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Michael Gongora


MICHAEL GONGORA, STRONG MAYOR CANDIDATE?
Does he have the gumption to stand up for law and order and the strong mayor form
government?

February 2, 2013
Editorial by David Arthur Walters
Commissioner Michael Gongoras Feb. 1, 2013, Brief Update on City of Miami Beach
politics stated that he made a motion to shorten the list of candidates for the city
manager position to three finalists, namely:
Monica Cepero, currently an assistant to the Broward County Administrator, a
competent and the most personally attractive candidate.
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Frank Rollason, formerly an assistant manager of the City of Miami whose interview
presentation was the most persuasive.
Jimmy Morales, formerly a Miami Dade County commissioner, an ethical hometown
boy who is a Harvard-educated attorney. Rollason and Morales were not on the slate
chosen by recruiting firm Bob Murray and Associates, but were selected for interviews
at the suggestion of commissioners.
Morales, rumored to be the shoo-in, is a well-liked political insider foreordained to win
the job although he has no municipal management experience. Gongora, who has had
his own issues with the Miami Dade County Commission on Ethics, knows that Morales
did in fact have a run-in with the COE, over campaign expenditure documentation.
Morales qualifications and background indicate that the management job would be a
step down from or a delay in his political career. If only he were better known outside of
the county, he would have a shot at the state legislature and perhaps the governors
office. If Morales managed to controversially reform city government in short order, the
city manager job might prove to be a stepping stone.
Why did you pick these three, and did your motion pass, and if not why not? we asked
Gongora.
I selected each for different reasons. My motion passed. I found them to be the most
qualified for City of Miami Beach.
We did not understand why, for example, Robert D. Frank, currently the city manager of
Ocoee, Florida, and a reserve deputy sheriff for Ft. Lauderdale with early experience as
a police officer and paramedic, was passed by, given his long career in city and county
management The fact that he bothered to state that he firmly believes in maintaining
true access to the manager by residents and business owners rings a bell, since the
main complaint by residents and business owners about the former Miami Beach city
manager, Jorge Gonzales, was that he was inaccessible to residents, that only favored
contractors and developers had access to him. At a Feb. 24, 2010, Civic Circle
gathering to praise him, Gonzalez derogated residents who complained about a few
bad blades of grass in my nice lawn, mocked the nearly hundred thousand residents
who thought they should be his boss, and said that he would stay in his position as long
as he liked. One of his assistants pointed out that he only answered to the citys part-
time commission and not to residents, and he did not present constructive suggestions
from residents to the commission because he did not have to.
Did you say WHY you felt them to be most qualified, or did you just make the motion
that they were, and the motion passed with debate? we asked Gongora.
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It wasn't as simple as a motion. The candidates were each discussed and the
Commission finally decided to do a straw ballot vote of the top three choices for each.
These three people were top vote getters and I made a motion to accept this list and
move forward with them.
Did the two from out of state come close as runners up? we asked.
No.
We were mindful that an outsider was favored by the civilians for the city manager job
a dozen years ago, but she did not have a chance against the shoo-in advanced by the
Hialeah power elite, Jorge Gonzales, who was forced to retire last year despite his
statement that he would stay in the job as long as he liked, his position now occupied by
interim city manager Kathie Brooks.
Out-of-state applicant Steven H. Barwick has been city manager of the resort town of
Aspen, Colorado, for over a dozen years. His implementation of a stormwater
improvement program among other improvements catches the eye given Jorge
Gonzales studied neglect of Miami Beachs antiquated, inadequate system, which has
cost residents and businesses hundreds of millions of dollars in flood damages, and
could have catastrophic consequences in the near future if ignored. He said it would be
inappropriate to prepare for a fifty-year flood, not bothering to account for the
consequences a twenty-year floor would have, keeping in mind that a flood within the
averaging timeframe is a probability that could happen in any given year
Out-of-state applicant Thomas J. Wilson, currently the assistant city manager of Palm
Springs, California, revealed that he has thirty-five years of diverse experience a city
manager for Milpitas and Oceanside in California, and Scottsdale and Tucson in
Arizona. His resume emphases community-involved leadership, community involvement
entailing positive listening, constructive dialogue and follow-up. Transparency and
accountability of staff are also stressed among other things desperately needed by
residents, visitors, and businesses in City of Miami Beach.
Yes, promises, promises: perhaps the expressions are boiler-plate rhetoric, or maybe
Wilson did his homework and tailored his resume to suit the city. We do not know
whether or not the recruiting company called his references to discover if he has a good
past record for doing what he promises to do for the City of Miami Beach.
The openness of the process, we stated to Gongora, with public resumes and
interviews, was great, but what influence constituents would have on the commission's
decision is an open question. Don't you think that we should have strong mayor system
so that the full time mayor would hire the city manager? If the city manager did not
perform well, the mayor's feet would be held to the fire. The mayors would probably
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bring in their own city managers. Limit both the mayor and the city manager to two four
year terms anyway.
Gongora, who reportedly will run for mayor, did not respond to our last question by
deadline. In our opinion the Strong Mayor concept would be a winning mayoral
candidate plank in a law-and-order platform for him, if he has the balls to stand up to the
plate instead of being a weathercock who fails to follow through in the promised
direction when the wind happens to blow the another way.
Given the longstanding moral and criminal corruption suffered by our illustrious city on
the beach, and the utter arrogance of the ruling clique towards outsiders including those
with constructive suggestions, a well informed electorate would demand that one
elected person be directly responsible for all administrative heads. The part-time
commission and full-time professional city manager system is a formula for corruption.
W.M. Tweed loved his weak mayor and the concentration of power in the hands of his
ring of department heads. Boss Tom Pendergast loved the weak mayor, professional
city manager form of government instituted in Kansas City to curb corruption such as
experienced under Boss Tweed in New York. The Kansas City innovation only added to
Boss Pendergasts ill-gotten gains. A strong mayor may be in someones pocket, but at
least the electorate can get rid of him along with the city manager, if the mayor does not
manage the city himself. A commission, like a many-headed hydra, is more difficult to
deal with, and its members may be affiliated with the morally and/or criminally corrupt
forces.

-XYX-

September 10, 2012

Bob Murray
Bob Murray and Associates
Dear Mr. Murray:
I am writing in to the Miami Beach city manager position as posted on
your company's web site.
I currently serve as City M<.\Ihager for af:uJl service city of 36,000 residents and 350
emplo.yeEls In pOSition, I as Deputy. County
Ma/Jager for ,Flonda and have held, diverse executive-level
pos:itl9ns witbsevel'al Squth cO,untles.9f va-dad popylatlonsand
have. rfilsQ; workfJd dlt'ettly wlthlh l1!Mt tltyan,d
dtapa:rtments and deputy shet1ff,p.arameqlc, utilIties en9.lpe(;ll',
pUblic worksfr:>;arksand recreation director, and assl.stant cltyrnanager; ihese
p. have left, me with a unique skillsetandurraerstanding t>f.lccalgQv.ernrnent
chaUenges few Qthers cen duplltate. 1 also liokf !<:MA
Ci'eoentialed Manager certification.
From a managerial standpoint, I fully empower employees to
in. a ,creative and innovative manner While adhering to ovr gO(llsOf
and svstainable c0mmunlW. l; fltmly
believe a city mt,"ll'l<Iger must mamtaln open lines ofcomrnunlcatlQO With the
CitxCorY1mlssion-alongWith true atCess to the manager by staff, residents and
busmess:owners. '
Under my ,dlrl$dlon
t
has ffWardil1assurYling certain :cohtracted
not to" berH:hmarksf resldel1tlal
solJa aryd
ConverselYJ we Were also able to dlsp.atch and fiSk m .ant
seNiceswlth ptJsitiveres,IJlts.. This concept of continually eva . .... ,how
our populatIOn' Clod willJIi,gnessto adapt tqbuclgetary constrarnts has
all;qwe8 thec1ty to navigate the fast tax or
utllrzatlon of n:,!serVta fVDd$. ' ,
,I would be indi$cussing what I have accomplished in my recent
assig,rrrnentsandhow <;lsimilar approachcO'l;Jld benefit Miami Beach. I sincerely
beJieve thatmy'pivetse !oca.!goVei'l1f11ent and formal education create a
unique match With the reqUirements of th(;l pOSitIOn. Please feel free to contact me
at yourcOllV-enlenciiiat(407) 474"7776. "
Sincerely,
Robert Frank