Michael Froomkin of Discourse Releases his Coral Gables Endorsements. By Geniusofdespair

Michael Froomkin, Laurie Silvers & Mitchell Rubenstein Distinguished Professor of Law

Go take a look at his endorsements for the City of Coral Gables 2013 election.

I think Michael did a good job of vetting the candidates in his home city. He took meticulous notes at the candidates forums and shared them with us over the past few weeks  and offered us his analysis.

Thank you Professor Froomkin!

Coral Gables: Mayor's Hall of Blame. By Coral Gables Commissioner Maria Anderson

Former Coral Gables Top Bananas (sans Slesnick who supports Cabrera) Endorsed Cason.  Genius Asks: Is that good or bad?

One of Jim Cason’s last mail pieces shows a picture with three past Coral Gables Mayors who support him. Good for him, but interestingly enough these are the folks who made the pension problem more challenging to fix later.

It hurts me to say this, because these folks gave sincerely of their time in public service, but it needs to be said, that ALL Commissions share in the good and the bad things that happen, individually and collectively. That’s just how it rolls!

We all do the best we can with the information before us, but to let one group take the blame alone, ones that actually did something to enact pension reform is just wrong.

So, while Superhero Jim is blaming the 2001-2011 Commission, let’s analyze some real facts to clear up the falsehoods spread by the Superhero’s campaign.

“Just the facts, ma’am.” said Sergeant Joe Friday…

Mayor Corrigan was Mayor in 1988-89 when the city made the system non-contributory, and then Mayors Raul Valdes-Fauli and Dorothy Thomson were there in the 1990s when  the retirement plan was heavily vested in stocks. These are facts, on the historical time-space continuum, and not accusations on individuals.

Boom, bang, zoom!

In came the 2001 dot.com bubble bust where all hell broke loose on the stock market and our plan took a “full metal jacket” and lost oodles of money; money the city had to make up, dramatically increasing the now magic “buzz” word “unfunded liability”.

I can leap tall buildings in a single bound…

After all, Superhero Jim has been the only one who has done anything in the last millennium to fix the city’s pension issue; Mayor Slesnick, Vice-Mayor Kerdyk, Commissioners Cabrera, Withers and I single-handedly destroyed it, sitting on our hands, singing laments and doing nothing.

“For ten years nothing was done other than lamentations…I came in and decided we needed pension reform we could live with…” (Mayor Jim Cason, Candidate Forum, March 21, 2013)

Drum roll please…

Here’s the truth Cason isn’t telling…the heavy lifting to correct the pension issues occurred from 2001-2011!

• From 1989 – 2003, city systems was non-contributory, the city paid 100% of employees contribution
• In 2003, it became a contributory system again, and 2 of 3 unions came on board
• In 2009, the final union began to participate
• Overtime, that people could use towards their retirement calculations, was capped and lowered several times. It used to be unlimited.
• In the 1990s the city paid into pension, and times were good.
• Actuarial assumptions were at 9% that forced the retirement plan to vest heavily in stocks to meet that target number.
• In 2001, the dot.com crash hit, and the city had to make up for the difference in the losses, which increased the unfunded liability significantly.
• Over the next 3 – 5 years, the assumption rate of the plan was lowered twice to allow the retirement board to re-balance the portfolio into more stable financial instruments. Lowering the assumption rate was a good thing, but the city had to pay for that lowering.
• It is a long-term issue, and there are no quick fixes and it will take approximately 20-25 years to complete the process due for people retiring and getting paid out of the old plan.

And now for the “piece de resistance” Superhero Jim is going to ask the residents of Coral Gables to vote on $16 million dollars of new debt to pay for downtown street improvements! *

Really Jim, isn’t there a better way to pay for this project?

* (Candidate Forum, 03/26/13)

The Miami Herald, The Homestead Motorsports Complex, and Ralph Sanchez ... by gimleteye

I never knew Ralph Sanchez, except indirectly during the decade as a civic activist I battled land use issues related to the Homestead Air Force Base.

Sanchez was one of the principal owners, along with Wayne Huizinga, of the Homestead Motorsports Complex, nearby. The idea for the county-financed deal materialized at virtually the same time as the ill-fated plan to privatize the air base and convert it to become a commercial airport benefiting the reconstituted board of the Latin Builders Association. Both plans arose from the ruins of disaster.

Hurricane Andrew, in 1992, devastated Homestead, but the response of the business elite to the disaster was not unlike using the calamity of war as a pretext for to mine profits. Wars are good for business. That certainly was how Homestead rolled after the category five hurricane, and the case with the Homestead Motorsports Complex.

As fate had it, I arrived in Miami with my family from Key West the weekend after Hurricane Andrew. I only knew Homestead as a pass-through agricultural community, a last gasp of the old South on the way to the Keys. I also understood the importance of preserving farmland as filters for clean water desperately needed for Biscayne Bay and the Everglades to function. So both the Motorsports Complex and the air base, sited squarely in the middle of wetlands of national importance, were out of place.

The Homestead Motorsports Complex was pitched as a necessity, a way to create economic activity in Homestead and "jobs" after Hurricane Andrew. How the deal was constructed with tax payer money never made it into the Herald obituary. Here is how the Herald put it:

"Sanchez, however, already had solicited governmental support to build a permanent racing facility in Homestead as a significant project toward the devastated area’s recovery from Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Ground was broken in 1993. The picturesque facility with its 1.5-mile oval sprung up in time for Dale Jarrett to headline NASCAR’s initial venture here with a dramatic Nationwide (then Busch) series victory in November 1995."

I am not a NASCAR fan. I've never been to the Motorsports complex, once. But to skip over the facts how county tax dollars, in 1993, were used and never recovered seems pertinent. At the time, observers knew the project was cooked faster than a fried egg on a racing car engine block. The money flow was scarcely "transparent".

To call Sanchez' work a "solicitation" is, well, wrong. The picturesque deal involved a contract between the county that gave up tens of millions of dollars to the investors, featuring Sanchez prominently. Ask Maurice Ferre. It didn't take long for the Sanchez/ Huizinga partnership to be flipped to new owners after the facility was completed; the county never got a dime back.

Today, the Homestead Motorsports Complex is scarcely the jobs generator it was promised to be. I don't know whether Sanchez was a great man, a great businessman, or a great family man. May he rest in more peace than we obtain here, on earth.

Miami Riverday is April 6th at Lummus Park. By Geniusofdespair

Yes, I will be there.

Take the family on a free boat tour of the Miami River. Also, a number of environmental groups have educational booths and do a mini demonstration for the kids. The kids get a star at each booth they visit. When they get enough stars they get a Miami River Medal. It is great to see the kids engaged in the star gathering, with environmental education being the real payoff.

The festival begins at 1pm and ends at 6pm. Everything is free: The live music, the boat rides and the environmental education - what could be better. More information...

Planning Advisory Board Meeting. Guest Blog By Tropical Audubon Society

On Monday, April 15th at 10a.m., the Planning Advisory Board (PAB) will meet to discuss the proposed amendments to our Comprehensive Development Master Plan (the overall guiding growth management document for Miami Dade County).

There are a number of great initiatives that would help Miami grow sustainably and would improve our quality of life. The general components added to our CDMP include:

Allocation of funds for public transportation (Application 2, MT3-C & MT3-D)  

Incorporation of climate change to our planning (Application 1)

Increased protection of our watersheds and the Everglades (Application 4) 

Health as a major component of city-planning    

Recognition of natural resources preservation as an economic as well as environmental issue (Application 4) 

We need you to attend this meeting and express support for these great initiatives! This is step #1 to prevent sprawl and protect our green spaces, so please join us. For more information, please read out letter.   

David Stockman lets it all out ... by gimleteye

I never much appreciated the independent thinking that is at the heart of David Stockman, while he was budget director for Ronald Reagan. He has emerged as an eloquent speaker and writer, opposing  reckless economic policies of Democrats and Republican administrations. Here he tackles the issue of his former boss, Ronald Reagan, who has unfathomably materialized as a conservative icon.

Stockman writes: "... The destruction of fiscal rectitude under Ronald Reagan — one reason I resigned as his budget chief in 1985 — was the greatest of his many dramatic acts. It created a template for the Republicans’ utter abandonment of the balanced-budget policies of Calvin Coolidge and allowed George W. Bush to dive into the deep end, bankrupting the nation through two misbegotten and unfinanced wars, a giant expansion of Medicare and a tax-cutting spree for the wealthy that turned K Street lobbyists into the de facto office of national tax policy. In effect, the G.O.P. embraced Keynesianism — for the wealthy."

We try, at Eye On Miami, to explain how the micro operations of the Growth Machine fit into the broader economic framework of deception and fraud. When we criticize US Century Bank, the lobbyist culture, and the mainstream press that shies away from reporting out the cogs and gears, it is our hope that voters will someday make clear distinctions about what is in their best self-interest and what is not. Call me, an optimist.

for the full editorial, click 'read more'

Dade Medical College CEO Ernesto Perez is Dishing Out the Big Bucks. By Geniusofdespair

Campaignmoney.com: donations of Ernesto Perez

CORAL GABLES, FL 33134	Dade Medical College/Founder	$10,000	10/22/2012		NEW JERSEY DEMOCRATIC STATE COMMITTEE - Democrat
CORAL GABLES, FL 33134	Dade Medical Institute/Ceo	$2,500	09/30/2012	G	JOE GARCIA FOR CONGRESS - Democrat
CORBAL GABLES, FL 33134	Dade Medical College/Ceo	$2,500	09/28/2012	G	TONY CARDENAS FOR CONGRESS - Democrat
MIAMI, FL 33134		$-500	09/06/2012	P	LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART FOR CONGRESS - Republican
CORAL GABLES, FL 33134	Dade Medical College/Chief Executive Officer	$10,000	08/31/2012		DEMOCRATIC SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE - Democrat
CORAL GABLES, FL 33134	Dade Medical College/President	$2,500	07/25/2012	P	DAVID RIVERA FOR CONGRESS - Republican
MIAMI, FL 33134	Dade Medical College/Chief Executive Officer	$1,000	06/27/2012	P	FRIENDS OF PATRICK MURPHY - Democrat
CORAL GABLES, FL 33134	Dade Medical College/President/President	$1,000	03/30/2012	P	MICHAEL GRIMM FOR CONGRESS - Republican
CORAL GABLES, FL 33134	Dade Medical College/President	$3,000	01/07/2012		MAGGIE'S LIST
CORAL GABLES, FL 33134	Dade Medical College/C.E.O. & Presi/C.E.O. & President	$2,500	12/05/2011	P	ROMNEY FOR PRESIDENT INC. - Republican
MIAMI, FL 33125	Dade Medical College/President & Ceo	$2,500	10/19/2011	P	DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ FOR CONGRESS - Democrat
MIAMI, FL 33125	Dade Medical College/President & Ceo	$2,500	10/19/2011	G	DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ FOR CONGRESS - Democrat
MIAMI, FL 33134	Dade Medical College/Chief Executive Officer	$10,000	09/27/2011	P	OBAMA VICTORY FUND 2012 - Democrat
CORAL GABLES, FL 33134	Dade Medical College/Ceo	$500	08/24/2011	P	RAUL LABRADOR FOR IDAHO - Republican
CORAL GABLES, FL 33134	Dade Medical College/President	$2,500	07/28/2011	P	BILL NELSON FOR U S SENATE - Democrat
CORAL GABLES, FL 33134	Dade Medical College/President	$2,500	07/28/2011	G	BILL NELSON FOR U S SENATE - Democrat
CORAL GABLES, FL 33134	Dade Medical College/Ceo	$5,000	06/30/2011		DEMOCRATIC SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE - Democrat
CORAL GABLES, FL 33134	Dade Medical College/Ceo	$2,500	06/29/2011	P	FRIENDS OF CAROLYN MCCARTHY - Democrat
CORAL GABLES, FL 33134	Dade Medical Institute/Ceo	$2,500	06/07/2011	P	FRIENDS OF GEORGE LEMIEUX - Republican

PEREZ, ERNESTO A JR
Dade Medical College/Ceo $2,500 03/28/2011 G MENENDEZ FOR SENATE - Democrat
PEREZ, ERNESTO A JR
Dade Medical College/Ceo $2,500 03/28/2011 P MENENDEZ FOR SENATE - Democrat
PEREZ, ERNESTO MR.
Dade Medical College/President & Ce/President & Ceo $35,000 02/24/2011 CANTOR VICTORY FUND - Republican

Homestead Mayor Steve Bateman And Ernesto Perez in Tallahassee

Six Big Reasons NOT to Support Rick Scott for Governor. By Geniusofdespair

Never saw a worse bunch (A YouTube video on Bill Edwards, he is a mortgage mogul, the only one you might not recognize - Pity the fool):

Above: From the Miami Herald  - see entire list

Rick Scott

Be sure to hit on the Miami Herald link under the graphic to see the entire list. His wife already put more than $10 million in the PAC.

Love this piece by TD Allman in the NY Times ... by gimleteye

"Violence and delusion made Florida what it is today; as the state’s unceasing melodramas demonstrate, they stalk us still. We fool ourselves and ill serve our children when we deny the true, often tragic nature of history."  TD Allman likes Eye On Miami ... ?

April 1, 2013 - New York Times
Ponce de León, Exposed
By T. D. ALLMAN

THIS week is the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Juan Ponce de León’s purported discovery of Florida. Commemorations include the unveiling of “The First Landing,” a larger-than-life statue of Ponce in Melbourne Beach, as well as the introduction by the Postal Service of “La Florida,” a four-stamp series timed to honor what is being presented as the founding moment in our country’s history.

These celebrations are a fiesta of illusion. As Spain’s conquistadors discovered, and we too often forget, Florida is like Play-Doh. Take the goo; mold it to your dream. Then watch the dream ooze back into goo. Contrary to what our school books taught us, Ponce did not discover Florida. He never did much of anything here except get himself killed.

Porta-Potty Devotee Vince Lago Running for Coral Gables Commmission. By Geniusofdespair

On 2/17/13, just 2 days before Vince attested to his residential address on the application, the house stood empty with permits in the window and a porta-potty outside.

Looks like the house is empty 2/17/2013

Wouldn't you think a Coral Gables resident would prefer running water and a toilet. It appears Candidate Vince Lago has been using a porta-potty for a few months and lives in what appears to be an empty house. I assume the porta potty means he has no running water in the house, but I have never been in it -- not on his A list. To get a Homestead exemption you have to RESIDE ON THE PROPERTY AS OF JANUARY 1.  

Our guest blogger Gabler has plenty to say about this:

In the world of political candidacy, Vince Lago is the Waldo of the current Coral Gables election period. Being the elusive person that he is, Vince has apparently resided all over the place while his developer friends and contributors created “The Man” for the Coral Gables commission seat in District 2.

From the city qualifying records, it seems that Vince “lived” in his San Amaro home just long enough to grab the 2012 homestead exemption. Then, following the 12/31/11 Homestead Exemption deadline Lago amazingly popped up in the city of Miami (1/1/12) when his mailing address was changed for the homesteaded property’s waste bill.

Most importantly, once everyone realized that one had to live in Coral Gables for at least 12 consecutive months to be eligible to run for office, Lago meandered his mailing address back to his wife’s parent’s house inside the city boundaries. According to Coral Gables Waste Department billings filed with the city for Lago’s run, he received his mail at 2 different addresses for his homesteaded property on San Amaro.

Now, if one was to look at Lago’s voters registrations, he used the voter’s card for his in-laws house to qualify for the election, but in actuality even at time, his voter’s registration (and his wife’s) was associated with an apartment on the other side of Coral Gables. In fact, he just recently voted absentee from that address in March.

So, where does Vince Lago live? Who knows?

The house on which he and his wife are carrying homestead exemption, and the house of record on his candidate application, has been vacant for much of the required residency period. In fact, on 2/17/13, just 2 days before Vince attested to his residential address on the application, the house stood empty with permits in the window and a porta-potty outside. Throughout 2012 there were “Notice of Commencements” filed with the county clerk’s office for major work done both outside and inside the house.

The dumb thing about our elusive Lago’s situation is that once he was living in Coral Gables, it made no difference where he lived as long as it was 12 months previous to qualifying. He didn’t need to qualify under his San Amaro address, unless of course, he was justifying his homestead exemption on the house with the porta-potty.

Green porta potty (unfashionably placed near  the sidewalk) and dumpster on 4/02/2013 at Vince Lago's homestead exempted home.

As of this week, the house remains empty, with its porta-potty and dumpster. The city of Coral Gables qualification file shows that Lago’s 2012 Homestead Exemption automatically rolled over into the 2013 year. Homestead Exemption normally applies to where one lives, not where one renovates property. Someone needs to tell Vince Lago.

PLEASE READ DISCOURSE

Councilwoman Aguilera & Homestead Exemption Fraud. By Geniusofdespair

I find this to be a big problem, candidates claiming to live in districts just to run for office. It is going on in North Miami with 2 candidates, Coral Gables and here in Doral. Sometimes the homestead exemption trips them up, but most of the time they just skate into office based on a lie. Horrible way to start isn't it? Remember the school board member, Perez, who claimed he lived in a shed on his parents property? We have to tighten up residency requirements or do away with them. The current system is NOT working. Rebeca Sosa, be a maverick again, like you were with the absentee voter fraud issue, take this on to stop the lies...take it to Tallahassee because I can name two State Rep's in Miami Dade County that don't live in their districts.

From Miami Voice

According to the Miami Herald, Property Appraiser Carlos Lopez Cantera has determined Doral Councilwoman broke homestead exemption rules:

For saving $1,460 in her property taxes, Doral’s Deputy Mayor Bettina Rodríguez-Aguilera is being closely watched by Miami-Dade officials, with Property Appraiser Carlos López-Cantera saying Tuesday that Rodríguez-Aguilera violated Florida’s homestead-exemption rules.

“Our office found that the councilwoman had committed a violation,” said López-Cantera in a statement to El Nuevo Herald. “This was determined through an investigation we did at the request of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement."

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/02/3320138/miami-dade-appraiser-doral-deputy.html#storylink=cpy

Question is will candidate Vince Lago be cited as well for not living where he takes his homestead exemption?

ALSO SEE VINCE LAGO STORY TODAY -- sounds like same album different tune.

US Century Bank, Tied To The Hip With The Miami Herald ... by gimleteye

At first I thought the April 1st Miami Herald paean to the resurrection of US Century Bank was an April Fool's joke. But I was wrong.

"Will This Bank Rise Again" is one of the strangest PR pitches I've ever read in the Herald (online edition, thank you).

To get the true story of US Century Bank, readers will have to use our search engine to read the lengthy commentaries and back stories; you won't find it anywhere in the Herald.

Why?

The Herald reports in the second paragraph, "The plan stayed on track for a few years until the recession deepened, bad loans mounted and capital was depleted, putting U.S. Century’s very survival in jeopardy."

There is no mention of the thru-line that Eye On Miami discloses: that US Century was built by a board of directors dedicated to the business model of converting wetlands and farmland to suburban sprawl. The political influence peddling by board directors, lead by Ramon Rasco and Sergio Pino, literally turned Miami-Dade government into a hostage state.

The political origins of the housing boom in South Florida advanced the fortunes of governors, like Jeb! Bush, and presidents, like George W. Bush. This story was uninterrupted by the biggest real estate crash since the Great Depression, built on the fumes of derivative finance and salesmanship that the Miami Herald never, ever attempted to link for readers.

And as we have written in the past, the reason is that Herald revenue and income substantially depended on telling these stories a certain way, so as not to offend advertisers and insiders, like the land use lawyer lobby in tall skyscrapers downtown who rub shoulders with Herald brass.

There is nothing of these relations, naturally, in the Herald report.

At its inception, U.S. Century founders, homebuilder Pino, attorney Ramon Rasco, Sedanos family members Manolo Herran and Armando Guerra and gun manufacturer Carlos Garcia had grand plans to create a successful bank.

After all, they had already succeeded with Ready State Bank, which was started in 1983 with $3 million and was sold in 1999 for $150 million, making fortunes in the process.

“Once we sold the bank, it was always on our minds that we would do it again,” said Pino, during an interview in his office late last year.

So they brought in more well-connected directors: Dade County Bar Association President — and later Florida Bar Association President — Frank Angones, Spanish television executive Jose Cancela and lobbyist and Super Bowl Host Committee Chairman Rodney Barreto, adding Herran’s son Augustin to succeed his father once he retired.

“This was a dream team,” Pino recalled. “We were going to create a great bank.”

What they created was an insider piggy bank of proportions noted by Coral Gables bank analyst, Bauer Financial, with insider loan ratios that may have been among the highest in the nation. The insider transactions extended right to County Hall. One anonymous reader of Eye On Miami commented that during the housing boom, there was a special US Century Bank loan officer delegated to handle loans to county employees. No questions asked.

The Herald glosses over the 2011 FDIC order against US Century Bank. In the ProPublica investigation of the bank by former Miami New Times writer, subsequent Pulitzer Prize winner writer Jake Bernstein noted that one government bank investigator, recently retired, said he had never seen a bank with so many abuses that had not been shut down through enforcement.

In response, Ramon Rasco and other bank investors have expressed nothing but sunny skies for their great community bank. Not a single mention is made of the way that environmental and civic organizations spent decades fighting like David against Goliath the influence peddling that trashed Miami-Dade's quality of life, natural resources, and shifted multi-billion dollar infrastructure costs onto the backs of taxpayers. They called it 'progress'. We call it 'fraud'.

The Herald report white-washes these criticisms.

The suits cite the bank’s large volume of insider loans and other dealings, including that one third of the bank’s 24 branches are leased from current or former directors.

Dávila, who joined the bank in August of last year, said that U.S. Century has modified terms of its loans to past directors Pino and Barreto. Pino, for example, provided more collateral and agreed to a rate increase. Dávila said that all loans to insiders are being paid on schedule.

Readers would like to know if the Herald demanded to see the evidence, to support this claim. What is also relevant is where the land is. We believe much of it is outside the Urban Development Boundary. We would also like to know, what is the record of loan and principle repayment by the "insiders" since the banking crisis in 2008. And we would also like the Herald to issue a disclaimer related to inviting US Century Bank founder Sergio Pino and Armando Codina into the newsroom, to address staff, to pitch what great contributors do for the local economy.

These omissions lead an informed reader to wonder if the Herald editor tasked the reporter to write an up-beat story that would weight against further sanctions by the US government. As in, "Don't miss the criticisms, but don't elaborate on them either."

The new Genting big gambling effort for Miami/Jorge Perez/Jimmy Tate money will be in charge (Perez is a Fortune billionaire, having bluffed his way into the "too big to fail" category of condo developers who would have been shut down by the banks, if the federal government held banks accountable for unstable derivative financing that shattered the US economy. Perez tied his fortunes to his lenders, the way the Miami Herald tied itself to its advertisers ... ), while avoiding -- presumably -- a string of nasty lawsuits that could bring to light more data and facts on the rampant abuse of banking rules and regulations. Eye On Miami has written at length on the Genting/ Perez connection. Use our search engine to read more.

It is a mystery why US Century Bank hasn't been shut down by the federal government. The answer could be in the way US Century Bank directors bound themselves tight, through campaign contributions and fund raising, to a variety of elected officials. The power of South Florida representation in Florida and, by extension, the nation cannot be easily dismissed.

But even if you take exception with our depictions of the Growth Machine, and explanations how the gears mesh from local county permitting officials, to county commissioners standing as land use authorities, to lobbyists and mortgage bankers, Wall Street and presidents, here is what also can't be dismissed: US Century Bank was the largest recipient of TARP (that is, taxpayer) financing in Florida and the largest for a bank its size in the United States. There is $50 million outstanding debt that is owed by the bank, to US taxpayers. The Herald report seems to gloss over the fact as though losing the money was just a sign of support for people who run a great economy. If you are a Republican, Democrat, or Tea Party iconoclast; write to your senators and to the US Treasury Department and INSIST that all the money be repaid to taxpayers as part of any deal. Pay the money back. No discounts, no hair cuts, no white washing theft.

Best Show In Town: The Shrink Wrap War. By Geniuofdespair

NOON: VOTE IN 11 TO 1, OVERRIDE VETO. XAVIER SUAREZ VOTED NOT TO OVERRIDE. SHRINK WRAP IS FINALLY OVER FOR A WHILE. MIGHT BE A LAWSUIT HOWEVER.



Lynda Bell at the 3/5/2013 County Commission Meeting, Feverishly Defending Her Shrink Wrap Vote. (Her campaign manager was a lobbyist for the company she is arguing in favor of.)

Nothing says dysfunctional Miami Dade County like the shrink wrap contract award. The Miami Dade County Commission awarded the contract March 5th, against staff recommendation, the Mayor quickly vetoed the award. Today is the meeting to over-turn the veto...or not. It should be good theater once again, or else they might just shut-up (God willing) and just vote.

It is early on the agenda, maybe about 10:30 am?

2A1 Mayoral Veto

RESOLUTION APPROVING AWARD OF A LEASE AND CONCESSION AGREEMENT FOR THE LUGGAGE WRAPPING SERVICES AT MIAMI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, BETWEEN TRUESTAR USA A JOINT VENTURE BETWEEN SINAPSIS TRADING USA, LLC AND TRUESTAR GROUP SPA AND MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, WITH A MINIMUM ANNUAL GUARANTEE OF $9,600,000 AND FOR A TERM OF EIGHT YEARS, WITH A TWO-YEAR OPTION TO RENEW; AUTHORIZING COUNTY MAYOR OR HIS DESIGNEE TO EXECUTE SAME, AND TO EXERCISE RENEWAL AND TERMINATION PROVISIONS THEREOF(Aviation Department)
3/5/2013 Recommendation rejected by BCC Passed 9 - 2
3/19/2013 Vetoed by Mayor

2A2 Mayoral Veto

RESOLUTION APPROVING LEASE AND CONCESSION AGREEMENT WITH SAFE WRAP OF FLORIDA JV, LLC FOR A TERM OF EIGHT YEARS, EXCLUSIVE OF OPTIONS TO RENEW, WITH A MINIMUM ANNUAL GUARANTEE OF $9,600,000.00, AND FOR A PERCENTAGE OF GROSS REVENUES TO THE COUNTY OF 52%; AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY MAYOR OR MAYOR’S DESIGNEE TO EXERCISE AND ENFORCE ALL PROVISIONS THEREOF, INCLUDING EXTENSIONS AND TERMINATION

This is what all the fighting is about: Which company gets the lucrative award to cellophane your luggage.

The only good thing to come out of this long shrink-wrap war: Miguel De Grandy's shame and degradation at being reprimanded by the Florida Supreme Court, as described on the Florida Bar website:

FORMER MIAMI STATE REP. MIGUEL DE GRANDY REBUKED FOR ETHICS BREACH-- The Miami Herald,  Jan. 8, 2010.

The Florida Supreme Court has reprimanded former Miami state Rep. Miguel De Grandy, now a special counsel for the Florida House. The justices Thursday [Jan. 7] accepted De Grandy's plea of guilty with conditions that included the reprimand for violating legal ethics due to a conflict of interest in his private practice. The Coral Gables lawyer at one point represented a luggage-wrapping company and later a competitor for the same contract with Miami International Airport. De Grandy served in the House from 1989 through 1994. A Florida Bar report said De Grandy cooperated with investigators and withdrew from representing the second company.

You might think wrapping luggage is quite stupid, but apparently a lot of people do it. I have never done it, but I once had our Scarab Sport shrink wrapped in New York for the winter, mostly to protect the boat's teak. If they are offering to give the county about $10 million dollars, and hiring a gaggle of lobbyists, think about what they are making on wrapping luggage.  The thing I hate most is all the lobbyists hired by these shrink wrap companies. If I had more energy I would go down to County Hall and shoot pictures of the lobbyists, a photo op surely awaits. However, they run away now when they see me coming and as I said, I don't have the energy to chase them.  If anyone one is there, send me a couple of lobbyist photos.

I am getting a free lunch out of the deal from the president of the one of the companies, so I have a coal in this fire. Let the games begin...again!

On Cuba, hypocrisy is at home in Miami ... by gimleteye

How's this, for the latest from Miami. Ours is the Magic City. It is where taxpayer fairness and protections of the public commons disappear faster than rum on hot sand.

Now the Growth Machine -- aka Latin Builders Association -- is ranting against the company renovating the Cuban port of Mariel. Meanwhile its members and families pile cash into Cuba, through investments under the table via relatives in Cuba.

It's the latest in the Book of Tirades, by the same development interests who organized to convert Miami-Dade wetlands and farmland into endless platted subdivisions, shifting the costs of growth or sweeping them under the rung while wrecking our quality of life and imposing massive liabilities on ordinary taxpayers. That's the real magic trick of the Magic City.

OK, for the Growth Machine to enforce the politics of the embargo against Cuba, while boosting the fortunes of relations in Cuba under the table. Who do you think is behind the rapid inflation of property values in Havana?

OK, for the LBA to condemn foreign-owned companies that do business in Cuba, like Odebrecht. Also OK, for LBA members to send cash to help relations make money in Havana. What do you think is in all those shrink wrapped bags at MIA, going to Havana? Plantain chips?

In the Miami Herald, the LBA president Bernie Navarro was clear to differentiate the company, Odebrecht, from its USA president who Navarro called a "class act". To remind readers, Odebrecht has been a main supplier of "contributions" to the LBA's former enforcer, Natacha Seijas, and the YMCA, the charity that employed her.  Read about it, here.

This magic trick of Rabelaisian proportions goes under another name: hypocrisy.

Eyeonmiami noted, not so long ago, that the right wing through the blog, Capitol Hill Cubans, beat up on the former MIA director Jose Abreu who was, at the time, under consideration for the top transportation post in the Obama administration. It was interesting to witness LBA allies attacking one of their own. Abreu was the first honest broker to tackle the corrupt pools of special interests, ponding around Miami International Airport contracts, lobbying and Miami-Dade politics.

In my commentary, "When it comes to Cuba and the right wing, nothing is ever as it seems", we noted:

"What matters is that the Cuban American right-wing... is determined to maintain control of foreign policy in DC and "money" outcomes in future US trade with Havana. The attack against Miami airport director Abreu is a veiled signal, directly mainly within the ranks of right-wing conservatives. The Capitol Hill Cubans nominally address the Miami-Dade County Commission; but this signal is not about local government contracts. It is about the fierce efforts to protect prerogatives. Who exactly is the veil protecting?"

Cuban blogger Yaoni Sanchez would have to read Eye On Miami to understand. In the Herald she reportedly said excitedly yesterday, "“I am really very happy,’’ she said when she arrived in Miami Thursday. “I feel in the air and in the people a lot of respect and freedom. I feel like I’m in Cuba but free. This is like Cuba but with democracy."

Careful, Yaoni. The Miami Growth Machine wants to control Cuba and its economy. US foreign policy to Cuba, dictating from Miami, is the flip side of the pancake that imposed enormous pain on the Cuban people. With its sprawl axis cracked in South Florida, the Growth Machines gazes longingly across the Florida Straits for new economic opportunities to control -- irritated that Oderbrecht and other foreign corporations are planting their roots there, first.

Hypocrisy wasn't invented in Miami, but it thrives here.

Term Limited Coral Gables Commissioner Maria Anderson goes out with a bang. By Geniusofdespair

Commissioner Maria Anderson, said sayonara at her last Coral Gables commission meeting March 26. She had even more to say, as evidenced by this press release:

“It's been a privilege to serve my hometown for 12 years. I survived three tough elections and am humbled that the citizens of Coral Gables placed their trust in me in 2001, 2005 and 2009. I am proud that I am leaving public service rich in amazing experiences, not but no richer in money than when I started in 2001. I never took a city computer, cell phone and declined to participate in the city's pension.

My work with seniors, keeping the process alive for a senior center is now
bearing fruit. The Coral Gables Charrette was the impetus for the re-write of the city's Zoning Code, and was also a great community event. In 2003, we did the heavy lifting in starting the reform of the city's pension by making it a contributory system again. But I leave heavy-hearted and troubled by the direction our city is heading. The Mayor's race in particular is pivotal. The standing mayor has become the puppet for a despotic City Manager. Furthermore the mayor never truly expresses an opinion of his own and is scripted by the manager whose interest is never about what's best for the City. Shoddily re-paved streets and skinny palm trees do not a good mayor make. They are merely cosmetic cover-ups that hide the true issues.

Cason's popularity with Cubans because of his Cuban Foreign Service work makes no sense to me. After all, I am a Cuban-born;53-year resident of Coral Gables and my colleague, Ralph Cabrera is a Cuban born, 47-year resident. Our parents lost everything, and then made a life again in Coral Gables.

1. Jim Cason refuses to admit that the City has had a 13%+ increase in crimes and allowed the Manager to cover it up before the election.

2. Jim Cason approved an unprecedented number of no-bid contracts that cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s the “good old boy” network at it worst.

3. Jim Cason views city employees like actuarial statistics and the manager views them as chattel. Morale has flat-lined in City Hall. He has not figured out that fairly treated employees give the quality service residents expect. My last few weeks will be spent in helping my 12-year colleague Ralph Cabrera be elected Mayor. That's the least I can do for my hometown."

I sent my readers to Discourse.net for an analysis of the Mayoral race in Coral Gables. Law Professor Michael Froomkin has been following it, I have not.

(I must have been German in another life. I keep capitalizing all nouns as I type and I am forever correcting. Should Mayoral be capitalized in this instance? Readers?)

Report from the Gables. Guest Blog by Gabler

Genius here - I asked a friend to fill us in on what is going on with the Coral Gables election, specifically I asked: How is Ross Hancock doing...

The stately city of Coral Gables is having an election next week that has attracted the greedy eyes of developers and lobbyists, who have put up 35-year-old construction executive Vicente Carlos Lago as a commission candidate. Lago’s campaign has spent over $100,000.00 in the race so far, an astonishing amount and more than the mayoral candidates, to ensure a place at the table for the Latin Builders and their ilk. It is virtually certain that more than $100 per voter will be spent by the 10 candidates who are vying for control of the commission. As of 3/13 Hancock had raised $2,605 and Lago has raised an alarming $141,798.

Ross Hancock, who gave Rep. Erik Fresen a scare in November, by getting very close with very little funds, is running a grassroots campaign against Lago that is highlighting issues like climate change. Community volunteer Marlin Ebbert is also running for the at-large Group 2 seat, which is open because Commissioner Ralph Cabrera is challenging incumbent Mayor Jim Cason.

Hancock’s campaign is built on a network of local volunteers in an election that will probably attract about 5,000 voters. Hancock builds on a base of more than 7,000 Gables voters who preferred him in the November partisan race. His team is also working on the UM campus to motivate newly registered student voters who support his environmental priorities.

Ross Hancock is the only candidate in the Gables races who is endorsed by the Sierra Club. He also has the endorsements of Democracy for America and the union that represents the beleaguered Gables city workers, some of whom have been so squeezed that they now depend on food stamps.

This is an interesting race to watch if you like to see regular citizens challenge local candidates whose sponsors are trying to buy elections, and if you are interested in how difficult issues like gun control and climate change are received by the public.

Genius Again: If I lived in Coral Gables, I would vote for Ross Hancock. 

As far as the Mayor's race goes -- Ralph Cabrera -- I defer to DISCOURSE.NET because Michael Froomkin has followed and analyzed the race. His analysis is at this link.

Gables campaign finance reports.

Happy Easter. By Geniusofdespair

The best book I ever read about Jesus was "Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time: The Historical Jesus and the Heart of Contemporary Faith" by Marcus Borg (I have seen him speak as well. And the book did change my perception of Jesus and organized religion. Borg was a member of the Jesus Scholars at the Jesus Seminar (a group of 150 Critical scholars, founded in 1985).  I was given the book by then Cannon Fred Masterman. It is a far cry form the OTHER Christian groups I have been reporting on. Borg and Masterman were all about compassion.

This is a review on Amazon of the Borg book by Peter A. Kindle:

Reconstructing the pre-Easter life of Jesus with historical criticism, Borg explains that Jesus was a spirit person (chapter two), a social prophet and movement founder (chapter three), and a teacher of wisdom (chapter four). In these chapters he does not heed the consensus opinion of the Jesus Seminar, but provides his personal conclusions with sensitivity to their implications for the Church and Christian life.

The concluding chapters (five and six) deal with the metaphorical use of language in Christology and the macro-stories of Scripture as imaginal material for contemporary living of the meaning of Scripture.

I recommend this book for anyone who feels the water leaking in. There is more to the experience of God than conformity to denominational patterns and the exaltation of obedience. Let Borg point the way for you, too.

Marcus Borg and Rev. Frederick J. Masterman of the Episcopal Church

Borg says of his own book:

"Believing in Jesus does not mean believing doctrines about him," Borg writes. "Rather, it means to give one's heart, one's self at its deepest level, to . . . the living Lord."

And the review, I assume press release:

Drawing on his own journey from a naive, unquestioning belief in Christ through collegiate skepticism to a mature and contemporary Christian faith, Borg illustrates how an understanding of the historical Jesus can actually lead to a more authentic Christian life—one not rooted in creeds or dogma, but in a life of spiritual challenge, compassion, and community.

In straightforward, accessible prose, Borg looks at the major findings of modern Jesus scholarship from the perspective of faith, bringing alive the many levels of Jesus' character: spirit person, teacher of alternative wisdom, social prophet, and movement founder. He also reexamines the major stories of the Old Testament vital to an authentic understanding of Jesus, showing how an enriched understanding of these stories can uncover new truths and new pathways to faith."

For questioning believers, doubters, and reluctant unbelievers alike, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time frees our understanding of Jesus' life and message from popular misconceptions and outlines the way to a sound and contemporary faith: "For ultimately, Jesus is not simply a figure of the past, but a figure of the present. Meeting that Jesus—the living one who comes to us even now—will be like meeting Jesus again for the first time."

An audio by Cannon Masterman, who gave me the Borg book, speaking on Easter.  This is relevant to the gay struggle of today, he touches on civil rights in his sermon.

Another review of Borg's book: