What is wrong with the Miami-Dade County Government and How to Fix it. Guest Blog By Sergio

One of our readers points out what is wrong with the County, I have his name and am relying on his accuracy. If you want to see his remedy for fixing some of the county problems, please be sure to hit read more, he has obviously given this a lot of thought:

The problems we are facing cannot be solved by replacing the Mayor and a Commissioner. For the past 20 years our commissioners have been spending taxpayer’s money like drunken sailors. We need to eliminate the official misconduct; fraud; bribery; and election laws violations by drastically changing the Charter and County Code of Ethics.

I invite the Miami Herald to go back to their archives and publish reports of prior corruption cases over the past 20 years, that resulted in loss of hundreds of millions of taxpayer’s money. Lets review a few:

1) Florida Sales tax was increased to 6% in February 1988. But counties were allowed to charge more and retain the difference. In September 1991 the County Commissioners approved a half a penny additional sales tax, to generate an additional $190 million for JACKSON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL. A month after the tax passed close to $1 million was spent on new furniture for the top executives at JACKSON.

2) In 2002 another half penny sales tax increase was approved for MAJOR TRANSIT PROJECTS by the Commissioners. We were promised 90 miles of additional train tracks to go to the Airport, the Seaport, and to the Broward County line. The actual collection of the new sales tax began January 2003. We were also promised an additional 635 new buses. We began to collect another $150 million each year.

WE SURE WERE TAKEN FOR A RIDE. Five years later, only 3 miles of new tracks have been laid down, and only 150 buses have been acquired. County Commissioners allowed most of the money to be spent on other things, unrelated to the promises made to the tax payers. Correction: They did spent $2 million in new furniture at the TRANSIT HEADQUARTERS in Overtown.

3) Then we had the $250 million overrun on the PERFORMING ARTS CENTER.

4) Don't forget the 2009 $550 million giveaway for the Marlin facility.

5) How about the thousands of Palm Trees that were purchased by the COUNTY, never to be found. Where are the palm trees?

6)-In 2006 millions of dollars given to the Miami-Dade County Housing Authority for affordable housing was squandered.

7) In 2000 the GRAND JURY criticized Miami-Dade County for buying toilet seats for the airport costing $8,200 each, plus awarding NO-BID CONTRACTS for millions of dollars to contractors, who contributed very heavily to several commissioner’s re-election campaigns. Millions were wasted and mismanaged in many airport projects, including the control tower that had to be rebuilt.

8) A EYE ON MIAMI blog in 2009 disclosed how many thousands of dollars in Political Contributions were given to many of the current County Commissioners, by the same companies awarded contracts to do work for the County in the stadium, airport, Performing Art Center, and other areas.

9) The County Commissioners continues to approve contracts for companies have had a history of completing jobs behind schedule, and OVER BUDGET. Worse some have been found to cheat on their contracts. Why are we still using companies, again, that do not perform?

The above is only a minute portion of the scandals covering waste of of our taxpayer’s dollars.

How do we avoid this waste in the future? CHANGES NEEDED TO HAVE AN EFFECTIVE GOVERNMENT. (hit read more)

1)We need a New Code of Ethics agreement with all County Employees, to be updated and signed annually. Lets not forget the MAYOR, COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, and All Elected Officials and County Managers with authority to buy assets or award contacts for materials or services to vendors and contractors in excess of $500,000.

In the Code of Ethics Contract, the Mayor, Commissioners, and all elected officials, and all non-elected employees with authority as listed above, MUST AGREE in writing to the following:

A) They must disclose all outside income received by them, their spouses, and immediate members of their family (including children, siblings, parents, in-laws and grand-parents) from companies or individuals doing business with the COUNTY.

B) The signer agrees with the Code of Ethics Contract, not to accept any gifts or political contributions in excess of $1,000 from any company, their owners, or individuals dealing with the COUNTY and receiving payments from the COUNTY.

C) Signer agrees to supply the MIAMI-DADE COUNTY INSPECTOR GENERAL, upon request, with copies of his last 3 years tax returns with full disclosures, during his routine investigation, or requested by the COUNTY, STATE or FEDERAL GRAND JURY.

D) Signer of the Code of Ethics annual agreement, Agrees that if he/she was found to be in violations of the agreement for OFFICIAL MISCONDUCT, BRIBERY,FRAUD, VIOLATIONS OF ELECTION LAWS, or any of the paragraphs of this agreement, that the signer will automatically forfeit his salary, pension, and all other benefits normally awarded to him during his tenure with the COUNTY.

In the past, elected Officials and county staff have been found working full or part-time, or as independent consultants, doing work for Companies or individuals who have been awarded contracts by them. In many cases their spouses or very close family member has been found to be employed by the companies receiving contracts from the county.

2) Assign complete independence to Christopher R. Mazzella, our COUNTY INSPECTOR GENERAL, on the job since 1998, to be sure that his investigation of potential corruption, misconduct, waste and ethic violations by the MAYOR, Commissioners, and other public elected officials, is not stopped or slowed down. The Subject needs to report to a government body outside of the control of the COUNTY.

3) We should not approve the increase of the salary of the 13 COMMISSIONERS from $6,000 to $92,097 a year, UNLESS, they agree to the following terms and conditions:

A) A 12 year term limit, along with a ban on outside employment, to INCLUDE the time already served.

B) To prohibit LOBBYING the County by all public elected officials, for a period of 4 years, after the end of their employment with the County.

C) The 13 present Commissioners, each, now receives an annual budget of $814,000 to cover a total staff of 200 employees. An average of 15 employees per commissioner. Commissioner are allowed to spend their budget with few restrictions. Each year most commissioners give away the excess funds in their budget to Charitable and Civic Organizations.

FIRST: We need to eliminate the charitable funds giveaway portion of the budget.

SECOND: We need to reduce the staff from 15 employees to around 5 employees per commissioner.

THIRD: We need to cut the office budget by 50%, and must include the salary of $92,097 given to the Commissioner.

IT IS INSANE to give over $11 million to 13 Commissioners with NO STRINGS ATTACHED, each and every year.

4) We need to change the terms and controls with regards to Pension payments, years of required service, and other benefits, to be IN LINE WITH THE PRIVATE INDUSTRY.

The Newspapers Recently reported that a Mosquito control District Director just retired with a $172,027 a year pension.

State, and in most of the 67 Counties, employees are paid between 95% and 100% contribution toward their pension. Most State and County employees are eligible for retirement with only 20 to 30 years of service, and you could retire at age 55. These government pensions are averaging between 50% and 70% of the employees annual salary before retirement.

A) We need to increase the minimum age for retirement for public employees from 55 to 62 years of age, with no less than 30 years of service.

B) We need to limit payments of medical coverage, for employees retiring at age 62, until they reach age 65.

CASE IN POINT: County Manager George Burgess just retired at age 52 and will be paid 100% of the hospitalization and medical insurance for him and his entire family, for the next 13 years until he reaches age 65. This is in addition to the COUNTY giving him a package of $522,000 Cash.

We need to drastically reduce these SLUSH FUNDS, PERKS, and car allowances, etc that are bankrupting the County.

C) We need to have public employees FUND a sizable part of their pensions from their own salaries.

MOST private companies, no longer have a pension program for their employees. What they have is a 401-K program, with a 1 for 1 matching funds up to 10% of the employees salary. This means that the employee funds 10%, and the employer matches the employee contribution dollar for dollar up to the 10% limit.

This means that in reality the employee is funding 50% of his pension program and the employer the other 50%. This does not compare with the current government practice of funding 95% to 100% of the employee pension costs.

Also, no private employer is funding 90% to 100% of the employees expenses for medical insurance premiums, as is currently done by most Government agencies.

Last but not least. Social Security benefits average around 20% of the annual salary of the person reaching age 65, while government pensions are averaging between 50% and 70% of the public servant average salary at time of retirement.

All over the United States, STATES, COUNTIES and CITIES are going BANKRUPT because over 70% of their annual budget is used to cover public employee salaries, pension and benefits.

D) There must be a salary Cap, and must be pegged to the COST OF LIVING INDEX of the Federal Government. IT MAKES NO SENSE giving government employees a 13% annual raise, when the cost of living index is at around 2%. IT is even worse when we are in the worst recession, since the 1930's.

I am sure that there are many other ideas that will come up.

We the People, need to mandate to the future MAYOR and Commissioners, for the implementation of serious changes, or lets vote them out of office, at the next general elections.

THAT IS MY OPINION.

Sergio.

(DON"T LIKE 12 YEARS SERGIO - SHOULD BE 8 - But you have some great ideas here. Thank you. Genius)