Lobbyist Complains about Ethics Dept. Non-Enforcement of Lobbyist Rules. By Geniusofdespair

When Lobbyists start complaining about other lobbyists you know that the Ethics Department is NOT NOT doing its job. Why should a lobbyist have to point this out?

In an Op Ed in today's Miami Herald, Dusty Melton - Lobbyist, said:

The Miami-Dade County Commission on Ethics and Public Trust is an embarrassment. How else to describe an agency that repeatedly turns a blind eye when lobbyists try to manipulate local government in violation of the County Code?

His complaint is about Donald Trump Lobbying the County and Ethics doing nothing:

Trump’s two letters, Trump’s proposal and Trump’s check were not casual chatter. Everything had become very formalized, in writing, and with real money invested. The first letter was serious. The second letter and proposal were way more so, driven by the County Code. Everything was a strategic and ongoing initiative by a consequential person who was beseeching the county’s mayor and senior administrators to make a decision that he, Donald Trump, very much desired.

That’s the textbook definition of lobbying, and hereabouts there is a legal requirement to register with the clerk of the County Commission before any lobbying occurs. Trump failed to do that.

A local blogger, Al Crespo, filed a complaint at the Ethics Commission against Trump for his failure to register. The written evidence strongly supports Crespo’s complaint.

Remarkably, the Ethics Commission recently dismissed the complaint. Even though it had copies of both Trump letters, Trump’s formal proposal and Trump’s big check — all four of them bearing his signature — the commission and its staff put them aside, focusing instead only on Trump’s playtime with the mayor.

Despite the documentation of Trump’s repeated, ongoing lobbying efforts, this was stated during the commission’s closed-to-the-public discussion of Crespo’s complaint: “The conclusion was that Mr. Trump was not required to be registered as a lobbyist because he wasn’t lobbying on the golf course.”

Thanks Dusty and fellow blogger Al Crespo for bringing this to our attention.

The Crespogram Takes a Leave of Absence, Maybe Forever. By Geniusofdespair

This is very sad to me. I like Al and he backed us most of his claims with extensive public documents. I wish him the best but totally understand. I hope he comes back. His site froze and I guess out of frustration he decided to take a break. Can a computer whiz offer their services? We need Al back.

The good news: He is still on twitter.

Blogger Al Crespo is Stinkin' Mad at a Miami Herald Reporter. By Geniusofdespair

The Miami Herald's Reporter David Smiley keeps taking stories he initiated and does not give Crespo credit.

The same has happened here at Eye on Miami.  I include Miami Herald links why can't they include ours? They are misers with credit to us, the blogger journalists. Al, this has happened to us so many times over the years, I am numb to it.  So many people steal our material it is a sad state of affairs.

Jose Regalado Speaks Openly to Blogger Al Crespo. By Geniusofdespair

 (To be fair, I do like Raquel Regalado and Jose Regalado very much and we are friends. I know Mr. Crespo has his own issues with them, I respect him and love the guy for his tenaciousness and for his wonderful research work but don't agree with him on everything). I don't want to start a holy war with Al,  I am just giving Jose Regalado a platform to make his case. - Genius

 Earlier today I received a few e-mails and calls inquiring about my finances and my involvement with The Serving Miamian’s Electioneering Committee (ECO). I had not received an e-mail from Mr. Crespo asking me for clarification on my involvement.

Mr. Crespo states that I was paid near $60,000 for “dubious” work in these two years. Sounds like a lot of money, and it is. I am sure you are connected in one way or another to at least one social media account. If you have Facebook, I am sure you’ve noticed that people are using social media not only for sharing but as a sole news source (which is terrible). If you';re not connected you should consider it, small businesses and large companies alike rely heavily on social media marketing for awareness, often offering free credit, rebates or contest giveaways; I use my twitter solely for American Express rebates that they offer for just retweeting a hashtag. When my Father’s opponent began his campaign he based it on social media and the “young” generation, his Facebook (if memory serves me right) was gaining about 500 people a day. My Father’s social media was splintered, so I decided to clean it up; we created scheduled postings, consolidated the account, responded to questions, (built and) linked to his website, and created 30 second videos with his opinion on each platform, or achievement. We soon found that Facebook limits your reach unless you pay for the privilege. So we began to use targeted ads that went after certain age groups who lived in the City of Miami. Soon we overtook his opponent in social media. We started at around two thousand likes and are now close to fifteen thousand. We did the same for my Sister, localizing ads to people who live in her district, which happens to be most of the City of Miami.

Facebook is now worth Twenty billion dollars, all of their money comes from ad revenue. Hyper localizing your audience to the people in your neighborhood is expensive. Very expensive. How expensive?

Here is billing information for January of this year (hit on it to make it readable)



Thats $5,602.45

One month. Just Facebook. We also ran ads in Twitter.

The ECO can not legally pay Facebook as Facebook does not accept checks via the mail, to save the headache they paid me as the purchaser.

2014 ECO Handbook Since we are on the topic of the ECO, Chapter 11 of the Florida Electioneering Handbook states that an ECO can communicate via, telephone, radio, cable, satellite, (includes internet), newspaper magazine, direct mail, or telephone that :

Refers to or depicts a clearly identified candidate for office without expressly advocating the election or defeat of a candidate, but that is susceptible of no reasonable interpretation other than an appeal to vote for or against a specific candidate.

Is made within 30 days before a primary or special primary election or 60 days before any other election for the office sought.

Is targeted to the relevant electorate in the geographical area the candidate would represent if elected.

Weird…the rules of an ECO only mention candidates. As in you know…people.

That’s because an ECO cannot legally go after a YES/NO vote.

You’re thinking of a Political Action Committee which does have those powers.

I like to think of myself as a generalist, I’ve worked in various different sectors and donated my time to a few notable national and international non-profits. I worked in Digital Marketing as well, I went to plenty of meetings and week long seminars that were based around buzzwords. I designed my Father and my Sisters website, as well as my personal ones. I am self employed and I like to travel, I like to document what I see, be that underwater or above. I like teaching people how to travel for next to nothing or how to take photos underwater. My hobbies became my passion. I am very fortunate that I have a “choice” in what I do. Just because I know how to work in digital marketing does not mean that I need to advertise it. And that is a beautiful thing.

As for Mr. Crespo’s comment on me “not having much work to do since they ran unopposed”; unopposed is only categorized after the deadline for application. Any candidate that thinks the only time to they have to try is when someone files the report is a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.

And after an election year?

We do not rest on our laurels.

I can only comment about things that I was involved in. As to the accusations of my Sister’s or Father’s character I will let their actions speak.

Both my Father and Sister’s page average at least a post a day. In less than two years they’re respective accounts have grown by over ten thousand, most of whom are residents in Miami. I like to think that social media did make a difference in the campaign.

Thank you to those who took the time to read.  And Mr. Crespo, I do think you have written many decent and helpful articles.

Jose

p.s. Mr. Crespo, in case you’re thinking about asking me for my itemized account information. Forget it.

Miami's newest signature building by taxpayers? The Nail Clipper … Guest Blog by Al Crespo

 

Let me simply my arguments.

1. A developer whose goal is to build a private, commercial project that he repeatedly stated would be built with private funds now wants the State of Florida - and the taxpayers - to help finance its construction.

2. No one knows how much money he wants - not even folks in Tallahassee, whom I've been in touch with. The amount of money being sought is a secret.

3. The building will be built on city owned waterfront property that is already leased to another company - the Bayside Marketplace folks - which means that this 1000 foot tall, $430 million building is going to be built on land obtained through a sub-lease.

4. There are no documents that I've been able to find that indicate whether this project will pay Impact Fees, and don't think that every project - especially all those high-rise condos and office building have paid Impact Fees, because some of them haven't, and almost all of the rest paid fees lower that what their impact to our qualify of life required that they pay.

5. The public records in the possession of City of Miami officials - specifically the Facilities Management Department - related to this project have been purposely withheld, as evidenced in Part II of my video where I detail the steps that I've had to take so far to get only a portion of the documents that HAVE to exist in order for this project to go forward.

6. The local news media, starting with Miami Today and the Miami Herald have failed to adequately report on this project - especially this effort by Berkowitz to go after public money after he stated that he wasn't going to do so - and consequently for the most part have acted as PR flacks instead of journalists.

There is absolutely no difference between Jeffrey Berkowitz wanting public money for this project and Steven Ross wanting public money for Sun Life Stadium, or Loria wanting public money for the Marlin's stadium or David Beckam wanting either public money or public land for his stadium.

I'm not opposed to any of these project, but I am opposed to the taxpayers having to pay the tab, given the myriad of serious problems that we have in this county that impact negatively on our quality of life.

That's where public money should and needs to be spent, not on a 1000 foot observation tower that Berkowitz expects to make him and his other investors gobs of money!

Al Crespo Speaks Out on Skyrise Miami. By Geniusofdespair

Skyrise Miami

Al Crespo, blogger, sounds off:






Eye on Miami does not necessarily agree with these video. Personally, I have not given it one iota of thought yet.

Great find: The Crespogram taped the meeting on the ethics discussion on the award of the $1.6 Billion dollar Water & Sewer contract. By Geniusofdespair

Al Crespo of the Crespogram taped the ethics meeting on the Virginia Key bid for $1.6 billion dollars. Thank you Al.  Very interesting, listen to the lawyers argue.


 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cvkzRzZKXo&feature=youtu.be


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEPqxxzbWwk&feature=youtu.be

Crespo looks at the "They Did Me Wrong Lawsuit." By Geniusofdespair

From Mayor Regaldo's Motion for an Extension (on the blog Crespogram).

Check out the Crespogram today. He takes a look at the lawsuit waged against Katherine Fernandez Rundle's office and Mayor Tomas Regalado by City of Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence Jones. He also has Fernandez-Rundle office's 3 legal responses to the lawsuit. Al Crespo said:

It becomes hard to tag a prosecutor with engaging in a bad faith prosecution when at least one individual is convicted of a crime associated with the alleged crimes of the elected official, and on the other hand, it’s hard to completely claim immunity from a bad faith prosecution if you convict someone of paying off an elected official, without also being able to convict the elected official for taking the payoff.

It’s little things like that that will make this case so interesting to watch, because unlike Miami-Dade Circuit Court where the first thing most insiders do is to go and check on who the judge’s campaign manager was, in federal court, where the judges are appointed and not susceptible to the alleged claims of ex parte communications that take place between Circuit Court judges and their campaign managers, there’s a better chance of decisions being made on the law. Plus Federal judges tend to be smarter and more experienced then some of the bozos who end up on the Circuit Court.

Al Crespo Peddles Some Inspiration. By Geniusofdespair

If I read the articles about me, 

and I didn't know me,  I would think I was Satan.

Lobbyist Jack Abramoff

Some days I get up and sit at my computer to write a blog post and I say to myself, after 7 years, what is the point. Carl Hiaasen's column made me think about the Marlins Dolphins Stadium yet again - I have been trying to put it out of my mind because the welfare for a multi billionaire team owner makes me so angry. After listening to a majority of County Commissioners parrot lobbyist talking points last week, I see the public funding train of a private stadium unstoppable in the County -- unless Norman Braman can throw some major bucks against it.

Miami Dade County residents disappoint, acting like lemmings, never learning from history.  Some folks blindly follow a radio talk show host's manipulation. Those same hosts sometimes are paid to use lobbyists talking points or paid to support certain candidates. Voters often put a "good looking" guy or gal in office ONLY because they are good looking. Others return the very same people to office that voted in favor of the toxic Marlins deal,  the deal voters claim to hate.  Residents vote against their own interest and put bad and nasty people in office all the time like, Mayor Susan Gottlieb, Mayor Steven Bateman, Vice Mayor John DuBois, County Commissioner Lynda Bell, Commissioner Pepe Diaz, Commissioner Barbara Jordan, Commissioner Bruno Barreiro and State Rep. Erik Fresen just to name a few.  Gets old after a while. I look at lobbyists who do volunteer work against abuse and then they abuse with no qualms, not recognizing their own behavior is abusive to the public's good. Makes you want to puke after a few years.

Because I am so disgusted today I will print a comment left on one of our posts by fellow blogger Al Crespo of the Crespogram Report. Maybe it will inspire me.

Al Crespo left this comment in response to one of our reader's who asked why we write about lobbyists. The reader said they like it when we criticize them, it only makes them more successful, because businesses will see what we write as a lobbyist's strength and success not as a negative (my words, for full comment: see read more):

"Knowledge, like water is a powerful thing. Do not underestimate the value of the daily reporting on the big and small assaults on the public's trust that bloggers can produce. Like drops on a rock, one day that rock might break into pieces because of the repeated drops.

The efforts of Eye On Miami, The Straw Buyer myself and others, does have an affect. We're not going to change human nature, but in many ways, each of us had managed to make an impact on how the politicians in this county operate.

Some results have been good, and some not so good, but I signed on for the long haul, and I feel that every year I do this my voice grows stronger, as my knowledge and resources grow stronger.

The lobbyists are important but not as important as revealing just how the elected and appointed officials, who make the decisions that impact everyone's lives, do what they do.

If you think things are bad now, think back and ask yourselves how much worse would it be if all of us who spend our time and effort trying to educate, expose, and generally raise the level of awareness of what the politicians are trying to do had decided not to do anything.

In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king, and I believe that each of us in our own way is trying to help more and more people see out of that one eye.

It's not easy, and we might not succeed in ways that will prove to be earth shattering, but I am personally encouraged by the almost daily messages I get from readers who appreciate my efforts, and most importantly, put their trust in me by providing me with documents, tips, and inside information on what is going on inside the City of Miami.

They feel they have no voice, and in my flawed way I try to be their voice because the Miami Herald, the TV stations, and much of what passes for the establishment watchdogs won't."

Verbatim comment from a reader that Al Crespo was responding to:

Blogger Banned From City of Miami MRC Building. By Geniusofdespair

Yep, not only was blogger Al Crespo banned from the King Mango Strut earlier this year, today he was denied entry to the City of Miami Riverside Center. He is contemplating suing over what he calls the "Crespo Policy." He has been a constant critic of the City of Miami and its Commissioners, and its Mayor, and its Police Chief, and....you get the idea. According to NBC News:

Proof of the Crespo rule might have come Monday when the blogger tried to enter the building and was stopped and told he had to have an appointment, even as dozens of other citizens freely walked by security without being questioned.

“This is a sad state of affairs,” said Crespo, whose Crespo-Gram Report was recently blocked from city computers. “The city is $61 million in the hole, the mayor is under criminal investigation and the police chief is about to be fired in two weeks and they waste the entire morning on this.”

Crespo’s limited access to the building is the product of a new measure to ensure employee security, said Assistant City Manager Luis Cabrera.

They have a good video on the NBC site.