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“Is there chaos? No, there’s no chaos,” Gonzalez said, referring to Dominguez’s dooms day scenario about a property appraiser’s office that is completely inefficient and lackadaisical. Although, how does he know? He hasn’t been around. And, as he admitted, he doesn’t know much about the subject.
Both Dominguez and Gobel — who sits on the value adjustment board in Broward — came out as the most knowledgeable. Each said that there were problems with inefficiency in Miami-Dade and that we could learn from Broward’s example. They said that there were too many “mass appraisals” of residential properties using nearby sales information and aerial photos.
Gobel said there was something wrong when there are 340 people in Miami-Dade to appraise 900,000 properties and only 207 people in Broward to appraise 700,000 properties.
“There’s a disproportionate amount of people [here],” Gobel said. “It screams of inefficiency.”
Dominguez countered that he would not necessarily move to fire people, but would like to see more training and redirection of resources. “We don’t have a training program. We don’t have quality control. We’re hiring the right people, but we’re not training them,” Dominguez said.
Both Armada and Garcia seemed to almost flinch at the thought of modeling after Broward County and almost proved Gobel’s assertion that they are “two members of the old guard who would like to see things stay the same.”
Said Garcia: “The way they handle a property appraisal in Broward is not even an appraisal.”
Said Armada: “I definitely don’t want to copy Broward County. We’re going to do things the way it has to be done.”
Dominguez seized the moment to make both men look out of touch.
“I think you copy what works in other places” he said, referring to businesses like Apple and Samsung who look to model business plans after strategies that work. “There’s nothing wrong with sharing ideas. This is a disaster. We should be copying what works.”
“I think what you need is someone who will be fair,” Gonzalez said, adding that several of his ballot mates are “set in their ways” — no doubt referring to Garcia and Amador. “I’m not. I’m open to listen to you,” Gonzalez said.
Then he admitted that he may take a wrong step, like he did his first session in Tallahassee, he said. “I knew nothing about state government voting at all… and I messed up. But I learned.”
Voters will have to decide if we want to give Gonzalez a learning curve.
With five candidates in the race, everyone that spoke to Ladra agreed on one thing: There is going to be a runoff.
Some say that runoff will be between the two political veterans, Gonzalez and Garcia. But it really should be between the two political reformers, Gobel and Dominguez.
Armada’s just full of hot air — that was the consensus of everyone who spoke to Ladra after the event.
Realtor Elias Patsalos liked Gobel best. “He has a new approach. He has an MBA and the experience. He has new ideas. He’s fresh,” Patsalos said.
There are still a few more debates so that people can see if the candidates further set themselves apart, including one Wednesday at Casa Bacardi on the University of Miami campus.
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