From the volume of comments, it is clear that readers have strong views about the best candidate to be the next mayor of Miami. As a nation, we live in extraordinary times, with more upheaval than at any period since the 1960's. As the epicenter of the collapse of housing markets, Florida's 2010 elections will be about holding accountable a status quo that sold the state's future for the ready profits of development and oversupply. The same is true of the county and upcoming city elections in Miami.
At all levels of government, taxpayers are now weighed down by enormous debts created by unsustainable growth and bad economic policies. Government ran out of control during the boom times-- making mockery of fiscal conservatism-- and now taxpayers are left to make up the difference between revenue and expenses. The elected officials who allowed and abetted these trends, including "streamlined" development-- ought to be held accountable. Downtown Miami is described by mayoral candidate Sanchez as a "young city", but it is a city whose promise was turned over to see-through condos. A vibrant city life in downtown Miami is always just one more condo zoning change away. In the meantime, Miami's leaders destroyed public access to its chief amenity: the waterfront and the riverfront. Where other cities embraced public access to its water-- in some cases tearing down public infrastructure to open the city up to the waterfront-- city leaders in Miami have always closed it off, bowing to land use lobbyists who pull the levers at city hall. Miami is a city that permitted abusive law enforcement tactics during the FTAA Summit to clobber civic engagement and protest. It is a city that never fails to give big developers what they wanted, when they wanted it. Now is the time for them to pay the price for all the glamorous condo opening sales parties, the fake VIP's, and for the false promises of public infrastructure investments that will do nothing to lift the economy and jobs from the most severe recession since the Depression.
Most politicians talk about "looking forward" and hope that is where voters focus their attention. Not so fast. So much damage has been done to the economy and to the security of ordinary taxpayers that it is imperative for voters to look back and hold accountable incumbents. This is true all the way to Tallahassee: but here in Miami, voters should support candidates who pledge to make a clear break from past, failed policies. The upcoming mayoral elections are a referendum; there is no avoiding the real anger that is bubbling beneath all the talk about "recovery". How did we get into this mess? Who put us here?
18 comments:
Who is responcible for the City of Miami financial fiasco? Under whose watch did all of this happen? Who are the mayor, commissioners, and city manager that negotiated these bad deals and approved them? You can’t fault the unions for trying to get the best deal they could get! Just like you can’t fault developers for trying to build as much as possible and make as much profit as they can. The fault is totally with our elected leaders and the manager that accepted these lopsided union contracts. The fault is with our city that authorized employee salaries in excess of $100K, $200K & $300K. They all end up departing with great pensions plans and we taxpayers get stuck paying the bills for the rest of our lives. Why are property owners and business operators being punished just because we happen to own property in Miami? Drastic cuts need to be made ASAP. Start by cutting all salaried elected leaders and employees that earn more then $100K by 35 -50%. Cancel all pensions of elected leaders. Renegotiate union contracts. If not then we shall have to declare bankruptcy and then negotiate union contracts under the currant market conditions. Do not reward elected leaders or managers that got us into this financial mess. Reprimand them or better yet fire them, get them to return the salaries and perks they recived and cancel their life time pension as a result of their mismanagement, malfeasance and ineptness! Lets hope that the November election results will bring a much needed improvement.
Harry Emilio Gottlieb
Harry Emilio - there is a lot of blame to go around, but lets start at citizens not paying attention to what is happening at the local level.
The unions that you blame put these people in office so that the sweetheart contracts get approved. All of the commissioners approved the last contracts. All of the commissioners approved the last two budgets. None of the commissioners are really going to take on the unions.
Even if you cut the non-union salaries by 50%, the city has a 450 million budget deficit. The city is going bust. Face it. And shame on all of us for not learning our lessons in the 90's.
From now on, I will not vote for anyone who gets the endorsement of the fire, police or general employees union.
From now on, I am going to show up at city hall whenever a budget is presented or a union contract is presented.
From now on, I am going to push for a citizens bill of rights that gives us a month to read an analyze any budget or union contract proposal. This has to stop and citizens need to be involved.
The problem is that our city officials mismanaged the huge amounts of tax revenue that came from the real estate bubble, and gave themselves excessive salaries and funded lavish projects. Now it's time for everyone to fasten their belts, but they are not willing to do so. Commissioners failed to agree upon a maximum cap on the mileage rate for property taxes, effectively giving the county property appraiser the power to raise that cap to whatever amount needed to continue obtaining the same revenue from taxpayers whose properties have lost 25-50% of their value.
Mayor Alvarez and his proposal to cut jobs, services, and lower salaries to 5% is a move towards the right direction, but the downsizing needs to be more extensive. The lavish pensions that some are receiving need to be cut as well, since they are by far one of the biggest slices of the budget. Eh,... so many thoughts on how to handle this mess, but unfortunately WE, the taxpayers, are bound to pay for all the bad decisions made with our hard-earned money. It's very sad.
City of Miami Financial Department Head - Larry Spring, Chief Financial Officer:
Mr. Spring:
The above blog article by 'Eye on Miami' indicates that the City of Miami is in dire financial straits. 'Eye on Miami' states that so much damage has been done to the economy and security of taxpayers that it is time for the voters to hold accountable incumbents. What is your opinion on the state of
Miami's economy? Do you think Mayor Diaz should be held accountable? Do you think as the Chief Financial Officer that you also should be held accountable? Many taxpayer's are asking for your resignation. If you do not resign, those same taxpayer's are asking for the City Manager to terminate your employment. Do you think you should be fired? How did we get into this mess? Who put us here?
Thank you,
Harry:
You state 'do not reward elected leaders or managers that got us into this financial mess'.
Didn't all the Commissioners vote for the Union Contracts and Budgets? Didn't Tomas Regalado, who has received endorsements of the Unions, also vote yes for these budgets and also union contracts.
Harry, you can't have it both ways!
Wait a minute now...not all the Commissioners voted for the last two budgets! Joe Sanchez voted against Manny Diaz's last budget and was the only Commissioner to do so, which begs the question...If other senior Commissioners, like Regalado, who claims he foresaw this financial disaster looming years ago, actually saw the storm coming, why did he vote in favor of the last budget, which called for a rise in milleage rate? Why did he vote in favor of giving all those City employees all that money and benefits?! Isn't it a coincidence now that he's the darling of the Unions? Most of these guys are panderers! At least Sanchez was the only 'no' vote on the last budget.
All those city employees? Really?
First of all. The Manager is the one who negotiates with the Unions. The same manager who is run by the Mayor, who is best buds with the Chairman. The Chairman also votes last. (hint)
Secondly The raise in millage was to hire new police officers, I know what your thinking OH UNIONS!
No, if you hire new blood the old retire and dont do overtime, which is where you start to see many of the bloated checks with fire and police.
Oh and if we want to talk about raising taxes the Chairman proposed a raise in our taxes the day before yesterday. It was voted down. Its very easy to point fingers, especially when the Chairman was a former union vice president and did not get endorsed. Stick to the facts.
The City Manager is responsible for operating the City. In the current Administration the City Manager takes his orders from Manny Diaz. If the City mismanaged itself those two are primarily responsible.
For the City to survive the City Manager must push to terminate all the union contracts and he must fire 400-500 city employees. Those decisions take courage.
Secondarily, the CFO, Larry Spring is also responsible. Mr. Spring is underqualified. Larry Spring signed off on the massively lucrative pension contracts with their massive pension giveaways.
Larry Spring pushed the $3 bil bailout of the privately owned Marlins. Mr Spring pushed the bailout of the failed Jungle Island scammers. Mr Spring pushed the extensions and approvals to the never able to close Island Gardens developer Flagstone Development. Mr Spring pushed the 2007 and 2008 "smoke and mirrors" City budgets. All predictable failures. To allow the City to go forward Mr Spring should resign immediately. Because he loves being overpaid he will not resign.
At least Regalado acknowledges the problems the city has. You may call this negative but getting rid of the manager and the police chief is a must.
That is not negative...That is positive! Larry Spring, CFO must also go!
Regalado has been part of the problem, and now with the union endorsements get ready folks cause he ain't going to do squat if he gets elected. You can take that to the bank, or to the poor house.
Can any candidate independent of the mess ever get elected in Miami or anywhere else?
Nothing positive will occur in Miami if the unions have too much influence. Someone needs to stand up and show courage. The unions are forcing a shift in Net Worth from private sector workers to public sector parasites. It is socialism.
Pete Hernandez and Larry Spring are too weak or too overpaid to say boo.
It's the economy, stupid! The people of Miami most need 1) jobs and 2) lower city pension costs. Forget some silly condo project on the river, or some neighborhood committee, Regalado has no idea what he is doing, no idea how to create jobs and attract investment, no courage to call unions back to the bargaining table. He is happy to saddle our children with taxes to pay bloated union pensions if it gets him elected. The sadder thing is that Regalado knows he is incompetent, so he told Sarnoff that, if he is elected, he will let Sarnoff run things. That is why Sarnoff supports Regalado.
sarnoff supports regalado because sarnoff wants to be mayor in four years, and the the best way he can think to do so is to get regalado elected, let regalado bungle the city to crap (which he will), and then in four years sarnoff spins himself as the savior and gets elected mayor. i.e. regalado told sarnoff that he will let him run things, but sarnoff is playing regalado and will let him fall on his face so that sarnoff looks better by comparison. even more cynical is that sarnoff would let his city go to crap for four years just to get elected mayor. clearly sarnoff really cares about his city!
"It's the economy stupid!"
I agree, however I disagree with your logic. The people of Miami needs lower taxes and more jobs however they do not need empty condos building and multi-billion dollar stadiums.
We need a real solution not just something that is akin to living on a credit card.
Thank you Gimleteye and Genius of Despair for using logic and past experiences to formulate a good argument.
Regalado has the support of Power U. As well as receiving a Orchid from the Urban Environment League two years in a row. He is the candidate for the activists.
There is a rumor CFO Larry Spring was been fired. Bit late. The chump missed balancing the budget by $118 mil.
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