More political corruption in South Florida ... by gimleteye

Barack Obama wants to keep his Blackberry. Miami Dade County Commissioner Natacha Seijas doesn't use email. Wonder why, the difference?

This is a story about the political corruption, the Florida Chamber of Commerce, and the use of charities. It begins with news that powerhouse county commissioner Mary McCarty, sister of powerful Tallahassee lobbyist Brian Ballard, has just been indicted on federal corruption charges. Her name has been removed from the county government website.

In just the past few years, a near majority of the Palm Beach County Commission has gone to jail on federal corruption charges. In the Palm Beach Post, McCarty reportedly told fellow commissioners, "It's not over."

Here's some additional reasons Eyeonmiami has focused on public corruption in Palm Beach County.

"Much of her political muscle came from the south county communities she served, while many of her fiercest battles involved projects outside of her district. ... On the commission, she fought against efforts to tighten development rules. In 2003, her vote helped defeat a measure that would have prevented some new developments from adding traffic to clogged roads. Last year, she pressed for a rule change that would have allowed Boca Raton developer Richard Siemens to put churches, schools and other "civic" buildings in the county's Agricultural Reserve." ('McCarty had 18 turbulent years on commission', Palm Beach Post, January 9, 2009) Familiar? Sounds like the de facto chair of the Miami Dade County Commission Natacha Seijas.

I have often wondered, is there a school funded by rock miners and developers and sugar barons that county commissioners attend, that teaches them how to use single member districts to push development / sprawl into districts outside their own?

It is an enormous failure of the mainstream media to draw attention to the result of single member districts in county commissions around the state (although this was a focal issue of the Miami Dade Charter Review Commission in 2008, whose recommendations were ignored by county commissioners. The key member who undermined recommendations: Natacha Seijas functionary: Miguel de Grandy.)

This is why Florida Hometown Democracy has emerged as a potent ballot referendum and movement: to take away from county commissioners the ability to vote on changes to land use plan amendments. And because Florida Hometown Democracy would strike at the heart of the status quo in a dysfunctional economy, the Florida Chamber of Commerce is fighting tooth and nail, with various hysterical responses cooked up by the same business forces who put Mary McCarty, Warren Newell and Tony Masilotti into positions of power. Or, in Miami Dade County, Natacha Seijas and her unreformable majority.

If not for the scheming by the Florida Chamber, the Florida Hometown Democracy constitutional amendment would have been on the November 2008 ballot. The Chamber concocted legislation in 2007 that was subsequently reversed in state court; if petitions that had been revoked were allowed to legally stand, the measure would have met the requirement for inclusion for the general election. (Read news article below and see our archive feature on Florida Hometown Democracy for more of the toxic details.)

There is a final similarity to Seijas and McCarty; two of the fiercest pro-development county commissioners on their respective dais. The Palm Beach Post noted (December 30, 2007) "Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty routinely co-chaired charity balls, selling $5,000 and $10,000 tables to the same developers who needed her votes." Sound familiar? Here's what Miami New Times wrote about Miami Dade county commissioner Natacha Seijas: "The YMCA also relies on the generosity of some of Miami-Dade's most prominent citizens. Among them: real estate moguls Masoud Shojaee and Pedro Adrian. The pair gave $40,000 to the YMCA for its 2006 annual gala. The builders also gave $19,000 to Seijas-sponsored political action committees. Neither man returned calls seeking comment. Developer Sergio Pino put up $26,000 for two pro-Seijas PACs and contributed $15,000 to the YMCA in 2005. He also didn't return New Times's calls seeking comment." ('Wicked, part 2', Miami New Times, January 31, 2007)



Jan 8, 4:28 PM EST

Fla. Supreme Court hears arguments on petitions

By BRENT KALLESTAD
Associated Press Writer


TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- An attorney for the state tried Thursday to persuade the Florida Supreme Court to reverse a lower court decision that struck down a law allowing voters to revoke their signatures on petitions for citizens' initiatives.

But some justices appeared to struggle with the state's argument that if you changed your mind once, you couldn't change it back again.

"And there was no reasonable answer to that," Tallahassee attorney Ross Burnaman, who favored the lower court's ruling, said after arguments. Burnaman was making his sixth appearance before the high court on behalf of backers of the Hometown Democracy Amendment, an initiative to require voter approval of changes in plans where new roads, homes and businesses could be built.

Justice Charles Canady, a former state legislator and congressman named to the court by Gov. Charlie Crist in August, asked Burnaman what was wrong with the Legislature recognizing that people could change their minds.

"It's a one way street," Burnaman said, noting there was not a provision to return to the original position.

"It seems to me we are complicating the whole process," Chief Justice Peggy Quince said during an exchange with Solicitor General Scott Makar toward the conclusion of the 50-minute session.

The 1st District Court of Appeal ruled in April that a state law that allows voters to revoke their signatures was unconstitutional, leading to the appeal argued Thursday.

The Legislature passed the law at the request of business organizations, which used it to revoke 13,182 signatures obtained by proponents of Hometown Democracy.

"Big business hates the Hometown Democracy Amendment," Burnaman said afterward. "They want to just, apparently, pave over the entire state and let everyone's home get foreclosed on."

The law was one of several steps taken by the Legislature in recent years with encouragement from business leaders to make it harder to pass initiatives. They contend initiatives, such as Hometown Democracy, would slow growth and the damage the state's economy.

The court will issue its ruling at a later date.

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