This campaign mailer doubles as an absentee ballot request form.

 

“I said, ‘Are you going to take a swing at me or go?’”

For Better or Worse

Music festivals are all about dirty hippies, wafts of marijuana smoke and high school kids doing weird interpretative dances to their musical idols, right? Wrong. As Murmurs soon found out last Saturday at Bang Music Festival in Bicentennial Park, the Miami version of a festival is much, much different. Try girls in silk dresses long enough to drag in the grass and lots of kids sipping on Grey Goose and Red Bull while snapping MySpace photos of themselves and completely ignoring much of the lineup that they forked over a week’s allowance for. Such is the way of this glittering metropolis.

Aside from the fact that most of the scattered audience thought they were in a club (Pawn Shop’s Short Bus was even stationed in the park to give the under-18 crowd a glimpse at what could be easily attained with the proper fake ID), Bang could have been much worse. And it could have been much better. Though festival organizers were able to wrangle a pretty impressive line-up, Murmurs quickly got the impression that maybe they took on a little more than they could handle. With technical difficulties popping up right and left, Bang seemed to teeter and totter throughout the day much like a toddler in mom’s high heels.

Early acts, like Common and Damian Marley, passed with lots of energy and little incident, but when the bigger names started to take the stage the problems began. First was the hour and a half delay for Gnarls Barkley. While the duo and its posse (all dressed as characters from Austin Powers) lounged backstage, crowds fidgeted before the darkened stage contemplating whether or not to give up altogether and lend their ears to Thievery Corporation at the second stage. The many who did probably caught the best show of the entire festival. Those who didn’t ended up a little too jaded by the wait to give frontman Cee-Lo Green the energy he tried to coax in what was otherwise a pretty entertaining performance.

Next up was Modest Mouse, which went head-to-head with Daft Punk because the second stage was still running on schedule. Those hoping to escape the curse of the main stage were out of luck though. Daft Punk’s visuals were less than stellar thanks to further tech difficulties, but at least they didn’t have the sound problems that plagued Modest Mouse. As one blogger put, “Modest Mouse sounded like a CD skipping in the middle of their ‘live’ show.” And if crackling microphones weren’t enough to distract from Modest Mouse’s set that included several songs from their upcoming album, the extended breaks between each song and an extremely abrupt finish did the trick. Fans left the stage disillusioned and Modest Mouse seemed downright pissed. Many, including Murmurs, decided that they’d had just about enough for the day and made their way to mass transit with Duran Duran providing the exodus soundtrack.

Breakfast and Accusations

For Murmurs, 8 a.m. is truly an ungodly hour. So, naturally, making the Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club at David’s Café was out of the question. Still, the guests of this past Tuesday were enough to pique our interest as they were Michael Gongora and Deede Weithorn, the two candidates left standing for that seat on the Miami Beach City Commission. Afterwards, Murmurs put out e-mail feelers to see what had happened.

“Lotsa fireworks,” e-mailed back Tuesday Morning co-founder Mike Burke, who acted as moderator. “Gongora [attacked Weithorn regarding] [$]50,000 in checks from developers. Now it seems that the checks were for NBDC fund drive, not Weithorn. Deede [attacked Gongora regarding] dirty campaign. You really missed a great meeting. Full house, too.”

South Pointe activist Frank Del Vecchio, a Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club co-founder and Weithorn supporter, was more to the point: “Ms. Weithorn made an opening statement, followed by Mr. Gongora who, in the context of which candidate was receiving developer contributions, said: ‘Mark Weithorn took a $50,000 contribution from Canyon Ranch.’”

Mark Weithorn is Deede’s husband and a former president of North Beach Development Corporation (NBDC).

Murmurs immediately called Deede Weithorn. “I just left Eric Sheppard’s office,” Weithorn told Murmurs, referring to the developer of Canyon Ranch. The candidate said Sheppard basically confirmed that he had not in fact given $50,000 to her husband for her campaign, nor to NBDC. “It is absolutely untrue.” According to Weithorn, Sheppard gave NBDC $5,000 for a sponsorship and a tent during the Festival of the Arts last February.

Weithorn did go on to tell Murmurs about how Sheppard’s project, basically a condo-hotel-health resort, was going to be an economic generator for North Beach — so much so that Murmurs logged on to her campaign account to see if there were any Canyon Ranch or Sheppard contributions. So far as Murmurs can find, no Sheppard-related contributions have been reported thus far.

“I’m an accountant; we don’t do anything without seeing evidence,” Weithorn said. “He’s an attorney. He should know better.”

Gongora told Murmurs that he never said her campaign received $50,000 from Weithorn. What Gongora said was that her husband collected “what I believe was $50,000 from Canyon Ranch for NBDC.”

“I’m calling her out on talking out of both sides of her mouth,” Gongora said, adding that “her campaign manager, Keith Donner, is also airing negative commercials about me once again alleging I do not qualify to run for office because of residency — something we now all know to be false. They are also attacking the fact that some developers have given me campaign contributions.” Meanwhile, Weithorn is also soliciting developers for contributions, Gongora pointed out, although she is being somewhat less successful at it.

“Ms. Weithorn is, once again, not telling the truth,” Gongora informed Murmurs via e-mail. “She has proven time and time again to be deceitful and tell half-truths.”

Absentees and Videotape

Coconut Grove activist and attorney Marc Sarnoff took a commanding lead in the Nov. 7 election. As the votes were counted, Sarnoff was immediately placed first. This was because absentee ballots were counted first and Sarnoff did quite well there: He collected 30.06 percent of the absentee vote. By contrast, interim Commissioner Linda Haskins gathered only 24.8 percent of absentee ballots. Not bad considering that Haskins has a campaign treasury of $405,595 while Sarnoff has only $77,800.

According to Sarnoff, he and his campaign knew voters didn’t want to be forced to simply vote on Election Day. At the same time, many people don’t trust the computerized iVotronic touch screens. Absentee ballots, on the other hand, leave a paper trail. So the Sarnoff campaign and its volunteers went forth and encouraged people to vote absentee.

As for the Haskins campaign, it too hit the absentee ballot campaign trail. “You have a list of people who typically vote absentee,” said Kathryn Moore, a Haskins campaign worker. So Moore and Haskins went door-to-door with Miami-Dade County absentee ballot request forms in hand to encourage those residents to vote and consider the incumbent. However, some voters, particularly elderly voters, claimed they had already received absentee ballots by mail, along with Sarnoff campaign materials. As Moore put it to SunPost reporter Angie Hargot during the Nov. 7 election. “People were saying they already voted because they received absentee ballots with Sarnoff’s name on it.”

Haskins did not return phone calls from Murmurs by deadline but her campaign coordinator, Laura Rodriguez, said she heard similar complaints. “I’ve gotten two calls from elderly people who [wanted to vote for] Haskins but who were confused. They didn’t know if they could vote for her because [they received Sarnoff absentee ballot request materials]. I was able to clear it up.” As for absentee ballots being sent in the mail, Rodriguez said they have no concrete evidence this was occurring.

Sarnoff denied his campaign handled or sent absentee ballots. “We don’t touch the ballots.”

Christina Bacogiannis, assistant to the supervisor of the Miami-Dade Elections Department, doesn’t see how it is possible to deliver absentee ballots within campaign materials. Due to reforms in the absentee ballot system, ballots can only be obtained in person at the Elections Department in Doral, by mail or by an appointed designee. By the way, a designee can only pick up one ballot per one voter.

So what is causing this alleged confusion that Haskins campaign workers are talking about? That mystery was cleared up when Murmurs received a Sarnoff flier which, besides touting his experience and qualifications, had absentee ballot request cards attached to it. The phrase “no postage necessary – business reply mail” can be found on the back of the cards, as well as the address to the Marc Sarnoff Campaign.

Bacogiannis explained that absentee ballot requests don’t have to be done on official elections forms. So long as there is a signature and a date of birth that can be verified as a real, live voter, it’s kosher. However, “we prefer [that a ballot request] is brought [directly] into our office.” When pressed for details, Bacogiannis said this preference was to “ensure it is received on time.” When asked why this isn’t required by law, Bacogiannis replied, “Unfortunately, I can’t say why there isn’t a law stating that ballots [requests] must go to the Elections Department.”

Sarnoff, who faces Haskins in the Nov. 21 runoff, defended his tactic. “It allows you to track who will be requesting absentee ballots,” he said. Besides, Sarnoff said, Haskins campaign has individuals known for pushing the envelope with absentee ballots. At the head of Haskins campaign is Al Lorenzo, a consultant who specializes in absentee ballot campaigns.

Incidentally, just 10 minutes before Murmurs called Sarnoff about absentee ballots, Sarnoff and about eight volunteers had just finished confronting two guys with video cameras. Sarnoff said the two men were hired by the Haskins campaign, were on his property and videotaping his yard. “She has a guy on my property taping me and my property. This is a city commissioner? I have their license tags,” Sarnoff declared.

The two men turned out to be Charlie Cabrera and Francois Illas. Illas is a former chief of staff for Mayor Manny Diaz who is consulting for Haskins’ campaign. He told Murmurs they were not taping Sarnoff’s house but Blanche Park for a Haskins television commercial, which just so happens to front Sarnoff’s two houses. “He has made it [Blanche Park] an issue. We wanted to film it.” (Sarnoff’s campaign material claims credit with helping turn Blanche Park and Kennedy Park into “the original dog parks in the Southeastern United States.”) “Marc got in my face. I said, ‘Are you going to take a swing at me or go?’” Illas told Murmurs. “He’s full of it.” Illas added that there were three Miami firemen with Sarnoff sporting yellow campaign shirts, one of whom threatened to find Illas. “See you at your house,” Illas claimed the firefighter told him.

Life Stinks

More evidence that the cost of merely existing in Miami-Dade is becoming increasingly difficult: The Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce and Florida International University have released a survey saying that the rising cost of housing is now affecting business.

Some tidbits as related by a GMCC press release (which we pretty much plagiarized):

• Nearly 60 percent of respondents indicated that the rising cost of housing in Miami-Dade County has impacted their ability to recruit employees.

• As a result, over 75 percent of respondents have had to modify their recruitment methods to offset this trend.

• Over 50 percent of respondents indicated that the rising cost of housing in Miami-Dade County has impacted their ability to retain existing employees.

• Over 70 percent of respondents indicated half of their workforce or more reside in locations based solely on housing affordability.

• Despite the extensive impact of rising housing costs on employee recruitment and retention, over 80 percent of respondents are not willing to offer housing assistance benefits to their workforce.

• 85 percent of respondents indicated that their organization’s CEO or senior management is concerned about the existing cost of housing in Miami-Dade County.

• Respondents indicated that the bulk of responsibility in addressing the housing affordability crisis in Miami-Dade County rests with county government.

OK, getting out of plagiarism mode. The bulk of responsibility rests with county government? If they mean blame, then Murmurs has to point out that there is plenty to share with municipal governments too. In the late 1990s, “diversified tax base” was a nifty phrase for city councils to really say, “All right, we are going to give our developer friends the right to build really giant buildings under the guise of increasing property values.” And what happens? Taxes go up, rental buildings are forced to either increase their rents or go condo and — voila — the housing situation working and middle-class individuals and families now find themselves in. But if the survey respondents mean that the county is our only hope in solving this crisis? Well, folks, it might be time to start checking out the housing market in Polk County.

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