Coral Gables Government Needs a New Code and Culture of Ethics

February 4, 2011 1 Comment

Strengthening ethical standards in Coral Gables is a prime need of a new commission.  There has been a total lack of interest in transparency and too much of a tolerance of unethical behavior and indifference to community participation.  What passes as transparency is a weak system of one way communication with the community.

“There is an atmosphere that is a pressure-bubble building,” said Roy Rogers, CEO of Lighthouse Point and chairman of the commssion. Across the state, there “is a need as expressed by the community to do better ethically.”

He warned that amid the ethics scandals in local communities, many local governments have  been “coming up with their own interpretation of how ethics shold be dealt with” and absent a strong state standard that “haphazard” approach to ethics reform could have a unintended result: repressing people with “the right stuff” to seek public office.

via Ethics Commission tells legislators ‘do better ethically’ | Florida politics blog: The Buzz | tampabay.com & St. Petersburg Times.

Filed under Community, Coral Gables, Justice

Employee Unions and Governments are Fully to Blame

February 3, 2011 Leave a comment

The state and local governments are fully to blame for having accepted the constitution and operation of pension plans, salaries and other benefits that are totally dependent on unrealistic economic circumstances.

Did they expect the economy of Florida would keep increasing forever and that people will keep moving to Florida irrespective of the environmental, social and economic conditions here?  Did they think that governments can function without realistic reserves and revenues? Did they think that taxpayers will keep subsidizing irrational pensions, salaries and other benefits?  Do the firefighters and police think that they are so indispensable that societies will pay them outrageous salaries and pensions?  Did the unions think that they could keep their friends in power to protect their salaries and pensions?

Time has run out on these games.

Time has come for the city of Coral Gables to correct a terrible injustice to its taxpayers.

“I want to have a pension plan that people can rely on,” Scott said. “That’s my whole focus. It’s only fair that if you’re going to have a pension plan you’re going to do just like the private sector does.”

The previous day, the governor unveiled a proposal to save $2.8 billion over two years through a number of measures aimed at the state’s retirement plans. Among them: the requirement that employees who participate in the Florida Retirement System contribute 5 percent of their salaries toward their benefits.

via Florida pension overhaul: Unions will fight, but expect Gov. Rick Scott to get his way on pensions – South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com.

Gov. Rick Scott’s plan to chop into the state’s budget by requiring state workers to pay into their pension plan is a good idea, according to the majority of Sunshine State voters interviewed in a recently released Quinnipiac University poll.

The governor has said he would require workers to pay 5 percent of their salaries into the pension plan. Currently, the state is the only contributor to the pension, and Scott said that requiring the employee contributions would save the state $2.8 billion over the next two years.

But those on the giving end think it stinks.

via Scott’s pension plan popular with public, not with employees.

Gov. Rick Scott’s plan to chop into the state’s budget by requiring state workers to pay into their pension plan is a good idea, according to the majority of Sunshine State voters interviewed in a recently released Quinnipiac University poll.

The governor has said he would require workers to pay 5 percent of their salaries into the pension plan. Currently, the state is the only contributor to the pension, and Scott said that requiring the employee contributions would save the state $2.8 billion over the next two years.

But those on the giving end think it stinks.

via Scott’s pension plan popular with public, not with employees.

Filed under Coral Gables, Florida, Pensions, Taxes and Fees

Bank of Coral Gables Still Needs Capital

January 31, 2011 Leave a comment

A $2 million capital infusion from its shareholders made up for a fourth quarter loss at Bank of Coral Gables, but the contribution was not enough to help the bank regain “well capitalized” status.

The $152 million-asset bank remained “adequately capitalized” because it could not meet the higher capital ratio requirements that regulators imposed on the bank in a March 2010 enforcement action.

The bank improved its Tier 1 capital ratio to 6.29 percent as of Dec. 31, from 6.67 percent as of Sept. 30. Its total risk-based capital ratio improved to 10.75 percent from 10.34 percent. However, regulators demanded that those ratios reach 8 percent and 12 percent, respectively.

If it wants to be considered a “well capitalized” bank and avoid further regulatory action, it looks like Bank of Coral Gables needs to bring in a larger piece of capital.

via Capital infusion not enough for Bank of Coral Gables | South Florida Business Journal.

Filed under Business and Commerce, Coral Gables

Great Analysis of Florida Development Culture–What Went Wrong and Who Pays The Price

January 31, 2011 Leave a comment

…the land use policies and politics of the late, great boom originated in South Florida, where an earlier generation of entrepreneurs had figured out the components of scalable housing developments that characterize the built landscape: condominiums on the ocean front and platted subdivisions in the ring suburbs. Although the conclusions of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, issued last week, are unsurprising– namely that the crisis was avoidable– the mainstream media continues to avoid the closer analysis of what I describe as the Growth Machine: the network of local real estate speculators, lobbyists, mortgage and title companies, engineers, and politicians who facilitated first the massive overdevelopment of South Florida and then its inevitable collapse.

via EYE ON MIAMI.

Filed under Coral Gables, Florida, Housing

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