With little more than a week to go before the Coral Gables election, voters are getting a mailbboxful of promises and endorsements and attacks. The mailers in Coral Gables are almost always something to talk about — and this year is no exception.

From the endorsement of a former governor to the image of a university that had to be pulled to the giant, trifold of Herald stories from the city’s ugly past that landed in mailboxes Saturday — the Gables has been deluged in postal politics for a couple of weeks now.

The most prolific mailing candidate in this election has to be Mike Mena, who is running for commission in Group 3. Nobody in that race has come close and, in fact, Ladra is not certain that Serafin Sousa, the non candidate, has sent any mailers at all. Marlin Ebbert and Randy Hoff will have each sent two or three by election day. Hers focus on her standing with the anti-development residents and says that she will listen to and speak for them. His focus on his service of almost 30 years as a police officer and include two separate endorsements from former Chief James Butler and former Assistant Chief Ana Baixauli, which should have been one piece with both of them combined. Hoff could have sent another message on the second piece.

Meanwhile, Mena has sent so many mailers that voters are coming to expect a new one when they get home from work. They were getting one every day the week that absentee ballots dropped. But are they memorable? Nah. They’re pretty much cookie cutter. Take his picture out and plug in another young, ambitious lawyer from Miami or Miami Lakes or Miami Beach or wherever and you have the same thing. He uses phrases like “common sense” and “commitment to security.” Yawn.

Read related story: Hoff, Mena stand out in 4-way Gables commission race

That was the same reaction Ladra had with former Commissioner Wayne “Chip” Withers‘ endorsement from former FIU President Modesto “Mitch” Maidique, who coincidentally had picked up an election package and who, Ladra suspects, has an itch to run for office (this endorsement could be a tit for tat). I’m sure it was intended to connect with the hundreds or thousands of FIU students and alumni in the City Beautiful, but it was eh for the rest of us who didn’t go there and there are just as many of non FIU students in the city. Withers, a proud graduate of the University of Florida, would have been better served to use the University of Miami logo.

Then FIU and former Commissioner Ralph Cabrera complained and Withers had to take the image of the smiling Maidique in front of an FIU buillding — letters blazing in neon at the top — off his social media.

“The Withers campaign and you should be aware that neither the campaign nor you are authorized to use the FIU logo or imagery without the express approval and licensing of FIU,” wrote FIU General Counsel Carlos Castillo in a cease and desist letter last week.

Cabrera, who actually did go to FIU (Withers didn’t) and actually led the alumni association at one point, filed a complaint with the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust. After all, Withers is a Gator! A bull Gator at that, who actually had a skybox in Gainseville at one time and has flown up to see the games.

Read related story: ‘Chip’ Withers vs. Pat Keon because of the Paseo project

“He should have known better. To mislead and say you have done it before without repercussions is completely wrong,” ,” Cabrera told me after Withers was quoted in the Miami Herald saying he had done it before. “I can’t recall him using a university logo before,” added Cabrera, who worked on three of Withers’ past campaigns.

The complaint says Withers intentionally misled voters into thinking that he got the FIU endorsement vis-a-vis Maidique because it implied that he was still the voice of the university.

“The mail piece sent by Withers specifically attempts to confuse voters into believing that Modesto ‘Mitch’ Maidique is still part of FIU and endorses Withers in his oficial capacity. While the piece states that Maidique is the ‘former’ President of FIU, it lists him as a current professor and thus provides the endorsement as part of Maidique’s oficial capacity, an illegal act,” wrote attorney JC Planas in the complaint, because a state university cannot endorse anybody.

“Perhaps the most blatant violation in the piece is the use of the FIU logo in the picture. Had the campaign simply used a picture of Dr. Maidique actually taken in front of that building, it still would likely have been a technical violation. However, super imposing his picture on a larger than ordinary picture of the building with the logo, was a deliberate attempt by Withers to deceive voters into thinking the endorsement was something other than that of an ordinary public citizen with no current leadership role at the University.”

Yeah, maybe. But what Ralph and JC really did was make a blah mailer and make it newsworthy and infinitely more interesting. Now, Ladra wants one for her collection.

Not as much, however, as I want that mailer with commissioner Jeannett Slesnick in a hot rod. In it, she is nicknamed “Speedy Slesnick” for her lack of support for a 5 MPH reduction that does nothing if there are no police officers to enforce it. “Stupid,” is what most voters reacted when they got it. The piece is so bad, it’s good. I want to frame it and hang it on a wall.

Read related story: Coral Gables mayoral race takes nasty, ethnic turn

Ladra also wants the mailer sent by Raul Valdes-Fauli‘s political action committee over the weekend (more on that later), which could be the largest political mailer any voter anywhere has ever gotten. It’s practically a postal billboard. But I only want it because it features me prominently — in several Herald articles from when I covered Coral Gables for the daily newspaper in 2008 and 2009… which means it’s an attack of former Mayor Don Slesnick, who beat Valdes Fauli in 2001. Talk about sour grapes! But guess what? Don Slesnick, who inherited a lot of those problems as well as a recession, is not running now. And, frankly, Jeannett Slesnick — who should, and Ladra suspects will, be judged on her own merits — will make a better mayor than her husband did.

Still, this piece is worthy of applause. It highlights the bad headlines in yellow and makes the stories look like they’re on microfiche with a back background and reverse type on the dates they were published. It’s brilliant campaigning, if somewhat disingenuous. I remember those stories. In fact, I remember Mayor Slesnick complained to the Herald editors about me and asked to have me reassigned. He said I had a “hidden agenda” (don’t they always when they don’t like what I write?). But I wasn’t reassigned because there was no agenda. And when I confronted Slesnick about his complaint, I delivered a print out of all the positive stories about the city, which far outnumbered the bad ones.

Of course, voters are not going to get a mailer on those. Because, like I said, Don isn’t running to get his seat back, unlike some people. And Jeannett Slesnick is running on her own record, not anyone else’s.

Valdes-Fauli must be a bit nervous because he has been the one mostly on the attack. Sure, there have been a few mailers about his endorsements, which include Gov. Jeb Bush, whose low energy cost him the presidential nomination last year, and current empty suit and Mayor Jim Cason and commissioners Vince Lago and Frank Quesada. The message is: If you want things to stay pretty much the same and the development to continue, vote for Raul. Again, Ladra gets the feeling that whoever is running Cason would run Valdes-Fauli, too.

Meanwhile, Slesnick’s mailers have stuck to the endorsements and the issues and the reasons why she is the best candidate for the job, not why Valdes-Fauli ain’t. Voters will get a bi-fold this week with several Gables residents and leaders — including former Florida Gov. and U.S. Sen. Bob Graham (a Democrat) and former State Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla (a Republican).  The mailer ran as an ad in Sunday’s Herald’s Neighbors section. Ladra likes that one if only because it has so many people in it.

She also sent a 20-page magazine about the development — her signature issue and the one thing that can help push her over the top. It details her vote on the different projects and shows that she is not against all development, only what she calls “unacceptable development that strays quite a bit from our master code.”

Perhaps she felt the need to set the record straight. Valdes-Fauli — whose had several attack mailers that intend to mislead the voters — had already sent one out that said she actually voted for the Paseo project. That’s just a lie. A lie nobody believes.

The record clearly shows she voted against it, the sole commissioner in a 4-1 vote. She did vote subsequently on votes benefit the city and to lessen the impact to residents. That’s her job. She’s not going to vote against things that are going to make an already approved project better.

Four candidates have filed to fill the seat left empty by Coral Gables Commissioner Jeannett Slesnick‘s mayoral bid. And while they couldn’t be more different, they all sound pretty much the same.

We have a soft-spoken schoolteacher/grandma activist, the retired cop and union leader, the land use attorney who works with the construction industry and an angry civil engineer who can best be described as the City Beautiful’s own version of President Donald Trump when he was a candidate.

All of them talk about curbing development and easing traffic and filling police vacancies as the top priorities. There are a few differences in their approaches, but they pretty much espouse the same positions. So, we are left with figuring out who might be the best candidate based on who they are and the baggage they bring.

So, who are they? What baggage? Let’s take them in the aforementioned order, which happens to be alphabetical, shall we?

This is Marlin Ebbert‘s second attempt at a commission seat. The retired teacher ran two years ago against Commissioner Vince Lago and Ross Hancock. But she is a veritable staple in Gables civic life, having served on too many committees and boards to name here and being involved in preservation efforts.

Ebbert is a really nice lady. She is the candidate that was recruited and is endorsed by the Riviera Neighborhood Association (aka Gables Neighbors United). But that might be all she has going for her. She is passionate about the Paseo project’s approval and says the city turned a deaf ear to residents’ concerns, which it really did. But from the two candidate forums in which she has participated, she seems a little lost in the headlights on everything else.

“I have a good head on my shoulders. I’ve made wise decisions all my life. I really feel that I’ve amost been in training for this job, to stand up and run for a commission seat.”

A good head on your shoulders is nice, but I think that you also need a good grasp of administration, economics and policy. Also, Lago and Commissioner Frank Quesada will eat her alive at the meetings and the administration will likely be able to manipulate her more easily.

Sgt. Randy Hoff is a retired  officer who has worked at the city police department for almost 30 years, the majority of that time on the marine patrol, before retiring recently in order to run for office in the city where he has lived for 20 years. He has been vocal on public safety, as vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 7 until his term ran out in December. That has led some of his opponents to float the idea that he would be soft on labor. But Ladra thinks that what they are forgetting is that he is no longer labor. He is now just a homeowning taxpayer — and retired on a fixed income, at that — so he’s going to watch that bottom line same as anybody else.

But what it could mean is that we’ll finally have a former employee on the dais to help the commission navigate issues with staff. He’s going to bring that perspective. Ladra suspects that will be an advantage to the city at contract negotiating time. And Coral Gables employees are such an integral part of the city’s fabric, it’s about time one is elected.

Mike Mena is an attorney partner at Akerman. He admits to working with the construction industry and said at the last forum that he “negotiates deals.” Does that mean he’s a lobbyist? He’s not registered, but he touts experience in working with developers and construction companies to get desired results so what do you call that? You call it being too close for comfort.

He actually said “it could have been a Home Depot” about the Paseo project on U.S. 1, which is what developers always say when they want to upzone a property. So he sounds like he would take the developer’s side.

A handsome dad with hipster facial hair and more money than any other candidate, Mena has been in Gables mailboxes more than anybody else. But he seems a little like a carbon copy of Lago and Quesada, only shorter. And he seems a little too ambitious. I mean, he has never served on any city board or committee and has come out of the blue, after moving to the city some years ago, to run for a commission seat? Why not mayor? Ladra bets that, like Lago, Mena he has higher office ambitions and would use this seat as a stepping stone.

I have five little words for him: Pay your dues, young man.

Serafin Sousa is a civil engineer with a construction company who got pissed off at the city’s building department — it takes too long to get a permit and it’s too hard to get an inspection — and decided to run for office. He apparently has all the answers. He does actually make sense when he said that the Miracle Mile project should have been done in stages, finishing one block before starting another. “That way you don’t have all the merchants going through one year, or a year and a half, of suffering,” he said.

But his anger comes through too strong. He has a Trumplike air of the no bullshit businessman going against the establishment and he says everything with a sense of “duh!” like the rest of us are stupid. Eso no cae bien. He does not seem like a serious candidate, however, and Ladra suspects he will come in a distant fourth place.

This race is the gentlest of the three and all the candidates, pictured here at the debate last week at Coral Gables Congregational Church, are cordial and respectful to one another. Maybe that’s a result of being in a four-way race rather than a one-on-one.

But that may change soon because there’s going to be a runoff here. It will be the first time in Coral Gables, where the highest scoring candidate used to win before voters approved a charter amendment last year. And while Ladra may like Hoff and Ebbert the most, I predict a runoff between Hoff and Mena. Hoff is a strong candidate who has campaigned hard, knocking on doors six days a week. He has the support of city employees and their families and he should have gotten the nod from the Riviera preservationists because Mena is going to get into the runoff simply because he is the only Hispanic and the retired cop has a better chance of beating him in the runoff than the retired teacher has.

Word about town is that Mena was recruited by Lago and Quesada because they don’t want Hoff or Ebbert to thwart their drive to redevelop every part of Coral Gables. With Mena, the three of them would have a majority to approve whatever they wanted.

Let this be my official endorsement of Hoff. Ladra feels a little bad, because Mena was the only candidate who purchased advertising on Political Cortadito. I wish I could support him back, but I can’t. Not yet. Let him serve on a city committee or board — may I suggest Hoff appoint him to one — and come back in four years when Lago runs for mayor (or county commissioner or state rep).

The Coral Gables mayoral race this year already had an epic, Count of Monte Cristo vibe — what with the freshman, lone anti-development commissioner on the dais going up against a former mayor that was booted out 15 years ago for over-development, among other things, by said lone commissioner’s husband.

But now, it seems that former Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli has pulled the ethnic card, starting a whisper campaign that Commissioner Jeannett Slesnick is anti-Hispanic.

El pobre. His Cuban card is all he’s got going for him.

Read related story: Coral Gables mayoral race: Slesnick vs Valdes-Fauli, Vol. 2

“A lot of people say that its become an ethnic campaign because of the slate,” said Jorge de Cardenas, Valdes-Fauli’s campaign manager, who also ran the campaigns for Mayor Jim Cason. He is referring to the Riviera Neighborhood Association of homeowners who are royally pissed off at the Paseo project approval, and who apparently sought out two candidates for the commission positions. The group has morphed into a grassroots political group called Gables Neighbors United, which has endorsed Slesnick for mayor and longtime activist Marlin Ebbert and former Commissioner Wayne “Chip” Withers. They think they’ve got a cute little acronym for people to remember: SEW. Like, let’s SEW this up.

“Some of these people are going around saying ‘The Cubans are going to take over,’” de Cardenas said. “I guess we’re in Miami. That happens.”

Yes, we’re in Miami. So, sometimes, it’s just expedient to say it happens. This sounds like a campaign strategy to Ladra because (1) why would Slesnick be responsible for what some racist on South Alhambra (and they’re everywhere) has to say and (2) Guess what? The Hispanics have infiltrated the Riviera neighborhood already (they’re everywhere, too), so it would be sorta silly to say something like that — and/or dangerous.

And it’s not like there were a ton of Hispanic choices. Withers is running against another white anglo, Commissioner Pat Keon — pictured to the right in the most blonde on white, ethnic card-free race, lucky them — and while Ebbert is running in an open seat with two Hispanics, only one of them is actually viable (more on that later).

And why are we talking about this anyway? In 2017? Really? The only reason must be that it’s part of the RVF campaign narrative.

Valdes-Fauli did not return a call to his phone. But Slesnick told Ladra that she was going to stick to the issues. “I don’t know how to combat something like this. What do you do? What do you say?”

Maybe she’s right. What can you say? “I am not a racist.” Didn’t work for Richard Nixon with crook. Maybe she doesn’t need to say anything. Valdes-Fauli’s polls must show that he is trailing, with the election two weeks away on April 11th. People are already voting absentee. Time to panic. Which goes a long way to explain the Valdes-Fauli mailer where the successful residential real estate agent is tagged “Speedy Slesnick” and photo-shopped in a red race car. This is because she would rather hire more police officers to enforce the 30 MPH in residential neighborhoods than go down five MPH and still have nobody there when people blow by the required twice as many roadway signs going 50 MPH. The mailer — paid for by one of two Valdes-Fauli PACs — is so bad, it’s good. Someone, please, please save one for Ladra’s collection.

Let’s take a moment here to remind folks that this is likely Valdes-Fauli’s last chance to get back into the office he was tossed from in 2001 by Don Slesnick in a sea change election — two new commissioners were also elected — after he led the effort to close Biltmore Way to vehicular traffic and build a massive administrative annex next to historic City Hall. Ladra covered Coral Gables for the Miami Herald back then, and it seemed to me that he envisioned the building would eventually bear his name.

Valdes-Fauli has been kind of absent since that defeat, coming out of his self-imposed sore loser exile 14 years later, only to endorse Mayor Jim Cason two years ago. In hindsight, Ladra wonders if that was tit for tat since Cason, who immediately rewarded him with an appointment to the charter review committee — a classic step in making the man relevant again — has endorsed him back.

Read related story: Jim Cason runs again ’cause nobody else will

Why does Valdes-Fauli want to be mayor again now — a whole 16 years later? Might it have something to do with all the development that wants to apparently keep coming now in North Gables and along South Dixie Highway? Might he resurrect the City Hall annex idea?

Does anyone else get the impression that someone brought Valdes-Fauli out of retirement and it wasn’t really his own idea to run? Like whoever runs the empty suit that is Cason is going to run him, too?

And since he lost against a Slesnick once before, and he’s desperate, and it’s late, he has gone on the offensive. Ladra hopes Hispanic voters in the Gables see through this pandering and reject it. And I can’t help but wonder if the Cubans in North Gables with his yard signs — the same ones who supported Slesnick in 2015, then were told she was anti Hispanic — know that Valdes-Fauli went to the island and can’t stop talking about what a marvelous trip it was and praises the normalized relations with Cuba’s repressive regime. I bet nobody told them that.

But that’s not really important. The Cuba trip doesn’t make him a worse candidate. Ladra has been to Cuba several times and believes that family trips — not junkets disguised as “educational packages” — are beneficial to the parallel economy that makes the government increasingly irrelevant. It just makes him even more of a calculated sin verguenza for pulling the ethnic card.

Read related story: Jeannett Slesnick winning Gables mayoral money race

What makes Slesnick a better candidate is that she is honest in her campaign, which is mostly about her policy positions — not anybody’s ancestry — on transparency in government and over-development. Like she works super hard to sell single family homes — and everybody knows she is a workaholic — she has worked super hard in the last two years since she was elected, having multiple town hall meetings to gauge constituents’ needs and concerns and being extremely communicative. She is very accessible and is not afraid to go against the administration or the majority on the dais if its what the residents want. Slesnick truly understands that her job is about serving the people and representing their best interests and their hopes and dreams.

And that’s why she has voted four times, at least, against these big, massive developments that have a lot of people in Coral Gables on edge. She was the only no vote, in fact, on the Paseo de la Riviera project on U.S. 1 (rendition to the left), The Plaza on Ponce de Leon — which was Old Spanish Village and then became the Agave project and then Mediterranean Village before it was reborn with one word like Prince or Madonna — and 33 Alhambra. I believe the 16-story Gables Station by Grand Avenue may have been a 3-2 vote.

Funny enough, Valdes-Fauli is trying to get people to believe that she voted for one of those projects, when she simply voted for increased setbacks and lower density after the projects had already been approved. Any suggestion otherwise is disengenuous and further evidence of desperation.

That’s like trying to get them to believe that this house seller, who is an abuela to Hispanic grandchildren, is anti-Hispanic.

We have another Miami-Dade County commission meeting this week. Between the committees, the Comprehensive Development Master Plan meetings, the MPO (which is now the TPO) and the full Miami-Dade commission meetings, it seems like there is something going on at County Hall every day. We mean out in public view.

But we have more than 30 other municipalities within Miami-Dade that also have their own government functions happening. So you can bet there is always something going on somewhere in the 305.

This week, that includes Palmetto Bay, Coral Gables, Doral and Miami Beach.

As always, please keep sending information about your government meetings, candidate forums and political powwows to edevalle@gmail.com and they’ll keep appearing in the Cortadito Calendar.We can’t include your shindig if we don’t know about it.

MONDAY — March 20

6 p.m. — Get to know former State Sen. Dan Gelber, who is running for Miami Beach mayor, at a meet and greet this evening at Murano at Portofino, 1000 South Pointe Dr. The campaign event is hosted by Lois and Eliot Hess and should last until about 7:30 p.m.

7 p.m. — The redevelopment of downtown Palmetto Bay seems to be moving along. There are five zoning items on the agenda for a special meeting at Village Hall tonight, all within the newly-zoned downtown “urban village” area. But Ladra has a feeling that they might not get to all of them — unless the meeting goes until 2 a.m. or so. Yes, we expect there to be a crowd that might object to some of the density and height that will be allowed in what is called the Urban Development Village. Among the items is a mixed use development, a residential development where the Raggedy Anne and Andy pre-school is and reducing the width of the right-of-way from 75 feet to 60 feet. The meeting starts at 7, but the Village Council will meet an hour early (at 6 p.m.) at Village Hall, 9705 East Hibiscus Street, to discuss the possible resignation of the Village Clerk after, las malas lenguas say, being verbally abused by some council members and residents (more on that later).

TUESDAY — March 21

9:30 a.m. — It’s probably too soon for the Miami-Dade Commission to take any action on Mayor Carlos Gimenez‘s deal with AirBnB for resort taxes, although they may certainly talk about it. Any consideration of ratification may have to wait, however, until the item has been properly advertised. But there is plenty on the budget to keep them busy, including a discussion about mosquito control efforts — which hopefully will give us more information on the mayor’s plan to drop millions of mutant mosquitoes somewhere over West Dade — and about using county properties to generate solar energy. They will also talk about a $1.7 million summer jobs program proposed by Commissioner Xavier Suarez and a charter review task force that Commissioners Esteban Bovo and Daniella Levine-Cava want to implement. Commissioners may also hand out $13.4 million to community grants under, Ladra believes, new guidelines and approve new boundaries for the town of Medley.

6 p.m. — Sen. Gwen Margolis and Miami Beach Commissioner John Aleman are the headliners of a women’s fundraiser for Miami Beach Commissioner Michael Grieco‘s campaign for mayor Tuesday at the Miami Beach Woman’s Club, 2401 Pinetree Dr.  There are more than 50 women listed as hosts, including former commission candidates Betsy Perez and Elsa Urquiza. But, curiously, none of the other three female commissioners on the dais. Perhaps Commissioners Joy Malakoff, Kristen Rosen Gonzalez and Micky Steinberg want to sit this one out. Or perhaps they’ll support someone else. Awkward! Especially since the election is all the way in November.

7 p.m. — Local Democrats are still not over it. The South Dade Democrats Club is having a get togehter called Vent * Vino (it used to be called Whine & Wine but “Dems aren’t whiners,” the invitation says. Um, yeah, they are. That’s why they are getting together Tuesday with no speaker, just to “join like minded people in an informal meeting where we can discuss current topics and come up with some projects and solutions.” The group promises to have some “politically knowledgeable people there to answer questions’” as well as wine, soda and “light snacks.” This is supposed to keep them entertained for two hours at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Miami
7701 S.W. 76th Ave.

7:30 p.m. — The first of two candidate forums and likely the last debates before the April 11 Coral Gables election begins at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Coral Gables Congregational Church, 3010 DeSoto Blvd. The entire two hours Tuesday will go to the largest group running, four candidates in Group 5: Marlin Ebbert, Randy Hoff, Mike Mena and Serafin Sousa. If history repeats, this is a very well attended event. Doors open at 6:30 but Ladra suggests you get there even earlier.

WEDNESDAY — March 22

4 p.m. The Miami Beach Commission meets at 4 p.m. rather than in the morning, perhaps because of a time certain (5:01 p.m.) consideration of an ordinance that would set the limits and locations for marijuana dispensaries and certain tpes of businesses. The commission will also consider awarding two congtracts to Ric-Man Construction — one for $13.1 million and another for $30.2 million — for the Phase II improvements to West Avenue (north of 14th Street). Commissioner Micky Steinberg also wants a discussion on planned public works and capital improvement projects in the city in the next five years.

6 p.m. — The Doral City Council meets Wednesday to consider, among other things, the final plat approval for Lennar’s Landmark at Doral Central and Landmark at Doral South  and a separate change in the comprehensive plan’s future land use map from business to high-density residential for 10 acres north of 41st Street between 107th and 109th Avenue. The council also meets an hour earlier at 5 p.m. as the local planning agency to consider an eight-month moratorium on any application to build workforce housing (duh) in the city and a land use amendment on parking requirements. Both meetings are at City Hall, 8401 NW 53rd Terr.

THURSDAY — March 23

2 p.m. The newly-named Miami-Dade Transportation Planning Organization will have two guest speakers on Thursday: Mayor Carlos Gimenez and Jose M. Rivera, executive director of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council. The 21-member board will also hear a special presentation by Keiran Bowers, of Swire Properties, regarding the transit-oriented Brickell City Centre. James Christian, division administrator from the Federal Highway Administration will update the TPO on fedeal highway funds in Florida and Jim Wolfe from the Federal Department of Transportation will provide a report on major projects. There will also be an update on the Stratetic Miami Area Rapid Transit (SMART) Plan. Commissioner Barbara Jordan also wants to urge the federal government to pay for some of the Metrorail cars and other transortation expenses. The meeting begins at 2 p.m. at the Brickell City Centre East Miami Hotel, on the 39th floor, 788 Brickell Plaza.

7 p.m. — The members of the Miami Pine Rocklands Coalition will be electing new officers and reorganizing Thursday night at Doc Thomas House, 5530 Sunset Dr., where they will also plan how to better save the last 1.5% of our critically endangered local Pine Rocklands.

7:30 p.m. — The second of two Coral Gables candidate forums and likely the last official debates before the April 11 election begins at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Coral Gables Congregational Church, 3010 DeSoto Blvd. The first hour will go to the two candidates running for commission in Group 3, incumbent Pat Keon and former Commissioner Wayne Withers. The second hour will be for the mayoral debate between Commissioner Jeannett Slesnick and former Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli (incumbent Mayor Jim Cason has decided not to run again, for real this time). Again, if past debates at this church are any indication, you should arrive before the doors open at 6:30 if you want a seat.

The Cortadito Calendar will now be published on Monday to give people time to send Ladra the events they have planned for that week. Please keep sending info on your government meetings, campaign events and political powwows to edevalle@gmail.com so we have a full calendar each and every Monday.

This one is our first on a Monday and our first for March. It’s about a month before the next important local election — in Coral Gables. So we have the first candidate forum for those three races on Tuesday.

There’s also a commission meeting at the county, a city council meeting in Doral, a talk about women’s issues, the requested upzoning of a whole stretch of Little Gables, more hand-wringing over the future of North Beach and yet another powerful speech by our esteemed schools superintendent.

So, let’s get on with it.

TUESDAY — March 7

9:30 a.m. — The Miami-Dade County Commission meets to again ratify the awarding of $27.5 million to five companies for engineering services related to the water and sewer consent decree (more on that later), consider changes to the annexation and incorporation process, approve $1.8 billion in expenditures for building supplies for mulitple departments and designate an area of Miami Gardens as blighted so they can create another community redevelopment agency for their friends to raid. They will also consider giving yet another no-bid contract to a vendor who wants to open up at Miami International Airport and awarding a $1.5 million contract to Perez & Perez Architects for revisions to the 2008 11th Judicial Circuit Courts and corrections facilities master plans. And they will get a report on a plan to develop and maintain several county owned properties in the downtown Miami area, coincidentally or not including Cielito Lindo, the historic courthouse that needs to be redeveloped or replaced.

6 p.m. — The first of at least two scheduled debates for the candidates in Coral Gables begins at 6 p.m. at the University of Miami’s Fieldhouse, 1245 Dauer Drive (next to the Watsco Center). This “forum” put on by the Gables Chamber of Commerce every election consistently turns into a lively debate. Each group will be given 50 minutes, moderated by WLRN’s Vice President of News Tom Hudson. The first up will be the four candidates for the open seat, vacated by Jeannett Slesnick‘s move to the mayoral race. The second group will be incumbent Pat Keon against former Commissioner Wayne “Chip” Withers and the last will be the headliners, the mayoral candidates, Slesnick and former Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli. Residents can submit questions online at events@CoralGablesChamber.com or in person on 4X6 cards that will be made available. Scheduled to end at 9 p.m.

WEDNESDAY — March 8

10 a.m. — The Doral City Council meets Wednesday and on the agenda is the $2.4 million contract for paving and stormwater improvements to H&R Paving, the purchase of 25 police vehicles for $600,000, the negotation of two contracts for towing services in the city, and the creation of a partnership with Baptist Health South to jointly develop a wellness program at Doral Legacy Park. The meeting starts at 10 a.m. at Doral City Hall, 8401 NW 53rd Terrace.

6 p.m. — Women will unite to talk about issues near and dear to them at an International Women’s Day panel Wednesday that will touch upon reproductive rights, workplace equality and religious discrimination. Among the panelists are Maggie Fernandez, director of the Miami-Dade League of Women Voters, Latinas for Trump co-founder Denise Galvez, Safespace Board Member Alicia Consuegra and former Miami-Dade School Board member and one-time mayoral candidate Raquel Regalado, who has been consipcuously quiet on a lot of issues lately. The panelists start their discussion at 6 p.m. and will be there through at least 8 p.m. at La Palma Restaurant, 116 Alhambra Circle.

THURSDAY — March 9

11 a.m. — The Miami-Dade Commission Chairman’s Policy Council will hear presentations from both Lowell Clary, the FDOT’s former assistant secretary for finance, and Miami-Dade Expressway Authority Executive Director Javier Rodriguez before they discuss the possible financial avenues for transportation projects, specifically MDX funds, PTP funds, tax increment financing and community redevelopment agencies. Seeing as how this is Chairman Esteban Bovo‘s special committee for all the important stuff, it stands to reason that this is a preview of what we might see be presented at a future commission meeting.

6:30 p.m. — The Westchester Community Council will have a public hearing Thursday to consider a land use map change for 4.5 acres west of LeJeune from 9th to 16th streets from low density residential (2.5 to 6 dwellings per acre) to medium density (13 to 25 dwellings per acre). This is an area of unincorporated Miami-Dade that is called Little Gables and could be annexed into the City Beautiful. The council could make recommendations to the county’s planning department and commission at the end of the hearing, which begins at 6:30 p.m. at Ruben Dario Middle School, 350 NW 97th Ave.

7 p.m. — Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, who once was thought of as a potential Miami-Dade mayoral candidate and could be again for 2020, is speaking to the members of the Kendall Federation of Homeowners Associations at their meeting Thursday. Carvalho heads the fourth largest school district in the U.S., with 346,000 students and 52,000 employees. He is expected to talk about issues related to Kendall area schools. The meeting is at the Kendall Village Center’s Civic Pavilion in front of the Regal Cinema box office, 8625 SW 124 Ave.

FRIDAY — March 10

8:30 a.m. — Miami Beach North Beach Master Plan Steering Committee meets at the Normandy Shores Golf Club, 2401 Biarritz Drive. These are the people charged with turning the sleepy northern end of the city into a more bustling second or third “downtown” area. It includes the two-block Ocean Terrace, a slower, older version of Ocean Drive (ala 1988) where voters turned down a huge tower development in 2015. The steering committee is tasked with finding ways to revitalize the neighborhood and spur redevelopment while maintanining the pedestrian-friendly, modest, walkable scale that makes it one of the last vestiges of beachside old Florida.

Former Coral Gables Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli isn’t the only one who wants his old job back at City Hall. Former Commissioner Wayne “Chip” Withers, who served for 20 years before leaving office in 2011, qualified last month — for the seat occupied by incumbent Commissioner Pat Keon.

He could have run for the open seat. But Withers has personal, friendly relationships with three of the four candidates there, he told Ladra. Apparently, he does not have a friendly relationship with Keon. Withers supported Mary Young against Keon in 2013.

“I felt I could really go after an incumbent,” Withers said in his aw-shucks Forrest Gump style, which seems disarmingly honest.

And Keon is ripe for the taking. Not known for being exactly responsive to residents, she has become a target for some of the anti-development forces who don’t like some of the larger projects on the city’s horizon, including the Riviera Neighborhood Association, of which he is a member (and who reportedly was shopping around for a candidate), who fought hard against the Paseo project and is now up in arms about a possible overlay zoning district along South Dixie Highway. The commissioner always seems to be making excuses for developers, they say. She treats residents like they don’t know what’s best for them and she knows better.

Read related story: Jeannett Slesnick winning mayoral money race

“There is a general concern that when the choice is between the wishes of a residential community and a developer, they feel that its in favor of the developer a lot of the time,” Withers told Ladra. “Whether that’s perceived or real, it’s there. And there’s an erosion of trust.”

Keon said she was not surprised when Withers jumped into the race. “People were looking for someone to run against me, and I guess he was the taker,” she told Ladra. “We’ll still run a good campaign. He has name recognition. He was a good commissioners for along time, but he said he was tired of it. Now he’s back.”

Keon said it’s all because Withers is mad that the Paseo project was approved last year. But, she added, she only voted in favor after developers scaled down the size and height and made it more palatable for the surrounding neighborhood. “They brought it down a lot and stepped it back from the neighborhood.”

But Withers said the project is still too large and out of scale for the people who live adjacent to it and, more importanty, that the process was flawed. The peer review was tainted, he said, because it was done by architects who worked for the project’s architect on other sites or boards. And he did not get a notice about the zoning hearing because he lives 1,150 feet away on Hardee and the city only notifies residents within 1,000 feet.

He wants to increase notification to residents within a three-mile radius. He also wants to change the amount of time between first and second reading from 30 to 60 days and require a 4/5ths vote on land use changes.

Read related story: Coral Gables explores more development along U.S. 1

Withers said the more recent move to create a zoning master plan for U.S. 1 “is scary” and that the city should work to redevelop or revitalize its 1.8 miles along the federal highway with the cities of South Miami to the southwest and Miami to the northeast for a more consistent zoning application. Otherwise, he says, what we may end up with is a canyon of tall buildings like there is on Bird Road just east of Ponce de Leon Boulevard.

“This is why I got back in,” he said. “All these projects coming online. If we don’t get everything in order, it’s going to be a mess,” Withers said.

“I know I’m an old guy,” said the 65-year-old grandfather. “But I was there for 20 years and I know what worked and what didn’t work.”

He said that things put on the books 20-years ago, like the Mediterranean ordinance that provides for more density as bonus for Mediterranean architecture, might be tweaked. Maybe bonuses should be considered for downtown infill development. “Maybe instead of getting an extra four floors for looking like a Mediterranean castle, you get a bonus for having more green space or more open space.

“I’m not a ‘burn it down’ guy. I know we need development. We have a downtown that pays a majority of our tax base. It would be stupid to kill the golden goose.

“But we can’t let it kill our quality of life,” he said.

Keon said that the city is doing better than it was when Withers was in office, with more money in reserves and a AAA bond rating. She sounds a lot like the city manager when she talks, and no, it is not just because both are women. It’s almost like Keon has picked up Cathy Swanson Rivenbark‘s buzzwords, cadence — even her southern twang.

Withers told Ladra he is staying out of the mayoral bout because he knows and respects both Valdes-Fauli, who he served with for many years, and Slesnick, whose husband he also served with on the dais.

But the Gables is a city where voters, not the candidates themselves, often create slates. Withers and Slesnick are already getting grouped together — along with Marlin Ebbert in the second commission race — by an endorsement from the Riviera Neighbhorhood group.

You can already see the yard signs for the three candidates all up and down South Alhambra and the surrounding streets.