Watchdog Report Vol.11 No.11 July 18, 2010 – Est. 05.05.2000 – I go when you cannot!
CONTENTS
Argus Report: Déjà vu for Watchdog Report when it comes to Medicare fraud blowout, has been a growing cancer within South Florida for decades
Florida: Crist huddles with UM-CSTARS scientists looking for answers on oil spill since “this thing is a moving object” coming Florida’s way
Florida Supreme Court: Justice Lewis in the spotlight, longest serving on Supreme Court, had $3.9 million net worth through Apr. 2010
Miami-Dade County: Has independence of ethics commission & IG been absorbed by BCC? Organizational chart ends dotted line relationship
Broward County: Congressional candidate Moise hits the TV airwaves, but also has mixed history in Miami-Dade
Palm Beach County: Commissioner Koons first elected in 2002, county gets new IG, leaders net worth through Dec. 2009 was $15.69 million
Monroe County: PAST WDR: May, 2010: Administrator Gastesi says come on down to Keys, “Water is extremely clear for diving”
Miami-Dade Public Schools: Testy exchange at board meeting has Perez and Diaz de la Portilla exiting through back door continuing the discussion
Public Health Trust: PHT board may lose independence, legislation moving through county commission that must be complied with, meetings moving to be held in BCC Chambers
City of Miami: Indicted commissioner Spence-Jones gets break with Carey-Shuler recanting testimony, if exonerated would serve out Dist. 5 term to 2013
City of Miami Beach: Commissioners Gongora & Weithorn on budget, union contract givebacks, and tentative millage roll back rate
City of Coral Gables: Mayor Slesnick & Commissioner Anderson on commission meeting, Biltmore rent, tax millage the story of the day
City of Doral: City and Community Partnership for Homeless collect school supplies for children in need
Community Events: Meet county commission candidates for Districts 8 — >>> Press release: Please join us for the long-awaited unveiling of the Julia Tuttle statue on Wednesday, July 28th at 9:30 a.m. at Bayfront Park in downtown — UM School of Communication Knight Center for International Media and the Discovery Channel Networks Planet Green present the U. S. television premiere: ONE WATER narrated by Martin Sheen
Editorials: Watchdog Report is seeing medical venders wining and dining doctors again, a no no — Voters must ask candidates how they plan to make a living, outside employment activity much of why Gov. Crist has suspended 40 officials — Voters finally get independent oversight boards get neutered by politicians over time
Letters: Letter from a Biltmore neighbor to Coral Gables leaders on charter school
Sponsors – Publisher’s mission statement & Subscription information is at the bottom of this issue
>>> Just because you do not take an interest in politics does not mean politics will not take an interest in you. –Pericles (430 B.C.)
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>>> The Watchdog Report publisher would like to thank the John S. and James L. Knight Foundationwww.knightfoundation.org for funding the University of Miami’s Knight Center of International Mediahttp://knight.miami.edu within the University’s School of Communication www.miami.edu assistance to rebuild my web site www.watchdogreport.net that is now on line again, since the previous one was shut down in July 2008. Past reports will continue to go on line in the future, potentially as far back as May 2000. This institutional support is a major break through for me, and I am deeply appreciative of the help these two substantial international institutions have given me at a time the site was an unbudgeted expense and to keep the Watchdog Report a community education resource, while also being a decade old news service.
>>> If you think it is important to have someone watching your public institutions consider becoming a supporter or sponsor. For there is no trust fund and I do have to live. A convenient form is at the bottom of this week’s Watchdog Report with all the instructions on how to support this newsletter and news service that started its 11th Anniversary on May 5.
ARGUS REPORT – Heard, Seen on the Street
>>> Déjà vu for Watchdog Report when it comes to Medicare fraud blowout, after 11-years of covering it, has become a cancer within South Florida
It was déjà vu Friday when Eric Holder, the U.S. Attorney General and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius walked onto the stage at the Knight Center in the downtown Miami Hyatt Hotel, for the topic was Medicare fraud, where South Florida is “ground zero” for decades of such illegal activity. Holder said the area “is under siege” and these people “are lining their pockets” at the American “taxpayers’ expense” and the activity causes Americans to have higher insurance premiums and taxes. He said law enforcement and other federal agencies are “fighting back” with the establishment of a group called the Healthcare Enforcement Task Force and last year “alone $2.5 billion” in recovered fraudulent funds was “deposited into the “Medicare Trust Fund” and said there is still “1,600 healthcare fraud investigations pending.”
How did S. Florida get this dubious fraud reputation?
The Watchdog Report for the past 11-years has written extensively about this problem, watched the local U.S. Attorney at the time Marcos Jimenez beef up the FBI healthcare fraud detail to two units in 2003, and his efforts were followed by Alex Acosta, the succeeding top federal cop in the Southern District of Florida. It was Acosta that first coined the response when I asked him if South Florida was the “graduate school of fraud” after numerous press conferences over months at the attorney’s offices with well over $1 billion in fraud being uncovered in 13 –months. He said at the time, “Yes we are the graduate school for fraud” sadly and he lamented the fact it was so rampant noting only through the help of citizens speaking up when they were charged for services or drugs could the overall issue come under reasonable control. That user involvement in the monitoring process has been missing to date and the federal officials at the task force summit made that same point. Sebelius noted that Medicare has 48 million beneficiaries in the system and that is a lot of eyes when it comes to potential fraud monitors.
When it comes to federal investigators, South Florida has also become the place to learn the latest “tactics” on how to fight healthcare fraud scams and any case around the nation but has a Miami connection. The lead federal prosecution in the case usually comes from here. Wilfredo Ferrer, the newly sworn in U.S. Attorney here in South Florida has also accepted the baton to fight this scourge that is costing the nation around $60 billion in fraud yearly, with the highest fraudulent area being here in Palm Beach, Broward, and epicenter Miami-Dade. In the past, the Watchdog Report has also reported that when it came to Medicaid, the state health insurance program, at least $1.2 billion went into fraud yearly and that number is now considered low in actual dollars scammed by fraudulent claims currently in the state.
Critics have been begging for greater vigilance and oversight that for decades was lax and enforcement was called “pay and chase” where the government paid the claim, and then later would chase after the bogus claims in the future. However, with the new national healthcare bill passed by congress recently that mode of operation has changed, with more oversight, and much stiffer penalties for those gaming of the system and locally a number of defendants have been given significant prison time for this activity. And includes the two Cespedes brothers locally being sentenced to over nine-years last year after over a decade of ripping off Medicare and under reporting their income to the IRS.
What have I heard locally in a restaurant?
A few months ago while I was recovering from my surgery, two men sitting diagonally from me at a restaurant were talking about a friend that started a medical company bilking Medicare and the biggest problem they said he had was “what to do with all the cash” that rolled in religiously since the federal government pays on a certain schedule. One man said it was like the days of “the Cocaine Cowboys” in the early 1980s and I was shocked they were talking so openly about someone scamming taxpayers using the federal government and shows how accepted the practice is here in South Florida. Others on the other hand, who have experience with healthcare fraud have said its about time the feds are getting serious about this rampant theft of public dollars and some have called it a cancer deep within our community, that has only kept growing over the years. >>> For more information or to report Medicare or Medicaid fraud go to www.stopmedicarefraud.gov orwww.myflorida.gov
>>> Press release: Miami: U.S. Atty. Holder’s comments at the Medicare Strike Force Press conference
Today I’m joined by several key leaders and partners in the U.S. government’s fight against health care fraud: Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Special Agent in Charge John Gillies of the FBI’s Miami Field Office, HHS Inspector General Daniel Levinson and the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Willy Ferrer.
We are here to announce the results of the largest federal health care fraud takedown in our nation’s history: 94 people in four cities have been charged for their alleged participation in schemes to submit more than $251 million in false Medicare claims. Here in Miami, 24 defendants have been charged for their alleged involvement in fraud schemes totaling approximately $103 million. Additional arrests have been made in Baton Rouge, Brooklyn and Detroit. Through this operation, we have stopped various large-scale fraud attempts. We have safeguarded precious taxpayer dollars. And we have helped to protect our nation’s most essential health care programs – Medicare and Medicaid – which provide critical assistance to elderly, disabled and impoverished Americans.
Today’s operation was led by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, a joint initiative between the Departments of Justice and HHS. More than 360 law enforcement agents from the FBI, HHS-Office of Inspector General, multiple Medicaid Fraud Control Units, and other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies participated. And I want to recognize and applaud these agents for this outstanding work. As today’s arrests prove, the federal government is working aggressively – and collaboratively – to pursue health care criminals around the country and to bring these offenders to justice. Those charged today include physicians, medical assistants, and health care company owners and executives. According to the indictments, these defendants participated in schemes to submit claims to Medicare for treatments that were not medically necessary and, oftentimes, never provided. Although today marks a critical step forward in combating and deterring such illegal activity, our work is far from over. In addition to making arrests around the country, law enforcement agents are executing search warrants in connection with ongoing health care fraud investigations. We will continue to follow the evidence in these cases wherever it leads us. Our continued Strike Force operations reflect the unprecedented commitment that inspired the creation of the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team – known as HEAT – in May of last year. Through HEAT, we’ve ensured that the fight against health care fraud is a Cabinet-level priority. And we are strengthening our capacity to fight health care fraud at every level, most especially through the enhanced use of our joint Medicare Fraud Strike Force.
Since March 2007, when the first phase of the Strike Force was launched here in South Florida, this initiative has resulted in the indictments of more than 810 organizations and individuals, including those charged today. By improperly billing Medicare for more than $1.85 billion, these criminals have siphoned resources from the most vulnerable among us. Their actions have also helped to drive up health care costs nationwide. With today’s arrests, we’re putting would-be criminals on notice: Health care fraud is no longer a safe bet. It’s no longer easy money. If you choose to engage in health care fraud, you will be found; you will be stopped; and you will be brought to justice. Once again, I want to thank the agents, investigators, prosecutors, law enforcement officials, and many partners involved in today’s takedown. They are the key to our ultimate success in the fight against health care fraud.
>>> Press release: U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, commented today on the announcement that former State Department employee Kendall Myers was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for spying on the United States for the Cuban regime, and that Myers’ wife, Gwendolyn, would serve 81 months for her role in helping her husband spy for Cuba. Statement by Ros-Lehtinen:
“We may never know the full extent of the damage caused by Kendall and Gwendolyn Myers. What we do know though, as illustrated by the Cuban regime’s support of their 30-plus years of espionage, is that the Havana dictatorship remains committed to undermining the United States at every turn. “I would like to commend all of the U.S. law enforcement personnel who helped to capture the Myers’; however this is just the tip of the iceberg. “Today’s sentencing is but the first step in a necessary process to provide accountability and to uncover the truth about the dangers that Cuba’s spy operation, and the Myers’ involvement in it, poses to U.S. security.”
>>> Poll by Zogby Interactive: By Slim Margin, Voters Say Kagan Should Be Confirmed Opposition Up Slightly from A Month Ago
Likely voters, by a slim 45%-43% margin, say the full Senate should confirm Supreme Court Justice nominee Elena Kagan, a new Zogby Interactive Poll finds. On the eve of the U.S. Senate Judiciary vote on Kagan’s confirmation, Opposition is up from one month ago when support was 46%-35%. Voters are split as to whether Kagan’s confirmation hearing before the Judiciary Committee made them more or less likely to believe she should be confirmed, with 42% saying more likely and 41% less likely. The poll of 2,055 likely voters was conducted from July 7-11 and has a margin of error of +/- 2.2 percentage points. Please click the link below to view the full news release on our website:
http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.cfm?ID=1876
>>> Check out this week’s Issues on www.WPBT2.org _Watch This Week’s Issues -Here are the links to watch this week’s program on uVu. Interview with City of Miami Commissioner Willy Gort >>> Interview with Jackson Health CEO Eneida Roldan
>>> If you believe it is important to have someone watching your public institutions consider supporting the Watchdog Report for no money came in over the last week and I do have to live, thank you! The report is also shorter and with less real content because I am still weak and do not have my past energy level that allowed me to write all day Saturday and Sunday as in the past almost 11-years that I have been doing this. I ask for my readers understanding during this time. >>> Further, I have been honored over the years by being named a WFOR-4 Hometown Hero in 2000, being profiled in a major way by The Miami New Times, The Miami Herald, and the Orlando Sentinel which ran as a nationwide story on me in the Tribune papers on Jan. 2003 and UNC Chapel Hill naming me one of the top columnists in Florida in a multi-state study of the media back in 2004. I also thank Joseph Cooper for the opportunity to be on the WLRN/NPR showTopical Currents on www.wlrn.org since 2000, including yearly election coverage since then, and also the opportunity to be on Helen Ferre’s show Issues on issues@wpbt.org numerous times over the past decade.
>>> See what was said about the Watchdog Report in the Miami New Times 2003 — Best of Miami — BEST CITIZEN — Daniel Ricker –
Three years ago, we said Ricker was our Best Gadfly. Given his dedication and perseverance, this new honor, Best Citizen, is well deserved. Ricker goes to 2500 mind-melting meetings annually, from the Public Health Trust’s purchasing subcommittee to the Efficiency and Competition Commission to the Alliance for Human Services’ nominating council to the school board’s audit committee. Sometimes he’s the only public observer. Object: to be the Public Citizen for all those out there who can’t attend, and to connect and serve as an information bridge among the special-interest-dominated Miami-Dade governmental institutions that seem so problematic and indifferent to the democratic process.
This month his e-mail newsletter, The Watchdog Report, celebrates its fourth anniversary. In a former life, Ricker made a handsome living as an international salesman of heart pacemakers. As the hard-working publisher of Watchdog Report, though, he’s struggling financially — this despite the fact that his weekly compendium of meeting summaries, analysis, interviews, and commentary has become essential reading for anyone involved in public affairs. What his written work may lack in polish, it more than makes up for in comprehensiveness. So raise a toast to the man whose official slogan says it all: “A community education resource — I go when you cannot!”
FLORIDA
>>> Crist huddles with UM-CSTARS scientist looking for answers on oil spill since “this thing is a moving object” coming Florida’s way
Gov. Charlie Crist (Net worth $466,000) took a road trip Wednesday to the University’s of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science to huddle with experts and local legislative leaders about dealing with the massive oil spill and its impact on the state of Florida. The Independent Party governor said he has spent so much time on Pensacola beaches over the past months where the oil and tar balls are washing up that he feels “like a resident of Pensacola” and the time there has certainly “enhanced my tan,” he somberly joked.
Crist came to Miami because the university has CSTARS, an eye in the sky research operation that studies the environment and it has been tracking the spill since day one, 24/7 as previously reported in the Watchdog Report. The facility in Richmond Heights, with three different satellite dishes taps into 20 satellites in the sky and the images have a resolution “of one meter,” and the information they are getting is being passed on to federal, state and local authorities. The scientist’s attending said they were working on tracking this massive spill, the role of the loop current, but it is difficult to do computer models since the quantity of the oil released is unknown, and what the long term environmental issues will be with all the disbursement chemicals that are being used, on a scale never before seen.
James Englehardt, Ph.D., a UM scientist told the attendees that he had predicted a “big event” for years, but in this case, their knowledge of deep-water currents in the Gulf is up in the air. “We don’t know enough about the currents.” He noted as we speak the oil “is under going change” and much of the oil will remain on the bottom of the Gulf and this “sunken oil” will create “tar mats for decades” on the sea bottom and he predicted “we will see some effects in the future on Florida.” Crist noted after the scientist’s explanation about his concern of a major spill that “it has occurred” and the massive spills impact is cutting across all segments of Florida’s economy, environment and residents and it is not over yet. “This thing is a moving object,” said Crist and he is looking for ways “to know how to address that” matter. Crist said the disaster “is affecting [all aspects] of the economy and environment” and since the state is so dependent on tourism, “with 85 million people” visiting in a year. He said massive mitigation has got to be done to keep the beaches and wetlands clean. The governor said tourists “visit Florida because it is so beautiful” and his greatest concern here in South Florida “is the loop currents bringing the slick up the Straits of Florida and up the east coast” of the state.
The governor has called for a Special Session this week of the legislature to vote on a state constitutional question, for voters to consider to be added to the Nov. ballot. This amendment if passed would add in the state’s constitution the banning of off shore oil drilling, and he believes the iron is hot when it comes to getting this prohibition passed by lawmakers and state voters in November. However, there is a deadline and any ballot issue has to be done by Aug. 4 to be included on the general election ballot in November. For more information about Rosenstiel and CSTARS go to www.rsmas.miami.edu.oil-spill/
What about local business and the spill?
During the proceedings, representatives around the table gave their point of views and asked questions. Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff’s (Net worth $2.17 million) chief of staff Ron Nelson said he got a break on a fishing charter last weekend because of the spills local impact had on the industry, even though there has been no oil spotted here yet. Nelson told Crist and others at the meeting he caught two fish and the boat’s captain gave him “a great deal” because of the down economy.
>>> Children’s Trust to honor Caceras-Gonzalez and Sister Cecotti with Champion for Children Award
The Children’s Trust of Miami-Dade met Monday, Trutees have chosen the winners of the organization’s awards for the year, they will be honored at a celebration, and the event will have a Haitian theme. The chosen recipients of the David Lawrence Jr., Champion for Children Award are Jean Caceras-Gonzalez, the executive director of His House Children’s Home and Sister Lucia Cecotti, the executive director of Marion Center Schools & Services. The award named after Lawrence, the Trust’s Founding Chair is given out to those people that truly, over an extended number of years have helped the plight of our most vulnerable community residents, our children. He told the nominating committee, in its sixth year of giving out awards last week, that people selected for the award named after him should have done work in children’s service for a long time in the community. He also believed it was important to honor them “while still on planet earth,” he thought.
The Children’s Trust of Miami-Dade is also awarding state Sen. Rudy Garcia, R-Hialeah its Excellence in Public Policy Award for all his work as an advocate for children over the decades he has been in office, most recently during the past Florida Senate session. Garcia, first elected to the state House at the tender age of 21, went over to the senate in 2002, and throughout his political career has never lost an election. Over the years the Trust’s past honorees have included, state Sen. Nan Rich, D-Weston, former state Rep. Gus Barreiro, R-Miami, Miami Mayor Manuel Diaz, and Miami Beach Mayor Matti Herrera Bower.
Other recipients of other honors will be Thomas Armour Youth Ballet, for Excellence in Youth Programming for Schools & Success, The University of Miami’s Linda Ray Intervention Center Project called Hand-n-Hand is being awarded the Excellence in School Readiness Programs award, the Excellence in Direct Service for Children & Family Award is going to Daryl Miller, the park manager at Leisure Park owned and run by Miami-Dade Parks and Recreation department, and the Excellence in Health, Family, or Community Services Award is going to The Children of Inmates Service Network.
For more information about the organizations go to: ‘Canes in the Community | University of Miami The center oversees more than 25 different projects each year, reaching various underserved and …. Linda Ray Intervention Center … the oldest settlements in Miami, an on-line hub to gather information and voice community concerns. …
http://www.miami.edu/index.php/umiami/um_canes_community_listing/?cat=135&nam=Neighborhoods%20and%20Communities >>> Show your support for the Thomas Armour Youth Ballet by voting for us on the Chase community Giving page on Facebook! Follow the link below to place your http://www.thomasarmouryouthballet.org/ >>> Service Network for Children of Inmates Assistance programs are on the rise for children of the incarcerated, but needs still remain high. The Service Network For Children of Inmates is one of … http://www.childrenofinmates.org/
>>> Trust’s 33-member board gets ethics guideline update for new trustees
Trustees on the 33-member board also got a ten-minute presentation on ethics, the county’s conflict of interest code and the rules behind the Florida Sunshine Law. Robert Meyers, the executive director of the Miami-Dade Ethics and Public Trust Commission did the honor of teaching the rules of serving on high profile public boards and he suggested people even try to avoid “the appearance of impropriety.” He said one way to gauge if you should do something was “how does it feel” if what ever you did was on “the front page of a newspaper.” He also said Trustees had to recuse themselves from voting on contracts where they have any kind of financial involvement, including their immediate family members. For more information about the Trust go to www.thechildrenstrust.org
>>> Press release: In continuing to fight for Florida consumers during these tough economic times, Governor Charlie Crist today appointed Jacksonville City Councilman Arthur Graham of Jacksonville Beach and State Representative Ronald Brisé of North Miami to the Public Service Commission. They will succeed David E. Klement and Benjamin “Steve” Stevens, who were not confirmed by the Florida Senate.
“Art has a great track record of public service during the past 12 years, and as a councilman, he has already worked to protect utility consumers,” Governor Crist said. “His experience in the private sector has given him an understanding of the importance of ensuring the private sector’s responsible use of resources.” Graham, 46, is the president of ART Environmental Consulting Services and has served on the Jacksonville City Council since 2003. Among his duties as a council member, he helped oversee the budget of JEA, a publicly owned electric, water and wastewater utility, and chaired the Transportation, Energy and Utilities Committee. He served on the Jacksonville Beach City Council from 1998 to 2002. Graham is also a past chair of the North Florida Transportation Planning Organization and vice president of the Northeast Florida Regional Planning Association. He was a recovery engineer with Georgia Pacific Pulp and Paper from 1995 to 2002 and a sales engineer with Betz PaperChem from 1991 to 1995. With Goodyear Tire and Rubber, he was a regional sales manager from 1989 to 1991 and an application engineer from 1998 to 1989. Graham received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.
“Ron is known for his willingness to fight for Floridians, which is exactly what the Public Service Commission should do,” Governor Crist said. “He is dedicated to serving the people of Florida and protecting their best interests.” Representative Brisé, 36, has been the chief executive officer of Strategic Partner Consulting since 2009 and has served in the Florida House of Representatives since 2006, where he was vice chair of the Florida Legislative Black Caucus since 2009. He has also been the chief operating officer of IPIP Corp since 2005. From 2003 to 2005, he was the director of development, marketing and recruitment for Miami Union Academy and was chairperson of the science department from 2000 to 2005. He earned a bachelor’s degree in science education from Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, and a master’s degree in business administration from American Intercontinental University. >> The Public Service Commission is responsible for regulating the rates, services and safety of privately owned public utilities. The commission is charged with adopting energy efficiency goals and providing competitive market oversight. The appointments are subject to confirmation by the Florida Senate.
FLORIDA SUPREME COURT
>>> Justice Lewis in the spotlight, longest serving on Supreme Court, had $3.9 million net worth through Apr. 2010
Florida Supreme Court Justice R. Fred Lewis is in the spotlight this week and he was appointed by then Gov. Lawton Chiles to the bench in 1998. He has served as chief justice during his over decade tenure and he has been awarded numerous awards during his time on the judiciary and has pushed for disability access in the state’s court system.
What do we know about his finances?
Lewis through Apr. 8, 2010 had a net worth of $3.39 million and he lists $300,000 in household goods. His home and two other properties are valued at $450,000, $950,000, and $950,000. The jurist has $2.92 million in the bank, there is $297,000 in an IRA, there is $4,547 in stocks and life insurance is valued at $130,000. He has a $131,000 mortgage with Countrywide Home Loan and income for the year was $159,000 as a judge, and small sums from three other sources for a total of $166,866 for the year.
>>> Fla. Supreme Court web page: Justice R. Fred Lewis
A former Chief Justice and founder of Justice Teaching, Justice Lewis was appointed to the Supreme Court of Florida on December 7, 1998, by the late Governor Lawton Chiles. While serving as Chief Justice, he founded Justice Teaching, an organization that now has over 3,900 volunteer lawyers and Judges placed with and active in Florida public schools, which enhances civic and law-related education through the active programs in all levels of Florida schools. As Chief Justice, he also convened the first commission and statewide all branch mental health summit which developed and proposed a unified and comprehensive plan to address the increasing needs with the intersection of mental illness and the justice system. He also attempted to provide greater public access to justice for the disabled by mandating a survey and audit of all court facilities in Florida through a task force of professionals to identify and remove obstacles to facility access. While Chief Justice, Justice Lewis also instituted for the first time in Florida, a uniform high-level diversity training program for all Florida judges. Having a background in civil litigation and recognizing the need for better jury instructions in complex cases, he created and appointed the first Standard Jury Instruction Committee for Contract and Business Cases, a group that continues to move forward to finalize comprehensive jury instructions for these complex cases… For more information go to Justices of the Florida Supreme Court – Justice Lewis In 2002, the University of Central Florida honored Justice Lewis by creating the Justice R. Fred Lewis Award, which will be awarded annually…
MIAMI-DADE COUNTY
>>> Has independence of ethics commission & IG been absorbed by BCC, organizational chart ends dotted line relationship?
The Watchdog Report has been reading this year’s Miami-Dade County three volume proposed 2010-2011 budget books, something I have done since 1997 and what caught my eye was the change in the county’s organizational chart that appears in the front of the first book. In the upcoming year, the organizational chart has the elected property appraiser a solid line to the county residents’ box at the top of the chart. However, when it comes to the inspector general’s office, and ethics commission, these bodies on the organizational chart are a solid line under the Board of County Commissioners box, suggesting that body controls the entities. However, in the 2006- 2007 county budget books this same chart has a dotted line for the IG and ethics commission coming off a solid line that goes to the county electorate and other government offices at the same level on the chart are the mayor, county commission, Chief Judge of the Eleventh Circuit, the county Clerk of Courts, state Public Defender, and the state Attorney’s office.
On Friday, I contacted Jennifer Glazer-Moon, the director of the Office of Strategic Business Management by e-mail asking about the change in the organizational chart and copied the county attorney’s office. The budget director responded, “The organizational chart has been changed to reflect those entities that are under the Mayor’s jurisdiction, since that’s been quite the issue this year. However, the changes aren’t the ones that you pointed out. IG, Ethics have been shown below the BCC for at least a couple of years and the Property Appraiser was moved up when that became an elected office last year. The changes for this year are the dotted line surrounding CITT, MPO and MDEAT, which used to just show as boxes in the strategic areas. This seems to be a more correct representation,” she wrote.
She is right about the change in reporting lines, which is first seen in the 2007-2008 budget book but in the case of the Ethics and Public Trust Commission. Critics argue that a dotted line is more appropriate since county voters created the commission in 1996, and the county commission crafted the subsequent enabling ordinance, and intended the organization to be an independent entity that is referenced in the county Home Rule Charter. The other surprise is that the Property Appraiser’s office is a direct line to the voters, even though it is a Charter Office, created by the county commission, not a stand alone Constitutional Office like the state’s other 66 county property appraisers in Florida. In the past, I have asked Pedro Garcia the elected property appraiser since Jan. 2009 if he planned to take the issue to court, but he indicated he had no such intention. However, in the case of the ethics commission that along with the IG can investigate all levels of local government from the mayor’s office, commissioners on down the county political food chain with the power to subpoena people and documents. Both organizations independence is critical if they are to do the job that each is assigned, and I suspect this issue of these organizations independence will be debated in the coming months, and how they are funded.
>>> South Dade Cultural Center chugs along, 954-days late, but will there be money to sustain facility and performances
The South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center construction is chugging along, though 954 days behind the original schedule but the substantial completion date continues to be Dec. 3, 2010. The facility that has some construction issues has the builder eating much of the extra costs of the $38 million initial cost. A July 17 memo from county Manager George Burgess state’s $30.4 million has been paid to the contractor to date, there is $3.3 million in retainage and that leaves “approximately $4.3 million” as balance to finish the project first begun in Dec. 29, 2005 and as has been previously reported in past Watchdog Reports over the years since breaking ground.
However, critics are wondering if there will be money to maintain and put on programs with the county under a fiscal blowtorch that at a minimum could have around 1,200 more county employees getting the ax, or more depending on the fiscal breaks. Years ago during the good financial times, cultural centers were to dot the community including a new one in Westchester. However, since 2004 when many of these projects funding was thrown in the $2.9 billion GOB offering, passed by voters with hundreds of projects in the document. The local and national economy has soured and many people question the viability of many of these new facilities, that also has organizations putting on arts, theater, and cultural programs fighting for there own fiscal life, as patronage and donations have dried up.
>>> Dust up between Commissioners Souto and Jordan leaves committee with no quorum
An escalating sharp verbal exchange on the ethnic diversity of Miami-Dade had Commissioner Javier Souto saying “Latin’s are 63 percent, we the Latin’s” are saying its “about time we are respected,” he said. This response came after Commissioner Barbara Jordan asked the administration, what the funding impact was across the board, and specifically in her District 1 when it came to funding future projects with some of the $2.9 billion county GOB passed by voters in 2004. The item under discussion was a new Westchester Community Arts Center. Souto said the $8 million funding should be there noting there is a north and south Dade Cultural Center, plus the one for the “beautiful people on Biscayne Boulevard” downtown. Jordan seemed caught by surprise given the intensity of Souto’s comments. She said her comments “had nothing to do with ethnicity” and just wanted to know how the county was going “to pay for projects in the future because there is not enough resources to do it all,” she said. But Souto said a few more things on the subject and she ultimately got up, left the dais around 2:30 p.m. and the committee meeting lost its quorum. Commissioner Natacha Seijas weighed in on the matter later in the week at another committee meeting. She said, while not naming the commissioner. It was an embarrassing display from a colleague on the dais and the offending commissioner had lost her “respect.”
>>> During a commission committee meeting last week, a representative of the county’s Water & Sewer department when asked about how a resident could have a high water bill. He noted, it did not take much effort to see a spike in a resident’s bill. He noted if someone left a “hose on at their home for two days they would see a $400.00” spike in their bill.
What is on the July 20th BCC agenda?
Commissioner Audrey Edmonson has sponsored a resolution directing the county mayor to give “written notice” that Miami-Dade not exercise its right to renew its “Economic Development Strategy Agreement” with the Beacon Council and she asks for a “possible designation of a new economic development organization.” The Beacon Council is the economic development arm of the county, and the organization just celebrated its 25th Anniversary.
Mistake of the week?
County Commissioner Javier Souto periodically refers to Miami-Dade having a population of 3 million residents but that is 600,000 people to high, when in reality the estimated population is 3.4 million state current county documents.
>>> County is “beverage neutral”
In a discussion about private companies sponsoring a park for example, at a committee meeting Tuesday that had Commissioner Carlos Gimenez asking if “Coke” for example might sponsor a park, but then the political correctness filter kicked in, and he suggested it could be another soft drink company and wanted to be “cola neutral.” This comment prompted Jennifer Glazer-Moon, the budget finance guru to shoot back that the county was “beverage neutral.”
>>> Press release: Commissioner Joe A. Martinez celebrates first anniversary of Miami-Dade Blue health plan, announces new program to provide premium assistance >>> After one year, almost 3,500 Miami-Dade residents now have something they were previously unable to afford – health insurance. This is due to the creation of Miami-Dade Blue, a new healthcare pilot program that launched in July 2009 under the guidance of Commissioner Joe A. Martinez, Miami-Dade County’s Office of Countywide Healthcare Planning, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida (BCBSF).
Now, Miami-Dade County is launching a new healthcare incentive program in conjunction with Miami-Dade Blue to help even more people afford insurance. Enrollment is currently taking place through our valued Federally Qualified Health Center partners. A limited number of residents with low to moderate incomes may qualify for the Miami-Dade Health Insurance Utilization Program, or HIUP. This initiative will complement Miami-Dade Blue by covering a portion of the monthly insurance premiums. HIUP is part of an innovative pilot created through a partnership with the Health Foundation of South Florida, Baptist Health Systems, Jackson Memorial Foundation and Miami-Dade’s Federally Qualified Health Centers and supported with funds from Florida’s Low Income Pool (LIP) program that has allotted $500,000 to incentivize approximately 400 qualifying residents. The program will have limited enrollment beginning July 14 – 23. The amount of incentive each participant will receive will depend on the individual’s household income and premium.
“The main goal of Miami-Dade Blue was to provide an alternative to residents who did not qualify for government health programs, but also struggled with the rising cost of insurance premiums. Based on the growing number of enrollees, Miami-Dade County and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida are succeeding in our objective,” said Commissioner Joe A. Martinez. “However, we still realize that Miami-Dade Blue may be financially out of reach for some. With premium assistance, we can ensure that more people have access to medical insurance and preventative care.”
Miami-Dade Blue was designed specifically for Miami-Dade residents and small businesses, offering affordable monthly premiums. The program includes access to a network of 1,600 primary care providers and specialists, as well as access to primary care centers and hospitals throughout the community, including Jackson Health System, Baptist Homestead, Coral Gables, Memorial and Palmetto. “Miami-Dade is the only county in Florida receiving this funding to aid residents in purchasing a licensed insurance product,” said Janet Perkins, Director of Miami-Dade County’s Office of Countywide Healthcare Planning. “We are excited about this new opportunity to help the uninsured in our community, as well as continuing our successful partnership with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida.” For more information on Miami-Dade Blue and HIUP, call 3-1-1 or 305-375-5444, or visit www.miamidade.gov/ochp online.
BROWARD COUNTY
>>> Congressional candidate Moise hits the TV airwaves, but also has mixed history in Miami-Dade
Rudy Moise M.D. a Democratic Party congressional candidate and part of a 10-candiate pack of candidates that includes state Sen. Fredericka Wilson, D-Miami, and Miami Gardens Mayor Shirley Gibson has been hitting South Florida residents with a polished campaign television ad, showing the man to be a helping hand and leader as a physician and businessman. He and the other candidates are trying to follow in U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek’s, D-Miami footsteps after Meek was first elected to the House in 2002, and earlier announced he was running for the U.S. Senate and faces Jeff Greene, a billionaire, in the party primary Aug. 24.
Moise is an attorney and Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve and he has raised significantly more money than the other candidates www.miamiherald.comincluding lending his campaign over $1 million state’s The Herald on Saturday. He also has two amateur movies to his credit, with the first, Wind of Desireresembling the 1960s Batman series with exaggerated acting. However, the prominent Haitian over the years has sought public funding and in the early 2000s, his AM radio station almost received about $10 million in funding to announce traffic updates on the hour from the Miami-Dade Metropolitan Planning Organization. The sponsor of the issue was Ron Krongold, co-owner of Jungle Island, appointed to the organization by then Gov. Jeb Bush to the regional planning board, and he pushed the item on the body. Bush after this incident later removed him from the body and selected a different representative to be on the board.
Further, county commissioners balked at granting the funding over a few years, because the Watchdog Report noted it was currently being done now for free, on most of the other AM/FM stations, it was a relatively obscure AM radio station, and for that kind of money, the county could have bought its own station since the market was not that competitive at the time. Commissioner Joe Martinez was the point of the spear at the MPO meeting back then when Krongold kept going on about the issue. He said, “You are on fire, bail out, bail out” trying to get him to scuttle the idea that clearly was not going to happen and was not getting members support. Moise’s radio station would then go out of business months later, but the physician also sought further county funding a few years later that was detailed in past www.miamiherald.com and www.miaminewtimes.com to the tune of $500,000. He would later not repay this money because of the way the contract was written with the county agency, and the flaw in the document left him off the hook.
In the congressional District 17 race, that runs through Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. Moise is the leading fundraiser with Wilson coming in second with $78,000 left in her campaign war chest, and Gibson has after expenditures $4,264 to work with and the mayor says money is relative, and she is running a grass roots campaign. Both Wilson and Gibson have political experience with Wilson being a former school board member before entering the legislature and Gibson, took the new city of Miami Gardens and made it a viable municipality, something critics questioned could happen when it was first created in 2003. For the other candidates check out Ten candidates vie for Kendrick Meek’s Florida House seat – Top of … 15 Jul 2010 … Frederica Wilson; Miami Gardens Mayor Shirley Gibson; Rudolph Moise, a physician; Marleine Bastien, executive director of the Haitian Women … >>> Here is Moise’s first movie: Wind Of Desire Wind of Desire is a romantic adventure set in Haiti and the U.S. It tells the … Discuss Wind Of Desire with other users on Belfim, share you opinion about http://www.belfim.com/movies.php/1
>>> Thank you for using the Broward County Commission Agenda E-mail Notification System. A new Broward County Commission Agenda is available. Point your browser to http://www.broward.org/commission/welcome.htm to view the new agenda.
PALM BEACH COUNTY
>>> Commissioner Koons elected in 2002, county gets IG, his net worth through Dec. 2009 was $15.69 million
Jeff Koons is in the spotlight and he is the last of the long serving commissioners on the dais after the federal purge of many of his peers with the most recent being Mary McCarty in Jan. 2009 resigning and then charged, and her husband was busted by the feds the next day. Both people in June were sentenced and joined the other convicted leaders in the federal prison system. Since then the commission has had many new faces on the dais and have established the Office of Inspector General to look out after county contracts and interests.
What do we know about his finances?
Koons through Dec. 31, 2009 had a net worth of $15.69 million and he lists $70,000 in household goods. He has $225,000 in checking accounts, there is a $22,700 CD, and there is $20,910 in a money market. His home is worth $440,000, a rental is valued at $290,000, and there is $12.9 million in the Glenmede Trust Account. His only liability is with American Express to the tune of $20,934 and his income for the year was $98,224 as a commissioner, and $14,000 came in from a rental property.
>>> Commission web page: John F. “Jeff” Koons was first elected to the Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners in November 2002 and re-elected to his second term in November 2006 currently serving as Chairman. He has a Bachelor of Science degree from Miami University, and for 30 years was employed with the Fort Lauderdale/Palm Beach Pepsi Cola Bottling Company, beginning as a delivery driver and succeeding to Vice President of Community Relations. He has resided in West Palm Beach since 1972 and is the father of three grown daughters. Commissioner Koons has a long history of community service, having entered public service through his leadership role in neighborhood associations. He has served on boards and committees for numerous social service agencies, and cultural, educational and governmental organizations. He held office for 11 years on the West Palm Beach City Commission, also serving as Mayor in 1991 and Commission President in 1989 and 1997-1999… Commissioner Koons served as Chairman of the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) from 1993 – 2008. The MPO is responsible for transportation planning and programming in Palm Beach County and directs how and where available state and federal dollars for transportation improvements will be spent. In addition, Commissioner Koons served on the Regional Transportation Organization beginning in 1999, which evolved into the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority (RTA). He has served on the RTA Board since November 2002, as Chairman in 2005-2006 and was re-elected to Chairman in 2009. RTA operates Tri-Rail, South Florida’s commuter rail service from Miami to the Palm Beaches. In Commissioner Koons’ role as the Board’s appointee to the Children’s Services Council, he actively supports quality preschool and after-school programs in our public schools and is a strong advocate for fully funding the state’s Universal Pre-Kindergarten program. He also is currently helping to facilitate planning efforts for schools in the county’s urban in-fill areas. A true nature lover, Commissioner Koons has served as Chair of the Palm Beach County Artificial Reef and Estuarine Enhance Committee since 2007. He is involved in the Ocean to Lake Trail project, which connects recreational paths and facilities all the way from the Atlantic Ocean to Lake Okeechobee. Additionally, he is participating in planning and implementation efforts for the North and South Everglades Natural Areas greenway projects.
Commissioner Jeff Koons: 301 North Olive Ave. Suite 1201, West Palm Beach, FL 33401 – (561) 355-2202 -877-930-2202 – (Toll Free outside the West Palm Beach calling area) E-mail Commissioner Koons >> Board of County Commissioners
>>> For further information about the new IG go to: Division of Inspector General – Clerk & Comptroller, Palm Beach County The Division of Inspector General of the Clerk & Comptroller’ s office, Palm Beach County >>> New Palm Beach County inspector general inspired by girl’s death … 6 May 2010 … When Sheryl Steckler took over as the chief corruption watchdog for the state’s Department of Children and Families in 2002, the agency had … http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/new-palm-beach-county-inspector-general-inspired-by-675001.html
>>> Press release: Two men charges and arrested in connection with FOREX Ponzi scheme
Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami Field Office, announced the arrests of defendants Pedro De Sousa, 38, of Orlando, and Guillermo Rosario, 41, of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Defendant De Sousa was arrested in Orlando, FL, on July 12, 2010; defendant Rosario was arrested in San Juan, PR, on July 13, 2010. Both defendants appeared in court after their arrests. De Sousa and Rosario were charged with mail and wire fraud for their alleged involvement in a Ponzi scheme involving the FOREX (foreign currency markets). The indictment charges the defendants with one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §1349, three counts of mail fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §1341, and 57 counts of wire fraud, in violation o f 18 U.S.C. §1343. Each offense carries a maximum penalty of 20 years’ incarceration. According to the indictment, the defendants operated businesses called FX Professional Solutions and FX Professional International Solutions. These businesses solicited investors in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties with false claims. These false claims included false statements about their experience trading in foreign currencies and their history of securing consistently high returns for investors. In addition, the defendants also falsely claimed that they were trading investor funds in foreign currency markets. In reality, however, the defendants misappropriated and lost investor funds, and attempted to conceal their fraud by paying older investors with funds from newer investors in a pyramid or Ponzi scheme fashion, and by providing investors with false account statements.
In addition to the criminal case and coinciding with these arrests, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has filed a separate civil action against the defendants in the Southern District of Florida. Mr. Ferrer commended the FBI for its work in this investigation. In addition, Mr. Ferrer noted the efforts of the CFTC in connection with its civil suit. Mr. Ferrer also thanked the Coral Gables Police Department for its assistance in this criminal investigation. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Rochlin. An indictment is only an accusation and a defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida at www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or onhttp://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
MONROE COUNTY
>>> PAST WDR: May, 2010: >>> Administrator Gastesi says come on down to Keys, “Water is extremely clear for diving”
The Watchdog Report contacted County Administrator Roman Gastesi on Saturday about the presence of any oil from the Gulf of Mexico gusher, after the oil blobs appeared on the Keys beaches recently, but were found to be not from the well over one-month old crude oil spill that has vexed experts on how to plug the leak at 5,000 feet below the gulf’s surface. I asked the administrator how things were going at the Southern most tip of the nation and he replied. “Yes, everything is OK for now regarding actual oil pollution in the keys. The oil is still hundreds of miles away and there is still a good chance that we will not be affected at all. Even so, until the leak is plugged, the uncertainly continues to create concern for everyone in the keys. The oil is a Sweet Crude mostly made up of single-bonded carbon chains that biodegrade more readily than other crude oils. So we hope that if it does head this way it will be very “weathered” and inert.
Please let everyone know that we are open for business, the water is extremely clear for diving, and the early season dolphin fishing is one of the best in many years…come on down,!” wrote the veteran administrator and former water czar for Miami-Dade years ago. For more information about what is going on in the Keys go to :>>> The Monroe County tourism council continues to update its http://www.fla-keys.com <http://www.fla-keys.com> website with information regarding the spill and its relationship to the Keys. On the website are NOAA forecast tracking maps, a map showing the spill site in relation to the Keys, links to area webcams and more. TDC social media sites include: http://www.keysvoices.com • http://twitter.com/thefloridakeys • http://www.facebook.com/floridakeysandkeywest >> Spill-related websites, primarily focusing on affected areas, include:
http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com • http://www.noaa.gov
MIAMI-DADE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
>>> Testy exchange at board meeting has Perez and Diaz de la Portilla exiting through back door continuing the discussion
School Board members Marta Perez and Renier Diaz de la Portilla after a controversial vote had Perez and the other board member having an animated discussion, that they continued walking through a door into the back room behind the board dais. Under the Florida Sunshine Law any conversation related to activities in front of the board, discussions have to be done in the Sunshine and in public and the way it erupted between the two gave the impression they were trying to have an extended discussion out of the public eye, a no no. Both board members are veteran elected leaders with Diaz de la Portilla serving on the school board and in the state House in the late 1990s and are knowledgeable about the state law, and they need to be careful. For there are denials and then there are denials that a public policy issue was not being discussed. But when things like this happen, it raises doubt that should not exist, that discussions that should be held in the open, are actually being discussed behind the scenes. The state Sunshine Law is a hassle for local leaders but it is the law, if violated there are consequences and most elected leaders play by the rules. Which I hope was the case in this example, but it looked very unusual and should be avoided in the future.
>>> District IG gets 3-year contract extension, has $1.1 million oversight budget
The Office of the Inspector General’s $1.1 million budget for the next year approved recently got another addition when the school board Wednesday approved retaining the current IG’s office contract with the school district for another three-year’s. Both sides can discontinue the relationship within a short period and only board member Marta Perez voted no, believing with the upcoming elections. The contract extension should have been for only one-year, allowing the new members to weigh in on the IG.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Richard Hinds, Ph.D., the school district chief financial officer in discussions about future state and local funding levels and there predictability. He said, “There is more uncertainty than a monkey has fleas,” when it comes to what the final funding numbers might be for the nation’s fourth largest public school district.
>>> Press release: TWO MIAMI-DADE STUDENTS WIN RECOGNITION AT 2010 NAACP ACT-SO NATIONAL COMPETITION
Two Miami-Dade public schools student finalists from the Miami-Dade NAACP ACT-SO competition were among the national winners at the 32nd Annual NAACP ACT-SO National Academic competition in Kansas City, Mo., this week. The winners are Kayla Burgess, a senior at Miami Palmetto Senior High, and winner of the gold medal in Dramatics; and Karen Feliz, a 2010 graduate of New World School of the Arts, the silver medalist in Painting. ACT-SO – the Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics – is a yearlong enrichment program designed to recruit, stimulate, improve and encourage high academic and cultural achievement among African American high school students. Gold medalists at the local level qualify for the national finals held each summer. The 20 finalist-contingent included students from Miami Edison, Design & Architecture, North Miami Beach, Felix Varela, New World School of the Arts, Coral Reef and South Miami senior high schools competing in over 26 categories, ranging from the arts: dance, drawing, oratory and music composition; to the sciences: biology, engineering, medicine and computer science. For further information, contact Art Johnson, Chair of NAACP ACT-SO Miami Dade, at 305-685-9436.
PUBLIC HEALTH TRUST
>>> PHT board may lose independence, legislation moving through commission that must be complied with, meetings moving to be held in BCC Chambers
A county commission committee passed a resolution instructing the Public Health Trust to “comply” with commission “Directives to the Trust set forth from time to time in resolutions of the county commission” on issues the health trust might be voting on. Further, legislation is moving through the halls of the county that would have the monthly board meetings being held in the large commission chambers, and this may apply in the future when it comes to the organization’s committee meetings, which mostly are held all day, one day a month. The Trust has 16 or so different committees that meet over the course of a year. Commissioners Joe Martinez and Javier Souto are sponsoring the legislation and Martinez called the location change in venue of meetings “a baby step, by just starting with board meetings.”
Currently the PHT board meets in either the Ira C. Clark Diagnostic Treatment Center or the boardroom in the West Wing of the facility’s main campus. County documents state the cost to televise the board meetings is $66,000 a year, and if the all day committee meeting gets airtime. The cost soars to $160,000 and would require two camera crews and support staff said the county administration at the Health, Public Safety & Intergovernmental Committee on Thursday. Martinez later in a discussion with the Watchdog Report said he was just taking my suggestion back in 2002 when I pounded the trust for not putting the board meetings on television. At the time, I suggested the commission chambers would be an ideal site, but while the trust decided to televise the meetings. It is being done at the DTC every month since back then, and it also runs on the county’s cable station and online at www.miamidade.gov
What about a Watchdog Report shout out?
During the discussion on whether to move the PHT meetings location, Commissioner Rebeca Sosa gave the Watchdog Report a shout out for being the only one that has covered the PHT since 2000, and what would we know about the health trust over the years, if it were not for the Watchdog Report’s weekly reporting.
>>> PHT Nomination Council meets Jul. 28, Chair Moss will preside, with Rep. Zapata representing legislative delegation
The PHT Nomination Council headed up by Miami-Dade Commission Chair Dennis Moss will have its first organizational meeting, that will include the approving the running of public notices ads for trustee applications. The council this year will be made up of Moss, Commissioners Katy Sorenson, (the mayor’s appointee) and Sally Heyman, state Rep. Juan C. Zapata, R-Miami (the Legislative delegation chair), and John Copeland, III, the PHT board chairman. The meeting will be held July 28 at 2:00 p.m., in the second floor conference room in the Stephen P. Clark governmental center and it is open to the public. There are five trustee openings on the 17-member health trust board, that includes two voting county commissioners. The board members terms are 3-years, the meetings are televised, and it is the highest profile citizen based board the county has ever created, and provides oversight to Jackson Health System. A public hospital enterprise that is around $1.8 billion in size with an $83 million plus monthly payroll.
>>> The county’s maintenance of effort contribution to the Public Health Trust is expected to be $137.2 million for the 2010-2011 budget year states the administration’s released budget booklets. Of this money coming from the county, the millage calculation kicks in $121.7 million and another $15.49 million is coming from non ad valorem revenue in the general fund, state’s county budget documents.
>>> This is why I have been doing the Watchdog Report for 11-years — Since May of 2000, I have been covering the PHT in all its aspects over the years and its financial challenges since then have never been far below the surface of any story over this time. In 2004, I ran the headline about the $84 million charge the organization was having to take for the year and the numbers in many ways never got that much better, week after week, month after month, to where we are today. Some of the county commissioners are carping about all the sudden press and media attention the hospital system with 12,000 employees is getting but that is what happens in Florida where the state sunshine and open records laws makes all these activities public events. However, the commissioners should also be asking why they and the Fourth Estate did not kick in earlier to alert South Florida of the pending financial train wreck. The chronic problem was apparent to anyone that read the Watchdog Report over the decade, but in many ways, my role seems to be of Cassandra for we, as a community did not necessarily have to be where we are today, if corrective action had occurred years ago.
CITY OF MIAMI
>>> Indicted commissioner Spence-Jones gets break with Carey-Shuler recanting, if exonerated would serve out Dist. 5 term to 2013
Suspended and indicted Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones got some good news last week when former County Commissioner Barbara Carey-Shuler recanted earlier testimony, and admitted she in fact wrote and signed a letter, that had been considered bogus and created by Spence-Jones to direct $50,000 in public monies to a firm she partially owned. The state attorney has another bribery charge in their legal quiver against her and they say they will continue to prosecute the case but this is a key blow to the prosecutor’s office, that had the commissioner suspended three times by Gov. Charlie Crist after she won elections in November and January earlier in the year. If Spence-Jones is acquitted in the upcoming trial where she says she is innocent and the target of a witch hunt. She would be allowed to finish her term in office on the dais that ends in 2013, would be eligible for back pay as a commissioner, and current Commissioner Richard Dunn, II would have to step down and the scheduled November Commission District 5 election would be canceled.
Further, if she was back on the dais in the coming months there will likely be verbal fireworks after the commission voted to put Dunn in the seat when she was suspended. Someone she had beaten before and is now running for election in his own right against a number of other candidates and as the incumbent, who was number two in results when he ran against Spence-Jones. He has been given the edge in the current race. Readers should stay tuned and see how this plays out in the months ahead. >>> For more on this go to Banana Republican Barbara Carey-Shuler Admits She Ok’d $50,000 For Michelle Spence-Jones By Francisco Alvarado, and www.miamiherald.com >>> Editor’s note: The Miami Herald on Sunday reports that Spence-Jones would have to run again in the November upcoming election, but I do not believe that is true. If she is acquitted. I believe she will be able to serve out the remaining years of her four-year elected term she won in Nov. 2009 and get back pay.
>>> Mayor Regalado says road trip to D.C. productive; wants CDBG ratio changed, ate burgers in congressional cafeteria
The Watchdog Report caught up with Mayor Tomas Regalado Friday afternoon down at city hall and he said the trip to the nation’s capital was very productive. He and three fellow commissioners flew up to the capital on Thursday to lobby for a congressional waiver when it came to HUD Community Development Block Grants and the percentage for economic development and human service programs that is currently 85 percent for development and 15 percent for social service programs. The waiver they are seeking from the federal agency was approved in the 1990s for three years and they are seeking a second bite of the waiver apple. The entourage met with almost all the elected national leaders that represent South Florida. He said it was not a junket and they ate “hamburgers in the Congressional lunchroom,” returned the same day and below is the city’s press release Friday. >>> City of Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado traveled to Washington, DC on Thursday, July 15, accompanied by Vice Chairman of the City Commission Frank Carollo, Commissioner Francis Suarez, Commissioner Richard Dunn, II, and Assistant City Manager Tony Crapp, Jr. to discuss with the Administration and Congress public service programs in the City. The delegation met at the White House with David Agnew, Deputy Director of the White House for Inter Governmental Affairs, Mercedes Marquez, Assistant Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Senators George LeMieux and Bill Nelson and members of Congress, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Kendrick Meek and Mario Diaz Balart. The meetings were an effort to secure funds for senior citizen’s and children’s programs in the City of Miami. “We had very good meetings with the Administration and Congress,” said Mayor Regalado. “We hope to see results so we can keep helping the most needed of our City.”
>>> The following e-mail was sent to (now former) Mayor Manny Diaz using his e-mail address on his extensive city web-page on Sept. 13, 2008 at 9:38 a.m. and to date there has been no answer from the mayor. It currently goes to his new e-mail address.>>> “Mayor Diaz, I wanted to ask you in the chamber today but not in front of Chair Joe Sanchez. My question is where did the extra $400,000 in the 2007 disclosure form come from? I will run what ever you respond unedited but I would appreciate closing this issue, as I am sure you do. Sorry but I have to ask. Best to all. Dan” >>>> The Watchdog Report through Dec.7 has yet to get a response or catch-up with Miami Mayor Manuel Diaz on where he got the extra $400,000 in cash listed in his 2007 financial disclosure forms. To see what CBS 4 reporter David Sutta’s take on this issue and the other city leaders financial disclosures go to cbs4.com Blogs . >>> Readers should stay tuned and catch the meeting on the city’s cable station channel 77. >>> Stream Channel 77, for all City of Miami meetings, (Commission, Village Council meetings, Waterfront, Zoning, PAB, Code, etc. hearings) http://videos.miamigov.com/
CITY OF MIAMI BEACH
>>> Commissioners Gongora & Weithorn on budget, union contract givebacks, and tentative millage roll back rate
The Watchdog Report could not get to the Miami Beach Commission meeting on Wednesday but I e-mailed commissioners and Mayor Matti Bower asking about the meeting and how the preliminary millage rate setting went and Commissioners Michael Gongora and Deede Weithorn responded back by deadline. Gongora wrote, “Yesterday we moved forward with five members of the Commission present. We had a productive meeting wherein we approved four of five union contracts with substantial givebacks by the employees to the City and set the millage rate for the upcoming year. It was a successful meeting that was the culmination of many months of work on the part of the city commission, administration and employees. I am pleased that we are the first commission in Miami Beach that I am aware of to effectuate meaningful pension reform that will benefit the residents of Miami Beach for many years to come.” And Weithorn noted, “We passed a tentative millage yesterday at the roll back rate (an increase of .7588). We also ratified three union contracts and ratified a third subject to their membership ratification. This brought in salary reductions to City staff from over $3500 – to over $13,000 per employee, wrote the CPA.
>>> Press release: Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club – Meeting Date: Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 -Meeting Time: 8:30 AM -Meeting Place: David’s Café II, 1654 Meridian Ave., South Beach
The Communications Workers of America, one of the several different unions that represent City of Miami Beach employees, will present their union’s proposal to reduce the city budget by reforming its pension plan at the July 20th meeting of the Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club. According to Richard McKinnon, president of the local CWA chapter, their plan proposes capping the maximum value of some pensions at $110,000., and rolling-back the point at which pensions become vested from five years to ten years. He envisions savings to tax-payers of up to $60 million over the time it takes the city to pay-off the affected pension plans. According to the city, the proposal would only apply to unclassified employees, including the city manager and city attorney, that make-up 20% of the cities workforce. The city opposes the plan. Everyone is welcome to attend.
David Kelsey, Moderator for the Breakfast Club >> For more information contact David Kelsey. To be placed on the Breakfast Club’s mailing list, contact Harry Cherry. Both can be reached at TuesdayMorningBreakfastClub@Yahoo.com Visit our new web site at: www.MBTMBC.com
CITY OF CORAL GABLES
>>> Mayor Slesnick & Commissioner Anderson on commission meeting, Biltmore, millage the story of the day
The Watchdog Report last week contacted Mayor Donald Slesnick, II and Gables commissioners about last Tuesday’s commission meeting and what happened when it came to the setting of the preliminary millage rate. The mayor responded with a number of comments by subject before he “welcomed the Ambassador of Spain to City Hall: Biltmore – The Commission labored over the concept of an “interim” rent repayment agreement and finally came up with the principles to be incorporated into a Resolution which will be considered at a special Commission meeting next Monday at 5 pm. Hopefully, the terms that will be reached will be good enough to aid the Biltmore through these recessionary times and will eventually mean that the city will recoup lost revenues under the terms of the lease.
Our budget workshop went smoothly with the City Manager presenting a budget, which reflects still further reductions in revenue. The property appraisal total was 7% lower than last year and the state imposed “TRIM” formula (which reflects statewide income and population trends – not necessarily relevant to Coral Gables) further restricted the City’s ability to raise enough money to provide the same level of services for which Coral Gables is famous. The Commission voted to publish the “roll-back” millage figure of 6.18 as our proposed rate – which is designed to bring in the same dollars as last year (no expansion and actually almost a million dollars less will be realized at that rate). During the coming two months of budget discussions and hearings, the Commission will set the final rate, which can be no higher than that which is published, wrote the retired U.S. Army Lt. Colonel and attorney.
Commissioner Maria Anderson, elected at the same time initially as Slesnick in 2001 wrote, “I’m comfortable that we made progress yesterday to bring back an agreement that will outline a plan for the Biltmore to repay back debt, and at the same time for the City to be protected. The Biltmore is a community asset and a focal point in the original Merrick plan for Coral Gables. As to the setting of the millage to the rollback, that’s pretty standard. In the end, it can only go lower, which has happened before in our final deliberations. In the meantime, the Manager has done a great job presenting to us a budget that keeps services intact for residents. And we have ask our employees to do, and pay more. Everyone has made sacrifices in these tough times; the City is doing the same, wrote the veteran municipal legislator.
CITY OF DORAL
Press release: Doral and Community Partnership for Homeless Collect School Supplies for Children in Need
The City of Doral has partnered with Community Partnership for Homeless (CPH) to collect school supplies and uniforms for 125 school-aged children that reside at CPH’s two assistance centers, from July 12 to August 15, 2010. The supplies will be collected at Doral City Hall, as well as Morgan Levy Park and Doral Meadows Park. The City of Doral and CPH are asking for donations from the community to ensure that these children have the necessary essentials to begin the 2010-2011 school year on the right track. The following items are needed: Back Packs, School Supplies (pencils, crayons, rulers, notebooks, folders, etc.), Uniforms (shirts, polo shirts, pants, shorts, etc.) – white shirts; khaki or navy blue pants/shorts/skirts, Socks and Shoes. All school age children are placed in the Miami-Dade Public School System within 24-hours upon their arrival at CPH and the center staff makes sure they are prepared with the materials their families cannot provide. WHAT: City of Doral and CPH school supplies drive -WHEN: July 12 – August 15, 2010 -WHERE: Three locations: Morgan Levy Park, 5300 NW 102nd Avenue; Doral Meadow Park, 11555 NW 58th Street; Doral City Hall, 8300 NW 53 Street. >>> About Community Partnership for Homeless: Since 1995, Community Partnership for Homeless (CPH) has been assisting homeless men, women and children in transitioning off the streets of Miami-Dade County and on their way to attaining greater stability and self-sufficiency. As the private sector partner of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust, CPH has continually been recognized as a national model for their comprehensive approach to helping the homeless. The program’s main catalyst for success—the Homeless Assistance Centers—operate as one-stop temporary care entry points that provide not just food and shelter, but comprehensive case management, healthcare, dental care, daycare, job training and other assistance from a variety of social service agencies all under one roof. MEDIA CONTACT: Patricia Vila, Marketing Director- Community Partnership for Homeless, Phone: 305-329-3003, Email: pvila@cphi.org.
COMMUNITY EVENTS
>>> Press release: Please join us for the long-awaited unveiling of the Julia Tuttle statue on Wednesday, July 28th at 9:30 a.m. at Bayfront Park in downtown Miami. The ceremony will take place in the southern end of the park, adjacent to the children’s playground, not too far from the entrance to the Intercontinental Hotel. It will be held in an air-conditioned tent with light refreshments; there will be a program and then the actual unveiling of the statue. Everyone is encouraged to use the metro mover to get to the park. Kindly RSVP to the Downtown Development Authority at 305-579-6675 or at info@miamidda.com.
>>> Press release: SAVE THE DATE! SET YOUR RECORDERS! >> The University of Miami School of Communication Knight Center for International Media and the Discovery Channel Networks Planet Green present the U. S. television premiere: ONE WATER narrated by Martin Sheen With captivating music and stunning images, ONE WATER is the story of the many ways water touches human lives around the globe and the struggles some endure for this valuable resource. Airing on the Planet Green Channel, ONE WATER, will be a featured program in “Blue August,” a month of programming focusing on our oceans, seas and critical water issues. Monday, August 2 at 12 a.m. & 9 p.m. E.D.T. Tuesday, August 3 at 4 p.m. E.D.T., Saturday, August 7 at 1 a.m. and 10 p.m. E.D.T. If you are in the Miami area: Comcast offers Planet Green on channel 113. DIRECTV subscribers tune into channel 286, also available in HD. DISH Network offers Planet Green on channel 194, HD (coming soon). AT&T U-verse subscribers tune into channel 465 of 1465 for HD. Please check your local channel lineup if you are outside of the Miami area.
>>> WEDNESDAY, JULY 28TH -Meet Your County Commission Candidates for District 8 and District 10, General Membership Breakfast, Miami Marriott Dadeland, 9100 South Dadeland Boulevard, 7:15am
EDITORIALS
>>> Watchdog Report is seeing medical venders wining and dining doctors again, a no no
Well after the initial blush and pause over the last couple of years, I am starting to see drug and implantable medical device sales people wine and dining medical professionals out and about in our community. In this case, the venders had the partial green colored ID badges given to vendors that call on Jackson Memorial Hospital after they pay the $500.00 lobbying fee and the physician had a blue badge, signifying he was a Jackson employee. The issue of vendors going over board when it came to entertaining clients in the medical profession came to a head a few years ago, and generally, most of this activity has been curtailed. I have heard that drug company representatives are no longer even handing out ballpoint pens or coffee cups but the entertaining is still going on and must be curbed, because it sometimes becomes like an arms race where the doctor asks for more perks, from multiple vendors and the company that delivers, gets the business.
>>> Voters must ask candidates how they plan to make a living, outside activity much of why Gov. Crist has suspended 40 officials
When you listen to candidates running for public office in the coming weeks, voters should ask them what do they do for a living and how they plan to support themselves in elected office, that in the case of state legislative races pay in the low $30,000 level. Public service is just that and our leaders should be secure enough financially that they are not susceptible to outside interests or interested in income from a source they should not accept. Over the past 11- years the Watchdog Report has written extensively about the role outside income plays in bringing many politicians down and Florida is littered with disgraced politicians that has had Gov. Charlie Crist suspend 40 elected leaders since he was sworn in Jan. 2007 and that does not include many leaders that resign on their own just before being charged with a crime. Florida voters desire up front candidates that are ethical and capable of not only being lawmakers, but also able to support themselves on their own. For public office is about making public policy not about filling ones personal coffers while in office and that employment question must be asked of all candidates. If voters are to be sure, they get the kind of leader they want and deserve representing them in the halls of power in the years ahead.
>>> Voters finally get independent oversight boards are neutered by politicians over time
What does it mean to be an independent oversight board in Miami-Dade and the city of Miami these days, with so many of them falling under the local legislative thumb? In Miami-Dade, the Citizen’s Independent Transit Trust created in 2003 after voters approved another countywide half-cent sales tax in 2002 that followed the same funding model that Jackson Memorial Hospital got in the early 1990s, but both have been neutered by the county commission over the past years, and contrary to what voters were told at the time. These oversight bodies are not independent regardless of what they are called and in the city of Miami. The Civilian Investigative Panel is also falling under the local purview of the commission with the recent change of commissioners picking panel representatives, discarding the past separate nominating council that screened applicants and sent a list to the commission to consider and to vote on.
Further, it is for this reason that I have written about the shift in reporting authority concerning the County IG and County ethics commission because sometimes the changes are slow, not noticed, but have a corrosive nature on our public institutions as a whole and will come back to bite elected leaders. If they ever try to sell, another tax or bond issue for there are now too many examples of elected leaders changing their mind after the vote, cutting the independence of these oversight boards, and until that activity stops. Voters at the county and municipal level will not buy the propaganda anymore, they are expected to shoot down any new initiatives, and when the politicians wring their hands in despair. They should realize they are part of the fault, because after two decades of this bait and switch voters have finally got it, that in many ways government cannot be trusted and that is not a good thing.
LETTERS
>>> Letter from a Biltmore neighbor to Coral Gables leaders on charter school
Re: Proposed ‘Settlement’ with Somerset Academy/Academica/UBC >> I continue to be appalled at the gall of this Academica organization that feels their rights should usurp the rights of our homeowners/residents/citizens of our city as well as any zoning in place to PROTECT these same homeowners and taxpayers. As an active and participating member of the Biltmore Neighbors Association, I am again stating my absolute disagreement with the idea of this unneeded charter school establishing itself within the walls of University Baptist Church on Anastasia Avenue. Is not the current zoning and land use of that building and property, as a church, and a church run preschool for 110 young students and 18 staff members in place for a reason? Is not this property, a long time church and small, non-disruptive preschool, NOT a viable location for 700 children that need room to breathe and move, and have adequate facilities one would expect of a large school? A cafeteria? A gym? An auditorium? A field and playground? Children should be contained in small class rooms all day? That sounds cruel.
As a resident of Coral Gables and a member of the Biltmore Homeowners Association, I am asking each commissioner to do their duty, as elected officials of our city, to SERVE and PROTECT the best interests of the tax paying and voting residents of this city by STOPPING this proposed settlement action. We need YOU to protect our existing Zoning Laws in place long before you were in office. How the City can think that the residents directly affected by the onslaught of what this school would bring to a neighborhood and declare them not an aggrieved party is baffling. Is this ok because it is not in your backyard? Would you be supportive of this project if YOU lived on Riviera or the immediate surrounding neighborhood and about to have the impact of what this will bring to YOUR home, to YOUR property value?
Why would you think we NEED a charter school in this neighborhood when we have such excellent public schools that surround our city for our cities children to attend? It is a slap in the face to Coral Gables Elementary, to Ponce de Leon Middle School, Westlab, as well as Sunset that sits across the street from city boundaries or the G.W. Carver’s, across the highway from city boundaries that you have no faith in their educational value. A charter school will pull monies and students from these long time excellent public schools draining their resources at a time where public education is fighting for survival. Do you want to be party to help weaken our Miami Dade County Public Schools that have served our community for as long as we have been a community? Each of the schools mentioned has to continue to maintain their existing infrastructure but you will be voting to take away the very necessary monies to do that if you vote for settlement relief for Somerset Academy. Teachers at our excellent schools will lose jobs as a result of 700 students being pulled from our schools to go to Somerset Academy. Teaching positions are based upon enrollment. I am hoping you will each think long and hard about any decision you might make on this settlement issue.
Sharon Watson
Coral Gables
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The Watchdog Report covers a few of the meetings attended weekly. It remains my belief that an informed public will make better decisions. Therefore, I go to meetings, make the presence of an informed citizen known, and bring the information to you. The Watchdog Report is in the fourth year of publication and it has been an honor to be able to send this information to you. It is sent to readers in Miami-Dade, Florida, the U.S. and the world. The Watchdog Report is sent to thousands free and while readers have been prodded to subscribe the results have been mixed. Over 250 reports and Extra’s have been sent since May 5, 2000 and over one million words have been written on our community’s governments and events. The report is an original work based on information gathered at public meetings, interviews and from documents in the public domain.
LETTER POLICY
I welcome letters via e-mail, fax, or snail mail. Letters may be edited for length or clarity and must refer to material published in the Watchdog Report. Please see address and contact information. Please send any additions and corrections by e-mail, fax or snail mail. All corrections will be published in the next Watchdog Report. If you or your organization would like to publish the contents of this newsletter, please contact me. Please send your request towatchdogreport1@earthlink.net
Daniel A. Ricker
Publisher & Editor
Watchdog Report
Est. 05.05.00
Copyright © of original material, 2010, Daniel A. Ricker
>>> Watchdog Report is expanding as a new service and this content is now available to other news media, no longer exclusive to The Miami Herald
The Watchdog Report is no longer exclusively with The Miami Herald, and excluding the one story a week that is printed in the paper on Monday in the Metro & State section by me. The rest of the 20 or so news stories weekly sent out Sunday in the Watchdog Report are now available to television stations web pages, and all the newspapers and other media in South Florida if the publishers have an interest to run part or all of the stories. Further, in 2000, I used to have some paper’s running the report in the Spanish press, that option is available again, and publishers should contact me. The news content will not be free, but you can pick and chose the stories of interest, edit them if necessary but you must still keep the general story intact. If you are a news outlet and would like to learn more about, the Watchdog Report and this offer contact me at watchdogreport1@earthlink.net for further information.
>>> Here is what past newspapers have written about the Watchdog Report publisher including a survey and regional study done by the U. North Carolina at Chapel Hill on the media in the southeast United States.
>>> The Miami Herald and Orlando Sentinel & Sun-Sentinel articles on the Watchdog Report publisher over the years. >>> Published on September 9, 1999, Page 1EA, Miami Herald, The (FL) CITIZEN ADVOCATE’ KEEPS TABS ON POLITICIANS >>> Published on January 3, 2000, Page 1B, Miami Herald, The (FL) MIAMI-DADE WATCHDOG WILL BE MISSED >>> Published on January 20, 2003, Page 1E, Orlando Sentinel, PAPERWORK TIGER, Miami’s citizen watchdog piles up government files in his quest to keep the “little people” informed.
>>>Watchdog Report publisher named ‘Best Citizen’ 2003 by the Miami New Times —The publisher would like to thank the weekly alternative paper Miami New Times for bestowing their 2003 Best of Miami, ‘Best Citizen’ award to me and I am honored. Thank you. To read the full story go to http://www.miaminewtimes.com/issues/2003-05-15/citylife2.html/1/index.html
From the spring of 2003: U. North Carolina, Chapel Hill: Southeast U.S. Media Report lists Watchdog Report publisher as leading Florida commentator >>> Selected excerpts from the report on Florida’s media sources
Those who do read the newspaper in Florida have a bevy of options for state government and political coverage. The dominant newspapers in the state are Knight-Ridder’s The Miami Herald (Acquired by The McClatchy Company in 2006) and the Poynter Institute’s St. Petersburg Times. Both papers endorsed Gore in 2000 but split on the 2002 gubernatorial race, with the Herald endorsing Republican incumbent Jeb Bush and the Times backing Democratic challenger Bill McBride.
Daniel Ricker of The Miami Herald also writes an influential column as well as an email newsletter called the Watchdog Report that goes out to more than 100,000 subscribers. FEBRUARY 2004 – Florida: Columnists in Abundance —ERIC GAUTSCHI, graduate student, School of Journalism & Mass Communication, UNC-Chapel Hill – D) LEADING COMMENTATORS – Resource Commentator Organization Type Web site –Steve Bousquet St. Petersburg Times Columnwww.sptimes.com/columns/bousquet.shtml -“First Friday” WPBT TV (Miami) TV Show www.channel2.org/firstfriday/issues.html –Lucy Morgan St. Petersburg TimesColumn www.sptimes.com/columns/morgan.shtml –Daniel Ricker Miami Herald/Watchdog Report Newsletter –www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/columnists/dan_ricker/ >>> Readers who would like to read the complete University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Southeast United States Media Report go to view the complete report or download all the data used in this study. >>> Watchdog Report Editor’s note to the NCU/CH study: The subscriber number referenced is incorrect and applies to readership.
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