A new direction for Miami-Dade, Florida

Balancing budgets isn’t rocket science: It’s simple: Step 1: Don’t spend more money than you have. Step 2: Attract new businesses and new tax revenue. Step 3: Repeat steps 1 and 2. I’m Darrin McGillis and at 45 years old I filed to run for Miami Dade County Commission District 9. No politician should ever hold an elected office longer than two terms. The U.S. president, Florida’s governor and the Miami-Dade County mayor all have a two-term limit. Why is it that county commissioners get unlimited terms in office? It’s simple “corruption”, he who holds the gold makes the rules and in this case 13 commissioners for decades refused to do the right thing and set term limits. The incumbent for the seat I seek wants another term. Why after 20 years would an ethical politician want to hold office that the voters want term limits for? We only need to view his campaign finance reports of money raised (over $130,000), almost 95 percent from special interests, and almost none of the money raised came from actual residents of District 9. As the saying goes, “It’s all about the Benjamins.”

We need change, new blood, a new direction. I look forward to serving you the taxpayer, “my new boss” as the next county commissioner for District 9. I’ve made this pledge: "The corrupt can either go quietly or they can go loudly, but either way, they will go." Join me to end the image that “who you know is more important than what you know” when doing business with Miami-Dade County government. I will advocate for the removal of all slush funds that are presently granted to each commissioner. These funds are a multimillion dollar waste of your tax dollars and should be revoked immediately. They are nothing short of "legal" over the table payoffs. I want the best for Miami-Dade County — the lowest taxes and the best representation. Please vote on Aug. 14.

Darrin McGillis, Miami.

www.NoTaxDarrin.com

Miami Dade County Employees Making 100K to 450K - Time for Immediate Layoffs or Pink Slips!

Miami Dade County Employees Making 100K to 450K - Time for Immediate Layoffs or Pink Slips!

Miami Dade County has over 28,000 employees with a little over 3000 employees making over $100,000.00 each year, and over 75 making over $200,000.00 each year. I assure you the County will be able to get by with the remaining 25,000 employees if we lay-off these fat cats, I am certain of this.

We can save a few billion dollars immediately by laying-off these 3000 County Employees, and we take the funds saved and reduce property taxes by 20%, and help the people of Miami Dade get through these financial tough times.

This 2010 list is of the Miami Dade County Employees Making Over 100K up to 450K.

Time for immediate lay-offs or pink slips for these 3000 employees.

Candidate wants ballot redone

The Miami Herald

Candidate wants ballot redone

A candidate for Miami-Dade court clerk is asking a judge to order new ballots for the November election, arguing his name was wrongly listed fourth on the ballot instead of third or first. Darrin McGillis, one of three challengers to longtime incumbent Harvey Ruvin, said he was given incorrect information by county election workers when he filed for office.

They originally told him candidates would be listed alphabetically, he said, which would place him before Ruvin, Alfredo ''Al'' Perez and Julio Valido. Nonpartisan county races, such as mayor and county commissioner, are listed in alphabetical order. The clerk race, however, is partisan; Ruvin won a Democratic primary in August, and no Republicans ran for the seat.

On advice from state elections officials, then-Miami-Dade elections chief Lester Sola decided to follow the same rule used for other partisan races. That would have placed major-party candidates first, then listed those without party affiliations in the order they qualified. McGillis and Valido were at the elections office at the same time. McGillis said he paid and filed his paperwork first, but the time stamp on Valido's paperwork is 37 minutes earlier.

MiamiHerald.com
Posted on Fri, Sep. 19, 2008
BY MATTHEW I. PINZUR

The McGillis Plan for Florida - It's time to put the people of Florida first

The McGillis Plan for Florida Rev May 12 - 2010

NBC TV South Florida - Darrin McGillis with Rick Scott, Alex Sink, Bill McCollum on the race for Governor

Candidate for Governor Darrin McGillis on NBC TV South Florida with Rick Scott, Alex Sink and Bill McCollum.

http://www.mcgillis4governor.com/

In the NBC News clip Darrin is quoted as being in support of legalizing marijuana (personal use amounts). This is true, except that Darrin replaces the current law with a five ($5,000) thousand dollar fine versus being arrested, charged and convicted of a criminal offense.

This will only apply to personal use amounts, and any person caught with amounts that are not personal use amounts will face Felony arrest and conviction.

The goal is to take the resources of professional Law Enforcement away from what is a minor criminal offense and fine those caught with personal use amounts $5,000 - we can use the money collected to put more Law Enforcement officers on the streets to combat the very serious illegal drug distribution problem we have in Florida.

Make no mistake Darrin is for stiff prison terms for any person selling any amount of drugs to minors and persons under 21 years of age, including the sale of marijuana. If you sell drugs to kids in Florida you will go to jail for a very long time under a McGillis administration.

It's time for commonsense laws and to help get our Law Enforcement professionals properly funded. We must declare a War on Illegal Drugs in the State of Florida.

Political advertisement paid for and approved by Darrin E. McGillis, Democrat for Governor of the State of Florida Post Office Box 56-6091, Miami, Florida 33256-6091. Contributions or gifts to the Campaign of Darrin E. McGillis are not tax deductible. Contributions are limited to $500 per person or corporate entity.

Clerk of court challenger tenders courteous concession

Click link for DBR story on Darrin McGillis concession:

Clerk of court challenger tenders courteous concession

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Elections: Clerk of the Courts Miami-Dade veteran Ruvin draws opponents for first time

Daily Business Review
October 31, 2008 By: Billy Shields

Harvey Ruvin is facing opposition for the first time in his 16 years as Miami-Dade County’s Clerk of the Courts.

This time, he has plenty of opponents vying for his job, which pays $173,000 a year. The four-way race to be decided Tuesday includes Alfredo Perez, a minor-league baseball player turned lawyer; Darrin McGillis, the former promoter of the Hispanic boy band Menudo.

"This is an elected office, and I honor anyone who’d put their hat in the ring to run," Ruvin said. Let’s hope the best man wins."

Perez is an attorney who was a catcher in the Houston Astros organization for four years in the 1980s before he was sidelined by a knee injury. He became a Miami solo practitioner after going back to school and hanging up his baseball career.

Perez is running on a green platform - he wants to make the courts paperless with electronic filing and mandatory recycling throughout the courts system.

Ruvin said courts already recycle with the exception of sensitive sealed documents that can’t be recycled for confidentiality reasons.

Perez also advocates the elimination of outsourced collection efforts for traffic citations and other court debts. Firms in Texas and California currently handle that function.

"Why can’t we have our own departments here that collect our own traffic citations?" he asked.

Ruvin said his office is collecting debts left for dead in the range of "tens of millions of dollars" annually.

McGillis’s signature issue is electronic filing and putting all court documents online as so-called portable document format files.

"You can’t access an order, you can’t access a motion, you can’t access any document filed by a litigant," he said. "Even appellate courts have documents in PDFs."

McGillis wants to create a countywide database modeled on the federal PACER system and hopes to turn it into a template for other Florida courts.

At the moment, few court documents - usually final orders, judgments or notices of appeal - can be downloaded. In contrast, the Florida Supreme Court and the five state district courts of appeal offer same-day opinions online.

Ruvin notes the available documents are in PDF format, but he said the kinds of documents available on a court’s Web site are limited by Florida statute.

The clerk’s post is one of the most unsung but important positions in the court system. Miami-Dade is the largest circuit in the state, and its clerk’s office is the fourth-largest in the nation with 1,500 employees.

The clerk is responsible for keeping court records, securing evidence, collecting fines, summoning jurors and recording deeds. Its influence extends to the use and receipt of county funds. The office generates about $100 million in annual revenue outside the court system and processes about $1 billion in annual revenue.

Ruvin reached the general election by handily defeating David Nelson in the Aug. 26 primary. He has name recognition built up through the years, said Miami campaign consultant Steven Ferreiro, who is not working on Ruvin’s race.

Daily Business Review
Reporter Billy Shields

Why courts are vitally important to everyone in Florida

Our courts protect democracy
by upholding the law, protecting
individual rights and liberties, enforcing
public order, and providing for a
peaceful resolution of disputes. More
than 4 million new cases are filed
each year impacting every aspect of
society.

Our courts safeguard victims’
rights, determine guilt or innocence
of the accused, and impose appropriate
punishment. Crime hurts everyone.
It results in physical and emotional
injury, loss of life, lost wages,
higher insurance premiums, higher
business expenses, and degradation
of quality of life within our communities.
Last year, more than 1.3 million
criminal cases were filed. Everyone in
our state is affected.

Our courts resolve personal,
business, and property disputes.
The business community is a major
user of the justice system. Last year
there were more than 2.2 million civil
cases filed.

Our courts protect families,
children, the elderly and the infirm.
Nearly 462,000 cases are filed each
year involving the young, the old, and
the frail.