Mayor Christine Moreno

Howard Neu was the mayor and he'd asked me to chair his re-election campaign. He'd appointed me to the Planning Commission. I declined chairing the Commission but accepted the vice-chairman position. I had way too many things going at the same time. I'd helped him form Task Force 101, also known as The Mayor's Economic Task Force. Then twenty years ago he suggested that I run for John Haggerty's seat on the city council. Running against an incumbant didn't exactly seem like a good plan but he said that he'd help me raise money and endorse me. Why not? I figured, I'll give it a shot. I went to the city clerk's and filed to run for Haggerty's council seat. Within a day or two I heard that Haggerty had decided not to seek re-election.(Did Howard Neu know something I didn't?) I was in! With the mayor backing me I was unlikely to draw new opposition.

WRONG! Next thing I hear is that Howard Premer, the owner of radio station WKAT, had filed for the seat. Now things were getting tough. It would be difficult to raise the kind of money that Premer could just write a personal check for! I considered dropping out until somebody told me that Howard Neu was now backing Howard Premer, not me. Supposedly in exchange for a weekly radio talk show. This was WAR! Never piss off a scorpio, and I was pissed big time.

A few weeks later my wife Claudia and I were attending a Chamber of Commerce dinner at the Miami Shores Country Club. We sat with city attorney Will Splitstoesser and his girlfriend, a young good looking barely out of law school attorney, Christine Moreno. Her father was a realtor and very involved in the city but Christine hadn't been. Christine was sitting between Will and myself as we discussed the upcoming election. Suddenly she asked "How come nobody is running against Howard?" At exactly the same tme, as if we'd rehearsed it, Will and I both turned toward Christine and said in unison "Why don't YOU run?"

Come morning and I started getting phone calls. They were all "Did you hear that Christine Moreno went to the city clerk's office and filed to run against Howard Neu?" A plan formed in my evil scorpio mind! I must admit that the plan likely resulted in my losing the council race by a narrow margin, but even with all his money Premer won by a very narrow margin. Right after the votes were tallied he told me that up until the last precinct was counted he wasn't sure of the outcome.

Getting back to the mayor's race, which is where I'd invested way too much time and effort, a friend who was familiar with the city's politics and the major players, but whose voice wouldn't be recognized by the Miami Herald reporter (this was before caller I.D.) called the reporter almost every day with more juicy morsels about the mayor. No deeds truely illegal, but enough off track to raise serious doubts about him, along with whom to call to follow up on the items. The day before the election the editor at the Herald wrote something like yes, Christine Moreno was young and inexperienced, but there were too many doubts about Howard Neu. They endorsed Christine. She won. She became North Miami's first,and so far only, female mayor.

A year or two later Howard Neu packed up his law practice and moved up to Broward County.

Out Of The Elevator ~ Bedlam In North Miami

I don't think this many people showed up for a North Miami City Council meeting since the council voted to raise the water bill! Not even when they voted to give themselves that ten-fold salary increase plus lifetime health insurance and a generous expense allowance.

But this wasn't a bunch of irate citizens protesting increased taxes. These people were here to make damned sure that their candidates were going to get sworn in, regardless of any traditional niceties like being residents for the required tiime before the election, or whether their supporters at the polls were intimidating voters and other candidates alike. There's some indication that some of the people aren't really legal residents either.

There's a video of the action at the polls complete with cars with out of state license plates bringing people to the polls. There are photographs of my getting attacked and beaten up by a woman at the polls because I was taking pictures. She doesn't live in the city.

The new mayor, Andre Pierre, was sworn in. Now there's some reason to believe that there were irregularities in his campaign also. The bigger problem, which is in the courts now, is a candidate for city council. There is good evidence that he hadn't lived in North Miami for the required full year before filing to run. He'd just lost a race in another city and a lot of his supporting documentation still had him listed as living in that other city.

The bottom photograph shows the other candidate, Michelle Garcia (the blonde woman),sitting with Carol Preger who lost the City Clerk race. Notice the cop? Our candidates shouldn't need police protection. We never needed it before!

Scroll down for more photos and coverage.

Crap! I Just Might Have To Get A Haircut

Councilman Scott Galvin said that he was going to introduce a resolution at the next city council meeting to give us poor starving advisory board members our first raise since 1961. I've been going all over town telling people that there's just no way that I'm going to squander two months pay on a haircut. As Judy Feldman told me Saturday "What! You mean that they're still paying the same $10 that they were 35 years ago when you and I were on the planning commision together?"

"Yup, still ten bucks" I said. "That's absolutely rediculous!" she replied.

Well, tomorrow night is the council meeting, and I've been sitting here scheming, thinking of people who might be talked into running against the incumbants next year, and contemplating ways to assure the success of The Revolution if it has to come to that. Hell, I just might tell a group of already organized people "YES! I will run for mayor!" Then I could afford a haircut. The mayor and council just gave themselves a huge raise and a ton of generous benefits. I might even be able to start dating again without having to do it Dutch Treat.