Rejecting Penelas Plea To Act Swiftly, Nominating Committee Prepares To Name Tax Oversight Board Candidates in June
“We don’t want to rush without giving citizens a chance to be part of the process.”--Lucie Tondreau, member of the county “nominating committee”
By Erik Bojnansky
Editor
The first meeting of the People’s Transportation Plan Nominating Committee began with a plea by Miami-Dade County’s mayor and a county commissioner to produce a list
of qualified candidates for a transportation tax oversight board as soon as possible.
But toward the end of Tuesday’s meeting most of those in the nominating committee felt it would be better if more time was given to allow residents to apply for the
Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust, a board tasked with overseeing how funds collected from the recently enacted half-penny tax for transportation projects, rather than rushing the
process. So, instead of following a recommended guideline to gather applicants’ names by March 7, the committee extended the deadline to April 7.
“We are talking about hundreds of millions of dollars here,” said board member R. Terry Cuson, chairman of the Coalition of Miami-Dade Chambers of Commerce. “What’s
another month? What’s another 30 days?”
And while some county officials had hoped that a CITT might be in place by April, the nominating committee also set a “soft” deadline of June 3 for presenting a slate
of candidates to the county commission, the Dade League of Cities and the county mayor. “But we are not going to put an anchor around our neck,” said Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine
Fernandez Rundle, chair of the nominating committee.
Prior to the meeting, Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas made a speech urging the nominating committee to choose its CITT candidates “as quickly as possible.” “We have
begun to collect the half penny tax and we can’t spend it until the CITT is in place,” Penelas said.
“We can’t appropriate the money until the board is in place,” said Miami-Dade County Commissioner Bruno Barreiro, whose district includes most of Miami Beach and
Little Havana. “We have plans to implement immediately and we are trying to comply with that,” he added.
In spite of a $1.8 million privately-funded “Transit Not Tolls” campaign, county voters rejected a penny tax for transportation improvements proposed by Penelas in
1999. Seeking to overcome the “lack of confidence in government,” as Penelas described it, the proposed tax was reduced to a half-penny, the campaign was limited in scope (Penelas allies
Brian May and Eric “Ric” Sisser were investigated for their campaign finance collection practices in the ’99 campaign), focused on transportation projects (the first campaign also promised
funding for tourism, education, culture, etc.), and promised the formation of a CITT which would oversee the more than $157 million a year that’s expected to be collected through the tax.
Once in place, the CITT has the power to “veto” county transportation decisions funded by the tax. The veto can only be overridden by a two-thirds vote by the county commission.
Penelas told the nominating committee that the CITT was the “key” to the voters’ passing the half-penny tax in November 2002. “These people are the eyes and ears of
the community,” Penelas told the board. “These are the ones that will make sure that as we spend the money that it is consistent with the [People’s Transportation Plan].” (The tax’s
passing has already jump-started proposals to extend the Metro-Rail to southwest and northwest Miami-Dade, fund a “bay link” linking South Beach with Downtown Miami, explore a light rail
transit line from Miami to Aventura and various other transportation plans.)
But members of the “nominating committee” said that interested members of the community should have more time to come forward. “We don’t want to rush without giving
citizens a chance to be part of the process,” said committee member Lucie Tondreau, board secretary of the Haitian American Grass Roots Coalition. “Should we rush? Why? Why?”
The county began charging the half penny sales tax in January 1. Under a county ordinance, the 15-membered CITT has to be proposed to the county commission by a
nominating committee appointed by 20 various private and public organizations and agencies “who are representative of the geographical, ethnic, racial and gender make-up of the county.”
Representatives of this committee were not appointed by these organizations until January 23.
Initially the nominating committee decided it could provide the county commission with a slate of candidates by June 17. However, some committee members began to worry
that the process could then extend beyond the county commission’s August break. Adolfo Henriques, chairperson of the United Way, reminded his colleagues that the nominating committee is
tasked with finding a “slate” of four candidates from each geographic county commission district (13 in all), for the county mayor and for the Dade League of Cities. In all, Henriques
estimated that the committee would have to find a list of 60 names out of perhaps a thousand applicants. Individual county commissioners, the mayor and the league also have the option of
rejecting the slate, forcing the nominating committee to go back to the roll of applicants. “The process is too extraordinarily long,” he said.
When Rundle asked if June 17 was too late for a slate, Barreiro replied, “That’s really close.” The summer meetings prior to August, he explained, are the county’s
busiest. (Penelas left the 18th floor meeting room in county hall shortly after making his speech.)
When Rundle suggested a deadline of June 3rd to submit candidates and the possibility that the county could hold an emergency meeting if needed, Henriques
suggested that the process would indeed move “fairly quickly and fairly smoothly” once it reached the commission. Henriques also doubted that the option of rejecting an entire slate would
be taken by county commissioners. “Each commissioner will have a slate of four [candidates],” he said. “I think [the commissioners] will have their minds made up [by the time of the
meeting].”
Another reason for extending the deadline for applicants was that many nominating committee members didn’t feel that March 7 gave them enough time to even advertise
for applicants in newspapers as required. “March 7 is a bit quick,” said Joseph Farina, chief judge of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit, adding that many magazines and newspapers weren’t
likely to “get going” with publicizing the ad until February 27.
Some committee members also questioned whether advertising in the Miami Herald, Diario de las Americas and a Creole publication to be named was
sufficient. Cuson of the Chambers of Commerce said he knows plenty of activists who read the New Times and community publications and not the Herald. The possibility of using radio
ads and county television was also suggested.
Nominating committee members then debated how they would choose the slate of nominees. Cuson said he felt that a resume and an application wasn’t enough—he needed to
see the potential nominee. “I have an easier time judging a pair of eyes than a piece of paper,” he said.
Tondreau of the Haitian American Grass Roots Coalition said the committee might even want to add its own qualifications for candidates over and above those drafted by
the county. Assistant County Attorney Bob Cuevas said the committee couldn’t go beyond the guidelines outlined by the county, however.
“You have to follow the guidelines they give you,” he said.
“I heard the mayor say something else,” said Mark Rosenberg, executive vice president for academic affairs for Florida International University.
During his speech Penelas told the committee that the nominees don’t have to be either legal or financial experts. “If you get that, that’s great,” the mayor said.
However, the mayor opined that the ideal candidates should be “good, honest people who have the county’s best interest in mind.”
According to the CITT enabling ordinance, its members should be residents of the county “who possess outstanding reputations for civic involvement, integrity,
responsibility, and business and/or professional ability and experience or interest in the fields of transportation mobility improvements or operations or land use planning.” Ineligible to
serve on the CITT is anyone “who has any interest, direct or indirect, in a contract with the county or in any corporation, partnership or other entity that has a contract with the county,
or who is a member of a community council, according to the county’s enabling ordinance.”
The nominating committee formed a special sub-committee that would work out a “process” by which nominees would be screened and selected. Committee members were also
encouraged to solicit applicants from their respective organizations, provided that all potential candidates hand in a complete application by April 7.
The next full nominating committee meeting is tentatively scheduled for April 11 at 10 a.m. at Miami-Dade Community College’s Wolfson Campus in downtown Miami.
