Eye on Miami's Saturday Editorial Page: Turkey Point Hearings - Special Taxing Districts Op Ed. By Gimleteye and Geniusofdespair

Eye on Miami has replaced the Saturday Editorial Page of the Miami Herald - They do not have one

One of the very few chances for the public to be heard on the expansion of FPL Turkey Point and $24 billion of new nuclear reactors at sea level By Gimleteye

Mayors of three important South Florida municipalities (Tomas Regalado, City of Miami, Philip Stoddard, City of South Miami, and Cindy Lerner, Mayor of Pinecrest) are taking the lead in opposing the expansion of FPL's Turkey Point nuclear reactors.

The public has very few opportunities to directly address the "deciders" on whether or not to allow the FPL plan to move forward. Here are two meetings and information related to public comments. Please take time to read the Environmental Impact Statement and comment directly on that document through the links provided below.

Turkey Point Nuclear Expansion: Meeting Information

These meetings will be hosted by U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Hearing in Miami, Florida

When: Wednesday, April 22, 7:00 - 10:00 p.m.

Where: Florida International University
Stadium Club Room
FIU Stadium
11200 S.W. 8th Street, Miami

Hearings in Homestead, Florida

When: Thursday, April 23
First Session: 1:30-4:30 p.m.
Second Session: 7:00 - 10:00 p.m.

Where: Hampton Inn and Suites
Miami-South/Homestead
Reef Room
2855 N.E. 9th Street, Homestead, Florida 33033

Turkey Point Nuclear Expansion: Public Comment

By law the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission must take public comments into account. Public comments will be accepted until May 22, 2015.

Email:

TurkeyPoint.COLEIS@nrc.gov

Mail:

Re: NUREG-2176

Cindy Bladey,

Office of Administration
Mail Stop: OWFN 12 H8

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Washington, DC 20555–000

These meetings and comments are part of the federal licensing process and related to the recently released draft Environmental Impact Statement, available online at:

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/sr2176/. This information is also online at the City of Miami’s website at: http://tinyurl.com/MiamiNuclearMeeting

GUEST OP ED - CARLOS GIMENEZ COST CUTTING AND CONSOLIDATION CAUSES DEFICITS IN SPECIAL TAXING DISTRICTS

A special taxing district is a mechanism used by communities, wherein property owners elect to pay special assessments levied on their properties in order to receive public services and/or improvements, which could not otherwise conveniently or equitably be provided.

In Miami-Dade County some of these services include, but are not limited to:
Street lighting, Security guard services, Guard houses, Lake maintenance."

The Public Works and Waste Management department controls Special Taxing District funds. The section was headed by Don Tok for many years. The rates of each district were reviewed every year according to cost and growth.

In 2011 when Mayor Carlos Gimenez merged the Public Works and Solid Waste Departments he promoted a group of Solid Waste employees that included Director Kathleen Woods-Richardson (now Miramar City Manager), Assistant Director Chris Rose and Chief Aneisha Daniels. The listed individuals were put in place by Gimenez for political reasons and many think were not qualified to oversee the finances of the newly created department.

Assistant Director Chris Rose chose to maintain low or cut rates on the Special Taxing Districts without permission from the County Attorney's Office to make Gimenez look as a mayor intent on cutting taxes. The result is that after 3 years of low rates there is a multi million dollar deficit of Special Taxing District funds and an ongoing analysis has uncovered the comingling of funds from different Special Taxing districts- something strictly prohibited by county ordinance. As a result, today Don Tok is being forced to resign and Alina Hudak could also be forced to resign. Rose has already left the county to City of Miami and he is not acknowledging responsibility for the deficit of funds.

A meeting was held Friday 4:30 pm with the Mayor, Kathy Jackson Director of Audit, and Alina Hudak also AD's from the Public Works Dept. as they tried to find a solution to the deficit problem.

According to department employees, the Section has been running on "cooked" numbers for the last three years.

Example: A district where citizens paid $5,000.00 in special taxes had their service cut to $1,000.00 and now the taxes must be raised to $9,000.00.

The backlash of this deficit will upset citizens from every area of the county. Do you have a guard booth? It will effect you. This incident has occurred due to the promotion of what I think are unqualified employees and for political reasons by a mayor intent on "cutting taxes" as a reelection tool.

The Best of Miami Herald's Jim Morin this week.

Gossip or Truth?

The Miami Dade County Aviation Department is about to finalize a $7.5 million deal in Tuesday's committee meeting by the commissioners approving the deal. The system awarded was never tested at the requirements from the airport. The FAA will do its due diligence since it is funding the majority of the project. Once they find that the system has not been tested and the FOD detection system has shown that it can not perform to the standards required FAA will then pull the funding and MDAD will come to the county to bail them out. (comment left on our blog)