And not for the first time... a Miami Herald reader reveals more insight in their comments about the news than the Herald reporter does in their reporting of a news story; re Miami-Dade lobbying fees

And not for the first time... a Miami Herald reader reveals more insight in their comments about the news than the Herald reporter does in their reporting of a news story; Miami-Dade's lobbying fees

A well-informed and observant Miami Herald reader states what radio industry icon Paul Harvey used to famously call "the rest of the story" in his syndicated show, via the comments section of Monday's article about Miami-Dade's tortured handling of its lobbying fees. 

Again.

The reader states factual connections with devastating aplomb: " Becker & Poliakoff also employs Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, Carlos Gimenez Jr, and George Burgess."

As someone has no doubt said a few times before, though never in my family, "Eureka!"

Which is to say, 

a.) Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, the former Miami-Dade County Commissioner and current FL State Senator for District 36, who replaced one brother, Alex, currently a lawyer/lobbyist and former State Senate Majority Leader, and another brother, Renier, who's currently on the Miami-Dade School Board.

b.) Carlos Gimenez Jr., the son of Miami-Dade County's current Mayor, and, 

c.) George Burgess, the former Miami-Dade County Manager who resigned in March, after his job was overwhelmingly eliminated "with prejudice" by county voters in August of 2010, presaging the delicious and much-deserved recall of County Mayor Carlos Alvarez earlier this year.

It's helpful context alright, especially for those of us who have followed how the M-D lobbying process/charade has been abused over the years so that commissioners could make sure that their pals kept getting their cut of the American Dream, Miami-style (crony capitalism), which to cite but one example, where Comm. Sally Heyman kept Carrie Meek on the reservation regardless of her actual use, or the fact that her team was not one of the lowest bidders, but useful context of the sort that for the past few years has routinely NOT appeared in Herald articles, and Laura Brannigan's article is no exception.

(No serious follower of Miami-Dade politics and government that I know ever asks what a particular decision, vote or legislative bait-and-switch means on its face without first mentally scrolling thru his head the family trees of the county commission -and their assorted unofficial "families"- and then thinking about which members of la familia works for which one of the companies, firms or parties involved. 
Yes, just like in a banana republic, that's just the fundamental default question you have to ask.)

Just like the Herald NEVER mentioned in the days and weeks leading up to this decision that the subject would be taking place, much less, when the vote would be taking place.

Just keep the readers in the dark:THAT'S the Herald's local coverage policy -always after the fact.

And sometimes, NOT even then.

As it happens, the Miami-Dade County vote described took place last Monday, Dec. 19th.

http://www.miamidade.gov/govaction/matter.asp?matter=112580&file=true&yearFolder=Y2011

Correct, it has taken the Herald exactly one week to report upon this vote in Miami, not in Timbuktu, in Mali, where a past housemate of mine in Arlington county served in the Peace Corps, and explained to me many times how difficult it was to communicate with the outside world from the village that she lived in.

Should a professionally-run news organization, esp. one that still claims to have a degree of relevancy and currency in the South Florida market have the same problem reporting from Miami in the last days of the year 2011?

I don't think so. 

For more on this point, see my post of November 27, 2010 about the use of technology, wherein I draw a comparison between the ability of a great song performed at a Paramore concert last year in Stockholm -at the bottom of this post- to be uploaded to YouTube and be seen by me thousands of miles away within hours, and the Miami Herald's myopic Pony Express-style of news reporting, where they constantly miss what's current because of their conscious decisions made by editors and management, leaving readers who want fresh news in the lurch.

How a video of Paramore in Stockholm and Razorlight at the Cuckoo Club, London proves the Miami Herald is moving too damn slow in its news coverage., Iceberg dead ahead!
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-video-of-paramore-in-stockholm.html

That the powers-that-be at One Herald Plaza chose to print this story about lobbying and the commission vote that decided it -at least temporarily- so long after-the-fact, and on the day after Christmas, instead of in Sunday's paper, their largest circulation day, well, to me, that's a very curious conscious choice indeed.

Yes, more Pony Express-style news coverage from the Miami Herald, but it doesn't end there.

Also as it happens, Monday marked 13 days since the Broward County Commission voted on redistricting and approved new district maps, and the Herald has STILL NOT printed anything in the newspaper or posted anything online about it.

Even though it directly affects roughly 40-45% of their readers.

Seriously, is it really asking too much of a local daily newspaper to actually report news within 24 or 48 hours?

For more on los hermanos Diaz de la Portilla, see also: http://www.ccfj.net/CCFJDeLaPortilla.htm

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http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/12/25/2561802/miami-dade-commission-aims-to.html

Miami Herald 

Miami-Dade Commission aims to cut lobbying tab, ends up paying $50,000 more 

By Martha Brannigan

Posted December 25, 2011

Facing a tight budget, Miami-Dade commissioners launched plans this fall to ink new contracts with Tallahassee lobbying firms. Their goal: to slash spending. 

The two firms that had the business offered to reduce their prices, but the county rebuffed them.It was a costly decision. When commissioners doled out four lobbying agreements last week totaling $450,000, they wound up spending $50,000 more than the reduced price offered by the two incumbents.

After 90 minutes of debate and five failed motions, the vote was 10-3 — with Commission Chairman Joe Martinez voting against an initiative that he had spearheaded.

Also voting “no’’ on Dec. 19 were Commissioners Lynda Bell and Xavier Suarez, who argued for reduced spending.

“Nobody wants to cut out one of their friends,’’ Martinez said wearily from the dais. “Why doesn’t someone make a motion to defer and put us out of our misery?’’ 

In an interview afterward, Martinez added: “It was my item, but it didn’t turn out the way I expected. That’s why I voted against it.’’

Under the deal, sponsored by Commissioner Barbara Jordan, a team of lobbyists led by the two incumbent firms — Ron L. Book P.A. and Rutledge, Ecenia & Purnell P.A. — were kept on, but were scaled back each to $170,000 a year from $225,000. Erased, too, was $50,000 for special projects, or “work orders.’’ 

Two additional firms — Akerman Senterfitt & Eidson and Ballard Partners Inc. — also were awarded contracts for $55,000 a year each. Akerman already does federal lobbying for the county. Book subcontracts with the Pittman Law Group. Rutledge subcontracts with Becker & Poliakoff, Dutko Worldwide LLC, and Gomez Barker Associates Inc. The one-year contracts come with annual options to renew for three years.

Besides the lobbying team, the county has its own government affairs staff and assistant county attorney Jess McCarty doing work in the state capital.

Brian Ballard said his firm won’t be doing work for the county on the casino issue. Ballard represents Genting Group, the Malaysian gambling giant that is pushing for legislation to permit destination resort casino gambling in the county, a pivotal issue now before the legislature. 

Akerman partner Mike Abrams said in an email that his firm has represented a Genting affiliate, Bayfront 2011 Property, “in several real estate matters,’’ but has “not been contacted or engaged to lobby on behalf of Genting or any of its affiliates with the state government at any level, including the legislature.’’

The commission’s money-saving effort began a week into the county’s new lean budget for fiscal 2011-12. “The ominous specter of layoffs threatens employee morale and the county’s ability to deliver services to our residents,’’ Martinez said in an Oct. 7 letter to Mayor Carlos Gimenez, adding that to “drastically reduce’’ costs it would be necessary to advertise for lobbying firms through a competitive selection process. 

In a bid to hang onto the lucrative and prestigious county work and to head off a competitive search, honchos at Ron L. Book P.A. and Rutledge, Ecenia & Purnell offered on Oct. 24 to cut their annual contracts to $200,000 each, from $225,000. The firms took reductions in 2009 and 2010 as well. 

But commissioners brushed aside the offer, pushing forward with a selection process and giving themselves the broadest latitude in handpicking the new team. “I thought we could get it down to $350,000 or $300,000 [in total],’’ Martinez said. 

The commission named the selection committee members, and rather than have the committee rank firms with numerical scores, asked simply for a list of firms meeting the basic qualifications. 

At the commission meeting, Bell recommended spending a total of $300,000 for three firms. But the measure died for lack of support, as did four other ideas.

Some commissioners fretted that changing lobbyists with the legislative session set to begin next month was ill-timed. Others said cutting spending at a time when Tallahassee is facing its own severe budget constraints was ill-advised. 

“This is a very tough year in Tallahassee,’’ said Commissioner Jose “Pepe’’ Diaz. “It’s a chaotic situation, plus there is redistricting,’’ he added, referring to the drawing of new political boundaries. 

Finally, Jordan successfully proposed the $450,000 deal, divided among all four firms that had applied. 

“If this was really about saving money, when you add it up, it cost $50,000 more than the two firms agreed to reduce their fees to,’’ said Commissioner Sally Heyman, who voted for the measure but was unhappy with it. She said by being on the prevailing side she is in a position to bring the issue up for reconsideration. 

“I question whether we need lobbyists in Tallahassee at all,’’ Suarez said afterward.

The commission plans to take up the issue of reducing payments to the county’s Washington lobbyists next year.


MIAMI-DADE LOBBYING 

Incumbent lobbyists in Tallahassee: Ron L. Book P.A. and Rutledge, Ecenia & Purnell P.A. Book subcontracts with Pittman Law Group. Rutledge subcontracts with Becker & Poliakoff; Dutko Worldwide LLC; and Gomez Barker Associates. Additional firms receiving state lobbying contracts: Akerman Senterfitt & Eidson and Ballard Partners Inc.

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Paramore - Misguided Ghosts - (Acoustic) LIVE at Fryshuset, Stockholm, Sweden, November 30, 2009, http://youtu.be/O9OuNtlXiGA

FL-17 candidate and 'Poverty Peddler' Rudy Moise: An expert at finessing the system to get taxpayer money for himself and cronies

I originally wrote this in late June and saved it in Draft and almost forgot about it.
If I don't post it today, I might as well just delete it, so...

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Since I've been waiting for a few months to mention all the things I've seen, heard, observed and written on the subject of the FL-17 congressional race, let's start off with some very simple questions first.

Given that reporter Scott Hiaasen still works at the Miami Herald, why is it that the Herald's current reporters and editors have never mentioned in any article about Moise's candidacy for FL-17 the salient fact that, as Hiaasen wrote in 2007, the company he was president of received a half-million dollar loan despite NOT being located within the targeted "empowerment zone"?
Hmm-m-m...

What are the names of the people at Miami-Dade Govt. HQ/Steve Clark Building who helped him navigate that particular manuever?
What commissioners carried the ball for him?
All this time later, we still don't know.
But we have our hunches, don't we?

And if it's not too much trouble, could some South Florida print or TV reporters finally end their summer snooze and actually start doing some bonafide investigatory reporting on the people who are running for Congress from the FL-17 instead of the measly handful of sentences that get dropped into generic stories about fund-raising amounts?

If there is a major newspaper in the country that has written less and written worse than the Miami Herald has about a congressional seat that we've known since last year would get a new member come November, I'd like to know what newspaper that is, because I don't think there is.

The Herald has won that dubious honor with no serious competition.

Below, from Part 5 of the Miami Herald's 2007 Poverty Peddlers series
http://www.miamiherald.com/multimedia/news/povped/

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http://www.miamiherald.com/multimedia/news/povped/part5/zones.html

Empowerment zones

Funds used outside the poverty zones

The anti-poverty trust went beyond the nine neighborhoods it was supposed to serve and loaned money to a variety of outside businesses.
By Scott Hiaasen

The Miami-Dade Empowerment Trust was founded to target nine specific neighborhoods with millions of dollars in federal and local anti-poverty money.

But over the years, the trust routinely bankrolled projects outside the empowerment zone boundaries, often at the urging of County Hall.

About $3.6‚million has gone from the trust to nearly a dozen businesses or agencies outside the empowerment neighborhoods, records show.

These deals include $200,000 to the Hialeah Chamber of Commerce, a $150,000 loan to a North Miami television production company, and a $150,000 loan to an acupuncture clinic in North Miami Beach - more than seven miles from the nearest empowerment boundary.

The publisher of Image, a Christian youth magazine, was expected to move from South Miami-Dade to the Overtown empowerment area after receiving $25,000 in grants, records show. Instead, the company moved to Georgia. Owner Fatima Hall declined to comment.

An international free-trade foundation in the ritzy Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables received $300,000 - but it never did anything for the empowerment zones.

FEW RESTRICTIONS

Instead of using federal dollars - which must primarily benefit the empowerment zones - the trust financed many of these deals with county money, records show. While some county grants to the trust were for specific projects, millions of dollars have flowed to the agency with few restrictions since 2000.

County Manager George Burgess said he didn't know why county tax dollars were leaving the confines of the empowerment zones, or whether the county imposed restrictions on all grants to the trust.

Steering money outside the empowerment zones runs counter to the intent of the program, said Bruce Nissen, a professor with Florida International University's Research Institute on Social and Economic Policy.

"The purpose of an empowerment zone is to empower a certain community," Nissen said. "How could that possibly empower the community?"

Trust officials refused to comment.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development selected Miami-Dade for the empowerment zone program based largely on the high levels of poverty in nine Miami-Dade neighborhoods: Allapattah, East Little Havana, Liberty City, Melrose, Overtown, Wynwood, Florida City, Homestead and Miami's Central Business District.

HUD allows the trust to finance projects outside the empowerment zones, but federal rules say that any projects receiving HUD money must primarily benefit the zones - with jobs set aside for zone residents, for example.

COMMISSIONERS' ROLE

County commissioners, however, imposed no such restrictions when they approved $770,000 from a county-backed Empowerment Trust fund for three companies outside the zones: $500,000 to the Haitian Broadcasting Network, a Miami radio broadcaster; $170,000 to a Carol City diaper store; and $100,000 to the North Miami Beach acupuncture clinic. All three ventures failed.

County officials also steered $300,000 through the trust to the Florida FTAA Foundation in the Biltmore Hotel between 2003 and 2006, records show. The foundation's director, Brian Dean, said he was unsure why the county money came through the trust. His agency has no programs that specifically target empowerment zone neighborhoods.

The FTAA Foundation is aimed at promoting Miami as the headquarters for the Free Trade Area of the Americas pact. Much of the nonprofit's spending has gone toward trade missions or other travel, including a trip to President Bush's second inauguration, records show.

"I cannot speak to the rationale" of the trust funding, said Dean, who joined the foundation last year. "I presume there is one."

County officials believed the FTAA headquarters would help bring jobs to the empowerment zones, said Victoria Mallette, spokeswoman for Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez. But today there is no headquarters - the FTAA talks have been stalled since 2005.

DATA ON JOBS LACKING

The trust's files often don't show whether its projects have created any jobs, let alone whether the jobs went to empowerment zone residents.

A $150,000 loan was awarded to Bato Productions, a television production company, to create eight new jobs. The company had an office in the Wynwood empowerment zone when the loan was approved in 2004, but the office moved to North Miami the next year, said co-owner Tamara Philippeaux.

Philippeaux said she has hired two new staffers and four part-timers with the loan - not the eight first promised. She doesn't recall ever being asked whether her employees lived in an empowerment zone.

"I don't think that ever came up,'' she said.

Philippeaux said she provided the trust with receipts for cameras and other equipment she bought with the loan - although the trust could not produce any receipts when asked for all paperwork on the deal.

NO EMPLOYEES

Records show that Hidden Curriculum Education, a company offering college prep classes, was supposed to hire new workers as part of a $100,000 business loan in 2004. The company opened an office in Brownsville, but owner Rozalia Williams moved out because she didn't feel safe there at night, records show.

Williams now runs the company from her condo on South Ocean Drive in Hollywood. Last year, Williams reported to the trust that her company had no employees, records show. She did not return phone calls seeking comment.

DEFAULT ON A LOAN

The trust's loans to the HealingEdge Wellness Center in 2003 were designed to help start up the "alternative healing'' and accupuncture clinic in North Miami Beach. The business closed, defaulting on a $100,000 trust loan, records show.

The trust loaned the company $50,000 more, but the agency could not explain what happened to that loan, or provide evidence that it was repaid.

The owner of HealingEdge, Josette Zamor, has not returned phone calls.

The trust told HUD that it provided job training for 100 people and placed 25 in jobs with a $200,000 loan to the Hialeah Chamber of Commerce - also outside the empowerment zones. But the trust has no records to show that any jobs were created.

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South Florida Sun-Sentinel
HAITIANS BUYING CARIBBEAN RADIO STATION IN DAVIE - $2 MILLION SALE RAISES CONCERN THAT PROGRAMMING WILL CHANGE.

By Alva James-Johnson Staff Writer

June 23, 2004

Seventeen years ago, WAVS Radio launched the first 24-hour, daily, English-speaking Caribbean radio station in the country.

Now, for the first time in its history, the Davie-based operation at 1170 AM will have Caribbean owners to match its format.

The radio station, owned by Radio WAVS Inc., a company composed of non-Caribbean shareholders, has been sold for $2 million to a Haitian-owned company called Alliance Broadcasting Network Inc., pending FCC approval.

The sale comes as South Florida's non-Spanish-speaking Caribbean community is exploding. The 2000 census puts the size of the population at nearly 400,000, but most experts believe it's much higher. The group is developing economic and political clout, which has helped make WAVS Radio a hot commodity.

Radio WAVS President Roy Bresky said shareholders sold the station because the right buyer just came at the right time.

"This was the aim of the shareholders, to sell it to a Caribbean company or individuals ... to maintain what we worked hard to develop over the past 17 years," said the retired ophthalmologist.

But the Caribbean community is not a monolithic group, owners of the station have discovered. News of the sale angered some entrepreneurs who purchase time on the station and fanned rumors throughout the English-speaking community that the format might change to Haitian Creole.

Winsome Charlton, president of Hi-Class Promotions, which leases the largest amount of time on the station, said it was her idea to adopt the Caribbean format, and she had offered Bresky up to $6 million to purchase it.

She said she was hurt when she found out that it had been sold to Alliance Broadcasting, and she doesn't believe the new owners will keep the current format.

"I just don't see Haitians buying a station and keeping it Jamaican," she said.

But Alliance Broadcasting met recently with staff and brokers to assure them that programming would remain the same.

"It would be a grave mistake to change the format," said Emmanuel "Mani" Cherubin, who is principal owner of Alliance with his brother, Jean. "It's doing well. If something is not broken, why fix it?"

Bresky said Charlton expressed interest in purchasing the station, but never followed up with a formal request in writing. He said he's received calls from many people who said they wanted to purchase the station over the years.

Rudy Moise , owner of Haitian Broadcasting Network (HBN), which runs Radio Carnivale (WRHB 1020-AM in Little Haiti), said he offered $5.5 million for the station four months ago, but the owners wouldn't sell.

Bresky said Moise also never put it in writing.

"It's a business approach that's required when you make a major investment," he said. "And just to say in passing, `I'll give you such and such' just doesn't cut it."

Radio WAVS Inc. has owned the station since 1971. In the mid-1980s, it began the transition from an urban contemporary/Hispanic format to a Caribbean one at the suggestion of Charlton, Bresky said.

With permission from the owners, she began playing Caribbean music in 1985. Two years later, the owners decided to switch to the Caribbean format, and sell broadcast time to businesses and individuals that wanted to target the Caribbean community.

Charlton said she borrowed $60,000 from investors and launched her company to purchase most of the time on the station.

Today the station, which broadcasts in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties as "The Heartbeat of the Caribbean," has 38 brokers.

Hi-Class Promotions leases about 50 hours week, and produces programs like Taking Care of Business (TCB), a morning show that features infomercials from professionals who provide listeners with advice on a variety of issues; and an open-line talk show hosted by Miramar Commissioner Winston Barnes, who's also the station's news director.

"This station has been a profitable business venture," said Bresky. "The Caribbean community is strong and growing exponentially and it's made up of people of entrepreneurial interests who are out there trying to develop businesses, make money and spend money."

The station "pretty much has been the main voice of the community," said Jamaican-born Eddy Edwards, who hosts a show called Caribbean Riddims on WVCG (1080-AM). "It's a great medium to get information out."

Cherubin, 47, said Alliance Broadcasting is a new company, with plans to purchase other radio stations. He and his brother already own Choice One Telecom, a Miami telephone and Internet service provider, with 40 employees.

They also host programs on WLQY (1320-AM), a Haitian Creole station; and WJCC (1700-AM), a Haitian Creole/Hispanic station, both in Miami. He said his programs are in French, English and Creole.

Moise, of the Haitian Broadcast Network, said he might be soon partnering with the Cherubins to purchase the Radio Carnivale frequency, which his company has been leasing with an option to buy.

He plans to expand the station to a radio network with programs in New York, Boston and other cities.

Alliance made an official offer for WAVS in April, Bresky said. The application for transfer of the station was filed June 16.

Cherubin said he and his brother had been eyeing the station for some time.

"It's a station that most people in the English-speaking Caribbean are listening to, and provides a lot of leadership and togetherness," he said. "We've been talking to the [owners] for years and finally it was the right time for them to sell."