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Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava defends new budget, service cuts
There are four public budget town halls this week
It’s budget season, and you know what that means: the spin cycle is on high.
Facing a gaping $402 million hole in the county coffers, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava is out here trying to sell her $12.9 billion budget for 2025-26 as “fair and balanced.” But it looks more like it’s failing and bruised.
The mayor has taken to the airwaves and went on WPLG Local 10’s This Week in South Florida Sunday and has had two community meetings so far to defend the 2025 budget. Saturday’s community meeting in at the North Dade Regional Library was standing room only.
There are four more this week where residents are encouraged to go and share their concerns and priorities. The next one is tonight at 6 p.m. at Westchester Regional Library, 9445 Coral Way.
There’s another town hall at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Arcola Lakes Senior Center, 8401 NW 14th Ave., 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Dennis Moss Center, 10950 SW 211 Street and 6 p.m. Thursday at Oak Grove Park, 690 Ne 159th Street.
More information on the proposed budget can be found on the county’s website here.
Packed house at the Miami-Dade budget town hall Saturday at the North Dade Regional Library.
Levine Cava says her budget protects “core services” like garbage pickup and transit. Because, apparently, if your bus still shows up and your trash still disappears, you should just shut up and pay the extra taxes and fees.
And there are plenty of those. It will cot 50 cents more to ride the bus or train. Gas tax goes up 2 cents a gallon. And we will now have to pay a brand-new $5 “get-in-the-park” fee — but don’t expect a lifeguard at the pool. We can’t afford those.
Read related: Facing $400M budget shortfall, Miami-Dade cuts senior meals, lifeguards, more
The county is also shutting down two senior centers and ending some home-delivered meals to the abuelos and abuelas. And it may as well be shutting down some non-profit organizations with up to $40 million in cuts to grants.
Meanwhile, the county has committed $46 million to the FIFA World Cup, which Levine Cava said is an “obligation” once the bid was awarded, which is before her time. And she added that the millions are not going to the billionaire organization itself. The funds go to “local leaders” to raise money to put together programming, she told the Sunday show’s host Glenna Milberg. Was she talking about Rodney Barreto? And does this make it better, or worse?
Also, she did warn us that the allocation could mean cuts in services.
Commissioner Kionne McGhee has asked for his colleagues to support refunding the gift and putting that money into the non-profits whose grant funds have been cut. But Levine Cava suggested on This Week in South Florida that only the last allocated $10.5 million can be withdrawn. How come we are still committed to the $25 million in in-kind services?
La Alcaldesa insists the cuts in the budget are necessary, mostly blaming a state-mandated boogeyman: Amendment 10, which created five new constitutional offices that the county now has to fund — to the tune of nearly half the budget gap. The spotlight is on newly-elected Sheriff Rosanna “Rosie” Cordero-Stutz, who wants $40 million more than the mayor gave her. That’s a tenth of the entire deficit. If she doesn’t get it, she says, the mayor and commission are “defunding the police.”
Levine Cava has said that she has increased police funding each year, and that it’s going up almost 9% this year. That’s not defunding. That’s reinvesting in flashbang grenades and training simulators and expensive software contracts and overtime.
Still, commissioners aren’t all on board with the spending plan. Some even voted for the flat tax rate the first round thinking they can lower it after the public hearings. They can’t raise it, but most people will pay higher taxes because their property values rose.
Read related: Buyer’s remorse: Kionne McGhee wants refund on $46M to FIFA World Cup
Commissioners Roberto Gonzalez, Juan Carlos “JC” Bermudez, Raquel Regalado and newly-appointed District 6 Commissioner Natalie Milian Orbis were particularly concerned that the cuts are not being made in the right places. Regalado has called for a special meeting to go “line by line” through the budget to find efficiencies and waste. Like with an X-acto.
Because when you add up the slight raise in property tax with the other fees and the fare hikes, everyday working people are the ones who are going to feel the squeeze.
The commission will vote on the final budget in September. Between now and then, the public has those four community meetings this week and two public hearings at County Hall Sept. 4 and Sept. 18 before the commission makes a final decision. There will also be a Committee of the Whole scheduled at 9:30 a.m. for commissioners to discuss the budget and make changes.
The post Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava defends new budget, service cuts appeared first on Political Cortadito.
Op Ed from Michael Rosenberg: Miami-Dade needs Pets’ Trust more than ever
Opinion By Michael Rosenberg, co-founder of the Pets’ Trust
I went to the Miami-Dade animal shelter in Medley Sunday, to observe the protest, not to participate. I wanted to see what the message was, what it is the protesters wanted.
The animal shelter at Medley holds a special place for me. As a human, I lived in a dog cage in that building for three days in October of 2012. Yes, it was hot, old and decrepit, and a place where 60 to 80 mostly healthy animals were killed every day from 1970 to 2013 to make space for the 100 or so dogs brought to the shelter each day, on average. The policy from 1970 (as far as I can go back) to 2013 was to kill for space.
One hundred animals would be surrendered each day, and 60 to 80 were killed to make space. Every day.
Read related: Protesters want answers, justice for Rocky at Miami-Dade animal shelter
The Pets’ Trust was founded to try to stop that. But while the community overwhelmingly supported the Pets’ Trust plan with their votes, elected officials did not honor those votes. If you really want to be angry, watch the movie to learn more about the Pets’ Trust and what our elected officials didn’t do: Political Animals…The Story of the Pets’ Trust.
Flash forward to 2025, and while the killing has dramatically decreased (in the shelter), the intake of animals stays the same. Many animals are still turned away. The new shelter that was built in 2015 is beyond capacity, so the dungeons of Medley were reopened to create more space.
No one wanted to open this old draconian shelter, but as the new shelter simply could not hold all of the animals, the Medley shelter was brought back to its awful life. There was simply no place to keep this overflow of continued incoming animals and killing for space is not an option anymore.
Of course no one likes the Medley shelter. It’s natural to want to protest the conditions there. The good news is this Medley shelter is coming down and a brand new 25,000 square foot, very modern facility will be built in South Dade. It will take time to build it, but at least it is coming.
However, warehousing animals is not the solution and this is where the majority of the money is going towards. In the past 12 years MDAS has received $327 million dollars. The County plan spent $200 million dollars more than what had been their previous average budget from 2012 back and the chart shows you what they have to show for it. Intake numbers are the same as the early 2000’s when the average budget was $10 million, and today it’s actually worse because more and more animals are being turned away and the shelter is over double its capacity.
Most animals come in healthy and some start to become sick from contagious diseases, stress and become unadoptable which can lead to being euthanized. The adoption rate has not changed in the past 12 years and spay/neuter surgeries are far behind.
Read related: Animal advocates protest shelter conditions, use of old ‘house of horrors’
It’s wonderful that the protesters want to keep the plight of our animals in the forefront of public attention, but signs calling this a death camp, a killing shelter, or that Miami-Dade Animal Services Director Annette Jose is lying, are not the correct message. The message for what was needed and still is needed is the message of the Pets’ Trust Plan, the overpopulation problem that is the cause of there being so many animals — half a million cats on the streets for example — is an extensive spay/neuter program doing at least four times what we are doing now. We need to do over 100,000 of these surgeries a year, not 25,000…..or we’ll never get ahead of the problem and sadly, the new shelter will be full on the day it opens.
If I participated in this protest, my sign would have been…..More Surgeries Now!
Again, I thank the protesters for wanting to make conditions better, but while the new animal shelter will be a better place to live, it will not solve the animal overpopulation problem which is the root of all of this mess we are in.
Michael Rosenberg is a tireless advocate for animals and humans in Miami-Dade and beyond. Rosenberg is co-founder of the Pets’ Trust Initiative, which got 65% of voters to agree in 2012 on a massive spay/neuter plan to help keep the population of strays down. He is also the longtime president of the Kendall Federation of Homeowner Associations.
The post Op Ed from Michael Rosenberg: Miami-Dade needs Pets’ Trust more than ever appeared first on Political Cortadito.
Protesters want answers, justice for Rocky at Miami-Dade animal shelter
It shouldn’t take a dead dog to get someone to pay attention to the horrible conditions at the Miami-Dade animal shelter.
But that’s what happened.
A growing pack of protestors gathered again for the second Sunday in a row outside Miami-Dade Animal Services’ overflow facility to demand answers — and justice — for the animals allegedly suffering and dying under the county’s so-called care.
They came armed with signs, chants and fury. No political group, no formal organization, no paid advocacy. Just plain old human outrage — the kind that bubbles up when a terrier mix named Rocky dies of heatstroke in his kennel and nobody seems to be held responsible.
“These dogs can’t speak,” Nicolette Acosta, one of the protesters, told WSVN 7 News. “We’re here to do just that, to provide that voice for them, and I don’t care how long it takes.”
Ladra kinda loves her.
Even before Rocky died, actually since at least 2023, protesters had been decrying the conditions at animal services and the use of the overflow shelter that was the grossly “sick” building, the “house of horrors” for both the animals and staff, that had to be replaced pronto with the new $15 million building in Doral. It was too terrible to use for animals then, but it’s okay for the dogs now that they’ve run out of space at the new, shiny shelter.
Read related: Animal advocates protest shelter conditions, use of old ‘house of horrors’
Recent horror stories include a horrible outbreak of Streptococcus equi zooepidemicus, a bacterial infection that can cause hemorrhagic pneumonia in dogs and potentially affect immunocompromised people. Because the shelter was at double capacity, the disease spread faster.
To address the situation, the shelter is urging the public to adopt or foster animals to reduce overcrowding and is temporarily suspending some services, like the on-site wellness clinic and stray animal pick-ups. But some people who have adopted or fostered dogs have had to bring them back after they infected their pets at home, one activist said.
There is no enrichment programming for the animals while they stay at Camp Death. In fact, sometimes they are barely walked. The county budgets for 280 employees at Animal Services, but they only have 255 currently working there. So, not enough dog walkers.
Acosta calls the situation at the shelter a “multi-system failure.” She calls out the county for its botched response to a deadly bacterial outbreak, its lack of transparency, and its absolutely bonkers dependence on community-donated fans to keep the animals cool.
Fans. In Miami. In July.
Ladra would laugh if it weren’t so freaking sad.
“We should not have to be scrambling as a community to donate fans,” Acosta said Sunday, demanding a full investigation into the conditions at the Medley facility — one with “actual measurable numbers and outcomes.”
You know, like a grown-up audit.
Miami-Dade County spends millions on animal services, a department that many activists and animal lovers say is broken and backwards. The budget is increasing to $45 million this year from $43 million last year. The county is in the process of developing a new $11.5 million animal shelter in South Dade to replace the current overflow shelter in Medley, which will become a residential development featuring at least 100 income-restricted apartments.
All with A/C, Ladra bets.
But that facility — which got a request for $1.5 million in state funds from Sen. Ileana Garcia — still needs final approvals and won’t be completed until the fall of 2027, at the earliest.
Update: Rita Schwartz, co-founder of the Pets’ Trust Initiate — a non-binding referendum passed by 65% of the voters in 2012 — said the money could be better spent.
“Right now, all the money is going towards the two overcrowded shelters and frustrated employees that can’t possibly take care of all these animals humanely,” Schwartz told Political Cortadito. “They are cramped in small cages and not nearly walked enough. They are not addressing the root of the problem so tax payers pay millions of dollars more each year for the same if not worse results. Warehousing the animals is not the solution.
“The Pets’ Trust plan would provide the much-needed services to get ahead of the overpopulation crisis. Right now, it’s impossible for the public to get an appointment to spay/neuter their pets and not enough resources for the following services.”
At Sunday’s protest, State Rep. Fabian Basabe said that more has to be done. “I didn’t come here as a politician. I came here as a neighbor, a father, an animal lover,” said Basabe, who this year c0-introduced Dexter’s Law, which would strengthen sentences for animal cruelty and create an online database of those found guilty of it.
Read related: Politicos pose with pets; insult our intelligence with photo ops
“What’s happening in this facility is heartbreaking and unacceptable,” Basabe told the protesters, though they know it. “Taxpayer funds are being mismanaged,” he said.
“Daniella Levine Cava has had years to fix this,” he said, adding that the Miami-Dade mayor has gotten tons of emails and phone calls about this. He likens it to the cruelty at the Miami Seaquarium, where she finally acted last year, after public outcry, to evict the operators who had been mistreating the animals.
“That’s not leadership. That’s crisis control,” Basabe said. “If she truly cared about animal welfare, these conditions would never have been allowed in the first place.”
He also told the protesters that he was going to request a review of the shelter by the Florida Department of Agriculture and an investigation into where the funding resources are going.
One of the points that protesters make is that the department is top heavy with bloated salaries. The Animal Services director makes more than $200,000 a year and there are four assistant directors.
No wonder there’s no money for fans.
The department issued a canned statement last week: “We understand the community’s concerns, and we share the same goal: to provide every animal with the best possible care and a chance at a loving home.”
Meanwhile, however, they may get sick. Or die from the heat.
This story has been updated to include a comment from Rita Schwartz, co-founder of the Pet’s Trust.
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Independent medical access must be given to detainees at Alligator Alcatraz
Photos were posted on social media over the weekend of several ambulances taking people to the hospital from Alligator Alcatraz, that makeshift prison built in eight days with no oversight and even less compassion on an abandoned air strip in a flood prone area in the middle of the Everglades just last month.
One was spotted leaving at 3:37 p.m. Saturday and another one at 8:30 p.m. Two were seen leaving on Friday, at 10:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. And two others at 6:10 p.m. and just before midnight on Thursday.
Some detainees are in their 11th day of a hunger strike to denounce the conditions, so that may explain some of the hospitalizations.
Read related: Daniella Levine Cava finally takes a tougher stand vs Alligator Alcatraz
But at least six people had been reportedly transferred from the facility before the hunger strike began. That means at least 12 people — it’s probably more — either sick or injured, have been rushed to the hospital more than 40 miles away from the gulag in the middle of the swamp, built atop the old Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport.
And the Miami-Dade Department of Health is… ¿Dónde está? Playing hide and seek? Practicing yoga? Trying not to make eye contact?
Because someone should be asking very loudly:
Who is monitoring the health and safety standards at Alligator Alcatraz?
Is there even a doctor on site? A nurse? A thermometer?
Where are the medical records for these transfers?
Has anyone at DOH even stepped foot inside this place?
Let’s not forget: this facility was thrown together like a last-minute science fair project — only the prize was millions in taxpayer dollars wasted and the experiment is on actual people. The budget is $450 million — $290 mil of which has already gone to vendors with no open competitive system, no transparency (more on that later) — so what have they spent on healthcare?
According to a bunch of contacts published by the Miami Herald, CDR Healthcare Inc. was hired to build, staff and maintain a medical unit where they would administer drug tests and TB tests, for $17.5 million. Where is that money really being spent?
Immigrant advocates have repeatedly denounced the “dangerous and unlawful conditions” inside the state-managed immigration detention camp which they medical experts say could lead to some serious health risks for the hundreds of detainees who are being held there in group cages. Phone calls with detainees and their families have brought horror stories to light.
Toilets that don’t flush. Limited drinking water. Meals with bugs or maggots. Giant mosquitos that could be carrying illnesses. Access to showers once a week. Temperatures that drop to freezing cold from sweltering hot and back again, regularly.
Kristen 3.0? Miami Beach firebrand commissioner vs Mayor Steve Meiner
Because of course she is.
Kristen Rosen Gonzalez — Miami Beach’s drama queen of dais debates, email blasts and adult novelty props — announced in April that she is running for mayor.
Even before she filed paperwork, Commissioner Rosen Gonzalez had told many friends and supporters she planned to unseat Mayor Steven Meiner — most famously known for declaring war on Spring Break — who hasn’t filed for reelection yet but is widely expected to. It would be his second two-year term. If he survives this campaign.
“Miami Beach deserves a mayor who listens to every resident, protects our neighborhoods, and leads with transparency, innovation, and results,” Rosen Gonzalez says on her website and in her social media announcements. “I’ve always been the people’s commissioner, and now it’s time for me to be the people’s mayor.”
Rosen Gonzalez wants people to know she’s matured.
After her controversial first commission term marked by sexual harassment complaints that she made against a commission candidate who she said exposed himself and five ethics complaints (cleared, but still), and a failed run for Congress, Rosen Gonzalez came back rebranded as “Kristen 2.0.” Now she’s aiming for the mayor’s seat, possibly as “Kristen 3.0,” but still with the same flair for political rebellion that has defined her career.
Read related: Fighters Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, Alex Fernandez win runoffs in Miami Beach
Like her or not, there’s no denying Rosen Gonzalez is a fighter.
She has made a name for herself by waving the preservation flag, clashing with developers (until she doesn’t), advocating for the little people and throwing elbows at just about everyone on the dais. She’s a tenured professor at Miami Dade College, but she’s schooled plenty of her colleagues in the art of political combat — including former Mayor Dan Gelber, whom she once compared to Vladimir Putin in a now-deleted post she apologized for.
Most recently, she has traded jabs with Commissioner David Suarez, an apparent prude who took offense when Rosen Gonzalez pulled out a pink prop in defense of a “female wellness” shop on Lincoln Road. Suarez sent out a pearl-clutching email calling it a sex shop. Kristen hit back with her own email, accusing him of misinformation and shaming female empowerment.
She’s not wrong. You go girl!
But that’s Rosen Gonzalez in a nutshell: polarizing, provocative — and persistent.
This wouldn’t be the first time she’s run against Meiner. They faced each other in a commission race in 2019 — after Rosen Gonzalez came back from a failed congressional bid the year before, calling herself Kristen 2.0 — and Meiner, who was considered the underdog, won 54% to 46% in the runoff. Rosen Gonzalez did end up coming back as a commissioner in 2021, but is termed out this year.
That may be the real reason she is running. It’s not like there’s a ton of political contrast. Rosen Gonzalez, 51, and Meiner, 54, used to be pals. She supported his crackdown on Spring Break, the arrests of homeless sleeping outdoors and the support for the State of Israel. Until the O Cinema controversy earlier this year.
After the theater showed the Oscar-winning documentary about the West Bank, “No Other Land,” which some view as critical of Israel, Meiner wanted to defund and evict O Cinema from their city owned space The mayor deemed the film “hateful propaganda” and said he worried about the safety of residents if protests were to erupt. He had also asked the city last year to clamp down on pro-Palestine protesters and even tried to censor people at city commission meetings.
Read related: Miami Beach mayor wants more ‘decorum’ among city officials, residents
Rosen Gonzalez spoke publicly and loudly against the censorship and the mayor ended up withdrawing his plan to evict the cinema after a lot of public backlash. Seeing an opportunity to show a clear difference between them, Kristen 3.0 is making her commitment to free speech part of her campaign.
She’s also running on a familiar “residents first” message, promising to preserve historic districts, support the police, and boost tourism marketing to keep the city’s economy healthy. She says she wants to focus on serious policy, not theatrics. Which is ironic coming from a walking, talking telenovela.
Voters can hear directly from her about her platform at the Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club meeting at 9 a.m. this, um, Tuesday, at Lincoln Eatery, 723 N. Lincoln Ln. It may also be live streamed on Facebook.
While some have been critical of her flip-flopping on the rezoning deal at the site of the old Deauville Hotel, Rosen Gonzalez calls it proof that she can be pragmatic and is not against all development. Just when it’s out of scale or character. She also claims that her push back is what led to a better deal.
And people still love her. A May poll, reportedly independent and done by MDW Communications (Michael Worley) showed that she led Meiner by six points among 402 voters, 35% to 29%. The rest of the voters were undecided, so if they split the same way, she’s winning.
The poll did not include a third candidate in the Beach mayoral race, political newcomer Victor Rosario, because everyone is looking at this as a cage match between Rosen Gonzalez and Meiner. Unless anybody else qualifies before the Sept. 20 deadline.
Seven candidates have already filed paperwork to replace Rosen Gonzalez in the Group 1 seat: Daniel Ciraldo, Brian Ehrlich, Matthew Gultinoff, Omar Jimenez, Monroe Mann, Monica Matteo-Salinas and Monique Pardo Pope.
Incumbents Laura Dominguez and Alex Fernandez may face challengers in Robert Novo III and Luidgi Mary, respectively. Voters will know for sure who’s on the ballot after Sept. 20.
The post Kristen 3.0? Miami Beach firebrand commissioner vs Mayor Steve Meiner appeared first on Political Cortadito.
Miami Commissioners choose former Police Major Antonio Diaz as city’s IG
The city of Miami has its first inspector general in former Miami Police Maj. Antonio “Tony” Diaz, who retired from the department after 33 years in June. This is who the commissioners have chosen to be their independent watchdog.
¡Pero por supuesto! Did you think they were really going to tie their own hands?
Diaz is, by all accounts, a great guy with a clean record who is fair and friendly. So maybe he should just enjoy his retirement. Because it might be an emotional battle for him to investigate his old pals, bosses and colleagues. And when he does, there could be accusations of some bad blood or something. It’s just not smart to go with such an obvious insider choice.
Read related: Retired Miami Police Maj. Tony Diaz could be named city’s Inspector General
It’s not like the city had a lot of prospects, though. Two of the eligible applicants withdrew. Suddenly, they were no longer interested for whatever reason. Did they know the fix was in? Another candidate was not selected for an interview by the selection committee. The four finalists on the shortlist that were interviewed May 29 were Diaz, Christopher Paul Failla, a U.S. Navy vet who worked at the Office of Inspector General for the Architect of the Capital, which preserves and maintains the historic buildings, monuments, art and inspirational gardens on the Capitol campus; Karuna Khilnani, who worked as assistant to the city’s auditor general, a position that was eliminated by voters when they approved the IG instead; and Adam Layton, assistant special agent in charge at OIG for the Department of Health and Human Services.
But Diaz was better?
Yes, according to the selection committee, which was comprised of a bunch of professional people that Ladra does not like to be second-guessing. They are:
Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Howard Rosen, chief of Special Prosecutions office.
Judith Bernier, an associate teaching professor at the School of International and Public Affairs at Florida International University and director of the Center for Labor Research and Studies. She is also chair of the Miami-Dade commission on Ethics and Public Trust where she has served since May of 2014.
John Vecchio, special agent in charge at the FDLE, where he’s worked for almost 28 years. He also worked as an adjunct professor at the Institute of Public Safety at Broward College.
Miami-Dade Public Defender Carlos J. Martinez, elected in 2008, and re-elected in 2012, 2016, 2020 and 2024 without opposition. The first Cuban-American Public Defender and the only elected Hispanic public defender in the U.S. He manages an office of about 400 employees, handling approximately 75,000 cases each year.
West Miami Police Chief Pedro “Pete” Delgado, who has been with the tiny department for almost 24 years.
These are not a bunch of yahoos that don’t know the ramifications of picking the wrong person. So Ladra is going to give them the benefit of the doubt. But there’s still doubt.
After all, Chief Manny Morales and the leadership at the police union are fans.
Almost 80% of the voters approved of establishing an inspector general’s office last August. And Ladra can’t help but wonder if this is what they had in mind. Is he really going to be a watchdog or is he going to be more like a lookout?
The unanimous vote at the July 24 meeting means that City Manager Art Noriega — who probably should be investigate for a number of things — will negotiate the contract with Diaz, which will include his salary and benefits package. The contract will be for four years and Diaz can only be fired without cause by a four-fifths vote, according to the resolution.
The city’s estimated budget for the inspector general’s office in 2025-26 is $2.1 million,
Read related: Miami voters win on inspector general, lose on ‘outdoor gym’ referendum
“I’ve always worked with purpose and the reason I want this position and am interested in this position is really to make a difference,” Diaz told the commissioners at the July 24 meeting, adding that his track record — which includes a stint as head of internal affairs — has shown he does not play sides.
“My investigation is always going to be based on facts and not influence. I am not going to intertwine this office with any politics,” Diaz said. From the podium. At a commission meeting. At City Hall.
And Ladra also hopes he meant investigations, plural.
“I’m going to do the right thing for you and for the city of Miami,” Diaz told the commission, as if those two things could coexist.
We should see soon enough. This is not a position that will take very long to get tested.
The post Miami Commissioners choose former Police Major Antonio Diaz as city’s IG appeared first on Political Cortadito.
The city of Miami wants to sell your public land with no public vote
When elected officials want to make it easier to sell off public land, it’s usually not about efficiency. It’s about opportunity — for someone.
And it’s usually not the public.
The Miami City Commission last month voted to put a referendum on the November ballot so that the sale or lease of city-owned land can be executed with a simple four-fifths vote on the dais. Right now, any sale or lease of public land has to go to a public vote. But this change would allow four people to sell public land. No public vote would be needed. So the right the public has today to approve or reject any property deal would be taken away.
This is becoming a habit with these commissioners.
Read related: Miami-Dade Judge: Miami Commission can’t cancel election without public vote
This proposal to ease restrictions on how the city can sell or lease non-waterfront public land was proposed by City Manager Art Noriega, not a city commissioner because that would be political suicide. But none of them pulled it for discussion, so the resolution was approved without a single question raised.
What properties would be affected? Which properties would be off-limits, besides waterfront land? Who determines “fair market value”? Who is waiting in the wings, ready with an offer?
There was even the ballot question attached to the July 24 reading:
“SHALL THE CITY CHARTER BE AMENDED TO ALLOW THE CITY COMMISSION, BY A FOUR-FIFTHS VOTE, TO APPROVE THE SALE OR LEASE OF NON-WATERFRONT CITY-OWNED PROPERTY WHEN FEWER THAN THREE PROPOSALS ARE RECEIVED AFTER PUBLIC NOTICE, PROVIDED THAT OTHER SAFEGUARDS, INCLUDING FAIR MARKET VALUE AND VOTER APPROVAL FOR WATERFRONT PROPERTY, REMAIN IN EFFECT?”
The City of Miami’s Department of Real Estate & Asset Management (DREAM) manages an estimated $17.5 billion real estate asset portfolio, which includes 513 properties, 139 million square feet of islands, three marinas of over 1,300 boat slips, moorings and dry racks, retail malls, hotels, office buildings, multifamily buildings, theaters, stadiums, parking garages, historic properties, long term ground leases, upland and submerged lands.
The resolution states that these “recommended revisions will promote the efficient, transparent, and fiscally responsible management and disposition of City-owned non- waterfront property, particularly in instances where market interest is limited.”
What does that mean? It sounds like bureaucratic fine-tuning — but Miami doesn’t have a good track record when it comes taxpayers’ assets. This looks like another loophole in the making, just waiting for the next sweetheart deal to slip through.
Right now, in addition to going to a public vote, the city has to advertise the property and get at least three bids before approving a deal. That’s called competition. That’s called transparency. That’s called giving the public a shot at knowing who’s trying to buy public property. And for how much. And for what purpose.
This change? It says, “Nah, don’t worry about all that.” Fewer than three proposals? As long as it hits “fair market value” and gets a four-fifths vote from the commission, it’s a go.
Read related: Miami commissioners vote to negotiate sale of historic Olympia Theater
Let’s be honest: This is like hanging a “for sale” sign with invisible ink. The average taxpayer won’t see the deal until it’s done, the price is locked, and some lucky friend of a commissioner or mayor is already picking out floor samples.
There is talk that this could be related to the future sale of the Miami Police headquarters property downtown. It could also open up the floodgates on unsolicited offers to redevelop a number of public housing buildings.
Sure, the city says this doesn’t apply to waterfront land. Miami voters still have to approve the sale or lease of any waterside property. For now, anyway. Because everyone knows how these things evolve. First you carve out a little exception. Then you find a way to stretch it. Then you say, “Well, it worked fine for inland properties, soooo…”
Next thing you know, a former park becomes a condo tower, and the public gets a press release and a commemorative plaque.
Proponents are going to say there’s nothing wrong with getting the public to vote on this. But then they’ll spend millions to fool the voters into thinking it’s a good idea.
Ladra thinks it’s a bad idea. Not because she hates streamlining — but because she knows exactly who benefits when public oversight gets called red tape.
And it’s usually not the public.
The post The city of Miami wants to sell your public land with no public vote appeared first on Political Cortadito.
Downtown, Brickell residents still question Miami DDA benefits, future
While there is a new chairman at the Miami Downtown Development Authority in freshly minted City Commissioner Ralph Rosado, it looks like the 58-year-old agency, which is tasked with assisting and incentivizing business in the urban core — hasn’t exactly shaken off the stink of recent scrutiny, with legit questions still swirling around its bloated budget and some very curious decision-making.
New face, same ol’ funk.
A number of Brickell and downtown condo dwellers have been complaining to the city commission and the administration about the DDA since the 15-member board voted earlier this year to give $100,000 to the UFC, a sports organization worth an estimated $12 billion. A closer look revealed that the agency had also given $450,000 — $150K a year for three years — to woo the FC Barcelona soccer club headquarters from New York to Miami, and $175,000 to the 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship host committee for, well, good measure maybe.
And, to boot, there are a lot of well-paid and overlapping staff positions with bloated salaries.
Some residents say they don’t want a 15-member board of insiders spending their tax dollars on things like trolley paint jobs and soccer club wooing while residents juggle $20 million assessments and skyrocketing insurance bills.
Read related: Ka-ching! Miami DDA is doling out more checks to billionaire companies
Leading the charge is James Torres, president of the Downtown Neighbors’ Alliance and an unofficial spokesperson for fed-up condo owners. “We want a divorce,” Torres said. “They’re double taxing us.”
““This is about fairness and democracy,” Torres said. “All we’re asking is for the City to give residents the opportunity to decide for themselves whether this additional tax should continue. No other community is forced to pay this surcharge, and it’s time to ask: should we?”
Torres has tried to engage the city in finding a solution. He has suggested the city change the structure and make the DDA more like a business improvement district, taxing only the commercial property owners and businesses — not the residents. And if the city doesn’t want to do that, then he wants them to put the future of the DDA on the ballot.
At the last commission meeting, Commissioner Joe Carollo moved to put a nonbonding question about the DDA on the November ballot. But it died for lack of a second.
Rosado, who was quick to abolish the Bayfront Park Management Trust, has said that the budget was possibly bloated and that there needed to be reform, including more residents on the 15-member board.
Brickell’s not happy either.
“Brickell is not downtown. Downtown is not Brickell,” said Ernesto Cuesta, president of the Brickell Homeowners’ Association. “This is taxation without representation. We don’t see the services.”
Ladra gets it. Condo life ain’t cheap. Especially if you’re getting hit with a $12,000 special assessment and a bonus tax for a group that, according to many residents, does nada for their quality of life.
Read related: Effort to dissolve Miami DDA cites ‘bloated’ salaries, redundancy, UFC gift
The DDA is made up of 15 hand-picked board members tasked with “economic development” in downtown. But more than half of its funding — 58 percent — comes from residential property owners. You know, the folks who actually live here. The same folks who are footing the bill for DDA pet projects like the $450K to FC Barcelona to move their U.S. office here and open a souvenir shop on Flagler. Because apparently what Miami really needed was another overpriced jersey store.
But wait, the DDA says, it’s all for the greater good: economic development, business grants, license plate readers, and a free trolley that still somehow manages to pass you by. And the agency does have its champions. But most of the people who spoke in favor of keeping the DDA at last week’s commission meeting — and every meeting where this has come up — are board members or employees or businesses that have benefitted from their grants. In what looked like a desperate PR campaign, former homeless people who are now employed by the DDA — known as “yellow shirts” because of their uniform — were paraded before the commissioners, pleading to save their jobs.
The DDA partners with Camillus House to provide economically disadvantaged and formerly homeless individuals opportunities for employment in what they call “the Downtown Enhancement Team,” so they get training and experience to reenter the workforce. Among the jobs they do: Street sweeping, litter and illegal dumping removal, graffiti abatement, sidewalk power washing and landscape installation and maintenance.
Oh, and serving as props for the DDA’s advocacy at commission meetings.
In reality, the DDA allocates just 1.25% of its $22 million budget to address the homelessness crisis that residents face every day. And that $22 million budget has grown from $13.5 million last year. That is more than a 50% increase. Some of this is given back to the city, for enhanced police patrols as one example.
Meanwhile, downtown residents are still feeling less safe, the historic Olympia Theater is on the auction block, and the Miami DDA is celebrating the long-overdue reopening of — wait for it — two whole blocks of Flager Street.
This is the Flagler Street promised in 2019. It doesn’t look like that, yet.
Yes, two. After three years of construction hell — that’s 40 months of barricades, bulldozers, broken promises and busted businessess — City Hall, the DDA and the Flagler Business Improvement District want a pat on the back for reopening a fraction of what was supposed to be a full five-block transformation project originally launched in 2019.
Leaders blame the delays partly on the COVID pandemic. “There have been a few issues with getting the contractor to stay on schedule,” Terrell Fritz, the director of the Flagler BID, told CBS News Miami in a story aired Wednesday.
Ladra’s not saying a makeover wasn’t needed. The new look — with its fancy brick pavers, outdoor café space, and what they’re calling a “festival streetscape” — does add a little Paris flair to the gritty downtown core. And yes, it’s great that Bespoke Barber Pub owner Clara Henao got to hang a liquor license next to the clippers thanks to some DDA assistance. Cheers to that.
But while the DDA touts this reopening as a “success story,” three blocks remain a construction zone. Officials say the dominoes will fall faster now — but after 40 months, Ladra’s not holding her breath.
Behind closed doors, the story is different. “We’ve put in millions and millions of dollars,” a resident said at the most recent DDA board meeting. The video was posted on Twitter by Torres.
“We’ve put in street furniture and every single piece of street furniture is either damaged, scratched, has huge chunks taken out of it.” By the time all of Flagler Street is open, “the assets we invested all these million of dollars on are already going to be 25 or 50% into their lifespan.”
Read related: Op Ed by DNA President James Torres: Miami doesn’t need a DDA anymore
If this is what the added DDA tax buys, it’s no wonder Brickell and Edgewater residents want out. They should demand a refund.
Because when you can’t get five blocks of downtown paved in under half a decade, it gets a little harder to sell the story that the DDA is “enhancing quality of life.”
Unless, of course, your idea of “quality” is dodging scaffolding while waiting for a trolley.
Still, Torres and other residents aren’t buying it. In a recent survey by the Downtown Neighbors’ Alliance, about 56% of the 850 respondents said the DDA hasn’t made life better. Maybe because the DDA’s idea of improving safety is buying more cameras while sidewalks crumble and scooters fly like weapons of war.
He and those who think like him say that if the DDA truly stands behind its value to the community, it should welcome this opportunity to let taxpayers decide. “Let our people vote. It’s fair, democratic, and long overdue,” Torres said.
While the commission took no action on Thursday, the DDA opponents in Brickell and Edgewater and downtown still want some relief. Not more red tape. Not more marketing gimmicks.
And definitely not more soccer swag.
The post Downtown, Brickell residents still question Miami DDA benefits, future appeared first on Political Cortadito.
In Coral Gables, mayor Vince Lago’s chief of staff gets promotion, pay bump
It’s good to have friends at City Hall. Just ask Chelsea Granell.
The longtime Coral Gables staffer — who was Mayor Vince Lago‘s chief of staff with no staff — quietly got another sweet little promotion in June. She’s now the director of Governmental Affairs — basically the city’s chief lobbyist — leading legislative the municipality’s strategy at the local, state, and federal levels. The position gives her direct access to the movers and shakers in Tallahassee and D.C. She’ll be the city’s point person on legislative funding, preemption threats, and policy alignment.
The title bump comes with a pay bump of 10%. Granell, now makes $110,300 a year. She previously made $91,165 as chief of staff, a position that Lago invented just for her, because he really had no staff. One part-timer for a few months but that’s it.
Granell also had the inside track for the city lobbyist job. There was no job posting. No pool of candidates. City Manager Peter Iglesias — who was brought back to his position by Lago in May — just handed her the job. It was a direct appointment. Was he paying back the favor?
This move also puts her under the supervision of the city manager. So Lago is no longer her boss — directly. But he is Iglesias’ boss.
City spokeswoman Martha Pantin told the Coral Gables Gazette, which first broke the story, that this is “strictly a title change.” Yeah, a title change with a 10% raise. City Hall says the pay bump is “customary.” Tell that to the cops and firefighters. The guys who pick up the garbage and fill the potholes.
But even if it is some automatic HR policy, what might not be so customary is changing the job description dramatically to make your preferred candidate eligible.
Because the old job description for the previous version of this job — Government Affairs Manager, back when it was held by Fernando Weiner and before him Naomi Levi Garcia — required a Juris Doctor from an ABA-accredited law school. In other words, a law degree. A requirement was that one had to be a lawyer.
But for Granell’s appointment? Poof. That requirement disappeared. Now all you need is a bachelor’s in poli sci or something “related.” How convenient.
Read related: Mayor Vince Lago brings Peter Iglesias back as Coral Gables city manager
Instead, Granell holds a real estate license. Maybe that swung in her favor?
Chelsea Granell and Vince Lago at the Alhambra Parc launch event earlier this year.
Remember, she was one of the real estate agents, with Lago, who hung their license at Rosa Commercial Real Estate, the brokerage firm owned by former Hialeah Councilman Oscar de la Rosa, stepson of Hialeah Mayor Esteban “Stevie” Bovo, and that got a $640,000 commission for the sale of a Ponce de Leon building to Location Ventures and developer Rishi Kapoor, who we was also paying Miami Mayor Francis Suarez at least $170,000 for “consulting” while seeking approvals for a development in Miami.
To be fair, Granell also has a Master of Public Administration from FIU. And she is no City Hall newbie. She’s been climbing the Gables ladder since 2014, from senior commission liaison to chief of community engagement (are those two jobs really different?) to her recent post managing the mayor, er, Ladra means his office. Before going to the Gables, according to her LinkedIn profile, Granell worked for a year as a special projects analyst at Miami-Dade County’s housing department.
According to the city’s website, she led Coral Gables’ participation in the Bloomberg Mayors Challenge in 2018, netting the city a $100,000 innovation grant. She’s also not new to the sausage-making machine in Tallahassee, and reportedly helped secure $2.5 million in state funding in 2022. So that’s what earned her this position? Something she did three years ago?
Maybe it’s because she was a judge in the Miss Miami Competition earlier this year?
Read related: Mayor Vince Lago’s personal affair with chief of staff becomes campaign fodder
None of that explains why the bar was quietly lowered — unless, of course, to make her eligible because they don’t want anyone else.
“Chelsea has been employed by the City since 2014 and has developed a deep institutional knowledge,” Iglesias wrote in a Human Resources form justifying the direct appointment. “She has gained policy expertise, legislative insight, and stakeholder-management skills that closely mirror those required for the Governmental Affairs Director position.”
In other words: “She’s one of ours.”
Granell’s closeness to Mayor Lago — and rampant rumors that she is more than just his staffer — might be a better explanation. Las malas lenguas are split on this: It’s either a reward for good behavior or a payment for silence and amnesia.
Meanwhile, Granell isn’t just climbing in the Gables. She also sits on the Florida League of Cities’ Municipal Operations Committee, the Miami-Dade Commission for Women (she was Kevin Cabrera‘s appointment and, perhaps, as another favor to Lago. and is a card-carrying member of the American Society for Public Administration. Her resume has all the right acronyms. Ladra suspects she may run for office.
And what about the role she left behind? According to the Gazette, Lago hired two new staffers to split Granell’s former duties — Lora Lastra as Chief of Community Outreach and Nicole Guevara as an administrative assistant — at a combined cost of $119,000.
But what’s got eyebrows raised — except Vince Lago’s perfectly coifed ones — it’s how quietly this was done, and why the legal requirement was changed without so much as a peep to the public. Key words: Personal palanca.
Because in Coral Gables, transparency is optional, loyalty is currency, and the mayor’s favorites get special treatment.
The post In Coral Gables, mayor Vince Lago’s chief of staff gets promotion, pay bump appeared first on Political Cortadito.
Coral Gables: Melissa Castro shut down again on election change challenge
On the heels of the court ruling last this week that the Miami election year change was unconstitutional because, well they skipped the pesky part about asking voters, Coral Gables Commissioner Melissa Castro has doubled down on her push to revisit the city commission decision in May to move their municipal election date the same way.
She has asked City Attorney Cristina Suarez to draft a repeal ordinance to reset the election to April of odd years, a resolution for the city to repeal its vote to join any lawsuit against the state on this issue and a resolution for a referendum and suggested ballot language, because, well she doesn’t want to leave that to the spin the city administration might put on it.
She also asked City Clerk Billy Urquia to call a special meeting so the city commission can (1) “reevaluate our election rescheduling in light of the court’s ruling,” (2) discuss “corrective measures” to return to the April 2027 schedule or place the matter before voters in a binding referendum and (3) “protect the city from avoidable legal exposure.”
Read related: Judge calls Miami election change unconstitutional; is Coral Gables next?
Within an hour, Urquia told her it’s not gonna happen. Only the mayor or the city manager can call a special meeting on their own. Castro’s request needed an okay from at least two more commissioners and Urquia said he couldn’t get them. Certainly the solid LAL faction — Mayor Vince Lago and Commissioners Rhonda Anderson and Richard Lara — weren’t gonna make themselves available.
“There’s already an item on the August 26 regular city commission agenda,” the city clerk told Political Cortadito. “There wasn’t a need for a special meeting.”
Castro, who was elected against Lago’s wishes in 2023, called it “a dereliction of duty,” and a blatant FU to the voters.
“Despite a clear and binding appellate court ruling that moving elections without voter approval is unconstitutional, Commissioners Lago, Anderson, and Lara have chosen to bury their heads in the sand, again,” Castro said. “They not only passed an illegal ordinance in May, stripping voters of their voice, but now they’ve refused to even hold a meeting to discuss fixing it.
“I warned that what they were doing violated the Florida Constitution and the County Charter. Now, the courts have confirmed it and they still refuse to act,” she said. “Their refusal to call a meeting is not just a dereliction of duty, it’s an assault on the rule of law. They are gambling with our democracy to protect their own political maneuvering.”
Ya think?
A little background for the newcomers: In May — at a special meeting called by Lago right after the runoff election won by Lara — the Gables commission voted 3–2 to end nearly 100 years of April elections and align city races with state and federal ones, starting in November 2026. Castro and Commissioner Ariel Fernandez were the no votes. From the beginning, they have said the decision belongs to the voters. The change was pitched by LALalalala as a way to boost voter turnout and save money, a trend that is happening across the state. But it also cut current term lengths by five months and, more importantly, skipped the part where voters are supposed to have a say.
Castro asked for an opinion from Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier — who provided an opinion to Miami City Commissioner Miguel Gabela saying the change without the voters’ will was unconstitutional — and was literally censured by her own colleagues for it. Because she calls them out for dodging voters — again and again — they can’t miss an opportunity to try to embarrass or shame her. Remember Lago’s behavior at Carnaval de Barranquilla in April? That’s just one of the times that he has publicly belittled and bullied her.
Now, Castro has the courts backing her up. Not only did Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Valerie Manno Schurr rule that the city’s move was unconstitutional — a violation of both the city and the Miami-Dade County Home Rule charters — but the Florida Third District Court of Appeals upheld that decision in a 27-page “body-slam” opinion that said an ordinance is not a tweak of the code.
“It is, in truth, a charter amendment dressed in lesser clothes — fragrant in title but thorned with consequence,” the opinion reads.
The same likely applies to Coral Gables. The city charter states that “elections were to be held on the second Tuesday in April in odd numbered years.” Plain language. April. Odd-numbered years. The city also falls under the county’s Home Rule charter, which says electeds can’t willy nilly change the charter, or the timing of elections specifically, without voter approval. Doesn’t matter if it adds time or subtracts. The law is the law.
Read related: Third DCA strikes down Miami election change; November ballot is on
Suarez, the city attorney, has said that the Gables is granted the power to move the election without going to a vote with a state law. But four judges now have said that the city and county charters trump that state statute.
Meanwhile, the public? Split.
According to a recent online poll by the new, resurrected Coral Gables Gazette, 51% of the readers like the move for its efficiency and turnout bump. Only 48% of the 1,179 respondents said ‘hell no’ to the idea of cutting voters out of the process. This from a publication that L’Ego says is biased against him. But their poll suggests the readers want what he’s selling. Maybe not overwhelmingly, but by a slim majority, which is all the mayor would need in a public referendum.
So what now?
Well, the city’s next election is still set for November 2026. But it’s not over yet. Castro has hired renown election attorney JC Planas — a former state rep that should be our elections supervisor but lost in November to Alina Garcia — and is pressing on.
In an opinion Friday, Planas says the court’s ruling is correct.
“It is evident the move was unlawful,” he wrote Friday to Castro, in an opinion she said she paid out of her own pocket. “The Coral Gables City Charter is clear in its subservience on multiple issues to the Miami-Dade County Charter. Your Charter specifically states in its foreword: “Consequently, while the City has broad home rule powers, it is constrained or pre-empted in certain areas by the Dade County Home Rule Amendment and the Dade County Home Rule Charter that was adopted pursuant to such Amendment.”
In other words: The city’s own charter admits it is answerable to the county charter. Especially since the Gables charter has no language to authorize other forms of charter amendments, it must comply with the county charter requirement of a referendum.
The May ordinance to move the election was “an unconstitutional amendment,” Planas said, adding that there has never been a charter amendment in the Gables without going to referendum first.
“This is specifically because such amendments were prohibited by the Miami-Dade County Home Rule Charter,” Planas wrote in his opinion. “While the City of Miami tried to get around this issue by NOT amending their Charter when changing their election date, the Third District Court of Appeal quoted Shakespear and stated that regardless of what Miami called the change, their change of election dates was still an unconstitutional Charter Amendment.
Read related: Coral Gables commissioner Melissa Castro challenges election date change
“In the case of Coral Gables, they blatantly amended their City Charter through an ordinance in violation of the County Charter and the Florida Constitution,” Planas continued. “As the City of Coral Gables is now in blatant violation of the Miami-Dade Charter and the Florida Constitution, it MUST immediately repeal the ordinance.
“Should the City refuse to do so, it can be subject to costly litigation by its residents who were denied the ability to vote on such a change. Such litigation would also involve Miami-Dade County that has historically fought to protect the integrity of its Charter, including in the most recent Gonzalez matter,” he said, referring former Miami City Manager and Miami mayoral candidate Emilio Gonzalez, who sued the city to get the election back on in November.
So, repeal, referendum or lawsuit — this isn’t going away. Too bad for L’Ego and his echo chamber that Commissioner Castro is not the type to sit down and shut up, like they want her to.
“While they hide behind power, I will stand with the people. Coral Gables deserves better and I intend to deliver it.”
Let’s see if voters get the last word. Or if the other commissioners finally look up from their same ol’ talking points long enough to read the charter and the court rulings.
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