An alert reader forwarded Javier's press release/letter with the line: "Hello Pot, meet Kettle....." While reading this you have to remember that SOUTO IS A PART OF THIS GOVERNMENT he is criticizing and he has always voted in lockstep with the worst of them as a member of the unreformable majority. I surmise by the content of his letter that he must be feeling left out of the loop. I do like what he is proposing but it is so disingenuous coming from him as he is a big reason why County Government is dysfunctional. Could his senility be adding clarity to his thinking? Stranger things have happened:
County Commissioner Souto's Open Letter - December 2nd:
In all my years of public service, I have never seen a government as dysfunctional as this one, it is difficult to function in an environment where honesty, integrity and public service is not as valued as it once was and as it should be. This is why I have decided to sponsor a series of measures to bring transparency into the operations and the inner workings of County government. One ordinance on this Tuesday’s agenda, sought to outlaw the practice of vote trading between the Commissioners and the Administration. (Hit read more)
I proposed that all meetings between a Commissioner and the Mayor, the County Manager or any Assistant County Manager, or department director to discuss pending legislation be in a public forum, so that the taxpayers can see why decisions are made that impact their taxes and their community.
Another ordinance that I sponsored required that the resumes, educational attainment and employment history of all persons earning over $100,000 be posted publicly, so that we as tax payers can make certain that we are paying for the most qualified and experienced employees and not overpaying for favoritism. While I truly believe that the vast majority of County employees are good hard working people, I think that they have grown frustrated with the current organizational culture. A County that was the model of excellence for many years because of the professionalism of its employees at every level from top to bottom is corrupted by the pervasive organizational politics.
I knew it would be difficult to secure 7 votes on this County Commission to reform government, and the proof is that I was only able to secure the support of Commissioner Gimenez, Commissioner Sorenson and Commissioner Heyman. (Genius said: It is ironic that the three he never votes with, voted for his proposal while his usual cohorts snubbed him). However, as long as I know that I have the support of the people of this community, I will continue to sponsor items to reform our government on behalf of the tax payers and bring transparency in government, ethics in government and integrity in government. Maybe eventually together we will turn the corner and make Miami Dade County a government that we can be proud of once more. I refuse to settle for anything less.
On a positive note, a third Ordinance which seeks amend the County’s Code of Ethics to require that the Mayor and every County Commissioner receive a copy of the latest version of Miami-Dade County’s Code of Ethics prior to his or her swearing in ceremony, was adopted on first reading. As part of the ceremony, each Commissioner would then sign a sworn affidavit attesting under oath that he or she has read the Code of Ethics and agrees to abide by the Code at all times in carrying out his or her duties. This is an extremely high standard of ethics and a Commissioner who later breached any provision of the Code of Ethics would place himself or herself in a precarious position of claiming ignorance to or lack of knowledge as to the Standard of Ethics, with a signed affidavit attesting to the contrary on file as part of the oath of office. Let’s see if this item survives the Committee process and is ultimately adopted by the full Board.
14 comments:
LOL to the first comment. !Esto me huele a tumbe!
Someone spiked his carfe-con-leche. I beleave he is feeling the pressure put on by a 'New Blood' contender.
Wake up Westchester!!!
I'm glad to see he yearns for the "good ol' days" of Honesty and Integrity, when he served with pillars of Good Government like:
James Burke
Bruce Kaplan
Miller Dawkins
Joe Gersten
Pedro Reboredo
Miriam Alonso
W.D. Childers
Al Gutman
Arthur Teele
Barbara Carey-Shuler
Need I go on?
O.K., maybe you yurn for the days when professional staff like Carmen Lunetta, Richard Mendia, or even Sergio Perera ran the show.
All of us can say what we want about the current adminstration, and or Commission, but it sure has been quite a while since anyone was lead off in handcuffs (7 years).
m
P.S. - Maybe he forgot that when he served on the Commission, the manuvering to appoint the County Manager got so contentious, that the Chairman of the Board of County Commissioners hid behind his office door and jumped on a lobbyist he called in his office for a meeting and punched him in the face.
Oh yes Javier, Good Ol' Days indeed.
m
Through the first half of the twentieth century, most of the scientific community believed dinosaurs to have been sluggish, unintelligent cold-blooded animals. Javier Souto comes to mind.
Help make a change in District 10 - In 2010, vote him out.
All politicians "get religion" at election time. They lose it after they are elected. Souto's ordinance says nothing about commission aides meeting with department heads, mayor or county manager. There will be an easy way around it.
I wonder if Souto uses an internet.
comment said:
All politicians "get religion" at election time.
I say: Not on the county commission. They are so sure about their reelection they don't even bother. Unless someone throws about $200,000 towards his challenger, he will win again.
It's a good development and an interesting one. That there is "vote trading" between the Commission and the administration means that functionally we have quite a different form of government than the charter provides. The administration then has legislative power too.
This is interesting coming from a man that benefited from this vote trading until very recently. Remember, the administration with the Marlins traded financial support for Mr. Souto's parks in exchange for his support of the $3 billion fleecing of this County, that is commonly referred to as the Marlins Stadium... My guess is that Mr. Souto is not happy with what the administration did to his cattle show during the budget process. At the end of the day, I had hoped to see his legislation pass, no matter what the intent, or rather, motivation was. It was good legislation, that would finally shed some light on where the real corruption at the County is occuring, and even with all the tom-foolery going on, upon the BCC dais, it is in the back rooms of the 29th floor that this County is being placed in jeapordy, real sweet heart deals, no bid contracts, administrative waivers of competitive bidding. All this start's with the Mayor, but, golden boy Burgess has more to do with it than most think. I can't wait to have someone come to County Hall, and throw about 70% of County Administration out!!!
Am I the only one who remembers when Commissioner Souto illegally pressured a previous County Manager to hire his son? Jim Defede wrote a nice column about it in 1998 for the New Times. Check out "Take My Son, Please."
Perhaps the sleaze described in that article is the type of backroom deal Souto wishes to end.
This guy needs to be Baker Acted. He is Toast! Also, isn't there something in Florida Statutes where the Governor can remove an incompetent from office!?!
The hiring of relatives seems to be the norm now in the County. How do you supervise these people and get work done? You can't. So little gets done. I wonder how many of them even bother to come to work? How many are no-show employees? Then the few people who are capable workers end up doing the work for many relatives. . . What people say is true, there is tons of fat at the county.
First George stops going on field trips in Westchester, then stops returning Souto's 4 AM phone calls.
Then his cow fest gets canceled so maybe a couple more kids can enjoy a park instead of the livestock.
What's next? The Commission renames the Ronald Reagan Equestrian center after President Obama?
Poor Javier can't catch a break.
Souto is such a hypocrite. Does anyone know if Souto's son still works for the county? If so, can you tell us what job he is now doing and how much he is currently being paid?
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