Javier Souto Lectures George Burgess. By Geniusofdespair

Apparently Miami Dade County Commissioner Javier Souto doesn't just ramble in person, he does it in writing too. take a look at this press release where he wants to waste our tax dollars on one of his pet projects.

Press Release:
Memorandum from Commissioner Javier D. Souto to County Manager, George Burgess
Legal & Political Implications with Regards to the Administration’s Disregard or Outright Snub of the Legal Mandate of the Legislative Branch of Miami-Dade County

I received a copy of your memorandum dated December 23, 2010 regarding the Building Better Communities General Obligation Bond Program and the List of Projects to be Funded at .445 Millage Rate. To my utter amazement, your list ignored/dismissed/disregarded Resolution Number R-764-10 approved by the Board of County Commissioners on July 8, 2010 which:

"directs the County Mayor or Mayor’s designee (I) to list Project No. 38 in the next series resolution as a project eligible for funding, (ii) to fund the development, construction and expansion of the Ronald Reagan Equestrian Center at Tropical Park in full in the amount of $10 million from bond proceeds generated from the next BBC GOB Program bonds (scheduled to be issued in the Fall of 2010) and (iii) not to make any adjustments to said funding for any reason, including cash flow revisions authorized by Implementing Order No. 3-47, without this Board’s prior approval."

This Resolution was legally adopted by the Board of County Commissioners following a legal legislative process involving public hearings and substantial public testimony in support of the project, by many prominent taxpayers and residents of our community. I have served in the legislative level of State and County Government as a Florida Senator, State Representative and County Commissioner for more than 25 years and have never seen the Executive Branch ignore a legislative mandate. However, this mandate directing the Mayor to list this project for the specific amount stated in the resolution adopted by the Board in the next bond series resolution was ignored by the Administration; along with all the other GOB projects sponsored through Resolutions by most of my colleagues and approved by a majority of the Board of County Commissioners into law.

Now I understand that you are sponsoring legislation repealing 12 Resolutions sponsored by Commissioners, which add projects to the list of projects to be funded in the next bond sale, which also grants you the power to decide which projects to include in the bond issue and at what level of funding these projects will be funded in the future. In other words, you are sponsoring legislation that dictates policy contrary to the policy adopted by the Board of County Commissioners during the past twelve months. All these laws went through months of Committee hearings, Commission hearings, public testimony and support and thousands of hours of County Resources and thousands of dollars of tax monies expended on salaries of County personnel to produce the documentation required for the adoption of those laws and to prepare and staff all the public hearings required to pass these laws. Two of them were my Resolutions, one related to the Hispanic Cultural Center and Theater for Children, which was approved by the voters of Miami-Dade County in a Countywide election not once but twice. The other project was the Ronald Reagan Equestrian Center, which was also approved by the voters in a Countywide election and was promised to be completed by 2007 in order to attract world class revenue producing events that bring tourists from all over the world. Many residents and taxpayers came before this Board to ask for support of the Equestrian Center completion including Mr. Benjamin Leon, CEO of Leon Medical Centers, Mr. Nicolas Estrella, CEO of Estrella Insurance Company, and Mr. Carlos Blanco, President of Ironbeer Soft Drink Bottling Company, among others. These are two extremely important projects to the Hispanic Community that were approved by Countywide vote of the residents of this community and received the support of the Board of County Commissioners by majority vote on both Resolutions to move the projects forward. Your Administration adopted a policy of blocking these important projects that could produce positive economic growth for our community.

The last time I checked, Miami-Dade County is not a monarchy, we are a democratic form of government with an Executive Branch, Legislative Branch and ultimately a Judicial Branch to review the appeals of our citizenry of any laws that we adopt or decisions that we make. This is the only government body that I know where the Administrative Branch serves as a Legislator, sponsoring thousands of ordinances and resolutions annually, which is more legislation than the 13 elected County Commissioners combined. At the same time it also serves as the Executive Branch with the ability to veto laws adopted by the Board of County Commissioners, as well as administer the day to day operations of the County. This is not the first time that the you sponsor legislation with policy that is contrary to the policy of the Board of County Commissioners. In last year’s Budget Ordinance you included as part of a budget document language repealing many County ordinances sponsored by members of the Board of County Commissioners and adopted as policy of the Board of County Commissioners, including the Community Periodical Program created by the Board of County Commissioners in 1994 and ratified through Resolution and Ordinances at least four times over the past fifteen years. This Board’s power has eroded to the point that it has allowed you to gain supreme power as the County’s Chief Administrator and Policy Maker. In the Resolution you are putting forth for the issuance of GOB bonds you not only rescind the 12 Resolutions sponsored by individual Commissioners, you are also asking the Board to give you complete power to determine which projects are funded, at what level those projects are funded and whether they are funded at all. This is why you don’t list the project with the dollar amount and the year the funding will be released. I think it is time to clean up this blurry line between the Legislative policy making branch of government and the Administrative branch of government. Since we will have a Countywide election in the near future, I am going to ask the County Attorney to draft the appropriate Charter language to conform our local government legislative process to the State and federal model, by prohibiting the Administration from sponsoring legislation and requiring that they obtain a Commission sponsor for any Ordinance or Resolution that is placed on the agenda. This will clearly delineate the line between policy maker and administrator and will foster greater cooperation between County Departments, Administrators and the members of the Board of County Commissioners as you see in Tallahassee and in Washington D.C. It will also facilitate the free flow of information between the Administration and the Commissioners, because in order to secure a sponsor you have to fully brief the Commissioner and convince him or her that the policy is a good one.

We are in the midst of a government crisis of unprecedented proportions with the public demanding accountability for their tax dollars. I think that all these bond issues should be postponed until the voters have an opportunity to democratically decide the future direction of this County. Otherwise, these types of bonds that are funded through property taxes lend themselves to be used by your Administration to reward those you want to reward. Even more concerning is the use of this Resolution to benefit wealthy constituency who sit on the Board of Directors or who support the Miami Arts Museum who you are giving $79 million in this bond issue, the Museum of Science who you are giving $11.2 million, Fairchild Tropical Gardens who you are giving $7.5 million dollars in this bond issue, the Vizcayans $15 million in this bond issue , the Marlins with $3.5 million for improvements around the Orange Bowl area, the Zoological Society with $7 million, and other organization with wealthy patrons who may donate campaign monies to many of the political campaigns that are currently ongoing in return for the funding for the multimillion dollar projects moving forward. It would be the ultimate insult to the voters and taxpayers of the County for this government to use their property tax dollars to pay for these bonds that you propose to issue at this time to reward those who supported your Budget that increased their property taxes and also those who may financially support political campaigns or legal defense funds. I think the timing of this item is ill conceived and there is no rush to move forward with this, instead of waiting for our government to stabilize.

There are projects in the item you are putting forward that were never approved by the Voters of Miami Dade County, while you are delaying projects that were approved democratically by the voters and taxpayers of this County. There are even projects that were not approved by the voters and that were requested by Commissioners who no longer serve on this Board. I can see two items for the construction of aquatic pools, which will require the Parks Department to hire more park personnel and lifeguards to manage those pools, and yet the Parks Department is closing existing pools throughout the County during the summer months and proposed a $5 parking surcharge at parks because they stated they did not have the money to operate the existing parks and pools. The measure for these projects was revenue neutral or revenue positive, yet many of these large projects including some of the museums cannot sustain themselves financially in their current facilities and yet without a solid financial plan for operating their new facility we are asking the property tax payers to build them newer, larger facilities that will be more expensive to operate. I still remember how this Administration underestimated the operational costs for the Performing Arts Center, which more than doubled when they opened their doors. Are you asking the taxpayers who are struggling to maintain their jobs and to keep their homes out of foreclosure to fund through their property taxes a bunch of white elephants throughout the County that are doomed to fail before they open their doors? If we don’t want this tax payer revolt to turn into a tsunami, lets step back and wait for the dust to settle with the current governmental crisis and take a closer look at all of these projects. If we have to wait 6 months, 1 year or if we have to revisit the voters of this County with an election to ratify these projects, then so be it. I don’t think that the taxpayer’s monies should be used to curry favor with special interests in order to stave off the will of the voters of this community.