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Why am I scratching my head about the audit of Miami Beach, you might ask, when everyone knows I’m a big proponent of transparency?
I won’t beat around the bush. It’s because there is no evidence of corruption or mismanagement. In fact, the City of Miami Beach conducts its own comprehensive audit every year and has a clean record.
More than anything is that it means spending money on responding to a third party investigation, which means city officials are diverted from more important issues. It means that anyone with a grudge, or who was offended that their ego wasn’t stroked exactly right is going to focus the power of the State of Florida on anyone.
Don’t know the motivation behind it, but State Rep. Fabian Basabe alleged Miami Beach is financial mismanagement at the City of Miami Beach – with no evidence – and the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee pointed Florida’s auditor in its direction. Bayshore Park and the Miami Beach Boardwalk took too long, he says. Okay, but where is the corruption? What is the proof that the money was misspent?
There is no question that every public institution should get scrutiny for policy and performance on an ongoing basis. The Jackson Health Foundation is a good example, with the former COO Charmaine Gatlin pleading guilty to more than $4 million in fraud over a decade.
One of my recent columns called for Miami-Dade County Commissioners and the Mayor to create a dashboard on their websites that itemizes every penny spent from their personal budgets. And more public involvement in oversight of the annual budget, which was plagued a year ago by a funding gap of $400 million that drove proposed cuts to entire departments and the merger of others. Staff was left scrambling only to find creative strategies to avoid outright amputations. And what about next year?
There is no question that MiamI Beach is not immune to sunshine, but does that mean that the government should have a kneejerk reaction to every allegation with no receipts as long as your party is in power? If that is the case, there will be no time left to do anything else.
If in the end, the State Auditor finds some spending that can’t be accounted for or back room dealing for contracts, more power to them. But there should also be a consequence if the audit finds the City is being responsible and managing projects successfully. How about the State of Florida pays for Miami Beach’s cost for responding to the audit? Consequences should be applied to all parties otherwise we will end up with a lot of time and money wasted, and nobody wants that, especially me.
