What struck me as strange was that I happened upon this City of Miami employee at 2:50 PM and like I said in northern Broward county of all places...
It's no secret that the overwhelming majority of the City of Miami fire fighters are well compensated (six figures plus) and that there's some that have take home cars. It's also a well known fact that there are many that live outside the city. I continued north on I-95 till I got to my exit (Hillsborough Blvd) which was the northernmost exit in Broward county, the city vehicle pictured above kept going, presumably into Palm Beach county.
So what was this City of Miami Fire department employee doing? On their way home perhaps? Maybe on the way to their second job? What really pissed me off about this incident wasn't the fact that a city employee was driving a city owned car two counties away or the fact that the city employee was two counties away during the mid afternoon, what pissed me off (especially after spending SEVENTY DOLLARS TO FILL UP MY CAR) was the fact that the city of Miami's taxpayers were paying for this guys gas!
Al Crespo, Investigation Miami and Take Back Miami have all done fantastic jobs illustrating the waste and outright graft that's occurring in the city on several other fronts. Look at the measures the city is taking to fill it's budget gaps (ad murals on city buildings, red light cameras, etc) while they're throwing away money paying for things like take home cars and fuel for non emergency fire department employees.
What really puts things in perspective though is the fact that the investigators that are building cases against some of the city employees with a penchant for criminal behavior make a fraction of what they do therefore giving them that extra bit of motivation when building a case. Stay tuned, there's another indictment just around the corner...
