Russell for District 2, with some concerns
In 2015, newcomer candidate Ken Russell said he had a scheduling conflict and could not make the interview session in which the Board talks at one time to all of those running for a particular seat. In fairness, the Board talked to Russell, in person and alone, at a later date and ended up recommending him for the District 2 seat on the Miami Commission. Some of his opponents in his race were skeptical of Russell’s motives. The Board took the candidate at his word.
In 2019, Russell missed the Editorial Board’s candidate interview with his opponents altogether. His campaign staff failed to put it on his calendar, he said during a followup phone interview. The Board scheduled brief phone interviews with most candidates who could not come to the session with the other candidates.
Again, two of Russell’s opponents, Jim Fried and Javier Gonzalez, came to the Board interview. Again, the two were skeptical, sure that Russell didn’t have to answer their own tough questions. Again, the Board took Russell’s it-wasn’t-on-my-calendar excuse at his word, but this time, Board members were very skeptical, too — especially after a staff member assured us that the commissioner would be at the interview.
This second absence, perhaps, speaks to Russell not necessarily being a team player, not always deigning to respond to critics or opponents. (To his credit, Russell did participate in a debate in Coconut Grove along with Fried and Gonzalez.)
We saw it in his odd, go-italone assault on City Attorney Victoria Mendez when he was extremely new to the commission. He publicly accused her of withholding pertinent emails in the case of a developer who wanted to divide lots in the Grove. The inflamed issue went nowhere when no other commissioner would second his motion.
A few years later, when he should have been more seasoned, we saw it again in his push to designate historic status on the few remaining shotgun houses in Coconut Grove. However, many of the African-American residents who live in them want to be able to sell them for fairmarket value or renovate them in the rapidly developing area. In other words, Russell was trampling on their property rights, they said. Ultimately, not one of his commission colleagues spoke up in support of the effort.
Most recently, Russell, a Democrat has injected partisan politics where they don’t belong. He has given $150,000 to the campaign of his former chief of staff Eleazar Meléndez, who is running for the District 1 commission seat. The money is left over from Russell’s failed run for Congress last year. Even though commission races are nonpartisan, the Miami-Dade Democratic Party has been public in its support for Meléndez, who, we are concerned, will not be the independent representative the district needs.
Russell, however, has made a difference in some pockets of his district. As chair of the Omni Community Redevelopment Agency, he said, he has grown the its employment program for the homeless, moving some people out of homelessness altogether.
In 2017, Russell’s instincts were spot-on in calling out Flagstone developers, which for more than a decade had failed to develop the complex destined for Watson Island, despite winning extension after extension. With Russell in the lead, city commissioners voted 5-0 that Flagstone was in violation of its agreement. It’s unfortunate that, after litigation and a settlement, Flagstone still remains on the property. Still, Russell was right to lead the charge on behalf of the public.
But the pool in Morningside Park in Russell’s district is still closed.
He is up against three opponents, all earnest. Javier Gonzalez, a real-estate agent, was president of the Coconut Grove Village Council, relinquishing the position to run unsuccessfully for this commission seat in 2015. He says that the soccer stadium proposed for Melreese golf course is not well thought out and should not have been on the ballot last year. He is rightly concerned about the lack of affordable housing in the city. Jim Fried is a real-estate broker who joined the race citing what he calls Russell’s lack of effective “customer service.” Too many constituents, especially in the northern reaches of the district can’t get his attention, he says. Rosy Palomino concurs, telling the Board in an email that Russell “disappeared after 6 months in office to launch a hyper-partisan political career.”
To be sure, our reluctance to recommend Russell again is based on such missteps, and not on missed interviews. However, his aggrieved opponents, however earnest, did not make the strongest cases any one of them would be truly optimal replacements for the incumbent.
Of course, voters might have a different view and throw him into a runoff.
The Miami Herald, with reservation, recommends KEN RUSSELL for the Miami Commission District 2.
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