The Coral Gables election Tuesday is the most important event this week. But it’s not the only thing happening.

The Cortadito Calendar for the second week of April has a protest, a council meeting, horses and trees. And, of course, something or two about transportation. Don’t we always have something on transportation?

It would have been heavier, but every single one of the county committee meetings scheduled for this week were cancelled. All of them. Ladra will try to find out why.

And sorry about Monday getting away from us. I don’t like Mondays so if you want your shindig to be on this list for sure, don’t risk it. There are six other days to choose from.

As always, please keep sending information about your government meetings, candidate forums and political powwows to edevalle@gmail.com and they’ll keep — or start — appearing in the Cortadito Calendar. Unless it’s on a Monday. Then it’s 50-50.

TUESDAY — April 11

7 a.m. – 7 p.m. — The Coral Gables election is finally upon us. Voters will elect a new mayor and could elect two new commissioners — although one of them won’t be all that new. The mayoral race is the one being watched the most, with Commissioner Jeannett Slesnick facing off against former Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli in a contest that has turned ugly — and ethnic. Look for Ladra’s recommendations coming soon to Fresh Colada.

8:30 a.m. –The Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club is back to a weekly gig. And it looks like there’s only going to be one. Longtime moderator David Kelsey, the president of the South Beach Hotel and Restaurant Association who had planned a dueling Tuesday Morning club featuring one of the hated developers of Miami Beach, has given up. In an email he said he didn’t have the stamina to fight the activists, who in his words, took over the meetings like in a coup. So, there will only be one breakfast meeting in Miami Beach on Tuesdays. Today, the guest speaker is another Group 2 candidate, Rafael Velasquez (two other Group 2 candidates have already been guests). Former Mayor Matti Bower is moderating again at Puerto Sagua Restaurant, 700 Collins Ave.

7 p.m. — District 3 residents in Palmetto Bay can see the first presentation of traffic data about their specific neighborhoods at a public meeting Tuesday night at Village Hall, 9705 East Hibiscus Street. The results of a citywide traffic calming study have been piece-mealed into district specific power point presentations. The one for District 1, for example, was already given last week and can be seen here online. The gist of this study is to find location for traffic calming devices and identify what devices will be used. Speak now or forever hold your peace when, not if, they put a circle or speed bumps on your street.

WEDNESDAY — April 12

10 a.m. — The Doral City Council meets Wednesday morning and will spend too much time talking about accounts receivables software and the credit card processing contract (going to Wells Fargo) and the building and funding of two informational/police kiosks in the city. But they also may have to refund $55,000 in development fees to Doral Preparatory Charter School and will consider the approval of a $1 million contract to replace the artificial turf fields at Doral Meadow Park. They may also award a $2.1 million contract for canal stabilization to Enco Engineering Construction and a $570,000 contract for street sweeping to SFM Services. There are some smaller contracts also and the ratification of the city’s agreement with the police union. The whole agenda is published online here. The council meets at City Hall, 8401 NW 53 Ter.

5 p.m. — There’s actually a tree advisory board in Palmetto Bay and it meets Wednesday evening. Ladra couldn’t get an agenda online but Councilwoman Karyn Cunningham invited people to participate via an email blast, so they are seeking some input. What do you think about the canopy in the village. Where could the municipality plant more trees and foliage in the public right of way? This seems like the best place to opine on that. The meeting is at Village Hall, 9705 East Hibiscus.

THURSDAY — April 13

6 p.m. — The newest member of the Citizens Independent Transportation Trust, Melissa Dynan, will be sworn in at their next meeting Thursday evening. In addition to the regular progress reports from the Miami-Dade Department of Transit and Pubic Works and the regular financial and strategic committee reviews, the CITT will be discussing resolutions that urge the count to (1) acquire the easement of land along Southwest 137th Avenue, (2) apply for a federal grant for $960,000 from a pilot program for transit oriented development, (3) enter into a multi-year agreement with the Florida Department of Transportation to build a $1.8 million bus depot park and ride lot called Tamiami Station (the state would fund half), and (4) approve a contract extension with Southern Gas Companies (dba Florida City Gas) for compressed natural gas for the department of transit and public works.

FRIDAY — April 14

5:30 p.m. — This is no ordinary dog and pony show. The 2017 International Agriculture Horse and Cattle Show, the highlight of Miami-Dade Commissioner Javier Souto‘s social calendar, is having it’s 10th year. Souto, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and a slew of other electeds, most likely including Commissioners Esteban Bovo Jr., Jose “Pepe” Diaz and Rebeca Sosa — who can count on Souto to vote their way 99% of the time — are having a reception Friday afternoon at, where else?, Tropical Park, where Souto’s beloved Ronald Reagan Equestrian Center, 7800 Bird Road, was built with taxpayer dollars and opened in 2013 (and is pictured to the right here). Ladra thinks its by invitation, but if we got one, that means it can’t be too selective. Just RSVP with Aldo Gonzalez or John Montes at 305-222-2116.

SATURDAY — April 15

10 a.m. — Shouldn’t Donald Trump release his tax returns? A lot of people think so. Some of them will gather downtown Saturday at Miami’s “Show Us Your Taxes March” in front of our federal building at 51 SW First Avenue. Ladra isn’t sure a protest in front of a federal building on a Saturday when nobody will notice is going to sway President Donald Trump as much as, say, a protest in front of his golf course property in Doral. But I’m not organizing this. The march is expected to end at noon, also. So I guess two hours is about as pissed off as some activists can get on a Saturday in April.

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.

The big news this week is on Hump Day, when the county mayor gives his annual State of the County address (more on that later). Expect it to be a full house with every elected under the sun — not just the county ones but the municipal council or commission members and Ladra will even throw in a congress member and a state rep or two.

After all, this is Carlitos’ first big public to do since he beat former Miami-Dade School Board Member Raquel Regalado in November, solidly winning another four years — people will want to gain favor.

All the lobbyists will be there, too, jostling to kiss the ring. Look and listen for the cheering and applause on cue.

The rest of the week will be ho hum in comparison.

But, hey, help me keep the Cortadito Calendar populated if not entirely always relevant. Please send any news about meetings, campaign rallies, powwows and other events to edevalle@gmail.com.

MONDAY — Jan. 16

8 a.m. — There are no public meetings because it’s Martin Luther King Day. But there is the 34th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 5K Run Walk, which starts at the MLK Plaza Metrorail station, 6205 NW 7th Ave., and the annual MLK Day parade in Liberty City (along NW 54th Street, from 10th to 32nd avenues. You can bet that Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado with his kids, especially Raquel and Tommy Regalado, who many say is dead serious about running for commissioner. All the Miami commissioners will be there, but so will all the candidates. Or all the serious candidates, anyway. If you can’t be there, stalk the Regalados and Commissioner Francis Suarez on twitter.

6 p.m. — Newly elected State Rep. Daisy Baez (D-Coral Gables) will open her district office Monday night at 5542 SW 8th Street. Baez beat Republican John Couriel 51 to 49% (a difference of 1,336 votes) to replace former Rep. Eric Fresen who was termed out and could be running for state senate in two years against newly elected Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez. Why didn’t she just keep the same district office Fresen used on 62nd Avenue and Bird Road? Ladra doesn’t know but will ask tonight.

6 p.m. — The future of Little Haiti will be the topic of discussion at a roundtable townhall-like meeting that begins at 6 p.m. Two proposed developments will be discussed. One is a mega development that would rise where moderate housing is now. Another is an “innovation center” proposed for the abandoned trailer park on the north side of the neighborhood. Activist Grant Stern is moderating the panel. Newly elected Miami-Dade Democratic Party Treasurer Francesca Menes, policy and advocacy coordinator for the Florida Immigrant Coalition — and a Little Haiti native, born and bred — will be there as will several community activists. Stern will produce a podcast for those of us who found out about it late. Ladra will post a link later.

TUESDAY — Jan.  17

7 p.m. — South Miami City Commissioners will meet to discuss an amendment to the land use code that would permit medical marijuana facilities in the industial and residential/office districts and only with a special use permit. They’ll also talk about a contract for consulting services with Redevelopment Management Associates (RMA) for Phase I of a business improvement district plan. The most curious item on the agenda, however, is the resolution consenting to a potential conflict by hiring Brett Schneider as their outside counsel for labor matters, even though his firm, Weiss Serota, represents developers and other clients that may or want to do business in the city. Basically, they’re saying that they know there’s a potential conflict and they’re not concerned, so long as Mr. Schneider doesn’t directely represent anyone else. Really? The meeting is at City Hall, 6130 Sunset Drive.

7 p.m. — State Sen. Jeremy Ring (D-Margate) will be the speaker Tuesday at the South Dade Democrats meeting at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Miami, 7701 S.W. 76th Ave. What? Were all the local Democrats busy or just too embarassed? The club meets for social time until 7:30, then does business until 8 when Ring speaks.

WEDNESDAY — Jan. 18

10 a.m. — The much anticipated State of the County address comes Wednesday when Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez gets to pound on his chest about how great a job he’s done and tell us about what he wants to leave as his legacy. After all, to the victor go the spoils! The speech, if you want to watch it in person, is open to the public for free at the South Dade Cultural Center, 10950 SW 211th St. Or you can watch it online here. Or you can follow county spokesman and chief Gimenez cheerleader Mike Hernandez on twitter and get the gist. But it’s a fun place to people watch — if you like watching lobbyists and insiders rubbing elbows with electeds from all over. There’s no other reason to go, really. His pat-on-his-own-back speech will be published and analyzed (sorta) in the news media. If you go, it’s because you like the dog and pony show. Admit it.

6 p.m. — The Homestead City Council will get a visit from Miami-Dade Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava Wednesday. She will be at the next meeting to provide a summary of the last two years of what she’s done and tell council members what her priorities will be for the second half of her first term, (which still has not yielded all it promised). Homestead will also be the next city to consider a moratorium on medical  marijuana facilities. It’s the city where any cannibusiness makes the most sense, right? Agriculturally? The city council will discuss a 12-month moratorium at its meeting Wednesday at the Taj Majal of City Halls, 100 NE Civic Ct. Other items on the agenda include hiring Greenberg Traurig to do the city’s special tax credit counseling and several board appointments (congrats to Ladra’s pal and good guy Stephen McDuffie , who has worked for both Republicans (Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen) and Democrats (Rep. Kionne McGhee) for getting named to the city’s Community Affairs Board).

THURSDAY — Jan. 19

6:30 p.m. — The Miami-Dade Department of Transportation and Public Works is having a community meeting on the roadway improvements scheduled for Southwest 142nd Avenue, from Coral Way to 8th Street. The event is to provide area residents and businesses with information about the constrution phase of the project, which includes roundabouts, sidewalks, curbe and gutter, signatliation and pavement markings, signage and improved storm drainage. Funds for the project come from road impact fees. Plans will be available for review during the first half hour of the meeting at Joe Hall Elementary School, 1901 SW 134th Ave. Staff presentation begins at 7 p.m. with a question and answer period promised afterwards, but the meeting is expected to end about 8 p.m.

FRIDAY — Jan. 20

9:30 a.m. — It’s the first meeting for the Miami-Dade County Unincorporated Municipal Services Area Committee with Commissioner Javier Souto as chairman. Among the items on the agenda is a resolution directing the mayor 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 (also the site of a kick-off rally last year for Sen. Marco Rubio‘s failed presidential bid). He also wants the mayor to provide a summary of all Building Better Communities GOB funds provided by district and by municipality. The committee will also talk about amending the county rules for annexation, requiring municipalities to provide a comparison of county and municipal land use regulations before any annexation. The meeting is in commission chambers at County Hall, 111 NW 1st St.