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EDITORIAL RESPONSE TO READER

May 6, 2014
David Weston:
Thank you for publicly responding to The City of Miami Beachs Blind Eye. (May 5, 2014)
That you were compelled to once again address your grievance to City Manager Jimmy
Morales, after he turned a blind eye to your previous pleas, indicates that you completely
missed the gist of my article.
I believe that your reaction to the trauma you suffered at the hands of Miami Beach officials
has set you upon a futile path, a vicious cycle wherein you vainly expect to be vindicated by the
very system that abuses you to no end.
You have told me repeatedly that all you asked for was a change in your record from
involuntary termination to resignation. That is not going to happen absent people of integrity at
the helm. Without them, you may only obtain justice in a court of law.
After I saw how your personnel record was fouled with apparently false and malicious
statements, I was astonished by the incompetence of the citys Human Resources Department
in allowing that sort of record to accumulateperhaps that was the reason for keeping one file
secret until Mr. Parcher courageously intervened.
I gave some thought to why Mr. Morales promised me in writing that he would not brush your
case under the rug, and then did just that, using Human Resources as the rug. Well, people may
have ethical reasons for changing their minds, or they may have orders from their superiors.
Now it has occurred to me that purging your record of defamatory information, marking your
file as a voluntary resignation, and providing you with a letter of apology, would be an
admission of wrongdoing at this stage, an admission that the information on file is patently
false, and that it would appear to any impartial judge that you were intentionally wronged.
Remember that Mr. Morales is a lawyer, and the Human Resources Department has its lawyer.
Still, liability for the truth should not prevent a person of high character from telling it.
So perhaps you have not divulged everything. If you have, I urge you, for the sake of your health
and reputation, to seek legal advice on bringing suit against the city and the officials
responsible. If you allow the personnel record to stand as it is, people checking your references
will believe you were probably guilty of unethical conduct.
You are a millionaire with a lawyer in your own family, so why do you not clear your name and
obtain compensation up to the legal limit? Because, you have said, you abhor litigation, and you
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are a good fellow, not an enemy of the city, someone who believes that city government, with
your help, can improve. I believe you could improve it, if only Mr. Morales or Mayor Levine
would bring you into the fold to that end.

David Arthur Walters


LETTER FROM READER
May 5, 2014
Dear David Walters and Mr. Manager
I did feel that my dismissal matter was not properly nor accurately addressed. The HR Director
merely repeated the allegations that were in the Sonia Machen incident report. The HR
director, Mrs. Crespo-Tabak reported to Manager Morales that I was in violation of County
Ethics rules. Had she read the material that I had personally presented to her, then Mrs.
Crespo-Tabak would have seen that I had requested an official ethics opinion both well before
and then after my firing. Mrs. Tabak would have read that I presented my situation to Fire Chief
Jordan in writing. She would have seen that Chief Jordan, thru Fire Marshal Sonia Machen,
replied to me in writing by granting me a waiver until my issue was fully resolved with the
firefighters union.
When I was an employee of the city I regularly identified financial collection failures. What I
received in return was threats from Building, Fire, and the Auditors. That was real and it was
wrong. It cost the city millions of dollars and there was a pattern of this misconduct.
An examination of my documentation demonstrated that my concerns were real. Miami Dades
Police Public Corruption unit and the Miami Dade County auditor confirmed my allegations as
accurate.
However, after the Tabak report to the Manager, I did not wish to continue to distract the
manager from his new position as well as what I felt the city really needed. The city needs an
independent Inspector General and whistleblower protection for city employees.
Had both of these resources been in place when I was an employee I believe that the outcome
would have been much better for the city as well as me. At least I would have had a safe place
to go.
In conclusion, I ask that the most important task not be swept under the carpet. Current and
future employees still need this safe place to report suspected misdeeds.
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Mr. Manager, do you really think that co-workers in the various and previously troubled
departments did not suspect something was wrong? Please ask yourself why they did not come
forward.
Read the indictment of fire inspectors Footman and Bryant. You will learn that they had over a
thousand passed inspections and only a few dozen failed inspections. Please ask yourself why
this was not noticed [Note: over 50% of my inspections were fails on the first inspection]
In conclusion give the citizens, the employees and the city what it really needs.
Thats my opinion and thank you for reading it.
Regards, David Weston

EDITORIAL
May 6, 2014

The City of Miami Beachs Blind Eye (May 5, 2014) took the administration and its
rubberstamp city commission for confessedly turning a blind eye to the facts when considering
the performance of directors and departments, preferring to rely on assurances of personal
integrity and promises of improvement.
City Manager Jimmy Morales has indeed changed some department heads, but what good does
it do to change heads and get the same or worse results? What good does it do to replace a
head from Hialeah with a head from Doral? We need performance, not patronage and
favoritism.
Yes, indeed, he may deserve some credit for changes of leadership in the Human Resources
Department and Fire Department if those changes in personnel result in realization of positive,
measurable objectives.
Inattentive media has been deceived into thinking that he changed the leadership of the Code
Compliance Division of the Building Department by restructuring it into a standalone
department, leaving the top three officials in place.
Instead of replacing the top three officials in the Building Department as recommended, he put
the head of the troubled City of Miami Building Department over their heads almost
immediately after he became manager.
A correction is in order: The City of Miami Beachs Blind Eye stated that Mr. Morales bragged
privately that sixty people have been terminated. My source has corrected me, saying the
number given was eighty. Where is the list? What did they do? How many of them did not
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support Mayor Philip Levine during his campaign? Did they somehow offend the faux
opposition commissioners? What we need is performance, not patronage, not vindictiveness,
and that can be achieved by inspired managers without firing rank and file.
It remains a mystery why Mr. Morales failed to sweep out the two most notorious offices, the
Building Department and its Code Compliance Division. It is an evenmore confounding mystery
why the commissioners turned a blind eye to a restructuring that aggravates rather than
mitigates abuses of power, and to inefficiencies that building industry professionals from other
parts of the state deplore when they have to deal with them. It is no mystery, however, why
high officials turn a blind eye to reports that do not flatter them. They are all too human.
A local gentleman with over forty years of political experience told me that Building and
Compliance may not be radically reformed no matter whom the city manager and mayor may
be, because Building and Compliance are protected and untouchable. He would not define
those terms. Is there a mob involved, or was he talking about legalized organized crime?
A young woman from Sicily who opened a shop after a year of being shaken down by the city
told me that theMafioso is far more professional and better for business than our code
compliance outfits. There, she says, businesses are shaken down equally and enjoy equal
protection from the outlaws.
I was recently invited by a director to a meeting, supposedly to provide information that might
assist him in rooting out evil, which I was no longer to speak about to protect the investigation.
Oddly, I had already provided nearly all the factual information in my reports, which he had
obviously not even read. My focus has been on negligence and moral corruption, not on
criminal corruption although there is always that possibility where stupidity prevails.
I was tempted to attend the meeting. Then I reflected on what whistleblower David Weston
told me about a meeting he had with law enforcement officials, how they surrounded him and
gave him the impression that he was about to be arrested for the very wrongs that others had
done, a classic case of blaming the wrong on victim instead of the perpetrator.
And then I sought the advice of a gentleman on Alton Road who had been invited to a meeting
to address the alleged wrongdoings of an influential developer. He related to me how he had
been invited to a meeting with one person, how ten people surrounded him in an intimidating
manner when he arrived.
Dont go, he advised. The director thinks you are stupid, and you would be stupid if you
show up.
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I decided not to go to the meeting, not because I was afraid, but because I figured it was a
waste of time to meet with an official who has amply demonstrated that he does not enforce
the law. I would not mind meeting with him just to shake his hand if he gets off his rsum and
saves his department from perdition.

RECENT LINKS TO RELEVANT ARTICLES

THE CITY OF MIAMI BEACHS BLIND EYE
http://www.scribd.com/doc/222080449/The-City-of-Miami-Beach-s-Blind-Eye
ITS NOT MY JOB
http://www.scribd.com/doc/219861195/It-s-Not-My-Job
MIAMI DADE ENVIRONMENTAL AGENCY WANTS HELP
http://www.scribd.com/doc/219396948/Miami-Dade-Environmental-Agency-Wants-Help
HALF-ASSED MIAMI BEACH CODE COMPLIANCE
http://www.scribd.com/doc/216118376/Half-Assed-Miami-Beach-Code-Compliance
MAYOR LEVINE TO RESPOND TO PLEA FOR HARMONY
http://www.scribd.com/doc/215935333/Miami-Beach-Mayor-Levine-to-Respond-to-Plea-for-
Harmony
MIAMI BEACH CODE COMPLIANCE CRITICISED
http://www.scribd.com/doc/215197320/Miami-Beach-Code-Compliance-Criticized
SOUTH BEACH RESTAURANTEUR ACCUSED OF MAKING MONEY LEGALLY
http://www.scribd.com/doc/213875749/South-Beach-Restauranteur-Accused-of-Making-
Money-Legally
THE CULTURE OF RETALIATION IN SOUTH BEACH
http://www.scribd.com/doc/212591145/The-Culture-of-Retaliation-in-South-Beach
SOUTH BEACH RESTAURANT VANDALIZED BY CODE COMPLIANCE
http://www.scribd.com/doc/210279507/South-Beach-Restaurant-Vandalized-by-Code-
Compliance
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THIRD WORLD CODE COMPLIANCE IN MIAMI BEACH
http://www.scribd.com/doc/209589229/The-Third-World-in-Miami-Beach