We had the Fab Five and then the Gang of Four. It is time to get the AKA for the current group. Send suggestions in your comments, then we will have poll to pick the winner. There is so much material already, surely there is an appropirate name: The Terminators is a good starting point.
Homestead's acting city manager Sergio Purriños fired two city employees on Dec. 2, doubling the number of terminated workers to four since last month's swearing-in of the city's new council.
Johanna Faddis, deputy assistant manager, and Ray Ortiz, a planning associate, were laid off in what Purriños called a "business decision.''
Faddis made $117,020 and Ortiz's salary was $53,227 according to Purriños, who also heads the Homestead's developmental services department. Faddis also was given a car allowance.
"In both scenarios, I felt it was the right course of action. I wanted to save the city money,'' Purriños said.
The move came nearly a month after Shari Kamali, Homestead's development services director, and Lillian Delgado, the city's public information officer, were terminated on Nov. 6 by then-acting city manager Randy Chong, who has since moved back to his position as head of the code enforcement department.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/communities/south/story/1389949.html
Citizens Allied for Safe Energy, or CASE, held an educational forum last week at a town hall meeting held in South Miami's commission chamber.
The discussion focused on the health, environmental and economic impact of FPL's plans to build two new reactors at Turkey Point and install a 230-kv overhead transmission line along nearly 18 miles of U.S. 1 to connect Turkey Point to a substation in downtown Miami.
FPL -- which puts the project's price tag at $13 billion to $18 billion -- disagrees with much of what was said at the CASE meeting.
"Nuclear generation is part of an overall program to make our generation system smarter, greener and more efficient,'' said Mayco Villafaña, an FPL spokesman. "Nuclear energy is essential to meeting our energy needs in the future with a resource that is always available.''
Florida International University biologist Philip Stoddard opened the meeting with an overview of studies that he said have found a possible link between proximity to high-voltage lines and diseases such as childhood leukemia and Alzheimer's disease.
"Risk of leukemia living near power lines: one in 800, '' he told the near-capacity crowd, citing World Health Organization, or WHO, and Centers for Disease Control data. That's double the risk of people who are not in proximity to the transmission lines.
A 2008 study in the Journal of Carcinogenesis found that exposure to strong magnetic fields boosted cancer rates in lab rats by 45 percent.
Stoddard also presented a timeline of problems at Turkey Point drawn from decades of news articles and filings with the courts and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The list cites a string of fines -- as high as $25 million -- FPL has incurred for issues including faulty maintenance of backup water pumps, boric acid buildup on a reactor head and problems with the core cooling system.
Shirreffs also expressed concern about FPL's plan to dig up tons of earth and rock west of Turkey Point to elevate the new reactors about 25 feet. "It will contribute to saltwater intrusion that's already happening,'' she said. "Water quality would decline.''
FPL FAQs link:
http://www.fpl.com/environment/nuclear/faq.shtmlhttp://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/communities/south/v-fullstory/story/1384029.html
The Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust is moving ahead with an ethics case against Homestead Mayor Steven Bateman.
The commission said last week it found "probable cause'' that Bateman violated the Voluntary Fair Campaign Practices Act when he paid for a 2007 campaign flier to be republished in the Audubon Village Voice this year.
The flier included a picture of Bateman with Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez with the words, "endorsed by Carlos Alvarez, Dade County Mayor.''
Victoria Mallette, a spokeswoman for Alvarez, said the mayor had endorsed Bell during the recent election cycle.
On Sept. 22, ethics investigators interviewed Alvarez, who told them he did not endorse Bateman in 2009. Instead, he had endorsed Bell.
Full story link, http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/communities/south/story/1384041.html
SUCH A DEAL!
Could cost Homestead $100,000,000
CIRCA 2001 Miami Herald
Winston Cup hurts Homestead
Loss of millions to speedway operator depriving city in danger of bankruptcy
BY KARL ROSS
kross@herald.com
The Winston Cup did not come cheaply to Homestead.
To attract the coveted NASCAR series to the Homestead-Miami Speedway, elected officials made concessions to the track's private operators in 1997 that cost the city tens of millions of dollars. Scroll to bottom of page for Special Called Meeting Minutes Highlights.
Instead of fueling the city's recovery, the forsaken speedway revenues -- an estimated $55 million to $70 million over the life of the current operating agreement, which expires in 2032 -- will remain in the hands of the track's private operator.
The operator is a subsidiary of Daytona Beach-based International Speedway Corp., a publicly traded company with reported revenues last year of $440 million.
"We sold our soul for that Winston Cup'' said one councilman at the time.
Combining lost revenues with new liabilities, the cost of hosting the Winston Cup for Homestead could reach $100 million.
The city:
Reduced rent payments by $19.8 million.
Eliminated a revenue-sharing clause that could have yielded $50 million or more in income.
Wrote off as uncollectible a cash advance of more than $8 million from the city for track improvements.
Will begin paying property taxes on the speedway next year, taking on a liability that over the years could surpass $20 million -- the result of a recent state Supreme Court ruling in a Sebring case that allowed counties to tax motor sports facilities.
Under the initial lease agreement in 1995, the speedway's private operator -- not the city -- would have assumed that liability.
The city later agreed to pick up the tax liability when its legal advisor, Michael Watkins, assured the City Council in 1997 that in his opinion, Miami-Dade County "would be unsuccessful'' should it try to put the speedway on the county's tax rolls.
The court ruling has proved him wrong.
Homestead's tax bill next year will be $690,000.
WATERSTONE RECEIVES NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENT AWARD
This Annual Environmental Improvement Awards Program is sponsored by the Professional Landcare Network (PLANET), an association of approximately 3,200 green industry service-provider companies and suppliers nationwide that specialize in lawn care design/build/installation, interior plantscaping, and landscape management. Since its construction in 2003, the Waterstone community’s common areas have been under the supervision of a local form of government known as the South Dade Venture Community Development District (the District).
One of the District’s main responsibilities is the maintenance of approximately 60 acres of landscape throughout the Waterstone community. In 2006, the residents of Waterstone began serving on the District’s Board of Supervisors and immediately established a standard for its landscape maintenance. Since then, the District has relocated hundreds of trees, removed non-thriving plants, introduced thousands of new viable plants, invested in comprehensive irrigation systems, added daily and weekly maintenance standards, and implemented a new landscape theme to be implemented over a 5 year span.
“We are proud of our mutual accomplishments at Waterstone and look forward to many more successful accomplishments here.” said ValleyCrest Branch Manager, Jose Zapeda in response to this award. The District’s Chairman, Alex Diaz de Villegas said, “This award is a clear reflection of the level of dedication our management staff and ValleyCrest have exhibited throughout the last three years. We could not be more proud.” Details: http://www.southdadecdd.com/documents/PressRelease-2009LandscapeAward.pdf
According to loopnet.com several commercial parcels are for sale and or rent in Florida City. They include the former ARBY'S, the Starbuck's on Palm Drive and U.S. 1 and entertainment arcade Speed Demon's on Krome Avenue. The location's appear to have high traffic but is the cause of this the market, the demographics or something else that is having a negative impact?
We encourage open, honest and frank discussion of the business climate in the area.
Loopnet link: http://www.loopnet.com/florida/Florida-City-Commercial-Real-Estate/
Read about Florida City's demographic's below:
http://www.city-data.com/city/Florida-City-Florida.html
