It took us years -- YEARS -- to be able to afford to get my wife's paperwork sorted out. When we married, I was given the boot from a job a mere six weeks after. It tooks years for us to sort that out, since our parents were not the sort to spoil their kids beyond belief, and we were making our own way.
While this guy may have cost us more money, it was not his fault we couldn't do it sooner (for one thing he was only running it for two years). Gonzalez also made it so that instead of six months to year of waiting, our effort would pay off in three months. He and his staff, in changing things, did a good job. Isn't that what leadership is meant to do? The Miami Herald had a story on his resigning, and here is a central part of the story, in my mind:
- Jonny O
While this guy may have cost us more money, it was not his fault we couldn't do it sooner (for one thing he was only running it for two years). Gonzalez also made it so that instead of six months to year of waiting, our effort would pay off in three months. He and his staff, in changing things, did a good job. Isn't that what leadership is meant to do? The Miami Herald had a story on his resigning, and here is a central part of the story, in my mind:
''I'm coming home,'' said Gonzalez, a U.S. Army veteran who retired with the rank of colonel and earned a doctorate in international relations at the University of Miami. "I just want to take some time off and see where things go.''
While he earned praise from advocates for accessibility and responsiveness, his tenure was marked by a sharp increase in fees charged to immigrants, a step Gonzalez said was necessary to finance badly needed improvements at the agency, including hiring workers to reduce backlogs. The agency is funded almost exclusively by the fees.
Gonzalez was willing to face critics of the increases to make his case, a distinct turnaround for an office seen as unresponsive, said U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, herself an opponent of the higher fees.
"He came to Miami, he did TV and radio, taking on harsh questions and being accessible,'' she said. "He did a phenomenal job in a difficult situation. I think he put a human touch on what is otherwise a void of a bureaucratic mess.''
In Miami, she said, Gonzalez set in motion a critical reform with a decision to shut down the notorious and antiquated immigration office at Biscayne Boulevard and 79th Street in Miami. The agency is building four regional state-of-the-art offices to make its services more customer friendly.
"That will be his lasting legacy, that folks don't have to go to 79th Street and wait in those humongous lines and get their cars towed,'' Ros-Lehtinen said.
- Jonny O
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