Shorts around Miami Dade. By Geniusofdespair

Aventura Mall
Store owner at the Aventura Mall: Rents have doubled. Donny is trying to make the Mall more upscale. Lots of stores being forced out.

Firing Assistant County Manager
Roger Carlton, assistant County Manager is let go. I liked Roger. The curious thing, according to the Herald, Vile Natacha Seijas said something nice about him:
``To me, he's done a good job.''

City of Miami Waterfront Board Meeting
A decision was made to defer voting on the Sasaki Plan for the Coconut Grove Waterfront. The Sailing Club members, about 40 in attendance at the meeting, did not want to move to another building and this created an impasse. Are they intent on throwing the baby out with the bathwater?

City of Opa Locka
Commissioner Dorrin Rolle’s former Chief of Staff Dante Starks — Opa Locka Lobbyist now -- is arrested with Vice Mayor of Opa Locka, Terence Pinder (accused of getting kickbacks from Starks). Good. Pinder is already gone from the Opa Locka website but thanks to CACHE, I found this on Opa Locka's website cache:

Terence K. Pinder
"Having received the highest number of votes in the 2004 November municipal elections, long time. Opa-locka advocate Terence K. Pinder was overwhelmingly elected to serve as the City of Opalocka's Vice-Mayor. He has diligently served the people of Opa-locka for over 10 years dedicating his time and energy to improve the quality of life for all residents.

Not yet a day in office, Commisioner Pinder immediately began to work for his City. With the support of his colleagues Commisioner Pinder spearheaded an initiative to beautify and irrigate the 22nd Avenue Corridor spanning from NW 151st and 22nd avenue to NW 135th street and 22nd Avenue Hundreds of tropical plants and flowers adorn the median strips providing residents, pedestrians, motorist, and visitors with a sense serenity as they embark on their daily destinations. Within the median strips were placed two beautiful modem (?) welcome signs, shinning and glowing daily welcoming on-comers to the "Great City of Opa-locka".

His dedication to beauty and green space continued with successfully having the Florida Department of Transportation to cut and hedge overgrown vegetation along the City's CSX railings. Commisioner Pinder's passion for his community reaches from road improvements right into the homes of the City's senior citizens and children."
Enough of this, and yes there is more drivel I cut!! In a community with so many problems they are talking about medians and flowers???

Back to Opa Locka
And wasn’t the former mayor of Opa Locka charged with an income tax crime in 2005?

The population of Opa Locka is 14,951 as of 2004. In 2005 it had 352 violent crimes and 1,529 non violent crimes. According to Wikipeida it has one of the highest crime rates in the US.

As far as taxes go, according to the St. Pete Times (April 28th):
The city already is charging residents 9.8 mills, or $9.80 for every $1,000 of taxable value, and the state cap is 10. This year, half of the city's $14-million budget will come from property taxes, with the rest from franchise and telecommunication fees and federal and state grants. The police department costs $4.45-million to run, as Opa-locka struggles with high crime.

This City should not have become a city, too small, too many problems. What were they thinking? With such a small budget, you would think it would be next to impossible to hide corrpution for more than a few weeks.

Miami Dade Wants $131 Million for Furniture by Geniusofdespair

Today there was an article in the Miami Herald stating the County
Commission was seeking to refurnish:Chairs, sofas bill: $131M.

The $131 million for Miami-Dade County furniture would not bother me so much if it weren’t for the $217,000,000 cost overruns at the Performing Arts Center (PAC) and the $1 Billion dollar budget increase for the Miami-Dade airport requested by Burgess at recent county meetings. And, then there is the couple of million that was stolen for cellphones at Miami-Dade Water and Sewer.

Of course, we still have the shortfall of unfunded County infrastructure in the neighborhood of 5 billion dollars. At least 1 billion 119 million is unfunded for parks and Water and Sewer has a backlog of $2 billion 500 million.

It is the cumulative effect of more and more being wasted that is angering citizen. Look at just some of the lapses at County Government uncovered in 2006. These lapses hurt us in our pocketbook or in our safety:

MIAMI HERALD - January 8, 2006 By David Ovalle
Jail eased 'high-risk' suspect's restrictions
Reynaldo E. Rapalo, the rape suspect who made a bold escape from a West Miami-Dade jail, started out his jail time under heavy security. When he escaped last month, Rapalo had been moved to another county jail, Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. He was tagged a ''low risk'' inmate. And he was allowed to roam in a less restrictive wing where he could mingle with other prisoners.

MIAMI HERALD: OPA-LOCKA AIRPORT - Jun. 05, 2006 by Steve Harrison
Air controllers are on shaky ground in 'tower'
Miami-Dade County and the FAA negotiated for years over how to replace Opa-locka Airport's control tower. Now controllers are working in a trailer while a new tower is built.

'This is not a tower that meets any code whatsoever,' says building official Charles Danger. For the next three years, Opa-locka Airport's control tower will be a trailer perched atop cargo containers welded together. Controllers must climb a ladder to get inside. And the tower is only 33 feet off the ground, meaning controllers can't see the entire airfield.

MIAMI HERALD WATCHDOG - Jun. 18, 2006
Fire alarm: Dade can't get a handle on its payroll
With a chaotic record-keeping system, the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department can't tell when firefighters are paid twice for the same work.

MIAMI HERALD: HOUSE OF LIES series – July 2006 by Debbie Cenziper
This series uncovered inept management and millions of wasted funds in the County Housing Agency.

So it isn’t JUST about the furniture. It is about a culture of inept governing.

P.S.
Readers: does it seem right that some County Staff have outside
businesses? This irks me. Maybe there is not enough focus on the "Bread and Butter" job because of outside interests. Or, maybe the second business has conflicting goals. What is your opinion?

Here is another smelly Miami-Dade deal for you. By Geniusofdespair

In THE March 15th issue of "Miami Today", they did print a lot OF GOOD STUFF that you NEVER find in the Herald, or at least my Neighbors Section of the Herald – which is void of one iota of useful information.

Here is my rundown of the issue (Most of it is not on line):

•It appears the lovely, former South Miami Mayor, Mary Scott Russell, is now the President of Chamber South. Like her.

•Carnival Cruise Line's CEO, Dickinson calls the (County run) Port of Miami “Third World.” No news there, same assessment as we all can make on the Miami-Dade County airport. I still think they aren’t hooked up to sewers at the Port of Miami, among other problems Dickinson cited.

•It also was reported that if you are richer you can go faster. FDOT is proposing putting in a tolled speed lane on I 95. I am not against this. But once we start paying 9% sales tax and $3.50 a gallon for gas, I might be. I do think it is highly discrimatory. But I am also a self serving realist at times, and I want to go faster. So screw the people who have to go slower.

•Now to the SMELLY DEAL. Unfortunately this article is not on line and I am forced to interpret it. (Hit read more)
It is about the Opa Locka Airport. Willie Logan, who ran against Barbara Jordan for County Commissioner and lost, has some sort of deal at the airport. He heads Opa-locka Cummunity Development Corp. and his group has not met the terms of a 1997 deal which has a 40 year lease to it. The thing that was unseemly, is that the same Barbara Jordan he ran against was the one raking Willie over the coals at the Commission meeting. It shouldn’t have been you Barbara, sour grapes. It was wrong.

Gimenez (one blogger told me Gimenez is eyeing the City of Miami Mayor position) sponsored a resolution to give Logan’s company 90 days to land a deal with Chicago giant Higgins development to do the development. Jordan shortened the grace period to 30 days. Sour grapes.........or is something else afoot?

In an aside which will become clearer later: Sally Heyman, you might recall, pressured county staff to get Carrie Meek a lobbyist job a year or two ago. It wasn’t quite the kosher deal as Sally was said to have intimidated county staffers.

Jordan's 30 day deal was supported by the awful Seijas and Heyman. Now here is the interesting part, according to reporter Dan Dolan:

“If Opa-Locka Community Development loses its rights, other companies would be able to negotiate to build on the parcel, which includes 100 acres earmarked for industrial use and 21 acres with access to the airport’s runways.

Ms. Jordan is championing a $200 million dollar airport development proposal sponsored by a politically influential foundation headed by former U.S. Rep. Carrie Meek. However, she has indicated that Higgins would be able to pitch the county once Opa Locka Community Development is out of the picture.”

What a mess.

I don’t think Willie should have taken so long and how the hell did he get the contract anyway? But, I also ask, are we going from the frying pan into the fire with this one? Carrie Meek appears to be tottering on the dark side of late - tarnishing her legacy – lobbying for developers and rock miners outside the Urban Development Boundary and now this. And isn't she in her 80's? Tsk, tsk.

Again, Dorothy you are not in Kansas anymore.