The developers of Miami Freedom Park, that real estate complex that comes with a soccer stadium on the grounds of what once was the Melreese Golf Course, want to get out of the $20 million they once promised to spend upgrading and enhancing city parks as part of its sweet deal approved in 2022.
And they got Mayor Francis Suarez to do their dirty work.
Suarez has proposed the establishment of a new special revenue account titled “Park Fund for Miami Freedom Park,” that would use allocated funds exclusively for improvements and maintenance of the 58 acre pubic park” that is part of the complex to be developed by Miami Freedom Park, LLC, which is basically David Beckham and brothers Jorge and Jose Mas, who also own the Inter Miami team. The city said that MFP has already made the first of two $10 million payments for this new special account.
Oh, so special.
Suarez is going to ask Miami Commissioners to let MFP off the hook at Thursday’s meeting. This comes about month after the city put the developers on notice for not paying the second half of their promised park funding and withheld the master permit for the site of the $1 billion development, a retail and office park with restaurants, a 750-room hotel and, oh yeah, a 25,000-seat stadium that will host games for the Inter Miami team.
Read related: Miami Freedom Park scores yes vote for massive stadium real estate complex
This is a bait and switch. Because the development agreement reached in April 2022 in a historic vote for a 99-year lease stipulated that the developers would donate $20 million to be used “for improvements to public parks or acquisition of public parks within the city of Miami.” Not for Miami Freedom Park, but other parks citywide. Commissioner Joe Carollo asked for that. Of the $25 million given to the city in exchange for the pleasure of developing the property and making millions of dollars, $20 million would go to city parks and $5 million would go to the Baywalk on the Miami River and Biscayne Bay.
At least that is what everybody thought. These were even campaign promises made for the referendum vote in 2018 where voters gave the city the green light to begin negotiations. These park improvement funds were one of the alleged public benefits.
Now the $20 million is going to their own project?

What’s next? Maybe they don’t want to make the park 58 acres. Maybe it’s good enough at 35 acres.
Maybe they won’t create 15,000 “direct or indirect jobs” (minus the dozen lobbyists) or the 2,000 permanent jobs that were promised. That was just a ballpark figure.
Maybe they won’t be able to pay the $4.3 million in annual guaranteed rent. I mean, the economy, right?
Read related: Marlins Park’s David Samson: Miami Freedom Park is a ‘billion dollar heist’
These were some of the other things that were promised when the Miami Freedom Park developers were trying to get the deal. They even said they would bear all the costs of maintaining the roads, lights, sidewalks and benches at the new 58-acre park it would pay to build. Now they want their $20 million back to do it.
Back then, Jorge Mas said there was  “no public subsidy” — even though developers did get an $8 million state grant for infrastructure last year.
“There is significant economic benefit from tax revenue and new jobs,” Mas said at the April 2022 meeting “And I have to deliver the public benefits first.”
Before or after he takes back the $20 million he promised?
The post Miami Freedom Park developers want their $20 million parks donation back appeared first on Political Cortadito.

Read Full Story

Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo is defending himself against another civil lawsuit, this time from two former employees of the Bayfront Park Management Trust who say they were forced to resign after they uncovered, and reported, inadequate accounting methods and questionable expenses. In their whistleblower complaint, filed last month, former executive director Jose Suarez, a longtime Carollo ally, and ex finance director Jose Canto allege that Carollo used the Trust to benefit friends and get kickbacks on overpriced and unnecessary deals.
Well, he’s not really defending himself. Carollo will once again be defended by former City Attorney Victoria Mendez, who is now in private practice, and former Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, who has defended Carollo before. Both work at Shutts & Bowen. Mendez joined last fall after she was unceremoniously fired from her post (read: allowed her to resign).
Ladra bets this is not what the commission had in mind when they let Tricky Vicky go.
Read related: Fired Miami City Attorney Victoria Mendez gets new gig at big firm, award
Commissioner Miguel Gabela, one of the architects of Mendez’s exit, is again bringing up a proposal to suspend any upfront payments of legal fees for elected officials “in certain cases,” providing for a review of future cases that require outside council due to conflicts of interest. It’s been continued twice and deferred once since he first put it on the agenda in November.
It’s on the agenda again for Thursday’s meeting.
But it’s something Gabela also brought up quickly in March of last year, only four months after winning his election, beating former Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla after the latter was arrested on public corruption charges and suspended from office (the case has since been dropped by the Broward State Attorney’s Office). Back then, Gabela wanted to stop payments to lawyer Benedict Kuehne, asserting a conflict of interest because he is retained to represent the city and commissioners and also suing Gabela and the city on behalf of Diaz de la Portilla, who wanted to disqualify Gabela on residency.
Read related: Miami Commissioner Miguel Gabela wants to slow the city’s legal spending
According to a complaint filed in federal court last year by QBE Specialty Insurance Company, a firm that provides legal insurance coverage for municipalities, Carollo’s legal defense costs — mostly spurring from the First Amendment violation lawsuit he lost against two Little Havana businessmen — had already exceeded $10 million.
 
The post Miguel Gabela wants to stop paying Miami commissioners’ legal fees appeared first on Political Cortadito.

Read Full Story

God help us.
Roberto Rodriguez-Tejera, the veteran journalist who put the morning radio commute on Actualidad Radio 1040 AM in the number one position in ratings — above English-language stations, even — signed off the air on Thursday after mandando a todo el mundo al carajo.
Well, not entirely. Rodriguez-Tejera says he’ll still do a show on weekend afternoons, probably starting in February. It won’t be the same, though. It will be more about culture and music and history, things he loves just as much (maybe more) than politics.
But the departure from the politically-centered Contacto Directo morning show, which he swears is not forced — and sources tell me the station practically begged him to stay — will leave a huge void in local news, especially Spanish radio news and commentary, where there is absolutely no voice like his.
We’re headed into Trumpland all day, every day on every station. That also means there’s going to be lots of cushy coverage and fluff on the five constitutional officers who were elected in Miami-Dade on Trump’s coattails. “This national election has affected our local politics very profoundly,” he said Thursday, with a sigh.
Rodriguez-Tejera admits this is what caused him to step away. It was his own decision, to leave on his own terms. Saliendo por la puerta de alante.

“I don’t think I can continue doing the kind of journalism I’ve been doing for 40 years for the next four years of Trump,” he told Political Cortadito. But I know he can. Unless the station wouldn’t let him, and there’s no reason why they wouldn’t. Did I tell you he had the best rated show within his three hours? He did two with veteran journalist Juan Camilo Gomez, who left in December to become the communications director in Homestead (ouch) and one with Ricardo Brown, another veteran who directed TV news at Univision and CBS before going into radio, and who is staying at the 9 a.m. spot.
Actualidad is going to try to replace Roberto with Yolie Cuello, who already has a show weekdays at 1 p.m. She knows everybody but she pretty much asks softball questions. Congressman Carlos Gimenez was a recent guest there to promote himself. Cuello doesn’t ask the follow-up questions that Rodriguez-Tejera is famous for. Really, nobody does. And while Yolie has her charm, Roberto’s institutional knowledge of Miami’s political history is next level.
Yolie Cuello
Nobody can just tell him stories without him knowing that they’re lying.
Rodriguez-Tejera has worked in Miami for four decades. He was Telemundo’s first news director in 1985. Three years later, he was appointed news director of TV Marti, the federally-funded station that broadcasts news to Cuba. He also worked there from 1996 to 2000 and has worked in television and different radio stations — from La Poderosa, where he butt heads with the owner over George W. Bush, to WQBA, where he was fired in 2012 after an ownership change. Ladra has worked with him over the years, including on his shortlived show on CNN en Español, a three month stint in 2017 with Tejera En Vivo on Mega TV and his longer show on Mira TV called Prohibido Callarse, which we can still watch on YouTube.
It translates loosely to “no silence allowed.”
What happened to that slogan?
It’s especially disconcerting that people like Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo, who at public meetings called the station Radio Havana because the morning guys dared criticize him, and Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago, whose defamation lawsuit against the station and the journalist was dismissed last year for being “legally insufficient,” are going to celebrate this. Certainly Miami Commissioner Miguel Gabela, who Rodriguez-Tejera and Gomez caught in several flip flops and outright lies last year, is gonna breathe easier.
Read related: Under fire, Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago sues Cuban radio station for libel
Robertico, as he is affectionately called, was not afraid to call electeds out. And that will be sorely missed.
Several sources told Ladra that the administration at Actualidad Radio 1040 AM was not happy to see him go and made offers to keep him. Did I mention he had the highest rating show? But Rodriguez-Tejera sounded tired and over it in the last few weeks. He just doesn’t want to deal with it anymore. Especially without Juan Camilo, who has been his partner for several years now. They made a super duo.
Ladra can understand this. It’s been hard since the election to get up in the morning and see what’s happened and happening and try to explain it in real terms to the people who, apparently, aren’t really listening or paying attention. It’s exhausting, actually.
But it’s also important. Even more so now. After this short break Political Cortadito took since Nov. 5, posting sporadically on easy peasy shit (read: self care), it’s time to turn up the notch. Somebody has to.
Actually, let’s not count Rodriguez-Tejera out completely. He did tell Ladra, exclusively, that he could come back later this year in some shape or form. He has the gravitas to do whatever he wants. I hope it’s his own podcast. He could do documentaries.
“The next 60, 90, 120 days are going to be very revealing,” he said. “I don’t discard coming back. I am taking a pause.
“I could come back to the air at some future moment.”
My fingers are crossed.
The post Miami loses a radio legend, gets a void in Roberto Rodriguez-Tejera retirement appeared first on Political Cortadito.

Read Full Story

The city commission meeting Thursday turned into a shouting match between commissioners Miguel “Mike” Gabela and Manolo Reyes basically because of the contentious fight on the self-serving lifetime pensions for electeds that Gabela has championed twice before changing his mind, also twice.

Gabela said he stood by the principle of his idea, which was to make it fair across the board. When the pension was suspended in 2009 at the height of the city’s financial woes, it cut off future commissioners but current commissioners at the time were grandfathered in. “It should be either all or none,” Gabela said, even though those electeds were vested in an existing pension program and had defined benefits that could not be removed without risking legal action.

Read Full Story

As Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo is termed out of office and mulls a ridiculous run for mayor — everyone knows he can’t win citywide — it is looking like his old opponent, Alfonso “Alfie” Leon, may run for the open seat again next November.

“I am planning on running again. Will be making an announcement soon,” Leon texted Ladra after she called and texted him to confirm his intent to run. The personal injury attorney was in court Friday and said he would call Political Cortadito next week. But we couldn’t wait to share the news.

Read Full Story

Victoria Mendez sure knows how to land on her feet.

The former Miami city attorney, unceremoniously fired for incompetence and conflicts of interests, is also in the midst of a Florida Bar investigation. Yet, she’s winning awards and landing a new job.

Read Full Story