MIAMI SEPTEMBER 14, 2021, nhr.com — There is no doubt that there is trouble at sea for the County committee dealing with Miami International Airport, and the whims of the President of the Miami Dade Airports and Economic Committee Keon Hardemon are part of that bad navigation to the point that this ship is apparently “taking on water” as sailors would say.
Yesterday during the committee meeting, again the ‘Chair ”Hardemon refused to place on the agenda a matter that is of vital necessity for the airport concessionaires who have been suffering for more than a year the need for their businesses to increase sales, affected for the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to some county officials who were present they tell us that “at the Miami Dade Airports and Economic Committee meeting Chairman Hardemon treated a concessionaire very badly.”
According to one official, young businesswoman Ramona Hall was simply trying to express the need for the issue to be placed on the agenda, “I have tried to contact several commissioners,” said Ms. Hall.
The official says that Commissioner Hardemon went too far “by saying that she (and all the other vendors) are benefiting from the delay in the mayor’s financial relief plan.”
To these statements by Hardemon, Miss Hall did not remain silent and replied, “I do not know how the vendors can benefit” as she kept being interrupted by the chairman almost forbidding her to continue speaking.
Commissioner Jean Monestime addressed Hall, recognizing her as a successful businesswoman and thanking her for her services to the community, causing her to return to the microphone, but for the second time Hardemon intervened and almost rudely said, “Commissioner Monestime was talking to you and he left, so he can go we don’t want to talk anymore “
It was something very incredible, to see someone concerned about their business being treated in this way, businesses that benefit thousands of passengers who pass through the airport every day, many of whom have to be closed for several hours a day due to lack of passengers.
When asked about Miami Aviation’s version of the increase in passengers at MIA, he told us that “most of them are domestic passengers, we need international passengers to start arriving,” she told us.
During yesterday’s meeting, some commissioners tried to ask about the matter, and the Chairman limited himself to saying that “he did not want to hear anything more about that subject,” although he said he knew that the mayor had sent a memorandum to be put on the agenda.
But we know that Commissioner Hardemon has always responded to his own needs, since he was chairman of the City of Miami commission, he has preferred to make decisions that suited him.
We remember that with the City of Miami, Keon Hardemon, represented parts of Overtown, Wynwood, Little Haiti and other areas of downtown Miami, when he thought to run for the position on the Miami-Dade County Commission in 2020, his term in the city was ending in 2021 , and you are barred from running again due to term limits.
But Hardemon was very cunning, just before he stepped down to run, he sponsored for his convenience an ordinance that would allow him to purchase a city pension program before resigning.
The pension ordinance passed an initial 3-1 vote, (Miami Commissioner Ken Russell, who could also accept the plan early, was absent; Commissioner Manolo Reyes cast the only dissenting vote.) But the measure passed the commission for the city for the second time to take effect at the end of July 2019, thus benefited Commissioner Hardemon.
But Hardemon’s life has been somewhat controversial in his political stint in Miami and Miami Dade, we recall that Hardemon and his politically connected relatives have repeatedly faced accusations of ethical flaws in the past.
In early 2019, a local accountant sued the City of Miami alleging that Hardemon’s uncle and aunt (both lobbyists), Billy and Barbara Hardemon, had requested a $ 10,000 bribe to “pressure” their nephew on a project in his district. Of course Keon Hardemon called the accusations “completely false”.
Regarding yesterday’s meeting, we tried to talk to some concessionaires but no one wanted to talk about it, perhaps for fear of retaliation from the County.
FOTO: Crespogram
