Michael Pizzi is running for mayor again and there is a disinformation campaign afoot, trying to smear him and fabricate Miami Lakes issues. I got the message that Pizzi is referring to as a press release and there was a photo of a jumbo jet attached to it. This isn't the first silly message I have gotten out of Miami Lakes lately, put out by someone who should know better. Here is the message from Mayor Pizzi:
An individual sent out an extremely irresponsible and false email stating that Miami Dade County is holding a public hearing tomorrow, January 9th, where they intend to vote to make Opa Locka Airport a full fledge commercial hub that will soon be sending jumbo jets over Miami Lakes. The information on that email is not true.
The facts are as follows:
1. A county transportation committee has an information only item tomorrow on a report by auditors that question the county’s handling on certain lease to developers at Opa Locka Airport. The audit report, which I have read, has nothing to do with commercial aviation at Opa Locka Airport.
2. I have personally spoken with Aviation Director Jose Abreu, who will be making the presentation tomorrow. Consistent with my prior discussions with him, there are NO items under consideration to fly commercial aviation at Opa Locka Airport.
3. I have also spoken with our own County Commissioner Steve Bovo as well as county commissioners on the transportation committee who have advised me that tomorrow’s item is an information only item pertaining to an audit relating to existing leases, and no votes can be taken anyway.
4. To even consider commercial aviation at any airport would require application to the FAA. That would take many years before we even get to the public hearing stage, and over a decade for anything like that to happen. No such application is under consideration or contemplated.
5. I personally sponsored a resolution several months ago reaffirming our town’s uniform opposition to any discussion of commercial aviation at Opa Locka Airport.
Based on the foregoing, the suggestion that Miami Lakes residents can soon expect jumbo jets at Opa Locka Airport shows a complete ignorance of the facts and is NOT TRUE. If at any meeting anyone in the county mentions commercial aviation at Opa Locka Airport, I will personally be there with our District Commissioner and 30,000 people. Based on my ongoing discussion with all of our county officials no one has that intention. Our staff will be at all county meetings on Opa Locka Airport and if this topic comes up I will be the first to know.
God Bless,
Mayor Michael Pizzi - January 8, 2012
6 comments:
That dentist in Miami Lakes is after Pizzi. He was a supporter of Natacha Seijas.
The agenda did not reference anything about an audit report. It was a "Discussion Item" about Opa-Locka Airport by Commissioner Heyman.
There is reason to sound the alarms when Heyman pus on a Discussion Item and lobbyists Alex Heckler is working the issue. Heckler's clients, the investors at Opa-Locka, would love to have commercial flights. And we all know that Alex has raised plenty of money for Heyman in the past.
Pizzi exaggerates (surprise) how difficult it is to amend the Aviation Master Plan to allow for commercial aviation at Opa-Locka. It requires only a vote of the Commission. Once the Master Plan is amended, an application could be filed by the Aviation Department with the FAA. It does not take "over a decade" to process that application.
The citizens need to be vigilant whenever a Commissioner puts a Discussion Item, without any backup information or parameters, on the agenda.
Pizzi has had clients at Opa-Locka Airport in the past. We have no reason to trust him to be acting in our interest exclusively.
The citizen alert worked and the Chair of the Committee shut down any discussion of commercial aviation at Opa-Locka at the very beginning of the committee meeting.
last commenter (or chicken little) -- OMG you are so over the top with this...doctor dave called it a "CATASTROPHE that is about to happen"
we have enough REAL things happening no point in manufacturing them.
Doctor Dave called it a "catastrophe" and Pizzi said he would have "30,000 people" in the County Commission Chambers. Miami Lakes: where civic leaders make mountains out of mole hills.
30,000 is about right as North Miami, North Miami Beach, Aventura, Biscayne Gardens and other cities and even UMSA east of the airport would join in to protest any change.
I might be impressed if Pizzi and others learned that the name of the airport and the city is correctly spelled as Opa-locka.
It is NOT Opa locka, Opa-Locka, etc.
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