Turmoil at City Hall

Last Friday, January 17, Commissioner Monolo Reyes was made chair of the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) and Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla was made Chair of the Omni CRA. Both positions were taken away from Commissioner Ken Russell who is the district commissioner of those areas, which is District 2. By a 3-2 vote, three fellow commissioners stripped Ken of his duties. Reyes is commissioner of District 4 and de la Portilla is commissioner of District 1.

Commissioner Hardemon is the only one who stuck up for Ken. They both voted against the motion by Diaz de la Portilla.

Diaz de la Portilla was just recently elected to the position as commissioner in November. He is starting out as a bully.

While the Omni CRA and the DDA may not fully represent anything Grove-related, there was a plan to extend the Omni CRA to Village West, which would help with redevelopment of the neighborhood. Now that seems to be something that will not happen.

The problem with the whole issue is that it seems to have been planned way ahead of the vote, which would be in violate of State Sunshine Laws. There was no prior discussion or agenda item of the issues of replacing Ken - no debate or discussion and citizens were not permitted to speak on the issue.

At the January 9 meeting, there was a brew haha when a loud argument broke out between commissioners. It was an immature argument about the order of agenda items. The meeting was adjurned early - 11 am, over the scuffle. Commissioner Joe Carollo, who acts like a child at every commission meeting started an argument with Commissioner Keon Hardemon.
The Miami Herald explains what went down at the meeting here.

To that end, after enough nonsense from Joe, citizens are taking action. Political strategist and organizer Juan Cuba, former executive director of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party has started a recall Joe Carollo effort. Can trouble maker de la Portilla be added to that?

As of now Emilio T. Gonzalez, the City Manager has resigned, not wanting to deal with "this silliness." He was under constant pressure from Commissioner Joe Carollo. 

So as it seems now, there is a 3-2 split on the commission, Russell and Hardemon being the two against the "gang of three."

I joked with a friend over the weekend about the Coconut Grove BID being taken over by other commissioners, but there is a charter/law against that happening.

And only one week after Miami Beach commissioner John Elizabeth Alemán agreed to become acting director of the DDA, she has already resigned. She's not having the mess that is City Hall these days.

“Nine weeks have elapsed since the DDA Board of Directors voted to appoint me as Executive Director,” wrote Alemán in a letter sent to city officials Tuesday morning. “While I was honored by the selection and eager to begin working with the DDA’s board and staff to tackle the critical issues confronting downtown, clarity around the terms of my employment and the nature of the position moving forward has diminished greatly since November.”

If you look up dysfunctional theses days on Wikipedia, "The City of Miami" pops up. Or at least it should.