Andrew Vargas, the Republican candidate in the special election for House 114 to replace Daisy Baez, hasn’t confirmed to an invitation to the first debate for the seat, held by the League of Women Voters this coming Tuesday.
He won’t. He can’t. Because it is much easier for Vargas to attack Democrat Javier Fernandez with fake voter letters and a secret political action committee that doesn’t file required financial reports than it is to discuss the issues, which would show what an empty suit he is and expose him as the proxy for his business partner and puppeteer, U.S. Ambassador and former State Rep. Carlos Trujillo.
When Ladra called Vargas to ask why he hadn’t confirmed, he hemmed and hawed. “I have an event in the Gables the 19th,” he finally said. “Wait. Is it the 19th?” No, it’s the 17th, I corrected him. “Well, um, er, right now we’re doing the whole absentee ballot thing,” he said, adding that he would call me back later that evening, after 6 p.m.
Surprise, surprise. He didn’t. He wouldn’t. Don’t worry. Ladra didn’t expect him to. Just as we didn’t expect him to pick up the phone again when I called him again twice later (not now that he has me on caller ID). Just as I didn’t expect him to respond to the text I sent after he didn’t respond to the second phone call.
Nobody should expect him to call because Ladra had some difficult questions that he doesn’t want to answer, which is why he won’t go to the debate on Tuesday, which is really at least a couple of weeks late since absentee ballots were sent out last week and already 7,131 voters (or almost 30% of the ones that went out) have mailed them back in as of Friday. By Tuesday, it could be twice as many. Really. Ladra is not even sure Vargas will show up to the Miami Herald editorial board screening the next day (Sorry Nancy). Because (1) he thinks he doesn’t have to, (2) he really doesn’t have a leg to stand on and (3) he knows that Fernandez is going to Facebook Live the shit out of it, exposing his ignorance on the issues.
Also — its why he didn’t call me back or pick up subsequent phone calls — he doesn’t want to answer a bunch of uncomfortable questions:

Why did you change seats? You were filed to run in District 119, where State Rep. Jeannette Nunez (R-Doral) is termed out this year. Makes sense. You have roots there. You wouldn’t have to move. Why did you switch?
Will you run in HD 119 if you lose here?
How long did you live in District 119?
Do you live in District 114 now? How long have you lived there? Or do you plan to move there? This is especially important in this district because the last state rep lived a few blocks away in 112.
Why did you change from a Democrat to Republican in 2016? Did Trujillo “suggest” it?
Can you explain what it means to be the second most litigious attorney in the state when it comes to those sketchy “assignment of benefits” lawsuits against insurance companies? How many of those cases have you filed? And how does that affect rising insurance rates for everyone?
How much do you  pay for your insurance?
How much of your campaign contributions come from the insurance industry (including trial lawyers)
Are these kind of opportunistic switches, underhanded tricks and lack of access or accountability what we can expect if you are, either by sheer miracle or absentee ballot fraud, actually elected?

Vargas isn’t going to answer these questions. Not to me and not at any debate. Ladra asks voters to ask him directly when they see him — if they see him anywhere in either 114 or 119 — but I expect he’ll smile and shrug his shoulders and back away slowly. This is the kind of guy que tira la piedra y esconde la mano. Or he has someone else do the dirty work for him.
The anonymous attacks on Fernandez, for example, are almost certainly coming from his campaign.
The fake voter testimonials and other attack mailers from a PAC called People for a Progressive Florida with no financial activity — which should be investigated because mailers do not get made and mailed for free — are the way that Vargas speaks. It’s really pretty obvious. Sure, the attacks are made to look like they benefit Liz de las Cuevas, the independent who has denied knowing anything about the mailers or the JaviLobby.com website that attacks the Dem candidate for his profession. De las Cuevas has no money in her own campaign account (actually, she is in the red, spending $345 more than the $5,165 she raised) and wouldn’t know what to do with that money if she had it). Most likely, these are sneaky attempts by the Vargas campaign (read: Trujillo) to suppress the Democrat vote and peel NPAs off Fernandez. It’s smart, considering that Baez snatched this seat from under the nose of the better funded Republican John Couriel after Erik Fresen was termed out. And this was before unnatural disaster known as the Donald Trump Presidency produced the prediction of a national blue wave.
Of course the GOP candidates are turning to every dirty tactic to regain this seat.
Because Vargas isn’t going to be Trujillo’s bitch exclusively. Sure, he’s a proxy for Trujillo, who is President Donald Trump‘s Cuban amigacho and is now U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States, but, at the same time, doesn’t want to lose the sizeable palanca he’s built in the Sunshine State. But Vargas was also always a proxy for the Republican Party (read: incoming House Speaker Jose Oliva), even when he was running in the other seat just the other day.
He switched to 114 as soon a Baez was caught living outside the district and was publicly pressured to resign for having lied about it. In fact, dicen las malas lenguas that Trujillo may have executive produced that public pressure by calling on his Miami-Dade Republican Party friends to plan a series of picturesque picket protests in front of Baez’s District 112 house, custom made for video, that were covered by the local press (including yours truly). Why? Because it’s easier for this Pepe Cualquiera proxy to win a seat in a special low-turnout election (just add gobs of money).
Vargas has raised $416,000 between his campaign account and money spent by the PAC he is obviously connected with, which is Citizens for Accountable Government, which gets its money from other PACs that get a lot of their money from a lot of healthcare interests and Sunshine Gasoline Distributors, who also gave generously to Vargas. The money includes a $60K loan to himself, almost $80,000 in money and staff and research from the Republican Party of Florida, and small bundled donations from the Munilla brothers, who built the FIU bridge and other things all over the county, HCA Florida hospitals — yes, the one where former Gov. Rick Scott was CEO when they bilked millions from Medicare — Disney and a few others (like auto mogul Norman Braman).
But if you add up the ten or so mailers and the money spent by People for a Progressive Florida, you have… wait, you can’t add those expenses up because the secret PAC has not reported any contributions or expenses. Ladra doesn’t know how they managed to send so many mailers or host a website but DM me please and tell me what your secret is. Okay, if we estimate what that PAC has spent, it’s at least $200,000, conservatively. So that’s a total of $616,000 that we know of. So far.
Meanwhile, Fernandez, has about raised $141,524 in his campaign account with a few bundles of his own, including at least $22,000 from a group of construction and real estate companies or entities at the same six addresses in New York. His Florida Future PAC — which has launched a saynotovargas.com website, has collected another $33,725, about $30K of which is from the same NY construction and real estate firms.
But Ladra is certain of one thing: We will ask Mr. Fernandez about the interest of those New York donors and he will answer, because he has never avoided my calls and even returned a text once after 11:30 p.m. That’s the accessibility you want from your electeds, by the way, Mr. Vargas.
But we can wait until the debate Tuesday and ask Fernandez there. Because he will be there. So will de las Cuevas. The only one who can’t speak for himself is Vargas.
The Miami-Dade League of Women Voters will be taking questions in advance submitted to info@lwvmiamidade.org. Questions may also be submitted in writing the evening of the forum before it begins at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 17th (not the 19th, Mr. Vargas) at the Riviera Presbyterian Church, 5275 Sunset Drive.

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If you live or work near Miami Beach City Hall, you may have seen the big black billboard truck circling around this week with City Manager Jimmy Morales‘ face plastered on all sides. Yes, from far away it did look a little like Roger Stone’s face. It wasn’t.
“Shame on you, City Manager Jimmy Morales” reads the back of the truck. “Public safety workers deserve fair pay,” reads the side.
And no, this is not the police or fire union attacking Morales. It’s the Communications Workers of America Local 3178, which represents close to 400 employees, mostly lifeguards and 911 dispatchers — the other people whose jobs it is to save lives — but also clerical and code enforcement workers.
After more than two years of getting zero cost of living increases and ahead of Friday’s impasse hearing at City Hall, the largest union in Miami Beach — and the one with the most women and minorities — has ramped up its campaign calling on city leaders to treat them the same as the other city unions, all of which have gotten salary adjustments since 2015.
And they have recently gotten the support of the For Our Future Action Fund political action committee, led by Ashley Walker, former Obama for America state director who now works at Mercury Partners. In a short time, For Our Future has launched a website called MiamiBeachEverydayHeroes.com, an online advertising campaign (photographed right) calling Morales a union buster, at least one direct snail mailer and the traveling billboard. The group has also collected about 1,000 signatures in support of the workers.
Florida Division of Elections documents show that For Our Future Action Fund was created in 2016 and funded with $80,000 from a Washington DC PAC with the same name. It spent all that money on phone banks and political mailers in Palm Beach Gardens last year. There has been no expense other than bank fees since then through the end of March and April expenditures or contributions have not yet been reported so we don’t know who is financing this campaign.
But the union leadership felt as if they had no other choice but to get professional help getting their message out.
“The city manager hasn’t negotiated in good faith,” said union president Rich McKinnon. “We’re going to show tomorrow what we’re asking for and how much it costs versus how much it cost for the other employees.” He would not make the analysis available to Political Cortadito until after Friday’s hearing.
This battle has been a long time coming, however. The city declared impasse on the union negotiations more than a year ago. It took six months to agree on and argue before a special magistrate and another six months or so for the special magistrate to issue his recommendations and then no time at all for Morales to decline all of them. He dangled a small raise in front of the union, but only if they gave up other benefits, such as any right they have to go before the somewhat still powerful city personnel board with gripes or complaints. McKinnon said he is not willing to do that.
“I asked the city manager if he put that into the other contracts, and of course he didn’t,” McKinnon told Ladra, stressing that they just want to be treated equally.
The move certainly seems punitive and is not very flattering to Morales, who was once the personification of government ethics when he served as a county commissioner but has fallen quite far down the slippery slope since he crossed to the dark side.
McKinnon further explained that the CWA workers accepted necessary cuts in the past when the city was short on resources, but always with the idea that they would be made whole when the economic slowdown has ended. Currently, he added, the city has a surplus of about $9 million, while employees are still struggling.
One of those is Janelle Gilbert, a former schoolteacher who started as a lifeguard at the Flamingo Park public pool, the largest aquatic center of three in the city, and is now a supervisor there. A single mom who lives on $24.10 an hour in a one bedroom apartment two blocks from the park, Gilbert is proud to serve as a city Goodwill Ambassador and her 13-year-old son is a Police Athletic League volunteer. But she thought her promotion a few years back would mean her situation would improve.
“I’m grateful for my 40 hours but there’s not much difference because the cost of living keeps going up,” she told Ladra.
A 3 percent raise for Gilbert would represent about 75 cents an hour, but if she gets it retroactive — which is what sources tell Ladra the workers want — it could represent $300 or $400 a month more. “That’s a lot for a single mom,” Gilbert said. “I could get a new apartment for me and my son. That is life changing.”
Morales, McKinnon says, is standing in the way for no reason. It would only take about a third of this year’s surplus to make the workers whole again, he added.
Hmmm… isn’t that about the same amount of money that was stolen electronically from the city by someone who got the city’s bank account numbers and started transferring funds right under Morales’ unaware nose?
In fact, the trouble with the CWA contract started about the time the money started to go missing. Is Morales trying to make the shortage up on the literal backs of lifeguards and 911 call takers?
The impasse hearing begins at 9 a.m. tomorrow at City Hall, but don’t expect any updates in real time. McKinnon told Ladra late Thursday that the city had informed them that the meeting would not be televised and that there would be no public comments allowed.

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Why does everyone have their panties up in a bunch over Miami-Dade Carlos Gimenez‘s trip to China with some of his favorite BFF lobbyists? I mean, the guy couldn’t go to France again this year for the umpteenth time. Been there, done that.
And he’s only got two more years to go before he is termed out in 2020. Might as well see the world with his wife and have taxpayers and lobbyists pay the tab.
But while the mayor’s travel habits are not necessarily surprising, this tour of Asia — 16 days for 49 people, including 19 (!!) county employees — is certainly and rightfully raising eyebrows.
To begin with, there is no way on Earth that, even if China had the best and cheapest rapid buses for us, we need 19 county people on that trip to make that determination. Sure, there were other opportunities. But we are talking about a list that includes Vice Mayor Ed Marquez, Commissioners Jose “Pepe” Diaz, Audrey Edmonson, Barbara Jordan and Jean Monestime as well as four department directors. Commissioner Diaz, who was a host as chairman of the International Trade Consortium, took two aides (bet they were both pretty) while the other commissioners had to do with just one. Los pobres.
The trip was paid with both public and private funds (not that the private funds make it any better). Expenses for Gimenez, the commissioners and some staff were paid entirely by the “Trade Mission Center of the Americas Business Development Mission,” according to his spokestaff. But it looks like there were $10,000 contributions to that fund from each the PortMiami, the county aviation department and the water and sewer department for a total of $30,000, at least, in taxpayer funds.
Read related story: Miami-Dade mayor, lobbyist pals head to Paris Air Show
Another $33,283 is being paid by the respective departments for expenses incurred by Aviation Director Lester Sola, PortMiami Director Juan Kuryla, Water and Sewer Director Kevin Lynskey and Transit Director Alice Bravo, whose estimated expenses are higher by at least $3,000 than the next guy’s. That’s all taxpayer money, too.
Now, before any of you crony apologists start talking about how China is a leading trade partner at PortMiami and the airport and represents a lot of potential growth for South Florida, let me remind you that none of that is contingent on 19 county employees being paid their taxpayer funded paychecks to spend two weeks touring five cities in Asia. In fact, nobody had to go to China, or Japan for that matter, to learn about how the the buses or airlines operate there — or, as Gimenez eventually learned, that the Chinese bus passenger system wouldn’t work here. This is 2018. There is video conferencing, virtual town halls and even facetime. Gimenez and company could virtually ride the rapid bus in China from the comfort of their County Hall offices.
But this wasn’t really about that. This was about providing vacation memories and some graft opportunities to the Gimenez friends and family plan, including close buds-for-life Ralph Garcia Toledo, Marcelo Llorente and Jesse Manzano, three lobbyists and Gimenez campaign operatives who just coincidentally win bids for multi million dollar contracts. Garcia Toledo — who was also on the Paris trip (as well as Llorente) — even has a no-show, mostly clerical job at the water and sewer department for $200 an hour. Ladra can’t help but wonder if another job for the friends and family club was discussed over dim sum in Shanghai.
Did you happen to see Gimenez’s reaction when Univision’s Erika Carillo asked him about the presence of those very BFF lobbyists on the trip? Talk about looking guilty! He went on a tirade, raising his voice and pointing fingers. You have to see it. Thank the journalism gods for Carillo, who is doing what many in Miami’s mainstream media refuse to do — which is simply ask the right questions, no matter how awkward and no matter if the mayor or one of his mouthpieces threatens you with the loss of access.
Read related story: Mayor’s pal Garcia-Toledo eats lobster with county staffers
This interview is fantastic. Someone in law enforcement has to watch it because Gimenez is sweating bullets.
Carillo also exposed that 30% of trip expenses was paid for by lobbyists and companies that do business with the county, like AECOM and Nova Consulting, to the tune of $31,800 of the $92,350 tab. Hey, somebody had to pay for the $21,000 in estimated hotel costs.
In addition to the three Gimenez amigos other lobbyists in the delegation included Jose “Chino” Fuentes, his partner Jose Bermudez, Alex Heckler and Al Maloof, who all have pretty tight relationships with the mayor (Heckler has held fundraisers for him and Maloof used to employ his daughter-in-law). Also in the group was Wynwood property snatcher and developer Moishe Mana, who gave $7,500 for the trip (most lobbyists ponied up $2K) and who has already proposed a new trade show for Chinese apparel and textiles, which may need permits or subsidies from the county.
“Doesn’t this cause a bad perception,” Carillo asked the mayor on camera before he went off on her.
Yes, Erika, there is definitely a stink in the air. It is left there by lobbyists who pay for access to the mayor and also arm candy, showing prospective Chinese clients and hopeful county contractors that they have the mayor’s ear should said Chinese clients need to hire a lobbyist. It is left there by the mayor himself who tells you that the company that paid for his trip wasn’t one of the ones that do business with the county (read: not yet anyway). And it is left there by the suspicion that there were secret negotiations taking place — especially now that we know the mayor has “confidential” discussions with potential bidders on important county projects like the new courthouse (more on that later).
And let’s not forget the stink left by a “trade mission” by Miami-Dade electeds to China, where human rights abuses are rampant and businesses cannot act independently without the explicit approval of the government, which is a little jarring and a lot hypocritical. This is the very same county that supports banning businesses that do trade in Cuba and Venezuela for the very same reasons.
According to Human Rights Watch: “More than three decades after pledging to “reform and open up,” there are few signs the Chinese Communist Party intends to change its authoritarian posture. Under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, who will remain in power until 2022 and possibly beyond, the outlook for fundamental human rights, including freedoms of expression, assembly, association and religion, remains dire.” This protest demanding the freedom of political prisoners in Beijing, pictured left, happened about a week after the mayor and his pals left.
Why is China different? Is it because we don’t have a Chinese American on the commission? Is it because we don’t have a large Chinese American voting base?
Nobody who has been on this Asia trip has the moral authority ever again to vote against Odebrecht or anyone else because they have business partners in Cuba or in Venezuela. And yes, I am talking to you, Pepe Diaz.
Which brings us to yet another reason why at least the China leg of this trip was a waste of time. There are some commissioners — Chairman Esteban Bovo as well as Rebeca Sosa, Javier Souto and Joe Martinez — who would not support any business with any Communist Chinese train manufacturer that doesn’t respect human rights and probably employs 12-year-olds. Ladra suspects that whoever replaces Commissioner Bruno Barreiro — who resigned the other day so he could focus on the congressional race he is going to lose in November — will also vote against a Chinese project as would Commissioners Xavier Suarez and Daniella Levine-Cava for the same reasons. That means an anti-Chinese commission majority.
But, again, none of this really matters for the mayor and his pals who are just on a mission to fill their scrapbooks with as many global monument pics as possible. Next stop is probably Qatar. Gimenez met last week with His Highness Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, Emir of the State of Qatar, and the mayor showed him his own kingdom from his perch on the 29th floor (photograph to the left).
“We discussed investment opportunities in Miami-Dade County and ways to expand the relationship between our respective communities,” Gimenez posted on Facebook.
It doesn’t matter that His Highness the sheikh tolerates and likely promotes the abuse and exploitation of migrant workers and that poets in Qatar are sentenced to 15 years in prison when their prose is critical of the ruling family.
What matters is that Gimenez doesn’t have that stamp in his passport.
 

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The Coral Gables City Commission is poised to approve a mostly symbolic ban on the sale of assault weapons — there are no gun stores in the City Beautiful — even though state law prohibits cities from enacting gun restrictions and they could be removed from office.
Let’s keep our trigger fingers crossed.
Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli sponsored the measure, which is on the agenda as a first reading, in the wake of the Parkland school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High last month, where 14 students and three educators were gunned down by a 19-year-old with an AR-15. On Feb. 27, almost two weeks to the day, Valdes-Fauli led the commission in a 4-0 vote (Commissioner Vince Lago had left early, wink wink) to instruct a very unwilling city attorney to write the ordinance with the ban and bring it back to them.
This is pretty much campaign theater for a mayor who has already decided he wants another term next year. Valdes-Fauli has gotten quite a bit of ink and air time from this gimmick, so of course he’s going to ignore City Attorney Miriam Ramos’ warnings about this being an invalid act and the potential consequences — fines of up to $5,000 and removal from office.
Valdes-Fauli told any reporter who gave him a minute that he would gladly pay the price. “If that helps prevent the death of one of Coral Gables’ children, I would happily pay it,” he was quoted as saying in the Miami Herald.
Except it won’t save anyone’s life. Because, as we said in the first sentence, there is no gun store in Coral Gables. So, even if the law passed and remained valid, someone could buy an AR-15 in Coconut Grove and bring it to Miracle Mile. And, also, if he is removed from office it will likely be because the ordinance is illegal. So he’s done nothing.
Jack Thompson, a Gables resident and City Hall pain in the trolley, says that the mayor and his cohorts who vote yes on this must be removed from office by the governor. That it’s not a matter of maybe. That it’s not a choice.
“Should this renegade Coral Gables Commission actually pass its ordinance Tuesday, which calls for violating state law, please proceed with summarily removing all those voting to do so from their offices,” Thompson wrote over the weekend in a letter to Gov. Rick Scott. “The statute in question MANDATES their removal. It does not give you, Governor Scott, the option not to remove them, as the operative word in the removal statute is ‘shall,’ the most powerful command verb in the English language.”
Oh, please let him be right. Everybody but Lago, who has apparently told people he will vote against the ordinance Tuesday, is a waste of space up there anyway. Let’s clean house. Voters need a do over, too.
That’s not to say that Ladra isn’t for a statewide ban on assault weapons. But the way to do it is a binding referendum question on the ballot, which some people are trying to get for the 2020 election. Ladra would like to see it on this year’s ballot, while the momentum is there. This is what the city of Coral Gables should be doing. Pressuring their legislators in Tallahassee and Washington D.C. to pass a wider ban. Because what good is a ban in Coral Gables if some nut can cross the street and get an AR-15 in West Miami or Coconut Grove.
That is the weapon that Nikolas Cruz used to kill 17 people on Feb. 14. It was purchased in a Coral Springs strip mall. Yet, you don’t see Coral Springs Mayor Skip Campbell, whose community is right next to Parkland, moving to pass an illegal ban that would mean nada. Instead, he wants to collect petitions to put it on the 2020 ballot and let voters do what our Republican legislators won’t.
Because the desire to ban these weapons of war and high-capacity magazines is very real. A Quinnipiac University poll done the week after the Broward school shooting, 67% of the respondents said they were in favor of a nationwide ban on the sale of assault weapons.
But what Valdes-Fauli and his yes people are doing is not so real. It’s theater. It’s a PR stunt to make them look good because gun control suddenly became the hip new thing for politicians to embrace as the teenagers becoming 18-year-old voters demand it.
And it could even be illegal.
“Coral Gables‘ City Attorney Miriam Ramos has publicly and rightly informed the Commission that she will not certify as legal its vote to violate this law,” Thompson wrote in his letter to the guv. “She is a lawyer who takes seriously both her oath upon becoming  lawyer to obey and support the law and her oath of office as City Attorney. If this ordinance is passed, she will not sign off on it.”
Indeed, “the city attorney’s opinion regarding the ordinance remains unchanged,” says the memo in tomorrow’s agenda package.
“You have to love a client who pays its lawyer, with tax dollars, to give legal advice which it chooses to ignore,” wrote Thompson. “Sounds like we have a local manifestation of Trump.”
You know who else are lawyers? Valdes-Fauli and Commissioner Mike Mena. One would think they would know better.
“The Florida Bar has remedies for such brazen oath-breaking,” Thompson wrote, and Ladra has no doubt he is seeking their disbarment.
 

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Someone is at it again in Miami Beach — and everyone thinks it’s Michael Grieco.
A campaign mailer arrived in mailboxes last week telling voters about the sweet deal $50,000 job that former Commissioner Joy Malakoff had gotten offered to her by Mayor Dan Gelber. Except that there was no disclaimer on the anonymous piece. And Malakoff isn’t up for election.
But she isn’t the only one targeted in the piece, which quotes Political Cortadito and also has photos of Gelber and Micky Steinberg, who Malakoff gave campaign contributions to. The mayor seems to be the main target, repeatedly calling him unethical. “Did you actually think it would be different with Gelber? Ask Mayor Gelber to explain this unethical payoff attempt,” it reads on the front.
The back of the mailer takes a stab at a general bond referendum the city wants to put on the November ballot.
“…and Mayor Gelber wants us to approve more of our money for a general obligation bond with no specific information on projects and his political friends like Malakoff lurking in the shadows?”
Reated: Ex Miami Beach elected Joy Malakoff got, then dropped juicy $50K job
It also thanks Commissioners Michael Gongora and Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, who not only voted against the palanca position but asked the questions that caused the whole community to raise a collective eyebrow and Malakoff to, eventually, back off and decline the offer. The piece doesn’t have any reference to Commissioners Ricky Arriola and John Elizabeth Aleman, photographed right, who also voted in favor of the Malakoff botella.
“I had absolutely nothing to do with it,” Grieco told Ladra over the weekend from Colorado where he’d been skiing. “I’m not in the business of spending my money in the off season. Why Malakoff? Why leave Ricky out of it if I think Ricky is a piece of shit?”
He has a point.
Grieco is an easy suspect because of the secret campaign cash scandal that saw him fall from the front runner position in the Miami Beach mayoral race to a defendant in an elections law case, accused of funneling money from a foreign citizen into a political action committee — that he said he had nothing to do with — through a third party. He resigned his commission seat and agreed to plead no contest — while simultaneously saying he knew nothing about it — and accepted a sentence of one year probation during which he can’t run for office. He also had to pay $6,000 restitution for the costs of the SAO and Miami Dade Ethics Commission investigations.
He was barred from running for office during his probation period, but that could be up in April (it often gets cut in half for first time offenders with “good behavior”). So might he run again? Hmmmm… there would be motivation if he wanted to ensure that Malakoff doesn’t get appointed, as widely rumored, to the seat that may be vacated by Rosen Gonzalez, who is running for Congress, because he has intentions to run again.
But (1) Malakoff’s chances at an appointment got blown when she went for that $50K post. Miami Beach doesn’t put up with that kind of shit. This ain’t Hialeah. And (2) Grieco, who has continued to be politically active on Facebook and posted a video of the Malakoff offer that got a lot of engagement, might be having too much fun as an outside agitator to go back into the fire.
“I’ve kind of enjoyed not being public property,” said Grieco, “I’ve enjoyed waking up in the morning without having 85 targets on my back.
“It’s been nice.”
You mean it was nice. Because he knows that everybody thinks he’s behind this. One of his former colleagues told him that 99% of the people on the street think it was him. Maybe just pure unadulterated revenge aided by his longtime political consultant David Custin? It really does look like Custin’s handiwork.
But the same people who think it could be Grieco wonder if it might be Rosen Gonzalez or Gongora — as if they were interchangeable. I am on Team Kristen all the way, even as a paid communications consultant, so I know for a fact it wasn’t her. She is an underdog with less money than every other candidate and all her funds are for communicating with CD 27 voters, okay? She also doesn’t need to pick any fights on the dais, where she is already alone most of the time.
Gongora said it wasn’t him either. “I got it in the mail,” he told Ladra on Sunday, adding that the thank yous were a “red herring” to make it look like they were involved.
“I certainly wouldn’t want my colleagues to think I spent time and money on this.”
Are there any other suspects?

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Put my money on Doral in the 1st Annual Mayor’s Basketball Classic Cup between that city and the town of Miami Lakes.
Mayor Manny Cid may be younger and faster than Mayor JC Bermudez, que se la esta jugando playing this basketball game against his colleague to the north — even if it is for a good cause. But rumor has it that Bermudez has a secret weapon: Shaquille O’Neal — a retired Miami Heat basketball star and reserve police officer in Doral — could play on JC’s team.
“Technically, I don’t know if he counts as an employee. I have to look at the fine print. But we will win with or without our secret weapon,” Bermudez said, adding that the team is solid nonetheless. “We actually had try-outs, so many employees wanted to play.”
Each mayor will play with a team of 12 city employees. Both mayors played in high school and on adult leagues. Cid, who had a lot more hair (and eve a mustache!) when he was 15, coaches both his son’s little league teams. Bermudez plays every Saturday.
This is gonna be good.
“It’s all for charity but we also wanted to show teamwork,” Cid said, adding that the Lakes team has been practicing for about a month every Thursday (photo, left). “We could play one-on-one but the purpose is to show we have a good team on the court and at City Hall.
“You could be a good mayor, and we’re both good mayors,” Cid said, showing he has zero trash talking skills, “but it takes a whole team to run the city.”
In Miami Lakes, Councilwoman Marilyn Ruano is putting together a squad of cheerleaders.
The 1st Annual Mayor’s Basketball Classic Cup April 5 will benefit the Doral Parks & Police 4 Kids Foundation and the Miami Lakes Special Needs Committee. The game starts at 6:30 p.m. at Doral Legacy Park and tickets at $6.22 including the EventBrite fee.
Ladra will start taking wagers now.

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