Miami-Dade commissioners' trade trips ring up $217K tab -- and no results

[ensho]

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/v-print/story/1337138.html


In late July, as Miami-Dade leaders confronted the county's worst budget crisis in decades, Commissioner Natacha Seijas boarded American Airlines Flight 56 for a weeklong trip to Ireland.
In September, a day after commissioners voted to lay off more than 500 county workers and cut millions in funding to social service groups, Seijas hopped on a plane for seven days in Brazil. In October, as commissioners imposed steep salary cuts on three unions, Commissioner Audrey Edmonson and her chief of staff embarked on a 12-day journey through Senegal and South Africa.

Taxpayers picked up the tab for commissioners and their county entourages on each trip, which were arranged by the International Trade Consortium, a county agency designed to open global markets for Miami-Dade businesses.

Despite spending more than $217,000 on nine trips since 2007, ITC executive director J.A. ``Tony'' Ojeda Jr. could not identify a single contract signed as a result of the missions. In fact, the agency stopped keeping such records four years ago after a Miami Herald review found them grossly exaggerating the trips' economic benefit.

To critics, the International Trade Consortium has become a punch line.

``It's sort of a common joke that the ITC is International Travel for Commissioners,'' said Mario Artecona, executive director of the Miami Business Forum, which represents the region's top business leaders.
-long snip-
---------------------------


and


http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/11417-1


Judge orders EPA to help clean up Florida waters


In a case with national implications, a federal judge in Tallahassee says the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must take steps to stop the harmful algae blooms in Florida waters. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle says he will order the federal agency to comply with the Clean Water Act and set legal limits on pollution from sewage, animal manure and excess fertilizer that triggers the blooms.

David Guest, managing attorney with Earthjustice, says nutrient runoff from fertilizer and septic systems has fouled Florida's beaches and waterways, threatened public health, and even shut down a southwest Florida drinking water plant.

"Florida used to be a place that was safe to swim in. It was a place that attracted tourists from all over the world -- and we're in the process of ruining that and destroying our tourist economy. This is going to bring a halt to that."

-snip-

The judge has given the EPA until October, 2010 to establish the specific limits for pollution discharge. Guest says having quantifiable, numeric limits for water quality means they will be easier to enforce, so the decision will also benefit other states.
---------------------


"used to be" is a phrase all of us in the world will be saying more and more of.