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When the community council system was adopted by
Miami-Dade County three years ago, it was, in some ways, incomplete.
Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas welcomes the assembled community leaders
to the conference.
Community council members were "thrown into the
breech" with little instruction on what their jobs entailed, as
Doral Community Council member Odel Torres said.
Pictured are Doral Community Council member Pepe Cancio (left) and
Doral Community Council chairman Jerry Howie
There was no formal forum created to allow the newly
elected officials an opportunity to air their grievances directly to
the county staff.
Miami-Dade County Commissioner (District 12) Miriam Alonso (center) is
welcomed to the podium by Doral Community Council vice chair Carolyn
Casserta (right) and Miami-Dade director of Protocol and International
Trade Tony Ojeda.
The first Conference of Community Councils, conducted
at the Radisson Mart Hotel in June, sought to remedy those
shortcomings, and nearly all who attended judged it to be a huge
success.
Miami-Dade County Commissioner (District 12) Miriam Alonso and
Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas talk during lunch at the all-day
conference.
The conference was organized by Miami-Dade County
Commissioner Dr. Miriam Alonso, District 12, Doral's representative,
and was meant to provide a vehicle for dialogue between county
officials and community councils.
Pictured (l-r) are Doral Community Council member and WDFHA vice
president Odel Torres, WDFHA president Morgan Levy, and WDFHA
secretary Rolando Oses.
Alonso said the event was a long time coming, and she
was happy she could help provide the means and impetus for it.
"Nothing like this had ever been done before and
the community councils needed an opportunity to communicate with
Miami-Dade government, including the county manager, the assistant
county managers, and other county department heads."
Elected officials from several of Miami-Dade's
municipalities attended the event as well, including the mayor and
vice mayor of Medley, mayor of Virginia Gardens, several commissioners
from Sweetwater and Hialeah, and City of Miami Commissioner Willie
Gort.
The conference consisted of a series of
lecture/discussion sessions featuring pressing issues such as the role
and responsibilities of the councils, delivery and financing of county
services, conflict of interest and ethics, building a common service
agenda, and common service priorities.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas attended the
conference and stressed during his luncheon speech that Miami-Dade's
community councils were important to developing a "common
agenda" for the county as a whole.
"We need you to provide us with as much input as
possible," he said. "You are an important pert of restoring
the confidence of our citizens in their elected officials, giving the
people of UMSA [Unincorporated Municipal Service Area] more of a say
in how their community is governed."
Doral Community Council chairman Jerry Howie was one
of several Doral community leaders in attendance. Besides Howie,
council member Torres, Doral Community Council vice chair Carolyn
Casserta, Doral Community Council member Pepe Cancio, Doral Community
Council member Max Salvador, WDFHA president Morgan Levy, and WDFHA
secretary Rolando Oses also attended.Howie said that he thought the
experience had been invaluable, giving the council members important
instruction they had been lacking. It also provided them with an
outlet for their frustrations.
"Miriam did an excellent job in putting this
together, Howie said.
Torres also thought the day had been productive. He
said he only wished that the conferences would take place more
frequently.
"It's something that was needed and it should be
done more often. This way we can learn from each other, the councils
and the county staff, and talk directly to county officials. [We can]
hear what the other side has to say and exchange ideas," Torres
said. "In particular, the exercise after lunch where we discussed
our main concerns and accomplishments -- that was extremely
helpful."
Both Howie and Penelas also praised Alonso's
"vision."
"This day is a long time coming, and I really
want to congratulate Miriam for having the vision to put this
together," Penelas said.
"Dr. Alonso had this vision and it translated
into this remarkable meeting between the county management and the
councils, a meeting that was long overdue and was certainly highly
successful." Howie said.
Alonso said that the move was a common sense one,
particularly given the amount of influence that the councils are
entrusted with and that many of the communities those councils
represent are moving towards incorporation.
"I thought of the community councils and the
complexity and importance of the decisions that they make,"
Alonso said. "They needed certain information that could only be
provided by the various departments of our county government and we
needed some way to get both sides together so that their questions
could be answered. We needed to sit down and establish goals for all
of Miami-Dade County."
She also emphasized how supportive county management
had been prior to the event and how pleased they had been with it
afterwards.
"Tony Ojeda, the director of protocol and
international trade in the mayor's office, was particularly
helpful," she said. "He was very professional. Without his
assistance and guidance none of this would have been possible.
Everyone I've spoken to was thrilled with how everything came
out."
One of the most interesting things about the event was
that it wasn't funded by the county. Alonso secured all the funding
for the conference from the private sector.
"It was great. Everyone was able to ask the
proper questions, exchange success stories. All in all it was a
tremendous success," Alonso said. "We discussed the
priorities for UMSA, which is time well spent. We accomplished all of
these things and it didn't cost the taxpayers a cent."
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