Miami Beach

Open Government

A new committee has will examine city business and make details more accessible to the public

By Ben Torter

The dark nooks and crannies of Miami Beach City Hall, which have offered unsavory characters opportunities to line their pockets at the expense of taxpayers, could soon be lit for all to see.

The Transparency, Reliability and Accountability Committee was created this week by Mayor Matti Herrera Bower to bring greater transparency and accountability to the city’s current policies, such as how it decides to reward contracts, approve building permits and calculate concurrency, and to make details of those processes easier for the public to access. The committee will ultimately make recommendations for the City Commission to act on.

Bower appointed Commissioner Deede Weithorn as chairperson, citing her “distinguished service on state government accountability committees … responsiveness to residents and neighborhood interests, and accountability in her recent campaign for office of the commission.”

Eager to get started, Weithorn wouldn’t guess at the committee’s goals, since she is only one member, but did have ideas about where to begin.

“I would imagine we’ll look at some of the processes and procedures with concurrency and the Building Department in light of what has happened in the past few weeks,” Weithorn said, referring to the recent arrests of two current and one former city building and planning employees on charges of racketeering, bribery and money laundering. Some in the community believe the dirty deeds of Andres Villareal, Mohammad Partovi, Henry Johnson and others may have cost the city millions of dollars in uncollected fees.

The committee will consist of seven voting members, with each commissioner having one pick. Weithorn is the eighth member and will not vote, since she will ultimately listen to committee recommendations in her role of commissioner. She has yet to decide whom she will appoint.

“I’ve gotten a barrage of phone calls from people who are interested,” Weithorn said. “I’ve had call from developers, criminal attorneys, former politicians.… The variety of interest is fantastic.”

Weithorn hopes the other commissioners will make appointments soon so the committee can hold its first meeting by the end of April. So far, only Commissioner Jonah Wolfson has named his pick, activist Frank Del Vecchio.

Weithorn has already been pushing various changes, such as putting contracts on the city’s Web site, and she has made progress.

“I’ve already started working with the Procurement Department, and you’ll start to see the changes soon,” Weithorn said.

Most everything city workers and elected officials do is public record, but much of it is difficult to access. The city of Miami Beach already does a better job than many local municipalities at putting information online, but Weithorn has made it her mission to make the system more user-friendly.

“Our citizens should be able to get the same information available to them that elected officials receive,” Weithorn said. “That information should be meaningful to all of us. We also must be able to modify any process, system or culture that is not accountable to its citizens.”

Comments? E-mail ben@miamisunpost.com