Saturday, November 14, 2015

County Commissioner Rebeca Sosa the Enigma. By Geniusofdespair

Rebeca Sosa
County Commissioner Rebeca Sosa: I like her. She is complex and has been incredible on some issues that face the County. Not so good on others. She after all, elevated Lynda Bell to Vice Chair and also gave her a Committee Chairmanship. Unheard of. Lynda Bell milked the Vice Chair title for all it was worth. Do you know who the Vice Chair is now? I do but that Commissioner is quiet as a mouse. Rebeca was an incredible Chair of the Commission, very good to the public she serves, polite and patient. The high point of her Chairmanship for me was when she shut off the microphone when Developer Lobbyist Jeffrey Bercow wouldn't stop talking after his time was up.

Rebeca championed wiping out absentee ballot fraud and took the lead, adding a penalty so that the illegal collection of absentee ballots could be prosecuted. There was a law on the books without a penalty. You need a penalty to prosecute. That was a major act that led to the arrest of many for fraud. Too bad we have such crappy prosecution.

She did vote to lift the Brown application 30 year deed restriction after only 5 years. But for the most part, she votes right on UDB applications.

This is a woman who cares about her constituents but I feel she cares about County issues as well. She was torn and upset yesterday, trying to help her constituents with the Ludlam Trail, not knowing the money pot would be hurting agriculture because she was improperly briefed. She was visibly upset being placed in that position: Damned if you do, damned if you don't. I really felt her pain on this.  She did the right thing and withdrew her resolution after she listened to the farming community. Mayor, you had better find her some Ludlam Trail money,  and not by robbing another account.

Rebeca Sosa took the lead on Climate Change and Sea Level rise for the County. This was a courageous stand for her, because she is the mentor of "Climate Change Denier" Marco Rubio. I really give her credit for being the one to address this for the County under those circumstances.



This video does not give you a fair portrait of her beautiful voice. I once heard her sing at a League of Cities meeting years ago and her voice is beautiful. You can get some idea from listening to her sing off the cuff in this video but it doesn't do her justice.



Anyway, you never get 100% of what you like from a County Commissioner but I think Rebeca is fair to us and she listens to the public. I just can't figure out that Lynda Bell blunder. Maybe one day she will explain it to me. She knows perfectly well how I feel about Marco Rubio, who is like a son to her, but she is always very nice to me. She doesn't hold grudges towards the people. That is a good thing for a politician.

As I age and watch this group of 13 govern, I know how difficult it is for them to please everyone and if I had to listen to snarky lobbyists I might vomit right there on the dais. The Commissioners take my jabs in stride, but I hope that my blogs make them think and become better public servants because I, and my readers, are EVERYMAN, Joe Public - representing the people who can't get to meetings and follow local politics. Some Commissioners are unreformable but not the 5 on the dais yesterday. I am glad we have term limits so we can get the unreformable like Barreiro, Jordan, Souto and Diaz out of there.
 


14 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's good to see some county commissioners doing their job of representing the public. We just need a majority of them doing it daily. Our area faces some difficult problems that require smart decisions.

Anonymous said...

I wish they would stay out of procurement votes.

Anonymous said...

Geez, you praise everything she's done, except for the Bell appointment, and you still call her an "enigma," which is defined as "a person that is mysterious, puzzling, or difficult to understand." It seems like no one can ever win with you.

Anonymous said...

Don't be fooled. The woman is a conniving political animal using that condescending first grade teacher voice to manipulative not only who spoke and for how long but twist the entire Robert's rule book to suit whatever personal agenda she was executing.


and I love she has never learn the difference between "jews" and "you should" as in "jews should sit down now."

Geniusofdespair said...

Lynda Bell was puzzling to me, getting both the co chair and a committee chairmanship. Also the Brown vote, why? She is still an enigma to me.

You most certainly didn't read the blog with any nuance if you think I can't be satisfied. I said no one is 100%. Saying someone is an enigma is not being negative nor is it a sign of dissatisfaction, nor did I give every example. Learn to read with some of your brain operating.

Anonymous said...

She's insane. She sided with Gimenez and voting against library funding. Some school teacher.

Anonymous said...

She did standing up for the library in 2013 when it was truly critical. I fault her for that.
But, she was one of the nine commissioners who did vote to restore the library's budget in 2014 to a pre-Gimenez level of $54 million.

I am impressed that she returns unused campaign contributions to the donors.
She was a considerate Chairperson to those who were new at speaking in the Chambers to the BCC.

Anonymous said...

she seems nice, seen her around her hood and seems to really care. the Bell thing is easy - she is a different breed for sure, but she is a staunch Republican. being a non-partisan post gives her some latitude to venture off the reservation but she likes to help her own and from the start Bell was going to need help to stay in office and Sosa wanted to give it.

Geniusofdespair said...

I'm surprised that any of my readers would make fun of someone's accent. A very low blow.

Geniusofdespair said...

I removed a post that said Commissioner Sosa had a lot of relatives in County Government comparing her to Alonzo. I did some research and she doesn't have relatives in County jobs. Mean spirited and lies to boot are not appreciated. Readers: if you write without your name and you write stupid lies you will be eliminated.

Anonymous said...

I give her credit. She is keeping her distance from Carlos Gimenez. She knows that ship is going down, and she will be waving from the docks.

Anonymous said...

kudos for the fact check. I posted earlier but I failed to note that she was a good Chair. Kept things moving, very fair and open. To be honest, it was a pleasant surprise.

Anonymous said...

The Vice Chairman is Bovo, I don't think he has been quiet as a mouse......in fact he is pounding the drums on transportation pretty hard. Maybe he is not vocal on your liberal agenda items, but quiet as a mouse? I don't think so.

Geniusofdespair said...

Just as a mouse on being vice chair. He doesn't milk the title like Lynda did. Read the context.