Will the real Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club please stand up?

After a short hiatus, the morning powwows will resume just in time for the election season. But we don’t know if they start up again this week, with former Mayor Matti Bower hosting a breakfast at Puerto Sagua Restaurant and commission candidate Joshua Levy speaking — or they if they resume April 11th with developer Russell Galbut speaking at the Bakehouse Brasserie.

Which one is the real TMBC?

Started by “Save Miami Beach” leader Charles Schwabb in 1996, the “club” — which has no real formal structure, members or fees — began as an informal chat between activists who were concerned about overdevelopment. Mike Burke, a onetime candidate for mayor, was the first moderator. When he moved to Broward, David Kelsey, president of the South Beach Hotel and Restaurant Association, volunteered to moderate. Activist Frank Del Vecchio, who was involved from the second or third meeting, continued to send out email notices.

Read related story: Miami Beach Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club could be toast

Last January, the notice announced the club would have its last meeting because the venue, Manolo’s Restaurant, was closing. Kelsey got a little send-off.

But several regulars apparently didn’t want it to end and they started shopping for a new home and a new moderator. Del Vecchio, a longtime activist and original Tuesday morning breafaster, was one of them.

“Matti Bower responded positively and called me,” DelVecchio told Ladra on Sunday. “She found a location, the Puerto Sagua restaurant, and arranged for a speaker, city commission candidate Joshua Levy, for the Tuesday, March 28 meeting. I agreed to send out notices.”

And so he did, on March 22. Three days later, Ladra got a second notice about the resumption of the meetings — on April 11th at a different location with a different speaker.

Del Vecchio and others are suspicious of what they call the “shadow” Breakfast Club.

Russel Galbut

“Russell Galbut is using his Bakehouse Restaurant as a ploy in his suit against the city,” said Del Vecchio, referring to Bakehouse lawsuit against the city’s regulations on live entertainment south of Fifth Street. The Bakehouse Brasserie at 808 First Street, which is owned by a Galbut relative, was cited for having a sax player when all that is allowed in that area is non-amplified piano and strings.

“He is trying to negate the city’s zoning power to regulate where entertainment is allowed,” Del Vecchio said. “His latest gambit is enlisting David Kelsey to set up a breakfast club at the site that is the center of his suit against the city.”

Kelsey did serve as a board member of Galbut’s now defunct Miami Beach Taxpayers Association.

Ladra says the more the merrier. There is plenty going on in Miami Beach and South Florida to sustain both meetings. Except one may have to change its name — maybe the Wednesday Morning Breakfast Club?

After all, we can’t be in two places at once on Tuesday.

The county mayor’s newest senior advisor, his longtime mouthpiece and spokesman Michael Hernandez, will speak Thursday to an evening gathering of the South Florida Black Journalists Association.

But he was not the original guest.

The organization initially advertised Deputy Mayor Russell Benford, who had twice confirmed, said Carolyn Guniss, president of the SFBJA and editor at Miami Times. “It was at the end of a day with a whole lot of meetings so he was going to end the day with us,” Guniss told Ladra.

Both Benford and Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez were invited to the meeting to familiarize black journalists and black media with the county’s top office. She never heard back from the mayor’s office, Guniss said. But they were happy to have Benford, who is the black deputy mayor.

Suddenly, Benford would be “out of town” and would be replaced by Hernandez, who was recently promoted to the position of “senior advisor,” though anyone who knows anything about the 29dth floor knows that Mike has long been one of the mayor’s key advisors. At the time of the promotion, Gimenez told the media that he wanted the county to have “one voice.” That means his voice.

Basically, that means his deputy mayors are not free to speak. Ladra would be surprised if he really did have a surprise business trip come up on a Thursday when he already had meetings scheduled.

Hernandez “offered himself,” said Guniss, who had to tell members Tuesday that it would be Hernandez speaking and not Benford.

“I don’t expect many of my members to show up. I promised them a mayor,” she said.

But I wouldn’t be so sure. Especially since the conversation — at Venture Cafe, 1951 NW 7th Ave. — is on the record.

“So come with burning questions,” Guniss said.

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.

And the lucky residents of Kendall may be the winners

Zika may be out of the daily headlines and daily heads — for now. Because experts have already said that the virus could, and very likely will come back as mosquito season returns to South Florida this summer.

And, of course, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez — who had cut mosquito control funding in previous years and was caught unprepared for the 2016 crisis — has a plan this time: He wants to drop thousands, perhaps millions of genetically modified mosquitos to mate with the female Aedes aegypti species that spreads Zika — as well as Dengue, yellow fever and chikungunya — and eventually kill them off, producing offspring that die before they reproduce.

That’s right. Gimenez, the former firefighters, wants to fight fire with fire. He met with Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado and Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine about it earlier this month and pitched the proposal. Also there: Miami-Dade Deputy Mayor Alina Hudak, Miami Beach City Manager Jimmy Morales, Dr. Lilian Rivera, the head of the Miami-Dade Department of Health, and a few other municipal staffers. The topic: What everyone is doing to prepare for mosquito season.

Miami-Dade was scarred by the Zika bite last year that seemingly ate into our tourist dollars after Wynwood became ground zero, the home to the first locally-transmitted case and, eventually, dozens bite victims, although the disease is generally undetected and is feared to cause encephelitis in the unborn children of pregnant women.  Wynwood was declared a Zika zone by Gov. Rick Scott and put on a travel advisory by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Later, Miami Beach became a secondary zone with 19 cases. 

This is where Gimenez asked Miami and Miami Beach to host the mutant mosquitoes.

It isn’t so far-fetched. The technology of GMO mosquitoes, as they are called, has been used in Panama, the Cayman Islands and Brazil, where they have reportedly reduced the population of Aedes aegypti mosquitos by 90 percent. The World Health Organization has concluded that GE mosquitoes, as they are also called, “warrant time-limited pilot deployment, accompanied by rigorous monitoring and evaluation.”

Key words: rigours monitoring and evaluation.

Because these are still mosquitos, after all. They may not bite, because only females bite, but they still buzz. They still fly around your face and bug you. We don’t know what other diseases they may carry and pass on to the females, who do bite. Or to dogs and cats. We don’t know how strong they can get. We don’t know how resistant they are and how they may further mutate or how they may affect other populations, like birds or reptiles or other bugs. Could we be creating a super-resistant mosquito species? There’s been relatively little research or study.

And Gimenez wants to do the trials here.

While he says they will all be male mutant mosquitos, it’s kinda difficult to differentiate between males and females when you are sorting millions of them, and trials in Costa Rica and elsewhere have shown that about .03 % of the mutant mosquitos that are released are female.

Read related story: Zika politics — State House candidate has repellant wristbands

That might sound like a small number. But if 3 million mutant mosquitos are released, that means 900 of them could be female. And what happens when a female mosquito with altered DNA bites a human? 

Do you know how they genetically alter these mosquitos to carry a “genetic kill switch,” so the offspring (hopefully?) inherits the lethal gene and cannot survive? Why, they insert “protein fragments” from the herpes virus, E. coli bacteria, coral and cabbage into the insects. Did we mention E. coli?

So what happens if one of the 900 females bites one of us? Can they pass their mutant DNA into our bloodstream?

It’s a controversial solution because there are still so many unknowns. Residents in the Florida Keys collected 160,000 signatures against releasing the mosquitoes in Monroe County, even though voters approved the deployment — as a Zika fighting tactic — in a referendum vote last November. Curiously enough, the Keys hasn’t had a single case of Zika reported. And they haven’t had a Dengue fever report since 2010. Ladra doesn’t know what voters were thinking. 

But at least they were given the choice in Monroe County. Gimenez won’t do that here. Because this pilot program likely comes with some federal or state grant and its his way of funding mosquito control this year, instead of adding inspectors and staff to code enforcement to cite people who keep dirty, infested pools as breeding grounds. In fact, Oxitec has provided the mutant mosquitoes to some cities for free so they get to do their trials. So maybe he’ll use the grant money someplace else. This science may be unproven and there could be unknown risks, but Gimenez doesn’t want to increase funding for code enforcement or add mosquito control inspectors when, you know, that doesn’t help his contributors or the people on his friends and family plan. And this will make it sound like he is doing something substantial, rather than just taking a stab in the dark.

Or a bite.

The mutant mosquitoes also still swarm in dark, ominous clouds — and that is not an attractive postcard picture for tourists. That’s the main reason Miami Mayor Regalado said nananina when Gimenez offered to try a pilot program in the Wynwood area that was first hit with last year’s outbreak.

“After what happened in Wynwood last year, if we start soltando mosquitos ahi, those people will suffer again. They’ve had enough,” Regalado told Ladra. The clouds of mosquitos and the mere perception that an infestation — even of mutant mosquitos — could have on tourism is not worth it, the Miami mayor said.

“We had the experience that Wynwood was crucified publicly,” Regalado said, referring to the effect the multiple cases reported in that Miami neighborhood had. “If they suddenly release all of these mosquitos that are genetically altered, it will cause a doubt for people who want to go to the Wynwood area.

“It will have a chilling effect to see a cloud of millions of mosquitos buzzing around.”

Regalado doesn’t think it’s a good idea anywhere. “It will create more anxiety in the county. The perception will be that we have more mosquitos,” he said. “They should be looking at ways to spray without using toxins like Naled. We need to focus on code enforcement and eliminate the receptacles and dirty pools that breed mosquitos.”

In Miami, the city has placed 200 electric traps in Wynwood, Little Haiti, Little Havana, Liberty City and the Design District, Regaldo said. They were donated from a company in Texas and “they have been working to reduce the population of mosquitos.”

After Regalado said no thanks to the mutant mosquito army, Gimenez apparently turned to the Beach, wanting to dump the little buggers there. 

Read related story: Joe Garcia and Carlos Curbelo agree on Zika

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no,” said City Manager Jimmy Morales, correcting Ladra, but also likely repeating what he said at the meeting with Gimenez. “What he said was that the EPA is willing to authorize a test and that the place that makes the most sense is in Miami Beach.” 

Morales, who is very diplomatic, said he didn’t think it would be welcomed in Miami Beach, however, where residents complained loudly about the Naled that was sprayed to contain the small Zika outbreak there. “The same group that didn’t like the Naled, don’t like the [genetically modified] mosquitos.

“If there was any decision to do anything, we would have to bring it before the commission at a public hearing,” Morales told Ladra. And, he said between the lines, that’s not gonna happen.

“I don’t see that as a likely decision at all. Neither does the mayor.”

Gimenez spokesman and, now, senior advisor Michael Hernandez did not return several phone calls and text messages from Ladra asking for clarification. But both Regalado and Morales, a former county commissioner who once ran for mayor, confirmed the meeting took place and that both cities were offered the “pilot program.”

After Gimenez was rejected a second time, Regalado said, the Miami-Dade mayor announced that the county would dump the mutant mosquitos somewhere far away from the two cities — probably from any cities, so he doesn’t get the same kind of resistance.

“The only option is South,” Regalado said.

Are you listening Commissioner Joe Martinez? Because Ladra thinks this means your people. Far away and with no cities? That sounds like West Kendall to me.

Munilla Construction Management — a frequent county bidder doing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of projects — will likely get an additional $6 million and a one-year extension Thursday for “miscellaneous” renovations and repairs at Miami International Airport.

Just like that. No open bidding, no competitive process. Just $6 million more for work that they just didn’t get to and that needs to get done.

Sure, the item is actually before the Miami-Dade Commission’s Economic Development and Tourism Committee, but once it’s passed there it will likely pass the full commission as early as next week. There’s even language in the “change order” ordinance that says Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez can execute the adjusted contract without subsequent approval from the board. Ladra takes that to mean it only needs one reading.

Pedro Munilla, pictured here with his wife, is often out at galas with Mayor and Lourdes Gimenez.

Basically, according to all the whereases on the ordinance, MCM was hired on a “miscellaneous construction contract” for identified projects at the airport, but then got sidetracked — or even reassigned — to different work due to the growth at MIA and was unable to finish all the work it was hired for. So now, their friend Carlitos is giving them a break. Rather than go out to bid again, like the county will have to in a year anyway because the growth is going to continue — and, for some reason, there is another item on this committee agenda rejecting six bids for “miscellaneous construction” — Gimenez wants the commission to give MCM, his pals, another year and another $6 million in airport work.

How long was the original contract? It doesn’t say on the materials provided in Thursday’s agenda. But when Ladra looked up the contract number on the county’s website, we found another change order request from 2014, with a recommendation from Gimenez that the four-year $50 million contract go up by a whopping $30 million. I can’t tell if it was approved or not.

But then last year, on March 8, the mayor recommended that the contract be extended for a year and for $10 million more. So does that mean that MCM, with Thursday’s approval, has gotten two extra years and $16 million more for “miscellaneous” work?

Juan and Pedro Munilla flank Carlos Gimenez and Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera

This item Thursday is an emergency, of course, because the contract expired last month and the county could be left with nobody to make as-needed repairs at the busy, growing airport. How can you let this expire? For two years in a row? Will someone please tell me again what a great administrator this mayor is?

Or is it, more likely, that he let the urgency happen because the company is owned by familia.

Munilla Construction is owned by Pedro Munilla and his brothers, who Ladra has been repeatedly told are related to Gimenez through marriage. They give generously to the mayor’s multiple election campaigns and his political action committees. But they give to a lot of electeds, at the county and also municipal levels. I guess it’s a small price to pay for county work.

From 2009 to 2014, according to the change order from that year, MCM had been awarded at least $176 million in county contracts.

One has to wonder how much of that is in change orders.

A group of West Kendall residents in a longtime fight against the redevelopment of the Calusa Golf Course won an important battle last week when the Miami-Dade Commission basically did nothing — and, effectively, killed a proposal to turn the 168 acres into more homes.

But Ladra has a feeling that the war is not over and the plan could come back from the dead.

And the whole ordeal has left us with little trust in a government land use and zoning mechanism called a covenant.

Developers want to turn the abandoned golf course in the Calusa community into 670 homes buffered by 100 feet of green space that also includes a bike and pedestrian path. They tried to buy the adjacent and opposing residents — and commission votes to transmit the request for a land use change to Tallahassee — with the promise of potential picnic pavillions, zen gardens, play lots and a dog park on the 3.5 mile perimeter loop.

But homeowners have consistently said they don’t want any of that. And they point to a 99-year covenant with 49 more years on it and say they bought their homes based on this promise that the county made that the golf course would remain a golf course unless 75 percent of the adjacent and affected homeowners agreed with a new plan.

That’s not close to happening and Commissioner Audrey Edmonson suggested it would not ever happen — but she doesn’t know that. Commissioner Sally Heyman said their attitude is “We want a golf course and nothing else.” But they haven’t said that. Both of them called the development urban infill. In West Kendall. Really.

The residents are opposed to wt developers are presenting now because they don’t like the density, which could add between 1,000 and 1,500 cars to their roads daily. Ladra is certain they like the dog park and the other shiny bells and whistles. Who wouldn’t? There could be room for negotiating if they go down in density. They say they’ve already come down from 1,100 units — 481 single-family houses and 619 town homes — which has to have been a bait and switch because nobody can legitimately conceive of that many units there. The comparible properties are between 2.5 and .64 dwellings per acre, so that would mean a maximum of 210 dwellings, though residents probably want to see it closer to around 54.

So, maybe something in the middle? How about 100? Developers still stand to make a ton of money.

And add a clubhouse with an indoor gym and basketball court. Or a public pool. Make it a deal the adjacent residents can’t refuse.

That’s what Commissioner Xavier Suarez, Ladra is certain, had in mind when he first suggested delaying the vote on the application until May so that, perhaps, the developers and the residents could come to some kind of an agreement. But he got pushback on that from commissioners who preferred to transmit the application, which sends the proposed redevelopment to state agencies for whatever input they would have — which, in this case, seems minimal and inconsecuential.

Both Commissioners Bruno Barreiro and Jose “Pepe” Diaz kept insisting that they were only seeking more information, though Ladra is uncertain what kind of information any state agency could provide on the impact of the redevelopment of this golf course. At least, what kind of information that would be more important than the facts at hand. Namely, the covenant that homeowner after homeowner referred to as part of their property rights.

The whole time this golf course has been discussed, the conversation centers on the 99-year covenant? If you look up the word covenant in the dictionary, some of its synonyms, you will find, are contract, agreement, commitment, guarantee, pledge, promise, bond.

How can commissioners continue to talk about covenants on other projects when they come back and pretend that this one doesn’t exist? Commissioner Rebeca Sosa had some difficulty with an action that should have given each and every one of them great pause.

“Who’s going to trust us,” Sosa asked.

Exactly.

It forced Suarez to make a motion to deny the transmittal, which died in a tie vote and was not resurrected before the meeting ended, so it, in effect, goes back to square one.

Suarez said that out of 484 letters or emails he got about the controversial plan, 480 mention the covenant. So it’s ont like this obscure, real estate term that none of the homeowners really knew what it meant. Just getting 484 letters or emails against a project is enough of a message to tell commissioners what they should do, even without a covenant. Dozens of them have attended at least three public hearings to urge our county government to deny the request.

But it’s going to come back. Golf courses have become the next horizon for developers who snatch them up, have them rezoned and then build whatever they want on what was once a grassy view.

Nobody is saying that this has to remain a golf course, if that is truly no longer a feasable use. But if this comes back without the resident’s approval, how can we ever believe that a covenant on any development — including, for example, the American Dream megamall — will be worth anything at all if this one is broken?

We can’t. Any break of a covenant will further erode what little trust we have left in local government.