Dotson for the people

Several people already HAVE contacted Mr. Dotson and he has apparently had a couple conversations with other City officials. The results of these conversations have not been revealed yet, as his investigation isnt complete yet but it WILL be revealed once he is finsihed gathering ALL the facts. He will be the ONLY one on the Council to take a stand on this, and other, issues, as usual. The rest will be awaiting direction from Gym and will probably try to sweep it under the rug, as usual. Thank God for Mr. Dotson.

Dotson savings

I dont see how you can say Dotson failed to deliver. While he probably should have taken a stronger stand in the vote of confidence, all of those 4-1 votes will come back to haunt those political hacks in April. They are on record how they voted, and who was opposed. That is all he could do, at the time - oppose the spending sprees, wastefulness, poor mamangement, etc. What more were you expecting him to do? Dotson pointed out during the budget process that we were paying Santanas electricity bills, and the City Manager admitted that we were- but said we will NOT do it again. Those bills alone were costing us over 100k, and Dotson got them stopped by looking at the details, doing his homework, and providing the oversight that the Council is SUPPOSED to provide. Nobody else even asked a question about it, did they?

Dotson defended

Is the person suggesting that Mr Dotson hasnt made any changes under the impression that one vote carries more weight than the rest of the Council? That misconception would be patently ridiculous of course, as it has NO basis in reality. He has been the lone dissenting vote on numerous issues and the voice of reason in a sea of insanity. He is the only Council member who is fully prepared for a Council session and asks the tough questions that SHOULD be asked, if they were actually exercising their obligation to oversee the City Manager. He asked DOZENS of hard questions during the budget process and was the only one doing so. He was closely involved in two of the Rec Center taping and firing issues, all of his Board appointments are filled and have been since taking office, and he has NO personal agendas to fulfill. Billy is focused on his legacy gym project, at ANY cost; Best wants a theater named after him; Youngs wants annexatation as HIS legacy; and Garcia wants to repay his backers, no matter what it costs us. The only one WITHOUT a personal agenda is Paul Dotson, but he cant do it without help. Some of his contributions to our community have been posted several times in the past week by several different posters. Respond to those posts if you want, with some facts if you have them. If you have no facts, just baseless biased opinions, maybe you should calm down, and learn something. When anybody just states their prejudied opinions and give no factual basis for them, ignoring logical explanations and facts offered, and continues insisting they are right, it sounds a LOT like the City Manager's method of operations.

curiosities

Wonder how many of those 1371 residents who wanted to vote on annexation, want to vote on the new gym? Wonder how many of them will remember next April and be unhappy that they havent had a chance to vote on the new gym? Mr Dotson was instrumental in the Rec Center firings a while back and has been the ONLY voice of reason and fiscal responsibility on the Council! Unfortunately, he is only one voice. He needs some assistance and support from others to stop the current Council insanity. In April he will get that help from the people. In these times of ever-deepening recession we need sound fiscal policy and accountability, both of which Mr Dotson can provide in spades. He is an honest and experienced accountant with over thirty years experience, knows numbers, and when they make no sense or are being manipulated. EXACTLY what we need to stop this march FORWARD (?) right over the financial cliff. The Mayor and Council have completely lost touch with the average resident by not listening to them long ago. They STILL have NO response to the economic restrictions that our economic situation demands-they just added a 100k Director, built two bathrooms that cost OVER 400k, and allow the pool to lose 260k a year while private businesses profit, to name a few examples. They just dont care how much of OUR tax money disappears, because its NOT their money thats disappearing! THEY need to disappear before ALL our tax monies are gone. C'mon April!

unsubstantiated BS

After all the times Mr Dotson has been the voice of reason, restraint, and common sense in a flood of fiscal irresponsibility, egos, and irrationality from the rest of the Council and Mayor, I find that COWARD remark to be uncalled for, totally unsubstantiated by the facts, and detestable. He is a man of unquestioned integrity, honesty, and good intent, with no ambitious ego and no personal agenda to fulfill, other than whats best in the long run for the residents of Miami Springs. Which is more than we can say about the rest of the crew.

due diligence finally?

Apparently Mr Dotson has had enuf of the childishness and drivel that heas been posted here in the past; to the point where he rarely has much to do with this site anymore. I would encourage him to return again as there is considerably more substance and civility than before now. Interesting letter in the Gazette this week about millage rates in various cities in S Fla. The writer was tentatively right about the possible benefits of annexation IF 1) we could get an equitable settlement of boundaries and not just take whatever VG dictates 2) their is no significant pollution, as one million-dollar cleanup would wipe out any possible benefits 3) if we can get a fair and equitable settlement of mitigation fees from the County so we wouldnt have to pay them ad finitum for doing nothing 4) if we can control the zoning so we can control the quality of the businesses there and guarantee that a bevy of low-income high rises, peep shows, and/or sex motels are not built there, then it might make make sense for Miami Springs. All of that would require DUE DILIGENCE, something the Mayor and Council refuse to do. They wont even let the people vote on multi-million dollar projects that will affect the financial strength and social character of Miami Springs for decades. The Mayor and Council take whatever numbers the City Manager gives them as gospel, even tho he has a consistently laughable record of construction cost estimates and cost overruns for projects he is responsible for in the past three-plus years.

Citizens must object

Title: Citizens must object

The City of Miami Springs is projected to have a deficit next year of at least 1.5 MILLION dollars. You may wonder where will the City Council get the money to cover these debts? They will take it out of our Reserve Fund. They have already taken 500k out to help pay for the new gym project and our reserves are dangerously low. We are a bad hurricane or two from being insolvent, bankrupt.

Who is responsible for putting us in this precarious predicament? The City Manager and his $400-600+ a square foot construction fiascos deserves a LOT of the blame. With the exception of Councilman Dotson, who is making the good effort toward fiscal common sense, the rest of the Council should also shoulder considerable responsibility for not providing any significant oversight, accountability, or common sense on those projects and basically rubber-stamping whatever the City Manager says it costs.

How will they pay for their latest debacle? Once they have drained the Reserve Fund they will raise our taxes to cover their butts. At a time where residents are tightening their belts and struggling to put gas in their car, food on the table, and make their mortgage payments, the Council will raise our taxes to cover for the 3.5 million in additional debt for the new, and unnecessary, gym project.



It is yet another demonstration of the unbelievable ongoing lack of economic awareness, fiscal irresponsibility, and rational management by City officials with respect to each and every significant construction project in recent memory. Instead of tax relief or tightening their municipal belt buckles, the Council offers an ordinance that will give us more chances to sell off our possessions at garage sales, as if that will put food on our tables or gas in our cars for more than a couple weeks, or stave off foreclosures on some of our houses. THAT is all the Council has to offer to help us avoid personal bankruptcy.

Their idea to avoid municipal bankruptcy is to raise our debt by millions and increase our taxes. That is, of course, contrary to any known sound and credible economic theory and policy known to Man. They are so focused on their legacies that it doesnt faze them that they have no common sense or logical rationale to explain their actions. When you are in a hole the FIRST thing you do is stop digging. They stopped listening to the residents long ago.



They really aren't concerned with the plight of the residents because, as those HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of dollars keep disappearing, they can, and will, just keep raising our taxes to cover it! To them (again, with one exception) we are a deep-pocketed and never-ending ATM that just keeps on giving and giving, no matter HOW horribly mismanaged and/or corrupt (take your pick) the City is.



Without voicing your objection, this ongoing and unacceptable pattern of incompetence, waste, and/or corruption (your choice) will simply continue until we are broke. Silence and apathy are as much the enemies of democracy as dictators. Stay tuned.

Dotson for Mayor

The City of MS is projected to have 1.5 million more in bills next year than revenues to pay them. Council just pushed thru a 3.5 million plan for more debt and, apparently, are considering another 3.5 million in other capital projects that may be nice , but are NOT necessities- How do they plan to pay for the debts they have already incurred? Of course, it will be on the backs of the residents in higher taxes and fees. Thank God for Dotson, otherwise we would have only the three blithering idiots to listen to. He is an oasis of common sense in a sea of Council chaos, incompetence, and/or criminality. The jury is still out on Youngs, as he DOES have occasional helpful insights and bouts of common sense. The others havent been accused of anything close to good sense or fiscal responsibility for YEARS... several MILLION dollars in debt ago... Do you suppose they are running their OWN businesses into the ground too? of course not- thats THEIR money.

city cesspool

This is a forum for discussion and debate. If those who dont like others bringing up their opinions have facts to dispute those opinions, state them here. If they dont like others exposing the shady practices, backroom deals, and blatant mismanagement by city officials, perhaps its because they are the shysters themselves. The City needs MORE Martins and Owens taking an interest in this town and standing up for the interests of the residents. A thousand more Owens, Martins, Dotsons and others and we could clean up this cesspool of control freaks, shady backroom deals, continuous expensive cost overruns, rubber-stamp Councils, repeated mismanagement of city projects,and personal ambitions and agendas taking precedence over the interests of the ones who pay the bills-the residents.