Premature Notice

RESPONSES from OFFICIALS

(1) The Mayor was quick to respond on Sunday after I posted the Notice titled, Noticing the Primary. This is his message:

Good afternoon.  For your next issue, if you would kindly share this explanation of the ballot item with your readers it would be greatly appreciated.  I would also appreciate your sharing that your questions were sent on a Friday after business hours and a follow-up on Saturday before today's posting as your story seems to imply that staff or elected officials are being unresponsive. 

Currently, our charter requires a 4/5th vote of the city commission to approve any debt obligation.  For debt obligations of greater than 5% of the operating budget (that term is undefined so a reading of it could mean any debt/borrowing of greater than $1.2 million or $1.8 million), a unanimous vote of the city commission is required.  This charter was adopted by the City via referendum sponsored by former Mayor Horace Feliu.  From conversations with him and my review of the records available, it appears to have been a response to the poorly constructed borrowing the City executed to finance the City garage on SW 73rd Street.

The existing requirement, like many in our charter, are designed to preclude any governmental action.*  Over the past 20 years, and despite the best debt markets in modern history, the City has not accessed the debt markets to make critical investments to its infrastructure that would both improve its aesthetic appearance and resilience.  If approved, the amendment would:

1.  Allow the City Commission to approve any debt obligation by a simple majority if the borrowing was approved by referendum (which by statute can only be approved on an August primary or November general electio[n] ballot); or

2.  Allow the City Commission to approve any debt obligation by a 4/5ths vote if the borrowing was not previously approved by referendum.  

That is the sum and substance of the proposed amendment.  As for the hurry, if approved, my goal would be for the residents to consider authorizing a future borrowing in November for a myriad of capital improvements, which authorization will also have the principal added benefit of allowing us to demonstrate that we have matching dollars to garner more federal and state grants and appropriations for such projects.  Given the statutory limitations on borrowing referendums, moving expeditiously is paramount or our next opportunity to solicit voter approval would be Aug. or Nov. of 2026.    

As always, I am happy to discuss any concerns regarding the amendment with you or any reader.  I can be reached at (305) 761-2274.

Thanks,

* That's one interpretation. It is, also, possible it was put in place to require that there be more resident involvement in acquiring large City debts.

As for the hurry, it seems to me that, if there were good projects for which the City needed to go into debt, those items and their financial consequences could be placed on the ballot. To approve debt before there is an approved project, seems to me to put the cart before the horse.

(2) The City Manager, also sent me a message about my notice:

Mayor Phillips,

Yesterday, Saturday, you sent your email with questions.** Today, Sunday, you publish your blog and write “I have had no responses.” It would seem to me that there was no interest in the response since you published your information within 24 hours of asking on a weekend. Your statement to your readers suggests you have been ignored but you don’t disclose the relevant information of when you asked and when you suggested you questions have been ignored. 

This is disheartening since we always are very responsive to your questions notwithstanding the criticism that follows. 

If any candidate for office has an interest for information, I am happy to provide since it’s an open door policy. I share this since you copy Mr. Rodriguez and I want to make sure there is no double [I think he meant "doubt"] about this. 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend. 

Chip 

Genaro “Chip” Iglesias

City Manager 

**Actually, my first email with questions, - although also after business hours - was Friday, 7/12 at 5:53 pm. And, Grant, yes, I am disheartened that Mr. Iglesias misspelled my name.

I replied to him within minutes:

"Hi. You are right. I acted with impatience.  I regret not giving you adequate time. 

    Nikki actually, well after 5:00 on Friday, did help me.

    The Mayor has suggested that I write another blog and explain my impatience and share his reasoning.  I may do that, if I have enough content that will help people understand what is being asked. 

   I must say, however, that the discrepancies between Appendix A and the Referendum wording are large. 

    I am surprised you responded to my blog on a Sunday when you certainly are not ‘on the clock'.”

And he replied on Monday, 7/15:

"We will respond to your questions."

After hours Tuesday afternoon, I inquired about the requested answers. He replied that night,

"Yes, we will, but we have been finalizing the budget, budget workshop items, and commission agenda items.  Finance will review your request for information and respond."

I am feeling anxious that people with mail-in ballots*** might vote without understanding what they are voting about. I am not waiting any longer for information from the City, because I will not be able to share it until over a week from now. Although I wondered why the Mayor did not share his explanation about the Referendum on a glossy flyer, I am sharing it, because I think his interpretation of the garbled Referendum language suggests that what I had conjectured is correct. that conjecture was: the Commission could vote for any amount of indebtedness without resident input.  

 *** If you need to register to vote, click here.

If you would like a mail-in ballot, click here.

A READER'S ESSAY

   Singing to the Choir:

 

Donald Trump, the repugnant purveyor of hatred and vitriol, has now had an abject lesson in how his words have consequences. The adage, you reap what you sow, has played out on live TV. He sews hate, he got hate in return.

It's unfortunate that others were wounded and lost their lives as a result of his poisonous words - I include in that accounting those injured, killed or died as a result of the January 6 insurrection; their blood is on Trump's hands. It's doubly ironic that Mr. Comperatore, killed by the assassin's bullet meant for Trump, was a supporter of the very man who foments the hate that killed him.

In multiple articles, found on the Internet, one finds expositions of the ever-increasing episodes of political violence since 2016, the year Mr. Trump, with bombast and braggadocio, strode onto the national stage. And he has never relented from spewing his torrent of violent language against anything, any idea, or anyone he disagrees with. He who lives by the sword.... Trump lives by hate, and nearly died by it. Unfortunately, others paid the cost.

Trump, apparently, has had a come to Jesus moment and declares he wants to be a unifier. Even in that wish, his narcissism leaks out when he says "this (the assassination attempt) could be an opportunity to bring the whole country, even the whole world together". The whole world?! Really?!

What he wants, and what he's capable of, given his nature, are two different things. I put no stock in his pronouncements, but I would suggest he start by telling the mad-dog GOP legislators, who are blaming Biden for "THE SHOT", to "stand back and stand down" - he knows the phrase. And said legislators, who say Biden is [the] cause of political violence and is dividing this country, are clearly and profoundly deluded, standing in the shadow of he who is the real cause.

  To the suggestion that God intervened to save Trump from the bullet: so he "He" decided Trump was too valuable to lose so chose Mr. Comperatore to take the hit instead. How sick is that suggestion? 

Make no mistake, Trump, now a demi-martyr, is still a clear and present danger to this country, perhaps more so now that he has his ragged ear to display, banking on a "sympathy" vote which might improve his chances of winning in November. He will milk this situation for all it's worth, on that you can rely.  

Bottom line, every effort, short of the solution one young man tried to implement, must be taken, to keep this very dangerous person, his sycophants, and autocratic agenda, out of the White House. 

UGLY CAMPAIGNING

I realize there are those who believe that they can win elections by mailing flyers that smear their opponents. Such a person was elected to South Miami's Commission in the last election. Though I have not consulted any lawyer, I suspect that the accusations leveled against her opponent were libelous, and that suit could have been brought. Neither the would-be Commissioner nor Cindy Lerner's opponent have quoted any factual reports to substantiate their ugly defamations.

It surprises me, too, that any candidate would be proud to claim SEIU as an endorsing entity. Recent reports about that Union are not admirable.

SOUTH MIAMI'S CURRENT COUTY COMMISSIONER

I do not recall South Miami's County Commissioner's doing anything to advocate for this City. She stopped, at the last minute, the County's considering South Miami's request to annex a neighborhood whose residents wanted to become South Miami citizens. Later, she said she wanted South Miami's Manager to work with her staff on this annexation, but there was no response to the Manager's contact efforts.

Despite saying she protects our environment, the County Commissioner voted to move the UDB (Urban Development Boundary) and to let warehouses be built over nearly 400 acres of sensitive wetlands in the Everglades.

HOLIDAY BELLS

In the past two days I have walked by the bell tower in front of City Hall as the hour was being struck. At 6:00 pm on Wednesday evening, a Christmas carol rang out. And at 3:00 pm this afternoon, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, another carol, played. Somehow, neither the time of year, nor the type of song seems appropriate to me for the City of South Miami Town Hall. The music sounds nice, but, surely, there are lovely non-religious pieces that have been created for, or adapted to, chimes. (Is this just another cart moving the horse?)

Keep safe, stay healthy.