Vice Chair Lynda Bell stands by her vote despite recall raffle

• Tweet
• Sumo

• Tweet

Vice Mayor Lynda Bell did not answer several calls to her cellphone to see how she felt about her name being “pulled out of a hat” for recall by a group of activists who are angry about budget cuts.

But late Friday, her office issued a statement that shows she will not back down from her position of supporting a budget that slashes library hours, cuts fire rescue units and — most important the the recallers — fails to fund animal services at the level that voters mandated when they passed the no-kill shelter measure last November.

“As a lifelong owner and lover of animals and a strong advocate for animal welfare initiatives, I am disappointed that an organization has decided to target me for recall.

“Our local economy continues to struggle with double digit unemployment while the cost of living continues to rise; meanwhile the rate of pay for workers remains stagnant. Over the course of several months, I have heard from many of my constituents, as well as from residents throughout the county, pleading with me to not raise their taxes. Given the current state of the economy, I stand by my vote to not raise taxes on the residents of Miami-Dade County.”

“Recall elections costs Miami-Dade County taxpayers several million dollars which could be put to better use. It is ironic to note that not too long ago, a former mayor and a county commissioner were recalled for raising taxes, and now, I am being targeted for not raising taxes.”

“Regrettably, this ill-conceived plot will only serve as a distraction for others to galvanize and try to remove an elected public official who has diligently worked towards the betterment of the community and has always put the people first. In the meantime, I will continue to serve the residents of my Commission district with the same level of excellence that they have come to expect and so richly deserve.”

Looks like Bell, too, thinks that this has more sinister motivations than a grass roots effort to protest the cuts that a zero tax increase seems to force Mayor Carlos Gimenez to make.I mean, this group can provide good cover for political enemies to take a swipe at Bell, who now has to refocus her energies from the campaign to elect her husband, Mark Bell, to the mayor’s post she used to have in Homestead.

Plus it might weaken her for the 2014 campaign. You know. Smear now. Reap later.

The Miami Herald already reported that Ladra may have been right. See? The groups recalling the commissioner — which include the Pets’ Voice PAC of the Pets’ Trust and the Miami Economic Sustainability Alliance, which has ties to supporters of organized labor — already had Bell’s name on the talking points for the speech they were to make after her name was just by chance pulled out of the hat.

They insist it was chance. But Ladra talked to several people before the name was drawn and most of them knew that Bell would be cast. One of them joked that the Eye On Miami blogger — who had publicly prayed for it to be Bell — was about to be a very happy camper.

This lack of transparency is one of the reasons Ladra has traditionally been against recalls. I think it’s an absurd way to flex your political muscle and it gives special interests a loophole. I never voted for former Mayor Carlos Alvarez, but I voted against the successful recall against him because it seemed to be a manipulated process and I felt it could set a dangerous precedent in electoral trends. Since that historic recall that also ousted former Commissioner Natacha Seijas, there have been a number of others tried or rumored.

• There’s been talk for more than a year about recalling Palmetto Bay Mayor Shelley Stanzcyk and Councilwoman Joan Lindsay over the Palmer Trinity lawsuit, among other things. The effort has last year after his office became embroiled in the absentee ballot fraud investigation and his then-district aide’s involvement in the collection of ABs. But he gets easily distracted and quickly lost interest.
• Gypsy conartist Vanessa Brito — who claims credit for the Seijas recall when she was riding Norman Braman‘s coattails — pulled the wool over someone’s eyes to fund an ill-fated recall in Doral against Vice Mayor Bettina Rodriguez Aguilera. She couldn’t even come up with enough signatures and so she lied and said someone stole them.
• Later, Brito threatened to recall Miami Gardens Mayor Oliver Gilbert. But that hasn’t materialized.

Now we have the Bell recall, which may be more organized than those other efforts. One of the organizations behind it is the Pets’ Voice, the PAC of the Pets’ Trust, which successfully put the measure for the taxes to fund improved animal services on the ballot — and then got it passed. And the other organization is labor, which has experience getting votes.

The groups have 120 days to get signatures from four percent of the registered 109,966 voters in District 8, which means that they can use early voting sites in the elections coming up — including on the upcoming Oct. 1 first round vote in Homestead, which falls in her district — and even precincts on Election Day, Nov. 5.

That’s about 4,400 signed petitions. Which sounds doable in almost any district.

  Lynda Bell, recall