Watchdog Report Vol.22 No.10 January 30, 2022- EST: 05.05.00 – I go when you cannot for 22-years weekly
WATCHDOG REPORT
Miami-Dade, FL
Vol. 22. No.10
January 30, 2022
Daniel A. Ricker, Publisher & Editor
www.watchdogreport.net & www.miamiherald.com/news/columnists/dan_ricker
Est. 05.05.00 I go when you cannot & a community education resource & news service
>>> Just because you do not take an interest in politics does not mean politics will not take an interest in you. –Pericles (430 B.C.)
>>> If you wish to be deleted, just e-mail me with that message. I am using an old list after a server IT attack and apologize if you get it by accident. Furthermore, one of my supporters has ordered me a new laptop that I have yet to get, and this will take a while to fix and get back to the regular WDR. And I thank my supporters for the continued support during this IT nightmare, that is the dark side of IT.
CONTENTS
ARGUS REPORT: Heard Seen on the Street
>>> School Board: picks Dr. Dotres as Supt: Miami Atty. Mendez picks controversial atty. Gomez for commission misuse of police investigation along with Broward state attorney general office since Miami-Dade state atty. KFR recusing herself. Méndez claims no conflict after Gomez makes $500 campaign contribution to Carollo, another Miami Moment, sadly
I hate when I’m right when I predicted an appointment as in last week when I predicted Jose Dotres, 58, would be appointed as the next superintendent of The Miami-Dade County Public schools on Tuesday. The man serious but low energy compared to Alberto Carvalho and he lives in Broward County.
The man well known within the district was able to impress the board. As an educator with no learning curve. The vote 6/3 (and board members vote) is hard to fine on the web and I worry under his leadership that the now high performing district will revert back to the 1990’s when a bunker mentality permeated the organization and the WDR was there back then and I made a stink about committee meetings not being recorded as I had the only recordings. Back then board chair Dr. Krop said to me if we record the meetings “staff would not be able to speak honestly,” he told me. I responded that is the problem and the meetings later started to be recorded.
But it is that culture I hope does not return and I caught all the interviews and I thought Dr. Rafaela Espinal might be a good choice even after she was hammered for not coming from South Florida that she rebutted saying while born in Guatemala she understood the immigrant experience and had many Cuban friends in Dade county she insisted
>>> Sham Miami commission investigator Gomez, picked controversial man donated $500. To Carollo campaign, claims no conflict of interest, to Atty.Mendez
What about the City of Miami investigating commission corruption. Miami Attorney Victoria Mendez has selected Ricardo “Rickey” Gomez a fired Doral police chief to do the investigation of commissioner’s interfering with police officers carrying out vendettas under orders of commissioners, fired police chief Art Acevedo’s asserts in a 8-page memo to the mayor and commission and FBI.
The choice of Gomez a donor to Joe Carollo’s campaign and now a defense attorney, claims there is no conflict of interest and he disclosed it to Mendez who agreed no conflict since it was disclosed but the choice is raising eye-brows and it should and is unacceptable and suggests the attorney could be complicate in not wanting the truth about her employer activities regardless of the city charter that all requests must be directed to manager Art Noriega. For more go to: Joe Carollo Donor Tapped for Corruption Probe Tied to…Joe Carollo | Miami New Times
>>> Supt. Carvalho’s immigrant journey included living for a month in a U-Haul truck, outside of a apartment, he tells students in a homeless trust video. The Miami Herald calls search ‘a clown show,’ board members last week refute secret choice claiming false narrative, how have past outsiders failed, Angela Gittens MIA, Dr.Rudy Crew,heave-ho,to Miami police chief Acevedo predict Dr.Jose Dotres, known to Bd. Versus two other candidates: Chair Perla Tabares Hantman notes Carvalho only approved by 4-votes on 9-member school board.–A skeptical community yawned when Supt. Carvalho, pledged to reach a 90 percent graduation rate, now 90.1; Chair Hantman, disturbed by “incident, last month at board meeting, she said Wednesday. She was told “she had to evacuate,” with police at board offices. Further, will nine-member board could get security for public meetings? With the multiple hacks last year cyber security is said to be one of the greatest risks in 2022 from a variety of infrastructure intrusions.
STATE of Florida:
MIAMI-DADE COUNTY: MDX director Javier Rodriguez, P.E., leaves post Friday at monthly meeting of authority, man survived political firestorm over years
CITY OF MIAMI: City Atty. Mendez picks controversial fired police chief Gomez, to lead commission investigation of themselves claims no conflict after $500. Contribution to Carollo campaign suggests she could be complicit in scheme works for 4 commissioners?
MIAMI-DADEPUBLIC SCHOOLS: Monday at 2:00 p.m. school board set to meet interview 3 candidates. I Believe they will choose Dr.Dotres : THE WDR believes there is no clone for Carvalho as he heads west to L.A., community trust no easy thing to earn, says Sayonara Feb.3,oversight of bond projects a top priority, that he kept on-time and on budget for the bulk of projects
Argus Report: heard Seen on the street:
>>> Supt. Carvalho’s journey included living for a month in a U-Haul truck, outside of an apartment, he tells students in a homeless trust video. The Miami Herald calls search ‘a clown show,’ board members last week refute secret choice claiming false narrative, how have past outsiders failed, Angela Gittens MIA, Dr.Rudy Crew, heave-ho,too. Miami police chief Acevedo predict Dr.Jose Dotres,known to Bd. Versus two other candidates, Chair Perla Tabares Hantman notes Carvalho only approved by 4-votes on 9-member school board.
The Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust honored out going public schools superintendent Alberto Carvalho Friday at their monthly meeting in the county commission chambers and, in a video, too students the immigrant from Portugal detailed his younger life where he “spent a month living in a U-Haul,” and showered at “Broward College,” said the rockstar Supt., leaving for L.A. next month.
What about the elderly?
Ron Book the long-time chair of the trust said1/3 of the intake was senior citizens and some are staying from “9-months to 1,300 days,” and if it weren’t for MIA Casa a ALF in north Miami. The organization could not care for these seniors very much in need of supportive healthcare. Book, also called U.S. REP Carrie Meek, D-Miami, the “grandmother of the homeless,” given her support in the Florida House 28- years ago and helped get the food and beverage tax approved to fund the trust. He also noted all of the state should remember her federal lawsuit created a district system in the state allowing minorities to run and win elected state and national offices, with Meek being the first African-American being elected to congress since reconstruction, the man told trust members Friday at their monthly trust board meeting.
>>> A skeptical community yawned when Supt. Carvalho, pledged to reach a 90 percent graduation rate 11-years ago, now 90.1;Board Chair Hantman, disturbed by “incident, last month at board meeting, she said Wednesday. She was told “she had to evacuate,” with police at board offices. Further, will nine-member board get security for public meetings?
A skeptical community groused that there was no way the new public schools superintendent Alberto Carvalho could increase student graduation rates in the 90’s after prior years in the 70’s for decades after Dr. Rudy Crew was fired and Carvalho was appointed to the position in 2008 when the district had only $7 million cash on hand for the nation’s 4th largest public schools district with now a $4.6 billion budget.
The man punched a hole in the sky after focusing on teachers and support staff on each student. Things he learned as an immigrant who was once homeless and was the first to graduate from college in his family from Portugal. He punched a hole in the sky with his administration and this may be the golden years of the public district flourishing, after the Great Recession that hammered public funding with property tax revenue falling and students failing. Here are years of past rates: https://data.tallahassee.com/school/adjusted-graduation-rate/dade/
>> Posse Foundation program had 130 recipients, 90 graduation rate, Carvalho tells school board, including board student advisor, often the voice of reason.
Carvalho was a principal at I-Prep (also a magnet school), and he taught classes. He also was a big supporter of the Posse Foundation. A organization that 10,000 scholars and students have been involved with the program. That this year had 130 Posse recipients, Carvalho told the board months ago and had a 90 percent college graduation rate, he said. The students had received $130 million in scholarships he said this past year. https://www.possefoundation.org/
>>> sgt.-of-arms diplomate and cop retires, gently kept decorum through many contentious years in his 38-years on duty. Had clean file no negatives over the years.
What about Paul Hernandez retiring as sgt.-of-arms for county commission position
The veteran county police officer has been cop and diplomate in the commission chambers gently but firmly keeping the public in order during many contentious commission meetings. He did it in a quiet way possible giving a warning to a boisterous speaker making inappropriate remarks.
>>> With the multiple hacks last year cyber security is said to be one of the greatest risks in 2022 from a variety of infrastructure intrusions.
A senior IT maven and special agent of the F.B.I., years ago told the Greater Miami Chamber luncheon. If “you think you have not been hacked, you just don’t know about it yet,” he stressed. And the bureau has a cyber academy that a variety of organizations can apply too. Further, since this week is Hack Week, Miami. I hope companies are looking for gifted hackers to play defense as the adversaries are global in nature, and congress is debating creating a new academy specifically for IT defense and training and here is the webpage:Cyber Academy Focuses on Private Sector Partnerships — FBI
The Miami-Dade County Commission
>>> Creation of sheriff’s office should ban outside income, Broward sheriff Jenne convicted of tax fraud, with outside income
The commission must introduce legislation for a variety of newly countywide elected offices including sheriff, now currently under the county mayor’s portfolio. My concern is there needs to be a clause limiting the candidate from any outside income given the 41,000 officer regional police force.
>>> With Omicron surge, South Florida healthcare systems
After turning 70, last year I have been very lucky to reach that landmark after last year living in a nursing home and later an assisted living facility. And with the nation in the grip of omicron.
South Florida’s many healthcare systems are bracing for another surge, with the schools opening, and these healthcare professionals are exhausted and getting vaccinated is the only savior as many people put, off diagnostic and elective procedures.
With Floridians exhausted as we enter the third year, we know much more than we did last January when I got COVID-19,and have suffered from long covid, young people, say they don’t know what to expect and are pessimistic what the future will bring as the nation tries to re-open and function smoothly as inflation rears its ugly head. If you grew up in 1974-76 the mantra was Whip Inflation Now (WIN).But residents need to work together to end this scourge That has swept the globe. Further with the new year a number of young people expressed real concern of what this year might bring given the last two-years of COVID.
What about a new public schools’ superintendent?
>>> South Florida is losing two miracle workers public schools, Supt. Carvalho & JHS CEO Migoya next year. Both through county bonds transformed public schools and healthcare facilities on time and on budget with Jackson West and Christy Lynn rehabilitation center prime examples, of public expansion of healthcare, OMICRON surge testing all systems, exhausted medical professionals, get vaccinated only way to minimize hospitalizations and death with 460,000 total cases nationwide
South Florida is losing two miracle workers Supt. Alberto Carvalho and at JHS CEO Carlos Migoya and both men were transformational one in education the other public healthcare at a system that was close to bankruptcy before there leadership. The public schools district had seven days of cash when Carvalho took the reins after the Great Recession, and he cut underperforming principals and directed early money only to student and performing educators. Migoya working with the unions collaborated to save the public health system(known as a place patients go to die) because of ageing medical system with an affiliation with the UM medical school since 1951. He also along with Carvalho was able to get county voters to approve a referendum for hundreds of millions in general obligation bonds to improve the schools and the healthcare systems outdated facilities and Jackson West hospital is a superb example of the new facilities the bond money funded along with the half-cent sales tax dedicated to health system. Both men had earned the support of the community and confidence after years before of scandals that embarrassed local state lawmakers. But they survived the political interference at all levels and that is what is needed in their successor.
In Migoya’s case his succession planning is naming his number two Don Steigman. The new president of Jackson Health System (JHS) and CEO Migoya will leave in June next year after county commissioner Sally Heyman negotiated a one-year extension of his contract for another year in June earlier this year. And hopefully the new leadership will continue the progress JHS has made since his appointment in 2009. After Migoya quite as Miami city manager and the banker was a long shot that paid off for the community especially with the pandemic that has 92 percent of JHS patients presenting with COVID and now the more infectious variant OMICRON . And Baptist Health South Florida is also seeing a surge of patients to the tune of 30 percent of COVID admissions being reported in the media.
STATE OF FLORIDA
MIAMI-DADE COUNTY
CITY Of Miami-Beach
City assistant attorney hit with probable cause by county ethics commission
https://ethics.miamidade.gov/library/2021-complaints/c-21-01-01-karr.pdf
MIAMI-DADECOUNTY
>>> Outside employment for county and municipal employees, commission on ethics
Ordinance unedited: Board at Clerk.Board@miamidade.gov. Municipal employees’ Municipal employees must follow Municipal ordinances and procedures regarding permission to engage in outside employment. D) DISCLOSURE OF INCOME EARNED IN OUTSIDE EMPLOYMENT VS. FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE Full-time County and Municipal employees who engaged in any outside employment during the preceding year for any person, firm, corporation, or entity other than Miami-Dade County or their respective Municipality must file a statement that disclosing the total amount of money received/earned by the employee for that outside employment. Miami-Dade Code § 2-11.1(k)(2). If the outside employment is with a business owned by an employee, report all the money received by the business, not the profit or loss. For example, if the business received/earned $20,000 and the total expenses of the business were $20,500, the amount to be disclosed on the Outside Employment disclosure would be the $20,000 received/earned. The disclosure of the money or compensation received from outside employment is filed on an Outside Employment Statement. Full-time County employees file the Outside Employment Statement with the County Elections Department by July 1st of each year.1 Full-time Municipal employees must file the Outside Employment Statement annually with their respective Municipal Clerks. Please note that filing an Outside Employment Statement is separate from financial disclosure under State statutes and County ordinances. Depending on the circumstances, a County or Municipal employee may have to file both an Outside Employment Statement and either a County Source of Income Statement or State Form 1. Employees who are required to file a financial disclosure form (County Source of Income Statement or State Form 1) should note that their outside employment must also be disclosed on these forms. E)- CONFLICTING EMPLOYMENT The following factors may be indicative of potential conflicts between an employee’s
>>> Homeless trust bracing for surge in “senior citizens,” a major need for more rental stock
The Miami-Dade Homeless Trust Friday had their monthly board meeting and are bracing for a wave of elderly losing housing because of the virus and the trust needing rentals given “one third,” of the “population are senior citizens, “said trust staff.
This also could get worse in the City of Miami, where the city’s unsafe structure board has to review buildings safety and the city has many deficient buildings that could add the homeless population.
I am still dealing with IT issues but you can read the WDR on line at www.watchdogreport.net and I am still covering meetings including redistricting at the school board Wednesday and the city of Miami a few weeks ago and has commission District-2 facing the most shift given the exploding population on Brickell.
>>>> Miami elections a “mandate,” for mayor and commissioners, says Diaz de la Portilla & King defeating incumbent Watson, Is WDR being blocked(not true my computer attacked, waiting for supporters donated new one ordered); Clerk Hannon just reappointed along with Attorney Menendez
At Thursday’s Miami commission meeting elected leaders reveled on their victories and while Mayor Francis Suarez prevailed against no real opposition.
Miami residents Thursday at the commission meeting got his muse Eddy Leal, Esq. to do the proclamations again and he is a paid muse $110,000 for Suarez. Leal representing the mayor also honored the national “Miami Shield Team,” and was an offshoot of the 2004 “Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism,” held at the Intercontinental Hotel. The national Shield meeting was held in October in Miami.
Leal also gave a proclamation for a foster home organization not listed on the agenda, but she noted there are16,000 foster kids in Miami-Dade County. A representative said and Miami has 755 foster families and given its National Adoption Day proclaimed by President Ronald Reagan. She noted the county has placed 4,000 kids in foster families recently from age 1-18 years, she said.
Bakehouse Art Complex turns 35-years a cultural jewel for aspiring artists
The Bakehouse an artist space is celebrating its 35th Anniversary and the low-cost artist space shows the “transformational power of art,” said a representative on the dais .
What about the Miami redistricting team Former Fla. Leg? Miguel De Grandy and Steve Codey presented to commissioners’ questions how to draw the new five district maps for commissioners where deviation oof residents can be no higher than 10 percent.
MIAMI-DADE COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
>>> THE WDR believes there is no clone for Carvalho as he heads west to L.A., community trust no easy thing to earn, says Sayonara Feb.3,oversight of bond projects a top priority, that he kept on-time and on budget for the bulk of projects
With doubt being put on the search for a new superintendent for the nation’s fourth largest public schools that teaches ESOL to some 800 students and with just under 400 schools the diverse district with 350,000 students is not an easy challenge that 11-year Supt. Albert Carvalho was able to navigate as well as the school board’s politics and includes two new members.
Carvalo came from Portugal and was once homeless and was the first in his family to get a degree in chemistry. The man was a familiar face in the media and attended every child killed by gunfire’s funeral, and still taught classes at I-Prep school next to the main administration building. The man brought a certain intensity that made people believe in him over the years something difficult to replicate and a teacher being appointed could be in the cards. However, charisma is elusive and you either have it or you don’t. He had it in spades and worked well with most politicos in the capital except in COVID response regulations and was a thorn in the governor’s side. I was thinking if Dr. Lenore Rodicio might be a possibility after being overlooked for new M-D College president Madeline Pumariega and is being hailed in the community coming from Hialeah. However, her education credentials are nowhere spelled out even on the schools web page and to read her bio go to: President Madeline Pumariega | Office of the President | Miami Dade College (mdc.edu)
Rodicio however has gotten a great job at the Gates foundation, see: https://liveaparklife.org/about/leadership/lenore-rodicio/ and the chance in finding another Carvalho is very remote and I will be watching closely in the future having gone through this process in the past, when then Dr. Rudy Crew was chosen and was later terminated by the board.
>>> Cyber-attacks continue against WDR, will History Miami become tech vault for many south Florida bloggers with tons of internal info in digital form, historical shame if data is lost
You did not get a WDR last week because I was again cyber attacked despite decent security and they wiped out some recent info though most from the past was back upped. After this I had an idea that should appeal to History Miami, though much is still on the web page www.watchdogreport.net . The museum should consider having a digital archive of many of the bloggers in South Florida. For many have a huge number of emails on a variety of topics on what internally is happening in many of the public institutions and can be used by historians in the future after many of the schemes tried or suggested by governments, have gone bad.
Miami-Dade County
>>> M-DC Public Schools district’s digital divide upgrade est. at $500 million, “70,000 new devices,” already ordered, Goodman, C.P.A. new chief auditor, for nation’s 4th largest public school district.
At the Miami-Dade public Schools meeting Wednesday the discussion of keeping students’ computers up to date and usable given all the virtual learning that has been going on is estimated to be a $500 million investment and the district has already ordered “70,000,devices,” said staff and the program is extremely expensive said board member Dr. Marta Perez. Staff also noted that some 500 million people access the network, which highlights the problem of keeping the devices current in the fast changing and supply limited world of today. Further, the district is creating a technology advisory committee that in the past included Manny Medina, a local tech maven.
PUBLIC HEALTH TRUST:
>>> Partnership with UM will allow sharing of clinical data
PRESIDENT’S REPORT:Jan16: Don S. Steigman, President, Jackson Health System (JHS) presented an update regarding strategic priorities for the new fiscal year which include the partnership surrounding clinical research with the University of Miami. This initiative is called Oneness and is designed to better leverage the wealth of patient data and clinical expertise that is shared across JHS; and implementing an information technology solution that pulls in patient information from both Jackson’s Cerner system and UHealth’s Epic platform. The software merges the data for patients seen in both settings, and then de-identifies the records so they can be used without risking patient privacy. As it relates to the COVID-19 vaccination program, JHS expect to temporarily reopen its program to the public to provide children ages 5 to 11 with the Pfizer vaccine as early as next week; continue making progress on vaccination among staff, with 84% having completed at least the original course and 2,280 people received a booster shot. JHS continue to offer the alternative of wearing an N-95 always mask while in[1]doors; closely monitoring the evolving state and federal rules; and continue taking the vaccine message out into the community as well as reaching out to a number of public and private partners to offer private time with experts. In a continued effort of taking the vaccine message out into the community JHS nurses, doctors and pharmacists have held online sessions for Miami-Dade County, City Year Miami, Carnival Cruise Line, Norwegian Cruise Lines, the State Attorney’s Office and more. Mr. Steigman announced that JHS has joined a partnership known as Practice Greenhealth to reduce costs and environmental footprint through a range of innovation projects. This is an opportunity to continue making good environmental decisions that are also good business decisions.
PHT miracle bonds update from oversight board meeting unedited
Jackson Bond Quarterly Report – October to December 2021 Page 2 of 16 Bond Dashboard New Facilities $0 Infrastructure $0 Hospital Upgrades $0 Technology & Equipment $4.41 million Approved Funds – Category: This Quarter* New Facilities $271.85 million Infrastructure $103.98 million Hospital Upgrades $193.81 million Technology & Equipment $229.47 million Approved Funds – Category: Total* Design $0 Construction $0 FFE & Technology $4.41 million Contingency $0 Approved Funds – Line Item: This Quarter Design $83.05 million Construction $321.71 million FFE & Technology $335.07 million Contingency $59.29 million Approved Funds – Line Item: Total 7 Jackson Bond Quarterly Report – October to December 2021 Page 3 of 16 Financial Update Reimbursements received during the report timeframe totaled $5,908,931 bringing to $727,120,574 the total reimbursement received since the bond program began. Small-Business Enterprise Contracting During this reporting period, 33 contracts were awarded totaling $4,246,917. Four of those projects, or 12.12%, were awarded to prime contractors who are certified small business enterprises (SBEs). At the committee meeting on October 25, 2017, the committee requested the subsequent quarterly reports include a summary of the ethnic and gender data provided by the vendors for all contracts awarded during the reporting period. For the current reporting period, the following data was compiled: Ethnicity Value Share Gender Value Share White $515,458 12.14% Female $494,097 11.63% Black $12,641 0.30% Male $1,217,675 28.67% Hispanic $1,164,348 27.42% Male/Female $0 0 Other $19,325 0.46% ShareholderOwned $2,046,588 48.19% Shareholder Owned $2,046,588 48.19% TBD $488,557 11.50% TBD $488,557 11.50% The names and demographics of the prime and sub-contractors for all 33 contracts are detailed below. The breakdown of contracts reported this quarter is as follows: ∙ 14.72% equipment ∙ 43.74% CM package ∙ 2.08% information technology-related services ∙ 31.42% job order contracting (JOC) activities ∙ 5.82% project-related furniture, fixtures and equipment ∙ 1.88% general construction services ∙ 0.33% architectural-engineering design services. These totals do not include bond-funded expenditures on non-construction items such as equipment and technology. The totals also do not include projects approved by the Trust Board that have not yet completed the procurement process. This list only represents contracts awarded during the reporting period – some projects include additional contracts detailed in prior reports or still pending award. Community outreach events are conducted to inform the vendor community of upcoming capital program activities, the process to pursue those opportunities, and identify potential support needs for vendors interested in or engaged in capital program activities. Four such events were held during the reporting period: 8 Jackson Bond Quarterly Report – October to December
>>> Management changes at Jackson Health System? Don S. Steigman is promoted to president of Jackson Health System, a good choice for continuity after CEO Migoya says sayonara after one-year contract extension, both have done remarkable job, during COVID, and working well with other hospital systems, like Baptist Health System, and its affiliation with FIU’s medical school in south Florida and the loose consortium is a major achievement for the public good, in this medical crisis.
>> Aug. PHT agenda: PRESIDENT’S REPORT: As JHS prepares for the future, Mr. Migoya announced effective immediately the following changes to the leadership structure: Promoted to President of Jackson Health System was Don S. Steigman. Mr. Steigman will be the driving force behind further evolution and integration with the University of Miami; remain the senior executive for the non-negotiable priorities of patient outcomes, quality, and safety; continue operational oversight of all outpatient facilities and their strategies, as well as the long-term care centers; and some key non-clinical areas such as construction and program planning. Promoted to Chief Operating Officer of Jackson Health System was David Zambrana. Mr. Zambrana will oversee all inpatient clinical operations; and provide leadership for the chief nursing executive and the business and operational improvement team. Mr. Steigman and Mr. Zambrana will collaborate to ensure the experiences in JHS urgent care centers and primary care clinics align with physician practices, emergency departments, hospitals and specialized programs.
EDITORIAL
Another month has passed today for the WDR, I had no idea back in May 2000, that I would still be doing this. Since I just wanted to get rid of Miami commissioner J.L Plummer, who lost back then
>>> This is the first Vol. 22 No.06 issue and back in 05.05.00 I had no idea I would still be doing this, especially given some medical scares in the early years when I did not have health insurance when I was septic, and I was saved by surgeon Jorge Rabaza,M.D., at South Miami Hospital.
I did not go to Jackson. Since I knew the CEO Dr. Roldan and I didn’t want to get any special treatment, like some commissioners did, and at South Miami Hospital I knew only a neighbor Dr. Yvonne Johnson, M.D. and her family and I survived the ordeal, ‘by a flip of a coin,” said the surgeon Dr. Jorge Rabaza and that is a very humbling experience and why I have been able to keep at it since, even after breaking my hip, while a setback, I am mobile and attending meetings and I would not have jumped into watching public institutions. If I had not seen some of the waste and lack of communication among the billions in public institutions spent.
Further, former Miami Commissioner J.L. Plummer,(now deceased) in office 29-years had a hand in it when at the dais he would be a proud Florida cracker and say, “I hate “everyone, the Jews, the Krauts Spics and others,” all the same and then cackle .” And then his political people Phil Hammersmith said in public “I get them elected then I tell them what to do,” Back then he came-up to me outside Miami City Hall and he said to me, “You f…k little people were going to crush you,” he intoned, and he would later die a few months later. And a number of people suggested that I might have killed him even though he died from a septal defect.
CITY OF MIAMI BEACH: Voters will be asked if hotels, restaurants, should take part in the food & beverage tax, for funding county’s homeless trust & domestic violence agency passes, $5 million passed by county BCC for purchase of new residence building, for homeless trust, many, involve families not one to one, Ocean Beach hit with another murder of innocent tourist family father
Public Health Trust:
Community Events: THE Margulies Warehouse is open with new works https://www.margulieswarehouse.com & WLRN fundraiser, and Kristi House annual event
Sponsors – Publisher’s mission statement & Subscription information is at the bottom of this issue
>>> Just because you do not take an interest in politics does not mean politics will not take an interest in you. –Pericles (430 B.C.)
>>> If you wish to be deleted, just e-mail me with that message.
>>> The Watchdog Report is back, and readers should stay tuned as your government tries to spend your tax dollars efficiently, but taxpayers need to be vigilant for public dollars are precious and few and must be spent wisely. And on May 5th the Watchdog Report celebrated its 21st Anniversary and consider financially helping me have another year of watching your public institutions.
Further, I have a touch of the Delta virus, sniffles, low grade fever, fatigue, and lack of taste and smell and getting vaccinated must be South Florida’s goal to end this terrible scourge that is hammering our healthcare systems. Further, young people who liken COVID-19 to getting the flu had better check out what long haulers go through may not resolve itself. I know because I am one of those people with long term impacts and it is not pleasant and while the vaccine mitigates the severity residents must get vaccinated if we are ever getting back to normal. Here are two links on the consequences of covid in the long run and it is not pleasant and more medical studies are ongoing.
COVID ‘Long Haulers’: Long-Term Effects of COVID-19 | Johns Hopkins Medicine:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/long-term-effects.html
Further, I am doing an investigative story on my time in a nursing home and later an assisted living facility(that state legislators need to look into this before they become patients because it is a flip of the coin in some cases, and what I observed during the month-long time I lived at these two institutions will be written about including medical staff qualifications, that varied in a variety of ways and I am just glad to have left them before anything negative happened to me while I was there. Both places were for profit and that was very apparent.
Update: During my month at a nursing home in Kendall I noticed a number of things. One was a food receipt on the food tray but not the food, but probable still billed to Medicare. And at an assisted living facility in Broward. I was being treated by people with unknown medical credentials. Further, since February when I had a mild case of COVID, I have rarely gotten a deep sound sleep, which was rare for me.
Works https://www.margulieswarehouse.com
Press Release:
ARTE POVERA Postwar Italian Art from the Margulies Collection
The Margulies Collection at The Warehouse
through April 30 2022
Jannis Kounellis, Untitled,
1960, mixed media on paper laid down on canvas, 63 x 75 inches
https://www.margulieswarehouse.com
Miami–Currently on view through April 30, 2022, The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse presents Arta Povera / Postwar Italian Art from the Margulies Collection, a historically significant exhibition of Italy’s highly innovative twentieth-century art movement, as seen through the lens of one of its earliest and most significant American collectors. The exhibition features 18 major works spanning six decades, from the early 1960s through the 2000s by seven of the most prominent artists associated with the group of Italian artists jointly known as “i poveristi”: Alighiero Boetti, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Luciano Fabro, Jannis Kounellis, Giulio Paolini, Michelangelo Pistoletto, and Mario Merz.
In addition to the powerful and iconic Arte Povera works on view, the exhibition includes didactic materials about the history of the dealers, collectors, gallerists and curators who supported these Italian artists at the critical early stages of their careers. A twenty-minute video plays on a loop, telling the story of the life and times of the influential dealer and collector Christian Stein whose seminal gallery in Turin and Milan nurtured and preserved the early activities and vision of the Arte Povera artists. Additionally, the exhibition includes an array of educational materials that give the viewer an overview of what was happening in Postwar Italian art, most notably the activities of the community of galleries in Turin and the dealer Gian Enzo Sperone, along with a tribute to the late Italian curator Germano Celant who is today considered one of the most influential curators of our times.
“We wanted to give our audience the backdrop of the social reawakening that defined Italy in the 1960s when Italians began to embrace an identity characterized by industrialization which at the same time paid homage to the country’s rich cultural heritage. It was important to us to explain the context of how this disparate group of artists, living and working in isolation in different regions of Italy rejected the values of established culture and embraced new creative possibilities by confronting longstanding notions of how art could be made and exhibited,” says longtime curator Katherine Hinds who organized the exhibition. “Our mission with our exhibitions at the Warehouse is always educational and we think the Arte Povera exhibition fulfills our mission perfectly by bringing together these influential and important Postwar Italian artists who have never been seen before in this region of the United States.”
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Upon entering the Warehouse, visitors first encounter two marble sculptures with a combined weight of two tons by Luciano Fabro. The phase Il giorno mi pesa sulla notte (day weighs on my night in English) is written in lead on a marble fragment which sits on top of a broken marble column resting on glass marbles. The artist says, “These works are born of a kind of observation of the relationship between the cosmos and the image, or between order and image. What intrigues me is that the image of the cosmos is formless at first and gains form only through knowledge. I have often called the state of mind of this everyday sensation ‘Day weighs on my night’.”
Overhead hangs a rare seminal work from 1960 by Jannis Kounellis. One of a series of mixed media on paper laid down on canvas works that the artist completed in the early 1960s, Kounellis himself considered this work to be the most beautiful in the series. This work along with several others by Kounellis, Mario Merz, Luciano Fabro, and Giulio Paolini were transported from the private collection to the Warehouse especially for the exhibition.
Nearby, a separate room lined in black cloth displays three works that incorporate neon light, electrical current and transformers with a forty-foot work by Mario Merz that includes the Fibonacci series in neon, a mathematical sequence in which every number is the sum of the proceeding two. The neon light marks what Merz described as an “ecstatic act of artistic production”. Adjacent to the Merz are two works by Pier Paolo Calzolari who in addition to neon script, uses a thin layer of ice in his work. Utilizing copper pipes and refrigerating units combined with lead, leather, and a mattress, the artist achieves a dreamlike visual landscape where the frost is “the purest form of white”.
As Michelangelo Pistoletto puts it, “as far as I am concerned…all forms, materials, ideas and means are available and to be used.” The exhibition continues with two works by Pistoletto which incorporate mirrors. A two-panel work, Two Less One (2009) preceded the famous performance by Pistoletto at the 53rd Venice Biennale where the artist smashed a room lined with mirrors. Nearby a large-scale work by Jannis Kounellis is comprised of steel panels weighing 1,500lbs onto which the artist arranges vintage musical instruments such as a guitar, flute, trombone, trumpet, violin, cello and drum. Below, ten copper pots and pans hang from industrial steel hooks indicative of Kounellis’ artistic practice that incorporates performance, sound, and classical music.
Additionally, included are works by Alighiero Boetti who explored systems of knowledge, classifications and sequences, including one of the artist’s well-known collaborations with Afghan women working in the Royal School of Needlework in Kabal. Other works by Giulio Paolini and Gilberto Zorio explore pictorial space culling equally from the banalities of everyday life and the rich expanses of art history.
A STATEMENT FROM THE COLLECTOR
Everybody loves Italy, the most beautiful of all European countries. What makes Italy so interesting to me is the pursuit of the endearing simple pleasures of everyday life combined with a passion for excellence in design, architecture and the arts. Who can resist the lyrical lifestyle of the small villages where one can experience the fantastic cuisine of the trattorias and small cafés, the vibrant and friendly effervescence of day-to-day life of the Italian populous? At the same time there is a love of luxury, a love of the grandeur of high design, an electric atmosphere.
This is the culture out of which the Arte Povera artists, who worked in isolation from each other, simultaneously developed similar ideas about rejecting the commercialization of luxury goods and rang in a new era of artistic practice that embraced industrialization and everyday materials while paying homage to the country’s rich cultural heritage. The materials used were burlap, plaster, wax, neon, glass, cotton, steel, iron ore, animals, branches, mirrors, common fabric and leather, musical instruments, pots and pans. When the influential Italian critic and curator Germano Celant introduced the term Arte Povera or “poor art” in 1967 he was talking about a group of young artists based in Milan, Genoa, Rome and in particular Turin.
The first gallerists like Christian Stein and Gian Enzo Sperone sold works sporadically to Italian collectors who were buying the works and probably didn’t really know why. The first Arte Povera work I added to the collection was a Kounellis I acquired in 1988 from Ileana Sonnabend. The work had a wonderful vibrancy to it and I began to sense that this was something of significance to pursue for the collection. A 1984 igloo by Mario Merz from the Collection of the late, great collector Gerald Elliot followed. The Merz igloo added such grit and substance to the collection with its neon Fibonacci numbers and drooping wires and wax and glass. In other words, anything goes. And that began a great pleasurable journey to collect Arte Povera which subsequently led me to explore the influence of some of the Italian artists that predated Arte Povera like Manzoni and Fontana. Today I continue my travels to Italy and elsewhere searching anywhere I can to find works from early Italian collections that were put together in the 1960s and 1970s. Today these works are very difficult to come by.
It is with great pleasure that we present this exhibition at my Warehouse in Miami this season. I wish to thank my longtime curator Katherine Hinds and her excellent staff for putting together such a momentous exhibition. Arte Povera has never been exhibited in this part of the United States before. It is our hope that our audience will become inspired to seek out other opportunities to study and visit Arte Povera Collections such as the superb Magazzino by Nancy Olnick & Giorgio Spanu in Cold Spring, just outside New York City, one of the finest collections of its kind and the Ingvild Goetz Collection in Munich Germany that was exhibited in the ground breaking Arte Povera show at Hauser & Wirth in 2017.
Martin Z. Margulies, 2022
COMMENTS FROM THE ARTWORLD ON THE EXHIBITION
“The Arte Povera installation, like everything else in your ‘Warehouse,’ was extraordinary to see.”
-Max Hollein, Art Historian and Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
“The time we spent together talking about Jannis Kounellis and your relation (and love) with Arte Povera, is definitely one of the highlights of the whole week and more.”
-Vincenzo de Bellis, Curator and Associate Director of Programs of Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
“Your collection is an amazing achievement and it is wonderful that you share it with the art community.”
-Jeffrey Deitch, Art dealer, Curator, and Founder of Deitch Projects, NYC
“I had the most wonderful visit to your collection. It was astonishing to see the Arte Povera exhibition. As always Katherine Hinds and your staff superbly curated and installed the exhibition and provided very informative texts and videos. The exhibition also provides an important context of your outstanding Kiefer collection. Presenting your collection of such historically significant works to the public is a real gift to South Florida as we rarely get to see these works in such depth and in such a monumental scale. I would also like to commend Jeanie Ambrosio on her curation of the New Objective photography exhibition. It’s another important historical exhibition and important contribution to the broader understanding of art in South Florida.”
-Bonnie Clearwater, Director and Chief Curator of Nova Southeastern University’s Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale
“I wanted to congratulate you on this incredible installation of Arte Povera. To visit your foundation was really one of the highlights of my visit to Miami.”
-Thaddaeus Ropac, Thaddaeus Ropac Galerie, Paris, Salzburg, London
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