COUNCILWOMAN JENNIFER ATOR, MIAMI SPRINGS CITY COUNCIL

Little League Softball Opening Day at Stafford Park

9/24/2011

Tossing the first pitch for Miami Springs Tigers Softball.

    Miami Springs Little League has a long and distinguished history. Today, our Miami Springs Tigers girls softball team played against the "Michigan" team from Miami Lakes.
    Our Miami Springs Tigers are serious about softball. Almost as serious as I am about practicing law. These fifth and sixth graders have made the choice to play year-round.  Likely in preparation for taking the Miami Springs Golden Hawks to state finals in 2017. I hope they invite me to come along.
    Women's sports are far more common, and well respected, than when I was in 5th grade.  The change in attitude is in part due to the federal legislation known as Title IX. Yes, yes, there were women's sports before Title IX -- women's basketball started before 1900, soccer was being played sporatically throughout the US by women in the 50s and 60s, and softball, which was originally a man's sport, actually had a short-lived women's professional league in the US in 1976.
    However, it was Title IX, which was passed in 1972, that made women's sports mainstream. Like any good discrimniation legislation, Title IX took years to make a difference in cultural attitudes. But once changes were made, attitudes changed and changed fast.
    Mia Hamm, who was born in 1972, was one of the first "superstars" in women's sports. She grew up in the era of Title IX and probably would not have had the opportunity to show the world how interesting and exciting women's sports can be, but for Title IX legislation mandating that women and men receive equal opportunties with regard to sports in schools. As a broad brush explanation, Title IX mandates that everything from equipment to practice time and from locker room facilities to publicity be equal for men and women athletes.  Participation in women's sports has increased exponentially in the past thirty-five years. In addition, the increase in the number of coaches, athletic directors, and other sports related jobs that belong to women is futher evidence that Title IX did not just provide our children with opportunities to play sports, but opened up a whole new careers path for women.
    In my house, it is all boys. But in my village, it is the young ladies that I worry about, advocate for, and champion. Life is not all cheerleading and beauty pagents -- although those are fun too. Our fast, strong, and driven young women are going to make great doctors, dentists, lawyers, accountants, general contractors, bankers, entreprenuers, teachers, coaches, or college presidents in thirty years.  The lessons they learn from sports are going to serve them well. Great job Little League, great job!

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The FANTASTICKS was FANTASTIC!

9/21/2011

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On Sunday Avery and I went to the matinee of the Fantasticks performed by the Pelican Playhouse at the Rebeca Sosa Theatre at the Community Center in Miami Springs. It was wonderful. In fact, Mr. Wakefield said it was going to blow my socks off and he was right!

I am a fan of musical theatre; after my parents divorced, my father lived in Manhattan and when I would visit him, he would always take me to Broadway to see a performance. Starlight Express, Cats, etc., etc., etc. My favorite musical is Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I am sure I have seen it nearly a dozen times between the big stage, community theatre, and even at All Angels Academy. And still, the Fantasticks really blew me away!

The cast and crew of the Fantasticks, which includes fellow Councilmember Bob Best, should be very proud. The performance is really outstanding. It is not too late. The Fantasticks is continuing this weekend on Friday and Saturday evening and Sunday matinee. But, don't wait too long -- after Sunday it will be gone -- and you will have missed a some great entertainment.

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Should Council award business to a Councilmember's employer?

9/19/2011

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    My day on ethics at GGI re-raised an issue I have wanted to blog about for the past few weeks. Should Council award business to a Councilmember's employer? Maybe, and maybe not.
    Certainly it is not unethical to do so, especially when the conflict is noted on the record and the Councilperson excludes themselves from the vote. But, does it pass the smell test? Probably not, and especially when the Council waives competitive bidding to do so.
    Last Monday our Council approved a contract with the Fuentes Group for lobbying services. I like Jose Fuentes. I can't tell you if he is the best person for the job, but he certainly has contacts within the County. I do have some concerns about his representations of other small cities in Miami-Dade County including the Village of Virginia Gardens -- he was in a difficult position when we were negotiating potential annexation and it was probably, in part, our inability to agree with VG that delayed the process to the point that it was not feasible at the County level. Nevertheless, I like him and think he is good for our relationship with the County.
    That being said, Fla. Stat. 112.3143 mandates what constitutes a conflict of interest for a public official. I think the statute is too narrow.  It only allows a public offical to recuse themselves from a vote when the item will "inure to his or her special private gain or loss," in English that is when the public offical will have a financial gain.  There are lots of times that a public official should probably recuse himself or herself even when there is not financial gain. However, in this case, there was a recusal.
    Councilman Espino works at Fuentes Group. He is the General Counsel. He provided a letter on August 15, 2011 to the Mayor and Council explaning that Fuentes Group is a "client" of his "law firm."  (As a lawyer, I find that kind of funny; it is not that different as me saying Jennifer Ator, PA is a "client" of Hankins & Ator, PL.)  He is required to file Form 8B, which I have not seen but I assume he has done. The contract was the last item on the agenda and Councilman Espino left the room just prior to the discussion. The City Attorney announced that he had a conflict. The item was uneventful. Very little was said. The Mayor waxed poetic on the Fuentes Group, but he also received at least $1500.00 from Mr. Fuentes and his associates in campaign contributions.
    Full disclosure: I also received a campaign contribution from Mr. Fuentes, and so did Councilman Lob and Councilman Espino (although I am not sure how much anyone else received and have not reviewed the reports in detail). For me, getting a campaign contribution does not mean I am going to vote how you want me to vote. Although, generally speaking, campaign contributions buy access and sometimes that is enough.
    In this case, it was wrong to waive competitive bidding; it was wrong that Mr. Fuentes did not appear to provide a report and give us a list of things that he is looking to do for us this year; and it was wrong that I did not raise the issues at the Council meeting.
    I regret not raising the issue. I thought that recusal from the vote spoke for itself. In hindsight, it is clear that citizens do not understand when and why a Councilmember would recuse themselves. I voted no because it does not pass the smell test. But I should have raised a big stink about it and I am ashamed of myself for not doing so.
    I also have recused myself from a vote. In April, Council voted to change the code to allow a residential property with a property line substantially joined to a commercial property to be used as a business (in limited ways). I admit the ordinance change was, in large part, a result of my desire to use 36 Palmetto Drive as my law firm. When I purchased the house on Palmetto, I planned to seek rezoning. On three sides it is commercial or mixed use. Upon additional investigation into what that would mean for my neighbors, I wanted to limit the uses and prohibit the domino effect of changing the property to commercial.   After discussions with the City Attorney (who always told me a code change was more appropriate than re-zoning for this particular property), I suggested a code change that provided very limited use of the property. The code change was not just good for me, but it was good for Miami Springs. While the property is residential, it is not homesteaded and it can be treated like commercial property by the property appraiser. There are other properties throughout the City that also can take advantage of this code change. Thirty-six Palmetto was worth more to me because of its location and accessibility to the commercial district, the same could be true for other properties on the edges of the commerical districts.
    There is a bit of form over substance with regard to this issue. I am bothered by how it was handled. The matter was not clear to our residents. We did not seek competitive bids (although I am not sure we could have done better -- there are better lobbyists, but probably not for what we want to pay). And finally, we were not provided any feedback from the past or plans for the future from Mr. Fuentes before making our decision.
    Moreover, while it should not be this way, the reality is when you are elected to Council you bring your gifts (and your baggage) with you and you use those for the benefit of the City.  I have provided plenty of legal opinions to Council and the City.  Even if it is not in an official capacity, it is certainly legal advice. The Mayor uses his skills and contacts to do things for the City as well, including gratis printing on occasion.  Councilman Lob worked on the website development with our staff and consultant, as his expertise is IT. When the residents elect someone for this "part-time" job, they get some of the skills from the "full-time" world. I would never dream of asking the City to retain my firm. I can't imagine Councilman Lob submitting a bill for his work on the IT matters. Should the City be paying Councilman Espino's employer to lobby for the City when his job as a pubic official is to lobby for the City? Maybe, or maybe not. But we did not even discuss it. Shameful.
    The item was poorly handled: by Councilman Espino, by Mayor Garcia, by myself, and by the rest of the Council.

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Ethics in Public Office: Good Government Initiative

9/19/2011

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Long Key Nature Center, Davie, Florida

    On Saturday, September 17, I attended a full day seminar with the Good Government Initiative. The topic was Ethics: Principles, Conduct, and Rules. Lawyers are required to go to a lot of ethic training and I did not have high expectations.
    The meeting was held at the Long Key Nature Center in Davie, Florida. The location itself was very interesting. Long Key Nature Center is located just east of I-75 and just north of Griffin Road. It is very close to Flamingo Gardens. It is a Broward County park with a meeting room and a ballroom. While we were there, there was even a wedding! The on-site building also contains a lot of information about the history of the area. In a nutshell, the area was wetlands with some "keys" on them and the wetlands were drained in the 40s. Much of the property in the area is now developed (and we wonder why they have had flooding and sinkhole problems). However, some of the area near the nature center has been returned to a more natural state. The history includes maps from the three time periods and a walk-through history exhibit that has information from when the Indians inhabited the area through the times of development, into present day. Very interesting indeed!
    The day was divided into three parts: UM professors who teach ethics in the morning (Dr. Fiore, Anita Cava, and Dr. Goodman), lobbyists at lunch time (Ron Book, Jess McCarty, Crystal Conner, and Steve Marin), and Dr. Watson, an American History professor from Lynn University, in the afternoon, who provided a historical overview of American Government with a focus on decision-making.
    While three ethics professors promised to be a "big-yawn," I could not have been more wrong.  The professors were interesting and engaging. We discussed not just what was ethical, but how to deal with behavior that is either flat-out unethical or legally ethically but does not pass the smell-test.
    The lobbyists were intersting as well. I know Jess McCarty -- his sister is one of my sorority sisters and we lived in the sorority house together. But I did not know the other panelists. Ron Book certainly has a huge reputation, and his passion and personality make it easy to see why.
    The last speaker was Dr. Watson from Lynn University.  I did not anticipate how interesting or intense he would be.  Almost like watching a hurricane move across the Atlantic toward South Florida, you just could not tear yourself away. Another participant in the program commented that he was like a sponge that just kept giving more information. He shared a lot of personal and ancedotal information about American presidents and their inner circles. He also talked about characteristics of great leaders and lessons on leadership that we can learn from history.  Toward the end of his talk, someone asked if he thought that the greatest leaders were "great men" or were "ordinary men" that did great things.  He said "ordinary men that did great things," but included the caveat that the most minor thing could have set the course of history in another direction.   In other words, even those with the greatest skills ended up as those we remember, in part, because of unforeseen circumstance. Another interesting thing he said was that the greatest leaders reveled in criticism and the biggest failures were those that refused to accept criticism. In other words, the great presidents surrounded themselves with people that disagreed with them (and often with each other) and the weakest presidents surrounded themselves with "yes men." Wow!
     A great seminar is one that you think about for days after. This was one of those days. I am lucky to have been chosen for the Good Government Initiative. It was an honor and is a privilege. The residents of Miami Springs are lucky too. I am learning a great deal that will benefit our citizens for many years to come.

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At My Chair: September 12, 2011

9/13/2011

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    If you have not guessed by now, I really don't like to receive materials on the day of the meeting. I understand when there is an emergency, but when I ask that something be put on the agenda, I ask days, if not more than a week, in advance of the materials being distributed and uploaded to the City website.
    My husband suggested that I include a short description of what was included -- great idea Bill! The documents attached here were either provided the day before the meeting or at the meeting:

        Agenda item 10F: Purchase Order for PBSJ for production of plan to address DERM concerns on the golf course.
        Agenda item 10G: Recommendation that Council waive competitive bid process and approve expenditure of $9,900 for a consulting service to develop a master strategic plan for the City.
        Memo from Mike Aldridge to Jim Borgmann, with documents attached, discussing the request to review the possibility of having vanity gift cards for our golf pro shop and golf department.
        City of Miami Springs analysis of Millage Changes (prepared by Finance Director).
        Draft GIS Zoning Map prepare by Calvin, Giordano & Associates, Inc.
        Powerpoint of Update on Redevelopment and Revitalization Activities from Calvin, Giordano & Associates, Inc.

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Little League Softball Opening Day at Stafford Park

The FANTASTICKS was FANTASTIC!

Should Council award business to a Councilmember's employer?

Ethics in Public Office: Good Government Initiative

At My Chair: September 12, 2011

Beautiful
Miami Springs.

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Little League Softball Opening Day at Stafford Park

The FANTASTICKS was FANTASTIC!

Should Council award business to a Councilmember's employer?

Ethics in Public Office: Good Government Initiative

At My Chair: September 12, 2011

Beautiful Miami Springs.

Archives

Categories

Beautiful
Miami Springs.