Miami Beach Permit Doctor's Happy Halloween Sign

8/11/2019 Miami Beach Permit Doctor's Happy Halloween Sign

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MIAMI MIRROR TRUE REFLECTIONS

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HAPPY HALLOWEEN SIGN

BY


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THE PERMIT DOCTOR

October 4, 2014

Damian J. Gallo

Damian J Gallo Associates, Inc.

dba PERMIT DOCTOR

City Hall Annex

City of Miami Beach

Subject: Happy Halloween

Dear Mr. Gallo:

Greetings!

I thought of you when I saw your Halloween sign on the fence in front of 1050 Washington

Avenue, one of several hotel structures being renovated on that corner across from the police

station. I noticed another such Halloween sign on 11th

Street facing the police station. There are

many other kinds of signs and banners on the fences and hanging from the buildings, no less

scary.


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Notice banners hanging from the top of the structure, which is a floor being added

You may recall my May 2012 article, exhibited below, and our discussion wherein you agreed

with my view that permit expeditors and their companies should be licensed like other

construction industry professionals. I presented our opinion to high officials of the City Miami

Beach along with a suggestion that the city require permit applicants to disclose the names of

expeditors assisting them with permitting, that information to be posted to a separate database

field for several reasons, including statistical analyses to determine, for example, to what

degree expeditors are actually facilitating the permitting process. That information might

prompt efficiency studies and investigations into whether any advantages gained are legitimate

or the result of moral or criminal corruption.

I received from city officials no response whatsoever to my suggestions. Quite frankly, they

were uninterested in the opinions of an unapproved opinionator.


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Permit Doctor Advertisement

The PERMIT DOCTOR staff is ready to provide clear information about

permitting regulations and the permitting process, inform homeowners about

permit requirements for their specific projects, conduct plan reviews, and issue

permits.All this is designed to make getting a permit as convenient as possible.

Your firm is the most reputable expeditor in this market. As I have pointed out in the article,

your office in the city hall annex and your Internet advertisement at that time stating that your

firm issues permits gave the impression that Permit Doctor is a government agency or a

preferred partner of the City of Miami Beach.

You certainly should be proud of yourself and the development of your business. I wouldrecommend that the City Commission express the appreciation of the community for your

contributions, if that has not already been done.

Your advertisement averred that, Damian J. Gallo & Associates is built upon traditional values

born in Miami Beach, Florida in 1990 providing fundamental building services enduring business

success. Integrity, determination and professionalism are vital in the quest to maintain and

enjoy long-term, mutually beneficial business relationships with their customers.

These services were listed: Certificate of Completion, Violations Remediation, Expediting

Services, Inspection Management, Fire & Building Compliance, Special Inspections, RecordingServices, Certificate of Occupancy, Expired Permit Exposure, Plan Review & Processing, Permit

Administration, Occupancy Load Calculation, 40 Year Inspections, Special Events Permitting.
http://media.permitdoctor.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/reviewing-blueprints.jpg


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I wage that your temporary construction signs as well as those of your clients at this and other

sites are not permitted by the Planning Department. Here I see that Kobi Karp and Hogan

Brothers have gotten themselves $25 permit decals over at the garage for their signs, as if they

are temporary real estate signs. I do not blame them, but they might want to examine the

setback requirements of the code. All you need to get one of those decals is $25, no questions

asked except your name and address. One realtor I know moves his sign with decal from

property to property as needed.

I notice that Sign Permitting is not on the list of your services although one of your associates

has told me that it is one of your firms specialties. If that is a fact, then with all due respect I

must say that the integrity advertised is just pretty or specious in respect to signs because the

reality does not match ideality, i.e. full compliance with the signage ordinances. Of course full

compliance would save you from hypocrisy in advertisement, not only in respect to signage, but

perhapsin regards to the services that you provide behind the signs.

According to the Signage Ordinance Scofflaw Theory, violations of signage ordinances signify

the probable presence of far more serious code violations. Signage scofflawry has become a

tradition in Miami Beach because the signage code is not enforced unless someone risks

retaliation by filing a complaint because the signs are ugly, or because the parties responsible

are disliked, or because the complainant is obsessed with the notion that everyone should obey

laws or at least not openly flaunt disobedience, or because the complainant knows very well

that governments negligence in enforcement is a treat to the safety and welfare of the public.

Actually, the motive for reporting violations should not matter.


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Permit Doctor sign at 850 Commerce Street

I noticed your sign at 850 Commerce Street some time ago. My interest then was in the phased

permitting the new city manager and his building official introduced because the city was

incompetent to keep up with the workload so allowed construction to proceed without full

permits provided it would not be held liable for the consequences, with inspections to be

performed by private inspectors hired by the owners and developers. As you must know, some

studies show that private inspections are inferior to public inspections, the reason being that

private inspectors have an inherent conflict of interest. On the other hand, Plaza Constructions

ONE OCEAN superintendent, Bill Suarez, told me that private inspectors can be too meticulous

when they are paid on a per inspection or piecemeal basis.

I see that your customers include Trump Grande, Greenberg Traurig, Starbucks, Victorias

Secret, Siemens, Arquitectonica, Miami Beach Convention Center, among many other

prestigious names, and Kobi Karp, one of my favorite architects because they at least buy

temporary real estate sales or rental permit decals for their temporary construction signs. I seeKobi Karp is redoing the Plymouth Hotel at 336 21

stStreet for Think Hotel GroupI wonder if

Think is out of its mind for paying $18.25 million for a property appraised at $1.3 million. I

strolled by there on the weekend. Lo and behold, there was another one of your Halloween

signs along with the usual signage blight.


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Mind you that I understand that companies have every right to be proud of their work, and

think if they throw up their signs everyone will rush to give them some more of it. The fact is

that most people do not look at the construction signs though tourists might be interested in

the hoteliers or developers advertisement if tastefulmuch is disgusting. This is blight plainand simple. Did you having the Planning Department permit this frightening blight for your

client?

State law requires commercial designers and contractors to place their license numbers on

advertisements. Many of same seem to be ashamed of their license inasmuch as they print it in

tiny font or not at all. Is Casa Conde & Associates licensed? If so, can we trust a designer who

either ignores or is ignorant of that detail? What about DQMCORP? Project managers havebeen deemed contractors by regulators. Where is its license number? YHCE as an engineering

company gets a pass on that by law.

There is a bottom line to all this, underlining and partly excusing the neglect of industry

professionals and public officials: the signage code sucks. The whole shebang should be

rewritten from top to bottom in such a way that it is easy to abide by and enforce, and the city


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manager compelled to have it enforced it or else. I recall seeing your firm defending itself at the

Special Master court for a nitpicking signage violation in your own office window.

But city officials do not seem to give a damn about the whole shebang, and that cold shoulder

or silent treatment is a scary sign of horrors to come. My suggestions to city manager, attorney,

and commission have been greeted with utter silence.

For now all we have to rely on is the profession of integrity. If your signs are not permitted, I

hope you will have enough of that to get them permitted or removed.

Happy Halloween!

Sincerely,

David Arthur Walters

EXHIBIT

EXPEDITING CONSTRUCTION AT THE BUILDING DEPARTMENT

May 9, 2012

By David Arthur Walters

MIAMI MIRROR

The raucous Tuesday Breakfast Club on May 9, 2012, made it evident that the most vocal of

Miami Beach residents are fed up with all aspects of the administration of Boss Jorge

Gonzalez, which they feel has been an inequitable operation from top to bottom for a dozen

years, particularly in the selection of favored developers and contractors for major projects,

unfair permitting processes, selective enforcement of ordinances and codes, and retaliatory

measures taken against anyone who complains.


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because he felt he should play nice because he still feared the retaliation he referenced in

gentlemanly fashion. I shall not mention his name here lest I somehow contribute to his failure

to get the permit he desires.

Ask a question!

It occurred to me that the illustrious members of the Tuesday Breakfast Club had forgotten

Professor R.G. Collingwoods lesson, that the flip side of a statement is a question, and vice

versa. Instead of complaining about the dirty laundry at the Building Department, the

gentleman might have asked if the manager intended to install a clothesline in that

department; which is the same thing as saying there is some dirty laundry there that needs to

be washed and hung out to dry. Or he might just ask how to get a permit given the confounded

situation.

I will answer his question, I loudly declared, and determined to do so even though someone

immediately tried to shout me down. I felt I had a perfect right to answer the gentlemans

question, put in the form of a statement about conditions, because I happen to be one of the

city managers 90,000 assistant city managers.

Sir, the answer to your question is that you have to pay an expeditor $25,000, and then you

shall get your permit right away.

The man turned to look me in the face, and I could see by his expression that he understood me

perfectly well, as did everyone else in the room who had anything to do with getting permits

from the Building Department.

Yes, it is true, an owner or developer or contractor could walk the documents he could not get

the Building Department to approve over to a private expeditor, give him ample enough cash or

a check for a substantial amount, and his permit would be approved with those same

documents forthwith. Well, sometimes it might be necessary to substitute a single document

with another one; for example, an expeditor substituted a plan for an already approved parking

lot down the street for the owners plan, and collected $1,800 for this expeditious service; the

parking lot permit application based on someone elses parking lot plan was approved.

Furthermore, do not worry about the inspectors: among other things, the private expeditor can

take care of the inspection process too.

A private expeditor, who deals with a crucial aspect of contracting, and whose mistakes or

misdeeds could definitely endanger the public, does not have to be licensed by any

governmental agency. Tony Gonzalez, the new operations manager for the Building

Department, agreed with me that expeditors should be tested and licensed. And I believe they

should be bonded as well.


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My concern with expeditors is the possibility of wholesale corruption and subversion of

legislation intended to protect the public. Drug traffickers, for example, tell us that it is better

to be a wholesaler than a retailer, because exposure to a greater number of people increases

the risk of being apprehended. Similarly, two or three expeditors trusted by corrupt Building

Department employees could pay out a percentage of the fees they collect from theircustomers to those employees with little risk of detection if the corrupt transactions were

handled carefully. Their customers might even believe they were paying experts to deal with

the notoriously complicated process, when in fact they were favored because officials were

bribed.

In fact, that was the case in Mexico, where Wal-Mart paid millions to expeditors or gestores,

payments disguised as legal fees, to quickly get permits to build out their stores, an acceleration

or subversion of the process they were not entitled to. Wal-Mart officials in Mexico, who were

eventually assigned to investigate themselves, knew the fees were in part used as bribes. One

legal question raised, to determine if the payments were bribes, technically speaking, is

whether or not the gestores were agents of the Mexican agents issuing the permits.

Are Miami Beach expeditors agents of the Building Department? One major expeditor, Damian

J. Gallo Associates, Inc., dba Permit Doctors, who rents space from the city and advertises the

convention center as its client, goes so far as to advertise itself as the permitting authority:

Permit Doctor staff is ready toprovide clear information about permitting regulations and the

permitting process, inform homeowners about permit requirements for their specific projects,

conduct plan reviews, and issue permits. All this is designed to make getting a permit as

convenient as possible. (Emphasis added)

We notice that other planning and permitting agencies throughout the country have their own

expeditors to render the processes convenient. Tony Gonzalez and his director, Stephen Scott,

did not respond to my recommendation that the City of Miami Beach hire its own expeditors to

serve the public. Additionally, since complexity fosters corruption, revision of the codes may

reduce the need for bribes to accelerate the processes.

Another serious issue with unlicensed expeditors is that they may engage themselves in or

themselves be deceived by a conspiracy of owners, developers, unlicensed and licensed

contractors, to defraud the city of fees and subvert legislation designed to protect the public.

For example, an unlicensed general contractor may conspire to rent the license and insurance

of a licensed contractor, rent an architects signature, submit false affidavits, grossly understate

the scope and value of projects, and otherwise make a fool of the Building Department and its

inspectors.


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I handed my card to the gentleman who wanted a permit as he was leaving the meeting. We

exchanged knowing looks. I mentioned that $25,000 in a brown paper bag might do the trick.

That would be for the cut-rate expeditor. I do not expect to hear from him because he is a

gentleman in need of expedition, and my name is Mud at the Building Department.

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Miami Beach Permit Doctor's Happy Halloween Sign