Fitting steps can honor unmatched legacy of Harvey Ruvin

After the passing of Harvey Ruvin, a 54-year elected official whose extraordinary scorecard shows universal praise for service and zero detractors, the community’s task today is not to replace him – that’s impossible – but to fittingly honor him.

Honors could be for his revolutionizing of the County Clerk’s office over 30 years and saving taxpayers untold millions, for legislation he guided over 20 years as a county commissioner, for service to the environment both locally and globally, for sincere kindness and compassion that is rare anywhere and especially in elected office, or for other attributes outlined in his Celebration of Life that echoed in the county auditorium last week (you can view it on the county’s webcasting site) as speaker after speaker captured aspects of a rare style of leadership.

Fitting honors take thought. A single honor may be too little for a man counted by all who knew him as a friend and revered for what he accomplished, and for the challenges that to his death he sought to meet and overcome for the community and the environment.

A friend of more than 50 years, Leonard Abess, tried at the Celebration of Life to capture Harvey Ruvin in a very long list of attributes. They merely scratched the surface.

Mr. Abess, retired head of a bank that had been the county’s principal depository who described himself to the crowd as a horticulturist and pinball wizard, worked with Mr. Ruvin for years to save endangered lands from development. Noting that commissioners had intended to honor Mr. Ruvin last year in a ceremony that poor health prevented, Mr. Abess suggested one fitting tribute.

The commission, whose members have changed markedly since the award was planned, should instead deliberate and decide that the best memorial to Mr. Ruvin would be a firm strategic plan to preserve our remaining open lands and future land use.

Such a plan – not yielding whenever developers seek low-cost land – would be fitting honor for Mr. Ruvin, who was as proud of his service to the environment as to the county.

As the county’s representative, in 1990 Mr. Ruvin became a founding member of the International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives, was once vice chairman of that group and then became president of its efforts in this nation. He aimed to keep the County Clerk’s Office strictly non-partisan, but he battled passionately for the environment, which he often noted had no party affiliation. He aimed to do what he could to prevent encroachment on endangered lands.

The issue is thorny for officials, who get campaign funds from those who seek to loosen developmental limits while the land can make no campaign contributions for self-protection. Yet Mr. Ruvin never lost an election, a comfort to officeholders willing to accept the challenge by Mr. Abess of providing an appropriate environmental honor to Mr. Ruvin.

A second fitting honor was suggested at the Celebration of Life by Rabbi Danny Marmorstein, Mr. Ruvin’s brother-in-law, who officiated: name for Mr. Ruvin the new county courthouse now in construction.

Had he lived, his office would have been in that building. Many of the more than 1,100 workers in the Clerk’s Office will serve there. The judges he serves will try cases there.

As new Interim Clerk Luis Montaldo, Mr. Abess and others stressed last week, Mr. Ruvin was dedicated to the success and public service of the Clerk’s Office. He cared about each employee and how they served us. He worked with other clerks like Broward’s Brenda Forman, who was at the celebration, to make certain the 67 clerk’s offices in Florida had adequate funds to serve well. He guided the offices under his jurisdiction to paperless efficiency, reducing staff through attrition by more than 500.

Now, as the landmark 1920s courthouse is destined for new uses with a new courthouse rising, officials could fittingly name the new tower for Mr. Ruvin, whose record is complete and universally acclaimed.

One more honor would be simple: take the sullied FTX name off the county’s arena on Biscayne Boulevard and replace it with Mr. Ruvin’s name. Our artist shows how it might look.

The courts this month should clear the way to remove the FTX logo. The Ruvin name in its place would be appropriate.

Speakers noted last week that Mr. Ruvin was a rabid Miami Heat fan. On the last day of his life, his sister-in-law asked him who his favorite Heat player was. He named Tyler Herro, who hours after Mr. Ruvin’s death scored the winning basket at the buzzer.

As we noted last week, the FTX name is an embarrassment, representing a company that quit operating as its investors lost billions. The Ruvin name would honor a man who saved taxpayers tens of millions. The arena should honor winners, not losers – and Harvey Rubin was a winner as a public servant who never quit.

May he rest in peace, with appropriate honors.