Saturday Editorial: Who wants to live in Medley: NO SANE PERSON. By Geniusofdespair

...Only too happy to fix the Miami Herald's bad decision, to do away with their Saturday Editorial Page.

MIAMI TODAY ARTICLE REMOVED SEE ORIGINAL PUBLICATION BY LIDIA DINKOVA: NEW MEDLEY SITE TO COVERT NATURAL GAS TO LNG


 According to Sierra Club:

Exporting Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to overseas markets is a dirty, dangerous practice that lets the industry make a killing at the expense of human health.

NEW REPORT: LOOK BEFORE THE LNG LEAP
Why Policymakers and the Public Need Fair Disclosure Before Exports of Fracked Gas Start

While drillers continue to carve up private property and ignore basic environmental laws, the natural gas industry is pressuring local governments and coastal communities to build new pipelines and processing plants so gas can be turned into a liquid form, also known as liquefied natural gas (LNG) and shipped overseas.

Exporting natural gas would increase fracking and carbon emissions, put sensitive ecological areas at risk, and do nothing to address our country's energy challenges. Natural gas companies envision a network of winding pipelines and noisy, polluting compressors that connect the drills to the docks, slicing through wild lands, rivers, and backyards. Pipelines and gas wells will inevitably leak or rupture, risking lives and fouling the environment where people live and further polluting the air we breathe and the water we drink.

Not only that, the super-cooling process that turns fossil fuel vapor into LNG requires an immense amount of energy -- so much energy, in fact, that the LNG lifecycle is as dirty as coal. The industry wants to build enormous shipping terminals that would pave over fields, fill wetlands, and destroy estuaries.

Yes, Medley is in Miami Dade County and it is off everyone's radar including the Miami Herald's. I got this article from Miami Today. It is a very industrial Town with dump sites and hardly any people. From Medley's website:

The Town of Medley was incorporated in 1949 and now occupies eight square miles in northwest Miami-Dade County. The Town is primarily an industrial community with 1,100 residents and 1,800 businesses which, when adding workers and visitors together, bring the daytime weekday population to approximately over 60,000.

Typical Medley Streets.

MORE ON LNG SAFETY:

Miami Today's Michael Lewis says: The County Commission Doesn't Know How to Prioritize Needs to Tallahassee. By Geniusofdespair

If Tallahassee doesn’t enact our wish list, it could be that legislators from around the state are too busy laughing at our list. - Michael Lewis Publisher of Miami Today


Every year the county sends a top 10 list of things they want from Tallahassee. These are the things our EXPENSIVE lobbyists are to fight for. Education? Mass Transit? Hospital Funding? Flooding Costs? Job Training? Well, you would be wrong. According to Michael Lewis:

County officials complain we send far more money to the state than we get back to serve our residents. They also lament that Tallahassee doesn’t listen to what we need in Miami-Dade. Other counties, they moan, are far better at getting what they want from the state.

All of that is true, and there’s a reason: despite having five former state legislators on our 13-member county commission, we stumble all over ourselves when we ask the state for what we think we need. We have met the enemy, and he is us.

and...

Not to deride the aims, but with all this county’s critical needs in higher education, transportation, schools, hospitals, economic development and job growth, social services, infrastructure and far more, the 23 items to choose among included – and I’m not making this up, I assure you:

State funding for a horse and cattle show
Rest stops for cattle coming to the show (that’s a second item)
Identity theft protection for minors
Regulation of liquid nitrogen
Dual naming part of Curtiss Parkway as Doral Boulevard
Banning the sale of ivory in Florida
Requiring sexual predators to wear electronic monitors.
Those are almost a third of the choices for what is most important to Miami-Dade County.

The people we elected are mostly morons. Souto, get off the Commission. We don't need your damn cattle show crap.

Lewis said: "It’s no wonder we get so little from Tallahassee. We don’t know how to ask for it."

Everyone who cares, make up your own list and put it here.

On Miami Today's Economic Enemy #1: Traffic … by gimleteye

Michael Lewis, publisher of Miami Today, agrees with the point we have made at EOM since we started this blog: that traffic is the number one enemy of our economy and quality of life. EOM, though, has never shied, unlike Miami Today, from identifying the source of traffic: decision makers and elected officials who never turn down a permit or zoning change that could interfere with the profit motives of the Great Destroyers.

We do, moreover, contest Mr. Lewis' point that traffic has only recently "exploded". During all the years when the building boom acquired momentum -- in the late 1990's straight into the early 2000's -- not a single county commissioner with the exception of Katy Sorenson was willing to hold up a zoning decision allowing more housing or commercial space based on traffic. Miami Today was mostly silent.

Finally, even Commissioner Sorenson was swayed against the requirements of traffic concurrency as a guiding principle of state growth management planning. Well so much for that: Gov. Rick Scott axed growth management as a foundation for planning.

Who bears responsibility for mitigating traffic? If you can find any elected official willing to bear responsibility, let us know. Please raise your hand.

We do agree with Mr. Lewis that "variability" in travel time dominates the traffic scene. You literally have no idea whether a 20 minute drive will become a 30 or 40 minute drive. This is crippling not just for business, but puts significant additional strains on families.

Mr. Lewis and I share the same amazement -- as I am sure many of our readers do -- at the sheer impossibility of navigating across Biscayne Boulevard from ANY direction when the Performing Arsht Center and the Heat Arena are in action. And the Museum of Jorge Perez? Who can get there? (And when did the Miami Herald ever editorialize about this facet of our torpedo'd civic life?)

Lewis writes, "we need to get priorities, and get them straight". But hasn't Miami Today been part of the media aristocracy that incessantly highlights the good work of job boosters like the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, or Neisen Kasdin/ Latin Builders, and the relentless optimism of pro-growth policies?

Perhaps Mr. Lewis anticipates our criticism by noting, "in the past eight years, Miami Today has written about "gridlock" 58 times. We've written about "traffic congestion" even more."

That very well could be the case. However, there comes a time when staying inside the circle of Miami's status quo is no longer a viable option for a critic. In our opinion, we crossed that threshold a long, long, long time ago.

Watson, I presume? More on Related Group's Jorge Perez ... by gimleteye

In the Herald, it looked like one of those sober, face-saving events when big land deals involving elected officials and zoning changes go awry. The same Jorge Perez who dragged neighbors of Mercy Hospital through years of protracted conflict and litigation, is now "a very responsible citizen of Miami" who gave up a project because it would over-burden infrastructure.

In the case of Mercy Hospital, where Perez had the politics lined up, a majority of city commissioners loved the plan -- now scuttled -- to put multi-million dollar condos on the Coconut Grove waterfront. The highly unpopular Perez condo fizzled in the solvent of the housing crash, during a period when Perez' empire and status was teetering on an edge.

Perez survived because bankers from far away who funded over a billion in loans to Perez, icon of overdevelopment, decided he was too big to fail. But Perez never cared about "overburdening" public infrastructure. His entire fortune is based on shifting costs of traffic, water, wastewater, etc. to taxpayers. Why give up the formula for millions, now?

My sense is that there is more to the cancellation of the Watson Island overdevelopment. The reported antagonism the project engendered between Miami and Miami Beach was the ostensible rationale.

It had to be about business and profits, and my guess is that the costs to Perez had to outweigh the benefits. No Miami developer has ever flinched from putting more traffic onto overcrowded roadways. That's the rationale offered by the neat as a pin press conference featured in The Miami Herald. So what would those costs have included, that perhaps the attendees of the public/private press conference would not want to talk about?

I wonder if Perez had trouble insuring the project. Is the back story that sea level rise is finally braking the overdevelopment of coastal South Florida? That would be a good question for Herald reporters and Miami Today, to start asking.

Perhaps Perez' prospective insurers, or re-insurers, are paying attention and read UM chair of the Department of Geologic Science Dr. Harold Wanless' testimony on wastewater infrastructure issues and seal level rise, in the lawsuit by Biscayne Bay Waterkeepers in federal court: "By 2063, there is projected to be further sea level rise of 1.8 - 3.1 feet according to the most recent NOAA projects. With a further 1.5 - 2 feet of sea level rise there will be no natural Virginia Key left. This will happen within the net 32-53 years."

Watson, I presume?

BBWKWanlessVKStatement8813-1

Miami Today Agrees With Me that Rebeca Sosa's Additions Were Sound. By Geniusofdespair

Michael Lewis said the County Commissioners are taking a practical approach to sea level change:

Miami-Dade commissioners last week took an environmentally and politically wise course in establishing a Sea Level Rise Task Force of six experts to determine potential impact of sea level change on the county and what we should do to prepare.

It was environmentally wise because we are already feeling impact of sea level rises in the form of seasonal flooding on the streets of Miami Beach and other communities. Whatever we might expect in the future, that unwelcome impact is already here.

It was politically wise because the measure's sponsor, Chairwoman Rebeca Sosa, included in revised legislation as a task force member Clerk of Courts Harvey Ruvin, an experienced political hand, a former commissioner who also has spearheaded environmental studies nationally and can deftly negotiate government's minefields to turn recommendations into action.

Here is where Rebeca Sosa is going to have to show her muscle: What to do with the report when it is finalized. Lewis says:

Now comes the hard part: gathering, assessing and acting decisively and thoughtfully on that input.

Too many Task Force reports end up on a shelf.

Commissioner Lynda Bell is One of The Unreformable Majority.

From Miami Today

Thank you Commissioners Sally Heyman and Dennis Moss for honoring a  30 year covenant (Barreiro and Souto were absent). The rest of you -- betrayal.

I wrote about this issue May 23rd.  I also wrote about it January 12th: It is BACK!! Like a bad case of the runs. 

 This issue is about land OUTSIDE the UDB line. The developer promised NO RESIDENTIAL imposing a 30 year Covenant on the land in 2007. He got the UDB line moved based on the covenant. Now the vote is in. Just 5 years later, the 30 year covenant is gone. 9 Commissioners voted in favor of this. Commissioners Jean Monestime, Rebeca Sosa, Audrey Edmonson and Xavier Suarez: What were you thinking? A 30 year covenant is a solemn promise in my book.

It is good to see Lynda Bell doesn't give a hoot about a 30 year covenant. If her daughter can't find a house in this market, she either doesn't have enough money, has bad credit or is incompetent. Anyway, why is a commissioner making a decision for over 2 million people based on a family member? To hell with the good of the community. Lynda Bell is no Katy Sorenson and never will be. I hereby induct Lynda Bell in the 'unreformable majority' on the county commission.

Kendall Commons is undeveloped residential. The property that had the 30 year covenant is to the North of Kendall Commons (on the curve). Why do we need more residential if they never developed Kendall Commons?

Get Rid of UMSA. By Geniusofdespair

Michael Lewis of Miami Today has it right in his editorial on getting rid of UMSA in Miami Dade county (the Unincorporated Municipal Service Areas) and letting the whole county incorporate like in Broward. Lewis says:

"The commission is diverted because most residents live in the nation of Umsa, the Unincorporated Municipal Services Area that taxes them while everyone else pays Miami, Coral Gables, Aventura, Palmetto Bay or the other municipalities. The county commission is the unofficial city council of Umsa. Every commissioner whose district has unincorporated land is that area's de facto mayor."

Further:

"Size doesn't determine government honesty and efficiency. But waste is easier and quicker to spot in smaller units. More important, smaller governments are more likely to do what voters need. That, not cost or honesty, is their allure. And that division of local needs from area-wide action is what our charter team should zero in on.

If we can't get rid of him, at least let's get Javier Souto out of the pothole business -- where he is stuck. He is the most parochial of the lot of them, Pepe "le pew" Diaz is a distant second.

David Samson, Miami Marlins, rags on Miami ... by gimleteye

Funny, the tempest in a teapot over David Samson's condescending comments to a Beacon Council breakfast, focusing ire on that radical voice of the left: Miami Today publisher Michael Lewis. According to reports, Samson didn't have much good to say about Miami politicians (we don't, either) or Miami voters or Norman Braman (whose response in the Herald was to flick off Samson's comments like a fingernail expressed against a mosquito). Michael Lewis tried to wage a battle of the facts of the awful, horrendous deal that Miami politicians permitted, saddling taxpayers with the largest share of a privatized professional sports stadium in the United States. Who cares? There is a simple way for Miami residents to respond: don't go to the stadium. It is how I feel about the performing arts center, unfortunately. Although I've tried to enjoy the place this year, the sordid facts of mis-spending, mis-allocation of resources, and such rise like the little bit of vomit that gets stuck in your throat (cf. Jim Defede). The PAC has the charm of a Marriott Hotel Conference Center. So there you have it. I'll buy a ticket to the Miami Heat when the owner and the county fork over the public park promised when that deal was done. And I'll go to Marlin's Stadium when Eyeonmiami is assigned private parking and suite like the county commission.

Frank Nero: spot on, reject casinos in Miami ... by gimleteye

Michael Lewis, of Miami Today, knows how "things get done" in Miami. Like most journalists, he completely missed the disasters inflicted on our region and state by a housing boom that swept up common sense and spread malaise in its place. On deeper civic values-- like protecting the environment and the Everglades -- he too minimized the way that rationale debate could have encouraged sensible growth and cultivated new leadership.

But that is the way the status quo works here and everywhere else: no one gets advertising dollars or accolades for challenging the way the nearest dollar is grabbed.

All the more remarkable then that Lewis stands up today with Frank Nero, long-time head of the Beacon Council in rejecting casinos in downtown Miami. In his editorial this week, Miller takes a principled position informed by facts and examples from other cities (Atlantic City, anyone) where the promise of gambling has inflicted enormous costs.

I've had differences with Nero. He was no help-- nada-- on the Homestead Air Force Base fiasco that consumed tens of millions of dollars and the energy of local government in the fruitless pursuit of private profit for insiders at the expense of our national parks. He and the Beacon Council were silent on the mess that passes for land use planning and growth management in Miami, turning a blind eye to the collusion of local operators like those behind US Century Bank who commandeered the levers of power for so long in Miami, until the whole apparatus fell to pieces during the economic crash.

The better angels of judgment say that just because errors were made in the past in mis-managing Miami's growth, doesn't mean we have to follow the same path now. That is surely the case with casino gambling in Miami. It will be the straw that breaks the camel's back for our quality of life and for business diversity. The advent of casinos in Miami will also be good for suitcase sales and moving companies. Nero says he is not going to "stand in front of the tank in Tianamen Square" and Miller doesn't go that far, but the Miami Today editorial gets five stars in my book. Here is it, in its entirety:

A Little Bit About A Lot. By Geniusofdespair

Talk about oil slick reporting, you have it from me today.

Miami-Dade County Commissioner Carlos Gimenez has formally entering the race to be the next mayor of Miami-Dade County. Adam Cendrati is his treasurer.

County Commissioner Lynda 'Don't Ring My' Bell is moving her South Dade office out of the Government Center. It will be next to a Starbucks in Palmetto Bay - on US 1. Looks like she wants to court the Latte crowd who don't particularly like her and the US 1 location says she wants to be VERY visible. I put the info on cost of her office at the end of this post.

There is an application to move the urban development boundary on the County Commission agenda today for the Homestead racetrack expansion. Let's see how Bell votes. By the way, this sucks. Just heard it is being rescheduled. Ryan Burgess works in marketing for the speedway. He is the son of George.

North Miami has to dump Mayor Andre Pierre who drove a $100,000 Porsche this summer and couldn't exactly tell anyone where he got it. He recently reported it as a gift. He also ordered over $4,000 worth of facsimile police badges for his staff. He only has a staff of 3 but got 43 badges. Doesn't really want to tell anyone where they went.

Does the piano on the sandbar rate a front page story? Apparently it has gone viral so I am in the minority.

Miami Herald Columnist Fred Grimm takes on Governor Scott today for ignoring the will of the voters on redistricting. This might be an early tide turner for the cue-bald Governor. People are angry, they only need a little push to turn them vengeful, just ask Mayor Carlos Alvarez, Rick.

Hialeah Julio, aka Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina is hiding behind a skirt. Yep, it is all his wife's fault. Checks from convicted Ponzi scheme guy were made out to him by mistake. They should have been made out to her. I don't think you are going to be the Mayor of Miami Dade County Julio. When you are in a hole, just stop digging.

More coming, including fill-in....writing this live -- hit read more...

Update on the recall lawsuit...waiting -- know that depositions are going on. Lawyer Stephen Cody is the questioner for Vile Natacha. Meanwhile Miami New Times is taking the wicked one to task for her PAC's tainted campaign contribution. Vanessa Brito, Miami Voice PAC President said: "Our eam of attorneys are doing a great job and I owe them all a debt of gratitude. The depositions, meant to try to harass petition gatherers, are moving along. in spite Of their intent, petition gatherers are glad to get on record that they have nothing to hide".

Michael Lewis of Miami Today nails the County calling it "Back to the future government":

"...We need charter amendments to clear the sand back out of the gears and then oil up county hall machinery we formerly had with the best possible operators. The strong mayor system, coupled with electing commissioners from small areas, has made a clanking Miami-Dade engine sputter worse."

Okay I like something the County Commission did. You all know how I hate red light cameras (read 1984) but at least the county is not going to enforce right turn violations (89% of all tickets) in the unincorporated areas.

My mother-in-law (103 years old) is in the hospital with pneumonia. Lately she has been telling everyone who will listen that she wants to die. While waiting for the ambulance last night we had to warn her that her threats to herself were going to get her tied to the bed. She said "but it is true." We said, it could be true but just don't say it out loud. Last rehab center (which is really a nursing home with physical therapy) she threatened to throw herself out of the bed so they had her on suicide watch. Talking to her is like reasoning with an obstinate 7 year old who has no concept of time.

And speaking of time...that's all folks!


Lynda Bell's Lease Information:

Year Annual Rent Monthly Rent Rate PSF

2 $40,381.25 $3,365.10 $16.25
3 $44,108.75 $3,675.73 $17.75
4 $47,637.45 $3,969.79 $19.17
FISCAL IMPACT: The total fiscal impact for the first lease year is estimated to be $74,378.02, which is calculated below. This expense has been budgeted in the County Commission’s operating budget. Funding source: General Fund, Index Code: CCENT010896.

First lease year of the initial term:

Annual Base Rent: Total Dollars PSF

Total annual base rent $37,324.70 $15.02
$37,324.70

Direct Expenses:

Build-out Cost: $13,750.00 $ 5.53
Electricity: $ 4,522.08 $ 1.82
Janitorial & custodial: $ 3,106.25 $ 1.25
Security alarm: $ 432.00 $ .17
$21,810.33 $23.80
Indirect Expense:

Signage (One-time fee) $ 5,000.00
Phones & Data set-up: $ 8,750.00
Lease Management Fee: $ 1,492.99
$15,242.99
Total Cost to County,
First lease year: $74,378.02

The total projected fiscal impact for the initial four-year term of the lease and the four-year renewal option period is $533,093.81.

Soap Opera at Miami Dade County Hall. By Geniusofdespair

Miami Today is chock full of County News. The Commissioners gave Mayor Alvarez 60 days to get a $50 million dollar refund from the Marlins. Like that is going to ever happen.

The paper had a story on the Commission debate on what they would do if the Mayor were to be recalled (removal would be immediate). They seem to be leaning towards appointment instead of an election. Chairman Moss suggested legislation that would give the Chair the Mayor's powers, on top of the Chair's powers. Only trouble is, the Chair is facing a recall too.

In a story about Carlos Gimenez's Charter Change Legislation, Miami Today had a great quote from Vile Natacha Seijas about the petition drive to recall her from office yet a second time:

"I'm living it, not once, but twice. It didn't feel good at the beginning and it makes me sick now at the end."

Michael Lewis's Commentary, about the County recalls, is on target in "Reforms could give ugly county soap opera a happy ending":

"A failing and flailing Miami-Dade mayor gropes weakly for straws to avert a recall election. Five commissioners are targeted for recall battles of their own, one for a second time. Another commissioner with ambitions to become mayor puts forward vital reforms but quickly pulls most back.

The courts clerk inadvertently enters the storm's eye as the mayor's legal team targets a scapegoat. And the commission seeks ways to fill the gap should the mayor be recalled. The chair jockeys to take control himself.

Meanwhile, solutions — charter reforms that would have prevented much of the havoc — sit on a dusty shelf where commissioners buried them so voters couldn't exert control. And you thought soap operas were passé."

Is mainstream media too kind to the Miami-Dade County Commission? By Geniusofdespair

To answer my question: They are not pulling punches over there at Miami Today. They can be brutal when it comes to Miami Dade's County Commission. In his editorial, about the cold shoulder the commissioners are giving Commissioner Javier Souto's ethics reform measures, Michael Lewis said:

The wolf pack is on the prowl again. Miami-Dade commissioners keep tearing the heart out of measures to shine sunlight on county hall's deep dark secrets.

Week after week, they show their disdain for the public's right to learn what government is doing. The only thing they don't seem to be hiding is their contempt for the people they in theory serve.

Can't picture the Miami Herald being that blunt. Good for Lewis for saying it like it is. The only one who Lewis identifies as off the hook, besides Souto, is Carlos Gimenez. He also levels a well-deserved parting shot at the community:

But not a word of support has come from those who should be monitoring government — chambers of commerce, voter groups, community leaders. They may believe 100% in the open government Mr. Souto espouses, but they aren't willing to put their necks on the line with commission wolves on the prowl.

And so in the Sunshine State that made the Sunshine Law for open government famous nationally, the door to county hall slowly swings shut to the public without a murmur.
Chalk up another kill for county hall's wolf pack.

"Miami Today" on Javier Souto 'Seeing the Light'. By Geniusofdespair

Seems like me (I called it a lucid moment) and Michael Lewis agree on County Commissioner Souto's crusade for ethics, transparency and good government within the County. In his December 17 Editorial, Lewis said:

Unfortunately, Mr. Souto has broken the code of the governmental underworld: he has squealed on wrongdoing — legal or not, it's wrongdoing — by commissioners and officials. And he has done it in public. He will not be forgiven by Mr. Burgess, who punishes all but yes men. He will not be aided by those commissioners who are themselves yes men, who go along and get along. But he deserves active support from civic groups like the Miami Business Forum, League of Women Voters, Greater Miami Chamber and other chambers of commerce of this county. And, Lewis said:

Not only is it surprising that Mr. Souto is the one who has blown the whistle on dirty county hall behavior that everyone sees but nobody seems to notice, it's also a pity.

It's a pity because few commissioners take Mr. Souto seriously. When he speaks, they roll their eyes and smirk. He is not, bluntly, a force on the dais.

Are you listening Civic Groups? Also, citizens you can email his office and tell him you support his efforts.

Miami Today: time to get the facts straight on economy... by gimleteye

Michael Lewis' editorial in Miami Today begins: "Miami-Dade is playing a perilous game of hot potato with a 13% tax increase plan, exacerbating the worst recession in 70 years." I think I know what Mr. Lewis' point of view is: that government must cut, cut, and cut to bring expenditures in line with revenues. He should come out and say it. But Mr. Lewis needs to recalibrate his facts.

The problem is deeper than Mr. Lewis acknowledges. He writes, "... Newly elected Property Appraiser Pedro Garcia... had to set a ceiling high enough to cover county spending a year ago, called the rollback rate. That, coupled with the 9.5% fall in countywide appraisals, required a 13% rate hike ceiling." Problem number one: the facts are wrong. Real property appraisals in Miami-Dade exclude or limit inclusions of foreclosures under Department of Revenue rules. Since the majority of real estate sales are occurring under some form of property in distress, and since those figures are substantially EXCLUDED from the tax base, revenues will be much, much lower than predicted. That means that to balance the budget, the tax increase would have to be substantially higher than 13 percent.

I think your government knows this perfectly well, and so should Mr. Lewis. Eyeonmiami detailed the confusion in posts late last week: I am continuing to try to untangle the data sources and facts-- but clearly, the mainstream media is part of the problem. Mr. Lewis is right: we are "in the worst recession in 70 years". But our current circumstances require accurate data. The profound lack of public confidence-- showing up in statistics-- is because people feel that we are not being told the truth. Fixing that problem starts with getting the facts straight.

Michael Lewis Calls County Commission Buck Passing on Setting Tax Rate a Hot Potato. By Geniusofdespair

Michael Lewis in Miami Today says of the County Commission's decision to adjourn rather than set a tax rate (their most important duty by the way):

Miami-Dade is playing a perilous game of hot potato with a 13% tax increase plan, exacerbating the worst recession in 70 years. And:
Those who orchestrated the game expect it to play out this way:
Commissioners can decry Mr. Garcia's (Property Appraiser) huge hike, though he had no hand in it.

Who is responsible for orchestrating the game? Could it be Vile Natacha Seijas? Over Chairman Moss's call of "Out of Order", Natacha proposed to end the meeting and leave the tax rate up to the Property Appraiser. The Commission voted to overrule Moss and listen to their actual leader. Lewis says "The rate ceiling that Mr. Garcia was required to announce would raise county taxes on a $250,000 home an average of $317.50, varying with exemptions."

"Miami Today" Tells County Commission: Don't Raise Taxes! By Geniusofdespair

Michael Lewis of Miami Today makes an argument to Miami Dade County to NOT raise taxes, as they are contemplating, saving me the time. He says:

"...The private sector has had to cut — and none of us has the option to make someone else pay so that we can keep on spending as much as we did in the heady boom days." And:
"In fact, if the county cut that entire $350 million to $400 million tax shortfall out of the budget in the coming year it would be spending about $350 million more than just three years ago." Finally:
"...Don't come to us, commissioners, and paint possible spending loss as the end of police and fire services and parks and senior citizen care, as you always do when spending cuts are hinted at, because plenty of areas can be cut with far less public pain."

Michael Lewis: Stinging Editorial on Transit Tax. By Geniusofdespair

If you've come late to this ugly story of deceit, let me bring you up to date. - Michael Lewis

I really like this editorial by Michael Lewis Editor of "Miami Today." It is a good primer on the history of the transit tax but also it is critical of the broken promises to voters. To sum up, Lewis says:

"Commissioner Gimenez is taking the high road, putting public trust ahead of expedience. Instead of remaining silent about a disgraceful wrong that the commission admits but won't remedy, he's keeping faith with the public." And:

"If we let commissioners con us again by saying they need the tax for uses that were expressly barred, we're not only accepting an ongoing wrong but rewarding commissioners at the polls for committing it."

"Finally, when Mr. Gimenez tried to let voters decide whether to keep paying a tax that the commission had immediately subverted, County Manager George Burgess issued a remarkable document.

He said in essence that the county can't get by without using the hijacked money for purposes that were expressly barred in the 2002 vote.

And he admitted that it was "totally and completely unrealistic for anyone to have ever thought" that tax receipts could ever have done all that the county promised voters.

Promise 'em anything to get the cash. That was the plan. The defense Mr. Burgess offers is, "The transit tax was certainly over-promised, but not mismanaged." Some defense!"

Marlins Stadium: View from Michael Lewis of Miami Today. By Geniusofdespair

Michael Lewis is doing a bang-up job on the Florida Marlins issue, so I am not forced to do any research. He covers it all pretty well. Here is a sample from his editorial:

Another bad apple is an insurance clause for Mr. Loria. The public is to get a slice of profits if the team is sold within seven years. In year six, if the price was $600 million the public would get $7.5 million and the Marlins, who put in far less, would get $592.5 million.

But as Commissioner Sarnoff pinpointed Friday, if the owner dies in that span the public gets nothing. That wrinkle could give the Loria heirs a $60 million gift from taxpayers the first year, less each year thereafter.

The Burgess memo clarifies for the first time that the Marlins won't use a cent out of their pockets. They're to borrow $35 million interest-free from the county and $120 million elsewhere before construction is done and pay it all off from profits from the public's stadium. They play on credit.

Solar energy, not baseball: how to create thousands of new jobs in a time of economic crisis, by gimleteye

I never liked the deal for a new professional baseball stadium in Miami. I never have. Today's front page story in The Miami Herald gives me reason to like it even less. I could enumerate my reasons (Michael Lewis, of Miami Today, has done it better). My reasons probably correspond with lots of our readers'. But instead I'll just focus on this one theory, stated by Mayor Carlos Alvarez at the end of the article: "The stadium will create thousands of jobs."

I disagree that serial event venues-- like the Homestead Raceway or the Performing Arsht Center-- create thousands of jobs. What they do create is transient profits for engineering and construction firms and temporary jobs that fade away once the project is finished. How many permanent jobs and at what pay scale will be created by a new baseball stadium? I'd like to see them, and measure the nonsense against what was promised for the Arsht Center.

Here is what I'd like to see before any baseball stadium in built in Miami: put a solar panel and battery storage for solar energy on every rooftop in the county.

First of all, provide through an ease-to-access county fund the opportunity for citizens to lease or purchase solar at a low cost, to demonstrably lower monthly energy costs. Second, require equipment suppliers to manufacture and assemble the majority of components in Miami-Dade County. Third, provide installation training and certification to engineers and installers through a program that is made available to local, small businesses. Tax credits and insurance issues should also be part of the plan, to create a low threshold for entry and allow for business growth. Require FPL's participation, but make the program independent of its influence that has proven so irresponsible in Miami-Dade. Finally, use county-funded business services to promote the program and participants to other parts of the state and nation.

Let me put it bluntly: stop this idiocy that entertainments provide economic growth. They don't! If half the energy spent by county and city staff on making more millions for millionaire sports entrepreneurs and players was put into removing the obstacles to growing jobs through solar and other sustainable technologies, there would be more hope for the South Florida than any sports fantasy could ever provide. Oh, but the critics say, government shouldn't be involved in telling the free market what to do. EX-CUSE ME?

Put another way: if government can subsidize so much of so little consequence, why can't it find something of substance to do first?

Miami's media still MIA on housing crash impacts, by gimleteye

Miami-Fort Lauderdale is the most overbuilt market in the nation for subdivision homes, according to a report released last Thursday by housing market data provider Metrostudy. You didn't read the story in The Miami Herald.

Six out of the top ten areas of the nation with the most oversupply of subdivision housing are in Florida. That's quite a record, but local readers at the epicenter of the political and economic ground zero of the housing asset bubble and collapse wouldn't have seen it. You had to read the Fort Myers News-Press for that.

Instead on Saturday, the Herald published "New rules raise the bar for condo mortgages in Florida." (Miami Herald, Jan 24, 2009). The story skips past the vast oversupply of condos in Miami and focuses on grievances against Fannie Mae's new lending bar against certain condominiums in Miami.

The article could easily have moved in the direction of reporting how Fannie Mae was responding to its own dire financial circumstances, brought about by greedy executives paid hundreds of millions to inflate the risk to taxpayers to the bursting point. That point is buried in the middle of the story: "Charles Foschini, vice chairman of debt and equity finance for brokerage CB Richard Ellis in Miami, said Fannie was protecting investors, borrowers and taxpayers, as it should in a climate of increased risk."

Instead the focal point of the Herald's report is that Fannie Mae will be making it even harder to fill buildings that are struggling under the weight of low occupancy, high maintenance costs, and foreclosures as credit tightens. The story leans to the point of view of South Florida real estate consultant Jack McCable, who says Fannie Mae's timing "couldn't be worse." Then it goes on, to end: ''To have the major source of loans draw a line through us is terrible; it's wrong and it shouldn't happen,'' Dodge said. "The feds can't pull the rug out from under us.''

The timing couldn't be worse; a result in part because Miami's media was part and parcel of the building boom and housing asset bubble. Without independent criticism of the bubble as it was inflating by the media, how was any countervailing force to build? Critics of the boom--environmentalists, for instance-- were given short shrift by the mainstream media; it was OK to be an advocate for wildlife, for instance, but not for economics which were, by some form of reasoning influenced by advertisers, only the provenance of qualified, sober, community-minded business interests. The Miami Herald, in particular, stifled any reporting of dissent or breath of consequences. It is still missing in action, on connecting the dots of the political origins in Miami of the housing bust despite strong investigative reporting like "Borrowers Betrayed" and "House of Lies". Those focus on poor exploited victims of fraud. In 2005, former president of the Latin Builders Association Willy Bermello was given the space on the Herald editorial page to write, "The bubble is not latex, it is stainless steel," the Herald editorial board allowed no counterpoint, no hint of doubt; it still is missing the story of the political origins of this economic disaster and its conception in subdivisions allowed to proliferate in Miami-Dade farmland.

Not only should the rug be pulled out, the US Department of Justice should go after those who caused this economic calamity.Would Alex Acosta, the US Attorney for Miami, be willing to test the principle of the "Honest Services Act" rule, as DOJ did in Palm Beach County?

The concept of “honest services” is derived from 18 U.S.C. Chapter 63 on Mail Fraud.
Under 18 U.S.C. § 1341 (Frauds and swindles),
Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, or to sell, dispose of, loan, exchange, alter, give away, distribute, supply, or furnish or procure for unlawful use any counterfeit or spurious coin, obligation, security, or
other article, or anything represented to be or intimated or held out to be such counterfeit or spurious article, for the purpose of executing such scheme or artifice or attempting so to do, places in any post office or authorized depository for mail matter, any matter or thing whatever to be sent or delivered by the Postal Service, or deposits or causes to be deposited any matter or thing whatever to be sent or delivered by any private or commercial interstate carrier, or takes or receives therefrom, any such matter or thing, or knowingly causes to be delivered by mail or such carrier according to the direction thereon, or at the place at which it is directed to be delivered by the person to whom it is addressed, any such matter or thing, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.

And, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 1343 (Fraud by wire, radio, or television): Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, transmits or causes to be transmitted by means of wire, radio, or television communication in interstate or foreign commerce, any writings, signs, signals, pictures, or sounds for the purpose of executing such scheme or artifice, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.


Fixin' to pitch a fit over Wall St. greed

By Jay Bookman

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Monday, January 26, 2009

If you're looking for a place to put the pittance you salvaged from
the stock market, I've spotted the next hot commodity, the next growth
industry. Under these conditions, demand is going to soar for this
item, and there's money to be made.

You ready? I'll whisper it in your ear, just between us friends:

"Pitchforks."

Yup, pitchforks. With good solid handles and sharp tines. When the
angry mobs start assembling to march on Wall Street and Washington,
ready to take out their anger at the greed and excess of the last few
years, they're gonna need pitchforks and torches. We'll sell 'em by
the thousands, like Obama buttons at the inauguration.

Tar-and-feather futures might not be a bad investment either.

I'm kidding of course, but only sort of. Like a lot of Americans, I'm
aggravated and frankly astonished to see the sense of royal
entitlement to other people's money that developed over the years on
Wall Street. And nothing seems to shake it.

The story of Bank of America, Merrill Lynch and Merrill's former CEO
John Thain illustrates that sense of entitlement all too well.

Last year, Merrill Lynch lost tens of billions of dollars —- $15
billion in the last quarter alone. Yet even after that performance,
Merrill executives felt they were entitled to billions in bonuses paid
with stockholders' money.

It didn't matter that Merrill's losses were so bad that in effect the
brokerage had to be rescued by taxpayers. It didn't matter that the
U.S. Treasury had to give Bank of America a total of $45 billion in
TARP funds to help the bank buy Merrill and save it from bankruptcy.

Not even that was enough to shake the sense of royal entitlement. Late
last month, just before the merger was made official and with Bank of
America still finalizing the taxpayer subsidy, Merrill executives
collected an estimated $3 billion to $4 billion in bonuses. They even
accelerated the payment schedule by a month to make sure the money
flowed their way before anybody could stop it.

Like I said: Pitchforks.

Thain, Merrill's CEO, at first tried to include himself in the gravy
train, pushing for a $10 million bonus even as the company collapsed.
Public outrage prevented that injustice, but it did not stop Thain
from pocketing a separate $9.7 million payment triggered by the change
of ownership. That was on top of the $15 million bonus he received
just for taking the Merrill job just a year earlier.

And as the cherry on the sundae, Thain had also spent an estimated
$1.2 million just redecorating his office.

On the scale of threats to the economy, such sums are admittedly
almost too minor to notice. Officials in government and on Wall Street
are trying to free up the flow of credit; they're trying to bolster
confidence in the banking industry; they're trying to save the jobs of
millions of Americans. And the honest ones admit that they aren't
really sure what will turn things around.

"The answer is nobody knows. The economists don't know. All you know
is you throw everything at it …" Warren Buffett said last week. "What
we do know is to stand by and do nothing is a terrible mistake or to
follow Hooverlike policies would be a mistake."

The American people seem to understand that. President Obama said in
his inaugural address that it's time to put away childish things, and
most Americans have taken a pretty mature approach to a frightening
situation.

However, their support for committing hundreds of billions of
additional taxpayer dollars to corporate bailouts hangs on the belief
that Wall Street shares their understanding of the gravity of this
situation. People have lost half of their life savings, and perhaps
their homes and jobs too, and they want some assurance that the greed
and excess has ended. They want to know that they're not being scammed
again.

And if government officials aren't willing or able to provide that
assurance —- well, the public probably won't respond with pitchforks.
They'll just insist the bailout be stopped in its tracks, and it'll be
hard to blame them.

jbookman@ajc.com