Maybe nobody had heard of him in Coral Gables before Jorge Fors, Jr., decided to run for city commission. But they may have heard of him at the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
The city commission candidate has gotten 31 traffic tickets in 18 years.
A 2008 photo from Jorge Fors’ Facebook page shows the open container charge in 2005 was not an isolated incident.
He was also arrested three times in his indiscriminate youth, although he may have been allowed to sign his “promise to appear.” One was for underage drinking in 2003 in Gainesville, another was for open container in 2005 — probably at a UF game — and a third for unauthorized possession of a driver’s license in 2003, which sounds like he probably had a fake ID found on him when Florida Highway Patrol stopped him for speeding in St. Lucie County on the same date. He got pre-trial diversion for the first two charges but nolle pros on the third.
Read related: Ralph Cabrera outraises opponents in 4-way commission race
Fors is running for the open seat vacated by a retiring Commissioner Frank Quesada against three other, better known candidates: Former Commissioner Ralph Cabrera, onetime city manager Carmen Olazabal, and downtown property owner Jackson “Rip” Holmes. It’s certainly not going to help Fors for more Gables voters to know that he has amassed 31 traffic tickets since 2000. And while, sure, many of them were in his more indiscriminate youth — eight are in 2002 when he was 19 — he had his license suspended in 2015. We know because he got a ticket for knowingly driving with his license suspended.
The most recent ticket is for running a red light in 2016.
Read related: Coral Gables candidate Jorge Fors had illegal Homestead exemption
Of course, Fors says that wasn’t him. That was his father, who has the same name. And, we supposed, Papi was driving his car, too? In any case, these came up under his name and date of birth, not his dad’s.
In fact, Fors (pictured on a motorcycle here from a vacation photo posted on Facebook) has an excuse for everything. This is the same guy who told Ladra that he had a right to claim Homestead exemption on a condo in Little Havana for at least eight years while he lived with his parents in Coral Gables. He said this after he already paid $14,000 in back taxes, interest and penalties for having claimed that exemption fraudulently. So he knew he had no right and still tried to excuse himself.
There are also three tickets for running red lights, three more for blowing through stop signs, three for speeding — one looks like speeding in a school zone — and at least one careless driving ticket. He had no excuses for those.
And for someone who drives like he does, he takes too many chances: Fors was also cited three times for not wearing his seat belt.
Read related: Coral Gables candidate Jorge Fors stirs annexation fears for votes
Fors would not return several calls and texts to his cellphone inquiring about the arrests. He ignored more than one text specifically asking about the arrests. This is his emailed defense, in its entirety, for his traffic history:

“As a young driver, I was cited for avoidable things like failing to have proof of insurance or registration, as well as some citations resulting from inexperience but, as a 35-year old father, I can promise you that I am a safe and responsible driver.
But have you analyzed the details of these citations?  I’ve only ever been found ‘guilty’ of three citations my entire life.
With regard to ‘speeding,’ I’ve only been stopped for  ‘speeding’ three (3) times in my entire life and I was only found guilty of actually speeding in the case of one ticket.  One being dismissed, and the other being withheld.  Keep in mind, the most recent one was almost 12 years ago, and before that 15 years ago.  I don’t think it’s fair to say that I have an issue with speeding.
With respect to red lights, it’s a similar situation.  There is only one (1) red light camera ticket in 2014 for which I was found guilty. I never received any notice in the mail about this one so I don’t know much about it.  I learned of it long after they entered the fine and the time to pay it expired — I tried to complain but eventually gave up and just paid it.  The 2013 and 2016 tickets were also red light cameras.  The 2016 one was not me, it was my father (same name). The one in 2013 was dismissed (I believe I showed that I was simply making a right turn on red), and one in 2010, over 8 years ago, was not a red light camera, and it was withheld.

Anyplace else, voters might shrug their shoulders. But this is Coral Gables, where some residential streets recently got 25MPH zone signs to slow traffic down. Two years ago, former Commissioner Jeannett Slesnick — who voted against the reduced speed limit because she said police just needed to enforce the 30MPH limit — lost the mayoral race by just 187 votes after Raul Valdes-Fauli painted her as a racecar-driving speed demon in attack mailers that may have worked.
Gables voters are not going to like this about Fors. No wonder the police union couldn’t give him their support (they endorsed Cabrera).
Following is a list of traffic citations for Jorge Fors, Jr., and dates issued as well as criminal arrests:

Read Full Story

The videos circulating on social media are shocking: Groups of men pummel people to the ground; women brawl on the street, ripping the weaves from each other’s heads; a man punches a woman in the face and knocks her out; people drink openly in vehicles and, despite closing Ocean Drive — or maybe because of it — traffic is a nightmare.
Welcome to Miami Beach Spring Break 2019, where — despite a public outreach campaign and the expenditure of $700,000 in overtime to put a cop on every corner — the chaos is such that some people in South Beach feel trapped in their homes. Many feel police have lost control.
Where is Mayor Dan Gelber amidst all this? Well, he’s having a fundraiser at the Miami Beach Golf Club on Alton Road Tuesday night.
Gelber, who is so far unopposed, probably scheduled this in advance. But it was poor planning. And perhaps it should be cancelled.
Read related: Miami Beach commission election gets interesting already
After all, if the situation is such that you have to call an emergency city commission meeting for Tuesday morning because your police department is losing control of the streets, then maybe you shouldn’t be asking folks to fund the extension of your job Tuesday evening.
At least one Miami Beach voter posted that “hosting a fundraising event in the middle of the current traffic and crime crisis is an incredibly clueless and callous act.”
Also, Gelber has already raised $71,960 in just one month, according the the last and only filed campaign finance report ending Feb. 28. With no real challenge, he could have easily postponed this powwow.

Read Full Story

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

Read Full Story

Miami Beach City Manager Jimmy Morales will likely get a four-year contract extension at Wednesday’s meeting and a salary increase to $305,736.
In a move that is largely a rubber stamp vote, Morales — who was hired in 2013 for $255,000 a year — will also get an increase in retirement contribution, from $7,000 to what the IRS allows, an increase in car allowance to $800 a month.
But he may also have to deliver on several beach projects since, for the first time, there seem to be goals and objectives attached.
Read related: Jimmy Morales contract extended at ‘secret’ meeting, raise coming
It’s a rubber stamp move because the city commission already discussed this in secret at a committee of the whole meeting last month. The only commissioner to dissent then was Michael Gongora, who did not like the secretive way the contract extension was pushed.
Why this had to be discussed first at a meeting that has no real public notice and no real public participation, at a meeting in the manager’s conference room rather than the public commission chambers, is beyond anyone’s comprehension. As is why this was added to the agenda at the last minute.
Ricky Arriola, who chairs the finance committee and was charged with negotiating the terms, sponsors the resolution, which was added to the agenda late Tuesday in what seems like yet another attempt to get this passed with as little public input as possible.
The contract comes with a goals and objectives that basically amount to a list of deadlines: the Beach Walk, Lincoln Road renovations and the convention center hotel within three years, city automation and electronic filing of permits within two years, and significant progress on Bay Walk and the North Beach Town Center, among other projects.
Some of the deadlines are in four years — which is at the end of the contract.

Read Full Story

There were completely polar opposite reactions to the performance of two commission candidates after the first Coral Gables candidate forum last week.
Former commissioner Ralph Cabrera, who spoke with authority and experience, got the endorsement of the Coral Gables Police union. Former interim city manager Carmen Olazabal lost a key supporter.
“I walked out and have withdrawn support or endorsement of candidate Carmen Olazabal as she surprisingly completely ignored extensive pre-debate prepping and public speaking training I and others undertook to enhance her showing and opportunity to impress the public,” wrote Gonzalo Sanabria on his Facebook page Friday, the morning after the Coral Gables Chamber forum.
“Please be aware I’ve retracted my endorsement and thanks to all of you in hopes you vote for the best candidate of your choice come next April.”
Read related: Commission candidate Carmen Olazabal can’t rewrite ugly past
While Ladra is glad Sanabria, a failed candidate himself, has seen the light, we can’t help but wonder what in the world made him think he was capable of prepping anyone?
And, also, if Olazabal needed “enhancement” then why support her in the first place? Would the enhancement continue into office?
It was a 180-degree difference when it came to the Fraternal Order of Police endorsement that Cabrera got Tuesday, which showed true confidence in a candidate.
“We appreciate your past service to the city of Coral Gables along with your current vision to keep the citizens safe and to address our ever-increasing traffic flow problems,” wrote President Javier Bruzos.
“The respect and caring with which you treat our residents, employees and the law enforcement community is an example for us all to follow,” Bruzos wrote. “The members of the Fraternal Order of Police are excited to have someone with your experience and understanding of what makes Coral Gables one of the best cities in the United States as our commissioner.”
Read related: Coral Gables candidate Jorge Fors had illegal Homestead exemption
There’s another candidate in the race, but Jorge Fors has been sliding back into the oblivion from which he came after it was disclosed on this very blog that he cheated the county through Homestead exemption fraud for at least eight years. He did pay a penalty in January for seven of those years, because he was running for office probably.
The next candidate forum in Coral Gables is on Thursday at the Coco Plum Woman’s Club, 1375 Sunset Drive. Doors open at 6 p.m.

Read Full Story

Voters will get to decide if the newly created elected Miami-Dade sheriff’s seat, tax collector and supervisor of elections will be partisan positions or not after the county commission voted last week to put the referendum on the 2020 ballot.
The sheriff’s position was created last year by voters who also made the elections head and tax collector elected positions rather than appointees of the mayor. The property appraiser’s seat was already a nonpartisan elected office, as are the county mayor and commission seats, as are most municipal offices.
“The positions of Sheriff, Property Appraiser, Tax Collector, and Supervisor of Elections are positions that our residents should have the right to select, endorse, and vote on the basis of merit, regardless of party affiliation,” said Commissioner Esteban Bovo, who sponsored the resolution.
But who is he kidding? Campaigns for these seats have increasingly become partisan, especially as Democrats — who have a majority of the voters in Miami-Dade but have not had a majority of elected representatives — try to seed the bench at the local level to create viable candidates for state office.
Read related: Dems push full court press for Eileen Higgins in special District 5 county race
It really started to be obvious in the 2014 race between Daniella Levine-Cava and former Commissioner Lynda Bell, the incumbent. Democrats poured tons of resources into the Levine-Cava campaign and had impact.
Last year, Democrats helped Commissioner Eileen Higgins win a special election over two Republicans who were better known.
In 2016, local Dems scrambled to find a challenger to Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, who himself toyed with changing his party in a publicity stunt orchestrated by Hillary Clinton supporters, which included his spokesman and one of his campaign managers.
And Dems are not losing hope: They want a blue mayor in 2020.
Read related: Carlos Gimenez’s party switch talk is consistent, distracting
Kendall Democrats President Bryan Hernandez, who worked on the Donna Shalala for Congress and Heath Rassner for State House campaigns last year — said as much in an op-ed he wrote this week for the Community Newspapers:
“Our county is in desperate need of visionary, smart leadership. The mayor who succeeds Carlos Gimenez must be a Democrat who will tackle the serious issues facing Miami-Dade,” noting there are a number of Democrats running. Those include Levine-Cava and former Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas.
“I’m a 23-year-old professional who’s starting off his career in Miami. Affordable housing, public transit, and sea level rise are critical issues to me,” Hernandez said. “If a politician wants my vote in the 2020 mayoral election, they need to propose bold solutions to these problems.
He goes on to write about the issues the next mayor will have to face (because this mayor sure won’t, which includes climate change, traffic, affordable housing and “the growing level of inequality.” But it makes one wonder: Do you have to be a Democrat to care about those things.
Hernandez also talks about the rich getting richer with developers who live off the politicians they buy — but Ladra’s experience is that this practice is also bipartisan.
Read related: Political musical chairs: Recycled electeds vie for 2020 seats
“Miami-Dade County is ground zero for both issues. The next mayor must lead us through these great challenges and secure a good future for me and my generation of Miamians,” Hernandez writes. “I call on local Democratic clubs, progressive groups, and all those tired with this corrupt, abysmal leadership to start planning for the goal of electing a bold Democratic mayor in 2020. That work must begin now.”
On the one hand, these races should be nonpartisan. It’s the right thing to do so that Independent voters aren’t shut out of the process or so that one party doesn’t dominate a race. But, on the other hand, is it really going to matter? Unless there are rules and penalties for bringing up partisanship in non partisan elections, there will always be the campaigns that use the R or the D to their advantage.
Even if the letter is invisible.

Read Full Story