The residents of Little Gables, an enclave of unincorporated Miami-Dade nestled in North Gables, are voting right now on whether or not they want to be part of the City Beautiful, paying taxes into Coral Gables and getting services — most importantly police and fire — from Coral Gables.

It came as a surprise to at least one city commissioner that those steps were already taking place — and that ballots — which apparently only have a “yes” option — have to be in by Oct. 9. There is a community meeting about it on Sept. 27 at the city’s new police and fire headquarters, 2151 Salzedo St.

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Remember how Ladra told you earlier this month that Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago may have an ulterior motive to push for the annexation of Little Gables, and how the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust got a complaint about his brother’s connection to the trailer park owner?

Well, that may have pushed Lago to put the annexation on a fast track.

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The Miami-Dade Commission voted 10-1 Wednesday to approve the annexation of two square miles into the city of Sweetwater, practically doubling the municipal’s geographic footprint and adding millions to its tax rolls with the mostly commercial area just to the west.

And the timing couldn’t be better: Commission Chairman Jose “Pepe” Diaz, who is termed out after this year, is widely rumored to be eyeing a return to the mayoral seat in Sweetwater, which is going to have a fatter budget now.

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In what looks like yet another desperate attempt to gain votes through fear and misinformation, Coral Gables candidate Jorge Fors sent an email blast Wednesday vowing to fight annexation.
But Jorgie-Come-Lately — who apparently hasn’t been to a single town hall meeting on the annexations — got a few things wrong.
“The reality of annexation is that our fire and police department will be forced to assume responsibility for a larger area and more households without additional resources,” Fors says in an email with a photograph of the “scary” trailer park in Little Gables, which is a sore point with Gables residents.
Read related: Coral Gables candidate Jorge Fors stirs annexation fears for votes
“The same problem applies to other departments such as solid waste, code enforcement, public works and the rest of Coral Gables personnel. Eventually, we will need additional resources to service these areas and they will come at a cost to the taxpayers,” he added.
But this is a bunch of lies, or alternative facts maybe. The real facts are:
(1) There are two areas that are planned to be annexed. Miami-Dade County won’t allow the Gables to “cherry pick” only High Pines and not Little Gables. High Pines is considered a donor area because their tax dollars will surpass the expense of providing expanded services — and probably cover the initial expenses in Little Gables as well. So these additional resources will, indeed, come at a cost to the taxpayers. The new taxpayers. Not the current ones.
(2) Additional resources will be needed and that’s a good thing. The additional taxes brought in by High Pines could pay for an additional police officer or two or three and more code enforcement officers. These additional resources, however, will not be limited to those areas — not when the boundaries move — and will provide better services to the surrounding neighborhoods of current Gables residents as well.
(3) Police Chief Ed Hudak says it’s a good idea because annexation will reduce the city’s borders and make it easier to use the “geo-fence” system of cameras that track license plates as vehicles enter and leave the City Beautiful. It is easier to patrol one border rather than three, Hudak said. And because Little Gables is an enclave and it takes Miami-Dade Police and Fire Rescue longer to respond, Coral Gables police and fire respond a lot there anyway. This would be a way to get proactive with that neighborhood and get those property owners to start paying for those services they are getting anyway.
(4) Little Gables and High Pines will be annexed eventually by somebody. Miami-Dade County has said that it needs all enclaves — which are unincorporated areas surrounded on all sides by municipalities, which makes them difficult and costly to service — to be absorbed into the adjoining municipalities. If Little Gables does not become part of Coral Gables, it will eventually be part of the city of Miami. Which means that it will be under Miami’s zoning and code enforcement and the Gables will have absolutely no control over what is done or built there.
(5) This will be a windfall for the city. A 2017 study indicates that, with both areas annexed, the Coral Gables property tax revenue will grow by almost $82 million over eight years starting in 2020. After expenses due to increased services, there will be a surplus of $37.6 million.
A graphic on the email that looks like it might be a mailer, Fors even asserts that there could be a tax increase to service the areas and service delays to current residents. Both things are preposterous. If anything, the additional tax revenue — as said earlier, it’s a net gain of about $38 million — could end up lowering taxes for current Gables residents.
“His assertions are completely baseless,” Cabrera told Ladra late Wednesday.
Ralph Cabrera
“The Coral Gables millage rate will not be raised. The city’s services will not be compromised.
“The chief of police wants to proactively attack a troublesome crime area and wants Little Gables. Fors is interested in only ‘cherry picking’ Ponce Davis and High Pines,” Cabrera added.
“The only thing the city has left to do is approve an inter local agreement with Miami-Dade County to annex these areas. Even if he wanted to, Fors can’t bring this back. He isn’t on the prevailing side.”
That’s true. Fors, if by miracle he is elected, is one vote and can’t stop it. He should stop telling voters that he will.
The annexation was approved by the Gables Commission, after multiple public meetings that Fors did not attend, in November 2017. It was a 3-2 vote, with the yeas coming from Mayor Raul-Valdes-Fauli and commissioners Vince Lago and Pat Keon — all of whom will still be on the dais after the runoff April 23. The annexation is far along in the process. The next step is that the residents of the would-be annexed zones to vote.
Commissioners Mike Mena and Frank Quesada, who is not seeking re-election, voted against the annexation. And because they have the same campaign consultant as Fors, las malas lenguas say the anti-annexation movement aims to protect the hourly no-tell motels on Eighth Street.
Steve Marin told Ladra weeks ago that he had nothing to do with the hotels and had never lobbied on their behalf. There is nothing indicating that he has.

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In a desperate attempt to get votes in North Gables, commission candidate Jorge Fors is stirring up annexation fears.
Fors — who is running for the seat vacated by Commissioner Frank Quesada — walked North Gables streets last week, passing out petitions to stop the annexation of Little Gables, an unincorporated Miami-Dade enclave just south of 8th Street.
Only problem is, the process is pretty far along already, having been approved by the existing commission. Police Chief Ed Hudak told them that it would be better from a public safety standpoint. Gables Police and Fire Rescue already have to go into Little Gables all the time. It would be better f they can patrol it proactively and get the tax dollars for the services provided.
Read related: One thumbs up, one thumbs down after Coral Gables candidate forum
The annexation application — one of two, the other being the High Pines area just south of Sunset — is at the county level now, having passed the planning and zoning committee in December. Basically, it’s headed to a vote the full county commission and then a vote of the people in Little Gables.
But those kind of details don’t matter in a campaign. What matters is emotion. Some people in North Gables are unhappy about bringing Little Gables into the fold. Some are angry that they never got a chance to vote to let them in.
And Fors is taking advantage of that. He is the least known candidate in a four-way race against former Commissioner Ralph Cabrera, onetime interim city manager Carmen Olazabal and downtown property owner Jackson “Rip” Holmes. He needed something to set him apart — other than the Homestead exemption fraud. Annexation was low hanging fruit. Early in the campaign, Fors sent a mailer out about annexation. Then he hit the streets with the petitions. Last Thursday, annexation was even turned into a campaign issue at the Coco Plum Woman’s Club candidate forum.
But can he really do anything if elected? He would only be one of five votes. And should he even try?
Read related: Coral Gables candidate Jorge Fors had illegal Homestead exemption
“When there are very limited issues to talk about — crime is not an issue, the state of our city is not an issue — certain candidates feel the need to drum up issues that don’t exist,” said Commissioner Vince Lago. “The police chief stood up and said that annexation is in the best interest of the city to patrol the area because it provides a more natural border and closes our geo fence.”
Little Gables has a penchant for drugs and prostitution, mostly from the trailer park and the Wishes Motel on 8th Street that rents by the hour.
Lago and City Manager Peter Iglesias — who got rid of two trailer parks in his previous life at the city of Miami — believe that they can incentivize property owners to redevelop and bring their properties up to Gables code. Lago says he even wants to see a city park for North Gables residents.
There have been at least five public community meetings about annexation since 2016, including one hosted by Miami-Dade Commissioner Rebeca Sosa. How much you wanna bet that Jorgie Come Lately didn’t go to one? He did not return several calls and texts to his cell phone.
Perhaps what Fors has shown is just how uneducated he is about the issues.

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A change in annexation rules also on the agenda

UPDATED with correction and to add that meeting was cancelled because of a lack of quorum.

 Miami-Dade Commissioner Javier “El Senador” Souto has one last chance to push some of his favorite projects today, at his last meeting as chairman of the Miami-Dade County Unincorporated Municipal Services Area Committee.

The veteran legislator and 23-year commissioner, known as the Father of Horse Country and Mayor of Westchester, has a couple of items on the agenda that look like they’ve been plucked straight from Souto’s wish list. 

County Parks director Jack Kardys, then Sweetwater Mayor Jose Diaz, Miami-Dade Commissioner Rebeca Sosa, Miami Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz and Commissioner Javier Souto at the opening of the equestrian center in 2013

One of the items is a resolution directing Mayor Carlos Gimenez to find funding sources for a $3 million community center to be built next to the county’s Ronald Reagan Equestrian Center at Souto’s beloved Tropical Park, which was the site of a kick-off rally last year for Republican Sen. Marco Rubio‘s failed nomination bid. And he’s serious. Because the resolution also asks the mayor to provide a summary of all Building Better Communities GOB funds distributed by district and by municipality. If passed, the resolution also establishes a board policy that no recaptured or surplus funds be spent until such a report is provided.

Apparently Souto thinks there are available funds there. The equestrian center was built with $10 million of the Better Communities GOB funds.

The other Souto item is a resolution directing the mayor to have someone survey and identify sites relating to another beloved entity, Brigade 2506, the CIA-sponsored counter-revolutionary paramilitary group of Cuban exiles who were in the Bay of Pigs invasion. Souto, a former state rep and senator who was in the infiltration, wants recommendations for “appropriate recognition” of these sites, including possible historic designation.

And he wants to educate everyone in the meantime, with a three page resolution that has 19 whereases basically giving a play-by-play history of the Bay of Pigs events. That’s passion.

Bovo, whose father is also a Brigade member, will love that one. Ladra actually thinks it’s a good idea, but why stop there? Why not have other historical sites for other commnities also identified for recognition? Also, maybe this is something that can be done by an organization or even a professor at Florida International University and her or his class. Maybe some local businesses can underwrite any costs of plaques or whatever at these locations. These can have tiny logos of Badia or Goya somewhere in a corner. Or is that too tacky?

Because, frankly, if we leave it to Gimenez’s office or any local government, it might not happen. I mean, where is the Bay of Pigs Museum that was supposed to open in Hialeah Gardens in, like, 2015?

Souto recused himself when the commission voted on the museum in 2008, dedicating $1 million of state grants to moving the library archives and historical artifacts from its longtime home in Little Havana. But the last thing we heard was in 2014 when a Brigade member withdrew an application to make the museum and library on Southwest Ninth Street a historic monument. It was withdrawn because of division among the membership over the impending move to Hialeah Gardens. Google Earth, however, shows that 13851 NW 107 Avenue is still an empty lot. And when Trump visited the museum and the brigadistas last year on his presidential campaign, he stopped at the Little Havana location, not Hialeah Gardens.

What gives? Maybe the Brigade members rethought the idea of leaving and want to stay in their historically relevant, humble home in the heart of Little Havana, which is still the cultural center of Cuban Miami if not the population center, and just happens to be a block or two away from the Bay of Pigs Invasion Monument on Southwest 13th Avenue. And maybe that $1 million in state grant funds can be used someplace else. This committee meeting might be a good time to ask about that.

The only other interesting item on the agenda is an ordinance that Commissioner Barbara Jordan already got passed on first reading by the commission. It would amend the county rules for annexation, requiring municipalities to provide a comparison of county and municipal land use regulations before any annexation.

According to the agenda, municipalities were notified about today’s public hearing in early December. Ladra expects there to be some oppposition to this change, maybe from Hialeah, which has been reportedly discussing efforts to annex the land where the megamall is going to be built. Miami Shores and Doral may also have pending annexation applications. And longtime efforts by residents in Little Gables and High Pines to become part of Coral Gables moved forward only last September.

In addition to Souto and Jordan, the other new members of the UMSA committee are Vice Chair Daniella Levine Cava and Commissioners Esteban Bovo, Sally Heyman and Joe Martinez. It starts at 9:30 a.m. in commissin chambers at County Hall, 111 NW First St. Or you can watch it here.