Not many people were surprised by the Miami-Dade County Commission’s decision Wednesday to 
ignore the petition of 127,000 voters who clamor for campaign finance reform in our pay-to-play county government.
And it’s not like they didn’t have good reason.
Even the petition gatherers — a group calling itself An Accountable Miami-Dade — had already filed a lawsuit in the court. Even before Wednesday’s meeting, the county attorney had already said last month that the language for the ballot question that the petition was based on was legally insufficient — a term used to discredit the work done by dozens or perhaps hundreds of volunteers.
The group itself was also discredited. Exposed as part of a national phenomenon with labor and Democratic Party interests at the wheel rather than the grassroots effort it claims to be, Accountable took a beating on the dais Wednesday. Perhaps they deserve it a bit. The connect the dots to special interests is undeniable and they did try to pass themselves off as just one of us.
Read related story: After stalling, Miami-Dade Commission to meet on ballot issue
“I love to have people get involved and engaged and the fact that they signed these petitions is a
good sign. But I have to question the motivation,” said Commission Juan Zapata, who wasn’t keen on having “outside interference” drive the effort.
Commissioners had legitimate questions about how the petition may have targeted black voters in certain neighborhoods or intentionally had it set up to go to commission during their break for a distracted, smaller group.
But others had questions about the county’s own process. The Accountable group got approval from the county clerk for the language of the petition and had no reason to think it was legally insufficient, some commissioners said.
“These people went out and collected signatures based on what they believed was sufficient. And we let it happen,” said Commissioner Barbara Jordan.
If passed, the measure would have cut maximum contributions from $1,000 to $500 and would have prohibited gifts from anyone doing business with the county. There was also some language about matching public funds for some candidates.
Ladra could never really get behind the petition itself. The language seemed insufficient for other 
reasons, not legal. Of course, once the signatures were gathered, they had to be counted and verified. But we told Juan Cuba months ago that this measure, if passed, would only make PACs and non-profits stronger and more prevalent. If people can’t collect contributions one way, they will find another. And who has the most access to PACs and non-profits? The professional politicians. The insiders and incumbents. Not the newcomers. On the public money front, Ladra thinks that there are a whole lot of other things that need to be addressed with our tax dollars and that candidates, by the very nature of being candidates, ought to be able to stand on their own merits. Money doesn’t always buy elections. Look at Miami City Commission Ken Russell.
Read related story: Mr. and Mrs. Sarnoff give up seat to Ken Russell sans runoff
Of course it helps. But getting contributions is also a sign of viability. If you can’t get anybody to support you by putting their money where their mouth is, then why are you even running? Wouldn’t this, as one commissioner suggested Wednesday, encourage every nut, loony-tunes and wacko to run for office?
Unfortunately, the merits of the petition are not what we are talking about now. The commission squashed that when it squashed the referendum in a 9-4 vote. But it should still be part of the conversation.
The commission can, all by itself, move an ordinance forward that would accomplish the same thing — more or less — on the campaign finance reform. At least the thing that we really want — which is to limit contributions from those who do business with the county. Something logical. Something sensical. And stand alone. Let’s not tie public financing to it.
Yes, hundreds of people worked really hard to make the petitions happen. But if the county wants to squirm out of it in some legal way, trust me, they will.
They don’t pay their legal staff millions of dollars for nothing.
What An Accountable Miami-Dade should do now is apply pressure directly to the source — until the commission puts forth something on its own.
And there is, indeed, hope that they will. Even though not immediately. After all, many of them are termed out four years from now. The rest are termed out the election cycle after that.
What do they have to lose?
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Imagine this: A bi-partisan group of leaders and activists from different social and economic backgrounds get 
together and decide they are going to step up. They are going to do what they can to stop the growing influence of special interest money in political campaigns.
They write a petition and thousands of volunteers spend three months collecting signatures. At malls. At festivals. At movie theaters. At MetroRail stations. And door to door. It’s pain-staking work.
They need about 52,000 valid signatures to get on the ballot in November. They get more than 127,000, just in case. Each petition has the legally required and previously-approved summary and charter language, with strike-outs 
included, in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole. Each petition is 30-some pages long as a result. Each petition may only be signed by a single voter. Only registered voters can collect the signatures. And each petition must be notarized on the same day they are signed.
Whew! It’s enough to make anyone wanna say fuggedaboutit.
Luckily, these leaders and activists, calling themselves An Accountable Miami-Dade, didn’t give up. This happened. Because they felt it was all worth it, this group of people actually collected enough signatures to put a referendum on the ballot to cut maximum contributions in half, limit campaign contributions to political candidates from special interests doing business with the county and give first-time candidates a more level playing field.
But instead of getting a pat on the back or a medal, for that matter, they get the cold shoulder from the very elected officials who live off those special interest contributions, who are able to thwart any challenger by the sheer vastness of the war chests provided by the lobbyists and vendors that want their ear. Literally a cold shoulder. The initiative is held up because our county mayor and commissioners are dragging their feet, no other reason. And of course they are dragging their feet! They don’t want to kill their cash cow.
The Miami-Dade County Commission called a special meeting after the petitions were delivered to the county 
elections department on Aug. 2 — and in two U-haul trucks because, again, each one had to be 30 pages long. But they couldn’t get a quorum when Commissioner Barbara Jordan — one of the seven commissioners who agreed to attend a special meeting — called at the last minute and said she had a doctor’s appointment she had forgotten about. The commission doesn’t meet again until Sept. 7, but the charter says the petitions must be counted and verified within 30 days after they were submitted Aug. 2.
Enter Mayor Carlos Gimenez. Or exit Carlos Gimenez, if you prefer (and I do). Because he does have the executive power to tell his department head to do her job. The county attorney says he doesn’t. But the county attorney will say whatever he wants her to say. Have you ever seen the county attorney’s office give an opinion that the mayor or a commissioner didn’t want? Anyway, the charter clearly provides for executive power during the summer recess, especially when inaction will cost the county. And the petitioners could sue. Worse even: If they have around 100,000 valid signatures they can force a special election, at the cost of $5 million.
Otherwise they’d have to wait until 2018. And that’s the whole idea, isn’t it? That’s why the quorum wasn’t reached and why the mayor won’t act. The group protested at County Hall, flooded social media with #StartCounting, filed a lawsuit in court and requested public records on emails about the matter, the latter of which the county wanted to charge $22,000 for, an artificially inflated figure that they have since backed off on. (Sidenote: Please keep on them for those records because the price tag seems to indicate there is something of value there.)
A second special commission meeting has been set for Monday to hear the item after protests from the activists and much pressure from the community to just let the people vote on this.
If passed, the measure would cut maximum contributions to candidates in county races from $1,000 to $500, or 
$250 per election cycle. It would also provide for more matching public dollars for under-funded first-time non-incumbent candidates and prohibit contributions to candidates for county office from any company, individual or group that has a contract of at least $250,000 or more with Miami-Dade county government. If passed, the measure would end the quid pro quo climate that has become so common place at County Hall and that has only grown and become more powerful under the administration of Carlos Gimenez.
In fact, some might think that this whole movement is a result of watching Gimenez amass more than $4 million between his campaign account and his PAC, much of it from entities that either do business or have applications to do business before the county.
“People are tired of corruption, and what they see as a rigged system,” New Florida Majority Executive Director Gihan Perera said to the press. He is one of the advisory board members on An Accountable Miami-Dade, quite an illustrious group that means business. The others are:
- Maribel Balbin, President League of Women Voters of Miami-Dade and Vice President League of Women Voters of Florida, former chair of the Miami Dade County Commission for Women, and a special projects administrator with Miami-Dade County.
- Juan Cuba, Executive Director of Miami-Dade Democratic Party.
- Marlon Hill, former president of the Caribbean Bar Association, former Vice Chair of The Miami Foundation, and a board member of the Orange Bowl Committee and Miami Book Fair International.
- Cindy Lerner, Mayor of Pinecrest, former Democrat state representative, environmental activist, attorney and past president of the Miami-Dade County League of Cities.
- Phil Levine, Mayor of Miami Beach and chair of this advisory group, an interesting member of the group since his own PAC colleted more than $1 million from city vendors and contractors.
- Ed MacDougall, former Mayor of Cutler Bay, one-time Republican Congressional candidate, former chair of the Trump for Miami-Dade Campaign Committee, Vietnam veteran and former Miami-Dade Police Sergeant.
- Ken Russell, City of Miami Commissioner and Vice-Chairman and son of the yo-yo inventor.
- Sara Yousuf, Chair Engage Miami, Miami-Dade Public Defender’s office, and co-founder of Sweat Records and Emerge Miami.
Former Doral Vice Mayor Bettina Rodriguez Aguilera serves as chairwoman and Monica Russo, president of the Florida SEIU Council, is vice chair. Christian Ulvert, who was Levine’s campaign consultant, is a spokesman for the group.
And they are pretty determined. Look for many of these people, if not all of them, to speak at Monday’s meeting.
Let’s see how commissioners try to stop it now.
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It’s going to be a busy week for Republican checkbooks.
We’ve got at least four fundraisers planned 
this week, two for Tuesday and two for Wednesday, for GOP candidates in state House and Senate races.
First up is former Congressman David Rivera. We already told you he’s back, running now for the seat abandoned by State Rep. Frank Artiles, who is running for Senate. His fundraiser kick-off is Tuesday at Cuban Crafters on NW 7th Street and it is the most mysterious. No telling who might show up — since there’s nobody on the host committee.
The same night, Artiles is having his own fundraiser in Tallahassee hosted by some of his colleagues 
and would-be colleagues in the legislature and only two state reps (Jose Oliva and Jose Felix “Pepe” Diaz. Los dos pepes) from the 305, because Artiles is not liked that much. The others are from elsewhere, albeit heavy hitters from leadership — including President-designate Joe Negron, Senate Majority Leader Bill Galvano and Speaker Designate Richard Corcoran — perhaps indicating that the GOP is seriously trying to take the blue seat from Sen. Dwight Bullard.
Read related story: In battle to keep Senate seat 40, Dems eye Ana Rivas Logan
Or maybe everybody else is getting their hair done and their shoes shined for Wednesday. That’s when, between them, Sen. Anitere Flores and State Rep. Manny Diaz, Jr., have all the serial political event hosts in town at their soirees, respectively, in Coral Gables and Hialeah.
Let’s ignore that it’s strange for these two — both of whom work in the charter school industry 
and who arguably draw from the same pool of donors — to have their fundraisers on the very same day at the very same time. Maybe Flores will go to Hialeah next week and Diaz will come to Coral Gables. Cuidado!
The invites are engaging simply because of the large list of inviters — especially with Flores, who is apparently not taking the challenge from Democrat trust fund baby Andrew Korge lightly.
Flores’ event has nine special guests/speakers, 14 event chairpeople, and 25 names so far on the host committee that is “still in formation.” Still in formation?!? When is the elevator at capacity?
Among the special guests is the entire Cuban Congressional GOP caucus (Carlos Curbelo, Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen) and five of the 13 county commissioners — Jose “Pepe” Diaz, Rebeca Sosa, Javier Souto, Xavier Suarez and Juan Zapata — as well as Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez.
Read related story: Senate 39’s Andrew Korge vs Anitere Flores gets ugly fast
Chairs include lobbyists Ron Book, Al Cardenas and Manny Kadre, builders Sergio Pino and Pedro Munilla, automobile mogul Norman Braman and Miami-Dade Republican Party Chairman Nelson Diaz. Hosts include more Jeb Bush, Jr., container queen Remedios Diaz Oliver and a slew of more second tier lobbyists like Jose “El Chino” Fuentes, Luis Andre Gazitua, Bob Levy and Ralph Garcia-Toledo, who is now playing with the big boys thanks to his tour of duty as driver for then Commissioner Gimenez. (Tell your kids: Forget college! Drive a politician around and you’ll get rich!)
All 48 of them invite us to Bulla Gastrobar on Ponce de Leon Boulevard at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Half an hour later, though, we are invited to another fundraiser for Diaz Jr. at Hialeah Park, which you know is impossible in Miami-Dade traffic. Our hosts here include Sen. Rene Garcia, State Reps. Jose Oliva and Bryan Avila, former State Rep. Eddy Gonzalez (who is the RSVP on the invite) and Miami-Dade Commissioner Esteban Bovo, all of whom kind of do stuff in lock step. They also include Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez and Hialeah Gardens Mayor Yioset de la Cruz as well as the full council of both cities.
We don’t have to wait long to see who wins the prize for best fundraiser. Checks written Tuesday and Wednesday will appear on the March campaign reports, which are due and become public April 10th or 11th.
My money is on the Gables soiree for Flores — if simply because of the numbers.
Game on, people! Warm up those wrists!
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ignore the petition of 127,000 voters who clamor for campaign finance reform in our pay-to-play county government.
good sign. But I have to question the motivation,” said Commission Juan Zapata, who wasn’t keen on having “outside interference” drive the effort.
reasons, not legal. Of course, once the signatures were gathered, they had to be counted and verified. But we told Juan Cuba months ago that this measure, if passed, would only make PACs and non-profits stronger and more prevalent. If people can’t collect contributions one way, they will find another. And who has the most access to PACs and non-profits? The professional politicians. The insiders and incumbents. Not the newcomers. On the public money front, Ladra thinks that there are a whole lot of other things that need to be addressed with our tax dollars and that candidates, by the very nature of being candidates, ought to be able to stand on their own merits. Money doesn’t always buy elections. Look at Miami City Commission Ken Russell.
