Letter from Milton Montalvo
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MOIfTALVO
10 ST 505
ilL 33139-5304
672-0714
9/8/03
The Miami Beach city Commission
1700 Convention Center Dr
Miami Beach, Fl 33139
As per my dicussion withe City Clerk, Bob Parcher, 9/8/03:
1. I have asked for a re-count of my petition signatures.
The City Clerk has advised me that when he gets them back
from the County we will go over them.
2. As per the city Clerk, the way of verifying the signa
tures is a City ordinance, albeit a faulty one. There is
no sense in the way it is done unless we were in Vegas. The
present scheme is a crap-shoot & if th~is is the kind of
legislation the Commission passes on, Heaven help us, we
are in more trouble than I thought.
How is one supposed to know exactly how many signatures
are needed over the officially required 2% of registered
voters to make sure you have enough? Demographics change,
& what was true yesterday is not neccesarily true today.
There have been many changes on the Beach, from year to
year & many residents are embarrassed to admit they are
not citizens. Many properties have become gated w/residents
deathly afraid to let you on the property. A failed candt'
date who I met on the street told me about seeking. signatures
that "it was too much work". I was the only prospective
candidate who tried to qualify on signatures alone. What
antiquated, valueless an enticement is this just to pay
lip-service to fairness when as it is written is unwork
able?
I had 1,049 signatures, 412 over what I needed to have
to qualify, Which was 697, having had 637 signatures appro
ved means that I missed out by 60 signatures, not fair to
those who gave me them, believing they could make a diffe
rence in local politics by encouraging independent candi~'
to enter races other than buying their way in, as all the
other candidates are doing. This i~ not only an afront to
these voters but an assault on their rights. Obviously this
mechanism doesn't work, as it robS the citizen of his rights
& abbrogating his freedom of choice , subversivelY. '":>rtle~cllle
chanism ordinanced by the City & its Commission does not
work as it leaves everything up to chance or worse, & my
civil rights as a tax-paying citizen are being violatedon
the gamble that I will have not enough sinatures. It should
be made crystal-clear to any prospective candidate that he
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needs not the official 2% required, but that he needs to get
double that amount. The way to do it is to set aside the
last 3 weeks of the month of September for petition candidate
signatures, t~~t week for counting & the 2nd week for
the candidate~ne balance of the signatures he needs & the
3rd week for re-counting. I will pursue this matter legally
if I see that it is a serious encr~~hment on my rights &
those of the citizens in good fait~rusted their for~~f
government. If this is a frivoulous & not well though(4ordi
nace, the time has corne to @ the very least revise it.
Please relay this document to the City Charter Commi
tee, as I will not be able to attend the Commission Hearing
on Wednesday next.
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~.,p Milt Montalvo
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