Thursday, November 21, 2013

Beacon Council Former Head, Frank Nero, Gets the Shaft...Again. By Geniusofdespair

Roman Emperor Nero
Like the ancient emperors of Rome when new emperors would expunge their predecessors names from all the records, buildings and monuments, Miami follows suit with former CEO of the Beacon Council, also named Nero, coincidentally.

In its revisionist history, they send a press release on something Frank worked on for years, trying to get commission approval, without even acknowledging his part in it (Note Lynda Bell, who was instrumental in getting rid of Frank Nero, gets much of the credit for Frank's work):

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY AND THE BEACON COUNCIL LAUNCH GEOSPATIAL WEBSITE TO ATTRACT JOBS AND INVESTMENTS

www.miamidadesites.com features vacant industrial and commercial properties, demographics and business information

(MIAMI, November 19, 2013) - Miami-Dade County, in conjunction with The Beacon Council, is launching the www.miamidadesites.com website, which depicts available vacant industrial and commercial properties. The website is based on user-defined criteria for Miami-Dade County utilizing geographically based demographic and business information, and also enables broker registration to highlight available parcels.

"This new website will allow businesses wishing to locate or expand in Miami-Dade County a literal 'bird's eye' view on available properties, and provide The Beacon Council with yet another tool to assist those businesses with their location strategies," said Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez. "We should thank Commissioner Bell for her leadership on this matter, and continue working together to use technology as a means to further economic development for all of Miami-Dade County."  (Me: barf)


The website is based on a directive from Resolution R-250-13, prime sponsored by Vice Chair Lynda Bell and approved by the Board of County Commissioners on April 2, 2013, that requested the development of a geospatial layer analysis and database of vacant industrial and commercial lands. This geospatial instrument is meant to assist The Beacon Council and other economic development organizations in their mission of attracting business development to Miami-Dade County.

"The Geospatial Website is an innovative technology which gives businesses, small and large, the feasibility to analyze the benefits of obtaining available industrial and commercial properties in Miami-Dade County. With this technology, businesses will have better knowledge on the value of establishing or expanding operations within our County," said Vice Chair Bell. "The Geospatial Website will give our community an advantage in attracting potential employers to Miami-Dade over other markets. As this website reaches its full potential, our residents, the real-estate community and businesses alike will be provided numerous benefits."

"This new site provides the information companies need to make investment decisions, and that helps us grow and attract businesses to our county," said Larry K. Williams, President and CEO of The Beacon Council, Miami-Dade County's official economic development partnership. "We are fortunate to have public partners who understand the role technology plays in economic development."
Frank Nero...the other Nero
I thought the Beacon Council was more of a separate entity. Do we have a puppet there now? Looks like it is joined at the hip now with the county taking credit for everything. Shame on you Mayor for giving Lynda credit for what others actually did. Frank might be gone but don't erase his legacy.  I guess this gets on my barf meter.

I spoke to someone with close ties to Nero and Beacon:
She said he had proposed this for years as a necessary tool to identify development areas especially in the urban core but also for areas in south Dade. This recommendation went back as far as when Penelas created "urban task force" and this was one of his recommendations. Frank repeatedly made this recommendation to the commission over the years as he needed the county to participate. It fell on deaf ears. When Bell attacked Beacon He again reiterated this proposal. He even wrote her a lengthy memo on this concept. She waited until Nero left and then introduced the resolution saying at the time that her attack on Nero/Beacon was NOT personal. It was reported in Miami today when Nero recommended to her that this GIS program be adopted. There are numerous memos from Nero over the years to the commission recommending this program. It is disingenuous for Bell to accept credit.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

To someone like me who follows the BCC, this would be like Seijas sponsoring a Manatee Protection law. Or, DuBois in Palmetto Bay sponsoring expansion of DERM in the city. Or, _________ insert name GOP legislator sponsoring real absentee ballot fraud laws in Tallahassee.

The irony is unbelievable. Hopefully Bell will go the way of of jail along with 1/2 of the City of Sweetwater police and the City procurement department.

Nero was vehemently opposed to Genting and the Tea Partiers, which helped Bell's agenda to remove him from the Beacon Council so I guess she could control it. The better use of those funds has been proposed and ignored by those people on the BCC Friends & Family plan inside County Hall from the Mayor to the Commissioners and their staff.

Anonymous said...

Can we add this to the Barf Meter?

Anonymous said...

The "Bacon Council" can use geospatial data to show where sea level rise will soonest make flood insurance unaffordable for their pork projects.

Anonymous said...

The county does it all the time. They can't credit people who are gone for good work. I know one employee who that located a parcel for a park and ride, located the owner of property, and then put it together as a package and sent it on to the department.

The county negotiates a deal which saves zillions of dollars because the parcel was already a parking lot requiring the county to basically put up signage. And no one ever acknowledged the good work, commissioners took the credit even though they knew where to find the former employee.

Nero was screwed .... I hope he knows there are people who appreciate his efforts.

Anonymous said...

Remember Debbie Curtin? She was a county employee who set up hurricane recovery and then team metro.... After much beating her up, the county named a park after her. I think it is nice... She was a nice lady.

Anonymous said...

The Beacon Council is totally out of touch. Total waste of taxpayers money.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of Seijas sponsoring items...follow the link to the Resolution she passed back in 2008 instructing the development of the GIS tool for economic development:

http://www.miamidade.gov/govaction/legistarfiles/MinMatters/Y2008/080545min.pdf

Bell is a little late to this game, and Gimenez is simply twisting facts to avoid giving any credit to his wife's relative. Petty, petty, petty.

Anonymous said...

Gimenez' supporting Bell is not going to end well for the mayor. There is something about being up there on the 29th Floor -- maybe it is the oxygen supply -- that insulates and isolates from reality. Gimenez, at the very least, is getting awful advice. He is surrounded by "yes men" and the results will be entirely predictable. Too bad. He was a pretty good administrator. A lousy politician. There must be some lesson there.

Anonymous said...

Someone needs to get their camera video ready and ask Honey Boo Boo Bell what "geospatial" means.

Anonymous said...

I think the person who is the new director is a computer science professional. While I think it is a good project, if all you have is a nail and hammer, every problem needs a nal and hammer

Anonymous said...

It is too bad that the County administrators and some commissioners have such short and or selective memory.

GIS has been used by cutting edge Economic development organizations for many years. The Beacon council, under Nero's leadership proposed this during the Penelas administration.

Unfortunately it has taken the County almost 10 years to implement. and on top of that others want to take the credit.

Some may like Nero and others may not but there is no question that he lead the Beacon Council to become one of the finest economic development organizations in the world. That you can't deny.

For those that have to take credit when it is not deserved and to those that ignore to give credit when credit is due, don't worry, KARMA knows how to handle that.

Anonymous said...

Many people know that this was something Nero thought up and pushed for many years. Now that the evil Bell had her hand in pushing him out she will take credit for this with a straight face…unbelievable. It is all out of spite. And unfortunately no one on the Beacon staff or Board has the cojones to stand up for what is right and give credit where credit is due. What a joke.

Anonymous said...

Recall Gimenez! Bell will be gone soon enough either by jail or the 2014 election.

Anonymous said...

Another Lynda Bell vindictive behavior. She didn't like the way Frank Nero treated her and Eddie didn't like him because he wasn't hired by Nero when he applied at Beacon. Now she has the gall to take credit and the Mayor is doing this favor for her--- perpetuating a lie --because Lynda did his dirty work to get rid of Nero because of Frank's vocal opposition to Genting.

Anonymous said...

This thing reminds me of a money clip. The only one making any money will be the person on the private end, not the public who owns the land. Anyone else had enough of politicians across the board giving away our assets with zero gain, in fact most of the time losing money because the private sector is much smarter at gaming the stupid politicians who can only count campaign contributions, not tax dollars being wasted.

As to Nero, Gimenez should correct his statements. Its beyond disingenuous to credit Bell for the work of someone else, it's lying to the public.

Love the Bell with a camera in front of her idea explain geothermal or anything with more then one syllable - Priceless!

Anonymous said...

It was widely acknowledged that Nero for years tried to get this program adopted. Unfortunately to no avail.
Bell has no clue what this is all about. She waited til she helped to push Nero out (probably at the behest of her travel agents ..Genting.. and her Tea party compatriots ) once Nero left she did it out of spite. Smirking. BTW beacon board members have told me Nero also got the board to authorize funding from reserves in the hopes of updating their web page to include this initiative .. Long over due program however MS. Bell needs to stop taking credit for this as her motives are questionable

Anonymous said...

Frank Nero was paid $350,000/yr. What a waste of the taxpayers money. Abolish the Beacon Council.