinez and Bruno Barreiro-- have not brought light and grace to the county commission. But they have been compliant, willing and malleable allies of the de facto power behind the throne, Natacha Seijas (VNS). One would have to believe that Seijas is confident in Moss' understanding of political order; confidence that expresses itself as a form of Chinese checkers on the dais.

Seijas was a curious study on November 20th. There were such demonstrations of bonhomie among the county commissioners as Moss' election came clear, you would have thought they would join hands and sing Kumbaya or recite the lessons of Martin Luther King and Barack Obama, but the spell was broken-- as it routinely is-- by Seijas' vitriol directed first at the county economic development department and assistant county manager Cynthia Curry for 'mismanaging' the quick-draw grant of $62 million from HUD to fund purchase of a handful of foreclosed homes in poverty stricken areas (Seijas pulled out the persecution card that usually goes along with race, weaving the themes suggestively and effortlessly as though she could do it blind-folded.)

Seijas is a feared presence among the unreformable majority, which traditionally includes African American commissioners like Rolle and Edmunson and Jordan. But the perception of power has changed because of the economic crisis afflicting unincorporated Miami Dade County, its $7 billion budget and 30,000 employees. Seijas and her uber-aide Terry Murphy know where all the bones are buried and then some; so when Seijas goes ballistic, an event predictable as rain during wet season, county staff scarcely blink before opening the psychic umbrellas to shield themselves from her spew-of-the-day. It is Seijas' way of enforcing order, and even the chair pays extra deference.

At the end of another long meeting-- for which Seijas noted that she is only paid $6000 a year-- it was not clear that the election of Moss to be chair had discomforted her. She is too cool a customer for that. But there was her odd, long note of grievance toward former state senator, permanent incumbent from Weschester and West Miami Javier Souto, who had left the commission dais early yet monitors county proceedings avidly on tape. Souto had broken rank and voted for Moss (the final tally was 8-5).

Seijas has no use for Souto, but she is usually quiet on that score. He comes and goes and mutters and rants about Castro even when he is talking about picking up litter in his district. And usually votes her way. Why pick on Souto, now?

We'll have to wait and see, because there are some very big issues coming up -- before Moss takes the chairman's gavel in January. There is, on December 18th, the county commission vote on Parkland, the small city of 18,000 proposed by Ramon Rasco, Sergio Pino, Ed Easton, Armando Guerra and other luminaries of the Miami-Dade development community including Lennar Homes, the corporate builder.

Moss has voted against moving the UDB, which Parkland requires. It is the project that Martinez and Seijas and the unreformable majority appear headed to approve, the mayor to veto, and then-- who knows-- veto override or not?

But here is where things get curious: the muscle that supported Seijas all these long, long, long years has wasted away. Parkland might as well be called Dreamland, for all the chances it has to materialize in 2014. The builders' muscle disappeared in the 40 percent decline of the Dow Industrial Average, in the vanishing of Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Mother Merrill, in the 40,000 home foreclosures in Miami-Dade, in the shrunken and shriveled fortunes of the production home builders who have supported Seijas' and Murphy's careers.

Change is all around us and it may even be leaking into the county commission of Florida's most populous county.