The Miami Herald

Posted on Saturday, April. 1, 2006

In My Opinion

Joe Martinez's twists, turns fit for a circus

By Ana Menendez
amenendez@MiamiHerald.com

The Royal Hanneford Circus may be delighting the kids at the youth fair, but for the latest in cutting-edge moral acrobatics, we turn once more to the Miami-Dade County Commission.

Performing this week: Chairman Joe Martinez, whose contortionist tricks are becoming the stuff of legend.

Martinez is building a 5,300-square-foot dream home out in West Dade. Joe has apparently found a way to trim the bill: Accept some free work from a few good friends, including one who is a board member of the Latin Builders Association.

Some might take exception to Martinez accepting any kind of gift from an industry that he is bound by public duty to regulate. But under the rules the County Commission has written for itself, it is apparently acceptable.

So, stop worrying. Joe gets to save a few bucks, his benefactors get the warm feeling of helping the needy, and no one gets hurt.

A FEW SAFETY `RULES'

The Miami Herald's Noaki Schwartz reported this week that the ethics commission has given Martinez permission to accept the free services from his friends Jorge Guerra Sr., the head of Design Drywall Inc., and his son Jorge Guerra Jr. so long as Martinez observes a few safety rules: First, he reports the gift. Next, he promises (really, now, no crossing fingers!) that he won't allow himself to be lobbied by LBA board member Guerra Jr., while he's working on the project.

What if, after Martinez's house is built, the LBA comes before the commission to ask for something? No problem.

Last year the Office of the Inspector General, in clearing the list of contractors working on the Martinez house, noted that Joe was getting some free help lining up subcontractors, obtaining quotes and doing the other kinds of things that people pay general contractors thousands of dollars to handle.

''Would this ever present any kind of conflict?'' Joe wondered. "I mean, we all live in homes, most likely built by a developer. Does that mean all of us would always have a conflict of interest.''

No, not always. Only when the work is done for free.

But that's a naive and simplistic answer in a town where ethics are an interpretative art.

So here's how a pro would parse it:

''Pursuant to County Code Section 2-11.1(e), a gift is defined as the transfer of anything of economic value without adequate and lawful consideration,'' begins the opinion that ethics commission head Robert Meyers wrote to Martinez.

"Concerning (Guerra Sr.'s) supervisory role overseeing the construction of your house, his services should be reported as a gift. Clearly, Mr. Guerra is providing a service to you for which you would otherwise have to pay and this falls within the meaning of a gift as defined by the County Code.''

That's the kind of clarity that wins you all sorts of transfers of economic value.

CIRQUE DU ABRAMOFF

Friday, I spoke with Martinez, who argued that his friends are actually doing valuable work for the public by saving the commissioner from having to deal directly with impressionable subcontractors and inspectors.

When I asked if he couldn't find a general contractor who would actually accept payment for the work, Martinez was shocked. ''Why would I find someone who I don't know, who is not a friend, to build a home?'' Later his aide called to clarify that the work the Guerras were doing was ''consulting,'' not "general contracting."

Martinez need not be so scrupulous with definitions. Gifts, whether from consultants or contractors or dancing lions, are generally fine under the county ethics rules. Even those tokens of friendship that exceed $100 may be accepted so long as the recipient reports them.

The rest of us can wallow in self-righteousness. The political class long ago decamped to an alternate ethical reality, a kind of Circus Abramoff where perceptions and moral dilemmas are something to be managed.