Miami’s trust issues

In my many years as a civic activist, I’ve seen and heard and read about many questionable actions by the city of Miami.

I’ve seen impropriety, laziness, incompetence, ignorance of the law, convenient interpretations of the law, purposely ignoring the law, gaming the system to defeat the public interest, clever lying, blatant lying, financial irresponsibility and conflicts of interest.

I’ve seen that when city officials is caught doing the wrong thing, “playing dumb” is usually as their first line of defense.

Last Wednesday, a federal jury found that the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission was right: Miami defrauded bond investors in 2009 by cooking its books.

Throughout the years, the city has had many hard-working and well-intentioned city employees, such as Victor Igwe, the former auditor who helped uncover the fraud.

But what happened shortly after Igwe released a report alleging (now proven by this verdict) that the city had illegally transferred restricted funds?

The city got rid of him.

If it were up to me, he would still be working for the city of Miami, trying to keep it honest.

It’s another reason why I don’t trust the city.

This story was originally published September 19, 2016 at 10:57 PM with the headline "Miami’s trust issues."