Miami-Dade Commissioner Rene Garcia filed paperwork earlier this month to run for mayor in Hialeah, after Esteban “Steve” Bovo announced that he was leaving for a Washington, D.C., lobbying gig. But is Garcia really running?
He didn’t have a press conference to announce his candidacy. There is no announcement post on any of his social media. Garcia filed quietly and without any fanfare — on April Fool’s Day, no less. He’s always had a sly sense of humor. He has also told people and the media that he is not 100% in, and has until qualifying in July to make up his mind.
His campaign is so non-existent that Bovo went on La Poderosa last week, eight days after Garcia filed his paperwork, to say he hoped to persuade Garcia to step up and run for mayor. Like he didn’t know he had already?
Many political observers say this is a ruse and that Garcia does not intend to resign his county commission seat. They say he’s just doing longtime ally Bovo a solid by freezing out the mayor’s sworn enemy, former Councilman Bryan Calvo, with the mere possibility he’s going to run. Garcia, who started his career as a Hialeah council member and went on to serve in the Florida Senate, would easily and immediately be the frontrunner. Anyone who might have donated to Calvo’s campaign might now think twice about that.
It would also discourage any other potential candidates from running for the seat. Already Council Member Jesus Tundidor, who had been a potential mayoral candidate before Garcia barely jumped in, filed paperwork — three days after Garcia did — for the commission seat in District 13 instead. But is he really going to run for county commissioner?
Read related: Hialeah Mayor Steve Bovo exits with pension, names Rene Garcia ‘successor’
Because observers also say that Tundidor could switch with Garcia in July, and step into the mayoral race. The other possibility is that Bovo and his camp support a run by Jacqueline Garcia-Roves, who was council president and is now interim acting mayor. Or someone else altogether. Commissioner Carl Zogby has also expressed interest.
Maybe Rene Garcia’s candidacy is designed to give Bovo and his clan the next two and half months to decide what happens.
But Tundidor’s political action committee, Stronger United, raised $210,000 in the first quarter of this year, according to the campaign finance reports recording transactions from Jan. 1 to the end of March — which was before Garcia filed for Hialeah mayor and before Tundidor filed for county commission. So those donations — which include $25,000 from real estate developer Michaeld Wohl and $10,000 from All American Amusements, a maquinita company that also supported former Mayor Julio Robaina — were most likely for a mayoral campaign. And there’s no way they didn’t happen without Bovo’s okay.
And the bulk of the contributions came on March 11, which was more than a month after the rumors of Bovo’s impending departure were published in the Miami Herald.
“It wouldn’t surprise me one way or another. When it comes to Hialeah, anything is on the table,” said Calvo, who resigned his seat to run for Miami-Dade tax collector last year and lost the Republican primary to Dariel Fernandez. Calvo has also heard the rumors of the ghost candidacy, but said he is not changing his campaign in any way.
“It doesn’t matter. I’m running regardless of who it is against.”
Sen. Garcia told Political Cortadito Thursday that his candidacy was not a political maneuver. “I am considering it seriously” he said, adding that he is “talking to residents and trying to figure it out where I best serve.” The response so far? “Honestly, it’s a mixed bag.”
Read related: Bryan Calvo becomes first candidate to file for November Hialeah mayor’s race
Some people have said they want him to run and others have said that they want him and need him to stay at the county. “That weighs heavily on me,” Garcia said, adding that he’d also be the third county commissioner to step off the dais this year. District 5 Commissioner Eileen Higgins announced earlier this month — the day after Garcia filed for the Hialeah race — that she was running for Miami mayor and District 6 Commissioner Kevin Cabrera, or rather former District 6 commissioner Cabrera, resigned this week and was sworn in as U.S. Ambassador to Panama.
“If I leave, that’s three new seats on the commission,” said Garcia, who was automatically re-elected last year with no opposition. “I made a commitment to serve for four years.” And he’s doing some important work, he added.
“My priority has always been Northwest Dade,” Garcia said. “That’s the quagmire.”
The post ‘Rene Garcia for Hialeah Mayor’ could be a decoy for someone else to run appeared first on Political Cortadito.

Read Full Story

Former Councilman Bryan Calvo blasts Bovo’s last acts
As expected, Hialeah Mayor Steve Bovo is leaving the city for a job as a lobbyist in Washington, DC. The Miami Herald, which first broke the news about the rumored move in January, reported earlier this month that he is following his wife, Viviana Bovo, who has been a longtime right hand for Marco Rubio, from the Florida House to the Senate and now the State Department.
Bovo’s office said he would be stepping down from Hialeah’s top post in April. Las malas lenguas say he’s going to be making more than $190,000 in salary and paid expenses.
But it’s never enough.
One of Bovo’s last acts as mayor was to make sure he got a cushy “deferred compensation plan,” which is a fancy, legal way to get around saying pension, retroactively, for himself and other Hialeah electeds. He got it passed unanimously by the still Seguro Que Yes council earlier this month.
Read related: Steve Bovo’s parting gift: Retirement benefits for himself, Hialeah electeds
Bovo has also suggested he would support Miami-Dade Commissioner Rene Garcia in the November election. Garcia, who did not return calls and texts from Ladra, has said in the past that he would not speculate about stepping down to run for Hialeah mayor until Bovo announced his departure officially. Wellllll?
Former Council Member Bryan Calvo — who filed to run in February, immediately after the rumors were first reported — blasted Bovo in an email to voters titled “Hialeah deserves better than corrupt politicians who take care of themselves while raising your taxes.” Calvo says the calculated vote for the taxpayer-funded pension was deliberately timed by Bovo with full knowledge he would be leaving.

“Now, he’s cashing out and heading to Washington, D.C., to take a lobbying job. Yes, the same Steve Bovo who raised your taxes and increased your water bill is now walking away with your money in his pocket,” the email says.
Calvo also suggests that Garcia will “protect Bovo’s pension and continue covering up years of wasteful spending.” He cites a “shady $150,000 consulting contract handed to a close friend with zero transparency.”
This is a $50,000 a year contract for three years — actually $49,992, for a total of $149,976 — approved the same day as the pensions for a lobbyist named Terrence “TC” Wolfe, Garcia’s “close friend,”and his firm, New Century Government Affairs. The services provided are basically to rub elbows with electeds and push the city’s federal legislative priorities. With an office in DC, Wolfe lobbied the U.S. House and Senate in 2023 on behalf of the Association of Builders and Contractors’ Florida East Coast Chapter.
Wolfe is also president at H.O.P.E. Mission Inc., the same non-profit resources referral agency (reported $138,000 in revenue in 2023, according to ProPublica) founded by Commissioner Garcia, who has served as chair and treasurer, and who has remained involved with the organization through book bag giveaways and food distributions, along with other events. Last December (photo, left), HOPE Mission had a reception and awards event.
Miami Lakes’ newly elected Mayor Josh Dieguez, a longtime Garcia ally, is listed as a director in public records with the Florida Department of Corporations.
“This is how they do business — taking care of themselves while Hialeah families struggle to make ends meet,” Calvo boldly writes in the email. “Hialeah is being looted in broad daylight, and these career politicians think they can get away with it.
Read related: Bryan Calvo becomes first candidate to file for November Hialeah mayor’s race
“As your former councilman, I fought against corruption. I fought to lower your taxes, fix our water problems without raising your bill, and make our city safer. Now, I’m running for mayor to clean up the mess these insiders have made and put Hialeah back in the hands of its people.
“This election is about one simple question: Do you want more of the same corrupt, backroom deals? Or do you want a mayor who fights for YOU? This November, it’s time to take our city back.
“Let’s drain the Hialeah swamp and restore integrity to City Hall.”
With a swamp that deep and wide, he’s going to have to do more than win just one race.
The post Hialeah Mayor Steve Bovo exits with pension, names Rene Garcia ‘successor’ appeared first on Political Cortadito.

Read Full Story

Before Hialeah Mayor Esteban “Steve” Bovo steps down to take a job at a Washington, D.C., lobbying firm, he voted Tuesday to give himself retirement benefits.
Ladra was still trying to get details on what the deferred compensation plan for electeds would look like, because there was zero discussion or debate about the two ordinances on the dais before everyone voted in favor of giving themselves more free money. But there were no official answers as of Friday afternoon.
According to sources close to City Hall, council members will be vested after five years of service, but the mayor is vested from Day One. It’s also retroactive to October 21, 2021.
Ladra was unable to get more details after several emails to the city clerk and calls to Bovo went unanswered and unreturned.
Read related: Hialeah Mayor Esteban Bovo posts extreme views, promotes ‘big lie’
There will still have to be a second reading Feb. 25 before it’s final.
It’s not exactly a pension, per se. Voters in Hialeah did away with pensions for elected officials in 2013 with 80% approving a charter amendment.  Before that, electeds got a pension after they reached the age of 55 and completed 12 years or more of service on the council. It also required any future changes to the pension plans of elected officials to be approved by a city-wide vote.
It did not wipe out the pensions that were already granted. According to Ballotpedia, former Mayor Raul Martinez gets a pension of $180,000 a year and former Mayor Carlos “Castro” Hernandez gets around $190,000 a year.

Bovo, who makes $190,000 a year in salary and expenses, will be leaving his post to join The Southern Group, a prominent lobbying outfit in D.C., according to the Miami Herald, which reported it last week. His compensation is reportedly going to be higher, but he still felt the need to take a little more from Hialeah taxpayers.
It’s likely that a majority of Hialeah residents don’t have pensions. This population’s average household income was $53,000 a year in 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s household. Individual average salary was at about $25,800. The Census also said that 17.5% of Hialeah’s residents are living at or below the poverty level.
Remember when Miami Commissioner Miguel Gabela pulled the same thing with granting lifetime pensions in his city and got pummeled for it on the radio and in the news? The backlash from the community caused him to want to put an item to reconsider o the agenda. But Mayor Francis Suarez got there first with a veto and was hailed as a hero.
Read related: Bryan Calvo becomes first candidate to file for November Hialeah mayor’s race
But in Hialeah, so far? Crickets.
And here we have a mayor who has one foot out the door, voting on extending his benefits before he does.
Former Councilmember Bryan Calvo, who resigned to run for tax collector (lost in the primary), is now running for mayor in November to replace Bovo and said he would undo the golden parachute as soon as possible if given the chance.
“The pension proposals are a total slap in the face to residents and father proof that Bovo and company are more concerned about extracting every possible cent from the tax payer than public service,” Calvo told Political Cortadito. “For both items to be approved unanimously and without any discussion on the dais is proof that the fix was in for Bovo to make a final cash out before his departure and to setup his heir apparent for a comfortable transition.
“If elected, I will absolutely repeal said ordinances,” said Calvo, who sued Bovo in 2023 for abuse of power after the mayor allegedly hampered his efforts to get 911 information. The lawsuit was dismissed in court last year.
Ladra smells a campaign issue.
The post Steve Bovo’s parting gift: Retirement benefits for himself, Hialeah electeds appeared first on Political Cortadito.

Read Full Story

Civic activist, healthcare worker to serve through 2025

Read Full Story

Isis Garcia-Martinez: ‘He just needs a new job‘

Read Full Story

Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernández may be termed out, but his political action committee raised almost a quarter million since he was re-elected, including more than $200K was last month alone — most of it on a single day.
What’s it for, if he’s termed out in 2021?
Sources say Hernández, who rules Hialeah with an iron fist and retaliates against his political enemies, wants to have a referendum on the ballot this year allowing him to serve another term. There’s even an item on Tuesday’s agenda to form a charter committee that would — guess what? — consider just that.
And it’s on the consent agenda, no less, which also has an alarming number of competitive bid waiver requests. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 501 Palm Avenue.
The resolution — which is certain to pass the Seguro Que Yes council — would provide for a charter committee to review the city charter “and propose any amendments or revisions that may be advisable for placement on the upcoming election ballot of November 5, 2019.”
Oh, really? How transparent is this guy? How much do you want to bet that ending term limits is on the list?
Read related: Hialeah mayor quietly moves to turn school property into housing
And does Hernández really think that the voters in Hialeah are going to let him get away with this? They certainly didn’t buy the “public safety” tax increase he pushed last year.
Hernández — who served previously as councilman for six years — will already have been mayor for 10 years, two longer than allowed by term limits approved by voters in 1995. He served two years, 2011-2013, when he replaced his mentor, Mayor Julio Robaina, in the middle of his term — Robaina had resigned to run for Miami-Dade mayor in the famous recall election — and Hernández is now in the middle of his second four-year term. He will have been in office 16 years by the time his rule ends in 2021.
In 2017, former Mayor Julio Martinez sued the city to enforce the charter, arguing that the mayor had already served two terms because terms were not defined by length of time. A part of a term was a term, his attorney argued.
Read related: Lawsuit aims to take Carlos Hernández off Hialeah ballot
They didn’t win, obviously, and now Hernández wants yet another term.
Pero por supuesto. What else is he going to do? That way, he can more easily raise money from city vendors and developers for his 2025 run for county sheriff, which would coincide with the end of his third term.
There is simply no other reason for him to be raising this kind of dough.
The larger contributions to the Hialeah For Progress PAC, according to the latest campaign report, include:

$40,000 from two Miami Lakes real estate companies tied to Robaina
$30,000 from Leon Advertising and Public Relations
$25,000 from a construction company called M&R Enterprises
$25,000 from a Coral Gables real estate company called CC Devco
$25,000 from a Hialeah Gardens real estate company called World Property Services
$20,000 from a Sunny Isles Beach company called 1101 E. 33 Holdings
$12,500 from Gonzalez & Sons Equipment
$10,000 from Miami Beach real estate developer Fredric Karlton

There is also at least $10,000 from amusement companies that run the maquinitas so ubiquitous in the City of Progress and at least $2,000 from companies tied to Rolando Blanco, the Hialeah power broker who accepted hundreds of thousands in loanshark money for Robaina from a now-convicted Ponzi schemer.
Read related: Who protects the maquinita mafia in Hialeah? Guess
There are also contributions from vendors to the city — reminding Ladra of the Ready For Progress PAC set up in Miami Beach that was all city vendors and contractors — and which had to be shut down.
But this is Hialeah.
The Tampa-based PAC has raised a total of $487,700, but a lot of it was used for the 2017 re-election. But Hernández has raised $228,000 in just February and March. More than $181,000 was collected on Monday, March 4.
The PAC has also spent $186,554 of its bank, almost half of it on the 2017 election. But since then, it also spent $12,500 last year on Imagen Magazine — probably to put Hernandez on the cover again — $20K for another PAC, run by former Chief of Staff Arnie Alonso, to promote a tax increase last year that failed miserably, and, most recently, $19,000 last month to McLaughlin and Associates, a polling firm based in New York.
Ladra hopes they asked if voters wanted to have someone in office for 20 years. If that’s what they intended when they passed term limits in 1995.
But chances are they won’t ask that.

Read Full Story