If the nominating committee doesn’t have enough willing, motivated people who want to serve on the CITT, it will have to keep meeting until it does. 

April.

That is the earliest a voter-mandated Citizen’s Independent Transportation Trust will be ready to oversee the millions of dollars that are being raised by the half-penny sales tax for transportation purposes since January 1, 2003.  Only now is a special “nominating committee” in place.  County officials believe that, if all goes well, the committee will have a slate of nominees ready for individual county commissioners, the county mayor and the Dade League of Cities to approve by mid or late March.  From there the CITT will meet.

But again April is now the earliest estimate.  It could be longer.  County commissioners, the mayor and the League have a one-time right to reject their slates.  But that isn’t what could slow things up.  What may really drag out the process, in the worst possible way, is a lack of volunteers.

According to a county resolution, the CITT has 30 to 60 days to nominate at least four people from each geographic district in Miami-Dade County.  If the nominating committee doesn’t have enough willing, motivated people who want to serve on the CITT, it will have to keep meeting until it does.

That would be an embarrassing prospect.  It may have been the requirement of a CITT, one with the power to approve transportation tax expenditures, that helped pass a transportation tax this time around.  There will be a citizen’s board ready and able to watch over taxpayer dollars, proponents of the tax said, thus ensuring that the money won’t be used frivolously or worse.  Yet will there be any citizens out there willing to step up to the plate?  Or will cynicism and apathy dominate?  “I don’t have the political connections to get nominated or selected,” one may think.  Don’t count on it.  An “unknown” committee member with an honest desire to further the public good (or at least make sure his or her own tax money is protected) just may have a shot.  And there is also the possibility of interested citizens’ groups (both formal and informal) forwarding one of their own as a nominee.

Or maybe you just don’t think the tax will affect you?  Well, if you live in Miami Beach or Miami you know that alternative modes of transportation ranging from a trolley car “baylink” to increased Metrorail service to more mini-buses are even now being proposed for a neighborhood near you.  Proposals have also been made for a Northeast “link” to Miami that could either take the form of increased bus service or, perhaps, a very long light rail. The CITT, while not having sole authority, will likely have a great deal of influence on how the county addresses the transportation needs of various regions and areas.

On February 18, 4 p.m., at County Hall (111 N.W. First Street, Miami) in rooms three and four on the 18^th floor the nominating committee for the CITT will hold its first meeting.  Transportation buffs may want to attend—just to get the feel of how the process will progress.  But those who always wanted to serve their community may want to dust off their resume and send it to the Clerk of the Board, 111 N.W. First Street, Suite 1700, Miami, Florida, 33128.  Have any further questions?  Give the Office of Public Transportation a call at 305-375-5695.

This isn’t a perfect process.  Transportation tax advocates should have foreseen that the establishment of a CITT might be delayed.  But like it or not, the ball is in the court of the public-at-large.  If we fumble now it will be no one else’s fault but our own. 

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