Happy New Year, voter! Are you ready for 2024?

If anybody thought elections in 2023 were interesting — what with corrupt Miami Mayor Francis Suarez being a pretend presidential contender for all of five minutes and incumbent losses in Coral Gables and the city of Miami — next year will likely be as good or better.

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Manny Cid, Maribel Balbin among potential candidates

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The two top building officials from the town of Miami Lakes resigned abruptly last month and some City Hall employees and town insiders say they were pushed out by political pressure and/or interference.

Building official Mike Mesa and Permits Director Lourdes Rodriguez both resigned from their positions in the wake of an ad hoc committee that was formed after a connected developer complained about citations he got.

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The Miami Lakes council caved Tuesday to the strong arm tactics of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and ignored the recommendation of a citizen selection committee, hiring Gimenez pal Ed Pidermann as the new town manager instead.
The committee, which met more than a dozen times over nine months to review 60 applicants, had recommended former North Miami Beach city manager Ana Garcia, principally because she has the experience they wanted and which, many believe, the charter explicitly calls for (though anyone can interpret it differently). Vice Mayor Nelson Rodriguez nominated her, but then withdrew the nomination when it became clear he didn’t have the votes — only Councilwoman Marilyn Ruano backed Garcia — and he wanted the new manager to start with unanimous support from the dais.
“I can count,” Rodriguez said. “Our manager, whoever that is, needs to have the full support of the council. and although it breaks my heart, because I know we are losing a superstar with super experience, I have no doubt that Mr. Pidermann will do a good job.”
Mayor Manny Cid said his vote was with Pidermann because the veteran firefighter is a resident of Miami Lakes and the other candidates hinted they were not eager to sell their longtime homes and move into the Northwest Dade town.
Read related: Carlos Gimenez pushes pal in Miami Lakes manager selection
But that can’t really be it, can it? Could Cid have completely alienated his citizens’ committee and shit on a painstaking transparent and public process just because of residency? “It’s a deal breaker,” he kept saying, me thinks protesting too much.
The process was intentionally and painstakingly public and transparent precisely to avoid political shenanigans or any perception thereof. To completely abandon it in light of the county mayor’s pressure seems to have also abandoned any attempt to keep the appointment politically clean.
Some observers think that maybe Cid made a deal with Gimenez and the residency issue gave him political cover. The city does need another fire truck. Is it possible that was dangled like a carrot? Or will Gimenez support Cid’s future bid for higher office? Gimenez holds the purse strings and the controls on so much of the planning around the American Dream megamall that will affect Miami Lakes residents probably more than anybody else, which could also be why it’s important to him to have someone close (read: controllable) at the top in the town.
The vote came after several firefighters — including the vice mayor’s brother — and the new Deputy Miami-Dade Mayor Maurice Kemp, another former Miami Fire Chief (photo, right), spoke on behalf of Pidermann. One firefighter suggested Nelson Rodriguez, who is a firefighter in Coral Gables, was betraying his own by backing Garcia.
Several residents spoke on behalf of preserving the process, including Maria Kramer, a longtime activist who was on the citizen review committee.
“Your fiduciary responsibility is to us, not the firefighters,” Kramer told the council. “Our number one recommendation on every vote we took was Ana Garcia (photo, right). No one had the kind of experience that she did. I remember Frank Bocanegra when we made that fatal mistake of going with the police chief because he had the knowledge. And it almost destroyed Miami Lakes.”
She is referring to the former police major turned town manager who has been accused of abusing his office in cahoots with former Mayor Michael Pizzi.
Read related: American Dream megamall developer would give us buses for our trouble
“Hiring a Miami Lakes resident has its pros and cons. You’re going to have a conflict of interest: ‘Am I going to do what’s right for my neighborhood or what’s right for everyone,’” Kramer stated.
“You have to choose who is most qualified. Mr. Pidermann is charming. he is committed to this town. But he has not even been an assistant manager. We need someone who can hit the ground running.
“Another Frank Bocanegra would be a disaster for this town.”
The surprise upset is a small political victory for new Councilman Josh Dieguez (photo, left), a Gimenez lackey who silently slid into the seat of former councilman Frank Mingo and had tried to stop the process to include more candidates (maybe Gimenez had a plan B).
“It’s about rounding out the list,” Dieguez said, because he wanted a shortlist of seven candidates, for whatever reason.
Then he started crying about some “gossip website” that called him a Gimenez minion — oh, wait, was he talking about little ol’ Ladra?
“It was just to give an option. It was not about distorting the will of the charter to even have this committee in the first place,” he said, although it is exactly what he was doing: Unhappy with the outcome of the process, he wanted to tweak it.
He eventually withdrew his motion, knowing it would have no support. But he spent several minutes showing his thin skin, talking about a public record being “leaked” — obviously he wanted to keep the Gimenez email secret — and how Ladra “attacked” him. Someone please ask the young councilman to explain how it is an attack to state the truth. And please explain that at no time did Ladra suggest that he “manipulated the mayor into writing this letter,” which is, indeed, absurd.
Dieguez is the mayor’s minion not the other way around. And that is why, after his big song and dance, Little Minion Dieguez nominated Pidermann.
Reading from an admitted script, Dieguez recalled a “stellar career in public service. Nt just that he was a firefighter. It’s that he has a service heart. He is someone who has managed a budget of over 100 million and hundreds of employees. M. pidermann was not my initial choice. additionally he comes highly recommended by members of this community.”
Dieguez said he met with Pidermann again just shortly before the council meeting Tuesday. “He assured me that he has a plan in place to ensure that the knowledge we will be losing when Mr. Ray leaves us. He ensured me he has a strong team to keep that institutional knowledge in town. That gives me great comfort.”
Well, I’m sure the members of the selection committee are comforted by that as well.
Councilman Jeffrey Rodriguez said he was “confident in his ability to work with people and I’m confident in his ability to work with this council,” especially after getting calls from residents, not the county mayor, he said.
And Councilman Carlos Alvarez first said he had a “duty to honor the time spent by the committee” and then did just the opposite by voting for Pidermann.
Mayor Manny Cid
Cid seemed somewhat ticked off that he didn’t get the same opportunity as his predecessors to name the next town manager. “That opportunity wasn’t afforded to me because of prior sins,” he said, adding that he would have suggested Tony Lopez, who never threw his hat into consideration.
“The process itself has been good. I think the committee did a great job. There are some bad parts of the process… the intrigue and discussions. I really dislike that I think it should be clear cut… but I didn’t get that opportunity.”
That’s when he said residency was a priority for him.
“We are a $40 million organization. I truly believe that the CEO of our town, whoever the next CEO of our town is,m should own stock,” Cid said. “I can envision all four of them doing the job. They all have their strengths. They all have their weaknesses. I come back to that question I asked.”
He wanted someone with “the same motivation to retire here, to raise their kids here. I really want to see that skin in the game.”
Nelson said the manager, whoever it was, could be fired within 72 hours at any time and that it was “unreasonable” to force candidates to move from longtime homes.
“But again I can count,” Rodriguez said. “The committee did their job. They recommended the number one person. I wish all these letters of recommendation would have materialized in their file in March.
Pidermann was visibly pleased. “I prayed to God and I think he produced the right result,” he said, thanking the council and offering that he was ready to start Jan. 1.
And Gimenezville seemingly expands.

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Is the fix in for the next town manager of Miami Lakes? Lots of people apparently think so.
Town Manager Alex Rey isn’t leaving until next March, and a selection committee that is supposed to keep the process super transparent and clean hasn’t even met once yet (it will next week) because Town Attorney Raul Gastesi hasn’t shortlisted the 55 — or 58 or 57 or 59, “in high 50-s and not 60,” but he doesn’t remember exactly (really?!?) — candidates that had applied as of the April 20 deadline.
But at Tuesday’s council meeting, a move by Councilman Tim Daubert to speed up the process was seen as evidence that the rampant rumors about an in-house “preferred” candidate (read: Assistant Town Manager Andrea Agha) were true. Daubert withdrew his agenda item after a number of residents complained that it was inappropriate and smacked of cronyism.
“I don’t want an heir apparent and that is what seems to be occurring,” said Abel Fernandez, a retired firefighter and town activist. “What is the hurry? It is inappropriate, it is a travesty that we circumvent the power of a committee.”
Longtime activist Maria Kramer, a member of the selection committee, said she had heard the rumors about the fix from two veteran municipal administrators, a manager and an assistant manager, who had told her for years that the minute the position opened in Miami Lakes, they would jump on it. When they didn’t, she asked them why.
“They said, ‘Why would I apply? It’s fixed. It’s going in house. Why should I upset my council members?’ This pisses me off beyond belief,” Kramer said. “And whoever has been putting that rumor out, this council and this mayor needs to extend this process and go on record and say that this is an open process. If not, you are cheating yourselves and you are cheating us.
“You are going against the will of the voters of Miami Lakes,” she said. “This process was set up by the voters, by a huge number of voters.”
Robert Ruiz agreed with her about opening up the process again. “I am getting calls from city managers that are 10 and 15 years working in this community who decided not to apply because they thought this was a done deal prior to the selection process,” Ruiz said. “There are good names we want to consider.”
Kramer and Fernandez noted that there was plenty of time to vet all the candidates and go through a thorough selection process, which the charter had recently changed to be a citizen driven process. They have until December at the earliest.
“We deserve a process that is fair. We deserve the very best possible administrator in all of South Florida to apply. We need to take Miami Lakes to the next level,” Kramer said. “Please don’t make a mockery of the process. If someone takes another job [in the meantime] they weren’t meant to be our manager.”
In fact, all the residents concerned about the process asked the council to extend the application period, rather than speed up the selection process. The council unanimously set a new deadline for any applicants that stayed away the first time: June 15. Kramer said the town should do the same as Key Biscayne, which kept its selection process open through the end, but some of the council members weren’t willing to leave it open that long.
Gastesi seemed to try very hard to get the council to leave the application deadline closed.
He said the process that resulted in more than 55 — but less than 60, he’s not sure exactly (seriously?!) — applicants was “open, public, recorded, advertised. It can’t be any more transparent as to what we were looking for. We discussed every aspect of what were the minimum qualifications, the educational requirements, size of their management experience, private vs public.”
He dismissed the rumors. “If you didn’t apply, you made that decision on your own. We’re adults and whoever decided not to apply, maybe the reason they didn’t apply is they didn’t want to create friction from where they are. It’s kind of an affront to everybody sitting up on this dais. It’s an affront to everybody on the committee, that somehow they have made that decision.”
Gastesi disclosed that he and the human resources director are going through the resumes to decide whether or not the applicant meets the requirements before passing them along to the final selection committee, which will then make a recommendation to the council, any one of whom, by the way, can bring in their own recommendation. If Gastesi has a doubt about anyone, he will submit them to the committee, he said. He was visibly and audibly upset by the accusations that the position had already been promised or decided for someone (read: Agha).
“I don’t know how else we can make it more transparent,” Gastesi said. “If someone decided not to apply, that’s on them… If there’s a rumor out there as to who’s in the bag or who’s going to get this, it’s not appropriate.”
Councilman Frank Mingo, who is running for the seat in House District 103 — where Manny Diaz Jr. is jumping off to run for the Senate seat vacated by Rene Garcia (more on that later) — agreed with Gastesi.
“It’s sad to hear some people didn’t apply because they made assumptions or heard rumors,” he said. “Nobody controls that committee and nobody controls this council. There is nothing set in stone. that I’ve learned.”
Well, maybe not stone.
But Gastesi tried again, really hard it seems, to talk the council out of re-opening the window of opportunity.
“We have a deadline to apply to get the recommendation to the committee,” Gastesi explained. “The committee process that we set up is the committee process that we set up. We worked long. We worked hard. People worked long and hard to get their applications in under the deadline and comply with the rules and procedures. There are 50-some people who did that.”
Remember, he can’t remember the exact number. Around 57. Or 58 maybe. Or 55. Something like that. No, that doesn’t sound sketchy at all.
Then Gastesi went on and on and on about how opening up the application window again would interfere with “a bunch of work to get to where we are” in the process.
“The fact is that this committee has done a lot of work, met, discussed parameters, input, emails back and forth to us inquiring of certain issues,” Gastesi said. “We’ve gotten public records requests from members of the committee. So we’ve done a lot of work so far.”
Councilman Nelson Rodriguez asked the right question when he asked what committee? What work? The committee, remember, will meet for the first time May 8.
Um, er, Gastesi stammered. “The only work that’s been done… the committee itself has not met. We’ve called meetings… by May 8, I will have reviewed all the resumes, discussed what piles they are going to go into and then turn them over to them and then they can decide what steps to take next.”
So in other words, the committee — whose own members asked for the window to be opened again — hasn’t done any work yet. Not “a bunch” of work. Not any.
Rodriguez was the one who pushed the issue. Daubert expected it to go away when he withdrew the item from he agenda, but Rodriguez wanted to talk about it and was assured that it would come up in the attorney’s report.
“The name of Miami Lakes is being smeared and I dislike it a lot,” he said, adding that he, too, had heard “it’s a done deal” was in the rumor mill. “That’s one of the reasons I wanted to discuss this. I wanted to make it clear that nothing is a done deal. Nobody is going to control my vote and tell me how to vote.”
Councilman Ceasar Mestre said the council should “stick by our procedure” and not change the process midstream. He said this could also set a precedent for more changes which is contrary to what the committee was about.
“We are trying to be transparent and now we are coming out with a little way to get around it,” Mestre said “That kind of bypasses everything and if we do get a resume that did not apply on time and for some reason that person gets picked… if there’s rumors now can you imagine what it’s going to be like?”
Which does raise the question that maybe this is being done for a particular applicant.
Said Gastesi: “There is not a process in the country without a rumor mill.”
Councilwoman Marilyn Ruano said that her opinion was guided by the committee members who wanted to open the window again. “We’ve been abundantly transparent. That’s been the idea. And it has backfired.
“There were several committee members here tonight and it was their desire to reopen the process. It’s an abundance of caution at this point,” Ruano said. “We want to make it clear that this didn’t happen…I don’t want the perception to remain that we’re closing it off because that is what we wanted to do from the beginning.”

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Faced with a future opening on the town council, Miami Lakes Mayor Manny Cid didn’t look at past councilmembers or candidates. He looked to the audience in commission chambers.

Cid intends to name Marilyn Ruano to fill the seat that will be left open after the July 25th meeting, the last for Councilman Tony Lama, who took a job with Amazon and is moving to Seattle to pursue a dream and try to make the world a better place for all of us. 

Ruano is an accountant with a family business in Miami Lakes and a former PTA board member and current homeowners association president. She has also been a regular attendee of council meetings for the past 10 years. Which means she has stamina.

“That was very important to me,” Cid told Ladra late Friday, about her attendance to the town meetings, when he placed the item on the agenda for the next meeting Tuesday. “And it would be good to have an accountant on the council.”

Ya think?

Read related story: Miami Lakes: Tony Lama takes Amazon job — in Seattle

The town charter gives Cid 30 days from the day of Lama’s resignation, which will likely be July 26, to make a nomination the council must then approve. He can’t name her on Tuesday, because Lama has yet to resign. But he wanted to report his intent to name Ruano and set a special meeting date to consider the resignation effective date so that he can make the nomination.

Mayor Manny Cid

“Expressing my intention to nominate in advance allows the public the opportunity to meet the nominee in a transparent fashion,” Cid wrote in his memo to the vice mayor and council members. “Mrs. Ruano understands firsthand the importance of being an independent voice working for all Miami Lakers. Mrs. Ruano possesses incredible strength and the heart of a public servant.”

Also, fyi, if a nomination isn’t confirmed within 90 days, they have to have a special election. Which they could force if they want someone else. But it would cost the city “an arm and a leg,” Cid said. A pretty penny for their size town. Lama’s term ends in 202, but if confirmed, Ruano would serve until the next regularly scheduled election which is the countywide election in August 2018.

Cid’s item memo has Ruano’s bio attached, which shows she has been president of the Royal Palm Estates HOA since 2013 and was active long before that in her sons school and the Miami-Dade School Board committees. She also serves as vice chair of the Miami Lakes Education Advisory Board. Cid appointed her to it in 2014.

The mayor said he had been approached by a few residents and that some people had openly advocated for someone else. “But the good thing about Miami Lakes is we have deep talent pool,” Cid said. “There are dozens of people who are more than qualified. I just felt that the fact that she had been to every meeting for the last 10 years and that she was president of her HOA was something that was important to me.”

We left a message with Ruano and emailed her and hope to get more information later. But according to a well-informed sources, including a fellow gadfly, she is a good addition to the council with no agenda other than whatever is best for the town and residents of Miami Lakes. 

“Securing funding for tutoring, classes and much needed educational programs at our local area schools, and promoting and encouraging a love of reading at an early age has made this a very fulfilling experience,” says her bio, which seems specifically tailor written for the council’s consideration of her nomination. “With over a decade of community service, including regular attendance at Town Council meetings, I have voiced my concerns on matters affecting the future of Miami Lakes. I look forward to serving my community for many years. The past 10 years have been very rewarding and I know, in my heart, that the best is yet to come.”

Ruano has her predecessor’s blessing.

“I gave him my thumbs up,” said Tony Lama. And no, it’s not a Sunshine Law violation for them to have discussed it because Lama will be gone and will not vote on his replacement. 

“She’s been an active member of our community for quite some time. She is vocal but fair. Even with individuals she was not in line with, she’s always been very respectful,” Lama said. “And I agreed 100 percent that it would be nice to have a woman on the council.”

That’s one thing she’s got going for her. The other thing is that she was an early critic of former Mayor Michael Pizzi — which means she’s smart.