And the $350,000 would go to an FIU program run by
a former president — who gave $20,000 to his campaigns

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez must have opened another drawer the other day. Because he found some more money for something he wants that means absolutely nothing to the constituents and people who he allegedly serves.

Gimenez wants to spend $350,000 to give 30 top administrators — the members of his inner circle and keepers of his darkest secrets — some leadership classes at Florida International University that the Miami Herald’s usually dry Doug Hanks very correctly interpreted as “lessons on self-awareness, body language and the impact of family backgrounds,” whatever that is. He forgot “how to engage with others.”

And, get this: Next year, Gimenez wants to send 100 staffers. Would that then cost the county $1.2 million? For an education in body language and self awareness?

Really? Really? This is the best way to spend our hard-earned tax dollars? Why don’t we let the cronies at the county compete with the already vastly eduated public? It’s not our job to ensure that they meet the standards of good leadership? With the inclusion of a psychologist on the panel of teachers, it seems that we are also providing these understandably traumatized public employees with much-needed therapy (is there a couch, too?).

There was so much hype a couple of years ago about former Commissioner Juan Zapata billing the county $31,000 for a Harvard “master’s” program — even though Commissioner Jean Monestime also got reimbursed $12,400 for a Harvard “executive business” course and nobody talked about that — that this seems a little, well, hypocritical at worst, frivolous at best. Ladra has it on good authority that the Zapata story was pushed by a Gimenez aide to discredit one of the mayor’s biggest critics. And now they promote this as progressive minded. How convenient.

Can it be because the mayor has been safely elected for the last time (at least consecutively), spending $350,000 on continuing education for 30 of the mayor’s chosen county employees — the ones who know where the bones are buried — is suddenly okay? Can someone say double standard?

Or could it simply be quid pro quo?

Carlos Gimenez shakes Mitch Maidique’s hand at a fundraiser at Jeff Berkowtiz’s home.

Former FIU President Modesto “Mitch” Maidique — who designed the FIU Center for Leadership and is employed by it — gave Gimenez at least $20,000 in campaign contributions to the mayoral account and both political action committees since 2011 (including $14,000 from his then-wife, Nancy Maidique).

Maybe former county commissioner Katy Sorenson and her husband should have donated to the Gimenez PAC to keep the Good Government Initiative at the University of Miami going. Certainly, his staffers would benefit more from ethics lessons than any self-awareness or body language bullshit.

Some of the new “students” identified in a Gimenez memo are the same members of his inner circle who already took a one-day, 10-hour “leadership course,” because one has to use the term loosely, at the same FIU scam, er, program in 2012.

Sure, it was just a one-day intensive course but that class (photographed to the left) was attended by Gimenez, his five deputy mayors — Russell Benford, Alina Hudak, Chip Iglesias, Ed Marquez and Bernard “Jack” Osterholt — his former communications chief Fernando Figueredo, his former deputy and current chief of staff, Alex Ferro, Inson Kim, who was his director of policy and legislative affairs then and is now heading the communications and outreach department, former senior advisor Lisa Martinez and Budget Director Jennifer Moon.

Guess it didn’t stick because they are all going back to school. Every one of the administrators who took the 2012 crash course are coming back to campus (with the exception of the three who are no longer at the county). Plus now the list attached to the mayor’s memo also includes what looks like every department director: Communications Director and Mouthpiece Michael Hernandez, Fire Chief David Downey, Police Director Juan Perez, Human Resources Director Arleene Cuellar, Transportation and Public Works Director Alicia Bravo, Water and Sewer Director Lester Sola, Seaport Director Juan Kuryla, Director of Cultural Affairs Michael Spring and so on and so on and so on.

These are people who make six figure annual salaries. Kuryla is at $297,000. Ed Marquez makes $267,000. Alina Hudak gets paid just under $259,000. Sola and Osterholt each make about $250,000. Which means they can all afford to pay for their own professional development. Why is that the taxpayer’s responsibility?

And shouldn’t they already possess this particular skill set? Wouldn’t this course be more geared to build a bench from the assistant directors and  supervisors who are really doing all the work anyway?

I mean, if Alina Hudak and Ed Marquez and Russell Benford and Lester Sola and Juan Kuryla don’t know how to read body language already, we’re worse off than anyone thought. What do they say about teaching old dogs? And we certainly don’t need them to be more self aware. We need them to be more aware of everybody else.

Or is this how Gimenez, who is on his last four years, trying to help his cronies be more employable when he’s gone?

This whole thing smells fishy. Too bad they can’t see Ladra’s body language. They would have no trouble reading it.

It says, “Bitch, please.”

If there is anything we should have learned from the discovery last year that the mayor’s best friend was making $200 an hour as a subcontractor on a Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department project is that these contracts need a little more scrutiny.

But it looks like we learned nothing because they aren’t getting it.

There are eight contracts worth more than $82.5 million on the county commission agenda Wednesday. But they are bunched up together and on the consent agenda, which means there is no discussion — unless one of our more enlightened commissioners pulls it out to get more details. You know who you are.

They might want to know, for instance, that the mayor’s daughter-in-law works for one of the subcontractors on one of the eight contracts.

Read related story: Barby Gimenez shows up to no-show job on county dime

The three resolutions are to ratify the mayor’s actions. The commission Wednesday just has to accept them; it looks like there’s really no choice. One of them should ask. Because these are not small contracts:

• A two-year countywide contract for cleaning and televising of large diameter sewers for $6 million to Layne Inliner LLC
• A construction contract for water plant upgrades to Poole & Kent for $24.9 million
• A one-year countywide contract for rehabilitation of sanitary sewers by the sectional living method to UIT LLC for $4 million
• A construction contract for the north district wastewater treatemant plant new pumps for existing deep injection well-pumping station to Poole & Kent for $6.3 million
• A two-year countywide contract for removal and replacemnt of “sanitary sewer gravity mains” to Metro Express Inc. for $14 million
• An eight-year (!) non-exclusive professional services agreement for hydrogeologic and engineering services for disposal, water supply, monitoring wells and aquifer storage and recovery to MWH Americas Inc for $16.5 .million
• A six-year (!) non-exclusive professional services agreement for engineering, design and related services for the design of large diameter water pipelines to Parson Brinckerhoff, Inc, for $5.5 million
• A six-year (!) non-exclusive professional services agreement for engineering design and related services for large diameter water pipelines to EAC Consulting for $5.5 million (which sounds redundant and like someone is spreading the wealth among more golden ticket holders),

These are certainly things that must be done. We have federal and state court-mandated consent decrees to correct the years of neglect on our water and sewer system that our county allowed to be perpetrated — perhaps intentionally so that they could then dole out millions of dollars to their friends and contributors. There are 81 consent decree projects, according to the county. And it’s why your water bill went up 6 percent last year, is going up 9 percent this year and will increase by about 30 percent over the next 10 years.

That’s a lot of millions to pass around to the mayor’s family and friends. We’re just getting started.

In this case, the mayor — who was just elected raising $8 million or so worth of gifts from some of these very same contractors and their lobbyists — is doling out contracts and getting the commission’s approval afterwards. Yes, this is allowed because, in 2014, the commission, in all its wisdom (not!), approved a resolution authorizing the mayor to award contracts for already funded capital projects “and related goods and services, and to accelerate the approval of WASD’s (1) consent decree projects and (2) projects identified in WASD’s Multiy Year Capital Plan’s Capital Improvements Program without the need of prior board approval but subject to ratification.”

Read related story: Why Carlos Gimenez should not have four more years

But some of these contracts date as far back as September, which makes Ladra wonder what kept them from the commission ratification for so long. An election, perhaps? Wasn’t Gimenez allowed to award these contracts so they could be expidited? Does this look expidited to anyone? Or does this mean that these prizes, er, we mean contracts have already been awarded and the commission action is just a rubberstamp afterthought?

Of course, this has nothing to do with expiditing nada. This was just good campaign planning. And then they wonder why people think this is the multi-million payback of IOUs collected during the campaign.

Only half of the contractors on Wednesday’s agenda had immediately obvious connections to Gimenez and his campaign. But it’s the big half: $53.2 million of the $82.5 million public trough buffet.

Poole & Kent Co. is represented by former Miami City Manager Sergio Pereira. Parsons Brinckerhoff is represented by Perreira and Gimenez buddy Alex Heckler, who has already gotten pieces of the WASA consent decree pie. MWH Americas is represented by Miguel de Grandy.

All of them have given to Gimenez’s campaign. Heckler had at least one big fundraiser for the mayor in Miami Beach. Most of the companies are familiar from the mayor’s campaign reports also.

But if you look more closely, at the back-up material that comes with the commission agenda, there are also 39 subcontractors between them getting a piece of this very big tarta de guayaba. These include:

1. BND Engineers
2. FR Aleman & Associates (on two contracts)
3. HBC Engineering (on two contracts)
4. HydroDesigns LLC
5. Kimley Horn & Associates
6. MCO Construction and Services
7. Milian Swain and Associates
8. Mirecki Geoscience LLC
9. Schlumberger Water Services USA
10. Tetra Tech Inc
11. The Sharpton Group P.A.
12. AMBRO Inc.
13. Aluces Corporation
14. MAGBE Consulting Services
15. Nova Consulting Inc.
16. Bello and Bello Land Surveying
17. EV Services (where the mayor’s daughter-in-law works)
18. Oracle Consulting Group, LLC
19. Robayna & Associates
20. SRS Engineering
21. 300 Engineering Group
22. Benson Electric, Inc. (on two contracts)
23. Mar’s Contractors, Inc.
24. Exceletech Coating and Application, Inc.
25. Emerson Process Management Power and Water Solutions, Inc.
26. Sunshine State Air Conditioning
27. Gomez and Son Fence
28. Corcel Corp.
29. Ovivo USA LLC
30. Dixie Metal Products, Inc.
31. Shand & Jurs
32. Ferguson Waterworks (on two contracts)
33. Infrastructure Repair Systems
34. Manufactured Technologies Corporation
35. Revere Control Systems, Inc.
36. Carter and Verplanck, Inc
37. Equipment Plus Solutions
38. American Builders Masters
39. A & B Pipe and Supply

Apparently, Gimenez has a lot of IOUs.

Number 17 isn’t really one of the IOUs: EV Services, the company where Barby Rodriguez Gimenez , the mayor’s daughter-in-law, works doing “public outreach.” That’s more like “criteria” for the contractor to get the job. Barby — photographed to the right with Julio Gimenez, who used to work for Munilla Construction Management (which is conspicuously absent from Wednesday’s gravy train) — already has a piece of another contract, getting paid $21.75 an hour.

We don’t know exactly how much more an hour she will get with this contract. That is in further documents that are not yet available to us or to the commission. Those are the details that the few inquisitive commissioners we have left should ask. And Ladra is talking to you, Commissioners Joe Martinez and Xavier Suarez, because Daniella Levine Cava is white water rafting out west on vacation with her husband (she left to the airport from the special anti-immigration commission meeting Friday).

Because these subcontracts is where the devilish details are. This is where the mayor’s BFF’s existing contract exists. Ralph Garcia Toledo, who went from being then Commissioner Gimenez’s driver and bodyguard in the 2011 campaign to being his campaign finance chair and a county employee in 2016, is making $200 an hour for what he self-identifies as mostly clerical work — going to meetings and tracking paperwork. He stands to make a maximum of $18 million over 12 years. A maximum of $18 million.

Read related story: Mayor’s BFF is back for another county contract payola

Well, on that contract anyway. Because it ain’t enough. While Garcia Toledo’s company, GT Construction, is not one of the subcontractors listed for the contracts being considered Wednesday, it is on another contract that is coming up — because this is just the beginning, ladies and gentlemen. A resolution approved by the Chairman’s Policy Council earlier this month and headed to the full commission is a contract award for $11 million for engineering services to Parsons Brinckerhoff (lucky guys they get another one!) to help the Department of Transportation and Public Works “execute projects in its capital improvements plan and implement the Strategic Miami Area Rapid Transit (SMART) Plan, including the study and implementation of future technology, such as driverless vehicles.”

That’s right, the mayor’s one-time driver is working on the future application someday in the county of driverless vehicles. Because this is where the county needs to spend its public dollars? Yes, the day is coming, as a lobbyist was quick to scold me the last time I wrote about this. Ford announced last year that it would release it’s first fully autonomous car — no steering wheel, no brake or gas pedal — in 2021. But should we be studying that now or can we take care of the real transit issues we are facing and worry about that in 2021 when we know what we’re dealing with?

There is little doubt in anybody’s mind that Ralph’s job at water and sewer is a palanca position, overpaid if not downright duplicated, and most likely unnecessary in the first place. Certainly there are county employees — probably dozens of them — that are more qualified than Ralph to do this job for less than $200 an hour. But there it is. And nobody does anything about it. This new subcontract sure doesn’t seem to be any different.

How many more of the 39 subcontractors are getting paid unnecessarily? How much more could those $82.5 million stretch to address other water and sewer issues? Ralph stands to make $18 million over 12 years just on the first contract. Couldn’t we better spend $18 million on something else?

Nobody has talked about the septic tanks in many parts of East and West Kendall — including Pinecrest and Continental Park — that need to be addressed due to sea level rise. That’s an immediate fix. Not more talk about sea level rise. Real action that needs to be taken, sooner rather than later. Let’s start with the homes and properties closest to the water. How much money are we wasting that could go to remediating that?

Commissioners need to go through these contracts more carefully. These are huge numbers and it’s easy to get away with a few hundred thousand here, $18 million there. They should not be abdicating their responsibility to a strong mayor with a history of giving work to those on his friends and family plan.

The saddest part about Friday’s Miami-Dade Commission meeting wasn’t that commissioners ignored the fearful cries and pleas of more than 100 people who urged them to reject Mayor Carlos Gimenez‘s directive to hold illegal immigrants arrested in Miami-Dade for an additional 48 hours so they can be picked up by federal authorities.

It was pretty sad as speaker after speaker got emotional when they told their own similar story about coming here as a child or of parents or siblings who came here as children fearing persecution by the government or criminals elsewhere. It was a real tear-jerker when they heard from children whose parents have been deported and who can speak about having families ripped apart, even though Chairman Esteban Bovo systematically cut them off when they reached the one minute mark and barked aggressively at them.

But no. What’s even sadder was seeing how stupid some of our commissioners are.

Ladra is not using that word loosely. I know it’s charged. I hate the word. I’ve always told my daughter there are no stupid people, only stupid acts.

But then I saw the commission meeting Friday and there is no other word that would better describe them. Clueless is not strong enough. Dumb is too innocent. They’re happily, blatantly stupid. Either that, or they’re complicit with Gimenez for other reasons and simply don’t care about the consequences of their punitive actions. Because why else would they ignore the facts?

Read related story: Miami-Dade Esteban Bovo cuts public speech on i-word

Let’s go one by one more slowly on the facts they chose to ignore and show why their rationalizations are silly, shall we?

Fact one: The county attorney told them that we were already complying with the federal law. The county already shares information with ICE — names, photos, fingerprints, arrest forms – to comply with the Safer Communities regulations. Commissioners read this sentence slowly: We were already complying with the federal law. That means there was no need for Gimenez to make the change within 24 hours of the president’s executive order in defiance of your very own resolution. Obviously, this quickness concerned the commissioners who voted to keep the 2013 resolution: Jean Monestime, Daniella Levine Cava and Xavier Suarez each said that the mayor’s move was at best premature. Why don’t the others question the motivation for that lickety split speed? We were already compying with federal law and had reason to challenge any designation as a sanctuary county.

Fact two: The very definition of sanctuary city or county or region has not been established and several other municipalities are challenging it as well. 

Fact three: This order isn’t going to just affect criminals. And, by the way, we were already honoring detainer requests on the worst criminals so Rebeca Sosa saying she didn’t want rapists back on the street was fear mongering at its worst.

Deputy County Attorney Michael Valdes said that detainer requests are issued when ICE has probable cause “that the individual has committed a violation that allows them to commence deportation proceedings.” When Joe Martinez asked, the deputy county attorney said it again. “ICE can issue detainers when they say they have probable cause that this individual is subject to removal proceedings, they’ve violated immigration laws.”

Well, that includes every single illegal immigrant, doesn’t it? Every illegal immigrant, by virtue of being here illegally — having crossed over without documents or overstaying a visa — has commited a violation of immigration law. Let’s repeat that for you slow commissioners: Every illegal immigrant could feasibly have detainers put on them because they violated federal immigration law or laws. Including these moms, photographed left, who told commissioners they worry about who will care for their children.

Martinez said that they someone needs to commit a criminal violation to be arrested. Sure, okay. But, fact four: It can be for a traffic violation or having a driver’s license suspended or something as minor as shoplifting. He also said that the arresting officer doesn’t know the shoplifter is an illegal immigrant, but is he thick or what? Nobody was saying we don’t want the shoplifter to be arrested. We just don’t think the shoplifter should be deported if there is a detainer on her/him. The shoplifter should be processed like any shoplifter and released on bond or on his or her own recognizance. We have already honored a detainer on someone who was arrested for panhandling. Commissioner Martinez, fact five: panhandling now can get you deported.

Read related story: Carlos Gimenez will be grilled on sanctuary cities decision

The few speakers in favor of the change understand this. They want all illegal immigrants deported. That is their end game. They supported Trump because of that. They support this change in policy because it deports everybody.

Gimenez said repeatedly that “law abiding immigrants, legal or illegal, have nothing to fear.” But that’s just not true. He is lying, surprise surprise. Fact six: Law-abiding illegal immigrants — even though they may have abided by every other law — could, logically, have detainer requests issued for them. Certainly, people who have missed hearings have had detainer requests issued. And under this new administration it is quite logical to think that more people will be detained to fill the increasingly privatized federal prisons that get fed our federal dollars, per bed or illegal head, which is what Ladra suspects this is really about.

Let’s provide a real, live example: A Venezuelan single mother who works at a restaurant in Doral could get pulled over for a traffic offense or even a broken tail light. She may have a suspended driver’s license because she overstayed her visa or she has no license at all. She gets arrested for that minor traffic offense. Miami-Dade County Corrections officers send her information — name, fingerprints, photograph — to all the other law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and ICE. Immigration is the one that says “hold that person please.” They don’t have to give us a reason. All they have to do is give us a form that has a box checked that says they have probable cause. 

Worse, if she hears the neighbor next door being beaten by her husband, she won’t call the police. “What for? So they ask me for my papers?” Fact seven: It doesn’t matter that Gimenez and several commissioners promised over and over that police officers would not act as ICE agents. What matters is the climate of fear that is created is one where people are not about to take that chance. Perception is all that matters here. Law enforcement experts and more than 40 legal experts who have written the mayor and urged him to rescind his order all agree: This change makes us less safe, not more, as it drives a bigger wedge between the immigrant community and law enforcement. No matter how many times you say that police will not be rounding immigrants up, people are just not comfortable with that staying true.

Read related story: Protesters have demands for Carlos Gimenez on sanctuary

Plus, there’s the little fact eight: Miami-Dade Police Director Juan Perez volunteered to be on a committee that would define the role of local law enforcement agencies in the federal pursuit of illegal immigrants. He said so in a Miami Herald story after attending a Washington D.C. conference of police chiefs where Donald Trump spoke.

“You know the illegals. You know them by their first name. You know them by their nicknames,” Trump was quoted as saying at the Major Cities Chiefs Association and Major County Sheriff’s Association conference. “You’re in the neighborhoods: You know the bad ones, you know the good ones. I want you to turn in the bad ones.”

Perez was quoted as saying: “It’s clear that they haven’t established any policies yet. It’s still too soon.” But he added that he volunteered to serve on a committee to help define whatever that federal-local cooperation would look like. It won’t always be “too soon,” after all.

Ladra sure wishes someone would have mentioned that at Friday’s meeting. Because what exactly does that mean? Gimenez and several commissioners said they wouldn’t allow our local cops to start asking us for papers. But what happens if (read: when) the federal government threatens to take federal funding away if our local law enforcement agencies refuse to cooperate in the way they deem fit? Why is Perez playing a role in framing that cooperation?

Here’s fact nine, whichwas lost on Commissioners Jose “Pepe” Diaz and Joe Martinez and Rebeca Sosa — who each pathetically fought for the my-exile-story-is-better-than-your-story prize — while they said over and over again that we were talking about criminals: Our county was already honoring detainer requests on the most dangerous criminals under the 2013 resolution. That resolution still provided for the continued transfer to ICE of anyone charged with a forceable felony — such as homicide, rape, battery, assault, armed robbery — and anyone charged with a non bondable offense, such as murder. 

By the way, fact 10: the people charged with murder won’t go to ICE and be deported right away. No. They get tried for their crime here. They do their time here. And only then are they deported afterwards. In other words, there’s time for ICE to get the worst of the worst. This change by Carlos Gimenez only allows people who are arrested for shoplifting or panhandling to be held 48 hours past their bond or release so they can be picked up and deported.

Who is going to take care of their children? Expect the Department of Children and Families to be flooded with a new crop of children who are orphaned by this county commission’s actions.

Commissioners who were too stupid to realize all these things were Bovo, Sosa, Martinez, Diaz — who barely escaped a DUI conviction in Key West last year — Audrey Edmonson, Javier Souto, Dennis Moss, Bruno Barreiro and Sally Heyman, who was the main person to introduce the 2013 resolution that protected immigrants. She said it was the right thing to do then. Friday she said that decision, like this one, had been financially motivated and she sponsored the resolution ratifying the mayor’s change in policy. What changed? 

Because they had every reason and political cover to do the right thing. Not only in 100+ people who spoke in favor of returning to the 2013 policy. But also when the county attorney said that we were already complying with federal mandates for the Safer Communities. And again when the deputy county attorney said any illegal immigrant was at risk. 

Are they not listening? Maybe they’re not too stupid to understand what they’ve done. Maybe they’re just not listening. 

Or do they just not care? 

And is any one of those choices better than another?

So far, only President Donald’s Trump executive orders on Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer requests have sparked protests and discussions about the impacts in Miami-Dade, where Mayor Carlos Gimenez ordered the corrections department to start holding illegal immigrants for 48 hours.

But on Wednesday, the talk turns to the Muslim Ban.

That’s when the Miami-Dade Community Relations Board meets to hear from the Coalition of South Florida Muslim Organizations and discuss the impact on local residents of the recent presidential executive order restricting travel from seven majority-Muslim countries.

Read related story: Looming face off at County Hall over sanctuary switch 

Even though a court has put a stay on the order to keep visitors from those countries out — an order that returned seven legal U.S. residents traveling back from those countries — the Muslim community is on edge because that could change again, and, furthermore, it indicates a federal administration that has put a target on their backs.

“This sends out a wave of fear and insecurity within a community that is already insecure and feels unsafe because of global terrorism and the lack of understanding on the part of the local community who cannot distinguish between local Muslims and global Muslims,” said Mohammad Shakir, a spokesman for the Coalition, known as COSMOS.

“We want to help people understand the difference between the global Muslim and the local American Muslims in our community,” said Shakir. “A lot of people suffer as a result of this hodgepodge, insensible act by our president.”

Part of the discussion Wednesday will be a call for the community relations board “to keep an eye on the events that take place,” said Shakir, who is apparently expecting some more Muslim backlash either from the government or from the community.

“We are remaining in contact with major support organizations like the ACLU and other groups that deal with civil rights. It’s a watch and see situation.”

The meeting begins at 2 p.m. at Masjid Miami Gardens, 4305 Northwest 183^rd St. in Miami Gardens and it is open to the public.

Unfortunately, it looks like Commissioner Barbara Jordan — whose district includes the Muslim enclaves of Miami Gardens and Opa-Locka — won’t be unable to attend the board meeting because there is a Public Safety and Health Committee, on which she serves, meeting at 1:30 p.m.

Maybe Shakir should have made his presentation there?

Here’s another suggestion: Go to the commission meeting this Friday where the immigrant community is going to speak against another part of Donald Trump‘s “hodgepode and insensible” immigration policy and the county mayor’s knee-jerk reaction to his threats — which, by the way, doesn’t bode well for the Muslim community. Build an alliance with the immigrants.

After all, you both have targets on your backs.

Love is in the air. But just because it’s Valentine’s Day this week doesn’t mean we’ve taken a break from our love/hate relationship with local politics, right?

This week is chock full of events, government meetings and fundraisers — ending with nothing less than the much-anticipated (for some, dreaded) public hearing and Miami-Dade county commission come-to-Jesus meeting on Mayor Carlos Gimenez’s 180-degree turnaround on detainer requests for illegal immigrants. If last Tuesday is any indication of what we can expect, there will be dozens of people ready to blast the mayor for his decision to kowtow to President Donald Trump threats against sanctuary cities.

Read related story: Miami-Dade: Esteban Bovo cuts public speech on i-word

As always, please keep sending news about meetings, campaign rallies, political club powwows and other events to edevalle@gmail.com. Show the Cortadito Calendar some love.

Oh, and happy Valentine’s Day.

MONDAY — Feb. 13

6 p.m. — A bunch of lawyers and Gene Prescott, the guy who owns the company that runs the Biltmore Hotel, will have a fundraiser for Coral Gables Commissioner Jeannett Slesnick, who is running for mayor. The legal hosts are Roland Sanchez-Medina, Tomas Gamba, Araly Herrera, Leslie Lott, Carlos Garcia, Ben Reid, Brian Barakat, Bruce Jay Colan, Gene Hernandez (once president of the Cuban American Bar Assocition), judicial kingmaker Hector Lombana and Steve Zack, former president of the American Bar Assocation (2010-2011). The list is illustrious if only because Ladra doesn’t think there’s one single land use attorney (read: lobbyist) among them. These are all business mergers and acquisitions, personal injury, criminal defense and intellectual property lawyers. Naturally. This is Jeannett Slesnick, we’re talking about…not the most development friendly elected, ya know? The party is on to about 7:30 at — where else? — Prescott’s digs, the Biltmore Hotel, 1200 Anastasia Ave.

6 p.m. — Meanwhile, also in Coral Gables: Residents will get their first community meeting on the creation of a South Dixie Highway Master Plan, a blueprint to find development and redevelopment opportunities along the 2.5 miles of U.S. 1 in the City Beautiful (more on that later). This meeting at the Holiday Inn, 1350 S. Dixie Hwy., is only the first of three meetings, so Slesnick can miss it for her shindig above. The other meetings are also at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Shannon Rolle Center, 3750 S. Dixie, and Thursday back at the Holiday Inn.

6:30 p.m. — Looks like Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez cancelled on the Women’s Republican Club of Miami Federated. The official reason is a schedule conflict. Unofficially: He doesn’t want to have to talk about his about-face on the federal detention requests (even though it would be a mostly friendly and Trump supportive crowd). But now the guest of the monthly meeting Monday is Allen J. Thompson of Americans for Fair Tax (fairtax.org or flfairtax.org), a non-partisan 501 C(4) organization. Thompson will talk about the FairTax Plan, which advocates for tax reform, including the replacement of income tax with a national sales tax. Members of the club can attend for free, guests must pay $10 — which pays for the “complimentary” appetizera at John Martin’s Irish Pub, 253 Miracle Mile.

TUESDAY — Feb. 14

9 a.m. — Coral Gables Commissioners will meet to consider the North Ponce Infill regulations for redevelopment between Douglas Road and Ponce de Leon in North Gables, to create a more visible “connection.”  These regulations, by the way, allow for increased density of up to 75 units per acre. Is this going to encourage a condo canyon to North Ponce? There’s also an update on the status of the retirement board time certain at 9:45. There’s also an amendment to the city code removing the human resources director from the retirement board and add the director of labor relations and risk management. The commission meets at City Hall, 405 Biltmore Way.

WEDNESDAY — Feb. 15

6 p.m. — That second South Dixie Highway Master Plan meeting, again, is at the Rolle Center, 3750 S. Dixie.

6:30 p.m. — SAVE, formerly SAVE Dade, will have a political powwow on Wednesday for LGBT activism in a post-Trump America. “On November 9th, SAVE promised that despite the rise of Donald Trump, we would mount an all-out fight to keep Florida moving forward on LGBTQ equality,” reads the Facebook invite. “2017 presents a huge [cute!] opportunity to lay the groundwork to win back Florida – and SAVE knows how to win here, But first we want to hear from you.” The human rights organization boasts having won 14 pro-equality seats and getting pro-equality legislation passed at dozens of towns and cities across the state. But there is much work to do, especially now. The townhall titled “Save Your Rights in the Trump Era,” is at CIC, 1951 NW 7th Ave., Suite 600.

THURSDAY — Feb. 16

5:30 p.m. — The elected leaders in Cutler Bay must got money burning a hole in their collective pocket. They are having a workshop Thursday on the “visioning” for the town for the next two years and, apparently, that includes the “acquisition of property,” (more on that later) according to the agenda, which is pretty much that. One line: “Visioning for next two years — acquisition of property.” The meeting is at Town Hall, 10720 Caribbean Blvd.

6 p.m. — The people who love the South Dade Pine Rocklands will have their monthly meeting at the Tropical Audobon Society, 5530 Sunset Dr., to discuss their ongoing efforts to save the little patch of environmentally endandered land near Zoo Miami.

6 p.m. — Last chance to have a say in the shaping of a new “Coral Gables Corridor” at the last town hall on the South Dixie Highway Master Plan at the Holiday Inn, 1350 South Dixie Hwy.

6 p.m. — In Miami Beach, residents are getting increasingly organized against a City Hall that seems indifferent to their demands. Miami Beach United will have a panel discussion Thursday to let residents know about their “rights to know” what decisions and plans are being made by their city electeds and the administration. Speakers include former City Commissioner Jorge Exposito, Stop The Train Chairman Robert Landsburgh, activist Mark Needle, former commission candidate Mark Samuelian and Glenda Phipps of the North Beach Neighborhood Alliance. It’s at the Miami Beach Woman’s Club, 2401 Pine Tree Drive.

FRIDAY — Feb. 17

10 a.m. — This is it. We saved the best for last and end the week with the meeting to end all meetings — the Miami-Dade County Commission meeting to ratify or reject the mayor’s immigration detainer requests directive. If there is a quorum, that is. There are rumors already that there won’t be — which seems like a strategic move if they already know there won’t be.  Was that the plan all along? Every single commissioner should make an effort to be there, whether they support the mayor’s measure or not. Every district deserves to be represented in a matter that affects so many lives. Ladra can’t imagine that commissioners would be so descarado as to not come to the meeting and force a cancellation due to not having a quorum. Especially after so many people were not allowed to speak last week. They’re going to delay them again? Not smart. Expect this meeting to happen and to go long as both the pro-immigrant side and the pro-Trump side finally have their say. County commissioners could send a strong message to the mayor if they vote to do anything other than what he said — and they should. If only to send that message that he cannot act in a totalitarian fashion. It is one thing to be a strong mayor, and it is another entirely to be a tyrant. Even Commissioner Sally Heyman, who at first had supported the mayor’s actions, seemed to have an about-face of her own Sunday on WPLG’s This Week In South Florida, where she said she hoped someone would sue the county and force the decision to be made in the courts. It’s going to be an interesting way to end the week.

He may not have gotten his hands on our public golf course, but President Donald Trump gets to keep a golf cart and pedestrian bridge on Miami-Dade property for the next ten years.

And it only cost the millionaire leader of the free world $7,200, which the county said was fair market price.

Quietly and without any fanfare, Miami-Dade Commissioners on Tuesday authorized the “conveyance of a temporary aerial easement” across Northwest 97th Avenue at 52nd Street to Trump Endeavor 12, one of the president’s, er, his son’s companies, so they can continue to use a pedestrian bridge — for people and golf carts — they built with a permit and have been using since the World Golf Championship in 2014.

In 2015, Mayor Carlos Gimenez suggested giving the county’s beautiful Crandon Park golf course to the Trump organization to run — during the time his son, CJ Gimenez, was working as a lobbyist for them. The plan, which was hatched quietly between the mayor’s office and Trump’s people, was quashed after the community balked.

Maybe keeping the bridge is a consolation prize.