The County Organizes Another Phony "TRADE" Trip On Our Dime. By Geniusofdespair

County Commissioner Pepe Diaz is going to lead a TRADE mission to China and Taiwan in April. Does anyone actually get business from these expensive trips we pay for? I call it globetrotting on our dime. It is a colossal waste of money sending Pepe anywhere except to the Keys to go to traffic court on his DUI offense.

Koch Brothers Playbook: Religious Right Messing With Our Dumber than Dirt County Commission. By Geniusofdespair

Remember my post yesterday on some our County Commissioners going to Normandy to celebrate D Day's Anniversary in June? Of course not. You didn't read it. Second chance to read it, I implore you to do so. Please read the comments there as well. The Normandy trip sounds benign except being a waste of our tax dollars. Well guess what, it is not.

You might ask yourself why Normandy? Well, a reader had the answer from Politico.com:

On a recent snowy day in the Washington suburb of Tysons Corner in Northern Virginia, some of the religious right’s wealthiest backers and top operatives gathered at the Ritz-Carlton to plot their entry into the conservative civil war.

Their plan: take a page out of the playbooks of Karl Rove and the Koch brothers by raising millions of dollars, coordinating their political spending and assiduously courting megadonors.

Plans in the works range from aggressive super PAC spending in primaries against Republicans deemed squishy on social issues, to holding a donor conference in Normandy, France, tied to the 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion.

And:

Other ideas included the retreats, which are in some ways patterned off the twice-a-year seminars organized by the Kochs, as well as identifying a handful of key 2014 races where they could have a major impact, which would allow them to raise more in 2016 to back a socially conservative presidential candidate to take on presumed Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.

The side session was convened by Fischer, who has been meeting with donors and operatives around Washington pitching planned retreats at the Reagan Ranch in California and in Normandy. Fischer has spoken with several high-ranking retired military officers, including an Army general, about helping to draft a campaign spending strategy that borrows from military tactics, according to sources familiar with the plan, which is still in its formative stages.

My question is, why shouldn't the Republican Party pay for this Normandy trip? It is a trip being planned by the religious right. This is certainly a post for the barf meter. Let them go, they are no threat to anyone because they are too dumb to carry out an intelligent plan but WE SHOULD NOT GIVE A DIME FOR THIS RETREAT. THIS IS A POLITICAL TRIP NOT AN ITC TRIP. WHERE IS A GOOD LAWYER WHEN YOU NEED ONE.

THIS TRIP IS SO WRONG ON SO MANY LEVELS: TAX DOLLARS TO ATTEND A REPUBLICAN TEA PARTY/RELIGIOUS RIGHT PLANNED EVENT.

Video of Miami-Dade Economic Development & Port Miami Committee where Souto let the cat out of the bag.

Trip to Normandy, France for our County Commissioners? By Geniusofdespair

Who exactly is going on the latest trip and when is it leaving?

For what godly reason are they going to Normandy? If they wish to commentate D-day it should be on their own dime. Commissioner Juan Zapata, a self-proclaimed WWII history buff, said he is paying for his own trip there. Good for him.

Last I looked Miami Dade county did not have a role in foreign diplomacy..these trips are a joke right ..? And Spain AGAIN?? Why on earth would there be a mission there now, especially when they just went last year. By the way what were the results of that mission? What is the cost of these missions --- including all county and Beacon Participants vs number of direct jobs created in Miami Dade County? What is the return on investment? I will bet minus 0.

What were the specific results of the Paris air show mission? Word is that the mayor showed up late of at all to several meetings and spent lots of time sight-seeing with his wife and his lobbyist groupies. But I think he paid for her trip himself. Maybe?

How many companies are now legitimate prospects to locate and create jobs in Miami Dade as a direct result of the Spain and Paris missions?

Where are the quantifiable and verified results of their missions from the ITC? what is the ROI on their missions and how do they decide where there missions will go? Is Pepe Diaz back in charge of ITC? It's the County Commission travel agency on our dime. ITC stands for IDIOT TOURS for COMMISSIONERS.

American Institute of Polish Culture gave Vile Natacha Seijas it's highest award in January. By Geniusofdespair

Okay, some of the Polish jokes could be true if this is who they picked. Anyway, I will use any excuse to post a bad photo of County Commissioner Vile Natacha Seijas. Here she poses with President Lech Walesa (what were you thinking Lech) and ITC Flunky Tony Ojeda. Here are two more photos of globetrotting excursions she took -- on our dime:

Hey, Gimleteye, I was going to write about the ITC too! By Geniusofdespair

This is why you all NEED the Miami Herald. We can't do this in depth research even though we reported on the waste at International Trade Consortium over and over. The reporter duo of Haggman and Dolan say that since 2007 the trips cost us about a quarter of a million dollars with no visible results. However, the reporters should add in the budget of the ITC which was $1.7 million since 2007 (reduced to $1.2 million this year). That brings the wasted money up, up, up. My favorite part of the front page article featured Commission Audrey Edmonson who went on a recent jaunt to Senegal and South Africa:

Asked how the Africa trip generated revenue, Edmonson hung up on a reporter.

See Post below by Gimleteye for more insight - first time we wrote about the same thing:

Lies Multiply from County Commissioners: Our subsidized foreign travel/vacations brings jobs to Miami ... by gimleteye

The idea that county commissioners take foreign junkets worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to generate jobs for Miami holds as much water as the boy in the balloon. Matt Haggman and Jack Dolan do a stellar job amplifying a subject we've noted frequently on Eyeonmiami: county commissioners taking trips worth hundreds of thousands of dollars under the fiction that these are "trade missions" that generate jobs. The worst offender: Natacha Seijas, de facto chair of the county commission. This nonsense could come to a halt, but it won't because it serves the great unstated purpose of local government. These trips are considered to be the perks of public service. They reward county commissioners who perform for campaign contributors from the Growth Machine. It is true that we, the public, elect the dunderheads who comprise the unreformable majority of the county commission, but we elect them because they have been able to raise enough money from private sources to build the modern campaign infrastructure that relies of costly advertisements including television. Who are those private sources? We wrote about one of them yesterday, Sergio Pino and the board of directors of US Century Bank and Century Home Builders and the projects to build outside the Urban Development Boundary in Miami Dade beyond Krome Avenue.

Most citizens have no idea that the purpose of local government is not to protect the health, welfare and safety of citizens. It is all about serving unsustainable growth. The best example is zoning changes in farmland or wetlands to accommodate suburban sprawl. The reward for commissioners who toe the line is the kind of preferential treatment, at great expense, documented by The Miami Herald today. These junkets are paid vacations, however much the participating commissioners tack on as their personal expense. They do it, because they can. It would take either of two things to change the county commission's behavior: one, for voters to rebel against the permanent incumbency, or two, for the campaign finance apparatus to order the junkets to stop.

That's unlikely. We witnessed how Natacha Seijas shut down the county charter review process, that might have instituted badly needed changes from within. We saw who came to the rescue of Seijas when a brave group of citizens mobilized a recall effort: Sergio Pino (Read the five part series in this blog, "Redland, the Wades, and the Army of Compassion"). Just look at what happened to the Herald reporters: one county commission hung up and another, Seijas, would not return calls. The county commission exists in a hermetic bubble. In fact, Miami New Times documented that Seijas lives a reclusive life outside of her trips downtown and abroad, including a no-show job at the YMCA supported, we have noted, by charitable contributions from the Growth Machine.

The Latest in the Unscrupulous World of Vile Natacha Seijas. By Geniusofdespair

According to Miami Today, County Commissioner Natacha Seijas has proposed legislation, to be voted on tomorrow, halting annexations from the unincorporated areas into existing cities, until the economic crisis has passed. When exactly would that be, Natacha? And how would these annexations “Have the potential to diminish the ability of the County” to provide services to unincorporated areas?

Anyway, this is an assault not only on annexation, but on incorporation efforts as well. Wasn’t it a goal to get rid of unincorporated areas? Why are we now trying to bar these areas from annexation with a lame excuse? Change of heart or afraid of diminished power? Natacha: If you wanted to do something until the economic crisis has passed, how about disbanding your Jay Malina International Trade Consortium which would save us almost a million in salaries for your glorified travel agency? (see my earlier post).

Watch out Africa, Here Comes Miami-Dade, Yet Again! By Geniusofdespair

Thirteen people left for a weekend trip to Dakar on Friday from Miami Dade County including County Commissioner Audrey Edmonson. The trip is organized by Vile Natacha's Seijas' favorite group (that should have been axed with budget cuts) The Jay Malina International Trade Consortium. The Consortium has been to South Africa before, so why Africa again? I guess Audrey needs a vacation: they are stopping in Senegal, Cape Town and Johannesburg.

Vile Natacha is the Chair of this Consortium Group, which is a Godawful waste of money. The Executive Director Jose A Ojeda, Jr. made $158,809.00 in 2008 and here are the 2008 salaries of the rest of the staff according to the Herald's Data Sleuth:

Here is the Consortium's Mission: "The vision of the ITC is to promote and strengthen Miami-Dade County as an international trade and cultural center."

Think of what we could have saved without this group, just salaries of almost a million, not counting anything else (like their self-serving glossy, color newsletter):

Annual Salary /Gross YTD

OJEDA JR, JOSE A
EXECDR,OFF International Trade Consortium
04/05/2006 $144,814.00
$158,809.00

FABRICIO, ROBERTO C
AM OFF 3 International Trade Consortium
11/27/2006 $85,871.50
$84,919.60

PETERS, ADAM C
SPA1 International Trade Consortium
03/19/2007 $74,409.40
$74,099.00

NARES, DIMITRIOS J
ASTDROITC International Trade Consortium
01/02/2002 $73,850.40
$87,570.80

DREYFUS-ULVERT, MARIA
SPA1 International Trade Consortium
02/06/2007 $73,284.90
$72,404.20

ALUFOHAI, DESMOND
SPA1 International Trade Consortium
08/04/2003 $70,147.50
$79,994.40

RESCENDI, MAYDA
AM OFF 2 International Trade Consortium
04/01/1994 $68,065.70
$68,402.80

BRAN, RICARDO A
ASTEXECDR International Trade Consortium
10/01/2001 $66,237.90
$64,291.90

LISENBY, JEANIE L
AM OFF 3 International Trade Consortium
02/22/2006 $61,360.00
$58,338.00

MOSS, ELIZABETH A (ANY RELATION TO COMMISSIONER MOSS????)
SR EXC SEC International Trade Consortium
05/12/2003 $47,271.10
$46,641.00

ROMERO, VIVIAN
SECRETARY International Trade Consortium
09/21/2006 $32,837.50
$33,696.20

LAVERDE, LUZ D
ACCT 1 International Trade Consortium
05/19/2008 $18,938.90
$10,256.00

SUAREZ, JOSE J
DRVMESS International Trade Consortium
08/21/2006 $16,969.70
$15,612.60

Seijas: Looking Good in Miami, by gimleteye

Dear County Commissioner Natacha Seijas,

I hope things are "looking good" in Poland on your latest trade mission. It was great when you went to India and brought back 250,000 call center jobs.

Plus 10,000 farm equipment manufacturers and 15,000 sari weavers. Or how about when you went to South Africa, and brought back to Miami 70,000 jobs in gold mines and 100,000 jobs making fine wine.

You are just what we need, now, to export 30,000 industrial products from in the Homestead Free Trade Zone, 20,000 vacant subdivisions in Kendall, and American Airlines, first class upgrade.

American, the airline that you made our biggest customer (according to The Herald, with 69 percent of flights from its Miami hub) is not ailing. It is not cutting back service and throwing out old planes. Its market share at our "good looking" airport will boom! Everything bad is temporary. Everything good is permanent.

Some people criticize the $3 billion dollar "good looking" terminal at Miami International. Ig-nore them! I hope that you had all your trade mission bags wrapped in plastic in a "good looking" deal. :)

So don't worry, Natacha. Crist is heading to Arizona this week, maybe a VEEP candidate, which would clear the way for one of our guys to run the state again. I know what you are saying, from God's lips to your ears!

There are rumors flying around about some of our banks going under. Ocean Bank. And those pesky citizens are organizing a boycott of Lowe's, the home improvement store you allowed to move through the Urban Development Boundary. BTW, Lowe's is going to "up" their "good looking" investment in The Nature Conservancy!)

There are some problems in the housing market, but our pals say not to worry: instead of building houses we will build cement plants. We'll chop up all that land we didn't need anyhow and we'll call it Everglades Restoration: "looking good"!

Well that's all for now, Natacha. "Looking good", while you are away!

Yours truly.

PS. I have receipts for a bag that American Airlines is charging me on my next flight to "good looking" Nassau. Will put it on my expense report if you don't mind.

Natacha Seijas Going to Poland May 20th! By Geniusofdespair

Vile County Commissioner Natacha Seijas and pals leave for a Business Development Mission to Emerging Economies: Warsaw, Prague and Istanbul on May 20th and will be back on the 31st. Nothing will happen in the County while she is gone.

As I said before, wouldn't these countries be insulted to learn they are being called "Emerging Economies" by wacky Miami Dade County public relations people.

This is just where I want my tax dollars going: Trips for Natacha and her crew. It would only be worth it if she never came back.

Take a look at photo whiz, Harry Emilio Gottlieb's take on this leg of Natacha's world tour at our expense:

Thirteen take a trip to India. By Geniusofdespair

Don't you just love these trade missions? See Miami-Dade International Trade Consortium Chairman Tony Ojeda interviewed in this video clip by Newscaster Brian Andrews: Questions Raised After India Trip Costs Revealed.

The $1,600 airfare, another travel agent said he could have gotten it for $700 less. The agent said they should have used Air India instead of British Airways. The $495 a night room -- could have been slashed to $295 -- according to this independent travel agent. The mission travel cost for each $4,235 or about $55,000 for the group.

The ITC has a $1,400,000 budget. Let's slash it or see the results! They sure live well on our dime! Look at the bright side, Commissioner Natacha Seijas will be gone the first week of October.