That's Miami Chief Deputy City Attorney William Rossi, explaining in the Herald today why thousands in taxpayer funds were spent sending him to Hawaii for the ABA convention, and to Cancun for an ABA seminar.
Come on. This is an example of the type of half-truth that I have grown tired of as an attorney over the years. Sure, he's right, there are great seminars in exotic locales that are pitched to us all the time.
But we live in Miami, a place that apparently is still considered exotic when you are shelpper lawyer working in Des Moines. That's why there are a lot of great seminars right here in South Florida, as well as Orlando and Tampa. When you work for a poor city like Miami, shouldn't judgment and discretion counsel you to go to one of these local seminars instead?
And the ABA convention? The only attorneys who go to that work for big firms that are rolling in dough. Very little work gets done there, it costs a ton of money, and they are always scheduled someplace where you drop at least a few thousand to get there and back. If there was a legitimate reason for him to attend this particular convention, then why not just say that?
Well, he did attend one local seminar -- Screenwriting for Lawyers. Here's his explanation for that one:
Rossi said he took the class not because he was working on a manuscript, but because he thought it might include pointers on how to write legal briefs in attention-grabbing ways.
''Unfortunately, as it turned out, I think it was mostly focusing on how you write a screenplay,'' he said.
Ok, I don't really buy that he was clueless about the purposes of the course, but I give him credit for acknowledging that maybe it wasn't the best course he could be taking on the taxpayer dime.
As for his chief Jorge Fernandez, who I have criticized in the past, this is what the Herald found, in addition to the trips to Hawaii and Cancun for him and Rossi:
I have to be honest -- to me the plasma TVs and the office renovation sound reasonable. As he says, his office needed to be reconfigured to eliminate much of the outdated legal library, and they use the televisions for training, deposition review etc.Fernandez's use of taxpayer money includes a roughly $300,000 renovation to his office, the purchase of two wide-screen, high-definition plasma televisions and the approval of thousands of dollars of travel, bonuses and other perks for the attorneys he supervises.
Those expenses are on top of the dozens of local meals Fernandez enjoyed using his $10,000 personal expense account -- including a $1,539 tab at the Rusty Pelican restaurant. State prosecutors are now investigating his expense account spending.
I don't know about the lunch expenses, but if he is truly meeting witnesses, experts, and interviewing staff etc., lunch at the Rusty Pelican isn't exactly Saturday night dinners at Nobu.
8 comments:
There may be bigger pricks in the world than William Rossi, but you probably won't run across them in Miami. Here, Bill is one of a kind.
What a huge scandal -- these guys are the worst. Beyond incompetent.
Hawaii for an ABA convention? A joke.
It was entirely reasonable for the two top attorneys in a large office of 30+ lawyers to attend in Hawaii, in 2006 when the city's revenues were robust and the local economy strong, what was the premier educational conference for the legal profession, the national ABA annual convention. I too attended that conference as a Florida local government lawyer, along with a hundred other local government lawyers and thousands more lawyers from solo practitioners to those in big firms all across the country. I used that conference, like many other lawyers, to satisfy my mandatory CLE requirements imposed by the Florida Bar, as well as to gain fresh perspectives and new insights from colleagues in other jurisdictions who dealt with the same kinds of issues I had to confront daily.
Sure, government lawyers, like all government employees, must be mindful of the tax dollars they spend, but criticising attendance at a highly regarded educationl conference merely because it was in Hawaii is quite shallow, unless of course one holds the narrow view that government lawyers should never be allowed to travel away from their cities to further their professional skills,expand their resources and meet their continuing obligations. I reject that notion as being contrary to the public interest. To be sure,I want my city lawyers to have expansive solutions to problems, not worn out, cave-like thoughts on how to address challenging issues. Attendance at an ABA convention clearly offers an oportunity for a broader attitude about applying the law to practical problems.
Notably, attendance at the ABA conference in Hawaii was actually less expensive than those I attended in San Francisco and New York,even considering the moderate increase in air fare. The vendors in Hawaii and the ABA did a great job offereing highly discounted rates.
And the ABA conference itself offers great economic value. For serious attendees, it is mostly work during the conference, attending the numerous CLE programs. At every ABA national conference there are hundreds of educational programs geared to all practice areas, including several courses designed solely for the local government lawyer. This educational opportunity far exceeds having to attend countless individual CLE programs spread over a large time period in cities all across the state, to satisfy the requisite CLE obligagtions. Indeed,the collective cost of attending those individual seminar in time away from the office and actual dollars, can easily exceed the cost of attending a single ABA national conference. (And there is hardly a practicing lawyer who attends CLE only in Miami, the course offerings are far too limited.)
City of Miami lawyers, like most local government attorneys, regularly handle pressing matters that significantly affect the lives of the residents in their community. Accordingly, I want my city to offer a professional work environment that will attract highly talented lawyers who will be equipped with the tools needed to effectively represent the public interest against the extensive resources of many private attorneys and large law firms. Too much is at stake to expect anything less.
Though obviously not the only way, the opportunity to attend an occasional ABA national conference is at least one excellent way to help meet that important goal.
Regarding the objection to the "Screenwriting for Lawyers" seminar in Miami, I too, like many lawyers, received the same brochure for this seminar. Contrary to the uninformed assumption by the critic, the brochure, on its face, clearly advertised the seminar to lawyers who wanted to learn ways to enhance their "legal" writings in attention getting and unique ways. Thus, contrary to the critic's unfounded assumption, the brochure did, in actual fact, support the very reason stated by the attorney for attending the seminar. Too bad it didn't live up to it billing as judges often complain about the poor writing of many lawyers.
Attendance by a couple of Miami city attorneys at the occasional ABA national conference -- no problem. Miami is a large city with international prominenance. It should have a national presence
I agree with the more enlightened writer who recognizes the value of having government lawyers interact with colleagues on the national level. Attendance at the ABA in Hawaii by a couple of top city attorneys from a big city is clearly appropriate.
Regarding the Cancun labor conference, there were several government practice attorneys who also attended, including a local government lawyer from a city that closely neighbors Miami.
I have learned that Rossi was recruited to attend the seminar by another Florida government practice attorney who also attended the conference. It makes complete sense for Rossi to have attended the conference as he was then a member of the ABA's public sector collective bargaining committee and this was the only conference being offered by the committee that year. Moreover, I have learned the conference was offered in Cancun because the cost for hotel and air fare was much lower than having the conference in New York or San Francisco.
Notably, Rossi was the City's chief management labor negotiator at the time of the conference. Thus, membership in a committee and attendance at a conference focused on public sector collective bargaining was not only entirely acceptable, but should have been encouraged.
Why single out the Miami city attorneys' travel? What about then Mayor Diaz and his staff traveling to Paris, France, at city expense -- to look at trolly cars!!!! Why does Diaz get a free pass, particularly in view of him nearly bankrupting the city during his time as Mayor.
And what about the several other Miami city employees who around the same time attended puported educational events in England, Puerto Rico, Israel and other distant locations. At least the attorneys stayed in the U.S.
And what about the then City of Miami Risk Manager who, around the same time as the renovations to the city attorney's office, fully renovated her office,(all new wooden furniture and a new T.V.), just down the hall from the city attorney. Why did her spending get a pass?
The especially selective criticisms make you really wonder what the true motivation was for voicing the objections in the first place.
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