Latest / Palafox Media Network / Meet the Candidate: George Morgan is Running for Mayor of North Miami
Transcript
- Greg: Hello folks and welcome to the Meet the Candids ⁓ edition here of Political Matrix News. We are joined today with George Morgan. Hello George, how are doing today? George: I'm fine, thank you for the invite, thank you for the opportunity to be here. Greg: And you're a ring for mayor in a small little town in South Florida, right? George: it's not so small. It's 63,000 people. Yeah, it's North Miami. It's North Miami city. There's a difference. There's North Miami beach, which is our neighbor to the North called North Miami beach, but they don't have a beach. And then we are in North Miami. We don't have a beach either. We have to go over to Bayside or literally over to Bay Harbor. I call it Bayside just because surf sides to the South and ⁓ sunny islands to the North. Greg: sunset of South Florida there George: I get to see it. I can look out our window and I can look over into Indian Creek, which is Billionaire's Bunker. Right. And imagine what it's like to live there. Only imagine. But that's a nice place to see. Wonderful to walk by too. I can walk by the bridges in 25 minutes. I can walk across the bridges and actually see the golf course of the island. And really neat, really neat stuff. That's really cool. Greg: So why are you running for mayor? mean, seems like, you know, I mean, you know, what got you involved in politics and what got you into wanting to do this? George: Well, actually, I'm not a politician. I'm not a career politician. I know that I have to learn the political process. I have to participate in politics, but I just don't want to be infected by what's the bad. I just want to stay away from that and do the right thing, means I really want to go back to where our forefathers planned this. And I look at our city and I'll give you this example as a kind of explanation. back 73 years ago, our city at that time had 10,000 people. Our council at that time made a decision to go with a city manager slash council form of government. 10,000 people, that's wisdom. But today we're 63,000 people and I'm not sure the way we operate our city and our budget that that should be the way we operate. And I'm saying that Not to say I want to go in and change the charter. That's not the idea. The idea is we need a fresh thinking to bring this all to a surface point. As I am an engineer by my day job, I look at things differently, critically. And so let's take where we were in 1999 up to 2001. That mayor I met on Saturday going door to door. I found out he was the mayor by his introduction. I didn't recognize the name, though there's a history in our city hall with photographs of all the former mayors. he started talking to me with a great deal of interest, very supportive, wanted to help in what ways he could. So as we were talking, we ended up finding out that at that time, the budget was $6,000. That's what he got paid as a salary. Right. Budget at that time may have been a total of eighty nine thousand ninety thousand. Today, the budget is over. Most recently, it's calculated at three hundred and fourteen million dollars. think of this from 1999 to where we are in twenty twenty six. A mayor who gets a salary of six seven thousand dollars to a mayor's salary today of over one hundred and fifty thousand with all the benefits and everything included. a budget that was like 80, 88, 89, 90,000 up to where it is today, 300,000. And you we still maintain the old charter where the mayor's elected as a part-time employee. It's paid full-time. Greg: Now you said the budget for the city is a 300 million or 300,000? George: No, $300 million over the course of the year. It is huge. You ought to see the salaries. That's what I'm saying. Greg: So is it a ceremonial mayor or is it a strong system? George: No, not a strong mayor system. It's council led. He is the executive of the council. So you have the mayor and you have four council. That is four districts, right? Each district represented by one council person. then you have the mayor, the majority rules. So a vote for a resolution, three overcomes two, if you will. And so the budget being that large. Imagine the number of people you're talking about. If you break it down in numbers very quickly, you're talking about five or $6,000 per person living in the city as a calculated resident by the census. And you say, does that person get that much value out of the out of what is paid into the city? Right. What it means. And I can tell you. We just need to have a complete revamp and analysis. Can I do that in two years? I don't think I can do that in two years, but I can make enough mark that we can get a good start at doing it. I think the budget needs to be reviewed line by line. I that can be done twice in one year so that before we get to the budget and we start working on it, I've been able to see line by line, question everything and decide. Have we bought the pencils at the right price? these enough pencils or are they too many pencils? And just break it down. That's what an engineer would do. Greg: Well, now how's the property tax issue that's going be on the amendment this year going to affect the city? Because it's most likely going to pass. mean, anybody who thinks that property tax cuts and people are going to vote against them is to me, you know, like, you know, how does that affect the budget for the city? George: lot of cities won't survive, but there are others who will, but they've got to make a big adjustment. That's what's so important about me running this campaign, because the present and past administrations leading up to the present day have been accustomed to a great deal of squandering, a great deal of misappropriation, a great deal of mismanagement. And I say that carefully. Greg: Right, George: Yeah, there's been fraud in the past and there's been a lot of allegations and but I'm running on the fact that we are going into a different time period. We have a wonderful state in which we live. We have this tax resolution which could make a huge difference for our city. It's going to mean a lot of good, especially for districts one and two where the housing is. at a very, very high level compared to our districts three and four. Now it will help all of them because the Homestead and as it's called is not really, let's say per one class or another. Obviously those that have much more expensive homes are going to gain more value or benefit ⁓ and that have lesser, but they're still going to gain. It'll be proportionate. In that, what needs to happen is we need to do a complete review of how our money is spent, whom we hire in the city, at what value that we hire them at, ⁓ what work they do and should do. It's going to take a personality change. It's going to take a principle change. And we continue on the course we are, we're not going to have the principle that's going to make the adjustment in the proper way at the speed it needs to be. Again, I approach it from an engineering standpoint. We've got a real danger coming. We've got a real analysis that has to be made. It's going to take a lot of hard work. Look, I'm not going into this as I said to you at the illustration. This is not a part-time job. For the last 73 years, we have lived electomere and it's not even known by many of the constituents. That's a part-time job. It's a part-time job for all the council. You cannot handle this kind of budget, this number of people and do the job unless you're on it full-time. So idea is ⁓ needs to make a change. I have the toolbox to do that. I have the desire to do that. I have the ethics to do that. I want transparency. want the people's voice involved. And ⁓ hear constantly. how we've had so many festivities, so much cost, so much wasted value. Can't afford that. And we're going into a moment when resolution very much likely will pass. I'm in favor of it. I believe then ⁓ can start bringing the city into the range that it needs to operate under. Greg: Now how does it work, I mean for those who are not familiar with North Miami, how does it work on the ratio side of renters versus homeowners? Now is this going to be like the majority of the residents are homeowners or the majorities are the renters? And how is that taken to, you know, I guess affect or how does that affect the amount of revenue that will be lost and everything else with the property tax or the homestead reduction? And that being said, the people who are not owning property, how are they going to see a benefit on a local level with that George: got a lot of development that's come into the city in the last 10 years. Perhaps I can go back 15 years, which is changing our status of home ownership to apartment rentals. Right. And a lot of the city demographic has changed. I'll give you one example. In the election cycle of 2024, we had a number of registered voters being just above 30,000. years later in February of 2026, the number registered voters is now at approximately 19,000, thereabouts. ⁓ We've 20 plus percent of registered voters in the city. Where did they go? Well, they haven't moved from their home to the apartments, they've moved out. They've gone to other places. that are less costly. Remember, North Miami is just north of Miami Shores then ⁓ of what is Miami. So you have Miami, Miami Shores, North Miami. Miami has changed demographically. All of the building and the complexes that are rising, it's changing how we are. Are we going to be a financial center? I believe we could be. Are we going to be an information base, computer based, technology based? I think we could be. Are we going to be a place where the most richest in the world live? I believe we are close to that right now. So if you look at Miami and the way it grows, we have all kinds of sports here, baseball, soccer, football. We have the racing, we have kind of sport, including hockey in tropical climate. mean, think of this. have everything. Yeah. And have, think of the richest people then the highest paid salaries are here. the managers of those, ⁓ highest paid sports names, you can go anywhere here in Miami and I can guarantee you, you'll see all of the best. cars, even those that you don't even recognize some of the names of people that can afford to buy them, drive them and maintain them. It's an amazing place. So in North Miami, then as a result, ⁓ have almost changed to a ⁓ type of community ⁓ the people that work in Miami live outside of Miami because they can't afford to live on Brickell Street. Greg: We'll get it then George: Right, so it's becoming that. I'm not saying it is that. I'm saying it's becoming that. Greg: If you become mayor, do you want to encourage more economic growth or economic development or do you want to do more to pacify all the people who are anti-growth and to encourage a more residential driven environment? mean, what's your idea and what's your outlook on that? George: I believe the city needs a complete plan. Now the city's been working on a plan for several years. There's been a lot of money spent on all kind of, let's say, professionals that will come in and give us advice and analyze where we are and so forth. ⁓ It just rolling on and we keep changing. So we're trying to chase a moving target. So I believe we need a moment in time, not long. but just a moment in time enough to stop, do a very careful analysis and plan. And then I think we need to go forward and execute that plan under policy. So does that mean we stop development? I think we need to, let's say, calm it down. I think we need to quiet it a bit. Why? Because our traffic problem has gotten so large. Our infrastructure with our water plant has gotten out of control, out of hand. If we are not careful, we're going to lose how our security and safety and public works goes on. We're not going to have that quality of life that we've had living as a quiet community. We no longer are a quiet community. ⁓ our north is Aventura. Well, that has ⁓ tremendously over the years. And it's at a very high level. we've got a train that goes through our city, as a transport from Miami all the way up to Orlando. and it's increasing its ⁓ travel distance and it's all centered on Miami as the hub and these other cities ⁓ as outlet reaching points, places of interest, places people like to go. amazing that we're right in the center. I had one developer describe this as we're like the center of a donut. We all this around us that's so good. We're right in the center of it. And so we need to value where we are. We need to care for it as it be. So am I favor of one versus the other? I'm in favor of both. But I think you have to put the cart behind the horse, not before the horse. So we need to re model how things are. We need to start with common sense. If we elect the present current incumbent again, it's going to be the same. We need a complete difference the way through our system. We need a council that is responsible to the people. ⁓ a voice of the people to come back. and the council to listen to that voice. We need to change how we operate, in other words, all the way. Greg: Exactly. Okay, so a little bit about who George Morgan is. So I mean, are you from the local area and what kind of engineering do you What's your educational background? Tell the people a little bit about that. George: It's very, I've lived here since 2017. I moved here from Brazil where I lived for 22 years. It's where I met my current wife. It's where our daughter was born. And we moved from 2017 to the United States. I moved over Miami into Louisville, Kentucky, which was great for my daughter. moving six months later from Kentucky to Miami. Well, it's kind of like a magnet. All those Brazilians that lived here, they kind of drew each other together. And so the English that I was hoping she would learn while we were in Kentucky, she did start on it and she did learn it. But then she came to Miami and he got a little bit off, but she's great today. ⁓ in her going into her fourth year at FIU and she works for two great international companies. My wife, Brazilian, she has her green card for here in the United States. She's working on developing her own business. And if you come back to me, I'm telling you that I brought two immigrants here. My daughter, of course, wasn't an immigrant. She was American born abroad. My wife was an immigrant. I have my son and daughter-in-law living here. My son's an engineer, mechanical and electronic, mechanical engineering. My daughter-in-law is an immigration lawyer fighting strong for the immigrants that are here in Miami, built her business ⁓ from ground zero. she's Kentucky girl. So that's also another person from Kentucky and related here. ⁓ And well, Long years ago, I was ⁓ in Pennsylvania up in the hills of the anthracite coal region. here. And of children, my older brother's my sister, my oldest brother went to the Navy. My next brother went to study, ended up with a PhD in mathematics. I started out with the IU unit Pennsylvania. were like 30 some IU units, so technical vocational schools. He started into that and actually developed that for the state of Pennsylvania. ⁓ sister's registered nurse in the IC unit, cardiac control. And I like 10 years out of those three. They were like two years apart from each other. And so I was a completely different family or sibling. And so I kind of grew up alone. My parents owned the restaurant. I had to work in that restaurant, hated every minute of it. But the very fact that I'm doing what I'm doing today is because I was around older, mature people. I had to work in the restaurant. I had to serve. I didn't like it, but it taught me how to work and teaching me how to work. Greg: Exactly, like it's teaching you how to be a public servant as well, because that's basically what this job is about, is serving people. George: Exactly. And it started at that young age. 12 years on, I've always worked, ⁓ I into education at Penn State University. My mother me to be ⁓ a preacher. didn't want to be a preacher, ⁓ but there a circumstance in my life that brought that about. So I went off to a Bible college Allentown, transferred from that out to ⁓ Indiana. ⁓ finished up my education there. I had opportunities to study in Israel the University of Tel Aviv. And I opportunity to work in an archaeological dig, traveled in Israel, loved Israel. I was literally positively in a right way brainwashed about Israel and about the nation state of Israel. Very interesting story, marked my life for sure. in education, worked in a church for many worked in on the side always, ⁓ worked in machine Six months into college education, I started paying for some of my college working as an engineer, actually as a supervisor machine shop. And within six months I the supervisor director of that shop and then ended up running the shop for the two owners and transferred Indiana to Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania worked again and in a machine shop but by that time ⁓ the machines changed CNCs and ⁓ got my wet that and it just kept growing growing. ⁓ uh, worked for another company that had a tool and die shop. So I went from machine shop to tool and die and then the fabrication. And then I ended up taking over that entire North American market for that company, all the products. Some of them were patented. It was a very successful company, had a plant in Denmark, had a plant in Australia, one in Brazil. And that's how I ended up in Brazil. So I ended up leaving the United States, eventually I was handling both the US and the South American market. It grew to a point to where a decision had to be made to take one. chose to take Brazil that kept me in Brazil. eventually became an owner of that company because ended up paying a royalty. We took over the patents, took over the product ⁓ and the entire South American market ⁓ using same brand name that was recognized. Right. And businessman, engineer, and what you say, I learned how to be servant. Greg: so George is great talking to you today So how can people find out more about your campaign working that visit your website and donate to the campaign? George: We have a site, it's www.votegeorgeformayor.com I need to double check that, but I believe that's description of it. It's just been set up and on that site, you'll be able to volunteer, you'll be able to donate, you'll be able to learn about me and know about the campaign. Greg: And thanks a lot for your time today. I know you got to run and we look forward to talking to you soon. George: Great, great, thank you for the opportunity.