Mayor Fishing for Souls To the Polls? By Geniusofdespair

Administrative Leave: Time spent doing this activity (it calls for 5 hours) you get to take later as time off, in this case, half the time you 'volunteer'. So 20 employees get 2 1/2 hours off in the future.  Your tax money is paying to get this activity going at a church. Don't churches usually find their own volunteers?

It is hard to be granted administrative leave, ask any staff member. It is also hard for Gimenez to make friends and garner good will in the black areas around Miami Dade County. This is a perfect opportunity for  the 2016 election. This church is a hugely active political church. They have an early voter program, candidates visit the parishioners at the church. So this isn't just helping out a poor little church. It is a vote getter ploy.

They want souls to the polls while we, as usual, are taken to the cleaners.

Looking for Someone to Run Against Commissioner Barbara Jordan: How About Shirley Gibson? By Geniusofdespair

Mayor Shirley Gibson

I have been trying to think of someone who could win against Commissioner Barbara Jordan and today Mayor Shirley Gibson came to mind for County Commission District 1. Well, I was actually reading a Miami Herald article about her when it came to mind. She is term-limited for Mayor -- she leaves in August. The County Commission race is in August! This coincidence is 'God working' folks.

I know that Wade Jones is in the race but I don't know that he could win. The beloved Mayor of Miami Gardens -- Shirley Gibson -- she would have it in the bag. The Herald says about Miami Gardens "It now ranks the largest majority black city in Florida, and according to the 2010 census, the third-largest concentration of African Americans in the country."

There is a great video interview of Shirley Gibson on the Miami Herald site. Watch it!! She has a Ph.D. from St. Thomas University in theological studies.

I have heard Gibson speak many times and I admire her very much. I endorse Shirley Gibson for County Commission District 1...if only she will run! Barbara Jordan is one of the County Commission's Unreformable Majority, she needs to go.

The County is proved wrong. Guest Blog By We’re Watching

Almost 7 years ago Shirley Gibson stood before the County Commission and asked them to approve incorporation of Miami Gardens. Miami Gardens had tried to incorporate for several years. Like other incorporation efforts, she was subjected to all the reasons why incorporation would not work for Miami Gardens. But Shirley is smart; she knew her community better than any County Commissioner. She had been in this situation before several years earlier when she was part of the incorporation effort for the same area then called Destiny. Destiny was shot down by big money influence on the County Commissioners.

This time around she would not take “no” for an answer. She was told that Miami Gardens was a poor black community and could not survive on their own. Shirley, a former cop, would not be intimidated. When Vile Natacha came at her, she fired back with facts and figures and such resolve that even the Vile One backed off. (hit read more)

In the end the Commission approved Miami Gardens’ incorporation but the sense was, ‘don’t come to us when you fail. We will not bail you out’. Today Shirley is Mayor of the largest predominantly black city in the State. One measure of their success is that Miami Gardens is the only newly incorporated city to start their own, independent police department.

On September 27, 2009, the front page of the Tampa Bay section of the St. Petersburg Times profiled Miami Gardens and Mayor Gibson, Prudent city can brag as it saves by Janet Zink. The lead says, “As other Florida cities struggle with budgets, Miami Gardens is still hiring and building”. And they are saving for rainier days too. Shirley won’t say it, but I will: The Commission was dead wrong about Miami Gardens and they are about other incorporation efforts too.

It’s time the county removes the moratorium on incorporations and lets citizens control their own destiny. We should not be slaves to the county’s bloated inefficiency and salaries.