December 23, 200322 yr As you all know, the city of Miami recently reneged on an offer to provide land for a Marlins' ballpark. The city commissioners instead unanimously decided to request that the county propose an 18-month half-cent sales tax on a March referendum to raise funds for the stadium; this would essentially free the city of making any financial commitment toward the Marlins' stadium. Wary of jeopardizing the chances of passing their own tax increase on next November's ballot, the county opposes any stadium referendum during the March primary. Essentially, both the city and the county are trying to ditch the stadium plan. If you feel strongly about the Marlins needing a stadium and you don't want them to have to move elsewhere, I urge you to sacrifice five minutes of your time and contact your local officials. One thing people don't realize about local government is just how much influence their words have on their elected officials. Sometimes, it takes only a handful of emails or phone calls for a local leader to enact a policy decision. While a nationally elected official might get hundreds of emails in one day, a local county commissioner will only get a tiny fraction of that; it is guaranteed that your voice will be heard, and, more likely than not, you will also get a response. As our elected representatives, our local leaders are eager to please their constituents. They will listen to what you have to say. I've spent a considerable amount of time researching the contact information for all pertinent county and city officials and listed it below. Again, if you feel passionately about this, please take five minutes to send emails to your local officials. While emails do have weight with leaders, telephone calls typically have even more weight, so if you have another few minutes to spare, please call the officials below. MIAMI-DADE COUNTY OFFICIALS Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas Email: mayor@miamidade.gov Office: (305) 375-5071 Fax: (305) 375-3618 Address: Stephen P. Clark Center 111 N.W. 1st Street, 29th Floor Miami, Florida 33128 County Manager George M. Burgess E-mail: Manager@miamidade.gov Phone: (305) 375-5311 FAX: (305) 375-1262 Address: Stephen P. Clark Center 111 N.W. 1st Street, Suite 2910 Miami, Florida 33128 Miami-Dade County Commissioners: (VERY IMPT!) Commissioners' Website: http://www.miamidade.gov/commiss/ To find out who your commissioner is, go here: http://gisims.co.miami-dade.fl.us/scripts/...ervices&Cmd=Map Betty T. Ferguson, District 1 E-mail: District1@miamidade.gov Downtown Office: (305) 375-5694 District Office: (305) 770-3115 Fax: (305) 770-3119 Dorrin D. Rolle, District 2 E-mail: District2@miamidade.gov Downtown Office: (305) 375-4833 District Office: (305) 694-2779 Fax: (305) 694-2781 Barbara Carey-Shuler, Ed.D., County Chairperson AND District 3 E-mail: District3@miamidade.gov Downtown Office: (305) 375-5393 District Office: (305) 636-2331 Fax: (305) 698-6906 Sally A. Heyman, District 4 E-mail: District4@miamidade.gov Downtown Office: (305) 375-5128 Downtown Fax: (305) 372-6179 District Office: (305) 787-5999 District Fax: (305) 787-5998 Bruno A. Barreiro, District 5 E-mail: District5@miamidade.gov Miami District Office: (305) 643-8525 Fax: (305) 643-8528 Miami Beach District Office: (305) 673-7743 Rebeca Sosa, District 6 E-mail: District6@miamidade.gov Downtown Office: (305) 375-5696 Fax: (305) 372-6090 District Office: (305) 267-6377 Fax: (305) 267-6366 Jimmy L. Morales, District 7 E-mail: District7@miamidade.gov Downtown Office: (305) 375-5680 Fax: (305) 372-6103 District Office: (305) 529-0599 Fax: (305) 529-1188 Katy Sorenson, Vice Chairperson AND District 8 E-mail: District8@miamidade.gov Downtown Office: (305) 375-5218 Fax: (305) 372-6073 District Office: (305) 378-6677 Fax: (305) 253-7495 Dennis Moss, District 9 E-mail: DennisMoss@miamidade.gov Downtown Office: (305) 375-4832 North District Office: (305) 234-4938 South District Office: (305) 245-4420 Javier D. Souto, District 10 E-mail: District10@miamidade.gov Downtown Office: (305) 375-4835 Fax: (305) 375-3456 District Office: (305) 222-2116 Fax: (305) 222-2120 Joe A. Martinez, District 11 E-mail: District11@miamidade.gov Downtown Office: (305) 375-5511 Fax: (305) 375-5883 District Office: (305) 552-1155 Fax: (305) 552-0577 Jose "Pepe" Diaz, District 12 E-mail: District12@miamidade.gov Downtown Office: (305) 375-4343 Fax: (305) 372-6109 District Office: (305) 599-1200 Fax: (305) 470-1791 Natacha Seijas, District 13 E-mail: District13@miamidade.gov Downtown Office: (305) 375-4831 Fax: (305) 372-6073 Office of the County Chair: http://www.miamidade.gov/OfficeofTheChair/...NDEX.asp?show=1 Dr. Barbara Carey-Shuler, Chairwoman, Board of Commissioners Give Dr. Shuler feedback: http://www.miamidade.gov/OfficeofTheChair/...peakup_form.asp CITY OF MIAMI OFFICIALS City Officials website: http://www.ci.miami.fl.us/City_Officials/ Mayor Manny Diaz E-mail: mannydiaz@ci.miami.fl.us Telephone: (305)250-5300 City Manager Joe Arriola E-mail: jarriola@ci.miami.fl.us Telephone: (305)250-5400 CITY OF MIAMI COMMISSIONERS: (VERY IMPT!) To find out who your commissioner is, go here: http://www.ci.miami.fl.us/City_Officials/District_map.html Commissioner Angel Gonzalez District 1 E-mail: agonzalez@ci.miami.fl.us Telephone: (305)250-5430 Commissioner Johnny L. Winton District 2 E-mail: jwinton@ci.miami.fl.us Telephone: (305)250-5333 Commissioner Joe M. Sanchez District 3 E-mail: jsanchez@ci.miami.fl.us Telephone: (305)250-5380 Commissioner Tomas P. Regalado District 4 E-mail: tr@ci.miami.fl.us Telephone: (305)250-5420 Commissioner Arthur Teele, Jr. District 5 E-mail: artteele@ci.miami.fl.us Telephone: (305)250-5390 STATE OFFICIALS: (only if you have time and you support state funding) House: http://www.myfloridahouse.com/legislators.aspx Senate: http://www.flsenate.gov/Legislators/index....Tab=legislators Governor Bush: jeb.bush@myflorida.com AT THE VERY LEAST, IF YOU DO NOTHING ELSE TODAY and you don't have much time to spare, type one brief message and email it (in separate emails) to the following: 1. County Mayor Alex Penelas: mayor@miamidade.gov 2. County Manager George M. Burgess: Manager@miamidade.gov 3. City Mayor Manny Diaz: mannydiaz@ci.miami.fl.us 4. City Manager Joe Arriola: jarriola@ci.miami.fl.us 5. Your City Commisioner (VERY IMPT!): click here to determine who yours is. 6. Your County Commissioner (VERY IMPT!): click here to determine who yours is. Express to the official how important it is to you, a constituent, that the Marlins get a stadium. Make it clear that you want him/her to fully support the construction of a Marlins stadium with local funds, and that you would like the local government to provide any land necessary for the ballpark. While other local governments are making ballparks for their teams, we can't even get one for our best team. Remember, the Marlins are the only professional sports franchise to bring a championship to South Florida in thirty years. They've brought us two championships, and they don't even have a home! If you have more time, contact any other officials above. If you'd like to have more of a say, CALL THEM and let them know how you feel! Again, because of the relatively small scale of local government, simply contacting a small handful of local leaders will get you big results. There are only a few of them, and they all get to vote! Alright, I appreciate any effort you guys can put forward to help make the Marlins' ballpark a reality. Together, I hope we can help this happen.
December 23, 200322 yr Thanks for taking the time to set this up, alkazoid. Hopefully, people take the time to help out.
December 23, 200322 yr Author it only takes like 5 minutes to write a short email and send it to the officials listed above... with a couple dozen emails, i'm thinking we can get something done.
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