A longtime advocate of clean water and Everglades restoration, Miami-Dade County Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava — who boasts the nickname “Water Warrior” — will work with other electeds across Florida to address the algae blooms and other water quality issues that plague the state.
Levine Cava was selected to serve on the Florida Association of Counties’ (FAC) Water Policy Committee alongside 36 other county commissioners from across the state’s other 66 counties.
Read related: Daniella Levine Cava defends Everglades — and democracy
“I am honored and excited to represent Miami-Dade County on the Water Policy Committee as water is our most critical natural resource,” Levine Cava said in a statement. “Water is the foundation of our communities and our economy; it must be protected and conserved.”
As a member of the Water Policy Committee, Levine Cava will take her conservation agenda and get to address the widespread water crisis affecting Florida coastlines, lakes, springs, estuaries and rivers.
“A number of local leaders from across the state stepped forward to participate,” said FAC President and Hendry County Commissioner, Karson Turner. “This committee represents the diverse water needs from every water basin in the state and their commitment to their communities and willingness to address these recurring issues head on.”
The committee was created with a mission for counties to set policy priorities on the local, state and federal level and will work with the state and Governor Ron DeSantis who signed Executive Order 19-12, in response to the algae blooms that last year threatened our ecosystems — and our tourism — shortly after being elected. In addition to securing $2.5 billion for Everglades restoration over the next four years, and placing a priority on water quality and supply, the order emphasizes the need to engage local government officials in the protection of Florida’s vulnerable coastline and natural resources.
The Water Policy Committee will meet for the first time during the FAC’s Legislative Day in Leon County on March 27. More information and a full list of the Water Policy Committee members — Lee, Martin, Marion and Volusia counties got two commissioners on there instead of just one — can be viewed on the FAC website: www.fl-counties.com.

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I know its late. I know Ladra has been quiet lately. We have been distracted with other work and getting her puppy bien instalada at college. Forgive me.
This midterm election is much more important than we’ve treated it and for that, Ladra is sorry.
But better late than never.
So without any further excuses, and in time for election day, here are Ladra’s endorsements for the Aug. 28, 2018 primary.
For Governor: Andrew Gillum on the Dem side and Ron DeSantis on the GOP side simply because I can’t wait to see Gillum kick his ass.
The Republican Senate primary is easy: Roque “Rocky” de la Fuente wins this nod simply because he is not Rick Scott. Case closed.
And the only real cabinet position we have a dog in the race in is the Commissioner of Agriculture bid, where Ladra likes Homestead Mayor Jeff Porter. I may not like everybody around him, but I still think Porter, photographed right, is a good guy,
In the congressional races, everyone knows Ladra is #TeamKristen all the way. Kristen Rosen Gonzalez will be an excellent congresswoman and represent us the best because she knows us the best.
On the GOP side, there is nobody really worthy of a nod. I am not convinced that Maria Elvira Salazar wasn’t flirting with Fidel Castro in that interview, which can’t be forgiven, and she doesn’t know what she’s doing anyway. This feels more like a desperate attempt to stay relevant now that her job security is jello than it does a call to public service. And former Commissioner Bruno Barreiro doesn’t deserve it, the way he basically threw his campaign in the trash for his wife’s weak bid for his county seat. If I were a GOP voter, I would go with Angie Chirino, because I am a fan of her dad’s and amiga de la luna.
But I have choices in the other congressional races as well:
District 26: Debbie Mucarsel-Powell for the Dems, now that she’s in the right place.
District 24: Federica Wilson deserves it. She’s been honest. She didn’t back down from Trump during that phone call debacle. And she represents her constituency, which is what this is all about. Besides, who the heck is that other guy?
State races offer some easy choices, too:
Senate District 36: It’s firefighter David Perez all the way. He has the best chance of beating good for nothing puppet boy Manny Diaz, Jr., in the general.
Senate District 38: Jason Pizzo is new and Ladra doesn’t know much about him. But incumbent Daphne Campbell is quite possibly the worst example of a sitting elected we have. So anybody but her.
House District 103: Cindy Polo, photographed right, is the only real Democrat here. Rick Tapia is a plant. Please show him we won’t be fooled by those kind of shenanigans anymore.
House District 105: Ross Hancock is, indeed, a perennial candidate. But he knows what he’s talking about and what he’s doing and he is the best choice this year, even if that is not his original district. Who is the other guy? Who knows? Not me.
House District 108: Dotie Joseph is a young Haitian lawyer and we need more Haitians and more women in Tallahassee. That and she is running against an incumbent named Hardemon. Case closed.
House District 109: Cedric McMinn because James Bush III has already had his chance and Cedric deserves his.
House District 113: Former Commissioner Michael Grieco is Ladra’s choice and the choice of most voters because, like I said before, nobody likes Deede Weithorn and nobody knows Kubs Lalchandani.
House District 115: Ladra is going to vote for Jefferey Solomon, photographed left, in this race. But I urge my Republican friends to vote for Jose Fernandez, because Vince Aloupis has run a very negative campaign. Not that it matters. Solomon will win in November, too.
House District 116: Republican Danny Perez just won this in a special election earlier this year. Let’s give him a chance.
House District 119: Ladra likes Bibi Potestad in this one, mostly because she doesn’t want to see the daughter of a county commissioner win the race, but also because former State Rep. Juan Zapata likes her (she worked with him at both the state and the county).
In the county commission races, Ladra just wants to see upset. The only incumbent who gets my nod is Jean Monestime and that is only because the other choice is Dorrin Rolle.
Yes that does mean that I want Maryin Vargas over Rebeca Sosa. I like our tia comsionada just fine, but it’s time, okay. The perks at the airport, all the kumbaya talk while she stood complicit to the raiding of our half penny. It’s time she leave gracefully.
And I know I am going to attract the wrath of every Democrat that reads this poll but I would vote Daniella Levine Cava out. She is not what she says she is. She has not delivered on anything. We need to start holding our electeds accountable. Just because she talks nice doesn’t mean she is nice and all she’s done for the Pets’ Trust, which had to reconfirm their ridiculous support of her, is take photo opps with the mayor at pet adoption events. Ludicrous. She just wants to be mayor one day — she thinks she can be — so she doesn’t rock the boat while she says all the right “progressive” crap. Talk about all talk and no action. My problem is that I am not so sure Gus Barreiro, who campaigned for a different seat in a different part of town, lives in the district. It doesn’t matter anyway because Levine Cava will win. She just won’t do it with my support.
Ladra hopes that Jose Garrido gets some benefit from being the first on the ballot in the District 10 race against Javier Souto, who should have retired years ago but is being forced to hold on for Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and Chairman Esteban Bovo and the others who this puppet is always good for. Garrido worked in Souto’s office and knows where the bones are buried. We need him to throw the doors and windows open over there.
And, last but not least, let’s show electeds that we mean business by denying Jose “Pepe” Diaz his last term. There are two other guys in that race that you can vote for, but my nod goes to either Rafael Pineyro or Patricio Moreno, whoever is Xavier Suarez‘s boy.
Ladra doesn’t know enough about the school board or judicial races to give endorsements. So go with your gut. It’s always good to empower minorities. Women, black and Hispanic candidates get my attention when I know nothing else about anybody in the race. Sorry not sorry. You can have your own criteria.
The most important thing is that you go out and vote. They don’t expect long lines at most of the polling places and it will take about 10 minutes to fill out all the bubbles. But it is the only way we have of letting these people who control so much of our lives know that we are on to them and we are watching them and we will fire them when we have to.

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Miami-Dade County Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava, who is expected to win her re-election bid without much trouble, is thought of as the soft-spoken, bespectacled progressive who starts many of her sentences with an apology and stays away from negative politics.
But to Ran Gimeno and his family, she is “a monster.”
Gimeno and his husband, Justin Polga, have been embroiled in a legal business battle with the commissioner’s husband for almost two years and say the Cavas have maligned and harassed them — so far as to stalk their then 8-year-old son.
“It’s psychological warfare,” Gimeno told Ladra. “They have made our lives miserable.”
He said that at one point, Dr. Robert Cava and an employee went to their son’s Spanish school on Kendall Drive to take photographs and were actually chased out into the parking lot when the administrator started asking them questions. “How the hell did they even know where my son’s Spanish school is?”
Polga took Cava to court to get out of the non-compete … and voila, he won his case. Or partially, anyway. Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Bronwyn Miller would not throw it out completely, but he agreed that the restrictions went too far.
“The scope and breadth of the restrictive covenant, as it fails to limit its application to identifiable patients, create an unnecessary restraint on trade, thus, under Florida law, must be more narrowly construed, rather than invalidated,” Miller wrote in his July 2017 ruling.
Dr. Cava wanted Polga to be unable to do business within a five mile radius for two years. But that included assisting patients who were to be admitted to area hospitals within that distance, like Baptist and South Miami — which are where Polga is accredited — or teaching or advertising. The judge said he definitely could assist his patients with admittance to those hospitals and assist patients at those hospitals who are not current or former patients of Cava’s.
Polga could also teach anyone except current or former patients of Cava’s. And the judge only found that the non-compete on advertising applied specifically to targeting an audience within a five mile radius. But an ad in the Herald or on the internet would be okay, Miller said.
However, the case really got ugly outside of court, Gimeno said. And he has the police reports from four different municipalities to prove it.
According to one police report from Coral Gables, Gimeno went to the station about 5 p.m. Feb. 21 to report “he felt he was being stalked.
“A man by the name of Mr. Robert Cava and his wife Mrs. Daniella Cava had been following him, his husband Justin Polga and their son Jacob Polga,” reads the report. “He, his husband and his son have seen Mr. and Mrs. Cava on several occasions at different locations, such as the Gulliver Academy that his son attends, which is located at 12595 SW 57th Avenue, as well as the St. Thomas Episcopal Parish School, located at 5692 North Kendall Dr.”
The report also says that Polga had seen the Cavas at Doctor’s Hospital, where he works, and that both Dr. Cava and the commissioner ride their bikes down the street they live on in Pinecrest.
“Mr. Gimeno says he feels as if it is no coincidence that he, his husband and his son continually see Mr. and Mrs. Cava at their son’s school and at their jobs,” reads the police report. “Mr. Gimeno expressed concern for his safety as well as the safety of his family.”
This report was filed after they got a call from Gulliver stating that Jacob “had been behaving differently because, as he reported to a counselor, ‘a bad man is following me.’” The boy was taken out of school that day.
Ran Gimeno and Justin Polga at a charity event
Gimeno said that they were also harassed by Commissioner Levine Cava at the annual St. Thomas Episcopal Alumni 5K Run, where they had sponsored a table benefiting Breakthrough Miami. He said the commissioner “approached us as we were speaking among a group of fellow attendees/sponsors, including heat of schools for Gulliver Schools. She attempted to intimidate us in public.”
This was a month after a 400-guest function at the new University of Miami Lennar Foundation Medical Center, where Dr. Cava “approached us as we were speaking among a small group of fellow attendees. He forced himself into our personal space and attempted to intimidate us in public. We did not engage with him.”
Furthermore, Gimeno said that Commissioner Cava is using her influence to try to get their attorney, who teaches art time at the University of Miami, fired from her UM gig.
Gimeno — who told Ladra that Commissioner Levine Cava also approached and berated him and his son at an Apple store — said he and Polga did file a compaint with the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust, which dismissed it. And Chris Brown, an attorney for Dr. Cava, says that the commissioner has nothing to do with the lawsuit and that Polga and Gimeno simply do not have a case for harassment.
“If they did not want to be unnerved by a county commissioner, they probably should not have made her a witness in his case against her husband,” Brown said.
Really? That invites harassment?
Reached over the weekend, the commissioner said she had nothing to do with the legal battle. “I’m doing everything in my power to stay out of his business,” Levine Cava told Ladra. “I’m not involved in the lawsuit.”
She said that she has had “no contact” with Polga and Gimeno or their son. “Twice I have laid eyes on this man,” she said. Once was when she gave a proclamation to a medical group and another time was when she was at the Apple store and Gimeno came in, she said. “And he came up to me! I avoided him. I left right away.”
Levine Cava also said that no police officer from any agency has ever interviewed her. “Anyone can call the police and file a report,” Levine Cava said. “This has nothing to do with me. This is really a person who is desperate for attention.”
Desperate for attention? What attention have they gotten, besides, well, mine now? And why?
“Of course, I’m sure Gulliver wanted the attention. My son had to go to a psychologist for the attention,” Gimeno said.
Levine Cava insists that neither she nor her husband have been to Gimeno’s son’s schools.
A bunch of people, including someone from the Step by Step Spanish school and someone from St. Thomas Episcopal Church, have been subpoenaed for a motion of contempt that Cava has filed against Polga for apparently advertising within the five-mile radius he was supposed to stay out of.
As part of the discovery, there is a photograph taken of Dr. Polga’s pamphlets on a stand on a table. Inside the school’s front office.

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Don’t be fooled by the name, people. The Keep Government Accountable Coalition is not really a “citizens watchdog group,” as it pretends to be. It is a political action committee hiding under another name and the secrecy of a 501c3 non-profit.

That means we don’t know who is funding it. Thanks to Citizens United — whose Supreme Court lawsuit greatly loosened rules governing campaign finance, creating this “corporate personhood” ability to hide money — it’s another mysterious PAC, made even more mysterious by its non profit status.

The announcement this week says the Coalition was “formed to monitor the activities of the Miami-Dade County Commission” and report “any actions that may be detrimental to Miami-Dade taxpayers.”

Yeah, well, wouldn’t that be nice? But Ladra is way skeptical.

“The group’s formation is a response to a history of irresponsibility in Miami-Dade government that has produced years of skyrocketing property taxes and insurance rates and millions of wasted tax dollars,” reads the press release put out by a Tallahassee Media and PR firm that runs many Republican campaigns. “It also intends to serve as a check on increasing toll rates and plans to exert pressure on the Commission to address continued traffic congestion and a lack of needed infrastructure improvements. The group’s founders say it is imperative that local elected officials be held to a higher standard going forward in order to protect and promote a higher quality of life in Miami-Dade County.”

The statement also quotes Coalition Chairman Frank De Varona, a Bay of Pigs veteran and college professor who is also a Republican activist: “Elected officials should be  faithful stewards of taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and we will not settle for anything less than that. Miami-Dade taxpayers can count on us to watch the County Commission like a hawk, and we will be quick to draw attention to any move that squanders public resources.”

How Ladra wishes that were true. More likely, it was formed to push something or someone.

Something? The announcement talks about traffic congestion and comes on the heels of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez saying — now that he’s not running for office any more — that he was giving up on trains. This could be to create messaging and a “narratie” in the community either for the rapid buses that Gimenez wants us to believe are better or to push for trains.

Someone? This could be an attempt to set someone up to run in 2018 for one of the county commission seats, or tear down one of the incumbents. Ladra’s money would be on Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava.

The creation of this coalition also comes on the heels of a new website and Facebook page, Keeping up with Cava, that criticizes the commissioner, who admittedly has let many voters down and could be vulnerable (more on that later). Ladra thinks she is more vulnerable to another Democrat, but the Dems won’t support anyone else and, even though this is a partisan race, this Coalition group seems Republican and Ladra will bet her kibble that it aims to put a Republican in that District 8 seat. The other two incumbents, Commissioners Jean Monestime and Sally Heyman, are less vulnerable and in districts where a Republian will never win.

And this coalition seems heavily read. It was formed Tuesday with the help of former State Rep. and attorney to GOP politicians J.C. Planas. It was announced Wednesday by the Tallahassee-based firm, Front Line Strategies, which belongs to Republican political consultant Brett Doster (photographed right), who just lost the State House 116 race where he was running Jose Mallea (local candidates really need to stop looking to Tallahassee for anything other than money). And there is the Republican activist chairman.

While county commission races are non-partisan, both parties have been getting more and more involved. This “coalition” might be preparing to run a Republican against Levine Cava. Ladra doesn’t know who that is. Yet.

Could it be Mallea? He’s got some good name recognition having gotten 45% of the vote for a House seat that overlaps some. Could it be a state rep whose term is up next year? Does Michael Bileca live there or in commission District 7? Could it be former and disgraced Sen. Frank Artiles, who had to resign after making racist remarks, and who Ladra heard has moved back into his old Palmetto Bay home? Yeah, that’s almost as ludicrous as reincarnating former Commissioner Lynda Bell, who lost to Levine Cava in 2014.

But this is the 305, where special interests can disguise themselves as watchdog groups and call it a coalition. Anything is possible.

UPDATE: After the posting of this Thursday morning, the commission chairman called for a special meeting on Feb. 17. How they are going to get through the Feb. 7 meeting without talking about this is still a mystery.

There’s no question that Miami-Dade Commissioners will discuss the mayor’s directive last week to honor detention requests for illegal immigrants in county jails. The only question is when.

It may not be on Tuesday’s agenda — yet. But it can’t be ignored.

Not just because more than 300 county residents protested the decision Tuesday at County Hall. Not just because more than a dozen community groups and leaders have denounced the move. Not just because Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava asked Mayor Carlos Gimenez Monday to answer a series of questions about the impact and consequences of this cave-in to a legally questionable federal threat to withhold millions in funding. Not just becasue she wants her colleagues to join other U.S. cities challenging the legality of the president’s executive order.

Read related story: Carlos Gimenez betrays the community for Donald Trump

No. They have to talk about this because the mayor’s directive flies in the face of a 2013 resolution in which commissioners instructed him to do just the opposite. There is already a growing discontent among commissioners about what happened and how it happened. Some don’t want to send the message that the strong mayor can do whatever he wants for the next four years.

They can do several things. They can propose a resolution to just undo or rescind the resolution from 2013, which would be a show of support for the mayor’s actions and is rumored to be what Commissioner Sally Heyman has in mind. They can also direct the county attorney’s office to challenge the federal order, which is how Levine Cava leans. Neither one had presented a discussion item or legislation for Tuesday’s meeting, but either could. Gimenez could also put it on as a discussion item from the mayor’s office.

What won’t happen, one commission aide said, is nothing. “Otherwise, that’s going to be the biggest elephant in the chambers on Tuesday.”

Commissioner Xavier Suarez said he did not think that that Gimenez intended to violate the resolution but that he, at least, had some questions about the details. “I think it’s time for a clarification, whether it comes from the mayor’s office or it comes from us,” X told Ladra Wednesday.

The mayor’s memo to Corrections and Rehabilitation Director Daniel Junior, even though it’s only three paragraphs long, indicates that even Gimenez knew he’d have to get some kind of commission approval (note the last sentence).

“Yesterday, January 25, 2017, President Donald J. Trump issued Executive Order Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States.

In light of the provisions of the Executive Order, I direct you and your staff to honor all immigration detainer requests receive from the Department of Homeland Security.

Miami-Dade County complies with federal law and intends to fully cooperate with the federal government. I will partner with the Board of County Commissioners to address any issues necessary to achieve this end.” 

Partner with the Board of County Commissioners, indeed. Some commissioners, staffers and other County Hall insiders say he should have waited and partnered with commissioners to address the issue before jumping to Trump’s drumbeat within 24 hours, becoming the first and so far only mayor of a major U.S. city to buckle.

Que verguenza.

But beyond that, some go so far as to say the mayor may have abused his power by acting alone without calling for the rescinding of the resolution by the whole commission. It’s not like he didn’t have time.

Gimenez might say, whenever he is called upon to answer to commissioners, that he used his power as mayor to make this “emergency” decision. But there is no evidence that there was an emergency here. There was no deadline. Other cities have challenged the federal government’s authority to withhold funds while legal experts point to supreme court precedents that give states and municipalities the upper hand and also limit the conditions the government to withhold funds. There is no logical reason that Gimenez could not have waited to make it a mayor’s item on the Feb. 7 meeting.

Read related story: Levine Cava questions Gimenez on sanctuary about-face

Our own county attorney’s office told commissioners in 2013 that the county was complying with the Secure Communities requirements by sharing information — addresses, phone numbers, photographs — with ICE and the Department of Homeland Security. We have never stopped doing that since 2009. 

In 2013, commissioners adopted a new policy to release non-violent offenders who were also illegal immigrants unless the federal government covered the costs of prolongued incarceration and instructed the mayor to implement the policy. They did so mostly to save money. It was budget crunch time and they were told to look for extra funds to keep some of the programs that Gimenez wanted to cut in a drastic year after his 2012 re-election.

In a story published that year by the Miami Herald, Heyman said it wasn’t a purely financial decision.

“Not only is it about saving money. It’s about saving people,” she was quoted as saying.

What a difference three years makes, huh? 

Of coure, the 2013 resolution that halted the detentions is all about the costs. It states that 3,262 detainer requests were honored in 2011 and 2,499 were honored in 2012, at a cost of a little over $1 million and $667,000, respectively. Of those, 57% were inmates not charged with felonies in 2011 and 61% were in 2012. These are people that were held for 48 hours after they were bonded out or released at arraignment.

They also had the green light from then County Attorney Roger Cuevas, who had told them in July that “compliance with ICE detainer requests is voluntary and not mandated by federal law or regulations.” Basically, the detainers or 48-hour “hold requests” are just that, requests. Cuevas’ analysis included wording from federal law and forms that showed the word “request” used repeatedly. He told commissioners that if they decided to hold detainees for the 48 hours, there was no legal obligation for the federal government to reimburse costs.

Cuevas also attached a letter from ICE Assistant Director David Venturella in which he answers this direct question: “Is it ICE’s position that localities are required to hold individuals pursuant to Form I-247 or are detainers merely requests with which a county could legally decline to comply?” The response: “ICE views the immigration detainer as a request that a law enforcement agency maintain custody of an alien who may otherwise be released for up to 48 hours (excluding Saturdays, Sundays and holidays). This provides ICE time to assume custody of the alien.” 

All of this can be found in the minutes of the December 3, 2013 meeting.

But the new policy did still provide for the detention of illegal immigrants when they had been either previously convicted of a forcible felony or charged with a non-bondable offense, such as murder. This is according to a memo from former Corrections and Rehabilitation Department Director Timothy Ryan to the Department of Homeland Security. So, we were still turning over the most violent offenders. Now, we’re just turning over the minor offenders, too, perhaps even people who are arrested for traffic violations.

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

And everyone expects the Trump administration’s detainer requests to increase so we may soon be turning over even more of them.

There’s really only one reason why Gimenez would have jumped the gun and reached over the commission’s head to do something that law enforcement experts say damages community policing at a time when police resources are low and street shootings are at a high. It is to please the president so that his son, CJ Gimenez, could get more and friendlier access for his new federal lobbying gig. Ladra can’t think of any other reason why he would reverse a county commission policy within 24 hours with a directive that is going to become his legacy — the first thing that comes up on him now for all history in every story and Wikipedia: “Carlos Gimenez, the immigrant South Florida elected who was the first and only mayor who acquiesced to Donald Trump’s threats against sanctuary cities…”

But he will soon have to explain for himself. Activists who have led a wave of public outcry that has resulted in two protests so far and whispers of a possible recall, promise to attend Tuesday’s meeting to demand answers.

So if commissioners don’t address the elephant in the room, the public will. 

And what else might the mayor give up to Trump?

Miami-Dade Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava is pushing back on the mayor’s decision last week to kowtow to Donald Trump and betray not only the immigrant community in Miami-Dade but all of us.

She’s the only one. So far, anyway. But her questions could put the issue on the agenda for the next meeting next week.

Gimenez went against the whole county commission when he issued a directive Thursday instructing corrections officers to detain illegal immigrants — kowtowing to Trump’s threat to withhold federal funds from so-called sancutary cities — because it goes against a 2013 resolution to do the opposite.

Read related story: Carlos Gimenez betrays our community for Donald Trump

But as of Monday afternoon, only Commissioner Levine Cava seems to have questions and concerns about it. At least on the record. She asked the mayor in a memo Monday to brief the commission on the financial impacts and other consequences of his about face “as soon as possible,” and even suggests they consider joining other cities across the U.S. who have legally challenged the president’s executive order.

“Our community has followed with great interest recent changes in federal immigration policy and your response as to local implementation. I fully understand the need to hold people responsible for criminal acts and to utilize our law enforcement to ensure that all of Miami-Dade County is safeguarded. However, I am concerned as to how these new policies can be implemented fairly and without jeopardizing community safety.

It is generally recognized that detention of individuals on the basis of immigration status alone can suppress cooperation with local law enforcement, vital to protection of all residents. The policy outlined in Resolution R-1008-13 has worked effectively since 2013 to reduce fears in the immigrant community about the possibility of unwarranted detention, and has contributed to more positive police-community relations than that experience in some other jurisdictions.

How can we continue our strong record of community policing and avoid unjust racial and ethnic profiling? What are the budgetary impacts of these policies, including the possible costs that could arise from legal action against the county for adherence to the new policies? It is vital that the county commission receive a briefing from you on these and  other questions as soon as possible.

I  look forward to your response as to these considerations and further suggest that we consider joining other jurisdictions in their pending lawsuits challenging the Executive Order pending a final determination by the courts as to its constitutionality.”

According to Alex Annunziato, legislative aide to Commission Chairman Esteban Bovo, that was the only memo requesting any kind of follow up on the mayor’s actions. Not any legislation or any discussion item request for the next meeting, again, as of Monday afternoon. But it’s early and the next commission meeting isn’t for another week.

Commissioners Jean Monestime and Sally Heyman sponsored the resolution in 2013, not because they love illegal immigrants or anything. They did it to save the juvenile boot camp program that the mayor was threatening to cut. Gimenez had challenged commissioners to find the monies needed to find several programs they wanted to save. This is where they found at least some of it.

But they also found so much more.

The resolution states that in 2011 and 2012 there were 3,262 and 2,499 detainer requests, respectively, from federal immigration officials — so Ladra doesn’t know where this 170-some figure that the mayor’s spokesman spewed out comes from — and that 57% of them had not committed felonies. The resolution also these detention orders to house these detaines for the additional 48 hours after their local charges had been resolved cost county taxpayers just over $1 million in 2011 and $667,000 in 2012 — not the low-ball figure the mayor’s office provided.

Furthermore, “a policy of blanket compliance with Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers could undermine trust between local police officers and the immigrant community of Miami-Dade.”

Commissioners loved the resolution so much that five more signed on to co-sponsor. They voted 10-0 to honor detention requests “only if the federal government agrees in writing to reimburse Miami-Dade County for any and all costs relating to compliance.”

Nothing has changed since then. It’s not like Trump suddenly whipped out a federal checkbook and wrote the county a check to cover our costs.

“How does he get around a commission resolution,” asked Commissioner Xavier Suarez, perhaps verbalizing the question everyone wants to know. “He did not act in a collegial way,” he told Ladra.

Suarez would have preferred that Gimenez had taken more time and weighed his option and noted the response of Broward and Palm Beach counties, which was to require court orders.

Gimenez even had political cover: He could have told The Donald or anyone pressuring from the federal government that he had to wait until the commission could meet as a whole. After all, it should be their decision. Right?

Another legitimate question for commissioners to ask is where is the money going to come from to comply with this executive order? If this Trump administration’s reputation sticks, the number of detention orders will likely surge. I’d go with the $1 million figure from 2011 and maybe double that. Will we have to cut more than the boot camp?

It’s hard to see where any vote on this might go. But we have at least one more protest on Tuesday to show commissioners just how the community feels about it. 

Gimenez missed the first protest Friday, when residents who were peacefully demonstrating against the change in policy were blocked from entering a public building. He apparently took off out of town right after his executive order and did not come back until Monday. But it seems he doesn’t care what anyone else thinks.

The mayor did not reach out to Heyman or Bovo or any of the other commissioners before making his decision. But they’ve been supportive in public statements. Bovo, a Republican like Gimenez, has been more supportive than Heyman, a Democrat who has told the press that Gimenez was caught between a rock and a hard place.

Perhaps that is the way he’ll justify completely going over the commission’s head and against their resolution — because it was a fiscal emergency. That holds no water, though, because there is no looming deadline and some question as to the federal government’s jurisdiction in the first place.

There is no indication the mayor sought the advice of anyone in the finance department about the fiscal impact. There is no indication that he sought the legal opinion of our very well-paid county attorneys, despite the fact that cities across the nation have questioned the legality of Trump’s threat. There was no discussion about what it might cost the county in legal battles, as Levine Cava said. Ladra has asked for any communication between the mayor and the county attorney’s office, which you think they’d be able to provide rather quickly if it was something discussed recently, y nada.

As usual, this seems like it was just another knee-jerk reaction from someone who is supposed to be oh so experienced in public administration. Or maybe it’s more nefarious. His lobbyist son, CJ Gimenez, opened a new consulting firm to lobby the federal government based on his connection to the Trump organization, which he lobbied for in Doral. Could this be a way to make good with Trump after endorsing Hillary last fall?

And what’s next? I mean, if Gimenez can willy nilly just ignore a unanimously-approved commission resolution and issue his own conflicting executive order against it just to make nice with the president, what might come next?

If President Trump threatens to withhold federal funding to cities and counties that recognize and mitigate climate change and sea level rise, will Gimenez jump to scrap the mediocre efforts he’s bragged about too much for two straight years.

And what happens if Trump threatens to withhold federal dollars from any municipality that recognizes and respects transgender rights? Will Gimenez again jump however high to please his son’s former client and new greasy wheel?

Betha more county commissoiners will step forward to oppose him then.