Reader's Comment: What it says to residents and especially activists and volunteers trying to make this a better place for all - whether you are fighting for restoring the Everglades, preserving libraries or the arts or better medical care- is YOU DON'T HAVE A CHANCE. All these guys care about is power and the money. They have ruined democracy for everyone.
It is no revelation that the GOP in Congress has blocked campaign finance reform or that the permanent incumbency benefits both political parties or that the Bush Supreme Court's Citizens United decision officially sanctioned massive PAC activity masking as independent expenditures when really supporting candidates.
The appearance of propriety, of upstanding, moral superiority by these thieves of democracy created a more toxic atmosphere in today's politics than at any time in history. It is fed by special interest baiting by highly paid commentators on advertising-driven television "news". If there is any daylight or hope, I don't know where it is.
A mayor of Miami Lakes -- Michael Pizzi had been the number one ranked student at the University of Miami Law School -- is nabbed in a corruption sting; allegedly making recorded statements to the FBI expressing concern for the public interest while taking cash under the table. Pizzi wasn't hooked in the major corruption involving ports and airports or land use zoning. The FBI was trolling at the margins -- a fake AmeriCorps governmental grant process. It is subtle but important point.
Pizzi was an outsider in the "club" of well known politicians -- many long-time incumbents -- who do business the old fashioned way. Pizzi wasn't like the Sweetwater mayor Morono, who is charged with taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes. He only, allegedly, took down $6000.
Sweetwater is one of those areas in Miami-Dade where former Everglades wetlands are prime targets for developers. Where Miami Lakes has largely been picked over, through moving the Urban Development Boundary in the late 2000's by the Graham Companies, Sweetwater is a profit center for the Growth Machine and its enablers, the Great Destroyers. Its lower middle class demographics are fit to connect-the-dots, cookie-cutter production housing.
The lobbyists for the Miami Lakes urban development boundary move (Sergio Pino, Raul Martinez, and Armando Codina sat in the front row of the county commission zoning hearing) never had much use for Michael Pizzi. At the time, Pizzi represented neighbors of rock mines against the disruption of lives and property values by routine blasting of lime rock near their homes.
Pizzi was a populist and, in office, a pragmatist "outsider".
An unintended consequence of the FBI sting is the lesson to the "insiders": it doesn't pay to be in politics at the edges. Swim in the middle of the stream: it is safer there.
The backdrop of this political corruption tale is what is simultaneously happening Lake Okeechobee, the diseased, liquid heart of Florida. After a season of extreme rainfall (itself a consequence of the awful politics of global warming), Florida's largest lake is gushing geysers of polluted water into fresh water estuaries on both coasts. This has been going on since the 1930's, when the dike around Okeechobee was built to protect cities and agriculture. But it is the campaign contributions of one of the most highly subsidized commodities in the U.S., Big Sugar, that is chiefly responsible for the water management system including using the Lake as its cesspool that has put billions in economic value at risk.
Thousands of Floridians are protesting in Martin and Palm Beach counties. We need more help. Much more help. Where is that help going to come from?
16 comments:
I personally want to see the record of who the other local politicians were supposedly trolled by the lobbyists and the FBI. Time and time again, we see the outliers in communities like Sweetwater, North Miami Beach Opa Locka as the ones being tagged.
I agree with you genius that there is a system in place, but I disagree in that Pizzi should not be considered part of that system. The fact that he took the money is what's important here, and that having taken the money, whether he had become part of the bigger gang of thieves already does not exclude him from that gang, because the odds are that having gone over to the Dark Side he would eventually have just become another pig at the trough.
Candia's attorney was trotting out the same old tired defense which is now also being used by Bateman in Homestead and that is " look at all the good he did in the community" and then throws out the name of FIU and UM to garner sympathy. Sorry bud, your actions will now be called into question as to the motives or were you ( or your elected official)profiting? It does not matter now how much genuine good you or the elected officials did, the existence of the bad act negates everything positive as it shows the true character of the man. You cant have it both ways....
Nothing seems to change in south Florida. We continue to elect criminals and wonder why we here in south Florida continue to look like we just got off the banana boat.
We don't actually elect them, being that they're criminals, the elections are rigged like in the banana republic. And, our state attorney nor our state legislature does anything about absentee ballot fraud, which is where the problems begin.
Sigh. This crap is so tiring. It sucks the wind right out of anyone with half of brain...
The Americorp grants aren't that big of deal to get.
This is about the election process --- campaign funding and the deal making that goes with it. Bell (and now, bell) hired experienced deal makers who used absentee ballots and the senior centers to grab a seat... But, this time around she-he will be experienced enough to weasel the king makers for cash and AB.
How many other lobbyists/campaign managers are handing out cash to how many more elected officials?
Youbetcha - you are 100% correct. To add to the last post, what about the relatives of the politicians who won't appear on a financial disclosure? There are so many ways to funnel money and not enough feds to track it! The State Legislature has made AB fraud easy, no one actually goes to jail and the politician gets re elected.
I hope in this election cycle, the Feds because FDLE & KFR certainly are blind to real justice or the actual peon voters in this case.
From the Pizzi/Candia complaint:
"CANDIA arranged for UCE 1 and the CHS to meet with PIZZI on September
13, 2011. The meeting occurred in the mayor's office in the Town Hall of Miami Lakes, Florida.
During the meeting, UCE 1 explained to PIZZI there are federal grants available which allow
municipalities to benefit from economic development studies."
Here's a question for you: If the CHS and Candia met with Pizzi, aren't they both lobbying? Were they registered with the town at the time?
I like Pizzi, but valedictorian at UM Law School? I was one year behind him and on the Law Review, and I don't believe that tidbit is true. Is Pizzi the one making the claim?
The fact is, law enforcement doesn't spend the time and manpower on a sting unless they are going after someone who is suspected of wrongdoing through a pattern of behavior. Obviously, the FBI got wind that these individuals were up to some bad stuff, so they created a sting operation that would catch them in the act.
As a ten-year resident of Miami Lakes, who recently moved back to New York, I can honestly say that I've always suspected that Pizzi was dirty. Several years ago, when "Mickey Blue Eyes" got wind that the Feds were coming to his law office to audit all of his recordss, said office was "mysteriously" gutted by a highly suspicious fire.
Forte worked for Bovo while being a lobbyist in the scam. The complaint states that they started in June 2011, that's when Bovo was elected to the County Commission.
Channel 10 has good coverage on Forte's dealings in Pembroke Pines.
Does Eric Holder's FBI have a policy against arresting corrupt black mayors? If not, how did North Miami Mayor Andre Pierre escape arrest?
How about the Mayor of Florida City? How does that dude escape indictment?
This whole mess just brings to light what's wrong with both campaign finance and our elected officials. Politicians writing campaign finance laws, ghost written by lobbyists are kind of like Wall Street self regulating. The smartest people are not in the room, they're skirting the law and occasionally get caught.
These two are small fry's compared to what probably happens at the County level. The ante is upped with much bigger money, taxpayer money. Or, what I would consider criminal, the raping of our land with urban sprawl & big sugar the worst offenders.
This all makes me so sick because we all know what goes on when we appear at the BCC. Those commissioners rarely get caught because they have a wall around them. I can only hope Humpty Dumpty has a great fall and it's soon from the Mayors office, to his staff, to the County Commissioner, their staff and higher level department heads and their assistance. That's where the problems lie within our County as a whole. These two Mayors are just symptom of a systematic problem across the Board.
At the Federal level, it's worse then the above.
Your post is 100% correct. The think that the Feds do not have an agenda is to be foolish. Plus, look at who among the power elite have smoozed with the Feds will show how certain members of the the most corrupt lobbyists maintain friendships with Federal Law Enforcement to keep operating free and clear.
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