The Miami Herald reports on the "piling on" by African American leaders against the recommendation to expand the number of seats on the county commission, to include a number of at-large representatives.
It makes my heart sink to understand that all the talk about "setting back the clock" is meant to rile up minorities who vote virtually in a block. It is race baiting.
It is exactly what occurred during the strong mayor referendum, when mailers were anonymously sent out warning of dire consequences to poor blacks by shady, backroom dealing if a strong mayor was elected. It wasn't true then and it is not true, now.
The fact is that the shady backroom dealing is what African American county and city commissioners have been doing to their own, for decades, on the order of "what happens in Overtown, stays in Overtown." This penny-ante stuff (a pitiful fraction of what rainmakers in the power elite provide for their own) enforces a rigid political orthodoxy in African American communities.
There have been serial examples how poor African Americans have gotten pasted by their leaders SINCE the strong mayor referendum earlier this year: Poinciana Biotech Park, wrapping up the Meeks, the un-"affordable housing" ordinance from Barbara Jordan wrapping the housing boom in South Dade to family interests, the county housing agency and JESCA fraud, wrapping up Dorin Rolle, the Umoja Village and Scott Carver Housing, wrapping up Spence Jones, and last but not least, the vote on the multi-million dollar Related project in Coconut Grove, wrapping up Barbara Carey Shuler and Spence Jones.
Here is the lesson that eyeonmiami has repeatedly emphasized (read our archive on corruption, for more if you have the stomach for it):
The current single-member district system of Florida's largest county is anchored by campaign contributions of the development lobby, represented by such interests as the Latin Builders Association and lobbyists like Miguel de Grandy, guaranteeing a dysfunctional system of government in which an African American political elite trades the perks of incumbency for votes to zone and permit new development in outlying areas or (in the case of the Related project) where few black constituents live.
It is predictable as rain. Now the question is, of course, would anything change with the addition of at-large member seats?
It depends on whether candidates for the new seats could afford to run county-wide races on a good government platform, such as the one that elected Marc Sarnoff in the City of Miami to replace the growth-at-all-costs mentality that put so many condos in downtown Miami it will take decades and tax hikes to absorb them all.
If county-wide elected commissioners who ran on good government platforms were able to gain access to the chair of important county commission committees, that would be disaster for the status quo. Of course, that is not what we are hearing from the African American protesters at county hall.
Their subtext is different: protect our feudal fiefdoms.
Mayor Carlos Alvarez should not be playing defense when there is such a clear argument to make with the voting public who showed once that they support reform and will support reform, again, if the argument is clearly made to all constituencies, including the African American community.
14 comments:
It's really sad, because none of the African-American commissioners have their communities' interest in mind AT ALL. Jordan and Rolle are the worst of the four. And if you're not black and you happen to live in one of their districts, you're inconsequential to them, period.
It is bad enough that most of our white politicians and so called leaders are dishonest but when almost all of the black so called and self named leaders are not only dishonest but willing to do the white developers dirty work for their own personel benefit and not in any way for their black community, it really upsets me.
It is incredible how easy it is to buy a black politicians vote.
Ever see the cars black politicians drive? In poor black neighborhoods? Ever see their clothes and jewelry? They are in politics for the money. Period.
There should be less than 7 Commissioners, not more. Too many Commissioners and their staffs just waste taxpayers money.
Blog not working right again... FYI
I fixed it...again a bad tag. And again, only in Internet Explorer. Thank you IE users for letting us know.
It is in none of the elite's interest, neither the Anglo, Latino, nor black, to have someone like the Umoja Village people, or the LIFT or the Miami Workers Center people in power. They would make real trouble and demand real solutions to the problems of the fifth poorest city in the USA.
It is not about having "people in power". We have seen through "House of Lies I and II" how disastous it is when you give unqualified inexperienced yet well connected people free land and free development money. We have seen that nothing gets built.
Many black people advocate for taxpayers to give them free land and free money. Look at the recent compliants against Carlos Alvarez. He wants to stop pouring millions into non-performing black run agencies and blacks want the cash to keep flowing... even though the money just disappears into some scammers pockets or some lobbyists pockets and the money definitely disappears into overpaid underperforming Miami-Dade bureaucrats pockets. Show fiscal responsibility. Stop wasting the taxpayers money.
Nothing underscores the problems with districts (white or black or Hispanic seats) better than the comments by Commissioner Jordan at a commission meeting about a month ago. She loudly proclaimed her distress that "middle class African-Americans are leaving Miami-Dade". Well guess what Ms. Jordan, middle class whites and Hispanics have been leaving in droves for 10 years. Too bad she did not acknowledge that it is a bad sign when any middle class bolts. Maybe she should ask, "Why is the middle class leaving Miami-Dade?" I think it is her (and her commission cronies) parochial thinking that is chasing them away! Jordan needs to see the big picture but as long as the only goal is re-election, why bother.
People of all races have got to start realizing that county money is OUR money.
Commissioners treat our money as THEIR money to throw around to insure they get votes the next time around.
We have to reclaim the pocketbook. It is interesting that county taxes is as high as city taxes. The Herald should compare this in other places in Florida. Are we getting screwed with OUR money?
Having fewer commissioners would be a move in the totally wrong direction because it would give each of the smaller number of Commissioners that much more individual power. Not a good thing! In fact, given the population of Miami-Dade, we should move in the opposite direction. Let’s have a 100 member County Legislature with everyone running from small compact districts drawn without regard to ethnicity, partisanship, municipal boundaries or any other variable that would create isolated inwardly focused enclaves with a one issue mentality.
For perspective, the State of New Hampshire, with a population of roughly 1,300,000, has a state legislature of 400 members; roughly one legislator for every 3,250 residents!
With so many members of the Legislative body, it would be nearly impossible to “fix” a vote because you would have to cut deals with so many people and eventually someone would snitch! Or you simply couldn’t afford all the lobbyists and influence peddlers.
Give each Commissioner ONE (1) $30,000 staff person to open the mail and answer the phone (the way it was done in the 1970s prior to the creation of the Imperial Commissionship under Maurice Ferre, Art Teele, Gwen Margolis, Larry Hawkins, Joey Gersten, etc.). These 100 staffers would cost us a total of about $4 million.
Right now the thirteen commissions have a combined staff of about 150 people, costing over $12 million (some with salaries well into six figures) all stumbling over each other trying to figure out what to do and how to further insulate their bosses from the public.
With such small districts (each with roughly 25,000 residents and about 10,000 voters), it would make no sense to run expensive media campaigns. Walking door-to-door and holding quaint neighborhood coffee meetings would be the best way to secure votes and give the voters a chance to size up candidates.
With no need for TV spots, billboards, phone banks, etc. a candidate could run a reasonable campaign for amounts that could be raised from friends and neighbors in increments of $50 and $100. There’d be no need to bundle stacks of $500 checks from business interests far and wide.
Even if turnouts increase as the voters become more engaged, elections would be decided by just hundreds or even dozens of votes so no one could be taken for granted. Every vote would count. People would care again and feel as though they and their views mattered!
Feel free to forward this to the Charter Review Commission. I’m sure they’ll snap these recommendations right up! ;-)
Blacks need to give careful consideration to the issue of at-large-seats. While there are high concentrations of Blacks in these poor districts, Blacks live all over the county, in high income communities, and middle income communities. Some of them are highly educated, well off financially, and have lots of professional skills and life experienes that could be quite helpful to our commission. If all of our Black commissioners must come from these poor areas, we close ourselves out to people who might really have a lot to give. Likewise, we have Hispanics who live in high and mediam income areas. If we can only get Hispanics who live in these high concentration Hispanic districts, we cut ourselves out of access to people who are financially secure and have a lot to give.
Our present dilemma with misuse of funds, corruption, preceptions of bribery and the like, have a lot to do with the caliber of people on the commission. In these poor communities, maybe getting elected is viewed like hitting the jackpot, a way to make money, not represent the people. So, they come in and start looking for ways to make money for themselves, their family and friends. This is the only value system that they know. This is what it means to be an elected official to them.
But Miami-Dade is a major metropolitan area, we need a vision for the future, talent, skills and integrity. We are being limited by this small-world, "give me two pennies" view of these commissioners from these single-member districts.
We can keep the single member districts to insure representation of these communities. But we also need some heavy-lifters, responsible and capable people to begin to move us forward.
This is something to think about.
Too many blacks spend too much time trying to get more and more no-show jobs from the taxpayers. Blacks and everyone should be trying to solve problems.
Anyone notice what car Darren Rolle is driving? Is it really a $120,000 Mercedes? As his social service agency loses $300,000 per year?
That is Dorrin Rolle...
Is that the same Dorrin Rolle who's social service agency bounced 300 checks a few years ago. Didn't his bank charge his charity $100,000 in over draft charges?
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