Ain’t it Awful’ Ain’t an Answer

It’s a critical election year, and the Aug. 23 primary and Nov. 8 general election will be here faster than you think. Many candidates have yet to declare, but local elections in Miami-Dade’s 34 municipalities – scattered throughout the year – are worth your attention. Go to MiamiDade.gov, click on “Elections & Voting” under the “Services & Information” tab at the top left of the home page header, and you’ll find that the Department of Elections has a full calendar with deadlines for local elections through 2023.

These elections are almost always nonpartisan. The big “five Ps” of local governance – pipes, public safety, parks, pickup (trash and recycling) and pavement – should not care about your origins, political party or neighborhood.

Turnout makes all the difference. In stand-alone local elections and runoffs, you’re lucky if 18% of the voters show up. Up in New York in the Bronx, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won her congressional seat in a 2018 runoff with a 13% turnout. Closer to home, North Miami Beach radically changed direction with an 11.45% runoff turnout in November 2020.

There’s plenty to consider: the development tsunami, 39% rent increases in Miami-Dade to some of the highest in the land, growing inequality, a fraught ecosystem and enough grifting, preening, entitlement and self-dealing to kill a horse.

That’s not to say all is doomed.

Says former County Commissioner Katy Sorenson: “There are a lot of good citizens working on good things. We could always use more. We are getting a lot of people coming in who don’t know the history and don’t know how to connect or form a cohort.”

Sorenson, who now divides her time between South Florida and Colorado, served 16 years on the commission, founded the University of Miami’s Good Government Initiative in 2010 and trained 86 elected officials, including current Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and City of Miami Commissioner Ken Russell.

She closed shop in 2016 because she couldn’t find enough qualified officials to continue but keeps the faith. She advises first getting to know your government officials in a nonconfrontational way and ask what help they could use. In any case, “ain’t it awful” ain’t an answer.

In his recent book “Politics is for Power: How to Move Beyond Political Hobbyism, Take Action, and Make Real Change,” Boston University’s Eitan Hirsch urges that we resist “political hobbyism,” or overreliance on our favorite social media posts, podcasts, Twitter and much else. The result: lots of talk, little action, and fortification within our bubbles, which he contends damages our fragile democracy.

So with nods to Sorenson, Hirsch and Alcoholics Anonymous – this political hobbyist offers 12 steps to shut off your screen, lay off the social media sauce and make a least an incremental difference. The most important political action could stem from right where you’re sitting.

1. Embrace the suck. That doesn’t mean roll over or get resigned and cynical. Realize that there’s plenty of quid pro quo corruption down here. Miami-Dade is a bull’s-eye for developers and that undergirds everything and funds campaigns. Introduce yourself to public officials with an open mind and open eyes.

2. Pace yourself. Take care of yourself and your family first. Do good work, be patient with yourself. Get your financial footing solid so you can better engage without worrying too much about money. Eat right, exercise, connect, meditate, pray if you so believe and recreate. Ration time wisely and check out enough news for an informed take, but put a time limit on it. Obsession is rarely healthy.

3. Check out a meeting in person. It’s easier to read a room than a Zoom screen, so check out a few local council meetings just to get a feel. Introduce yourself to a commissioner or councilperson with a neutral rather than an adversarial question, or ask them what they believe is the greatest challenge being faced in your city or community.

4. Help your neighbor. Look out for each other. Help with the lawn, the roof or a garage clean out. Offer to watch the cats and dogs. Do a shift at the food bank. Pitch in and start gradually.

5. Seek out a board. Maybe it’s the library or neighborhood beautification. Maybe it’s code enforcement, board of adjustment, personnel, and planning and zoning. Whatever it is you care about most, some of the best work happens on the boards that act as its steward, with little or no pay or glory for its members. Distinguish the honest workers from the résumé padders. Know anyone who has read your city charter? Lots of city officials and even attorneys apparently don’t.

6. Adversaries, yes. Enemies, no. Calling someone an idiot does not make a convert. Your council representative, city manager or police chief may seem dead wrong, corrupt or venal, but you can disagree sharply on one thing and work together on another. Politics is really about alliances rather than friendships. Do not take it personally and let your gut be your guide. Try to keep it civil even if you work to vote ’em out.

7. Insist on professionalism. What does your city value? One city manager said on LinkedIn that “Family and loyalty are the most important values one can have.” Fine at home, but at city hall on the taxpayer’s dime? How about professionalism and honesty first? That means rigor, point systems, independent panels deciding on contracts, impartiality and a solvent, fair and just community. The loyalty is to your residents, whether they voted for you or not. That’s public service.

8. Enroll and organize! Strengthen your property owners’ association, join your condo board or build a renter’s coalition and form a network of allies with other associations around your city. Consider banding together to create a Community Benefit Agreement (Google it for best practices) to get beyond predictable NIMBYism (that stands for “not in my backyard” for those unfamiliar). Call out landlords on fat rent hikes. Public shaming can work and renters vote.

9. Hold them accountable. Is your councilmember back from fact-finding trips to China, India, Haiti or even a fancy Marriott? How about that meeting of the National Conference of Mayors? Or a national PAC meeting in Arizona? What was the bill? How was the trip? What did you learn? Which best practices you can apply? And the real question: How do you plan to turn that expense into a community investment?

10. Call out your own. Whistleblowing matters. See it, say it. Just a few warning signs: fast turnover among department heads and veteran civil servants, sudden demotions, no-bid contracts. Ask about them in public.

11. Help the candidate or cause you like. First listen to neighbors, then see how well your candidate listens. Ask your prospective candidate what’s most important, what three things they would do first if elected and how they would do them.

12. Know when to change dance steps. As W.C. Fields once said: “If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no point in being a damn fool about it.” We’d amend that to say keep the endgame in mind, check with your cohort and change tack.