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Daniella Levine Cava finally takes a tougher stand vs Alligator Alcatraz
Pressure mounted after weeks of inaction, soft words
Finally! After weeks of soft punches and lackluster response, Miami-Dade Mayor Danielle Levine Cava has found her spine and is fighting back against the fascist forces that built and are operating a secret immigration jail in the middle of the Everglades — on an abandoned airstrip that we, the people, own, by the way — without so much as a whisper of due process or transparency.
As far as Gov. Ron DeSantis is concerned, Miami-Dade can go pound sand. Who needs local government or Home Rule when you have emergency powers and delusions of grandeur?
Up to now, Levine Cava has been too polite, citing mostly environmental and financial concerns in very bureaucratic messages. But on Tuesday, she demanded the state provide the county with actual accountability and a peek into the 3,000-bed detention compound plopped down like a giant slap in the face — or federal middle finger pointed at Miami-Dade leaders and residents.
It was almost like she had no political aspirations after this.
But that changed this week, just as the first detainees were getting uncomfortable in their new digs, perhaps in response to a letter sent to the mayor from a coalition of community groups and a pair of billboards that called her out and told residents to urge her to sue the state. Maybe she had to poll first?
In the sharply-worded letter of her own to Attorney General James Uthmeier (a.k.a. DeSantis’ old chief of staff turned full-time enabler), the mayor asked for monitoring access, remote video, weekly updates, and in-person inspections of the sprawling complex, which the AG himself proudly branded “Alligator Alcatraz.” That name ain’t even creative or ironic. It sounds like the punchline of a bad Florida Man joke.
They even have merch. For $30 you can own a t-shirt and for $27, a “trucker’s hat.” Proceeds go to the Republican Party of Florida. Because they see Alligator Alcatraz as a revenue source. Maybe that’s the punchline.
To be fair to the mayor, this quiet power and land grab has happened faster than the cafecito turnaround at the Versailles ventanita. The state took over the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport on June 23, and poof — that was the end of local authority. One minute it was county land in the middle of Big Cypress swamp; eight days later, it was a DeSantis internment camp, complete with chain link cages, a 10,000-foot runway to sneak people out of the country and zero press access.
Even Immigration and Customs Enforcement is trying to distance itself from this abomination, pointing fingers at Florida. This is all the state’s doing.
So, what’s changed Levine Cava’s tone in two weeks? Let’s see…
Read related: Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s fluoride veto was carefully cast
National horror story newscasts about the inhumane conditions in ICE facilities and poor treatment of detainees, including a 75-year-old Cuban man who was detained for deportation because of an 1980s marijuana arrest and died in custody in Miami, may have gnawed at her. Half of the deaths in ICE custody since the beginning of the year, by the way, have been in Florida. And that’s before they built a concentration camp of soft-sided tents on a patch of flood-prone wetlands at the edge of the Everglades to keep immigrants that are being snatched off the streets.
Videos have been posted of water pooling around electrical wires at the grand opening tour taken last week by President Donald Trump and DeSantis, which was catered — gotta have finger food for the hungry haters — by local eateries that are now being boycotted. Family members of the first detainees have reported their loves are lacking food (they get one meal a day), basic hygiene and access to legal representation. A group of state legislators were denied entry, even though they have a legal right to come up in for a surprise inspection whenever they want.
Digital billboards shaming the mayor into action — at I-95 and NW 135th Street and on the Dolphin Expressway, facing west — followed a letter sent by a coalition of more than 50 organizations asking La Alcaldesa and the commissioners to sue the state and get Alligator Alcatraz shut down. The letter points out how the whole deal is rips off the county, which is smart because the way to our electeds hearts is through their wallets. The state has offered to pay just $20 million for land worth ten times that, and that would be paid out of disaster funds allocated for things like hurricane relief. The annual operation is estimated at $450 a year, while the state expects to see a $2.8 billion budget shortfall next year.
“DeSantis’s move to seize land owned by Miami-Dade County worth an estimated $195 million has been met with almost no resistance by local officials,” starts the letter from the organizations — which include the ACLU, the Florida Immigrant Coalition, Florida Rising, Community Justice Center, Dream Defenders and Engage Miami, among others. They expect more from our leaders in a county with the highest percentage of immigrant residents in Florida, where more than 54% of residents are foreign-born and more than 70% are Hispanic. They criticized Levine Cava’s “meek resistance” and said her previous communication with the governor had been “technocratic.”
They pointed to “catastrophic” potential impacts, which range from environmental to fiscal to humanitarian.
“The mad dash to open a 3,000 person detention camp is irresponsible and dangerous. Confining immigrants in cages within tents on the ancestral land of the Miccosukee and Seminole Tribes during Florida’s extreme summer and hurricane seasons is a deliberately cruel scheme designed to inflict suffering on those held there. That kind of cruelty is reminiscent of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s inhumane tent city in Arizona, which was shut down after years of lawsuits from mistreated prisoners.
“Environmentally, Alligator Alcatraz threatens one of the most ecologically significant and fragile landscapes in North America. The proposed development site is surrounded by sensitive habitats that are already under increasing pressure from climate change, invasive species, and human encroachment. The heavy infrastructure and increased activity associated with a high-security detention camp, including lighting, road traffic, noise pollution, water discharge, and waste generation, would further fragment wildlife corridors and degrade ecosystems protected under federal and state law.”
Then there’s the slap in the face to the native Americans who were in the Everglades before we were. For Florida’s indigenous peoples, the site is priceless sacred ground. Miccosukee tribal member Betty Osceola has been out there protesting almost every day.
Read related: Miami-Dade commissioners sit silent as resident is dragged out of County Hall
“There are also serious questions about how such a site would protect any semblance of due process for immigrants,” the letter states. “Will those detained in this Everglades Detention Camp have access to lawyers? Will loved ones be able to visit and keep in touch with those in detention? Will there be any oversight by third-party groups on the conditions at this detention camp and the treatment of those detained there? Considering the horrific conditions at other detention facilities in Florida, like Krome Detention Center, the mistreatment and death of detained immigrants seems inevitable – and intentional.”
It’s almost certain that people will die at Alligator Alcatraz. If they haven’t already. Authorities denied that there was a medical emergency even after an ambulance was seen leaving the compound this week. A local hospital official confirmed that they had treated a detainee from the brand new facility. Once caught, authorities admitted someone was transported, without providing any details. But they said he came back and was fine. How can we believe anything they say?
“Authoritarianism festers when executives like Ron DeSantis are allowed to rule by decree. Even before Alligator Alcatraz, DeSantis had defined his political legacy by gleeful cruelty against immigrants. Miami-Dade officials have to unequivocally stand up for all their constituents and push back against those profiting from human suffering in Florida. While we appreciate that Mayor Daniella Levine Cava offered some mild resistance with her letter to the Governor outlining environmental and financial concerns with the project, this moment requires leadership and courage and unequivocal opposition by this body to stop the state law enforcement descension on the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport site in the Everglades.
“We call on Mayor Levine-Cava and the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners to file a lawsuit to stop the operation of Alligator Alcatraz, the dehumanization of Florida residents, and the destruction of our shared natural resources. Any failure to act now implies complicity for the human rights abuses and deaths that will follow if Alligator Alcatraz is allowed to operate.”
What’s she gonna tell her grandchildren?
Tick, tock, Guv: Ron DeSantis threatens to suspend Miami commissioners
Their vote to change election year is illegal, he says
What is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis waiting for?
Last week, DeSantis said that he could suspend the Miami city commissioners who voted to move the election from odd years to even, effectively cancelling this November’s mayoral and commission races, and giving themselves an extra year in office. This, even though State Attorney General James Uthmeier had warned they could not do that without first going to voters.
Three commissioners voted last month to move the elections to coincide with midterm and national cycles to (1) save at least $200,000 a year and (2) increase turnout quite a bit. At least that’s what they say. The move gives Mayor Francis Suarez and Commissioner Joe Carollo, who were termed out this year, another 12 months in office. As if term limits were mere suggestions. It also gives Commissioner Christine King, who was up for re-election this year, another year before she has to campaign.
Carollo, who has threatened to run for mayor this year, voted against it. But even a broken clock is right twice a day. So did Commissioner Miguel Gabela. And these two rarely agree on anything.
Read related: Miami Commissioners pass election date change — and steal an extra year
King and commissioners Damian Pardo and Ralph Rosado voted for the change. They would be the ones eligible for suspension, if DeSantis makes good on his threat.
“The reality is local governments have to abide by Florida law,” the governor told CBS4 News Miami. “Could it come to the point where commissioners can get suspended? The law does provide me that as one of many recourses.”
Well, tick, tock, Ron.
Apparently, the “law and order” governor suddenly remembered the Florida Constitution exists after the public outrage reached DEFCON 3. Ladra can’t help but wonder what political pressure he’s getting. Because it’s not like he didn’t know this was coming. Back in April, the governor said he was “highly skeptical” of the proposal to change the election — which, in Tallahassee-speak, is what you say when you know it’s wrong but don’t want to get your boots dirty just yet.
Why didn’t he act then? Why wait until the ordinance passed? Hmmm. Could he have been waiting for the veto deadline to pass before so he could include Suarez in the suspensions? After all, by signing the legislation, Suarez has endorsed or, effectively, voted for it. And DeSantis is not a fan of Baby X. Not because they were both vying for the presidential nomination — Suarez was just posing — but because the Miami mayor once boasted he voted for Andrew Gillum.
But Suarez didn’t veto the ordinance. And his suspension sounds like a good idea — until you realize that could leave Joe Carollo, the vice chair of the commission, free to appoint all the replacements all by himself. Shudder.
So why has the state not taken any legal action? After all, it is another available recourse.
In fact, the only one who has sued so far is former City Manager Emilio Gonzalez, one of 10 announced mayoral candidates, who has asked the court to weigh in on the ordinance’s constitutionality. His lead attorney is none other than former Florida Supreme Court Justice Alan Lawson — so, you know, not some guy with a fax machine. “The City of Miami Commissioners unconstitutionally bypassed the democratic will of the people in a way that the Florida Constitution, the Miami-Dade Charter, and the City’s Charter expressly prohibit,” Lawson wrote in the complaint.
Read related: First lawsuit filed to stop city of Miami from cancelling November election
Translation: This isn’t just shady and self-dealing, it’s illegal. And it’s especially offensive in a community like Miami, where many voters have been stripped of their ballot box power before. In the lawsuit, Lawson compares Miami to lawless governments in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. The city’s attorneys took issue with that in their motion to dismiss.
“As for inflammatory hyperbole and political rhetoric, the complaint references ‘regimes’ like ‘Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, or Cuba’ to argue the City lacks a legal basis to move the date of elections by ordinance. What purpose does this serve? As far as the City can tell, none — except to distract from the weakness of plaintiff’s legal theories,” wrote Assistant City Attorney Eric Eves.
But even AG Uthmeier made the connection in a social media post: “Home to thousands of patriotic Cuban Americans who know better than most about regimes that cavalierly delay elections and prolong their terms in power, the City of Miami owes to its citizens what the law requires.”
Only in Miami, when politicos aren’t out screaming “comunista” at each other, they’re scrapping elections.
There’s a hearing on the Gonzalez lawsuit and the city’s motion to dismiss next week (July 16). Meanwhile, there are 10 mayoral candidates and eight commissioner wannabes in limbo. Should they be knocking on doors? Should they be binging on Netflix?
DeSantis can end all this nonsense with a flick of the wrist. Then Miami voters can have an election in November for the mayor and four commissioners.
The post Tick, tock, Guv: Ron DeSantis threatens to suspend Miami commissioners appeared first on Political Cortadito.
Coral Gables fire department flunks reaccreditation attempt — for now
‘Conflicting data’ and lack of strategic plan cited
The Coral Gables Fire Department has flunked a national assessment that evaluates the agency’s performance, response and delivery of fire emergency services to the community, resulting in the failure to get re-accreditation for the first time in decades.
But the mayor and the fire chief say it’s no big deal. The city can take the test again in about a year.
The department’s reaccreditation — which marks an agency’s commitment to excellence — was denied in April. Deferred is the official term. Which is government speak for denied for now.
In a very polite but unmistakably scathing letter, the Commission on Fire Accreditation International (that’s the big leagues, gente) let Fire Chief Marcos De La Rosa know that the Coral Gables Fire Department’s bid for reaccreditation was — how do we say this gently? — a big nananina.
People should not believe the hype at last week’s city commission meeting from De La Rosa, who acted like an administration cheerleader rattling off a far too long monologue of achievements — this many hires, that many fire stations built — and “the greatest fire enhancement since 1993.” He said that with a straight face. Just like how the department “led in the response and recovery of COVID.” Which was in 2020.
Shouldn’t they have more recent wins?
De La Rosa — who at one point wanted to fire 40% of the fire department as the fire chief in Hialeah (2009-2013) — was there at the request of Commissioner Melissa Castro, who fielded concerns after a story on the letter was published in the new, resurrected Coral Gables Gazette, which has already earned the ire and disapproval of Mayor Vince Lago — so you know they’re doing something right.
The fire chief said the deferral didn’t have any real life effect on the residents or businesses in the city. It does not affect insurance rates or the city’s ability to get grants, he said. That might be true. The city still has accreditation, after all. And insurance rates are based on the ISO (Insurance Service Office) classification, and the Gables is still a Class A.
But that’s completely irrelevant. Neither the letter nor the story mentioned insurance rates or grants.
And it seemed, from the language and tone of the statement that de la Rosa read from the podium, that his response was written by Lago himself.
“It is unfortunate that the very process that we use to push ourselves to be the best… is misrepresented with a political rhetoric of unsubstantiated allegations that have been presented time and time again in various venues,” De La Rosa read, adding that he was there “to address some of the allegations that were made in the post that were, frankly, made to create community concern and outcry.”
Read related: Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago scores trifecta on post-election revenge tour
He was really there, however, to give Lago a match to light under the union leadership, specifically President David Perez, something the mayor has done repeatedly and increasingly as they have supported his political opponents. In a long-winded attack, Lago blamed Perez for disclosing the letter, which Perez told Political Cortadito on Wednesday that he knew nothing about until it was published in the Gazette. It doesn’t matter. This gives the mayor political cover to go after him. He even got his shiny new puppet, newly-elected Commissioner Richard Lara, who has been in office for ten minutes, to suggest Perez resign from the department if he was the one that leaked the letter.
Huh? This letter is supposed to be a secret? Of course it is. What else does Lara not want Gables residents to know?
Let’s blame everybody else and keep the attention away from the contents of the letter, shall we? Because the official letter from CFAI, which is posted below, speaks for itself. Here are some Ladra-picked highlights:
After reviewing the department’s self-assessment, community risk analysis, and so-called “strategic plan,” the CFAI team unanimously decided that they’d rather not waste the gas on a site visit. Not this year, thank you. Not with those documents.
“Supportive materials lacked detail,” wrote Jim White, CFAI program manager at the Center for Public Safety Excellence.
Translation? Y’all made it up and hoped we wouldn’t notice.
They also pointed out that the department still hasn’t implemented annual program appraisals they were already told to do in a prior recommendation. So, either nobody read the last report, or someone at Station 1 is allergic to calendars.
Then there’s the strategic plan — or should we say, the strategic suggestion list? According to CFAI, the Gables Fire Department’s plan is really just a mishmash of city-wide goals and some loose program ideas duct-taped together and labeled “strategy.”
Apparently, asking people what they want before writing goals would’ve helped, too. The department’s “stakeholder engagement” process was so informal, it probably involved someone shouting questions from the new public safety building to pedestrians across the street.
Wait, there’s more.
The “Community Risk Assessment/Standards of Cover,” which is supposed to show how the fire department protects actual people based on real risk, was riddled with inconsistencies and contradictions.
The planning zones? Not fully defined.
The benchmarks? Based on geography — not population density.
The data? “Conflicting” numbers about response times, call volumes, and demographics. Which is super comforting, especially if your house is on fire. Let’s hope and pray someone read the right spreadsheet.
Read related: Coral Gables police, fire union: Lying Vince Lago is no pal of public safety
And while the CFAI folks were gracious enough to offer a second chance — with a Sept. 30 deadline to update those shoddy documents (or, if they really can’t get it together, March 31, 2026) — it seems evident that unless the department brings receipts, references, and something resembling accuracy, this accreditation train won’t be making a stop in Coral Gables, even next year.
The city has been instructed to “track changes” between now and then, because, well, nothing says professional fire safety planning like Microsoft Word’s editing tools, am I right?
De La Rosa blamed the findings on the lack of documentation — a real Sherlock Holmes, here — and called the criticism “an administrative deferral that gave us more time to meet” requirements or criteria. “Specifically an internal departmental strategic plan and an enhanced community risk assessment.”
Oh? Is that all?
Pero, por supuesto, the fire chief didn’t address any of those concerns. His speech was more like a pep rally or campaign stump than an actual response to the issues raised in the letter. There was lots of talk about the “core mission” being public safety and the “public trust” that the men and women of the department hold dear. Lots of talk about the “Coral Gables brand,” which De La Rosa is quick to instill in every veteran and new recruit.
He even had stickers printed up to hand out.
De La Rosa also failed to mention any problems with the city’s newish $4 million computer-aided dispatch system, installed in 2023 that, sources say, could be the reason for the “conflicting data” and documentation issues.
But hey, now that the public is aware of and heated about the fire department’s performance and assessment, maybe it will spark some real discussion that isn’t a blame game and political theater.
Or maybe it all goes up in smoke.
Coral Gables Fire Department FL Letter of Deferral by Political Cortadito on Scribd
The post Coral Gables fire department flunks reaccreditation attempt — for now appeared first on Political Cortadito.
Miami-Dade elected officials say they went to Panama on their own dime
A group of elected officials flew to Panama City last week for the U.S. Embassy’s Fourth of July celebration, at the invitation of Ambassador Kevin Cabrera, a former Miami-Dade County Commissioner and Republican Party committeeman who was tapped for the overseas job by Donald Trump early in his new administration.
But almost all of them said they did so on their own private dime — and not using taxpayer funds.
“It was a great honor to celebrate 249 years of the United States Independence with our new Ambassador Kevin Marino Cabrera in Panama,” wrote Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Alina Garcia in an Instagram post where she poses alongside Miami-Dade Tax Collector Dariel Fernandez, Miami-Dade Commissioner Keon Hardemon and State Rep. Omar Blanco.
“God Bless the USA,” Garcia wrote.
Read related: Miami-Dade’s Kevin Cabrera leaves for Panama, county gets set to appoint
She did not return a call and text to her phone, but according to Ivan Castro, communications director for the Elections Department, the trip was official county business.
“The Supervisor of Election’s trip to Panama was an official trip, at the invitation of the U.S. Ambassador to Panama, Kevin Marino Cabrera, a product of Miami-Dade County. There are also around 90,000 registered voters living in Panama, many of them Miami-Dade County voters,” Castro told Political Cortadito.
“As a public servant, The Supervisor of Elections promotes all democracy in the U.S. and abroad,” Castro said, adding that all expenses were paid personally by Garcia “at o expense to Miami-Dade taxpayers.”
Fernandez was also there on his own dime, said Manuel “Manny” Orbis, the tax collector’s chief of staff. “He went private, paid by himself. It had nothing to do with the office,” said Orbis, who was once also Cabrera’s chief of staff.
Naturally, he and his wife, newly appointed Miami-Dade Commissioner Natalie Milian Orbis — who replaced Cabrera on the dais — were also invited. He said they only stayed one night at the La Compañia, a luxury Hyatt hotel that is also the restoration of a historic site in Panama City. Prices range from $200 to $300 a night.
Read related: Is a fix in for the District 6 appointment at Miami-Dade County Commission?
They were back in time for Fourth of July celebrations in Miami-Dade.
Blanco and his wife, a Miami-Dade schoolteacher, spent two nights and three days at the same hotel.
“My wife and I hadn’t spent a lot of time together this year,” Blanco quipped about the his first special session. “So we decided to make it a little vacation.
“I paid my own flight. I paid my own hotel. I paid my own food,” he said.
“I’ve known Kevin for a long time and he invited everybody, all the Dade electeds,” Blanco told Political Cortadito.
Neither Hardemon nor anyone on his staff returned calls from Ladra. And there was no response Tuesday to a query to Nicole Gallagher, Cabrera’s communications director, about who was invited and what the itinerary included.
But in a statement Friday, Cabrera underscored the U.S. government’s commitment to promote prosperity and security not just inside our borders but abroad to U.S. partners.
“President Trump is ushering in a new Golden Age for the United States, an unprecedented era of opportunity and strength,” Cabrera said. “As President Trump has said, ‘the story of America makes everyone free.’
“The United States and Panama have built a strong partnership that strengthens our countries and the entire hemisphere. Under President Trump’s leadership, we seek to expand our cooperation, which will make both countries safer, stronger, and more prosperous.”
Does “expand our cooperation” include taking over the canal, as Trump has threatened to do?
The post Miami-Dade elected officials say they went to Panama on their own dime appeared first on Political Cortadito.
René García ditches Hialeah mayoral race — after stirring the political pot
County commissioner endorses Jackie Garcia-Roves
Surprise, surprise. Not.
Miami-Dade Commissioner René García officially pulled the plug last month on his not-so-convincing bid for Hialeah mayor, confirming what just about everyone in political circles and their abuelas already knew: He was never really in it to win it.
The District 13 commissioner — whose turf includes parts of Hialeah, Hialeah Gardens, Miami Lakes, and some of that unincorporated no-man’s land in northwest Dade — filed in March to run for mayor in the November election. But from day one, Garcia was bluffing like a Magic City poker player with a busted flush.
He filed quietly, without any fanfare or press conference. Remember when former Mayor Esteban “Stevie” Bovo, who resigned in March to go lobby in Washington, D.C., (where his wife works with Secretary of State Marco Rubio ) went on La Poderosa to say he was trying to convince Garcia to step up and run for mayor — eight days after the county commissioner had already filed paperwork? Because not even Bovo knew.
That paperwork, by the way, was stamped by the city clerk on April Fool’s Day. Was that a forewarning?
Read related: ‘Rene Garcia for Hialeah Mayor’ could be a decoy for someone else to run
Garcia, a former state senator who started his career as a Hialeah Council member, gave Political Cortadito and other media outlets classic politico non-answers to questions in April — something about Florida’s resign-to-run law and how he had months to decide. “I am considering it seriously” he told Ladra, two weeks after he filed the paperwork. He said he was “talking to residents and trying to figure out where I best serve.”
Guess he got his answer. Garcia is staying put in his comfy county commission seat, saying he can best serve his constituents there and citing the tough budget year ahead. “Now is not the time to step away. Public service is not about chasing titles,” he said in a statement, practically polishing his halo. “It’s about answering the call to serve where you are most needed.”
Or it’s about answering the call to be a placeholder until Bovo and the Hialeah political cabal could figure out who to back, between former Council Member and Interim Mayor Jacqueline “Jackie” Garcia-Roves and Councilman Jesus Tundidor, who would have run for the county commission seat if Garcia had stayed in the city’s mayoral race. Spoiler: It’s Garcia-Roves.
Garcia snubbed Tundidor — his former political protégé, having once served as his legislative aide in Tallahassee — and endorsed Garcia-Roves last week, when she officially filed to run and had a press conference to announce it. Ouch. That’s gotta hurt. Although it seemed obvious from the love René showed Jackie at her swearing in (photos from Rene Garcia’s social media).
“Although I know votes are not transferable,” René Garcia said to the TV cameras last week, standing in front of City Hall, “and Jackie is going to have to work to assure the voters in this city that she is the most upstanding, because I know she is the most upstanding and capable to serve our community.”
He did not return calls from Ladra to provide more specific details as to what makes her the most upstanding nd capable.
The interim mayor resigned her council seat, which she won in an unopposed re-election in 2023, on the day after René Garcia said he was not going to run. And Ladra doesn’t believe in coincidences.
Read related: Steve Bovo’s parting gift: Retirement benefits for himself, Hialeah electeds
So, what did Tundidor fail to promise the establishment? Or what did Garcia-Roves offer?
“I really don’t know what it is,” Tundidor told Ladra Tuesday, sounding a little hurt. “René Garcia is a mentor of mine. I worked for the guy. I did everything I could to help him.”
Rene Garcia did stick his neck out to go against the establishment, supporting Tundidor when he first ran in 2019.
“I guess it has to do with other people. I think they got to him more than I did,” said Tundidor, who resigned his seat last month, on the same day that Garcia announced he would not run. It’s not effective, however, until the new mayor is sworn in. Por si las moscas.
“The good thing is, we’ve been down this road before. We’re a lot more known now than in 2019, so this road doesn’t scare me. I’ve been battle tested. I’ve proven myself,” Tundidor told Political Cortadito. “I hope people really look back to see who’s done what while they were in office.”
Hialeah’s mayoral race is always a political blood sport. And this year is no exception. Qualifying ends July 28, and there are already at least six hungry candidates circling City Hall like it’s a fresh croqueta tray at a campaign event. They include mixed martial arts fighter Manuel “Manny” Reyes Jr. 79-year-old commercial real estate owner Bernardino Norberto Rodriguez, and real estate investor Marc Anthony Salvat.
But, really, there are only three viable candidates, so far. Garcia-Roves, Tundidor and former Council Member Bryan Calvo, who lost his primary race for Miami-Dade tax collector last year, getting 48% of the vote, and has already been campaigning for about five months. All three served on the council together.
Calvo — who tangled loudly and publicly with Bovo over public records and emergency response times — is seen as the anti-establishment choice and could benefit from a tug-of-war between Tundidor and Garcia-Roves over the establishment support (read: money) and vote.
Garcia-Roves has more people pulling on her side of the rope, including Hialeah Housing Authority Executive Director Julio Ponce, who has access and serves as gatekeeper to thousands of vulnerable voters (more on that later) and who gave the interim mayor a big hug when she filed last week, captured by Univision 23.
First elected in 2019, beating longtime activist Milly Herrera with 54% of the vote, she was part of the corrupt Carlos Hernandez Seguro Que Yes council. She drew no opponents four years later and recently had a campaign event that raised almost $70,000 for her political action committee, New Conservative Leadership, even before she announced her candidacy last week. The most recent campaign finance report, filed for the quarter ending June 30, shows that $20K of those contributions come from the same maquinita coin game companies that donated heavily to the campaigns for Hernandez and former Mayor Julio Robaina before him. She uses the same longtime Hialeah campaign consultant, Ana Carbonell.
It’s like the whole Hialeah mafia is lining up.
But Garcia-Roves has not sponsored a single piece of legislation in more than four years.
“Clueless,” is a word mean people use to describe her. Too often. Las malas lenguas say she is easily controlled and will be a puppet for Bovo and René Garcia and even Hernandez to continue pulling the strings.
Tundidor was first elected in 2019 and was also re-elected in 2023 without opposition. Before that, he was on the city’s planning and zoning board. He won his seat in his first race working against the establishment and the Hernandez campaign machinery. He has sponsored several key legislative initiatives in the city, including a ban on permanent RV homes in single family residential neighborhoods, and recently passed an affordable housing ordinance. He told Political Cortadito Tuesday that he’s already knocked on 800 doors.
Calvo was elected in 2021, winning in a runoff against Angelica Pacheco with more than 67% of the vote (Pacheco was subsequently elected in a different election and suspended by the governor after she was arrested on healthcare fraud charges last year). Calvo resigned to run for tax collector last year and lost in the primary to Dariel Fernandez, but still got more than 50,000 votes and only came up 4,000 short. Add that to the fact he’s been knocking on doors since February and he’s got plenty of name recognition. Some might argue that it’s more than Garcia-Roves and Tundidor, who are at slightly different degrees of relative anonymity.
They are certainly going to be easier to run against than Rene Freaking Garcia.
Read related: Bryan Calvo becomes first candidate to file for November Hialeah mayor’s race
“For me, it’s great news,” Calvo told Political Cortadito on Tuesday. “Rene was always the person with the most positive name I.D.”
Calvo also challenged the other two candidates — both of whom have advantages as current electeds (more on that later) — to a debate. “Every resident deserves the opportunity to see and hear directly from the candidates and to ask questions about the issues that matter most,” he said.
“Their game is to hide the candidate,” Calvo told Ladra, adding that Garcia-Roves’ public statements are “highly edited and scripted.”
Anyway, this latest round of musical chairs in the City of Progress promises to be one of the best telenovelas this year. With a crowded mayoral field and with five council seats — including two special elections — on the November ballot, the city is heading into one of the most crowded and, likely, chaotic election seasons in recent memory.
Stay tuned. Ladra will be watching. With popcorn. And a cortadito. Dark, por supuesto.
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Miami’s Ralph Rosado aims to kill the Bayfront Park Trust for Joe Carollo
The Miami Commission is moving forward with a plan to kill off the Bayfront Park Management Trust — which is currently being investigated and audited after allegations that Commissioner Joe Carollo misused its funds — because, you know, actually fixing something is way too boring when you can just burn it all down and call it “reform.”
The item is up for second and final reading Thursday and the subject of a sunshine meeting Tuesday night at the Olympia Theater, which is safe from redevelopment by a charter school company but only for now (more on that later).
Commissioners already gave it first reading approval in a 3-2 vote last month that surprised exactly no one who’s been paying attention, because it is newly elected Commissioner Ralph Rosado‘s IOU or thank you gift to Carollo, who poured close to $1 million from his political action committee into making sure Rosado won the June special election in District 4 to replace the late Manolo Reyes.
Rosado said the Bayfront Park Trust is not being run “optimally,” and been plagued by decades of dysfunction and infighting. “It has generated more than its fair share of controversy and has run its course,” he said, calling the Trust a “political football.”
How original, Ralph. Did Joe give you that one? Because there is no way that this is not a favor to him.
Rosado’s District 4 is as far away from Bayfront Park as you could possibly get in Miami. What does he know about the Bayfront Trust history and operations if it’s not what Joe told him? Nada. He didn’t campaign on this. And it’s actually something that Joe already tried but failed to do in February, one month after he was accused of mismanaging the Trust.
Coincidence? Please. The abolition of the Trust is the political football — passed from Carollo to Ralph.
It couldn’t be more obvious that this is a political back-scratching.
Read related: Ralph Rosado’s payback to Joe Carollo: Abolish Miami’s Bayfront Park Trust
This wouldn’t be an issue if the Bayfront Park Trust had not been wrestled away from Crazy Joe and given to Commissioner Miguel Gabela after two former employees said they were forced to resign when they raised concerns about questionable transactions that indicated Carollo used its funds as a personal political piggy bank. The allegations, worth repeating, are that Carollo, who was chairman of the Trust for more than seven years used/misused the Trust’s funds, among other things:
to pay for his own political ventures
to support Carollo’s District 3 Political Office
to pay and overpay Carollo’s political allies
to overpay Carollo’s District 3 Social Media provider
to overpay for a 2007 Vet mobile that was never used and that had a suspicious and seemingly untraceable past
to pay for Carollo’s Holiday Party
Only now that these things have come to light and he is no longer chair has Carollo suddenly decided that the Trust, which was súper important before, is superfluous. Check.
An investigation and forensic audit into the financial discrepancies will reportedly continue, even if the trust is chucked. But Joe “Not My Fault” Carollo will still succeed in having muddied the waters: The Trust must have been the problem, not him, because the commission got rid of it.
Ladra, too, is tired of watching Carollo and Gabela slap-fight over the sandbox. Well, not really, though she understands how some people might be tired of it. But Rosado’s solution — to take the park’s business, budget, issues and management and put it under the city manager’s purview — does not sound better. Nothing says fiscal transparency like the Miami city manager’s office, am I right?
Rosado also floated the idea of having the park managed under a “conservancy” — which sounds fancy until you realize it’s like rebranding a mess as an “experience.” And conservancies are about land acquisition and preservation, not managing assets.
Also, Gabela is just getting started on making the changes at the Trust that would put in the required guardrails so nobody else can abuse it like Carollo did. He practically begged for more time to get the job done.
“I’ve been there four months. We have done a l0t of positive things,” Gabela said. “I just want to right the ship.”
Commissioner Damian Pardo — whose District 2 includes the downtown — agreed and said that the Trust was finally making strides and that residents were finally being heard. He said that there is a master plan in the works, which makes sense, and that the money generated by Bayfront Park activities — like the Ultra Music Festival — should not go into the city’s general fund.
Read related: Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo and the Bayfront Fountain of corruption
The debate turned into another shouting match between Carollo and Gabela, who at one point offered to resign to save the Trust because he said it was all a political power grab. And — though he has a point — because he loves to play martyr.
Refreshing her referee role, King tried to make it seem like this wasn’t a political hit job. “It’s not that Carollo did a bad job and it’s not that Gabela is doing a bad job,” King said — which is sort of like saying, “This isn’t a dumpster fire, it’s really just a very enthusiastic barbecue.”
King joined Carollo and Rosado to vote to abolish the Trust. She said it was a distraction causing too much fighting on the dais.
Tellingly, King, Carollo and Rosado were all absent Monday evening during the re-grand opening of the renovated Bayfront fountain , which was Carollo’s crowning jewel. Mayor Francis Suarez was there. So were Gabela and Pardo.
Coral Gables Commissioner Melissa Castro censured — for asking a question
In Coral Gables, it’s apparently looked down upon to ask questions.
The city commission last week censured Commissioner Melissa Castro for, get this, having the nerve to contact the Florida attorney general for an opinion on a controversial and politically-tainted decision in May to move the city elections from April of odd years to November of even years, to coincide with the midterm and general elections, without going to the public for a vote on the matter.
¡Que atrevida!
Castro asked Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier if moving the city’s general election from April to November, without a voter referendum, was, you know, legal. She believes it is a violation of the city charter and the county Home Rule, which states that these type of changes must be made by voter referendum. “Unethical and unconstitutional,” she said.
Uthmeier hasn’t written back. Probably too busy pushing that Alligator Alcatraz merch (more on that later). But he did provide an opinion to a Miami commissioner who asked practically the same question about that city’s move to change elections from odd years to even. He said they have to go to a public vote first.
Read related: Coral Gables commissioner Melissa Castro challenges election date change
The Gables commissioner believes that this opinion would also apply to the City Beautiful and presented an ordinance last week that would repeal the vote to change the election, effectively putting it back to April in odd years. The commission, with Commissioner Ariel Fernandez absent, did not second her motion and it died.
Then, they decided to censure her for asking.
Pero, por supuesto. Mayor Vince Lago and his new echo chamber Seguro Que Yes majority took advantage and took it a step further by voting to censure Castro for, well, asking a question. Nevermind that the AG is there precisely for that reason. Apparently, in Coral Gables, doing your homework without asking your classmates first is grounds for detention.
L’Ego — who was censured in 2023 by the old commissioners majority for disparaging and insulting the three members he opposed on radio and television appearances — called it “deeply troubling” that Castro didn’t first run her legal curiosity by him, Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson, or Commissioner Richard Lara. After all, nothing screams transparency like backroom consensus-building before seeking a legal opinion. Am I right?
Never one to skip the spin cycle, Lago read his prepared comments, which regurgitated all the axes he has to grind against Castro. He also cited some random (and questionable) polling that allegedly shows 75% support for the date change. But when his little grupito tried to gather actual signatures to change the election date via petition, they failed miserably. According to a status report from the Miami-Dade Elections Department, the Lago group submitted 4,983 petitions on changing the election from April to November. Of those, 1,461 were valid and 3,522 were not valid.
Is that sloppiness or fraud? We still don’t know.
Read related: Coral Gables changes city elections to November, cuts terms by 5 months
Always ready with a lectern-worthy lecture, the mayor also said that Castro’s letter sent a subliminal “horrific message” to Tallahassee that the commission was not united. First, it’s not. That’s not such a terrible thing to have checks and balances. She doesn’t represent Lago and the commission. She represents her constituents that voted for her.
Second, and more importantly, this shows that Lago’s real concern isn’t about violating Home Rule — it’s about hurting feelings in the capital. You see, according to the mayor, the state was already giving the Gables side-eye after past commission antics (like self-approved raises and the musical chairs of city managers). He says the past two years of infighting on the commission has cost the city millions in appropriations, which has not been independently verified.
Anderson, meanwhile, whipped out her go-to proverbial pearls and clutched them with theatrical flair to censure Castro. As always, she spent way too much time chastising Castro for offending her senses. Castro, she said, omitted critical facts in her letter and was “trying to sabotage” the commission by asking for the opinion from Uthmeier without checking in with them and without calling a special meeting to get their input.
“No member of this commission on the down side of a vote should reach out and try to overturn a decision of this commission without the advice and consent of this commission,” Anderson said, calling out Castro for a typo in her letter — she wrote “2027” instead of “2026” — and wielded that gaffe like a smoking gun. As if that indicated that Castro was trying to sneak in an extra year.
“Big typo,” Anderson snapped, trying to summon up all the gravitas of a courtroom drama.
But if typos are now grounds for political flogging, half of City Hall should be sentenced to a proofreading boot camp.
“In order to make it clear to you that this type of behavior is improper and should not be tolerated in the future, I move for your censure,” Anderson said.
Castro was unfazed.
“Though the mayor, and I want to make it extremely clear — I will not stand here while this commission tries to take away residents rights,” she said. “If I would have to reach out to the general attorney again, I would do it 1,000 times. I was trying to undo a wrong this commission made. If you want to go ahead and vote for the vice mayor to censure me for standing up for my people, for standing up for my residents, then go ahead.”
Read related: Coral Gables commissioner Melissa Castro challenges election date change
“I think there’s been, unfortunately, so far too much attention put on you, Commissioner Castro,” Lara said, like a jealous mean girl friend.
Besides echoing Anderson and Lago, which is what Lara does best, the newly-elected commissioner — who keeps saying that this is what the voters elected him to do — also questioned Castro’s motives, suggesting that her request of a legal opinion was encouragement for the state to sue the city. Really? An attorney, Lara poo-poohed the legality of any legal opinion, hinting that it was merely a recommendation.
City Attorney Cristina Suarez had already written a “formal legal opinion” at Castro’s request, saying that the AG’s opinion was “non-binding and advisory only.”
Did Castro want to stop the election move? No. She simply wants to let voters decide. What a concept! And, at the same time, she said it would avoid a possible legal battle with the state, which has already stood on the side of voters.
“This is me throwing a lifeline to some of the commissioners here,” Castro said, after quoting Uthmeier’s letter to the city of Miami and reiterating that it would apply to any city in Miami-Dade County. She also cited a quote from former Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas about the city’s potential legal risk.
“It’s me trying to help you guys. I don’t want us to go against the state,” she said.
“Just put it on the ballot,” Castro added, who presented a cute little power point that showed how residents were left out of the decision-making. “Let’s make it fair and transparent. It’s not a big deal. If you are sure that people are going to vote for November, what is the issue with putting it on the ballot?”
Apparently a very big deal for Lago and company — big enough to not only shut Castro down, but also throw in an unnecessary public shaming for good measure.
Resident activist Maria Cruz, a former Lago ally who has smelled the coffee, said it was just like Lago to dismiss the public: “Daddy knows best,” she said. “We know what”s best We don’t care what the people want or do not want. We don’t even want to hear it.
Read related: Miami Commissioners pass election date change — and steal an extra year
On the other side, Claudia Miro, who lost her second election bid this past April, came in — as if on Lago’s cue these days — with her own reprimands, said she didn’t like to have Coral Gables compared to the city of Miami (where she used to work, btw) and said the City Beautiful’s election change was different because it would shorten terms, while Miami commissioners effectively extended their terms by a year. She said voters made it clear in April’s elections how they felt by supporting candidates who supported the move.
Miro also accused Castro of “the height of hypocrisy” because Castro didn’t call for voter input when she and Fernandez and former Commissioner Kirk Menendez increased their salaries in 2023. Which is a bit like arguing that someone who jaywalked once doesn’t have the moral ground to call the police when they see a hit and run.
The commission voted May 20 to move the elections from April in odd years to November in even years, which effectively shortens everyone’s terms by five months. The reasons are, on paper, to increase voter participation and save $200,000 a year in election costs. Opponents say it would give developers and special interests (read: big money) an advantage.
But it’s very interesting that the mayor and his majority don’t care about “voter participation” on this issue.
Castro also pointed out the city spent $244,000 defending its plastic ban and another $185,000 fighting residents over the plans for a Wawa across from an elementary school, which were eventually abandoned. And now, the city wants to risk another six-figure legal battle to save $200,000 by moving an election?
That’s not fiscal responsibility — that’s the civic version of clipping coupons while leasing, um, er, a Maserati.
In the end, Castro’s “lifeline” to her fellow commissioners was met with cement shoes. And the Commission keeps sailing full speed ahead into a potential legal storm, hoping the Tallahassee gods won’t strike the with a bolt of thunder.
So much for Home Rule. In Coral Gables, it’s “Lago’s rules.” And if you dare to question them, without permission, bring an umbrella, a flak jacket — and spellcheck.
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Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago scores trifecta on post-election revenge tour
Commission meeting agenda targets three critics
Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago had a very good day Tuesday, when he got to retaliate against all three of his “enemies” in a span of eight hours. Let’s call it the L’Ego trifecta.
The city’s commission latest meeting Tuesday turned into another stop on the revenge tour Lago started after he won the April election and both his candidates won their commission seats, giving him a majority on the dais.
L’Ego and his Seguro Que Yes cohorts — the echo chamber that is Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson and newly-elected Commissioner Richard Lara — were able to (1) censure Commissioner Melissa Castro, for having the gumption to seek a state attorney opinion on the election year change; (2) start the process of killing the non-profit War Memorial Youth Center Association, of which former Commissioner Kirk Menendez, who Lago beat with 55% of the vote, is the president; and (3) decided to ask for an independent investigation into anonymous accusations that Commissioner Ariel Fernandez used phishing and tracking in some polling during the election, both of which could be illegal.
Then he must have gone home to eat some kittens. Alive.
Read related: Post-election Vince Lago revenge tour in Coral Gables = political retaliation
Fernandez was absent because of a medical emergency, which gave Lago a free and clear field to attack him. Nobody was there to fight back. Only Castro, who took the day in stride and is obviously growing a thicker skin, voted against the investigation.
The investigation is supposed to center on the alleged use of a poll to capture and track voters, which was reported in an anonymous blog that everybody knows takes orders from Lago. Maybe the mayor even pays them like he used to pay Gables Insider. Fernandez has been accused of fraudulently misrepresenting himself and possibly obtaining personal information from respondents, as well as public records violations after he denied having anything to do with the organization that was polling.
There will be more to report on each of these things, which all deserve a closer look. There is also a budget meeting today in which commissioners are expected to pass a flat tax rate, which means an increase in taxes due to increased property values (more on that later). But looking at the whole of Tuesday’s meeting, it is clear that Lago is not over the election yet. Even though he won!
Maybe therapy would help?
Between the revenge items, the mansplaining by Lara, the gaslighting by Lago, and the free pass in monotone given to both by Anderson, it is getting increasingly harder to watch the Gables commission meetings. But Ladra does it for you, dear reader.
The people who elected Lago said they wanted the political theatrics to end. Instead, we just got a new leading star writing his own script and directing the special effects. Lago himself said at his swearing in that he was turning another page.
Is the book Hamlet?
Ladra will watch the meeting again to get all the salacious details of the Vince Lago revenge tour and anything else important that may have happened at the meeting. But this deserves hazard pay. Throw Ladra a bone for watching the meetings so you don’t have to with a contribution to Political Cortadito today.
The post Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago scores trifecta on post-election revenge tour appeared first on Political Cortadito.
Miami CFO Larry Spring resigns from city job — for a private sector gig?
Miami Assistant City Manager Larry Spring, the city’s chief financial officer, has submitted his resignation and will be leaving the city’s employ — for the second time — in about two weeks.
“As you know, over the last three years, I have genuinely enjoyed the opportunity to be back with my City of Miami family serving the residents,” Spring wrote in his June 19 resignation letter to City Manager Art Noriega. “Under your leadership we were able to achieve a great deal of progress and help position the City for prolonged success and financial stability.
“Thank you for the opportunity to come back. You will never know what it meant to me both personally and professionally.”
The resignation is effective July 18. His salary and benefits were more than $260,000 a year when he was hired in 2022 to oversee seven departments: Finance, grants administration, housing and community development, management and budget, procurement, risk management, and real e90state and asset management.
Spring thanked his colleagues, Mayor Francis Suarez and all the commissioners, ending with something that might hint to what he’s doing next: “Don’t worry, I am not leaving Miami, you will see me again!”
In what capacity, however? Las malas lenguas say that Spring has left to take a job with a private entity that does have some connection to the city. Say, like, the Watson Island developers or Miami Freedom Park. Or maybe the Miami Riverbridge project, a mixed use complex approved by voters in 2022 that aims to transform the riverfront with three residential towers.
Or is it all the financial audits and investigations that have him running for the hills? Or is it that he can’t stand at the podium one more time and try to talk sensually while Commissioner Joe Carollo rants on in a delusional haze?
Read related: Miami, two more Miami-Dade cities may have state DOGE look into books
In April, Spring moderated a panel titled “Public-Private Partnerships” at the city of Miaim’s Economic Innovation and Development Department’s Opportunity Zone Summit at the Frost Museum of Science. The panel featured Debra Sinkle Kolsky, President and Owner of Redevco, a South Florida-based real estate firm; Chris Hodgkins, Chairman of Miami Tunnel, the entity behind the city’s transformative port infrastructure project; and lobbyist Neisen Kasdin, Co-Managing Partner of Akerman LLP’s Miami office, a leading law firm specializing in urban development. They discussed how PPPs can drive “impactful projects,” that can benefit community experiences in retail, infrastructure, and urban redevelopment.
“Opportunity zones and public private partnerships are critical to meeting the needs of the City of Miami,” Spring said.
Spring — who worked in the city from 2007 to 2011 — was rehired by Noriega in April of 2020 as a $25,000-a-month financial consultant to assist with Miami’s economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic. He was named the chief financial officer in 2022, a position he left 11 years earlier — amid the investigation that eventually found one of his employees had hidden the city’s dire financial situation and basically lied to bond investors.
Spring was never charged, and he said he helped the SEC by testifying during the investigation. But it was around the same time that he let his Richmond Heights home be foreclosed.
Read related: Miami Commission moves forward with Allapattah CRA — sans Joe Carollo
He also worked as North Miami’s city manager for about four years from 2016 to 2020, when he was fired. He left the city with a severance package that included 32 weeks’ pay and a $45,000 SUV. Spring also worked some time as an executive director of “productivity and decision support” at Jackson Health Systems. He has served as vice president/controller of Total Bank and executive director of the North Miami Community Redevelopment Agency.
Larry Spring, right front, with the Miami Parking Authority executive board three years ago.
Since 2011, Spring has also continued to be managing director of, and the only principal listed for, Achievement Consulting Group, a consulting firm that specializes in real estate development, government relations, and financial consulting services. Some of the most notable include the development of Perez Art Museum, Frost Museum of Science, Miami Marlins Baseball Stadium, the Miami Port Tunnel, Midtown Miami Development in Miami, and the Sole-Mia Development in North Miami. Spring also led the bond financing process that funded nearly $1 billion in public infrastructure.
The corporation has remained active as he’s held the No. 2 position in the city administration.
Spring says he holds a bachelor’s degree in management from Tulane University and is a licensed CPA — but in the state of Georgia, not in Florida. According to the city’s website, he has served on several civic and nonprofit boards including the Miami Foundation, Miami Parking Authority, and the Universal Truth Community Development Corporation.
Efforts to reach him and manager Noriega Monday were not successful. But it wouldn’t be the first time a city employee finds a golden umbrella at work. Former City Attorney Victoria Mendez, who was fired last year, cultivated relationships with outside counsels, especially the one that hired her so she can continue working for Carollo and on other city cases.
Who wants to bet Noriega is next?
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The post Miami CFO Larry Spring resigns from city job — for a private sector gig? appeared first on Political Cortadito.
First lawsuit filed to stop city of Miami from cancelling November election
Former Miami City Manager Emilio Gonzalez, who has been campaigning for the mayor’s race for months, has filed a challenge to the city commission’s cancellation of the November election — the first of what could be several lawsuits.
City commissioners voted 3-2 last week to change the election date from odd to even years, effectively cancelling this year’s election for mayor and commissioners in districts 3 and 5 and extending everybody’s terms by a year. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier had warned them a day earlier that they could not do that and that there would be consequences. But he has not filed any legal motion to stop the change.
Could he, like some other would-be candidates, be waiting the 10 day period before Mayor Francis Suarez‘s deadline to veto the measure? Because that’s not gonna happen. This is his idea, after all. Sure, the ordinance was sponsored by Commissioner Damian Pardo but that’s only because Baby X convinced him.
Read related: Miami commissioners should shorten their terms for election year change
Both Suarez and Pardo are named in the lawsuit, as are every other commissioner (even though Commissioners Joe Carollo and Miguel Gabela voted against it), City Clerk Todd Hannon and Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Alina Garcia.
“The City of Miami Commissioners unconstitutionally bypassed the democratic will of the people in a way that the Florida Constitution, the Miami-Dade Charter, and the City’s Charter expressly prohibit,” said Alan Lawson, former Florida Supreme Court Justice and lead counsel at Lawson, Huck, Gonzalez PLCC, which is representing Gonzalez. “This repugnant and deliberate act was done without a single electoral vote in defiance of Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier’s clear warning that doing so was illegal. Miami voters are the only ones who can decide to change the election date thus extending the terms of elected officials, which is the immediate concern of our client,” Lawson said in a statement.
“We are stunned by the brazen actions of Miami’s elected officials,” Gonzalez said, though he should probably be the least surprised.
“Canceling a regularly scheduled election and extending their own terms in office is in direct defiance of Florida law. Doing so without the consent of voters is an outrageous abuse of power. Attorney General James Uthmeier has already warned that this violates the law, and Governor Ron DeSantis has strongly supported that position. Disenfranchising voters undermines our democracy and robs citizens of their voice at the ballot box,” he said.
“If they can steal an election, what else can they steal?”
In the complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief, the attorneys for Gonzalez write that the commissioners did “three legally impermissible things” when they passed the ordinance on final reading Thursday.
“First, they cancelled the election scheduled for November 4, 2025, less than five (little more than four) months away — the stuff of failed regimes around the world,” the complaint states. “Second, they fundamentally changed when the General Municipal Elections — i.e., the elections for the city of Miami Mayor and its City Commissioners — occur, from being held in odd numbered years, as the City of Miami’s Charter unambiguously mandates, to even years concurrent with midterm and general elections.
“This point bears repeating: Without a referendum — i.e., without a single vote cast by the people of the City of Miami — the Commissioners have overridden the City of Miami’s Charter (its constitution) to change how and when the City of Miami’s elections take place,” the lawyers wrote. “But it gets worse.
Read related: Miami Commissioners pass election date change — and steal an extra year
“The third, and perhaps most concerning, thing the Commissioners did … is decide that they and the already-term-limited mayor get to stay in office longer than the voters elected them to be in office.
“The Commissioners unconstitutionally bypassed the democratic will of the people in a way that the Florida Constitution, the Miami-Dade Charter, and the City’s Charter expressly prohibit. Once more, they did so without a single electoral vote,” the lawsuit states.
“Reminiscent of regimes in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, or Cuba — the very places so many of Miami’s people come from—those in power, while in power, forced upon those voters what they think is best for elections going forward—and secured for themselves additional time in power, without a vote of the electorate.
“That cannot stand.”
Meanwhile, Gonzalez has not stopped campaigning.
Emilio Tomas Gonzalez v. City of Miami, Et Al by Political Cortadito on Scribd
The post First lawsuit filed to stop city of Miami from cancelling November election appeared first on Political Cortadito.
