miami.com
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Posted on Fri, Oct. 11, 2002
Walkout prevents vote on monitors
6 commissioners oppose oversight of Nov. 5 polling
BY KARL ROSS
kross@herald.com
Silently and in unison, six Cuban-American Miami-Dade County commissioners abandoned the commission chambers Thursday, effectively blocking a plan to bring to the Nov. 5 election outside monitors who usually oversee polling in troubled countries.
Those who want the monitors say their presence may be the only way to restore credibility to the county's election system following the disastrous Sept. 10 primary. But opponents say it's embarrassing to Miami-Dade.
The highly unusual simultaneous departure just before a public hearing on the issue left the commission without a quorum and forestalled any vote on whether to contract the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Democracy to oversee the Nov. 5 vote.
The 13-member body needs seven commissioners present to be able to take action. After the six left, six who support using monitors remained. One commissioner, who is about to leave office, was absent from the meeting.
''It looks like an exodus to me,'' said Commissioner Betty Ferguson, one of those remaining. ``I think it's a deliberate walkout, and I feel insulted.''
Community activists -- many concerned about what they believe was the disenfranchisement of black voters in recent elections -- were stunned.
Many had sat through several hours of a zoning meeting because of a scheduling glitch to wait for discussion of the monitors.
''This is Third World politics,'' said Max Rameau, a member of the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition. ``You have a government with questions about its legitimacy. And instead of trying to alleviate those questions, they're reinforcing those questions. This is encouraging people not to vote.''
A similar incident occurred in 1996 when six commissioners walked out during a ceremony to honor civil-rights leader Andrew Young.
At that time, five of the commissioners denied deliberately snubbing Young, but one, Javier Souto, acknowledged leaving to protest Young's comments about Fidel Castro.
The commissioners walking out this time were Souto, Bruno Barreiro, Rebeca Sosa, Joe Martinez, Jose ''Pepe'' Cancio, and Natacha Seijas.
Those found in their offices right after the walkout denied any coordinated action, which would imply a violation of the state's open-government laws.
''If people talked about this beforehand, it would be a violation of the Sunshine Law, and I don't do that,'' Seijas said.
``Everybody walking out at the same time is not a violation of the Sunshine Law.''
Seijas said it was a spontaneous move, adding that she had an appointment and could not stay for the debate. She declined to say what kind of an appointment it was.
Martinez said he was in a hurry because of a commitment to appear on a Radio Mambi (740 AM) show.
''I didn't talk to anybody about this,'' Martinez said. ``All I know is I gotta go and I gotta go.''
The others could not immediately be reached.
The departing commissioners were all on record opposing the monitors, many saying the center's $120,000 price tag was too costly. Some have also echoed comments on Spanish-language radio that using monitors unfairly stigmatizes the county.
Some have said they don't want Miami-Dade to be compared to countries with troubled pasts.
On Tuesday, Seijas said, ``We're not Haiti, we're not Nicaragua, we're not Russia, and I refuse to go near any of those feelings. Because it was a horrible feeling they had when they were not free, and I don't want to feel that way.''
The center was able to shave its price to $92,000 after talks with county officials.
But the six commissioners remaining at the meeting were unable to take action.
It may be possible to resurrect the proposal at a special meeting Tuesday. The remaining commissioners -- Chairman Jimmy Morales, Barbara Carey-Shuler, Dorrin Rolle, Dennis Moss, Katy Sorenson and Ferguson -- agreed to seek a seventh signature from former Chairwoman Gwen Margolis.
Margolis was ceremonially retired at the previous meeting and was absent Thursday, but remains in office until Rep. Sally Heyman is sworn in.
If all seven commissioners who support the monitors sign what is known as a ''signature item,'' the monitoring plan can be considered Tuesday.
First Assistant County Attorney Murray Greenberg said he spoke with the center's president, Allen Weinstein, shortly after the monitoring plan was derailed, asking him whether he wanted to scrap the proposal.
''He said it's getting close but he wants to wait and see what happens on Tuesday,'' Greenberg said.
``He said if it passes and he still feels he can do a credible job, he'll do it. But time is getting short.''
Miami-Dade NAACP President Brad Brown denounced the apparent boycott.
''Obviously, people left because it was a way of achieving a goal of defeating the observers, which is something the commission was on record supporting,'' Brown said.
Neither Brown nor other activists in the audience said they believed cost was the true obstacle to calling in monitors.
Gihan Perera, a community activist with the Miami Workers Center, said the commissioners' conduct would only add to suspicions about the county's electoral process.
''It goes back to looking like we're afraid of what would happen if people were down here and the things they would see,'' Perera said. ``It's really sad.'' |
