Crystal unsuccessfully ran for Miami Beach mayor in 2011. Born in New York, he moved to Miami Beach nine years ago.
Court records show his bank and condo association started the
foreclosure process on his condo in 2009 and 2010. The case was later
dropped. Crystal said he stopped paying his mortgage and maintenance
fees so that he could short-sell his unit.
If elected, Crystal says he will create an office of the inspector
general for the city, change the city’s pension system and bring
employees salaries in line with similar private- and public-sector
fields.
• Inspector general: Since his run in 2011, Crystal has lambasted the
city as corrupt. In the past few years, several Miami Beach employees
have been arrested on public corruption charges.
Crystal says he would create an office of the inspector general, which
he says would pay for itself because it would catch wasteful and
illegitimate spending.
“Essentially it will be a watchdog organization,” Crystal said.
The employees of the IG office would work mostly undercover and in
conjunction with residents in the hopes of catching corruption as they
try to navigate the city government, Crystal said.
• Pensions: Crystal says he would make two major changes to the current
pension system, which he says is unsustainable. The first change would
be to move to a hybrid defined-contribution plan and defined-benefit
plan. Currently, the city has a defined-benefit plan, which means
employees are entitled to fixed payments, no matter how the retirement
fund’s investments perform.
“We cannot guarantee certain payouts in a world that is so economically
insecure,” Crystal said. “This ensures the employees will share some of
the risks.”
Secondly, he says overtime pay should “never” be factored into
calculating the employee’s pension payments. Under changes recently
negotiated with most of the city’s unions, extra pay such as overtime in
capped at 11 percent of the employee’s salary when calculating
pensionable salary.
• Wasteful spending: When Crystal ran in 2011,
he posted all Miami Beach
employees’ salaries online with the header “Warning this may shock
you!” As employee salaries rise, so do pension costs. Crystal says he
would work to reduce employee salaries so that they are comparable to
what people in the same fields in the public- and private-sector are
making.
