Miami 21 Draft

Draft of Miami 21 now online, in advance of first reading on June 28

Received this email last week and meant to post it here as well as my http://www.southbeachhoosier.blogspot.com/ site. Oops!

More info is being made available online now for all you armchair urban policy experts to peruse from the comfort of your home, and not spend time poring over docs in some govt. bldg. with bad A/C or parking -or both.
(I meant to attend the "City of Miami Commissioner's Workshop" on Miami 21
- http://www.miami21.org/ - last Thursday, which would've proved very interesting, in light of the arrest of so many city of Miami planning employees for reasons that we're all familiar with by now. See Miami Herald's front page take from last Friday below: Prosecutor: Miami workers ran 'The Firm' on city time, Authorities said 11 Miami government workers ran a private consulting business on city time.)

The online info allows you to do some reconnaissance in advance of the meeting and see who on the Commission has done their homework and is really following what's being done -and who hasn't- as well as watch and take plenty of copious notes.

Just don't expect anyone to be handing you a microphone to ask one of your trademark penetrating, three-part questions, wherein you bring up the fact where you went to college again, even though it isn't relevant. Ivy Leaguers, this means you!

Found this link on the Miami 21 page with archived articles on the subject, pro and con:
http://www.miami21.org/index.php?submenu=mediapartners&src=news&persist_cat=1&srctype=lister&newssearch=yes&kw=
The aforementioned email from Miami 21 HQ read:

Updated Miami 21 Draft is Available Online

Please visit www.Miami21.org for the latest Miami 21 Draft which was posted today.
For your convenience, we have included an amendments file which indicates all changes taking place from the original Miami 21 Draft (March 16, 2007) to the present Miami 21 Draft (June 20, 2007).
As always, we thank you for your continued participation in the Miami 21 process and encourage your questions and/or comments pertaining to Miami 21.
Quick Links...Miami 21 WebsiteMiami 21
Draft-June 20, 2007Amendments from Original Draft
Upcoming Meetings Contact Information phone:
Miami 21 Hotline (305) 416-2121 fax: (305) 400-5400
email: info@miami21.org
Mailing Address: PO BOX 330708 Miami, FL. 33233
______________________________________
http://www.miamiherald.com/548/story/147570.html
The Miami Herald
June 22, 2007
Prosecutor: Miami workers ran 'The Firm' on city time
BY SUSANNAH A. NESMITH AND MICHAEL VASQUEZ

They called it ''The Firm'' -- a consulting business Miami city government employees were running from their desks at the Riverside Center administrative building.
On Thursday, police and prosecutors called it racketeering and organized fraud.
Police rounded up 10 current and former city workers Thursday and are planning to arrest an 11th when he returns from a vacation abroad.
All are accused of doing construction design and planning work for outside companies on city time, using city computers and equipment, and even visiting the sites in their city vehicles. All but one worked in the city's Capital Improvements department, which is responsible for things like building parks and fixing streets. Two who had been with the city since the mid-1970s recently retired.
''We are arresting virtually an entire arm of city government,'' Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle said during a news conference in the lobby of the city administrative building.
The Capital Improvements department has 48 employees, City Manager Pete Hernandez said. The 10 arrested worked together on city construction plans.
The 11th person who will be arrested worked in the zoning department. All are charged with racketeering, theft and fraud among other charges, and each potentially faces 23 to 95 years in prison and loss of their city pension.
The group put together construction plans and designs for clients from the Keys to Ocala, designing everything from shopping centers and day-care centers to private homes, Fernández Rundle said.
They even got the city to buy specialized equipment and computer software that the city had no use for -- so they could use it to do their freelance work, she said.
''These 11 city workers decided that their government paycheck was insufficient and that the taxpayers owed them more,'' she said.

'THE FIRM'
City officials first discovered the scam more than two years ago. Former Assistant City Manager Alicia Cuervo Schreiber said she noticed capital improvements employees in the lobby looking over building plans that had nothing to do with the city. She took a closer look at the department.
''We started seeing there was no production coming out of [Capital Improvements]; meanwhile they were there working until 1 a.m. or 2 a.m.,'' she said.
Then the city received an anonymous letter warning ''there's something going on in your department. They're running a company called The Firm,'' former City Manager Joe Arriola said.
Mary Conway, then department director, began investigating further but couldn't find much.
''At first we thought it was ineptitude or laziness or incompetence,'' said Conway, now chief of operations.
The investigation did turn up pornography on one computer in the office, and an employee was suspended for a few days, but there was nothing on any of the hard drives suggesting employees were doing anything but city business, Cuervo said.
''We didn't realize they were using flash drives,'' she explained.
City officials took the case to Miami Police, who also investigated. But at that point the state attorney's office declined to prosecute, and police agreed.
''It looked strictly administrative,'' Chief John Timoney said. ``You find employees all the time doing stuff on company time.''

CITY HIRES P.I.
The city hired a private investigator for roughly $100,000 to dig up more. When the investigator presented videos of employees traveling to private jobs during work hours, the criminal probe resumed.
Timoney assigned a sergeant and two detectives to the case. The officers were able to install a secret program in the employees' computers that took pictures of whatever was on each computer's screen every minute.
''We were able to calculate that they were spending 85 percent of their time on outside activities,'' Timoney said.
The computer images also enabled detectives to track down 24 projects the group worked on between March 19 and May 22.
Timoney doubled the size of the investigative team after learning that word of the probe had leaked out.
''Frankly, we thought, we've got to shut this down,'' Assistant State Attorney Joe Centorino said. ``We're expecting more people to come forward when they hear about this.''
One of the arrested employees, Jorge Fabregat, was interviewed by detectives on June 12. He admitted doing the work and gave the detectives a handwritten list of 31 projects he had worked on, according to the arrest affidavit.
Investigators described him as a ''low-level'' member of the conspiracy.
The investigation is continuing, with detectives looking at three other employees.
Mayor Manny Diaz told a lobby packed with reporters and city employees that his administration would continue to try to root out what he called the ``bad apples.''
''I pledge zero tolerance for this sort of abuse,'' he said.
City Commissioner Joe Sanchez said he was pleased the city initiated the investigation, though he said City Hall faces a difficult task in keeping the public's trust. ''There's a perception that we're all crooks,'' Sanchez said. ``It's absolutely wrong.''
Charlie Cox, head of the city's general employees union, said his phone Thursday rang ``off the hook.''
''Everybody's upset about it,'' he said.
Hernandez, the city manager, vowed to bring in extra help to get projects moving. He said he would look for consultants and shift other employees' responsibilities to pick up the slack.
While successfully completing many projects, the department has repeatedly found itself the target of criticism for shoddy work, delays and cost overruns.
Karen Cartwright, of Overtown, said she attended a groundbreaking for improvements to Gibson Park, at 401 NW 13th St., in October 2004. She says she was told the various planned upgrades -- which included swimming-pool renovations and a new roof for the recreation center -- would mostly be complete within a year.
''This is 2007, and it's not finished,'' Cartwright said. ``I've heard so many excuses.''

OTHER ISSUES
The department also has faced allegations of favoritism in awarding contracts.
A controversial no-bid Capital Improvements contract that benefited prominent City Hall lobbyist Steve Marin has grown by at least $21 million during the past two or so years. That and other cost increases have left the department cash-strapped -- placing about $39 million worth of planned projects at risk.
Meanwhile, The Miami Herald reported in 2005 that when Conway was the department's director, she was significantly involved in deciding which contractors from a preapproved list received city work -- a list that included her husband Scott's employer, Louisville, Ky.-based Corradino Group.
Corradino Group at the time had received more work than any of the other 22 firms on the list. But county ethics officials, noting that Scott Conway did not have an ownership interest in the company, said no ethics laws had been violated.

A Chilly Reception at HB City Hall: "Are you a reporter?"

Don't have the time to recount the whole story here now -but will be posting in MUCH more detail soon- on a chilly encounter I had Wednesday afternoon at HB City Hall with a representative from the city's Code Compliance office, Corrine Yoder, the Sr. Code Compliance Specialist.
Ms. Yoder is a woman with whom I'd previously spoken to on the phone last year about habitual illegal dumping on US-1 & S.E. 7th Street, directly across the street from Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino. At a minimum, I wanted to see some warning signs erected, since it was a weekly routine to go by there and see all manner of junk dumped by lazy area residents and contractors alike.
For more on that, see my April 3rd post: http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/hallandale-beachs-failure-of-illegal.html.

I'd initially come by City Hall Wednesday to get some answers to nagging questions about the final disposition of the city's complaint against the owners of the Sage Bagel Plaza strip mall on the 900 block of Hallandale Beach Blvd., across from the Bank of America branch.
This is an area of the city that I've probably gone past at least twice a day since returning to the area in late 2003 from the Arlington County suburbs of Washington, D.C., where I lived for 15 years.

The sign was severely damaged after the multiple hurricanes of Fall 2005, and clearly posed a mortal threat to pedestrians and drivers along east-bound HBB for months and months, not to mention, not only the customers using the complex parking lot, but people waiting for the bus at the bus stop just a few feet away.

Long story short: Fines began March 13th, 2006 at a rate of $200 a day when the owners didn't comply by the previous day. Eventually, on May 8th of this year, the fine was reduced by 90%, from $17, 200 to $1,720 by HB City Manager Mike Good.

When I attempted to find out whether or not the property owners had to give a specific reason why they should get a reduction in their fine, or whether it was just assumed that one was wanted, Ms. Yoder got very terse and asked if I was a reporter, as if that would somehow explain whether or not public information should actually be made public and dispersed to the greatest number of people who are interested in the subject, no matter how arcane.

Trust me, I've sat on a lot of incriminating photos of HB mismanagement and incompetency for months, but friends, I think the gloves have officially come off!

East-bound SR858/HBB drawbridge sign at night

Photo taken at 1:00 a.m., Wednesday May 30, 2007

Honestly, how oblivious can the City of Hallandale Beach government and its employees be to their own town, and the way it appears to visitors and tourists?
Well, enough so that you'd think that someone from City Hall in general, and DPW in particular, would've noticed this situation, which has been a problem for months and months and made a phone call...
Or, failing that, that City Commissioner Francine Schiller would've seen it, since she MUST pass it every time she goes home at night from City Hall. Apparently not.
That's a perfect way to illustrate how a word like oversight has two completely opposing meanings, especially in a town as poorly run as Hallandale Beach.
______________________________
http://www.wordreference.com/

Adapted From: WordNet 2.0 Copyright 2003 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
oversight
A noun
1 oversight, lapse
a mistake resulting from inattention
Category Tree:
act; human action; human activity
╚nonaccomplishment; nonachievement
╚mistake; error; fault
╚oversight, lapse
2 supervision, supervising, superintendence, oversight
management by overseeing the performance or operation of a person or group
Category Tree:
act; human action; human activity
╚group action
╚social control
╚management; direction
╚supervision, supervising, superintendence, oversight
╚invigilation

3 oversight, inadvertence
an unintentional omission resulting from failure to notice something
Category Tree:
psychological feature
╚cognition; knowledge; noesis
╚process; cognitive process; mental process; operation; cognitive operation
╚basic cognitive process
╚inattention
╚disregard; neglect
╚omission
╚oversight, inadvertence