Election Day for the Strong Mayor in Miami Dade County is January 23 with early voting starting today. Make it easy; vote early.
With voter turnout recently below a pitiful 15 percent, every vote is critical.
The balance of power on the County Commission has gone to those who are bizarre and irrational. The few who are in touch with reality are out voted by those who are not.
The County Manager, apparently is unable to understand what an audit is or how to use it and shows lack of concern for the way this county grows.
The Ethics Commission, controlled now by the County Commission, is a joke. Let's make the career of "lobbyist" go the way of "buggy whip maker"; disappear! Now is the time to hold the current administration accountable for the traffic we must endure and the carbuncles such as "Downtown Kendall" they have created. Enough!
One part of the problem is the County Manager now reports to the County Commission AND the Mayor; gridlock! We are one of the only major cities in the nation without a Strong Mayor. Our current system holds no one person accountable; a Strong Mayor system does. The Mayor of New York seems to function quite well and Alvarez still needs the County Commission's vote on most changes, in the from of a super majority.
Carlos Alvarez is one of the straightest arrows and most capable people ever to hold County office. His hands are tied; he can't do anything under the current system.
I'm voting for the Strong Mayor; it is important that everyone does. Don't skip this one if you plan to stay in Miami Dade County. And asking your friends to vote on this will help also; please forward this message to your email list.
7 comments:
Does the strong mayor work in the Sunshine? I think they do not. We complain of power in the hands of the County Commissioners, imagine just one person.
If you think that he will be more accountable, I think not. As long as he gets funding to run, heck, he could be in prison and win [I think that that is now reason to disqualify candidate in Dade County even though we had one that won from jail...]. What I mean to say, is that: Do you really think that this will make him more accountable or just more powerful? Who can go against this kind of power? NOBODY THAT NEEDS ANYTHING FROM THE COUNTY!
I suggest you think about whether he works in the Sunshine, and then if voters will still vote for a bad apple with the sufficient money for direct mail and campaign materials, and if this does not open us up to extreme power where nobody with money can position a viable candidate because of fear.
Let Mayor Alvarez worry about our increase in taxes, our crappy airport, our insurance costs, our homocide rate, our traffic issues, and then let him worry about being stronger. He's there for 4 years...unless he asks for more under as a strang mayor.
The County Manager has done a crappy job...lets fire the county Commissioners who appoint him. DOnt let them point fingers... As Mayor, wouldnt you let every County Manager go before you do? 8 years is not enough time.
and...you really believe that the commissioners work in the sunshine? He will not change his sunshine status. It will remain the same.
The poblem is anonymous: we can not fire the county commissioners they are elected in districts. So if a half of a million people countwide want to fire a commissioner they cannot. However, they can recall the mayor. Read some of the other posts under strong mayor.
The strong mayor campaign is really a humble effort to recapture a democratic form of government and earn us back some well-needed respect, which is why I am in favor of a strong mayor for Miami-Dade county and trust Mayor Alvarez to do the job he was elected to do - and to do it right. I applaud all the people behind this campaign because I know how much work has been done and how long it has taken you all to get this far. Finally, The People get to vote!
We have a strong mayor in Hialeah and ultimately know who to hold responsible for some things that fail or go wrong. On the county level, we would not be voting on this issue if the majority of our county commissioners really listened to the people and cared more. Debates over affordable housing and the UDBLine finally made county government more transparent and vulnerable, and that's a good thing.
Elected officials should remind themselves often that they chose public servitude. We also do not practice a dictatorship form of government, but have an American democratic process where The People rule, and government exists to carry out the wishes of The People.
We all have a responsibility to protect our form of government. Some of the things I witness and read about our local government goes against these principles. In this country, citizens have the right to speak and demand things, and government has the responsibility to fulfill.
We should all do more to improve and protect our democratic form of government. I believe that Mayor Carlos Alvarez understands this and will earn us a greater amount of respect if he is made stronger. Let's all vote YES for a strong county mayor!
Milly Herrera
Hialeah, Florida
It is easier to dump one bad mayor that is elected county wide, than to dump 7 commissioners who are elected in little kingdoms and can only be voted out by a very small percentage of the county's voters.
This vote is not a thing about the personality of any of the elective officials, it is about the voters gaining control of the person in the seat. If we had county wide elections for the commissioners, maybe there would not be a need for the strong mayor vote...the voters would feel like part of the governing process.
Folks the theme of this strong mayor campaign is to put the so called power in our hands---thats it. It is called empowering the voters! The power needs to be in our hands, not the Mayor or the BOCC. When the strong mayor election is over and we have a strong mayor form of government, we will have the balance needed to effectively run our government...The new system will work! Our present system does not work!
In New York, we have a businessman for a mayor and he knows how to run the city efficiently, as in the 21st century...throw out the politicians and elect a good businessman or woman, preferably a billionaire who cannot be corrupted. Our mayor runs the city as a philantrophy, doing good for all the citizens...
I am voting for the strong mayor because I do believe there is a serious imbalance and lack of accountability in county government. I would also vote to add several at-large commissioners to the board if I were given the option to do so.
I have to respectfully disagree with the notion that the downtown Kendall Urban Center district is a "carbunkle". This is actually one of the better things the County has done in the battle against urban sprawl. It also helps "hold the line" and keep the UDB right where it is. It's actually one of the more surprisingly progressive things they have done in recent memory.
High-density zoning concentrated along two very busy Metrorail stations and a Busway transfer hub is an example of efficient land use planning and how we should be building in the future: up not out and near efficient transit. More people = more riders = more fares = more money to build more lines = less cars = less traffic. Our scarce land is used more efficiently too: Dadeland Station, for example, manages to place 5 major stores within the same land area it takes to build one Target. This definitely beats a huge strip mall where 3/4 of the total property is asphalt for parking. How wasteful.
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