How bad do things have to get?

Jan. 19, 2011 - Miami Beach City Manager Jorge M. Gonzalez and Commissioner Jonah Wolfson recognize Jose Alberto of the Code Compliance Division for his services.

To hear prosecutors tell it, Jose Alberto was committed to customer service.

After accepting a few thousand dollars in bribes to help a South Beach club gloss over code violations and tax debts, federal agents say Miami Beach’s lead code inspector introduced club management to a firefighter with a unique set of skills: expediting permits and finding police escorts for cocaine deals.

“We are straight,” Alberto allegedly told a club manager. “As long as you ain’t no FBI.”

Alberto, 41, is now behind bars... -Miami Herald, April 12, 2012
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"I'm sure that you were as appalled as I was by the disappointing revelations of the past few days. All sources of corruption must be identified, and we must fix the fundamental issues that allowed the bad seeds to sprout." -Miami Beach Mayor Matti Bower in an April 16 letter to residents.
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Four Miami Beach commissioners have called for a special meeting about FBI corruption busts. None scheduled so far. via @newsbysmiley

Miami Beach Mayor Matti Bower says no meeting til there's a solution to discuss. via @newsbysmiley
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"Thanks to these folks, I am no longer a resident of Miami Beach ...

"I finally caved and sold my unit just a few weeks ago as I really saw no end in sight to all the frustration with the multitude of problems regarding the glaring lack of enforcement that so affected my family's quality of life and our right to quiet enjoyment of our home that I made a dramatic life changing decision to sell and relocate my family." -former Miami Beach resident Brad Stevens in an email to Miami Beach Mayor Matti Bower and commissioners.
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Miami Beach sinking in a vast swamp of dishonesty

In places other than Miami Beach City Hall, human resource officers are not encouraged by certain notations in employee personnel files.

Petty larceny, for instance. Or arrests for cocaine possession. Two busts on coke charges are not considered career builders.
[...]
In most towns, if a human resource officer found all of these transgressions bundled inside the personnel files of the city’s code compliance and fire inspectors, they’d run through corridors of City Hall like an apocalyptic street preacher, warning that an awful scandal loomed.

The April 11 arrest of five code officers and two fire inspectors — charged with running an extortion racket — was plenty predictable, given that those very transgressions were, indeed, in the files of the inspectors the city let loose amid the temptations of South Beach. -Miami Herald columnist Fred Grimm, April 19, 2012.