MIAMI MIRROR TRUE REFLECTIONS

THE POWER OF MITIGATION OF THE CITY OF MIAMI BEACH CORRESPONDENCE FILE

A suggestion was made to Miami Beach officials that regular reports be provided by the City of Miami Beach listing and totaling the amounts of fines written off via mitigation, dismissal, et cetera in three categories 1) special master writeoffs, 2) city manager writeoffs, 3) city commission writeoffs. The writeoffs would be warranted via a warrant form setting forth the details, a copy of which would be forwarded to the city accountants for compilation of the reports. The City Manager Kathie Brooks like her predecessor, Jorge Gonzalez, who was forced into retirement over concerns with unaccountability and corruption, finally responded on 11 January 2013. City Attorney Jose Smith, who drafted the 2010 resolution for writeoffs by the city manager and city commission, said the proposal was moronic. None of the Commissioners responded. David Arthur Walters, Editor

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From: David Arthur Walters<miamimirror@gmail.com> Date: Sat, Jan 12, 2013 at 10:58 AM Subject: Re: Your Feedback Requested re Transparent Writeoffs To: "Brooks, Kathie" <KathieBrooks@miamibeachfl.gov> Cc: Deede Weithorn <dweithorn@bpbcpa.com>, "Granado, Rafael" <RafaelGranado@miamibeachfl.gov>, "Smith, Jose" <JoseSmith@miamibeachfl.gov>, "Tobin, Ed" <EdTobin@miamibeachfl.gov>, Matti Bower Bower <mayorbower@miamibeachfl.gov> Ms. Brooks: You are welcome, and thank you very much for your feedback.. I wish you could have given your own professional opinion on my accountability proposal, which the city attorney characterized as "moronic" because it would regularly report how much is written off or 'mitigated' in fines by whosoever writes them off, namely, individual special masters, the city finance analyst for the city manager, and the city commission. I understand that the city manager and city commission usually defer to the city attorney's advice for one reason or the other, and that the refusal of one special master to go along with the city attorney and mitigate and or dismiss cases that the master feels does not warrant mitigation as he interprets the law is bitterly resented for one reason or the other. All too often I have seen deference to the opinions and proposals of outside consultants at considerable cost to the city, literally outsourcing crucial aspects of governance such as data collection, analysis, recommendation, planning, et cetera, instead of self-reliance on internal resources that should be competent to address the issues, and on serious consideration of input from residents and businesses who, with all due respect, are outraged by the negligence and laziness of some officials. I am thinking of one department in particular that was the subject of outside consulting, an expert was hired internally to streamline processes, top management was changed, and yet we have more of the same, despite the diligence of some of the best city employees. I'll bet that you know the department that I allude to. It seems that, no matter what is said by anyone at all, we have more of the same. Nevertheless, we still hope for radical reform, for tinkering with the sluggish machine will get us nowhere fast. Good Luck, David Arthur Walters

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On Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 7:44 PM Brooks, Kathie <KathieBrooks@miamibeachfl.gov> wrote: Good evening Mr. Walters, I am committed to ensuring that the City of Miami Beach has a government that is open, transparent and collaborative. Our City's government must at all times promote accountability and provide information to residents about what their government is doing. As a result, the following are examples of actions that have been recently implemented: The City entered into an agreement with Crowe Horwath LLP to audit the processes of certain regulatory departments and divisions including the Special Master Office. The audit will identify and document any deficiencies and recommend potential improvement opportunities. The City is finalizing the implementation phase of a new multi-department computer system that will allow greater flexibility as to the reports that may be generated by the Special Master Office. Additionally, I continue to work with the Chief Special Master and the City Attorney to identify best practices for the Special Master Office and review their applicability to the City. Respectfully, MIAMIBEACH Kathie G. Brooks Interim City Manager 1700 Convention Center Drive, Miami Beach, FL 33139 Tel: 305-673-7010 / Fax: 305-673-7782/ www.miamibeachfl.gov We are committed to providing excellent public service and safety to all who live, work and play in our vibrant, tropical, historic community.

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From: David Arthur Walters [mailto:miamimirror@gmail.com] Sent: Saturday, December 08, 2012 10:44 AM To: Brooks, Kathie; Deede Weithorn Cc: Granado, Rafael; Smith, Jose; Tobin, Ed Subject: Re: Your Feedback Requested re Transparent Writeoffs David Arthur Walters< miamimirror@gmail.com> Sun, Jan 6, 2013 at 12:09 PM To: "Smith, Jose" <JoseSmith@miamibeachfl.gov> Thank you for your imbecilic response which I shall report to the Morae who may appreciate it. My proposal would help hold individual authorities accountable for their respective roles in upholding or subverting the rule of law.

Smith, Jose< JoseSmith@miamibeachfl.gov> Sat, Jan 5, 2013 at 9:31 PM To: "miamimirror@gmail.com" <miamimirror@gmail.com>, "Granado, Rafael" RafaelGranado@miamibeachfl.gov Cc: "Brooks, Kathie" <KathieBrooks@miamibeachfl.gov> Your comment is moronic. The Special Master process is not about "conflicts", winners or losers. Nor is about who gets credit or who gets "blamed". It is about following the law and insuring that justice be done. When that happens, everyone "wins". MIAMIBEACH Jose Smith, City Attorney OFFICE OF THE CITY ATTORNEY 1700 Convention Center Drive, Miami Beach, FL 33139 Tel: 305-673-7470 / Fax: 305-673-7002 / www.miamibeachfl.gov

David Arthur Walters< miamimirror@gmail.com> Thu, Jan 3, 2013 at 11:37 AM To: "Granado, Rafael" RafaelGranado@miamibeachfl.gov Cc: "Smith, Jose" <josesmith@miamibeachfl.gov>, "Brooks, Kathie" <kathiebrooks@miamibeachfl.gov> Happy New Year Mr. Granado, and thank you very much for your concern. I recall that I entered the courtroom at 9:30 am and found a fascinating case ongoing involving a repeat violator rental issue, the city attorney ostensibly wanting to halve the fine imposed, but saying that since there were two fines the total would amount to the total imposed, and I think I
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heard the name "Biscayne LLC." I stuck around for a few more cases, including one where a reduction of a fine from $33,000 to $5,000 was wanted. It dawned on me that the conflict between the city attorney office and the special master court would be resolved by my accountability proposal, which the city manager has not spoken to, for the whole thing boils down to who really is accountable for the mitigations, and once that it known, upon whom the "blame" should fall is clear, whether the negative criticism is deserved or not. I received the impression that the city may want to be nice, so let it get credit for that, while the special master may want to be strict, so let him or her take credit for that, and that the rumors of preferential treatment, conspiracies, and corruption are probably false. I could not make out the names of the parties at the hearing nor did I hear the properties identified. I figured there must be an agenda or docket for the day, and wound up with a recording that I cannot play because the program given to me with it has been outdated. Now that I think about it, I may be of better service to the city if you would leave a copy of the program that would allow me to listen to the recording. I enjoyed the proceedings as much as I enjoy Judge Judy's trials, and it would my pleasure to refresh my memory. David Arthur Walters cc. City Manager cc. City Attorney

Sat, Dec 8, 2012 at 10:44 AM David Arthur Walters< miamimirror@gmail.com> To: kathiebrooks@miamibeachfl.gov, DeedeWeithorn<dweithorn@bpbcpa.com> Cc: "Granado, Rafael" <RafaelGranado@miamibeachfl.gov>, "Smith, Jose" <josesmith@miamibeachfl.gov>, "Tobin, Ed" <EdTobin@miamibeachfl.gov> Bcc: Kim Stark <kim@miamisunpost.com>, "Sallah, Michael - Miami" <msallah@miamiherald.com> 8 December 2012 Dear Ms. Brooks: As you are aware from my follow up email, Mr. Smith's response to my question is that he believes in following the law. Mr. Tobin has not responded at all, and neither have you. It is my information from inside gossip that you may have consulted with Jorge Gonzalez on this and other issues, which would be only natural since his advice would be invaluable to any successor. His opinion would be greatly appreciated, but I have no contact information

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from him, and he has not been responsive to me in the past anyway. I know you have affirmed your faith in transparency on a previous occassion. I believe accountability is essential to transparency. Any certified fraud examiner would want too see a regular accounting of writeoffs, because without one, those persons with discretion to make writeoffs are more easily corrupted. Not that I suspect organized official corruption in our city by the beach, or believe in the current conspiracy theory that a "Ring" rules the city and may have been taking advantage of the discretionary power to writeoff or to neglect to enforce, to mitigate, abate, and waive, for some time. In fact, I have not recommended an audit of previous writeoffs unaccounted for by the City Clerk. I have simply suggested a system of accountability for the future. I suppose a public records request to obtain the information privately would result in a fee of thousands of dollars. Perhaps a forensic audit would clear the air and prove that everyone concerned is abiding by Mr. Smith's standard of conduct; even so, people should know the extent of all writeoffs. It is with that in mind that I am writing up a brief report late next week and submitting it to several editors for publication. Mind you that it is not my intention, as is usually supposed when I ask "indiscreet" questions, to "attack" our city, but to improve it. I am sending along a copy of this communication to Commissioner Weithorn since she may have some valuable input drawn from her extensive accounting experience. Very truly yours, David Arthur Walters Miami Beach Writeoffs.pdf 359K

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Tue, Nov 6, 2012 at 10:54 AM David Arthur Walters< miamimirror@gmail.com> To: "Smith, Jose" <JoseSmith@miamibeachfl.gov> Cc: "Brooks, Kathie" <KathieBrooks@miamibeachfl.gov>, "Granado, Rafael" <RafaelGranado@miamibeachfl.gov>, "Tobin, Ed" <EdTobin@miamibeachfl.gov> If only everyone could and would actually follow the law!

Mon, Oct 29, 2012 at 12:25 PM Smith, Jose< JoseSmith@miamibeachfl.gov> To: David Arthur Walters <miamimirror@gmail.com>, "Brooks, Kathie" <KathieBrooks@miamibeachfl.gov> Cc: "Granado, Rafael" <RafaelGranado@miamibeachfl.gov>, "Tobin, Ed" <EdTobin@miamibeachfl.gov> Im in favor of following the law.

David Arthur Walters< miamimirror@gmail.com>

Mon, Oct 29, 2012 at 11:59 AM

To: kathiebrooks@miamibeachfl.gov Cc: "Granado, Rafael" <RafaelGranado@miamibeachfl.gov>, "Smith, Jose" <josesmith@miamibeachfl.gov>, "Tobin, Ed" <EdTobin@miamibeachfl.gov> Dear Ms. Brooks: I understand that you may consider my proposal to account for and regularly report amounts written off by the city manager, the city commission, and the special masters for fines (see correspondence with Mr. Granado below). I would like to include another category, double-permit fees waived by the Building Department. I noticed a memo, I believe from you, suggesting that those fees be waived provided that the responsible parties confess violations before being caught. However, I am told by contractors that the Building Department regularly waives double-permit fees anyway, despite the fact that Director Scott says he is generally opposed to doing so. The new policy that I propose would enhance the transparency that you recently espoused. Since you are intimate with the reasons that we account for conduct, especially in terms of numbers, I do not believe I need to enumerate those reasons for you here. What I would like to have from you is some quotable feedback on the subject before I write up my report.

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I am copying Mssrs. Tobin and Smith since I also asked them for their opinions on the matter. Sincerely, David Arthur Walters David Arthur Walters<miamimirror@gmail.com> Tue, Sep 25, 2012 at 10:53 AM To: "Granado, Rafael"<RafaelGranado@miamibeachfl.gov> Thank you, Mr. Granado. Someone is eventually bound to beg askance of discretionary behavior, so I believe maximum transparency would be wise, and might save us all from the writing of too many novelettes. David

David Arthur Walters<miamimirror@gmail.com> Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 6:43 PM To: "Granado, Rafael"<RafaelGranado@miamibeachfl.gov> Thank you. I am thinking of the future instead of auditing the past at this point. I believe it is a good idea to track and report writeoffs in all three categories. Who would be the appropriate person to consider the idea for possible action? D.

Granado, Rafael<RafaelGranado@miamibeachfl.gov> Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 6:52 PM To: David Arthur Walters<miamimirror@gmail.com> Thank you. I will bring it up to the City Attorney's Office for their consideration. Regards, MIAMIBEACH Rafael E. Granado, City Clerk CITY CLERK'S OFFICE

Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 1:58 PM To: David Arthur Walters<miamimirror@gmail.com>, "Granado, Rafael" RafaelGranado@miamibeachfl.gov Cc: "Tobin, Ed" <EdTobin@miamibeachfl.gov> I am not aware of any such records.

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Granado, Rafael<RafaelGranado@miamibeachfl.gov> Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 1:59 PM To: "Smith, Jose" <JoseSmith@miamibeachfl.gov>, David Arthur Waltersmiamimirror@gmail.com Cc: "Tobin, Ed" <EdTobin@miamibeachfl.gov>, "Granado, Rafael" <RafaelGranado@miamibeachfl.gov> Thank you. I am also checking with the Finance Department. Regards, MIAMIBEACH Rafael E. Granado, City Clerk

Granado, Rafael<RafaelGranado@miamibeachfl.gov> Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 5:18 PM To: David Arthur Walters miamimirror@gmail.com Cc: "Tobin, Ed" <EdTobin@miamibeachfl.gov>, "Smith, Jose" <JoseSmith@miamibeachfl.gov>, "Rothstein, Steven"<StevenRothstein@miamibeachfl.gov>, "McMillion, Jimmy"<JimmyMcMillion@miamibeachfl.gov>, "Echert, Georgie" <GeorgieEchert@miamibeachfl.gov>, "Brooks, Kathie" <KathieBrooks@miamibeachfl.gov>, "Granado, Rafael" <RafaelGranado@miamibeachfl.gov> Good afternoon Mr. Walters, I have met with representatives of the City Attorneys Office and the Finance Department, and they confirm that there is no report that is compiled by the City that contains the information you are seeking. Please note that the Finance and City Attorneys Office maintain a binder containing all resolutions, from June 27, 2001 to date, pertaining to lien reductions in excess of $100,000 that have gone before the City Commission. If you wish to review this binder, please let me know. Regards, MIAMIBEACH Rafael E. Granado, City Clerk

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David Arthur Walters<miamimirror@gmail.com> Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 11:11 AM To: "Granado, Rafael" RafaelGranado@miamibeachfl.gov Cc: EdTobin@miamibeachfl.gov, "Smith, Jose" josesmith@miamibeachfl.gov Mr. Granado: Good Moon Day! I am winding up a few loose ends before I take the city's suggestion to leave town. I am highlighting a request below, not for records, but for a confirmation that regular reports are not created to let everyone know how much the city, via special masters, city commission, and city manager, has written off (mitigated etc) in fines. I also suggested to various officials including Jose Smith that a special form called a mitigation warrant be including in every file involving mitigation, abatement, dismissal etc, with a copy to the clerk for compilation of data as to amount of mitigation, abatement, settlement, etc, its date, by whom, and the reason therefore etc. Although I doubt that officials have read my suggestion or have seriously considered it, I am asking for your confirmation that no such system exists, which I have presumed from the manner in which my public record request was responded to, and I am sending a copy of this email to Commission Ed Tobin on the chance that he might personally consider my suggestion, made simply because I think it is a good idea and is no way intended to be an "attack" on the city as personified by any official. Best regards, David Arthur Walters

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From: David Arthur Walters<miamimirror@gmail.com> Date: Sat, Aug 25, 2012 at 11:14 AM Subject: Re: Special Master Statistics Request - PRR 7002 To: "Granado, Rafael" RafaelGranado@miamibeachfl.gov Cc: Matti Bower Bower<mayorbower@miamibeachfl.gov>, "Tobin, Ed" <ed@miamibeachfl.gov> 25 August 2012 Rafael E. Granado, City Clerk CITY OF MIAMI BEACH Subject: Special Master Statistics Request Mr. Granado: Thank you very much for providing me with a copy of the illuminating book that was prepared for the legal oversight meeting held last Wednesday. My apologies for putting your staff to the trouble of copying it for me; I thought there might be an extra copy. My intentions were to be helpful and not to "attack" the city personified by some officials. I am glad you limited the provision of statistics you provided on Special Master cases via copies of the City Clerks Office Monthly Report as the production cost although reasonable is costly to my nonprofit endeavors. It appears that the information I wanted is not available inasmuch as the monetary figures you provided represent only revenue collections net of unstated writeoffs. I obviously reasoned wrongly that the city might already produce regular reports that would help whosoever is responsible for overseeing the special masters assess their performance. The main concern of caring members of the community appears to be the writeoffs for mitigations and dismissals, not only by the Special Masters but also by the City Managers office and the City Commission. It occurs to me that such a regular report would report the gross amount of fines in each of those three categories, against which the amount of writeoffs would be matched, the writeoffs for the Special Masters being broken down by each magistrate, the result being the net revenue figures you already report. I suggested to the city attorney that each file settled for an amount less than the original fine contain a uniform form warranting the writeoff--for example, in addition to or in lieu of email, receipts, and other papers upon which is scribbled "finance settlement" etc. That warrant form would refer to the governing ordinance and cite the reason for and the amount of the abatement or amount dismissed. A copy could be used for data collection. The warrant would also serve as an explanation of what happened to people ignorant of city processes; for example, that the city attorney can advise the city manager or finance manager or the city commission to mitigate or dismiss cases contrary to a special masters ruling, which they appear wont to do pursuant to a code provision written by the city attorney that does not
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appear where I expected to find everything to do with mitigation and appeals, in my recent internet version of Chapter 30 of the Miami Beach Code. Please make no attempt on my account to compile any such reports. Please simply confirm that such reports do not exist. I shall send a copy of this to Madame Mayor Bower and Commissioner Ed Tobin in case they might be interested enough in my suggestion to make it a part of Special Master procedural reforms. Best Regards, David Arthur Walters

On Thu, Aug 23, 2012 at 4:45 PM, Granado, Rafael <RafaelGranado@miamibeachfl.gov> wrote: Good afternoon Mr. Walters, I am in receipt of your public records request. We have gathered the following records that we believe are responsive to your request: 1. The material distributed to the Mayor and Commissioners for the August 22, 2012 Special Master System City Attorney Oversight Committee meeting. 2. We have also compiled for you one year (July 2011 July 2012) of the data that is gathered by the Office of the City Clerk relating to Special Master cases. (This is the Materials that I referenced at the August 22, 2012 Special Master City Attorney Oversight Committee.) Please note that our data goes back to 2005, but I would prefer for you to review the one year that I have compiled to ensure that the information contained therein is what you are seeking. If it is, we will retrieve the additional information. The total costs to duplicate this material is $12.50. This is broken-down as follows: 40 pages double sided (40 X $ 0.20 = $8.00) and one single sized page (1 x $0.15) - for the materials distributed to the Mayor and Commissioners; and 29 pages single sided (29 X $0.15 = $4.35) for the monthly (July 2011 July 2012) reports. The documents are available for pick-up at the front Counter of the Office of the City Clerk. Regards, MIAMIBEACH Rafael E. Granado, City Clerk

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From: David Arthur Walters [mailto:miamimirror@gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2012 10:47 AM To: Granado, Rafael Cc: Bower, Matti H.; Smith, Jose; Tobin, Ed Subject: Special Master Statistics Request Mr. Granado: I was pleased to meet with you yesterday to discuss the new public records request system. Although you were introduced to me as a blogger from the blogosphere, I am really not a blogger and know nothing of that sphere except what I read in the papers. I do use a Google blogging facility to store some articles I write since I operate without funds, but my posts do not come close to being blogs as bloggers describe them. In terms of occupation, or rather preoccupation, I am an author, and sometimes I call myself a journalist when working on certain subjects, although I do not think highly of journalists. I really do not care if I am published if I can do some good. But I am published here and there all over the world in print, and on the Internet in what used to be called e-zines. One area of interest is the Special Master Tribunal's struggle for independence from the City Attorney's Office. One of my freelance articles on the subject happens to be in the SunPost currently in your lounge on the first floor if the stack has not already been prematurely dumped. I noted a reference to complaint dismissal statistics at yesterday's meeting on permit master oversight, and your comment that some sort of statistics were available. It is natural for people on all sides to complain about the disposition of special master cases one way or the other, and to make broad generalizations of wrongdoing. I would love to have your statistics on the following, running period-to-period, from the date our statutory alternative to the code enforcement board was formed or from whatever date statistics were compiled: Number of special master cases brought each period, and their value; Number of complaints dismissed or settled by special masters or settled each period, and their total complaint value and the net amount settled on; Number of complaints dismissed by the city attorney or settled without petitions being filed in the circuit court (presumably by authority of the commission exercised by the city manager), their total complaint value and total amounts settled on. Number of complaints actually appealed to and disposed of via the circuit court, the total complaint value and amount settle on, and/or the value of those won, and those lost without settlement. Any other relevant information that a statistician would compile. I suppose that you may already have that or similar important information reported to city officials. In that case, please let me have a copy of the report.

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By the way, I noticed some sort of agenda and "book" being circulated at the meeting, and wonder if you have an extra copy of it or if it is online? Sincerely, David Arthur Walters

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