A change in annexation rules also on the agenda

UPDATED with correction and to add that meeting was cancelled because of a lack of quorum.

 Miami-Dade Commissioner Javier “El Senador” Souto has one last chance to push some of his favorite projects today, at his last meeting as chairman of the Miami-Dade County Unincorporated Municipal Services Area Committee.

The veteran legislator and 23-year commissioner, known as the Father of Horse Country and Mayor of Westchester, has a couple of items on the agenda that look like they’ve been plucked straight from Souto’s wish list. 

County Parks director Jack Kardys, then Sweetwater Mayor Jose Diaz, Miami-Dade Commissioner Rebeca Sosa, Miami Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz and Commissioner Javier Souto at the opening of the equestrian center in 2013

One of the items is a resolution directing Mayor Carlos Gimenez to find funding sources for a $3 million community center to be built next to the county’s Ronald Reagan Equestrian Center at Souto’s beloved Tropical Park, which was the site of a kick-off rally last year for Republican Sen. Marco Rubio‘s failed nomination bid. And he’s serious. Because the resolution also asks the mayor to provide a summary of all Building Better Communities GOB funds distributed by district and by municipality. If passed, the resolution also establishes a board policy that no recaptured or surplus funds be spent until such a report is provided.

Apparently Souto thinks there are available funds there. The equestrian center was built with $10 million of the Better Communities GOB funds.

The other Souto item is a resolution directing the mayor to have someone survey and identify sites relating to another beloved entity, Brigade 2506, the CIA-sponsored counter-revolutionary paramilitary group of Cuban exiles who were in the Bay of Pigs invasion. Souto, a former state rep and senator who was in the infiltration, wants recommendations for “appropriate recognition” of these sites, including possible historic designation.

And he wants to educate everyone in the meantime, with a three page resolution that has 19 whereases basically giving a play-by-play history of the Bay of Pigs events. That’s passion.

Bovo, whose father is also a Brigade member, will love that one. Ladra actually thinks it’s a good idea, but why stop there? Why not have other historical sites for other commnities also identified for recognition? Also, maybe this is something that can be done by an organization or even a professor at Florida International University and her or his class. Maybe some local businesses can underwrite any costs of plaques or whatever at these locations. These can have tiny logos of Badia or Goya somewhere in a corner. Or is that too tacky?

Because, frankly, if we leave it to Gimenez’s office or any local government, it might not happen. I mean, where is the Bay of Pigs Museum that was supposed to open in Hialeah Gardens in, like, 2015?

Souto recused himself when the commission voted on the museum in 2008, dedicating $1 million of state grants to moving the library archives and historical artifacts from its longtime home in Little Havana. But the last thing we heard was in 2014 when a Brigade member withdrew an application to make the museum and library on Southwest Ninth Street a historic monument. It was withdrawn because of division among the membership over the impending move to Hialeah Gardens. Google Earth, however, shows that 13851 NW 107 Avenue is still an empty lot. And when Trump visited the museum and the brigadistas last year on his presidential campaign, he stopped at the Little Havana location, not Hialeah Gardens.

What gives? Maybe the Brigade members rethought the idea of leaving and want to stay in their historically relevant, humble home in the heart of Little Havana, which is still the cultural center of Cuban Miami if not the population center, and just happens to be a block or two away from the Bay of Pigs Invasion Monument on Southwest 13th Avenue. And maybe that $1 million in state grant funds can be used someplace else. This committee meeting might be a good time to ask about that.

The only other interesting item on the agenda is an ordinance that Commissioner Barbara Jordan already got passed on first reading by the commission. It would amend the county rules for annexation, requiring municipalities to provide a comparison of county and municipal land use regulations before any annexation.

According to the agenda, municipalities were notified about today’s public hearing in early December. Ladra expects there to be some oppposition to this change, maybe from Hialeah, which has been reportedly discussing efforts to annex the land where the megamall is going to be built. Miami Shores and Doral may also have pending annexation applications. And longtime efforts by residents in Little Gables and High Pines to become part of Coral Gables moved forward only last September.

In addition to Souto and Jordan, the other new members of the UMSA committee are Vice Chair Daniella Levine Cava and Commissioners Esteban Bovo, Sally Heyman and Joe Martinez. It starts at 9:30 a.m. in commissin chambers at County Hall, 111 NW First St. Or you can watch it here.