The biggest gravy train in American history is about to descend on the states and cities through a frantic effort by Congress and the president to stave off an economic depression. Whether that money -- our tax dollars-- can be put to work efficiently, without corruption, is exactly the concern raised by today's top of the fold feature in the Sunday Miami Herald, "Gravy Train".
The manifest failure of county government to administer a half cent tax for mass transit is the centerpiece of "Gravy Train", an excellent piece of investigative journalism by The Miami Herald. Voters, time and again, rejected a transit tax for the same reason they denied a living wage to county commissioners: voters don't trust their government. Finally, in 2002, a half cent tax was approved by voters-- sold by then County Mayor Alex Penelas-- as a hopeful start to Miami's transit funding problems.
But cynical voters were proven right. As the Herald reports, the Miami-Dade transit tax became a pinata for bloated salaries, political hires and 'cronyism galore'. It is a cautionary tale for the Obama administration, preparing to flood the states with taxpayer dollars for infrastructure projects like mass transit.
There is no doubt... not an iota... that the failure to provide effective mass transit is crushing South Florida's economy, vitality, and environment. 'Gravy Train' portends that billions needed to change the calculus of an automobile driven culture-- reforming the transit system-- would be poured down a black hole of insider dealing; exactly as Larry Lebowitz and Rob Barry describe.
The Herald article touches on the use of the transit tax to foster massive political patronage, and identifies among others, Myra Bustamante who "rose to deputy director over administration. When director Bradley was fired in 2007 he publicly tried to blame many of the agency's financial problems on Bustamante and said he repeatedly tried to fire her but was overruled by County Manager George Burgess." The Herald reports, Bustamante "was placed in a high-ranking transit job in March 2003 after running into contract controversies at her previous post as an assistant aviation director." Who is Bustamante?
Bustamante was the key manager, inside the county aviation department, responsible for guiding through bureaucratic processes the no-bid deal for the Homestead Air Force Base to HABDI, a group of lobbyists and then-directors of the Latin Builders Association who had reconstituted as a private corporation to turn the air base into a major, privatized commercial airport.
As such, Bustamante represents the manager class within county government-- whose responsibility is primarily to politics. How many county agencies can claim senior managers whose allegiance is first to political patronage and second to their jobs?
"Gravy Train" cracks open the window on highly placed managers who serve multiple masters: protecting the interests of county commissioners in some cases, lobbyists in others; government employees, in other words, who fully understand how the system is gamed; and give government a bad name.
Here is the problem, manifest lately in the $700 billion TARP plan by Treasury Secretary Paulson. We have allowed government to malfunction by design, for so long and to such great length, that there are not enough bank regulators in Treasury to make sure that the money-- from taxpayers-- goes to intended purposes. More to the point of "Gravy Train", the human resources of the US Department of Justice have been oriented away from white collar crime to fight terrorism, leaving huge deficits in the capacity of law enforcement to audit and root out corruption.
For Barack Obama's administration to rescue the economy from a depression means getting the money to the states and to the cities. It will be the test of a lifetime to prevent that money from disappearing to the benefit of insiders and the politically connected; in ways that work counter-purpose to Obama's commitment to reform the US energy economy.
Some economists are saying that the climate of fear gripping the economy is worse than the cause, itself. This is the problem with living at the edge of economic catastrophe: the risks increase as the margin for error shrink. And so, the prospect that the largest fiscal stimulus in history will be administered locally to primarily benefit the same special interests and land speculators who fomented our problems in the first place gives Barack Obama every reason to read "Gravy Train" and to ask the question of his advisors in Florida; who is Myra Bustamante?
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Posted on Sun, Dec. 21, 2008
Transit hires included the well-connected
BY LARRY LEBOWITZ
They called it ``The Friends and Family Plan.''
The name, cribbed from a cellphone company's sales pitch, described the wave of patronage hires, reclassifications and promotions that crested over Miami-Dade Transit after voters ratified a new sales tax in 2002.
The new hires included aides and secretaries to ex-Mayor Alex Penelas, current and former Commissioners Barbara Carey-Shuler, Jimmy Morales, Betty Ferguson, José ''Pepe'' Diaz, Sally Heyman, Dennis Moss, Katy Sorensen and Natacha Seijas, and retired U.S. Rep. Carrie Meek.
They also included four distant cousins of former Transit Director Roosevelt Bradley.
Many of the aides who worked for Penelas and the former commissioners were moved into the transit agency under county personnel ''pipeline'' rules that give placement preference to workers whose jobs are being eliminated.
''A lot of those people -- I didn't know them personally,'' Bradley said. ``They were pipelined in because their jobs were gone and we had the openings. Some of them competed and were selected. Nothing wrong with that.''
Among the transit hires:
• Maurice Williams, self-proclaimed mastermind behind fuel farm thefts at Miami International Airport, hired as a rail track repair supervisor in 2003 despite a criminal past including a gun charge.
• Charles Wellons, a retired police detective and Meek aide, who admitted under oath that he was handed a bag filled with $3,000 in tainted cash by a prominent lobbyist during Miami's 1997 vote-fraud scandal. He was given immunity.
• Dwayne T. Holloway, son of former state representative and current Miami-Dade School Board member Wilbert ''Tee'' Holloway. A few months earlier, Dwayne Holloway lost his job as a Broward County corrections officer for smoking marijuana. He refused to comment.
• Yvette D. Curtis, a daughter of Commissioner Dorrin Rolle, hired to fill a personnel technician opening in the civil rights and labor relations office in July 2003. She now earns about $42,000 a year. Curtis declined to comment. Her father did not respond to messages.
Other hires included veteran county staffer Mayra Bustamante, who was placed in a high-ranking transit job in March 2003 after running into contract controversies at her previous post as an assistant aviation director.
Bustamante rose to deputy transit director over administration. When director Bradley was fired in 2007, he publicly tried to blame many of the agency's financial problems on Bustamante and said he repeatedly tried to fire her but was overruled by County Manager George Burgess.
Bradley's successor, Harpal Kapoor, ultimately forced Bustamante to retire in May, after 31 years with the county.
Bustamante could not be reached for comment.
Many of the hires -- including Beatriz Fullington, a security office supervisor who was led from County Hall in handcuffs on a prior grand theft warrant -- were funneled into the agency through a side-door contract with temporary hiring agencies.
Transit security supervisor Wellons was hired in 2004 after his previous employer, former Rep. Meek, retired.
''I went to Roosevelt Bradley personally; he told me how to line up the job'' with the temporary agency, Wellons said. ``I did what he said, and now I'm here.''
A retired Miami police detective before working for Meek, Wellons was given immunity from prosecution in the vote fraud scandal in 1998. He described how he was handed a plastic bag filled with $3,000 in cash by a prominent lobbyist Steve Marin. Marin denied it. Nobody was charged.
''My life is transparent,'' Wellons said. ``I value my integrity.''
SON PROMOTED
In October 2005, the transit agency promoted Carey-Shuler's son, Archibald Jr., from a system's programmer job to a higher-paying position as chief superintendent over rail traffic control.
Carey-Shuler resigned her commission seat in December 2005. Two months later, the agency reclassified all four chiefs, including Archibald Carey, to a higher-paying exempt status. The result: Between 2002 and 2007, his gross pay swelled 63 percent, from $70,761 to $115,427.
Carey was a respected 15-year transit employee with top computer skills who resigned in February, transit officials said. He could not be reached for comment.
Bradley said Carey earned the promotion and that the reclassification put all chief rail superintendents on the same level as chiefs in other divisions.
Four distant cousins of Bradley by marriage -- bus operator Candace Jaghai, bus maintenance control clerk Daryl Jaghai, bus maintenance technician Delroy Jaghai and clerk Shaari Jaghai -- were brought into the agency via the temporary contract and eventually placed in full-time jobs. They did not respond to requests for comment.
An assistant county attorney ruled in 2006 that Bradley had not violated county nepotism rules because the Jaghais were related by marriage.
Williams received immunity from prosecution in the fuel farm case as a whistleblower who helped investigators convict others.
In depositions, Williams admitted pocketing $300 a week in kickbacks from Antonio Junior, a County Hall lobbyist, for steering him a security contract. Junior pleaded guilty in the fuel farm case.
Williams also said he pocketed more than $50,000 in kickbacks from others who were convicted in the scandal.
The depositions detail an extensive criminal past that was never discovered during his 2003 hiring as a rail-track repair supervisor.
Williams admitted he had been purchasing ounce-sized quantities of cocaine in Miami and driving them in rental cars to his hometown, Troy, Ala. One of Williams' fuel-farm colleagues was murdered in a drug-deal-gone-sour.
BACKGROUND CHECKS
Williams was hired at a time when the county government was checking only Miami-Dade court and police records for background checks. Williams' arrests -- including a gun-menacing conviction -- occurred in Alabama.
The county now conducts more thorough statewide and national checks.
In a brief interview, Williams declined to comment, other than to say that he applied for the transit job after seeing an ad in the newspaper.
Miami Herald staff writer Rob Barry contributed to this report.
© 2008 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.miamiherald.com
1 comment:
On the mark...as usual.
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