Counting to Three
Activist Marc Sarnoff Got Elected, but Now He’s Finding
There’s a Steep Political Learning Curve

Marc Sarnoff (shown being sworn in on Saturday) has been on the job as a city commissioner for less than a week and already he is on his second chief of staff. Photo by Jorge Perez/City of Miami

By Rebecca Wakefield

Well, Marc Sarnoff is off to a running start. In what direction remains to be seen. On Nov. 21, Miami voters in District 2 swept Sarnoff into the City Commission seat by a wide margin. His victory was hailed as a referendum on Mayor Manny Diaz’s vision, which critics see as — if we let anybody build anything anywhere, somehow, it’s all going to work out.

It was also a major victory for Miami’s often tenuous neighborhood activist coalitions. Thus the mood at Sarnoff’s swearing-in ceremony this past Saturday afternoon was jubilant and hopeful. (I wasn’t there. It was described to me by several people who were.) A new era was about to be unleashed.

Coconut Grove businessman Dave Collins was the master of ceremonies. Sarnoff made gracious noises about working with the mayor and fellow commissioners, even though they’d all supported his opponent. The graciousness was somewhat undercut by the protocol glitch of not having any of them, say, be an official part of the proceedings. Collins realized near the end of the program that he’d forgotten to introduce the mayor, apologized, and asked Diaz if he wanted to say a few words.

A somber-faced Diaz just shook his head and declined. The rest of the commission took his cue. But whatever, most of the people were happy. Their guy was in, and word went around that Sarnoff was tapping Frank Rollason to be his chief of staff. Rollason, a longtime city bureaucrat who has served variously as director of the Overtown/Park West CRA, assistant fire chief and assistant city manager, had run for the seat himself, but didn’t make the runoff.

Rollason indeed had the job, and showed up at City Hall at 7:30 a.m. this Monday to claim it. But before lunchtime, he was out. Score one for the somber-faced crew. Minus several points for Sarnoff’s political divining skills. What happened?

Let’s go back a bit. Until recently, Sarnoff was just this intense lawyer guy in the Grove who fought for more trees and dog parks. Then he made his big splash by heading the anti-Home Depot effort. He got elected chairman of the Cocoanut Grove Village Council. Then he ran for office.

Sarnoff’s platform included protecting and promoting the city’s paltry green spaces and neighborhoods, halting overdevelopment and other quality of life issues. But he also understood that the campaign was to be more of an anti- than a pro- effort. Unease and frustration with the status quo drove the majority of Sarnoff voters to the polls.

Sarnoff also benefited from the Diaz administration’s battles with the city’s various unions. The firefighters threw their support behind Sarnoff as both a gamble on a potential winner, and a message to the rest of the commission. For them, it’s all about the pensions, a complicated issue with no easy resolution.

In debates, the pension issue showed just how much Sarnoff has to learn about the intricacies of city budgets. This is something his opponent, Diaz’s former finance guru, knew much more about. But, as a wise man pointed out to me recently, Sarnoff’s upsides (intelligence and passion) gave one hope that he could fill in the gaps in his knowledge base fairly quickly.

To this end, Sarnoff made a smart decision to offer Rollason a position as his chief of staff. Rollason is a practical, professional guy and ran a basically mud-free campaign. Both Sarnoff and opponent Linda Haskins stated that Rollason was an honest, admirable fellow, if not exactly Mister Excitement.

To many on the neighborhood activist side, pairing Sarnoff with Rollason was a near-ideal situation. You’d get the aggressive, idealistic campaigner, plus the benefit of 37 solid years of inside city experience and a reputation as someone who wouldn’t, to pull out a hypothetical, bend over for an unethical official wanting to steer city grants or contracts to close friends.

Of course, this made Rollason a bit of a persona non grata among some Diaz allies.

I called Rollason after I heard about Monday’s events. He told me that Sarnoff had casually mentioned the possibility of offering him the job after the Nov. 7 election. He then made a formal offer after the runoff. The two had a long talk last Friday, during which Rollason allayed Sarnoff’s concerns that he might run against him in 2007.

But Rollason also warned him to carefully weigh his decision in the context of his overall agenda. “I said, ‘You ought to talk to the mayor before you hire me,’” he recalls. “‘You may find I’m more of a liability than an asset.’”

But Sarnoff stuck out his hand and said, “You’re hired. Welcome aboard.”

At Saturday’s swearing-in ceremony, Sarnoff told Rollason to report for duty Monday morning. Rollason did, arriving to the bustle of city workers setting up computers and phone lines. Around 11 a.m., Sarnoff called Rollason into his office, along with the woman who was to be his replacement.

“If you’re getting pressure, I can leave right now.”

He explained that although he was comfortable with Rollason, he was being told that Commissioners Joe Sanchez and Michelle Spence-Jones were unhappy with the decision. “Listen, we can fix this real quick,” Rollason replied. “If you’re getting pressure, I can leave right now. I didn’t come here for a job, I came to help. I’ll make it easy for you. I’ll leave.”

But he warned Sarnoff that without a staff that knows the bureaucracy games well, he would be at the mercy of the Diaz-controlled administration. “I told him, ‘You will learn what they want you to learn.’”

So I called up Sanchez. “Whoever told you that is taking you for a long, long ride,” he offered, annoyed. “I don’t have a problem with his staff. He should hire whoever he wants.”

“I’ve never had a problem with Sanchez,” Rollason told me. “This is coming from the mayor.”

Diaz hadn’t called me back by my deadline, so I couldn’t add his denial here.

Spence-Jones said that obviously, she supported Haskins, but now that Sarnoff is on the commission, she’ll support his initiatives if he does right by hers, and his African-American constituents. “I don’t have a relationship with him, so how am I gonna tell him who to hire?” she asked, actually a pretty good question.

Sarnoff was understandably uncomfortable when I called him. Here he is, the newly minted commissioner on the minority side of the power structure that actively worked for his opponent. Stirring up trouble is the last thing he wants to do.

To his credit, he sucked it up and answered my questions, which in my view puts him several million points ahead of Disappearin’ Diaz in the public servant game. Sarnoff said he hadn’t received any specific pressure from any commissioners or the mayor regarding Rollason, but there were concerns that sort of worked their way through the grapevine. I asked Sarnoff if he thought hiring Rollason would hurt his chances of getting agenda items passed. “I didn’t think [it] would, but Frank thought so,” he replied.

“Frank came in on Monday morning, and after discussions with his family and with this office, decided that it would be in the best interest of this office and District 2 that he serve as a private citizen,” Sarnoff said, adding that the decision was entirely Rollason’s.

Sarnoff’s new chief of staff is Maggie Mestre, who worked for county government and was a former aide to County Commissioner Katy Sorenson. I wish her and her new boss luck.

So does Rollason. “I hope he’s able to do the types of things he campaigned on and make things better,” he said. “And if he doesn’t, well, there’s another election next November.”

Comments? E-mail wakefield@miamisunpost.com.