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The unauthorized photograph of Commissioner
Michael Gongora. Photo by Antwon Tomas |
While fighting to win a four-year term,
Miami Beach Commissioner Michael Gongora showed up
late to his election party at China Grill on Nov. 6. Sure,
Gongora — elected in a highly competitive race to finish the
last year of Luis Garcia’s term when he resigned and
successfully ran for a seat in the Florida House of
Representatives — had only been in office for a year. But he
still had the advantage of incumbency, and early voting results
consistently showed him ahead of his opponent, Ed Tobin.
Then the
final precincts reported — Tobin narrowly pulled ahead and an
automatic recount began. That’s when Gongora appeared and
addressed the crowd.
“At this
point it’s neither victory nor concession, but it looks like all
the negative campaigning caused us to be down by only 21
votes,” he said. “But I understand that there are 100
absentee ballots that need to be counted. So pull up to the
bar, get a drink and cross your fingers.”
Yet,
Gongora’s patience was wearing thin, especially with Murmurs
clicking away with a digital camera. The prospect of an
unflattering photograph snapped during his hour of possible
defeat was the last straw. “I asked you not to take my picture
and you keep trying to shoot me from the side,” Gongora blurted
out. “I just think that's very rude.”
Umm,
OK.
A few
minutes later, posing with his mother, Gongora decreed that
Murmurs could now photograph him: “OK, you can get your shot.”
The news
only got worse for Gongora on Wednesday. Election officials
threw out the 100 or so absentee ballots Gongora hoped would be
counted because they were turned in too late or lacked proper
signatures. The recount, meanwhile, widened the margin to 33
votes.
It soon
became apparent that Gongora would be a commissioner no more.
That title would pass to Ed Tobin, an attorney inspired to run
for office after Gongora and his law firm, Becker Poliakoff,
sought a loophole that would allow said firm to appear before
city boards. Tobin thought Gongora’s action would weaken an
ordinance designed to keep those affiliated with firms that
actively lobby Miami Beach City Hall off of city boards. So did
outgoing Mayor David Dermer, the main architect of the
“certain appearances prohibited” code, who spearheaded a charter
amendment requiring voters to approve any actions that could
weaken the city’s ethics code. Dermer also endorsed Tobin
instead of Gongora.
“I’m confident that he will
continue the good government reforms that have been established
in the city of Miami
Beach over the past decade,” he said.
Last
Friday, hours before a canvassing board certified the results,
Gongora, who had hinted that he might challenge the vote, threw
in the towel. “We
achieved so much over the past year, including reducing the
millage rate and property taxes for residents, creating and
chairing the city's first ever ‘Green Committee’ focusing on
environmental issues and working with Miami-Dade County on
better public transportation and improved traffic flow,” Gongora
said in a statement sent by his Shutts & Bowen attorney, Alex
Heckler. “I love the city of Miami Beach community, and I am
honored to have had the opportunity of serving this city.”
The
statement did not include the fact that 72 percent of the
electorate passed Dermer’s referendum on the ethics code. It did
point out that 122 absentee ballots and six provisional ballots
“were never opened” and that “47 of those were rejected for
non-matching signatures; the remainder for being received after
7 p.m. on Election Day. After reviewing the signatures,
Gongora’s legal team believes that many of the rejected ballots
could be subject to a challenge seeking inclusion.”
Heckler
then added: “Just under two-thirds of all absentee voters
supported Gongora, meaning the rejected ballots could have meant
the difference in a very close election.” Still, the release
claimed Gongora did not want to burden the city with further
division and “drawn-out litigation.”
“My
family and I have suffered through one of the most negative
campaigns our city has ever seen.
Maybe we could have
won an elections challenge, but I believe the residents of Miami
Beach are best served by certainty.”
Yep,
they are. A strong ethics code helps.
Naval
Assault
What’s a
great way for laborers wishing to unionize to bug residents of
an isolated, ultra-rich island community? A naval assault, of
course.
So, on
Saturday, Nov. 17, the Service Employees International
Union’s Local 11 is inviting the public to hit the beaches
of Fisher Island, a community that rivals Indian Creek as the
most exclusive address in South Florida. According to the SEIU,
buses will pick up people at stops near the Miami Workers
Center in Liberty City, the Holy Comforter Episcopal
Church in Little Havana and the Notre Dame d’Haiti
Catholic Church in Little Haiti at 10 a.m. There also will
be a carpooling effort around noon at Jimbo’s on Virginia Key.
The volunteers will be loaded onto a fleet of boats that will
float across Government Cut and anchor just off the beach and
then swim or paddle on rafts to Fisher Island’s purportedly
private beach, union spokeswoman
Tania Aquino
said.
Why? To
celebrate the workers — the groundskeepers, janitors, cooks,
security and ferry workers — who “keep
Fisher Island beautiful.”
Those same workers, SEIU complains, are not only paid lousy
money, but also are forbidden from unionizing (under SEIU’s
banner, of course) and being in the same vicinity as the Fisher
Islanders.
“Workers
are treated as second-class citizens; being segregated to a
separate seating area on the ferry, pushed to the back of the
line in the market if a resident walks in and told they can only
speak English in the presence of residents,” according to an
SEIU flyer.
But
isn’t this trespassing? Nope, Aquino said, because the private
beach is really public. “We have the covenant between Fisher
Island and the county.” The covenant stipulates that the public
has access to Fisher Island beaches, she said.
The SEIU is still fine-tuning the details of this Normandy-style
invasion, which Aquino said will involve the Coast Guard. The
union and allied organizations also are soliciting opinions at
www.OneMiamiNow.org. “Your
challenge: Come up with the best ideas for how to safely and
lawfully get to and land on the island and you will receive a
commemorative
Fisher Island the Challenge T-Shirt,”
the Web site states. “…
By submitting an idea to land on Fisher Island, you hereby join
the millions of people who think that it is outrageous that
people who can afford to have their birds walked refuse to pay
decent wages and benefits to the people who clean up after them,
cook for them and keep the island beautiful.”
If the idea of invading an island full of rich people appeals to
ya, call 786-210-9030 for more details. If not, hey, just watch
the spectacle from Miami Beach at Government Cut.
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