County government and The Miami Herald have a bizarre relationship: each are monopolies and have to live with each other. There is a long history of slapping The Herald from County Hall. In recent years, Commissioners Dennis Moss and Joe Martinez and Natacha Seijas have even gone so far as to authorize spending to create an internally funded, government news organ to "speak the truth" unlike the Herald, that spews "untrue" stories by the bucket of ink. Back in the bad old days, Spanish language radio was used to summon vitriol through diatribes against Herald publishers who believed the paper was not hard enough against Castro.
But even then-- and especially then-- there always were other agendas at work; mainly economic ones related to the increasingly narrow focus on building, construction and development. Today we are in a different era: the post-bust hangover from the unsustainable growth of Miami-Dade that commissioners STILL do not acknowlege and The Herald rarely reported. Now that the building boom is kaput, it is easy to see what pain is involved in contracting government that has to live within its means.
In his press conference, Mayor Alvarez made a compelling case that non-union police and fire department majors need to have at least salary parity with captains they supervise. The writing was on the wall-- way back in 2008 when the mayor first took up the review of salary structures-- that hard times for the county budget were ahead. Likely, across the board wage cuts will mean that those executives who received five percent wage hikes will be less penalized by whatever across-the-board wage cuts materialize as a result of last night's budget decision by the county commission. So... what's your opinion? My view is that the budget a year from now is going to be in even worse shape, as the contraction of real estate results in a true assessment of how far property values have fallen.
17 comments:
Rather than raise salaries of the non-union brass, the County should have negotiated lower salaries with the rank and file. The union contracts have been open for a full year without any significant changes/negotiations. It's known that once you give something in a union contract, you can never take it back- that would be political suicide. But for a mayor who can't run again for office, it would be the right thing to do.
Mayors shouldn't argue wit reporters at press conferences. It is in poor taste.
"Never argue with someone who buys ink by the barrel."
That's Natacha's line!
As a firefighter, I don't have a problem giving back 5% + of my pay. It would impact my family, but would go much further in upholdinng our image. What bothers us the most is that there have been no steps to change our ways since knowing this was looming since 2007. Now we have to pay for it. I would rather see my pay go towards new service to provide more care than a bureaucracy that could give a rats us what the workers have to say to them. I don't know what we're gong to do next year. When the decision is made to lay off firefighters, don't see us as being greedy, take it as us not trusting our employer who is using this crisis as an opportunity to hurt us more.
The Mayor could not have looked worse.
It was definetly a meltdown. I think this talk about recalls is getting to him.
Another thing if there was no news in the Herald story as he claimed and not worthy. Why did he legitimize it and make it a news story by calling a press conference.
I agree with the previous comments, I think it was wrong for the Mayor to argue with a reporter. Lately it seems that freedom of speech doesn't exist at County Hall. If they don't like what you have to say they just turn your microphone off and send you on your way or bully you at a press conference with a bunch of uniformed police officers staring you down.
Bully. Intimidation. That is the Standard Operating Procedure at County Hall and MDPD. That is why those officers were there in uniform, they were told to be there. And they were. It was sad and pathetic. I was impressed with the reporters though. They were solid.
At the last press conference, Mayor Alvarez said he at first avoided answering the Herald's questions because he thought he wouldn't get a "fair shake."
What a slippery slope we've traveled. Mr. Mayor apparently needs some extra thick cheese with his whine.
Come on people get up out cho wheel-chairs, pull up those diapers and raise some holy white hell around here!
ut oh. The Herald slapped him again today. Same topic. But, truthfully so, he does not have any relationship with the community. I would like to add an addendum: His community connection is with his inner circle of buddies and lobbyists and his little old seniors, the yellow shirts.
ps(hmmm, The Yellow Shirts tend to be the users of the Little Havana senior centers that he just restored funding to)
Breaking News:
The Miami Herald
9-20-2009
Story by: M
Miami-Dade Bus Driver runs over cat.
...
The Mayor's spokeswoman, Victoria Mallet (who got a 54% pay raise) said, "the bus driver didn't see the cat".
That's how the Herald has been writing their stories.
Mayor Alvarez = 100%
Miami Herald = 0 %
Eye On Miami Blog = 0.5%
Compensate your best performers!
LOL, M.
Vicky Malette also said the Mayor had no comment on the incident because it was an open investigation.
Alvarez had a meltdown live and on camera. Not pretty.
What the Mayor did not mention about the Major who made less than the Captian who worked for him is that the "Major" was promoted from Lieutenant to Major. He never was a Captain, nor could make the test scores to be promoted to one. A more than common tactic employed within the MDPD to promote those politically tied within the department and county government. The herald should look at this "Major's" qualifications and background, then throw that back in the face of the Mayor.
i think top exec's getting a 10% paycut is a slap in the face to their workers when the exec's make over 250,000 per year. they will only lose 25,000 what the hell.
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