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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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Unfortunately some candidates used this event to mislead the public. Mr. Gobel’s disproportionate amt of people statement, he failed to educate the public with the following Broward has a complete different urban design County. Thus appraising of this County is far simpler as a result of it’s make up. Dade is by far more complex. Dominguez no training program, most of the staff in Dade County holds CFE designations, Certified Field Evaluators at the very least, many are licensed appraisers. Perhaps Mr. Dominguez should do more research and attempt to take the classes see if he can pass them and obtain the designation. Mr. ARmada was not angry he was frustrated at all the misinformation these two men were stating. Their lack of knowledge and experience would be detrimental to the PA Office & taxpayers. It’s a professional office it requires an Appraiser with appraising knowledge, experience and skills. The truth about Mr. Lopez Cantera tenure was spending taxpayer $$ remodeling, bringing entourage of five with no appraisal knowledge, and lowering values to all but the highest reductions went to this family & friends properties. Really don’t beleive everything that’s being thrown at you. Be informed seek out the truth with hands on people. There is more.. much more that the average citizen does not know, but in the end will pay for.
Oye Chino,
Are you hurt because “Los Trapos Sucio” of Eddy Gonzalez is being reported by Ladra? One way to make sure that does not happen is by having Eddy stop talking trash on things we all know he does not ascribed to. If he continues to talk his trash, then he would have no choice, but to wipe the shit that comes out of his mouth at some given point in time.
Now tell me how can Ladra not report on his verbal stench?
Eddy you will not get any unbias reporting in this blog…..Ladra hates anything Hialeah and discards bodies of hard work to cheating and AB rants.
The reality is we need a person who understand residents and business owners.
Bring it home Eddy
This has been precisely my point about the difference between Miami-Dade County and Broward County. I don’t care whether it is the Property Appraiser’s Office, Water and Sewer, Public Works, Internal Services, Police and Fire, etc. There is too much fat everywhere. Apple and Samsung would have downsized and right-sized along time ago. They should strategically and surgically start laying off the fat in every department where appropriate.
Gimenez do your job or else off with the Head!
This has become one of my favorite races to watch. Unfortunately, Gonzalez is not very well known outside of Hialeah, he is not a Raul Martinez or a Julio Robaina that has great name rec outside the city of progress and that can raise serious cash. The race should end up in a run off, Garcia will be there because of his high name rec and the older Cuban vote-the second spot should go to either Gobel or Dominguez, both are highly qualified to do the job and have graduated from the university. In my humble opinion, Dominguez has the upper hand as he’s ran before, has name rec in the city of miami and is really campaigning, visiting voters county wide, he’s not stuck in his comfort zone as many of the other candidates.
This self serving event is just a popularity contest for a job that pays a whopping $196k! The job should be an administrative internal county position rather than an elected one. The job should not pay more than $100k at best. At the end of the day sleazaball Eddy Gonzalez will get help from the cadre of corrupt northwest politicians and win the election. This is not about serving the public but about helping themselves.