According to a recent poll, many people think our county firefighters do a better job than the mayor.
A survey of 450 voters who were called live from Aug. 2 to Aug. 5, voters gave our first responders more than twice as many approval points as Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos “Not So Golden Boy” Gimenez.
Almost 80 percent of the voters called said that the service we receive from Miami-Dade Fire Rescue is either excellent or good. Meanwhile, only 30 percent of them gave Gimenez — whose budget plan calls for the shutting down of fire units and firing of 80 firefighters now, down from an original 149 — a rating on his job performance of excellent or good. And that was 5 and 25 percent, respectively.
In fact, more people think he’s doing a so-so or poor job, with 23 and 18 percent, repsectively.
Additionally, the survey found that almost 80 percent of the voters in Miami-Dade County consider Fire Rescue an important priority in the budget and more than 80 percent would not want to see budget cuts that would reduce the level of service.
“The poll disproves this notion that people are okay with cuts to their fire service,” said Rowan Taylor, president of the county firefighters’ union, which commissioned the survey.
But even though there’s an interested party behind it, this live poll’s results seem solid because Emiliano Antunez, who is getting better and better at polling, not only provided the final tallies, he also provided the methodology and questions and even the phone numbers of the respondents, with their answers on each question, so anyone who doubts the figures can follow up and confirm.
There is a 4 point margin of error, which is nothing with the whopping figures we have here.
“It also shows that the community is not solid on his job approval, or unsure about his leadership. I think it has to do with the switcheroo, the back and forth,” Taylor said, referring to the mayor’s back flip on the budget from a small but “necessary” increase to preserve current service levels to a zero increase that forces cuts.
“He doesn’t seem to be a steady leader. They are unsure if he can really lead.”
The survey was also used to inform voters about a $9 million kickback to the county that firefighters could use to shore up the shortfall, which is now at about $7 million. The Fire Rescue Department itself identified savings by selling a property that they were going to build a station on and moving around or consolidating functions.
Firefighters gave $4.5 million in 2009 and $4.5 or $4.6 million in 2010 from its limited tax revenues — because that’s all they use, folks, taxes — back to the county to beef up the emergency reserve fund, so that we could get better bond rating to borrow more money and get better rates (more on that later).
Asked if they thought that Miami-Dade should repay that $9 mil that it “borrowed” from the fire department, which has its own tax millage and budget, more than 70 percent of the voters polled said yes.
If the mayor is really listening to the people, as he says he was when he went from a small tax increase to no increase at all, maybe he should listen to this poll, as well as the earful he is getting at the budget town hall meetings that are like the cart before the horse.
Either Ladra or the firefighters can provide him with the call list so that he can talk to the respondents himself and maybe even ask them why they gave him such low ratings.
In fact, call those first.
Poll: Firefighters get higher points than county mayor added by Ladra on
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Since this posting mentioned payback of monies to the fire dept, how about this legalized theft from the library dept.?
There was a $7.476M forced transfer of library reserves from a special taxing district in FY 2009-10 budget year to the general fund’s Dept. of Cultural Affair.
Please take note of some of the organizations that received grants from the library district funds that year (only a few on the long list are highlighted here):
City of Coral Gables $20,601
City of Miami Springs $32,593
FIU Board of Trustees for Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum $7,283
Miami Science Museum $30,107
Vizcaya Museum and Gardens $16,877
Seraphic Fire $42,500
FIU Board of Trustees for School of Hospitality $74,537
FIU Board of Trustees for School of Music $44,985
Miami Dade College, Miami Book Fair $79,692
Miami Dade College, Film Festival $69,382
University of Miami, Frost School of Music $47,647
University of Miami School of Communication $23,645
FIU Board of Trustees for Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum $130,500
FIU Board of Trustees for Wolfsonian $244,700
Florida Grand Opera $376,800
Friends of the Bass Museum $166,750
Miami Children’s Museum $244,700
University of Miami, Lowe Art Museum $153,750
Performing Arts Center, Adrienne Arsht Center $340,000
We point out these organizations because they represent reputable ones that cater to the well heeled and most charge admissions. It is interesting to note that while in FY 2009-10 the library had $7.476M taken from its reserves to give to these organizations, the very next year 300 library employees were laid-off, library days of operation and hours were reduced and the materials budget was slashed.
We, the taxpayers, were not informed of the fact that the TRIM notice stating that we were paying for library services was in fact funding concert series and art exhibits. The people of neighborhoods from Pinecrest to Overtown and from Homestead to Hialeah Gardens were not asked if they preferred to have reduced library services or access to art exhibits and concerts. This went unstated in 2010-11 when almost all MDPLS branches lost about 10 hours a week of service, Sunday hours were eliminated, the freely available science, math, and reading tutoring program was cancelled, and the saddest part was the massive staff layoff of 150 full timers and 100 part-time pages.
Now, for 2013-2014, the Mayor has come up with another plan to eliminate first 251 and now 192 positions (plus the library will also be losing the vacant positions it currently has in its table of organization). Again, library services will be further reduced to the community when the finger of blame is pointed it is at the commissioners who are responsible for either raising taxes or closing libraries. Any choice, the commissioners are left holding a bag of manure.
When your libraries cannot provide you services with a skeleton crew, the doors are closed to you with reduced days and odd hours and or just completely closed, the mayor’s decision will be too late to fix. With limited best sellers, only 1 newspaper and only at regionals, no magazines, few DVDs, reference resources, eBooks, electronic resources, downloadable music, no subject specialists, etc. you can understand where the politicians of this community spent the funds from your taxes that was designated as library millage.
Possible Solution?
We have a vote of no confidence with our elected officials and propose that the library taxing district and library operations be overseen by an independent board of trustees that determines the millage and budget for the library in a similar fashion to the School Board. The people that reside in this community deserve better oversight of one of their best community resources.
Jason, no the phone numbers were not given out, just to the mayor as verification of the poll numbers, something the mayor could not provide to anyone on his own poll.
From the July “Library Journal” article about the closings: “Mayor Gimenez told a local news channel, “people have said that the age of the library is probably ending.” That’s news to the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which found that in 2010 (the most recent year surveyed) public libraries saw 1.57 billion visits, an increase of 32.7 percent over the year 2000. In Miami-Dade itself, in the half year from October 2012-April 2013, the library circulated 5.3 million materials (including computer usage) and saw 3.6 million visits.”
Be sure to let your Commissioners know that facts, rather than opinions, should govern their decision to FULLY FUND their library system. If they listen to their Mayor…they will be misinformed.
The famous management writer, Peter Drucker, wrote:
“Management is doing things right, leadership is doing the right things.” Where is the leadership for Miami-Dade County? Closing libraries during a poor economy…when libraries offer just-in-time services for many residents… is callous and irresponsible. What county agency are these residents to turn to for in-kind services?
I got the call and participated in the poll. Does this mean that they shared my personal information with the press? I never approved of this and it feels very unethical to me.
Give the first responders what they need to do their job! I would rather pay a bit more taxes but know that the first responders will be there when you need them!