The post below, "Major Blow to the Hispanic Members of the County Commission's Unreformable Majority", is wishful thinking. As a co-blogger of Eyeonmiami, I share the enthusiasm for the headline. In fact, the composition of the overall commission doesn't change with Dennis Moss as chairman. The balance on committee assignments is carefully worked out to keep the boat from rocking.
The overall tenor of government performance-- if not the substance-- will be better than in the recent past. But remember: Moss joined Martinez, Diaz, and Seijas in shamelessly attacking citizen critics from the dais. It was Moss' idea to use taxpayer funds to put out the county's own newspaper "to get the truth out". Moss should never have joined the unreformable majority in turning the county commission into an inquisition against citizens who objected to the real estate and housing asset bubble that is now so busted, all the king's horses and all the king's men will not put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
Whether this adds up to reform depends on less on Moss' leadership skill or his willingness to work with the mayor to improve the performance of the county manager, George Burgess, than the economic crisis. All those years that Burgess allowed Seijas to bully the staff of county agencies have been washed away by urgent realities. The only good news in the worst contraction since in the 1930's is this: the backlash against the excesses of the housing and construction boom will give energy to the US Department of Justice and public corruption units. Click on read more.
As a result, Dorrin Rolle as chair of the Airport and Seaport Committee will have a much tighter range of motion than his predecessors who used the airport and port as political piggy banks. Chairman Moss re-configured the Government Operations Committee; but it still retains oversight of very heavy public investment related to water and wastewater management. Carlos Gimenez is going to have his hands full reigning in the public subsidy "shovel ready" agenda and insider contracts, with the composition of that committee retaining Seijas, Diaz, and Martinez. On the other hand, Gimenez may be the front-runner for the next mayor of Miami-Dade County and so his work steering the unreformable majority on this committee is going to be difficult, to say the least. Katy Sorenson gets the environment, planning and quality of life portfolio plus finance and procurement management. But she also gets yapping CSX Joe Martinez as vice-chair. This committee does empower two of the African American commissioners (Audrey Edmonson and Barbara Jordan), but these more often than not have sided with the unreformable majority. It will be very interesting to see if they are willing to be more independent and decisive about the need for fiscal stimulus in their own districts as opposed to the hinterlands (cf. Urban Development Boundary and Parkland DRI). Barbara Jordan, who has been horrendous on edge development issues (ie. Florida City Commons/Lennar) is given charge of the committee on transit, infrastructure and roads; this could be the most important committee and the likely recipient of significant federal dollars for 'shovel ready' projects; many of which are already the point of opposition by community and civic activists who Moss has long ignored. So to conclude, it is wrong to declare that the unreformable majority has been dimmed or dented.
The most positive news is that the morale among county staff, and particularly in agencies charged with protecting the quality of life and environment in Miami-Dade, is going to quickly improve after a long and nasty Dark Ages where Natacha Seijas continually meddled and exerted pressure through her surrogates. The unreformable majority spent years beating up on Katy Sorenson; for at least the next two years Sorenson will have more influence as the sole reliable vote for the public interest than she has ever had in more than 15 years on the commission. Unless she takes a job in DC. The managers who were able to hide behind Seijas, either because they had to for professional survival or because they preferred playing politics more than their jobs, will have to adjust.
The building boom and housing asset bubble that commissioners helped to foment also propelled the hubris of Miami's builders and developers and speculators and big farmers to new heights. How things change. It takes a village to raise a child and a Depression to raze a village: that's the new reality.
Over the past decade, Chairman Dennis Moss supported those massive platted subdivisions and developments in his district that look like ghost towns today. If he hadn't been supportive, building goodwill with the Latin Builders Association and its key players, he never would have had his turn as commission chairman. As the economy winds down, his biggest challenge will be to revise his thinking about what happened out there. It will be easier to do that thinking, now that the builders are out of the game. But everyone knows that in two years, if the fiscal stimulus works, it will be time for more nail guns and glue guns and particle board in the suburbs. The only way the unreformable majority and its influence changes is at the ballot box, and as far as that goes, the county commission still looks like a fortress secured by a permanent incumbency with term limits only applying to the county mayor.
5 comments:
This will make your blood boil even more:
http://cbs4.com/iteam/miami.dade.commission.2.907201.html
I read it...looks like business as usual.
Gimleteye:
I think when I was writing I was thinking more of a MAJOR BLOW TO EGO which is a major blow to their persona. They are all about ego. If it represents more than that, i.e. 'better results', we will see. I never said that. It is a major power shift as the committee appointments (and budget) are their major powers since the Strong Mayor came into being. It is clear that Dennis Moss (and I agree he has done some awful things to curtail citizens rights) was clearly slapping the Hispanic Membership of the Unreformable Majority around with his appointments and it is an upheaval in the power structure with the UM having only one Chairmanship with the lame Souto.
Carey-Schuler (another African American), was more inclusive of this group, UM, when County Commission Chair. She gave Natacha a plum Committee Chairmanship, GOE, not so with Moss. This is clearly a shift in the committees and Seijas will not be able to bully like she could in the past.
Gimleteye writes; it is still mostly a balance determined by economics. Seijas was useful to her campaign contributors during the building boom, but she overplayed her hand with the state and federal agencies. If the boom was still on, there would be a need for her by the power brokers even though she rubbed people the wrong way; but the attention is on federal money now, not private money from Wall Street, and there is no question that Moss will be a better person to have compared to the baggage that Seijas carries around with her wherever she goes.
2 years? The bubble isn't coming back. We've run out of bubbles.
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