I like Eye on Miami, but gimleteye does not seem to be clear on how the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) operates when it comes to local decisionmaking.
Herald editorial writer Myriam Marquez says the [DCA] "keeps locals honest". The truth is murkier: local power brokers and their political hirelings, like the unreformable majority of the Miami Dade County Commission, continually shove-off zoning decisions that offend their campaign contributors, allowing the state 'to decide'. Once the public is gamed at the local level, then the blood sport moves to Tallahassee, where powerful lobbyists (we know who they are, and so do you, if your read our blog) strong-arm and otherwise pressure agency staff to do the wrong thing. They put enormous pressure on DCA by getting other agencies, from FDOT to the US Fish and Wildlife Service of the US Army Corps of Engineers , to do their bidding: some government agencies are just very, very cheap dates.
The DCA reviews Comprehensive Plan amednments. The way this works is that the DCA has a copy of the local government's approved Comp Plan. They then look at the State's criteria (FS 163 and FAC 9J-5) for a Comp Plan change alongside the amendment. If they determine that the amendment can be changed per the State's criteria, they then see if the amendment complies with the local government's own Comp Plan. DCA will do this for the land use portion of the amendment, but since amendments have effects on other portions of the Comp Plan other agencies will review sections relevant to their own expertise.
This is how local governments are kept honest...to their own Comp Plans. I am not going to say that gimleteye is wrong about the corruption. I am saying that the DCA is not where the buck stops. It stops with the writers and stewards of the Comp Plans, themselves.
Having said that, my position is that the DCA needs to stay.
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