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Confused: Homestead leaders vote for land deal — but ‘nobody knows what they voted for’
Miami Herald ^ | October 15, 2015 | By Monique O. Madan

Posted on 10/15/2015 12:15:37 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee

Members of the Homestead City Council put their final stamp of approval on a controversial proposal to sell a city-owned bowling alley to a car dealer planning to build a Hyundai outlet.

Or so they thought.

The following day, some elected officials were unsure of what they had done.

City administrators, including City Manager George Gretsas, could not say exactly what provisions council members had directed him and the city attorney to put in the contract with Jay Rivchin, operator of Dadeland Dodge.

Mayor Jeff Porter, who ran the meeting, said he was as confused as staffers.

The project has generated controversy since the Herald revealed that the deal’s most vocal proponent, Councilman Jimmy Williams, had carried on a series of undisclosed contacts with Rivchin over Williams city-issued mobile device in the time leading up to a vote. Williams and Rivchin had more than 400 interactions, none of them made public until the Herald reported on them.

Less than two weeks after the council voted in favor of the project, the councilman’s god-daughter bought a car from Rivchin’s dealership after the three engaged in a late-evening conference call. Both Rivchin and Williams said there were no special considerations, although neither would produce a sales invoice. . .

(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: florida; georgegretsas; miami

1 posted on 10/15/2015 12:15:37 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
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To: Brad from Tennessee

“We have to pass it to know what’s in it.”


2 posted on 10/15/2015 12:20:54 PM PDT by moovova
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To: Brad from Tennessee

What’s a little graft among friends?.....................


3 posted on 10/15/2015 12:21:16 PM PDT by Red Badger (READ MY LIPS: NO MORE BUSHES!...............)
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To: Brad from Tennessee

“Homestead, Home of the Confused”


4 posted on 10/15/2015 12:24:22 PM PDT by Redbob (Keep your hands off my great-great-grandfather's flag)
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To: Brad from Tennessee
I'm on a school board and Americas is stupid

This article is SO like what I see more frequently ... proposals made that sound good ... usually made by one of the administration, (WHO wouldn't want a policy on suicide prevention ?) ... until you read that there will be an info gatherer at the class level, building level, school level and district level ... which all include (as I read between the lines) favored additional 'team members'

There's never been a suicide in our school

People on boards are not paying attention, or are functional illiterates, can't read, or perhaps do not understand WHAT they read

5 posted on 10/15/2015 12:26:44 PM PDT by knarf (ttitude)
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To: Brad from Tennessee
They are democrats -- Just follow the money.

"Mayor Jeff Porter, who ran the meeting, said he was as confused as staffers."

I believe this democrat is demonstrating that he is ready for a run at a national office.


6 posted on 10/15/2015 12:34:22 PM PDT by Iron Munro (The wise have stores of choice food and oil but a foolish man devours all he has. Proverbs 21:20)
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To: Brad from Tennessee; Larry Lucido

Go to law school, get elected, get rich......... plan Z for me .....


7 posted on 10/15/2015 1:37:40 PM PDT by Squantos ( Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet ...)
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To: Squantos
Go to law school, get elected, get rich......... plan Z for me .....

"It's evil......It's diabolical.......It's lemon-scented......This Plan Z can't possibly fail!"

8 posted on 10/15/2015 1:39:22 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: dfwgator

LMAO....


9 posted on 10/15/2015 1:47:30 PM PDT by Squantos ( Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet ...)
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To: Squantos; Brad from Tennessee

What’s the point of being on city council if I can’t get a nice ride now and then.


10 posted on 10/15/2015 2:36:59 PM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: knarf
I'm on a school board and...

Isn't also your experience that the professional superintendent (equivalent to a city or a county manager, I guess, though usually paid better) exercises an inordinate amount of raw power, using a kind of apparently passive control over the chair and the agenda? Team him or her up with a board attorney and the pressure to adhere to "best practices," etc. etc., ad infinitum, and any resemblance to democracy turns out to be less than skin deep.

It's terrifying, sometimes, to realize how institutional bureaucrats hide their tyranny behind a mask of democracy.

I guess we'd have to define "stupid" as deliberate, rather than accidental, ignorance.

11 posted on 10/15/2015 2:40:05 PM PDT by Prospero (Omnis caro fenum)
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To: Squantos; Brad from Tennessee

BTW anyone with Netflix should check out Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Season two, episode 8, The Gang Runs for Office.

Synopsis:
At Paddy’s, Mac whines about the alcohol sales taxes and how there is nothing they can do about it. Dee suggest voting, but Frank tells them that all politicians are dirty, and that only scumbags enter politics due to the high frequency of bribes. The gang decides to have Dennis run for an office so they can earn money from bribes.


12 posted on 10/15/2015 2:42:26 PM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: Prospero

delphi technique


13 posted on 10/15/2015 6:17:35 PM PDT by knarf (ttitude)
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