Lynda Bell vs. Levine Cava debate becomes heated spar

The long-anticipated showdown between Miami-Dade Commissioner Lynda Bell and challenger Daniella Levine Cava came and went Monday night as each worked hard to turn the heat up on the other at the Kendall Federation of Homeowners debate.

Levine hit Bell on the recent service cuts in police and libraries and the battle to balance the county budget on the backs of employees.

Bell basically called Levine naive and clueless.

Levine complained that after several calls to County Hall, she still has not been able to sit with budget staff to go over the numbers. “But I know that presenting it to the public as a choice between concessions and layoffs is a false choice,” she said, referring to Mayor Carlos Gimenez‘s claim that the budget shortfall can only be closed if employees give up benefits they sacrificed three years ago that were set to “snap back” in October.

“I guess this is what happens when you don’t pay attention, because the budget is online,” Bell shot back, even though there is a stark difference between perusing the 600-page document online and getting someone like Budget Director Jennifer Glazer Moon to connect the dots for you. Trust me.

“You say you don’t know about the budget. You should,” Bell added, directing herself at Levine Cava a few times during the debate.

Bell said that she voted against giving back the 5% healthcare contribution that commissioners returned to the county employees earlier this year precisely because she saw how it would affect the budget. She then went on to talk about supplemental pay and paychecks that have ballooned for police rank and file and firefighter paramedics.

“We have walking and breathing pay,” Bell said. “This is a bigger problem. These concessions are not sustainable.

Levine Cava pointed out that that higher pay is due to overtime, not salaries. And that the increase in overtime is due to the county’s failure to fill necessary positions, like 250 vacancies in the police department, where Bell is apparently okay with losing another 200 more cops.

“We’re not being honest with the public. They’re calling the 5% a raise, but the 5% is a restoration,” Levine Cava said, turning to the budget. “I will be fighting for a participation process, not just post it online,” she said, adding that the county plays shell games with its money and then posts the complicated budget online just days before the commission votes on the tax rate.

There were other questions on the Jackson Memorial Hospital penny sales tax and incorporations and what now seems like a moot soccer stadium issue, the proposed Cuban exile museum in downtown Miami and the moving of the Dade County Youth Fair to accommodate a growing Florida International University.

Even the environment came into play when the moderator asked about protecting the Everglades. Levine Cava bragged about her endorsement from the Sierra Club. Bell bragged about her recent airboat ride.

“The Everglades is not just here for our enjoyment,” Levine Cava said, after Bell shared her breathless story about riding across the River of Grass. “The Everglades is there for our survival. It’s our drinking water.”

She also noted that Bell has voted to move the Urban Boundary Line, which is supposed to mark the western edge of development, and tried to tie it to the many contributions the incumbent has gotten from developers and construction folks.

The crowd applauded wildly for the challenger, and politely for Bell, who tried to stand her own anyway. She said that the development she had approved across the UDB was previously a rock parking lot for 20 years.

“So this is just nonsense. This is just nonsense,” Bell repeated, visibly flustered, because it was the best she could do.

Both also answered a question about the lack of follow up from the commission on a non-binding ballot question that got 64% of the people to vote for additional taxes to fund improved animal service and a no-kill shelter. Bell — who sponsored the item and then backed out when the group got the votes — said she was proud of her recent puppy mill legislation, which strengthens regulation and enforcement against serial breeders. She said she was also proud of the fact that the county had allocated an additional $4 million last year and this coming year for animal services (more on that later).

Bell further said that the Pet’s Trust people were all about fees and new buildings and “that’s not what it’s about. It’s about saving animals.”

Levine Cava, however, said she couldn’t believe that the commission had gone back on its word about the Pet’s Trust vote, after telling the group that if they could get the people approve a tax hike, they would set a millage to raise the $19 million needed for the full plan. “Such a violation of trust,” she called it. She said that most taxpayers are wary of government waste and the moving around of money like a shell game. “And here people were willing to tax themselves more.”

The best zinger came at the end, when Levine Cava basically stripped Bell of all her achievements.

“She’s taking credit for other people’s accomplishments,” Levine Cava said, pointing to a Mom & Pop Shop grant application for District 8 businesses that starts with Bell’s photo. She also mentioned the Beacon Council website, a “neighborhood service office” that basically mimics the 311 dial-information service and the ordinance passed on first reading last week that extends the waiting period — from two years to four years — that retired county employees and officials must rest before they can lobby the commission.

“It was a solution with no evidence of a problem,” Levine Cava said.

“She’s very good at taking credit for others’ accomplishments. But I’m the real deal.”

Bell, who was on the defensive pretty much all night, said she knew was “hostile territory” and that she was warned the audience would be stacked against her. And it’s true. Levine t-shirts abounded and Bell did not have her own team of cheerleaders. Ladra didn’t even expect the commissioner to go. It’s not like she was going to change anyone’s mind. Of course, she would have been criticized if she had been a no-show.

So Bell gets kudos for showing up regardless.

“I was told I would be mistreated and I came anyway, because I’m a public servant,” she said.

Well, that and the tight race to save her political life.

Daniella Levine Cava, Lynda Bell

Lynda Bell vs. Levine Cava debate becomes heated spar added by Ladra on July 22, 2014
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