Here is what Jim Defede has to say:
"What Taxpayers Really Lose With Scandals
Jim DeFede Is A Commentator For CBS4 News
(CBS4) MIAMI Is it just me or does there seem to be a lot of scandals lately?
Even by South Florida standards we seem to be going through a particularly nasty spate of governmental chicanery.
A dozen people were arrested in the city of Miami for operating a private business on city time and using city resources. They even had a catchy name for their little enterprise - The Firm.
Miami's Housing director, Barbara Gomez, is being forced to resign after the obvious was uncovered--that the city was doing bupkis when it came to providing affordable housing for those who need it.
But don't cry for Gomez, she's going to receive a pension worth a million bucks.
Perhaps the saddest scandal is the Poinciana Park debacle. Miami-Dade County gave the development rights to this vital piece of land in Liberty City to a shady developer who promised to build a world class biopharmaceutical center but in two years couldn't even deliver a two-story garage.
The saga of developer Dennis Stackhouse is a tale we have seen repeated over the years: An individual comes along vowing to help the people of the inner city, but in the end the only person he ends up helping is himself--to our tax money.
And so while The Miami Herald continues to write stories about the Stackhouse affair and the state attorney's office probes for criminality, the community is left waiting, more jaded and more cynical than before.
That's the real crime because a story like this shatters what little confidence we may have in our elected officials. When people lose faith, when they lose hope, you have taken away more from them more than can ever be counted in dollars and cents.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)"
My comment on Defede's:
First of all: yes, there have been more scandals. But be aware that these scandals are the outgrowth of the same visible effect of declining housing markets in Miami: public officials, namely city and county commissioners, who were blinded by the building boom that peaked in 2005.
So far, you have to read a blog to even know that the building boom, that peaked in 2005, spread bad seed across the State of Florida but concentrated, so heavily, in Miami-Dade County.
It is as though the mainstream media had no opinion on the subject, when it was happening. More often than not, critics were dismissed either as "extremists" or not credible like representatives of the Growth Machine. Civic movements, like "Hold the Line" on the Urban Development Boundary, were never held up for praise or comment beyond the fact of their existence: on the order of a nuisance.
It didn't have to take so long, to uncover the scandals. So far as I can tell, one reason it has taken years for these scandals to materialize is that white collar law enforcement in Miami Dade County, at both the state and federal level, is at a nadir.
One of the biggest unaccounted for costs in the war on terror has been the diversion of law enforcement budgets, already insufficient, away from public corruption and white collar crime.
I'd love to see an investigative piece by the Miami Herald, looking at the amount of resources, for instance, dedicated to mortgage fraud.
The Firm--in which an entire city department was converted in full daylight into a private contract engineering company--happened because the surrounding culture was one of quick riches and schemes supported by elected officials in the grip of the Growth Machine.
The County Housing Agency scandal--in which millions of dollars and promises were diverted into the hands of second and third tier lobbyists--happened because first tier lobbyists (who rub shoulders with presidential candidates even today) had given the keys of the county kingdom to a political elite. While African American county commissioners ran over to the side of lobbyists and property speculators in distant districts, their own districts were being looted.
The Poinciana Biotech "Park"--Carrie Meek still thinks she did nothing wrong supporting "growth" in her community, even if banner planes could have been flying over the site with "FRAUD" printed in big letters and still the political elite would have fawned over whatever she was in favor of.
Defede says that the real crime is that this shatters whatever little is left of our confidence in elected officials.
Well, OK. But Jim, this is a sort of perpetual deadend for commentators and pundits: of course voters are indifferent and apathetic, largely because of what they see in the corruption of politics--whether illegal or just skating on the edge.
And, of course, nearly every candidate for local office who puts themselves in the spotlight of a campaign to unseat an incumbent is ignored by the mainstream media and vastly outspent by the Growth Machine.
I think that the attention should be focused less on what citizens are feeling, than on exposing who exactly are charter members of the Growth Machine, because what people need to see more of is how the machinery works and who benefits.
I couldn't help but notice, for instance, that Miguel De Grandy--former state legislator, architect of redistricting, supporter of the status quo and opponent of any challenge to it--has been appointed to the Charter Review Commission for Miami-Dade County.
To see the Growth Machine at work, the mainstream media should shine light on charter review, who is directing debate, and the chances for reform.
It is a scandal that advocates for reform aren't given a greater voice, in the mainstream media, than the proponents for the Growth Machine. Isn't it?
I am not making this up I swear.
