Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber Faces Challenges Ahead; NPR Host Peter Sagal Promotes His Play
By FELIPE RIVAS • NOV 27, 2017
Today on Sundial: Miami Beach’s new mayor, Dan Gelber, joins us in the studio to talk about the future challenges the city faces.
Miami Beach residents can expect a low-key style from Gelber, who understands the intricacies of policymaking and knows the influence the mayor can have in the city. Gelber has a very different style than his predecessor, Phillip Levine, who has officially launched his run for governor.
The upcoming challenges for the mayor center around resiliency and sea-level rise, as well as the issue of affordable housing in the Miami Beach area. The mayor is also keen on adding an inspector general for the city, an investigative official who will detect fraudulent activity at City Hall.
Mayor Gelber answered callers' questions and concerns.
Peter Sagal, host of NPR’s news-related game show "Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me," is also a successful playwright. Sagal is promoting his new play, Most Wanted, showing at Florida Atlantic University’s Theater Lab as part of the Playwright's Forum, from Nov. 30th through Dec. 17th.
The play was written close to 20 years ago and remains virtually unchanged or updated since it was written.
"Most Wanted" is partially set in Florida. The plot revolves around Frank and Doris, a retired couple, who decide to take their granddaughter and make a run for it, ending in sunny Florida. The play is a comedy drawing on the conflict between parents and grandparents.
Sagal has written for NPR, the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune and Runner’s World Magazine. He’s been hosting "Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me" since 1998.
You can hear the conversations with Dan Gelber and Peter Sagal on Monday’s program of Sundial.
First priorities for Miami Beach’s new mayor: Limit city waste, challenge sea rise plans
BY JOEY FLECHAS
jflechas@miamiherald.com
NOVEMBER 07, 2017 08:41 PM
UPDATED NOVEMBER 08, 2017 08:39 AM
Dan Gelber, a former state lawmaker and son of former Miami Beach Mayor Seymour Gelber, easily won election to the mayor’s seat Tuesday.
He handily defeated three opponents with 82 percent of the vote in an election that was supposed to be more competitive. His only true competition, former commissioner Michael Grieco, withdrew from the election and eventually resigned from office amid a campaign finance scandal that led to criminal charges.
The victory marks Gelber’s return to elected office, but it’s also his first foray into municipal politics after serving in the Florida Legislature for a decade.
Gelber, 56, will step onto the pedestal being vacated by Mayor Philip Levine, who officially launched his run for governor last week. Though the mayor’s responsibilities are technically limited — the mayor serves as chairman of the commission and runs government meetings while the city manager runs the city’s day-to-day operations — Gelber will be sworn in to a position that Levine has purposefully built up into a high-profile job.
Levine was the loud agenda-setter who pushed his own public relations and whose policy goals projected an authority beyond what was afforded by his sole vote on the seven-member commission. Expect a style change with Gelber, a low-key politician and policy wonk who knows his top priorities from the outset.
He told the Miami Herald he wants to quickly add an inspector general for the city, an investigative official who would identify fraud and waste at City Hall. The new office would cast a critical eye on city spending and policies and recommend ways to improve the bureaucracy.
“I’d like to elevate the way we provide service to our constituents, and one of the ways to do that is to create an office of the inspector general,” he said.
An inspector general theoretically would prevent embarrassing gaffes such as the one that cost taxpayers $3.6 million last year. An audit found that a mismanaged finance department did not notice someone had plundered a city bank account, siphoning out the public money through more than a dozen electronic bank transfers over six months. Through settlement agreements, the city will recover all of the stolen money.
A consultant later identified dozens of problems with the finance department’s operations, including the fact that the city was a month behind on reconciling its bank accounts.
In the same vein, Gelber wants to bring in experts to challenge the city’s approach to combating tidal flooding exacerbated by sea level rise. The city is in the midst of a $500 million plan to install electric pumps, lay down new pipes and raise streets to properly drain the Beach’s roads.
Gelber wants to create a team of outside consultants to play devil’s advocate and challenge the city’s assumptions about its drainage program
“I want to make sure we get it done right,” he said.
On Tuesday night, he was surrounded by family — including the 98-year-old senior Gelber — and friends at the Shane Rowing Center in North Beach when results were posted. Hundreds attended.
At one point he looked at his father and recounted the elder Gelber’s public service as a judge and mayor.
“If I could just be a little bit of what you were, and what Mom was, I would feel very accomplished,” he said.
Gelber won outright in a field of four candidates who included real estate broker June Savage, marketing professional Daniel Kahn and information technology professional Kenneth R. Bereski II.
MIAMI BEACH MAYOR
24 of 24 Precincts
Dan Gelber: 82.41%
June Savage: 7.05%
Daniel Kahn: 5.83%
Kenneth R. Bereski: II 4.71%
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article183343151.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article183343151.html#storylink=cpy
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