COMMISSIONER ED TOBIN VERSUS MANAGER JORGE GONZALEZ
MIAMI BEACH FAUX POLITICAL OPPOSITION SERIES
BY
DAVID ARTHUR WALTERS
Miami Beach, September 8, 2013
Commissioner Ed Tobin is a Police Academy graduate and a former prosecutor, therefore we are not surprised to find substance in his April 24, 2012, public record email indictment of former City Manager Jorge Gonzalez, which was served on Gonzalez with copies to the mayor and commissioners, and subsequently forwarded by a so-called populist commissioner to his public relations activist, and on to the email addresses of the public on that activist’s list. The public may view the email again below.
Forget not that Tobin is a good man, and that even good men have faults, including the common fault of blaming others for their own faults. Yet his charges were not baseless, frivolous and delusional, as the city attorney, sitting gryphon-like on the ramparts, likes to say of besiegers when the city he identifies with is suspected or accused of impropriety. After all, almost everyone opposed to the Gonzalez regime complained about the aloofness or arrogance of the handsome city boss, his perceived failure to oversee the departmental fiefdoms, and to be overseen himself.
To arrogate is to assume for oneself without right. Say, the right to withhold information and not to respond to complaints. Tobin refers to it as “management privilege.” We heard much about President Richards Nixon’s “executive privilege” when he got into hot water. Executive privilege is the expansion of historical “sovereign immunity,” hailing from the days where “the King could do no wrong.” A complaint could not be filed against the king unless he granted leave for it to be filed, which kings were fain to do as a matter of course rather than meet the fate of predecessors who refused to be held accountable.
Granted that the people of Miami Beach have experienced too much management privilege over the past few years from all sorts of officials, and that includes their commissioners. There have been all too many little kings in need of deposition, and the matter came to a head with the offing of its head administrator.
Tobin unfairly casts all the blame on Gonzalez, who was not the only source of information available. Gonzalez and the people provided Tobin and other commissioners with plenty of evidence of maladministration, malfeasance, misprision and so on in various offices over several years. Yet they were usually unresponsive to the people.
Oh, yes, they responded to some great clamor with a hearing or two, but not much was done about the root of discontent, the official arrogance. Sometimes the commissioners were as if deaf and dumb, unable to see and hear evil, but their inability was willful. Indeed, the standing order throughout city hall and its satellites: Do not negatively criticize your government.
In some cases the evil was documented public record available to anyone hence was at the fingertips of the commissioners, so the complaint that nothing could be done because Gonzalez was withholding all the information is spurious.
Gonzalez was the commission’s manager, not their boss. He was in office for thirteen years, until, all of a sudden, after the FBI arrests, there were cries for his removal, spearheaded by Commissioner Wolfson, with his de facto press agent and their local political press organ shedding the false light of faux opposition.
The commissioners are in truth much to blame, particularly the hypocritical ones who damned their own man. They should also be held accountable for the public shaming of the city. If Gonzalez was solely guilty as charged, surely responsible commissioners would have moved the commission to fire him for cause, for silence would only condone misconduct. Surely the press would report such a motion, yet we heard nothing of the sort until of late. Let the good commissioners dig into the archives and produce the motions they made over the years to fire Gonzalez. And if Gonzalez alone were guilty, may every commissioner who did not publicly call for his removal long before the most recent FBI scandals be virtually impeached, never to return to public office in the sunny city again.
Obviously, the form of government should be changed to a strong manager system so that the person running the city is directly accountable to the people. She or he will be voted out or recalled and the next person will dispose of his professional management team if need be.
Will that happen? No. Why? Because the great majority of the electorate do not vote, allowing a small number of voters to place the fate of the city in negligent hands. Perhaps only a hundred people can name all the commissioners let alone know much about them, and only a few thousand people vote, and that is too bad for the people.
Much is now being made of the mayoral race, and it is said that a greater evil is faced than the entrenched bureaucracy, that the opposition is so-called, that all it wants is the spoils and not good government, so business as usual will prevail if it wins. “We like Mike, so let’s stick with him, and to hell with the devil who wants to purchase the city,” is the refrain.
In fact, we have two sides posing at the opposition, both running against corruption. Business as usual is the rotation of hogs around the trough with one interest in mind: self-interest. There is no opposition outside of the rotating ring. Do not be deceived by the so-called oppositions.
Remember that the mayor by charter definition is weak. The mayor has greater communicative power than the commissioners, but is only chair of the commission among equals, not having the power to veto the commission’s determinations: the mayor is a glorified commissioner with one vote.
In my opinion, the faux opposition’s candidate is a dud. It is only convenient to cast him as the devil. He would become a devil among devils, and radical reform would fizzle with him, or, for that matter, with anyone else. Focus on the elections of commissioners, and get yourself a strong mayor who is directly responsible to the people who care.
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By Darwin Leon
THE TOBIN-GONZALEZ BOUT
From: "Tobin, Ed"< Ed@miamibeachfl.gov>
Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2012 00:59:38 -0400
To: Tobin, Ed<Ed@miamibeachfl.gov>
Cc: Jorge Gonzalez<JorgeGonzalez@miamibeachfl.gov>; Tobin, Ed<Ed@miamibeachfl.gov>; Weithorn, Deede<Deede@miamibeachfl.gov>; Libbin, Jerry<Jerry@miamibeachfl.gov>; Wolfson, Jonah<jonah@miamibeachfl.gov>; Exposito, Jorge<jorge@miamibeachfl.gov>; Gongora, Michael<MGongora@miamibeachfl.gov>; Bower, Matti H.<MayorBower@miamibeachfl.gov>;< ed@edtobin.com>
Subject: Re: Responding Re: The Public and the elected officials have a right to know
Sent from my iPad
On Apr 24, 2012, at 12:40 AM, "Tobin, Ed" <Ed@miamibeachfl.gov> wrote:
Dear Jorge,
You will shortly hold a press conference. You will display the Inspector General who I begged you to bring here in 2008 and 2009 when I and others supplied you with a litany of suspicious circumstances regarding construction projects but you refused.
At this press conference you will cloth yourself in the respectability of the Inspector General and others to deflect attention from the fact that you lost interest in managing the City years ago. Your publicity stunt will cast an additional shadow on our City that exists because you have failed to hold executives accountable for their performance. We have a Strong City Manager form of Government. That means you run the Cities day to day operations. The Commission has very little say so in regards to the day to day operations. Commissioners are not privy to ANY matters of employee misconduct or malfeasance. We get that type of information from newspapers, blogs and the rumor mill.
Commissioners have complained many many times even in our retreats that you do not hold your executives accountable. We have complained that there are no benchmarks. I have complained that you do not do written evaluations of your executive team.
We pay our employees the best in the State and our benefits are the best. We must ask why do we have all this corruption. Corruption in this instance is a by product of the lack of oversight and accountability. The waste and mistakes we have pointed out over the years is staggering. I must hold you accountable for a host of matters both in and out of the news papers of late that bear on your ability to manage. I am sure that this latest scandal involving the code inspectors will NOT be our last. What will we say when the next scandal strikes. Who will we hold accountable?
I will not go into the list of matters for which I must hold you accountable at this time but will address your tempting tale of lucrative businesses, corrupt politicians and greedy unions.
1. Apparently you and the Mayor advised the Miami Herald Editorial Board that Commissioners are taking campaign contributions for fixing code violations. Why was this never reported to the State Attorney. Your failure to report this is grounds for your termination for cause. To wait until a scandal and then use it to absolve yourself of culpability is wrong. Identify these Commissioners if they exist.
2. As for your suggestion that the Commission appeased the unions by killing the Robert Wennet clean Lincoln Road deal. You were accused of potential wrong doing in the no bid method for which the deal with Robert was made. I therefore referred the matter to the State Attorney's Office to determine if any wrong doing had occurred. I was sure then that you had done nothing wrong and I am still of that opinion. To my knowledge the matter has not been closed by the State Attorney.
At a meeting while the matter was still being investigated the union raised the issue of a no bid contract. I always spoke in favor of Robert getting the job but I thought we all agreed that a multi-million dollar contract should not be given on a no bid basis. The bidding process is good government and that's how we operate.
3. As for your assertion that you recommended an audit of the code department and we rejected the idea. My memory differs from yours and I'm betting the matter is on tape. In fact many of the residents wanted an audit and you suggested we wait a while since your Director, Robert Santos was new to the job and by all accounts the department was doing well. The residents thought the unfounded rate was suspiciously high and you assured us no corruption existed. You were a strong advocate for no audit.
There is no justification for making up these matters to the editorial board. If you resign or if the votes are there to terminate your employment I am certain everyone would give you as respectful and dignified a separation as possible. I believe I am duty bound to hold you accountable. Engaging in this type of politics with the editorial board is beneath you and unfairly soils the Cities reputation. Stick to being an honest and good family man. Engaging in this half truth innuendo politics is beneath you.
Sincerely, Respectfully, Regretfully,
Ed
Sent from my iPad
On Apr 23, 2012, at 8:32 AM, "Gonzalez, Jorge" < JorgeGonzalez@miamibeachfl.gov> wrote:
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Hi Ed,
I am happy to share with you anything you wish. All you have to do is simply call me and ask (as you have done in the past).
As it relates to access to information, you have had a very good ability to acquire information. On several occasions you have asked me about matters that came to your attention from sources other than from me or through official administration sources. I have always researched and provided you with whatever I knew or found out. I will continue to do so. Often times the information or rumors you were provided with turned out to be incomplete at best or inaccurate at worst. They were provided to you with particular agendas in mind. For example, the several rumors that were floated during the Police Chief recruitment alone were quite creative and bordered on absurd and worst yet hurtful and divisive to our community. I know you were able to sort out fact from fiction.
Throughout my tenure I have worked to ensure that we provided honest and efficient service. I do not intend to stop now and will not allow anyone to suggest otherwise. Unfortunately, it appears that corruption has existed on Miami Beach for many decades -- NEVER in anything I have been involved or directed.
I have made many decisions over the years. Several of which have made special interests upset. Each of them have, I'm sure used their self interested agendas to subvert the efforts of the city and try to erode confidence in us. That is unfortunate but I cannot control that.
My efforts have been and continue to be pursuing the direction set by the City Commission -- in the best interests of our residents.
Respectfully,
Jorge
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----- Original Message -----
From: Tobin, Ed
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2012 07:45 AM
To: Gonzalez, Jorge
Cc: Weithorn, Deede; Libbin, Jerry; Wolfson, Jonah; Exposito, Jorge; Gongora, Michael; Bower, Matti H.; Tobin, Ed; Ed Tobin <ed@edtobin.com>
Subject: The Public and the elected officials have a right to know
For the entire term for which I have served I have faced enormous hurdles whenever I sought information relative to mistakes, inefficiency, incompetence, overspending, waste, criminal conduct or lack of oversight. You have always fought hard and successfully to keep these matters strictly within your purview citing your management privilege.
Commissioners only receive information through you. All handpicked department heads and executive level employees for which you have long standing friendships guard this information insuring information of any negative nature whatsoever does not go to a Commissioner.
This culture trickles into every aspect of the City as employees consistently omit information to the elected officials of fail to perform basic due diligence that may suggest an alternate course of action different from that of their recommendation.
Of course we cannot exercise any effective oversight over management when any information that may tend to suggest mistakes, inefficiency, incompetence, overspending, waste, criminal conduct or lack of oversight by management is withheld from us (unless it reaches the Miami Herald). The most essential of information can no longer be kept from the public and their elected officials.
Specifically as it relates to the pending criminal investigations I want to be present with you and the Mayor as a representative of my fellow Commissioners for all matters relative to any criminal wrong doing to insure that we receive all information unfiltered and that we provide all information unfiltered to the public at the appropriate time.
Without Commission access to all information in real time we will never know:
What about our organization allowed this to happen? Did we see signs of wrong doing? Should we have seen signs? Did we cover up or ignore matters that would have lead to the discovery of wrong doing?
These questions were never explored by the Commission in the building department corruption scandal because you managed the information.
Respectfully,
Ed Tobin
Sent from my iPad
CITY COMMISSIONER TOBIN
ASKS FOR POT
RE: Background Checks on Interim City Manager Finalists
Frank Del Vecchio <fdelvecchio@atlanticbb.net> Fri, Jun 1, 2012 at 7:50 PM
To: MayorBower@miamibeachfl.gov, Deede@miamibeachfl.gov, Ed@miamibeachfl.gov,Jerry@miamibeachfl.gov, Jonah@miamibeachfl.gov, Michael@miamibeachfl.gov,Jorge@miamibeachfl.gov
Cc: Jorgegonzalez@miamibeachfl.gov, josesmith@miamibeachfl.gov
June 1, 2012
MEMO FOR: Mayor and City Commissioners, City of Miami Beach
FROM: Frank Del Vecchio, 301 Ocean Drive, Apt. 604, Miami Beach, FL 33139
SUBJ: Background Checks on Interim City Manager Finalists
Now that the city commission has selected six finalists for consideration for the position of interim city manager, whom the commission will interview Monday, June 4, and discuss the appointment at its June 6 meeting (Agenda Item R9E), I believe it essential that background checks be conducted prior to selection, or prior to a selection becoming final.
Standard practice for hiring chief executive officers involves background checks, including requiring candidates to waive confidentiality regarding the terms of separation agreements from former employers. The Guidelines for Selecting a Local Government Administrator, International City Managers Association, (January 2012, page 15), call for obtaining candidates' permission for reference checks, and carrying out such checks.
When the City of Miami Beach engaged DMG-Maximus, Inc., of Tallahassee, FL in the year 2000 recruitment of a city manager, the firm vetted sixty-one applicants and the eleven finalists. The process the city commission decided upon at its recent Retreat meeting, May 18 and 19, compressed the recruitment to an eighteen-day time frame, which up to this point has not addressed the necessity for reference checks. Given the visibility and importance of the position, eighty resumes were submitted, and today the commission's rankings produced six finalists.
I recommend the city commission obtain from each finalist his or her written authorization to conduct background checks, including a waiver of confidentiality of any terms of separation agreements from previous employers, and that before any selection is made or is to be made final the results of the background check be made public at an advertised meeting of the city commission.
I am confident that candidates recognize that transparency and accountability must be the hallmarks of this process, and the city commission will discharge its responsibilities to ensure the public reposes confidence in the selection.
Frank Del Vecchio
301 Ocean Drive, Apt. 604
Miami Beach, FL 33139
Tel. (305) 672-2486
AFTERMATH: The Commission selected political insider Jimmy Morales as City Manager, who was not on the list provided by the recruitment consultant. The Commission displayed the candidate’s resumes and interviewed the finalists in public. It was a show, but the people had no formal hand in the process: they were not allowed to select the finalists nor vote for them.
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RE: Background Checks Memo, June 1, 2012.doc
David Arthur Walters <miamimirror@gmail.com> Sat, Jun 2, 2012 at 11:48 AM
To: Frank Del Vecchio <fdelvecchio@atlanticbb.net>
Cc: MayorBower@miamibeachfl.gov, Deede@miamibeachfl.gov,
Ed@miamibeachfl.gov, Jerry@miamibeachfl.gov, Jonah@miamibeachfl.gov,
Michael@miamibeachfl.gov, Jorge@miamibeachfl.gov,
Jorgegonzalez@miamibeachfl.gov, josesmith@miamibeachfl.gov
Bcc: kim< kim@miamisunpost.com>
EDITORIAL: We should not be deceived into thinking that changing city managers is going to change a longstanding culture, much of it informal. Whosoever takes the office will have to adjust to the status quo unless a radical is brought in and given temporary dictatorial powers except over the budget (as in Rome). The salient features of his background should be courage, honesty, and intelligence. Formal education and whether or not s/he inhaled or not should be at the end of the list. Jorge should have remained in his position for another year in order to take advantage of the impetus for reform i.e. a real crack down, and save some face to boot. Obviously, certain reformers did not want that crackdown, and have interests rooted in the very corruption they pretend to desire to root out. All the current commissioners should be replaced as soon as possible with a slate of clean candidates. Perhaps Jorge should consider running for mayor on a strong-mayor charter-reform plank, David Arthur Walters
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Weithorn, Deede <Deede@miamibeachfl.gov> Sat, Jun 2, 2012 at 12:43 PM
To: David Arthur Walters <miamimirror@gmail.com>
David. I disagree: change would not happen with Jorge in place. Even without him it will be a challenge to change the culture.
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Tobin, Ed <Ed@miamibeachfl.gov> Sat, Jun 2, 2012 at 1:08 PM
To: David Arthur Walters <miamimirror@gmail.com>
Cc: Frank Del Vecchio <fdelvecchio@atlanticbb.net>, "Bower, Matti H."
<MayorBower@miamibeachfl.gov>, "Weithorn, Deede" <Deede@miamibeachfl.gov>, "Tobin, Ed"
<Ed@miamibeachfl.gov>, "Libbin, Jerry" <Jerry@miamibeachfl.gov>, "Wolfson, Jonah"
<Jonah@miamibeachfl.gov>, "Gongora, Michael" <Michael@miamibeachfl.gov>, "Exposito,
Jorge"< Jorge@miamibeachfl.gov>, "Gonzalez, Jorge"< Jorgegonzalez@miamibeachfl.gov>,
"Smith, Jose" <josesmith@miamibeachfl.gov>
Can i buy some pot from you?
Sent from my iPad
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David Arthur Walters <miamimirror@gmail.com> Sat, Jun 2, 2012 at 2:36 PM
To: "Tobin, Ed" <Ed@miamibeachfl.gov>
Sold out in 71 when I copped out to the Man. Try Green Square.
[NOTE: Green Square has the management contract on the tennis center. Its manager is Commissioner Weithorn’s brother-in-law. A resident and a pro alleged heavy pot smoking by principals and pros. Drug test reports were withheld by the city attorney office pending research of privacy issues.]
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David Arthur Walters <miamimirror@gmail.com> Sat, Jun 2, 2012 at 2:40 PM
To: "Weithorn, Deede" <Deede@miamibeachfl.gov>
Do you recall who stood in the way when Jorge opposed the corruption of Building by permit fixers like Permit Doctors?
[NO RESPONSE]
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David Arthur Walters <miamimirror@gmail.com> Sat, Jun 2, 2012 at 11:23 PM
To: Matti Bower Bower< mayorbower@miamibeachfl.gov>
Matti will you back Jorge if he runs for mayor?
[NO RESPONSE]
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David Arthur Walters <miamimirror@gmail.com> Sat, Jun 2, 2012 at 11:33 PM
To: Jerry Libbin <jerry@miamibeachfl.gov>
Do you think Jorge would be a good mayor?
[NO RESPONSE]
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David Arthur Walters <miamimirror@gmail.com> Sat, Jun 2, 2012 at 11:37 PM
To: Jonah Wolfson <jonah@miamibeachfl.gov>
Jonah then Jorge could be legitimately political don’t you think?
[NO RESPONSE]
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