Victor Diaz’s mission: Keep hope alive.

Is it just me, or is this August one of the hottest in recent memory? Damn. So when the necessity of writing this weekly column came around, I thought, “What can I do while sitting in a bucket of ice, sipping a beer?”

The answer turned out to be tuning into the Web cast of the Miami-Dade County Charter Review Task Force public hearing this past Tuesday evening. The Force, as I will call the group for the rest of this column, is charged with deciding whether the theoretical underpinnings of our county’s home-rule charter should be altered, or in fact matter. I’m never sure about that since sometimes it seems like more than half of local residents can’t distinguish between Manny Diaz and Carlos Alvarez. It’s all just this big lump of government, seen in a montage of slicked-back hair and bad suits.

The Force is a group of 21 people appointed by the county mayor and the 13 commissioners, including a handful from the cities of Miami, Miami Beach, Hialeah, Miami Gardens and the Miami-Dade League of Cities.

The host/chairman of The Force is attorney Victor Diaz Jr., who presided over this meeting with a wry unflappability and natty stylishness reminiscent of American Idol’s Ryan Seacrest. “With any luck I’ll be picked up by the network,” Diaz quipped.

So the deal is that every few years the commission appoints a Force to look at the charter and recommend changes. What kind of changes? Some of the proposals on the table concern how commissioners should be elected and if they should have bigger salaries and term limits; whether appointed positions such as the tax collector, property appraiser or elections chief should be elected; and requirements for citizen petition drives, among many other important considerations. Check out the task force’s Web site for more information (www.miamidade.gov/charterreview).

The reason this is important is that once something is voted on by the public and put in the charter, it can’t be killed off by the commission. That’s why the commissioners try to ignore what they don’t like and place only those recommendations they support on the ballot. The smart ones naturally rig the process right from the beginning by appointing people who have a vested interest in seeing things the commissioner’s way.

One example is attorney/lobbyist Miguel De Grandy, appointed by the most powerful single force on the County Commission, Natacha Seijas. The morning of the meeting, an op-ed penned by De Grandy appeared in the Miami Herald. He warned that one change that should not be made is to alter the way county commissioners are elected, as Mayor Carlos Alvarez has proposed.

More than a decade ago, De Grandy was a leader in the fight to change commission elections from at-large to district seats. That meant that instead of a bunch of Anglos and a token black and Hispanic, the commission became much more diverse. Maybe De Grandy (and by extension, Seijas) is being genuine in his concern for the plight of the disenfranchised African-American voter when he warns that adding a few commission seats elected by the entire county will dilute the black vote.

That argument would ring less self-serving if: a) it could be demonstrated that black residents are better off in 2007 than they were in 1993, and b) if the commission wasn’t so hell-bent on suppressing all voters. Case in point was when a majority of the commission voted to make it almost impossible for residents to mount a petition drive to put an incorporation vote matter on the ballot, by raising the requirement from 10 percent to 25 percent of registered voters in an area. In other votes, they all but made it impossible for citizens to succeed in any kind of petition drive (such as making a commissioner face a recall election, or having a strong mayor referendum) with various onerous restrictions.

But don’t take my word for it. Warren Lovely, a resident of Palmetto Bay who spoke before The Force Tuesday, said it better. “The average commissioner was elected by less than 15 percent of registered voters in their districts,” he pointed out. “If they had to follow the 25 percent rule, they would not have been elected. The idea that the public has any control when they can only elect one of 13 commissioners is asinine.”

Lovely wasn’t the only resident to give The Force a piece of his mind. Dozens of people either called, sent e-mails or showed up to the meeting in person, which I found heartening. Nancy Lee, from Aventura, asked The Force to recommend term limits, more lobbyist regulations and better ethics enforcement. “You could drive a truck through the ethics laws,” she complained.

On the question of district versus countrywide elections, reaction was mixed. Some were concerned about the dilution of the black vote. But James Marshall, president of the Richmond Heights Homeowners Association, said he feels the present system only gives more power to the developers who are “coming into our communities and tearing them up without giving us say so.”

Brad Brown, former president of the local NAACP chapter (and a white guy, which speaks volumes about the state of black activism in Miami), suggested an intriguing proportionate voting system that would preserve the intent of fair representation while offering the reforms many seek. And Santiago Leon suggested the county adopt instant runoff voting, to encourage more people to vote.

A contingent of Haitian-American leaders also spoke, with the universal opinion that they are not represented on the County Commission. Several advocated adding two extra seats to fix the problem. “We are not at the table,” said former state Rep. Phillip Brutus. “I’m tired of saying please don’t forget us.”

Mack Samuel, a leader in the effort to incorporate a region in North-Central Miami-Dade County, made the most relevant point of the night. “Just having someone there [who looks like you] doesn’t solve the problem [of fair representation],” he said. “What solves the problem is someone who is concerned with quality of life. It’s not what someone looks like, it’s what’s inside."

“Don’t lose your sense of hope,” Victor Diaz advised.

I'll try not to. I have to say, though, that if some of the intelligent, community-minded people who engaged The Force this week decide to run for office someday, that will be the kind of leadership diversity we can all support.

Comments? E-mail wakefield@miamisunpost.com.