Look-out Florida Keys! Here comes your worst nightmare!"Keynoter" reporter Ryan McCarthy in the February 14th edition writes a story that should freak out Keys residents. If the gaggle of lobbyists Monroe County Administrator Roman Gastesi wants are hired, will the developers they represent in Dade County soon follow? Scary thought. Watch your back, Conchs!
Roman, as we all know in Miami Dade County, is a good example of the Peter Principle at work having been our water-boy, oops I mean Water Czar. You should have asked us about him Monroe County! Can you imagine he wants to hire Ron Book, Rodney Barreto, Brian May, Al Lorenzo and Alberto Cardenas among others? As G.o.D. would say: "Ick" to that crew.
Gastesi's dream of superstar lobbyists gets cool reception. by Ryan McCarthy
Monroe County Administrator Roman Gastesi's proposed "dream team" of state and federal lobbyists didn't come off so dreamy to a few Keys stakeholders on Friday.
Gastesi invited the lobbyists to the Marathon Government Center to make their pitch to representatives from six county municipalities and government bodies. Some, including the city of Marathon and the Key Largo Wastewater Treatment District, seemed less than impressed:
Gastesi hammered home the idea that a new administration is in place in Washington and that a unified voice will be the most effective way to secure sewer funding from the state and through President Obama's federal stimulus package.
"In partnering up we get more bang for our buck," Gastesi, a former Miami-Dade lobbyist, said. "Our pain as far as paying for these guys is less. It shows a united front; we're the Florida Keys, not Key Largo, Islamorada or Marathon."
Key Largo sewer district member Charles Brooks said the board recently voted unanimously to defer, while Marathon City Manager Clyde Burnett indicated the City Council is pleased with its team of lobbyists.
"I don't know who coined the term 'dream team,' but we thought we already had a dream team working for us," he said.
County Mayor George Neugent told the group at the outset of the meeting he'd informed Gastesi "that Monroe County has an aversion to economies of scale."
"We find ourselves in a very tight spot and I'm speaking for the municipalities and those who have not been funded with subsidy money for their wastewater projects," Neugent said. "Because of this unfunded mandate we're facing, it could cost us hundreds if not thousands of people trying to hang on in Monroe County."
Islamorada Village Manager Ken Fields indicated his council has expressed interest in a partnership, while a Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority representative said it has interests outside of sewers its lobbyists are pursuing. But Key West Mayor Morgan McPherson agreed with Gastesi that a new administration requires a new voice in Washington, D.C.
"This is something we should have done a long time ago," he said. "I know a lot of work has been done in the past, but the bottom line is in Washington and Tallahassee, it's about relationships."
Among the best known in the state that Gastesi wants: South Florida lobbyist Ron Book, whose task will be to go after the $200 million in state funding.
The other six lobbyists on Gastesi's dream team: Rodney Barreto and Brian May of Floridian Partners LLC, Al Lorenzo of Quantum Results, and Carl Chidlow, Alberto Cardenas -- a former state GOP chairman -- and Colin Mueller of Tew Cardenas LLP. Gastesi is a former employee of Tew Cardenas.
Barreto also is chairman of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and spent much of his childhood growing up in Tavernier. Chidlow served as finance director for the Democratic National Committee from early 2006 through the 2008 presidential election.
The total cost for the lobbyists would be $20,000 per month. That full-court press would cost each stakeholder -- if all six were in -- $3,333 a month.
Several participants, including Chidlow, mentioned that just $10 billion of the more than $800 billion stimulus package is dedicated to wastewater projects nationwide. It's a small pie to fight over, he said.
The next step is for the stakeholders to take Gastesi's proposal back to their respective board, council or commission for approval -- or rejection.
9 comments:
Talk about toxic assets. Monroe County should have known what it was getting into, with Gatesi. But due diligence in respect to Monroe County is an oxymoron.
The fabulous Miami-Dade lobbyists are scratching around to replace the income stream they made defending the housing bubble.
You mean, attacking the public.
Ick it is...this is quite a crew.
The lobbyists are heading away from anything that resembles real estate development. It will be five to ten years before there's anything resembling a work out. South Florida will be littered with ghost towns and dead suburban platted subdivisions that they made tons of money pushing through zoning. In the meantime, they will gravitate to whatever money buckets are out there, like moths to a light.
Wasn't Gastesi the water boy for Shiver? Nuf said.
Watch your back... that isn't enough of a warning...WATCH your wallet and your vacant land.
Oh well, they all probably have houses in the keys, so maybe they will not over develop it.
Wait to till they try figure out how to get Bougainville back into their hands.
Mr. Gastesi has always been clueless and leaves each job just as his employers are catching on. The only thing he is good at is shmoosing. He needs dream team cuz he doesn't know what he is doing. Those guys he wants 2 hire might be slimy, but at least they R smart.
County A wants $400 million from the state for bridge repair.
County B wants $400 million from the state for roadwork.
County C wants $400 million from the state for drainage improvements.
The state fund for bridge repair, roadwork and drainage improvemnts has $600 million in it to spend this year.
County B hires the "dream team".
Who do you think will get closest to what they want?
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