Ethical issues stalk Commissioner Sarnoff
Looks like our Commissioner Marc Sarnoff is getting into hot water over ethical issues regarding his staff. Zoning issues and money issues, the usual, are being looked into. Sarnoff says there are clear explanations for each issue. Hope so.
While I don't agree with many things that Marc came up with like the black info booths, Sarnoff Circle and the wall on US1, I don't think the guy is a crook, but I guess time will tell.
It's good to know that people do investigate the politicians, which hopefully stops corruption. I do notice that since McClatchy bought The Herald, there have been many more local sacred cows being looked into. Maybe it helps to have an outside company run the local newspaper, a company not tied to Miami, who can be objective and not try to protect cronies.
This is one good reason why residents should vote on issues like zoning and not the politicians. First Michele Spence-Jones, now Sarnoff. Who is going to be in trouble next?
While I don't agree with many things that Marc came up with like the black info booths, Sarnoff Circle and the wall on US1, I don't think the guy is a crook, but I guess time will tell.
It's good to know that people do investigate the politicians, which hopefully stops corruption. I do notice that since McClatchy bought The Herald, there have been many more local sacred cows being looked into. Maybe it helps to have an outside company run the local newspaper, a company not tied to Miami, who can be objective and not try to protect cronies.
This is one good reason why residents should vote on issues like zoning and not the politicians. First Michele Spence-Jones, now Sarnoff. Who is going to be in trouble next?
posted by Tom Falco at 8:49 AM
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31 Comments:
It's my understanding that Sarnoff had nothing to do with "Sarnoff Circle" - that it had been planned years before he came to the Commission.
There are alot of things you can say about Sarnoff, but corrupt I don't think is one of them.
Also, you gotta wonder if his role in exposing corruption hasn't made him a huge target.
Love Marc, but Sarnoff Circle was planned when he was head of the Village Council. He even went around with petitions in the neighborhood begging people to sign. I know, I was one who signed.
What you all fail to realize is that your former hero, Marc Sarnoff, did exactly what I said he would do. He used the Home Depot situation and vowed to be the sole non-corrupt commissioner to pull the wool over all of your eyes. Wow, HD is still here and they arent a neighborhood nuisance! Remember, this guy is a lawyer and lawyers are shady. He doesnt give a shit about anyone but himself and his own special interests (Sarnoff Circle for one). Now he's taking care of his "inner circle" band of thieves. This is the same guy that lied about his lineage for pete's sake! He's a phoney and he is robbing our city blind just like the rest of the crooks in Miami City Government. Dont be fooled for a second. The guy is a city pawn and a scumbag.
Actually, the circle pre-dates Marc's involvement with the Village Council by years. It was a project of the Center Grove Neighborhood Association, later re-named the Village of Center Grove. Marc was President at the time, but the traffic circle had a lot of support because people wanted to find a way to slow traffic where they crossed the street to go to the dog park. For the project to be approved, a significant percentage of the affected landowners had to sign a petition, which they did. The project then lingered on the City's shelves, for years, until Marc was in office. I have no clue about whether Marc's office pushed the completion of the project or the City just happened to finally get to it.
As a constant reader of this blog I will chime in to say that it is my opinion that Mr. Marc Sarnoff is definitely not perfect and I would hope those readers and writers of this blog don't fool themselves into thinking that he is.
When he was first running for election it seems it was this blog and some of its readers' opinions that he was "perfect" and definitely the best choice for commiss. Now the blog seems to be taking a (hypocritical?) different stance, and sort of saying: "let's see how Marc's office's actions get judged, good or bad?".
So two issues: No longer in full support of Marc? And no harsh words used to treat this political snafu? The blog and its readers definitely seem to use harsh words when discussing snafus such as Michell Spence-Jones and other non-Marc Sarnoffs.
All I'm asking for/ encouraging is for more un-biasedness, and equal judgment of all politicians. The political snafus that the Herald reports all deserve the same amount of respect, criticism, judgment, trust. Don't hate on the article about Sarnoff, but take the article about Dana Nottingham, Winton, Spence-Jones, etc. to be the word of truth.
Well if you read the blog regularly (which I don't think you do), you would have noticed that I made a big deal of voting AGAINST Sarnoff in the last election and that I put down all of his projects which I find to be a waste of taxpayers' money and self serving.
And being in the Grove and dealing with Grove issues more closely than other areas of the county, I don't feel he is a crook. I think he made mistakes, but the jury is still out. But I hear things, talk to people and know things that I don't blog about Marc.
I also was threatened by attorneys on Michelle Spence-Jones' side who were trying to shut me up before all hell broke loose with Spence-Jones in the main media. So that gave me reason to think she was doing things wrong since they were trying to have me delete certain blog posts and comments that were evidence against her before anything actually came out.
(By the way, all the posts and comments ended up being true).
As far as I see, Marc believes in the first ammendment and free speech. Spence-Jones and her lawyers don't. Threatening a blogger and asking him to remove posts and comments is unAmerican.
I think one of her lawyers who was hounding me is now in hiding. As soon as Channel 4 and The Herald published their stories, he disappared and left me alone after hounding me for weeks.
Now Spence-Jones has been shown to take money for her votes. To me that is more of a crime than what Marc has been accused of so far. But again, the jury is out and I will be totally fair.
Sarnoff hasn't been accused of anything, 3 of his aides have. Two of the issues, are non-starters, the fence billing will be rejected and the guy no longer works for Sarnoff, and the nit-picking of dates. The 3rd is a conflict of interest and the guy should do the right thing and resign.
At the very least, he's got all the makings of a lousy manager and/or businessman:
1. Surrounding himself with 3 corrupt aides
2. Not firing them on the spot
3. Not addressing all the pending issues quickly and decisvely.
Maybe he is not corrup. Maybe he is. But, one thing for sure, he's stopped being effective
If he ever was
blind man, u actually might be blind but also ignorant
shame dude that is terrible combination.
Sir Grove blogger,
I do read your blog every day (as a past Grove resident). I apologize if I mis-summarized your opinions, I very well might, have, but I feel comfortable in saying that many of your readers/ commentors do have the sort of hypocritical/synical view of the rest of Miami politics being evil but much of Sarnoff's work being great. Comments two entries above this one reflect what I am trying to capture. If they are his aids/employees he is completely responsible for their actions. The horrible PR/ way that Dana Nottingham of the Miami DDA went down is very similar to this type of situation, and he got burned hard.
My comments/inclinations are all meant to just hope we could have a more united/less politicized neighborhood-politics throughout the City and Miami-Dade area, together fighting for a greater good for our whole SoFla communities.
Anon - I can see fine and I dont see how Im ignorant for pointing out how crooked City of Miami officials are. Your comment makes no sense.
Benji, you are right - all city officials and their cases of robbing us blind should be discussed equally but its always the ones that are most absurd that stand out. I would like to see a serious investigation done here. It baffles me how these allegations come about and then are proven to be fact and nothing happens as a result. How can you be allowed to take part in city government as an official when its been proven that you have abused the system? There is such a trail of blood that it makes all of us citizens look stupid for sitting here and putting up with it time and time again. Nothing but green eyes down here starving for the almighty dollar to pass around amongst their friends. Its got to end. Doesnt it make you wonder how a decision to spend $500M on a new baseball stadium can even come close to approval when education budgets are going to be slashed by $500-$600M???
Sarnoff - step down now!
I believe it was the Miami New Times who first exposed Sarnoff, no? The Herald sure didn't do the stories first...
There will be several stories in the local papers in the coming weeks detailing how many more elements of Sarnoff's official bio are outright lies.
Stand by.......
This is rich. Let's see.....
If Michelle Spence Jones hired a friend to run her campaign and paid him/her $272,000, this blog would have killed to get it out as soon as possible. Sarnoff hires his friend a firefighter and pays him $272,000 of undocumented expenses, it is exposed 2 weeks ago and it is still not on this blog.
If Michelle Spence Jones had given a grant of $167,000 to Mt. Zion and then said, she didn't realize the head of it was a friend of hers, boy, the web would have crashed with the speed by which it would have been posted here and small children would have to be protected from the rain of ridcule and self righteous indignation from this blog. Now Marc Sarnoff gives that $167,000 of Yvonne MacDonald's organization in violation of City and Federal conflict of interest rules, says he didn't know she had been president of the organization (RIGHT) it comes out 2 weeks ago and this blog is still silent.
Ryan Alexander, that hatchet man of the Center Grove and chief harasser of those who don't buy Marc's bull has just made a small mistake according to this blog by (1) building on a city right of way without a permit (he's a building inspeactor for God's sake) and (2) falsifying a submission to get paid by getting bids FOUR MONTHS after he put the fence up illegally - now c'mon what would you do to Michelle Spence Jones or any of the other elected officials.
The HYPOCRISY is underwhelming. You have gotten what you wanted -- ONE OF YOU!
Well, I really don't like the guy and I was avoiding the issue to spare hurting some friends who are very close to him. That's all.
I walked away from him when I saw him at Taste of the Grove. I shook his hand, made an excuse and left. I wasn't trying to protect him by not writing about him, I was just trying not to hurt friends who are close to him.
This is a blog, not a newspaper, I am under no obligation to report every piece of news.
I have deleted some nasty comments attacking me here. If you want to attack me, put your name and email. Thank you.
Another hypocritical thing Sarnoff has done recently:
He portrays himself as "mister environment." I wrote to him a letter saying if baseball wants to build itself a stadium, fine. The city could contribute by building a mass transit line (trolley or whatever) down Flagler or NW 7th Ave from downtown to past the stadium - something that would benefit the stadium folks but also something that could be used by everyone and would also be good for the environment. He never responded to my letter...
And what does mr environment do??? He votes to spend a ton of city money not on parks, not on transit... but on building a giant Parking Lot For Cars and then giving the Lot to the baseball team... all revenues to baseball and a giant Car Magnet so more people can drive around polluting.
Thanks, "Mr Environment"
:(
As much as I wanted Sarnoff to be our hope for a decent commissioner, I must admit I have had my doubts with the first petition he started which took away park land from human children and gave it to dogs. Does he have kids? No. Does he have dogs? Yes. He has them in his promotional pictures, so he is very honest about where his loyalties lie, canine over humans. Then, its the petition for the circle to help slow down the traffic for the dogs.
Okay, so I got on board for the Home Depot thing. And I liked his environmental agenda. I laughed when Arriola and Diaz sucker-punched him with that memo thing with Spence-Jones in retaliation for the Perez Condo vote. And I actually felt bad for him when the Spence-Jones camp took revenge against him. But when Sarnoff voted for that stadium, thus denying us the right to chose what is being done with our tax dollars, along with supporting a tunnel that engineers already have studied to be infeasible, I question where his loyalties lie. Apparently, no longer with his people.
Why is it that these politicians think they know what is best for us? Why don't they let us vote for these overpriced expenditures? What do they have to gain by not giving us the chance to vote?
I know that the argument is that the taxes don't come out of my pocket, but if they are collecting taxes in my name, then I should get to vote for such an outlandish project. What gives these people the right? At least Gimenez voted against it. At this point, I think that Sarnoff is a total sell-out. Taking away our right to vote on issues is not standing up for the Grove!!!!!
Well, this has gotten very political. My guess is that many people are exactly right in their assessments of Commissioner Sarnoff. Especially with the stadium and the tunnel. These will be great additions-- Sarnoff Circle on a grand scale!
And I have to admit I love the circle. I can barrel down the road, turn a little to the right, a little to the left (or the other way if I am daring-- after all this is Miami) and never have to stop for pedestrians or dogs or even a wayward Commissioner.
Maybe if he is re-elected we can put a tunnel under his circle!
I, for one, am disappointed in his performance.
What ever became of Winton's appeal of Charlie Crist's ruling? I thought it was excessive to challenge the governor's interpretation.... but it did keep things interesting.
It is very hard for commissioners to get talented staff. Talented people have histories of success. Often they own businesses and property. They understand constituent concerns because they were constituents.
And the other problem is how do you get talented successful people to work for very low wages? The public wants and deserves experienced talented people.
Look at the fence situation? How many times will you see a bureaucrat go into his own pocket and pay for a fence that helps his neighborhood? Right. Never. But Sarnoff found a staffer who stepped up and did what the City wouldn't. (Unbeknowst to Sarnoff...) The fence did get installed.
The above comment about not being able to get staff and the fence was put up for free points out how delusional many of Commissioner Sarnoff's supporters are.
Are we to accept that there is no one in the City of Miami that he could hire with the sames skills as Peter Ehrlich, but with no personal agenda? The UM professor on Ethics said it bes .... ''Unless there is no one on earth who can provide the same kind of knowledge, then why would you bring people into a process who have interests that are potentially advantaged?'' asked Tony Alfieri, a University of Miami law professor who directs the school's Center for Ethics and Public Service.
Are we to accept that Ryan Alexander intended to gift the fence to the City???? The fence was put up illegally on a City Right of Way without a permit - watch Thursday's commission meeting. There is a legal process that has to be followed. Ryan Alexander is a building inspector - he knows it.
But he didn't do it out of the goodness of his heart. If he had he would not have falsified documents to get paid. If he had done it out of the goodness of his heart the park would not be locked with his friends having the keys.
I think it is time to wake up. I hate to think that we are no better than the followers of Jim Jones.
Anyone who cares has a personal agenda. Some people want a better City. Other people want no-bid contracts for themselves and for their friends. Some people just want to keep getting overpaid and to get fat pensions. Some people want to collect on three pensions. What does anonymous 8:56 am above want?
How is a commissioner, any commissioner, to get very talented people to work very long hours for very low pay?
Many of you more informed Grovites have known about the Erlich conflict of interest for a long time.
Now it's an oops because it came out in the newspaper.
My question to you all is Does anyone out there believe that it is NOT a conflict of interest?
I believe it is NOT a conflict of interest. The poor guy has lousy zoning but he does not care because his company just finished renovating and he is not tearing anything down. He might be the best expert at the City (only expert) on how to completely turn around a depressed neighborhood. Leave the guy alone.
Unfortunately the news has not told you all the FACTS. I am tired of irresponsible journalism. The media knows the public will jump on sensationalized issues so they feed you what they want you to react to. And too often , the public fails to do their research and get the truth before they react.
There has been no wrongdoing by Commissioner Sarnoff or his staff which cannot be said for a lot of other folks who were in office before him or who served as aides in a previous administration.
Sarnoff's staff are hardworking and caring individuals who have demonstrated their love for Coconut Grove, its residents and businesses.
Where were the nay-sayers when Commissioner Sarnoff and his staff were hard at work cleaning up the streets or helping repair homes for seniors and handicapped residents? Why didn't the media print stories about that ????
I suspect there are folks behind these negative stories that either want Sarnoff's seat or felt they should have had it instead of him.
Sarnoff and his staff are refreshing .. they dare to confront issues that have typically been untouchable... maybe that's why they are getting so much fire... stepping on some tender toes!
Come on folks... think for yourselves... don't let the media fool you all the time! Demand responsible journalism! Hear the other side of the story before you jump to unfounded conclusions. And by all means look at the intent when you see this kind of sniping... who is behind it? What sour grapes are they sucking on now?????
Insist that the media write more positive stories about the good things going on in Coconut Grove.
Well said Marc!!!!
What's the point of leaving comments on this blog if they are never posted? Isn't this an open forum as long as there is no profanity, no obscenities, what is going on here?
Do you mean the post where you keep naming names accusing someone of killing someone else and all other sorts of name calling and then want to remain anonymous?
Not gonna happen. You wanna accuse and defame? Post your name and email and I'll post your comments. Or are you too afraid to come into the light with your accusations?
Not crooked? Ask Sarnoff why he never went BACK to the commission chamber to make sure his no vote counted on the stadium, when the 2/2 would have made a final "no", Instead, he didn't return to chambers and had to know, or should have, that Sanchez therefore went and didn't finalize the 2/2, postponing it then for Michelle to return. he should have demanded the 2/2 counted. And, when it later went through, he could have vote no on the no contest, but chose not too. Rejecting the no contest would have delayed the stadium by a year. The county would not have been able to approve it and the Marlins needed a yes to both the stadium and no contest to meet their deadlines. Waited until Michelle was there to vote it through, didn't stop it even when he could have by voting No on the no-contest. Yet, appearing to care about residents but guaranteeing he wouldn't impede it.
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