Monday, February 08, 2010

Yet Another County Commission Proposal That Sucks. By Geniusofdespair

Pepe Diaz is Proposing this Resolution, February 9th, here is the part I like:

WHEREAS, this Board wishes to provide each commissioner the ability to establish a trust fund for the collection of tax-deductible private sector contributions for such public purpose projects in the commissioner’s district.

They get rid of discretionary funds and instead want to institute something worse. Now the Rodney Barreto's of the world and the rest of the Lobbyists can give gifts to a fund. No problem with campaign limits. Here is how it would work. If Vile Natacha has a breakfast program where she gathers votes from her good-will, she can get Miguel DeGrandy to fund it for her and she gives him a tax break for doing it. She has to be the middleman to get it because the people have to know it comes from her. The tax break part: You wouldn't get to take a campaign contributions off your taxes but this 'fund' translates to be the same thing. This stinks, and BTW, Pepe Diaz couldn't have thought this up in a million years, much too dumb. Also they would be accepting in-kind contributions through their districts. For example maybe Jorge Perez will build a basketball court for Pepe Diaz to give his district or the Dolphins might give Barbara Jordan 50 tickets to give out to the PTA. Not so painful to give to a politician when you can write it off. Here are more details on this decaying rat smelling, money funnel idea:

Section 1. Each commissioner is hereby authorized, in his or her discretion, to request the County Mayor, through the Finance Department, to establish a District Trust Fund for his or her district, for the sole purpose of receiving private sector monetary and in-kind tax-deductible contributions as well as public sector contributions in support of public purpose projects in the respective commission district. Each District Trust Fund shall be administered by the Finance Department at the direction of the district commissioner in accordance with this resolution and the County’s investment policies.
Section 2. Each District Trust Fund shall be kept and maintained in trust for the respective district by the Finance Department, and any deposits, including interest earned on such deposits, to the Trust Fund shall be used (i) in accordance with the terms and conditions of each grant or donation; or (ii) if there are no specific terms or limitations attached to such grant or donation, at the direction of the district commissioner for any public purpose to benefit the applicable commission district.
Section 3. The County’s formal bid and purchasing procedures in Administrative Order 3-38 with respect to small purchase orders are waived for purchases in accordance with this resolution, provided that each individual purchase does not exceed $10,000, and that three quotes on the proposed purchase are obtained if practicable or economically feasible.
Section 4. The County’s formal procedures in Administrative Order 1-3 for acceptance or rejection of gifts, donations, artwork, commemorative and/or memorial structures, and devises or bequests offered to the County are waived for receipt of contributions by a commissioner for the District Trust Fund applicable to that commissioner’s district.
Section 5. Disbursements from a District Trust Fund shall be made by announcement on the record at a meeting of this Board and approval by this Board.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Whats this? A way to pilfer funds in small amounts? Or what? Seems that there is already troubles (Spense-Jones) with funds being siphoned off in 10K and 5K amounts that pile up? Or does it actually make it hard for pilfering and such?
??

CATO said...

Pilfering or not the biggest issye is political patronage,which makes incumbents unbeatable.

The only "slight" improvement is that its not taxpayer funded at least directly, BUT since all these lobbyist can expect lucrative contracts for their largess at taxpayer expense (so even thats no improvement).

Question for the calorically challenged commissioner and the rest of his crew why the F*** does the money have to go through them? Its not theirs to begin with.

We all know the answer.

David said...

You're correct. Mr. Diaz, while he performs with testicular fortitude and bluster as a pseudointellectual wanna-be, does not possess sufficient neurological capacity to put this mind blowing scheme together.

I'm not surprised. I have watched for nearly 20 minutes while Transportation tried to explain to Rolle and Edmonson that STS is only required to provide service on existing bus routes (within 5 miles) during the times those routes run, but the county chooses to provide the service 24-7 versus only during the times the routes run.

They were just not able to grasp the concept. For elected officials who are required to make decisions on complex issues that affect real people's lives; it's a little scary.

But not as scary as this move to allow corporations to donate to sitting commissioners outside of the political contributions system.

The banana republic is alive and well in Miami-Dade.

Unknown said...

You know David, you describe Republican levels of competence there. Nice comment. To a great post.

Anonymous said...

Disgusting. I'm getting ready to pick up and leave. Any sane employer would do the same.

Anonymous said...

"Much to dumb."

If you're going to accuse someone of being dumb, don't misspell "too" and put it in a sentence fragment. :)


I love this blog. There's so much information I could not get anywhere else. Your work is greatly appreciated, even if the state of affairs is so depressing.


Sincerely,

PartOfTheProblem

Geniusofdespair said...

I am not a writer. Never have claimed to be one. You will find grammatical mistakes and the rest because we pump these things out WITHOUT A PROOF READER. The suggestion is nice but the attitude part, I can do without.

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry about the previous comment. I was trying to be funny. It will not happen again.
I was serious about appreciating the effort that goes into providing this information.

Again, I apologize.

Geniusofdespair said...

It's okay, as I said in a post -- I am prickly. Writing every damn day takes a lot out of you. Some days I am sucked dry and cranky, you hit me on one of those days. I would love a proof reader. Put your corrections in comments and I will make changes. Call yourself the Proofreader and I will know it is you.

Unknown said...

In doing my due diligence on Kendrick Meek (as I am a member and work volunteer for the Democratic Party for State of FL) I've found the Miami Herald project online "Poverty Peddlers" and it opened up my awareness to the extent of 'traditional corruption' going on in District 5 and the City Commission. Truly depressing. I've been blogging about the Michelle Spence-Jones events... simply because I've had an interest, Nathaniel Styles and Harland Woodard are friends who I've worked with in helping to support "Osun's Village" - bringing local and disapora artisans into the Liberty City community to establish new tourism projects. The monies M. Spence-Jones pilfered was supposed to go to them ... that's how my interest started in this. I'm a Lake Worth resident, grew up in Lighthouse Point and I care about S. FL. The more I learn about the extent of corruption in the Opa Locka / Overtown area I'm just stunned. And it's clear that the Meek's are involved, whether by no due diligence on Stachhouse (yeah, right?) or whatever, I find I can not support or work for electing Meek as a state Senator... where the hell will he put monies next? Eye on Miami has done a really good job and I thank you pointing me in valid directions for my own purposes.... :-)