After stalling, Miami-Dade commission to meet on ballot issue

Imagine this: A bi-partisan group of leaders and activists from different social and economic backgrounds get together and decide they are going to step up. They are going to do what they can to stop the growing influence of special interest money in political campaigns.

They write a petition and thousands of volunteers spend three months collecting signatures. At malls. At festivals. At movie theaters. At MetroRail stations. And door to door. It’s pain-staking work.

They need about 52,000 valid signatures to get on the ballot in November. They get more than 127,000, just in case. Each petition has the legally required and previously-approved summary and charter language, with strike-outs included, in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole. Each petition is 30-some pages long as a result. Each petition may only be signed by a single voter. Only registered voters can collect the signatures. And each petition must be notarized on the same day they are signed.

Whew! It’s enough to make anyone wanna say fuggedaboutit.

Luckily, these leaders and activists, calling themselves An Accountable Miami-Dade, didn’t give up. This happened. Because they felt it was all worth it, this group of people actually collected enough signatures to put a referendum on the ballot to cut maximum contributions in half, limit campaign contributions to political candidates from special interests doing business with the county and give first-time candidates a more level playing field.

But instead of getting a pat on the back or a medal, for that matter, they get the cold shoulder from the very elected officials who live off those special interest contributions, who are able to thwart any challenger by the sheer vastness of the war chests provided by the lobbyists and vendors that want their ear. Literally a cold shoulder. The initiative is held up because our county mayor and commissioners are dragging their feet, no other reason. And of course they are dragging their feet! They don’t want to kill their cash cow.

The Miami-Dade County Commission called a special meeting after the petitions were delivered to the county elections department on Aug. 2 — and in two U-haul trucks because, again, each one had to be 30 pages long. But they couldn’t get a quorum when Commissioner Barbara Jordan — one of the seven commissioners who agreed to attend a special meeting — called at the last minute and said she had a doctor’s appointment she had forgotten about. The commission doesn’t meet again until Sept. 7, but the charter says the petitions must be counted and verified within 30 days after they were submitted Aug. 2.

Enter Mayor Carlos Gimenez. Or exit Carlos Gimenez, if you prefer (and I do). Because he does have the executive power to tell his department head to do her job. The county attorney says he doesn’t. But the county attorney will say whatever he wants her to say. Have you ever seen the county attorney’s office give an opinion that the mayor or a commissioner didn’t want? Anyway, the charter clearly provides for executive power during the summer recess, especially when inaction will cost the county. And the petitioners could sue. Worse even: If they have around 100,000 valid signatures they can force a special election, at the cost of $5 million.

Otherwise they’d have to wait until 2018. And that’s the whole idea, isn’t it? That’s why the quorum wasn’t reached and why the mayor won’t act. The group protested at County Hall, flooded social media with #StartCounting, filed a lawsuit in court and requested public records on emails about the matter, the latter of which the county wanted to charge $22,000 for, an artificially inflated figure that they have since backed off on. (Sidenote: Please keep on them for those records because the price tag seems to indicate there is something of value there.)

A second special commission meeting has been set for Monday to hear the item after protests from the activists and much pressure from the community to just let the people vote on this.

If passed, the measure would cut maximum contributions to candidates in county races from $1,000 to $500, or $250 per election cycle. It would also provide for more matching public dollars for under-funded first-time non-incumbent candidates and prohibit contributions to candidates for county office from any company, individual or group that has a contract of at least $250,000 or more with Miami-Dade county government. If passed, the measure would end the quid pro quo climate that has become so common place at County Hall and that has only grown and become more powerful under the administration of Carlos Gimenez.

In fact, some might think that this whole movement is a result of watching Gimenez amass more than $4 million between his campaign account and his PAC, much of it from entities that either do business or have applications to do business before the county.

“People are tired of corruption, and what they see as a rigged system,” New Florida Majority Executive Director Gihan Perera said to the press. He is one of the advisory board members on An Accountable Miami-Dade, quite an illustrious group that means business. The others are:

• Maribel Balbin, President League of Women Voters of Miami-Dade and Vice President League of Women Voters of Florida, former chair of the Miami Dade County Commission for Women, and a special projects administrator with Miami-Dade County.
• Juan Cuba, Executive Director of Miami-Dade Democratic Party.
• Marlon Hill, former president of the Caribbean Bar Association, former Vice Chair of The Miami Foundation, and a board member of the Orange Bowl Committee and Miami Book Fair International.
• Cindy Lerner, Mayor of Pinecrest, former Democrat state representative, environmental activist, attorney and past president of the Miami-Dade County League of Cities.
• Phil Levine, Mayor of Miami Beach and chair of this advisory group, an interesting member of the group since his own PAC colleted more than $1 million from city vendors and contractors.
• Ed MacDougall, former Mayor of Cutler Bay, one-time Republican Congressional candidate, former chair of the Trump for Miami-Dade Campaign Committee, Vietnam veteran and former Miami-Dade Police Sergeant.
• Ken Russell, City of Miami Commissioner and Vice-Chairman and son of the yo-yo inventor.
• Sara Yousuf, Chair Engage Miami, Miami-Dade Public Defender’s office, and co-founder of Sweat Records and Emerge Miami.

Former Doral Vice Mayor Bettina Rodriguez Aguilera serves as chairwoman and Monica Russo, president of the Florida SEIU Council, is vice chair. Christian Ulvert, who was Levine’s campaign consultant, is a spokesman for the group.

And they are pretty determined. Look for many of these people, if not all of them, to speak at Monday’s meeting.

Let’s see how commissioners try to stop it now.