The City of South Miami needs to step up during this virus

The City of South Miami and its officials have a responsibility to its residents and local business owners. Now is the time to really ramp up efforts to ensure the City remains prosperous.


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22 COMMENTS

  1. Anonymous, there should have been a forensic audit long time ago. Appearance of lots of funny business for a long time . SA’s office looks the other way. Think it’s a big hoot.

  2. I agree the commissioners are there to rubber stamp agendas but they are also there to get rich. Nothing more needs to be sad because we all know they are crooks

  3. Alexander the sleaze making deal with Calvin-Giordino to be city planners? Thought we had an planner? Like I said in a previous post, AUDIT, AUDIT, AUDIT, STATE ATTORNEY’S OFFICE, STATE ATTORNEY’S OFFICE.

  4. Holding a meeting in a crisis is the first and primary issue regardless of the agenda. Special meetings for a single purpose are held all the time at a moments notice, many in the mayor’s office. This could have been done to attest compliance with the County Mayor’s declared State of Emergency, we are still a part of Miami-Dade County . That could have been followed up with an announcement on the city website that city Hall was closed for business. What they did was a blatant disregard for the residents and businesses of this city. It is evident that now that they got their “deals” done they can sit back and let the County take over this crisis. This is what the residents voted for, all 2,173 of them out of 7,786 registered voters. As Ms. Fischer so aptly said, our city government has sunk to a new low.

  5. First of all, there were 2 resolutions dealing with the retention of Calvin Giordano on that agenda. The first one dealt with “an enhanced bicyle/ pedestrian path” on 62nd Ave. Can somebody please explain to me why a City Planning business is needed for such a project? All I saw in the backup was a spread sheet which did not answer my questions. No information was given as to cost, need for outside consultants, and not even the parameters of this project. The vote was a unanimous approval.
    The other resoulution was to retain Calvin Giordano for general city planning services. Why, when we have a Planning Director and Dept. staff? South Miami will piggyback on the contract that Calvin Giordano has with Cutler Bay. That contract eas NOT disclosed to the public! We have NO idea of the terms and conditions that the City will be liable to comply with.
    I asked a sitting Commissioner about my aforementioned concerns, and HE COULD NOT PROVIDE ME WITH ANY INFORMATION!!! THIS COMMISSIONER VOTED BLINDLY !!! WE HAVE A COMMISSION OF EMPTY SUITS; ZOMBIES WHO ARE THERE TO RUBBER STAMP ITEMS.
    I will say this, 2 Commissioners voted NO for the 2nd resolution.
    Apparently, our electeds have no interest in disclosure to the residents as to why they vote the way they do, or to make sure there is backup to inform us of all terms and conditions. Our City government has sunk to a new low. THOSE 2 RESOLUTIONS SHOULD HAVE BEEN DEFERRED UNTIL FULL DISCLOSURE COULD BE MADE AVAILABLE.
    IN MY OPINION, THIS MANNER OF RUNNING GOVERNMENT IS A SHAM, AND HAS THE APPEARANCE OF CORRUPTION!!!
    NO ONE EVEN BOTHERED TO CALL OUT THE GLARING OMISSIONS. NOR WAS THERE ANY DISCUSSION OR DEBATE.

  6. Surfer boy CM will be gone in May, leaving with a hefty bank account and laughing all the way . But, his legacy of destroying this city does not fall solely on his shoulders. All his enablers, that poor excuse for what sits( and sat) on the dais is equally responsible. We will survive but don’t forget folks, hurricane season officially starts June 1st. We can expect the same silence from this administration as we’ve gotten from hurricane Irma and now this national disaster. Prepare yourselves and if possible show up this time when the next budget workshop comes up in September.

  7. City of South Miami, the City of Inept elected and management have gone Missing in Action! I urge all South Miami residents to google the City of South Miami and the City of Coral Gables, Coral Gables is functioning because as soon as you get to the website the whole screen states “Covid 19 and when you click on that they have updates, ie, “Special Bulletin (8) by the Mayor establishing a Safer at Home” emergency. Now look at the City of South Miami, NO UPDATES, EXCEPT THE LINKS THAT ALL OF US COULD OBTAIN OURSELES. Where is the Mayor and the incompetent elected? Where is the City Manager, lobbying for Y green or surfing? Where are the South Miami Police? Are they delivering groceries to seniors and handicapped or just sitting home, getting paid to do nothing. The city manager and elected honestly should be removed immediately. The audacity for the city manager to allow the last commission meeting but he had to be kind to his favorite vendor, Calvin-Giordino, and the imbeciles who sit and vote don’t even read the agenda. A complete audit needs to be done at the city because everyone wants to know where is the money. Anybody check on Mayor Stoddard, oops I meant Mayor Phillips, to see what she is doing as Mayor in these times of crisis?

  8. The reality is that we have no leadership, a ship without a captain. I wrote a comment weeks ago when we first went into this situation. There was absolutely no advisories from city Hall, I said that everything should be shut down, an email should be sent every day with updates. Assistance for the elderly that would be housebound should have been arranged, the list goes on. In spite of all other municipalities doing whatever was necessary, our administration held a commission meeting on March 17th in chambers and of course they added a note on the website that attendance by the public was not advised. good opportunity for them to not have public remarks. the agenda was obvious as to the necessity for this meeting, as it was yet another opportunity to award a contract to the city Manager’s favorite, Calvin-Giordano. A sweetheart 5 year deal with no cost, contract am’t not mentioned anywhere. As usual all 5 stooges on the dais voted yes, no questions asked, not one. There was a reso. announcing the county State of Emergency and that was simply to get their hands on FEMA funds. Certainly not to be used for any person/resident or business that would need help Awarding contracts and buying unnecessary equipment when we are facing bankruptcy is unconscionable As to social Media, they are very adept at that for their own purposes, the city manager knows exactly how to engage in whatever format there is. They just don’t care. the voters had a chance to change this abomination back in Feb. but they again had a very low turnout. We reap what we sow.

  9. WHY is the City of South Miami still holding in-person meetings when all the world’s leaders are holding virtual meetings and asking citizens to stay the fuck home to flatten the curve? PLEASE ask the new Mayor to enter the 21st century and do her part to protect South Miami from the pandemic and STOP holding in person meetings. There’s even one scheduled for tomorrow that is open to the public. Does she not have access to the news???
    https://www.southmiamifl.gov/Calendar.aspx?EID=2070&month=3&year=2020&day=26&calType=0

  10. It is 2020 and our city, the one close to a university (UM), still doesn’t use social media (Twitter, Facebook) which is something basic for any city that is always informing and communicating with its citizens, especially now where the presence of the City is virtually non-existent, we don’t know what the Major is doing neither the City is these times of crisis. The cities close to us (Coral Gables, Pinecrest, etc) are doing a great job with social media, but for our small city we are still in 1990 and it is no needed somehow.

  11. Bam Bam Ruble, you have provided a perfect example of a Stoddard self serving agenda. Do you remember how Stoddard turned in his seat and lunged towards Walter Harris and verbally threatened him simply because Walter asked for a neighborhood charette for the residents who would be impacted by the construction? This was a prima facie example of how Stoddard bullied and manipulated Walter into voting for Stoddard ‘s personal agenda so that there would be a bike path to the arsenic ridden Ludlam Trail (which will take years to remediate). Walter should have made a complaint to the Commission on Ethics about that episode. How many Stoddardites even witnessed that and other uses of undue influence ? The “Stepford Wives” of this city were in a coma during those years. Maybe they’ll wake up when they get subsequent property tax bills.
    No wonder downtown deteriorated the way it did. High density projects, super expensive bike paths (that residents didn’t want) and useless, expensive studies took precedence over all else. Downtown was neglected, and lack of parking was always approved by vote.

  12. I’m waiting for the citizen’s outrage when the city commission approves the construction of the $5 million SW 64th Street protected bikeway from SW 62nd Ave to the future Ludlam Trail, and it’s official naming as the Mayor Philip K. Stoddard Bikeway. This frivolous, costly expenditure is the number 1 reason why neighborhoods are not getting the traffic calming they so desperately need and have asked for.

  13. “Tawdry blue lights” prime example of a city with absolutely no taste. Taxes will increase because of former Mayor Stoddard and his puppets on the commission for the past ten years approving everything Stoddard told the city attorney to opine and allowing lawsuits to drag on knowing they were in the wrong. He and the rest should be held accountable. You have a city manager, terminated by Cutler Ridge, who couldn’t get a job at any city he applied for but welcome with open arms because Alexander wanted to be paid over 200 a year plus benefits with the condition he can work at other jobs and than hires an incompetent city manager to barely run the city. Shame on the lazy self absorbed stupid residents who listened to the lies and babble of the Mayor, his losers on the dais and the department heads, elections do have consequences and it appears we have another two years of the lying former (in name only) Mayor Stoddard and his incompetent third choice to be his Mayor, Sally Philips.

  14. Anonymous, City government could have cut the high parking fees if they had not wasted our money hiring pals to do b.s. studies and keep them on interminably, like one of the aforementioned in your comments. So much of our money wasted on studies to facilitate high density as per Stoddard’s dictatorial regime and agenda. The realities of the market for increased density projects no longer support his quest to turn our city into another downtown Dadeland.
    City government needs to cut the fat instead of raising our taxes. C.M. has announced that our taxes will go up. This is the result of the Stoddard/Alexander high density agenda which required hundreds of thousands spent on studies and consultants, and the die off of our business district. Voters in this city are so easily propagandized. Many can’t afford the tax increases that will ensue.
    Money would have been better spent on beautifying our downtown.
    Tawdry blue lights did not help and cost us to maintain.
    All of you who voted for Stoddard term after term are responsible for this mess. You were not even at Commission meetings to see what was going on and participate with Public Remarks. Now we all suffer the consequences.

  15. Other municipalities had cancelled all city meetings but not South Miami. City Manager wanted to pass resolutions for Calvin Giorgino before they turn the lights out. Commissioners Welsh and Shari Kamali were observed coughing and sneezing at the Commission Meeting, so you are correct Snoopy the elected and the employees of the city don’t give a dam about the people, just about themselves

  16. City Manager Steve Alexander and his soon to be puppet city manager Shari Kamali Alexander after he moves to his vacation home, along with Mayor Stoddard, (mistake, meant to say Mayor Sally Stoddard) as well as the rest of the incompetent commissioners have FAILED in their duties to residents regarding updates for the virus epidemic. Compare the websites to other cities, and one could see they are once again asleep at the switch. All Alexander did was post links to other websites whereas as Pinecrest and Coral Gables had daily updates on what was going on in their city. Alexander must be surfing the Atlantic Ocean and even though beaches are closed he has special privilege because he is hooked to the hip with Dade County and gets special privileges just like his duties in South Miami, working full time as a lobbyist and paid by the city as a ghost city manager.

  17. Regarding Grant’s comments as well as other posters to parking fees. Perhaps you need to do your homework before you make remarks like you did. Parking fees are second to ad va. taxes as a money maker. If there were free parking there would no longer be the City of South Miami or taxes would be higher for residents to cover no parking fees. One must point the finger at former Mayor Stoddard, Commissioners Liebman, Gil, Welsh, Harris, City Manager Steve Alexander and his assistant Shari Kamali. They have no expertise in business and some only care about developers (oops we all must wonder why, certainly not for the good of the city ) you have the absent city manager Steve Alexander who is busy at his first job lobbying for Y green. Unfortunately you got a clueless Mayor Sally Filler Up Philips who is just a body in Stoddard’s chair, she is controlled by the former Mayor. Another mask has surfaced as if one wasn’t enough

  18. Hey, Grant! I’ve been saying for years that the City needs to lower the parking rate, clean up the parking garages, and make them safe. Instead the C.M. and Commission installed the latest costly, state of the art WiFi system, parking rates were jacked up to pay for it and fill the coffers. I heard one of the mayoral candidates say that she got an overtime parking ticket for $33.00!! She was angry, and rightly so.

    Some of the muckety mucks in City Hall still don’t understand why residents don’t patronize the Downtown Business district. There are lots of walkers who live close by to downtown who shop at W/D, but are not patronizing the Downtown Business district. I have been told that they don’t think they are getting value for their money, and many are paying high rent and don’t have discretionary spending money for $4 or $5 ice cream cones and expensive meals. Many of those people may be out of work because of the virus, and worried about keeping a roof over their heads. So yeah, Snoopy is right. It’s too late.

    No one knows how long it will take for this virus to cycle out, or how long until a vaccine is developed. By then the virus will have mutated and the vaccine will be ineffective when the next wave hits.

    Shame on landlords who cripple their tenants with high rent, and shame on city officials for gouging residents and visitors with high parking fees. They have cut off their noses and spite their own faces with their endless greed and throwing our money at their pals for useless, overpriced studies. Whatever they have done recently to give business and patrons a break is too little, too late!

    The people of this city are turned off.
    It’s so interesting to see that those who voted for high density candidates, don’t support our business district. Some can barely afford to pay their property taxes. They swallowed the propaganda that more people living the dense urban area lifestyle will pick up the slack and protect them from higher taxes. You could sell the Brooklyn bridge to these suckers! Blight is the result of years of bad policy and poor leadership.

    One last thought. When people are living in densely populated situations, viruses spread like wild fire.

  19. The lack of leadership in S.Miami continues. Where is the important relationship with our city and our local hospitals and communication with residents as to when Coronavirus tests are available? Yet, no doubt taxes
    will go up as usual.

  20. Too late. businesses have been ordered to shut down with the stated exceptions. There is no leadership in this city, no line of communication with the residents. Same behavior as hurricane emergencies, but they are very adept at passing resolutions on the state of emergency so that they’ll get their hands on FEMA $$. Hopefully, City Hall and all regular business, permits etc. is shut down.
    The SBA will help our businesses that are effected, the residents need to follow all safety precautions and check up by telephone on any neighbors who are elderly and at greater risk. We have to look out for one another, our city administration certainly won’t.
    Stay safe, there will be a rainbow at the end of this ordeal.

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