Miami-Dade Commission Chairman Esteban Bovo has named his new committee members, chairs and vice chairs and there are definitely signs that some of his colleagues are buds and some are, well, not.

It’s natural to give chairmanships to those commissioners who voted for you as chairman of the board. That’s a longtime tradition and no surprise here. These are rewards, plain and simple. If you think, gentle reader, that our electeds want to put people in committees that make sense because of their experience or expertise, you would only be half right. Because appointments are also opportunities to help allies and hand out payback to those who aren’t. And this is all real insider baseball, but it can help us understand how things play out in the next two years. 

And it is obvious that Vice Chair Audrey Edmonson is the big winner while newly re-elected Commissioner Joe Martinez is the big loser.

Edmonson is sitting pretty, which lends more strength to the widespread belief that she struck a deal with Bovo and switched her original vote for chairman from Commissioner Xavier Suarez and steered others to do the same. Edmonson is the only commissioner who got two committees instead of three — she gets a little break — and they are two of the good ones. She is chair of the housing and social services, most likely she wanted that because of the Liberty Square Rising project — and vice chair of transportation and public works, which is probably the most imporant committee (read: most coveted) in the next two years. She also chairs her own Building Safer Neighborhoods committee and is vice chair of Bovo’s Policy Council, that means that there is not a single committee that she sits on that she is not chairing or vice chair.

Read related story: Tight race for commission chair — Xavier Suarez vs Stevie Bovo

She’s also got the most and some of the juicier appointments to various boards and councils, like the International Trade Consortium, which was taken away from Jose “Pepe” Diaz, who voted for X in the chair vote (loser). Edmonson also got appointed to the Public Health Trust Nominating Council and the Jackson Health Systesm GOB Advisory Board, which will oversee spending of the $830 million general obligation bond funds that were approved by 65% of the voters in 2013. She was also appointed to the Youth Crime Task Force with Commissioner Barbara Jordan, who also voted for X and was not appointed to any other board or council (loser).

But at least she got one. And Jordan was also named vice chair of the public safety and health committee. And Diaz gets to be vice chair of infrastructure and utilities as well as the appointment to the Military Affairs Board, which is a nice consolation prize for him in exchange for the trade consortium.

Joe Martinez is the big loser because he is the only commissioner who didn’t get named either chair or vice chair of any committee and he got snubbed out of any boards and councils. It’s not like there weren’t enough spots to go around. Edmonson and Commissioners Rebeca Sosa and Javier Souto — both of whom also supported Bovo — have both a chair and vice chair position (winners). Sosa will chair the economic development and tourism committee and serve as vice chair of the government operations. And Souto chairs his beloved Parks and Cultural Affairs committee — arguably the least important of them — and is vice chair of the economic development and tourism committee with Sosa. Say what? Well, the chairman, whose father served in Brigade 2506 with Souto, likes him. And several of the commissioners who voted for Bovo as chair have multiple board appointments.

If Edmonson is the queen of the new court, Martinez is the jester. To add insult to injury, he also gets what everyone considers the “punishment” chair in the seatig arrangement at the county clerk end of the dais, furthest from the door and the coveted county attorney side.

So, it’s more than just about his vote for Suarez. This is probably about Martinez talking smack since he’s come back.

Ladra loves it. Comeback Joe is schooling the other commissioners, asking bothersome questions, making procurement officers squirm. But that means he’s ruffling feathers at County Hall and making some people unhappy. And he must pay Piper Bovo.

Read related story: Carlos Gimenez, er, Stevie Bovo wins commission chair

Also, the chairman admitted that he consulted with Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez — who also worked behind the scenes to help Bovo become chairman — before making his appointments and its no secret, despite Martinez claiming a buried hatchet, that the mayor is still peeved at Joe for having the audacity to run against him in 2012. The nerve!

Ladra doesn’t think the chairman considers Martinez a threat to his own rumored interest in the open mayor’s seat in 2020. But we suspect that’s why X was also put in a box. It’s no secret that Suarez is also seriously considering a run for mayor. And there was no other reason for Bovo to rub his victory in Suarez’s face by giving the Children’s Trust appointment to Commissioner Sally Heyman (winner) after X told him it’s all he wanted.  But Suarez did get appointed to housing and social services committee that has organizational jurisdiction over the Children’s Trust. He also got on the government operations, which oversees budget and finance, and infrastructure and utilities committees.

“Sounds like I get to do some work on the budget,” Suarez told Ladra. “I’m happy with all of them.

“Not being on transportation could be seen as negative but I don’t take it like that. I’m not able to move a transportation agenda without outside influences,” Suarez said, adding that he was talking to the CITT  about reclaiming People’s Transportation Plan funds and talking to legislators about tag renewal fee monies.

His son, Miami City Commissioner Francis Suarez, is vice chair of the Metropolitan Planning Organization and Suarez has also been trying to get more MDX dollars for mass transit rather than highways.

“I don’t need to be on the committee to move things forward,” he said.

Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava, who also supported Suarez, got put on the Parks and Cultural committee and the Public Safety and Health committees and is vice chair of the Housing and Social Services committee. She did get one appointment to the Public Health Trust Compensation and Evaluation Committee, whatever that is. Obscure. Suarez got it appointed to just that also (losers).

Other winners include Bruno Barreiro, who gets to chair the transportation committee and is the commission appointment to the Beacon Council, former Chairman Jean Monestime, who gets chair of the infrastructure and utilities committee and is the county’s representative at the Miami-Dade League of Cities and Dennis Moss, who got chair of government operations and appointed to the Miami-Dade Zoological Park and Gardens Oversight Board and Neat Streets Miami.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez was elected the commission chairman Tuesday.

Sure, the board chose Commissioner Esteban Bovo, Jr. over Xavier Suarez. But the victory belongs to the mayor, who now has a compliant chairman and control of the commission agenda. You could see the satisfaction on his face when the two embraced after the vote. Watch for a bunch of “emergency” contracts to be awarded to companies you will find on Gimenez’s multiple campaign finance reports. You may also see the words “piggy back” and “waive” more often when it comes to the bidding process.

Gimenez campaigned hard for Bovo because he knows that he’s got him in his pocket. The two have been in cahoots since they committed absentee ballot fraud together in 2012. Bovo even used his district office in Hialeah as a drop-off point for boleteras. So ushering contracts and ordinances and resolultions through the commission, bypassing committees and the normal vetting process, is no big deal.

With a blow to checks and balances in one of the most important decisions the board can make — this can set the tone for the next two years — the vote was 8-5, with former Chairman Jean Monestime and Commissioners Audrey Edmonson, Sally Heyman, Bruno Barreiro, Rebeca Sosa (who nominated him), Dennis Moss and Javier Souto joining Bovo’s nod for himself. Suarez was joined by Barbara Jordan (who nominated him), Daniella Levine Cava, Joe Martinez, and Jose “Pepe” Diaz.

Ladra was surprised by Diaz, Monestime, Moss and Edmonson — until Edmonson got the vice chairmanship out of the blue. Was that a deal struck with Bovo for her vote? Shouldn’t have Suarez been made the vice chair?

Maybe too much damage was done already.

Ladra has said it before: X is his own worst enemy. His opening statements began with praise for Bovo, calling him a realist and applauding the way he has chaired the transportation committee. “I cannot imagine that I would outperform him. He has done eminently well. And he has a great sense of humor that I try to emulate,” Suarez said in what sounded way more like a Bovo endorsement than an opening pitch for himself.

Then he reminded them of his involvement in both the Frost Museum and the Liberty Square redevelopment — neither which has been smooth going. And then he rambled on and on about projects he has collaborated on with each of the commissioners, wasting time on people like Sosa and Souto who were not persuadable.

“I think I’ve broken the record in terms of Sunshine meetings and met with each of you in many times and worked out deals and agreements in a consentual way, supporting projects and actions,” he said. “I’m even ready to embrace water taxis if that works.”

Yeah, yeah, we get it. You are very collegial. And maybe too genuine. Which makes you a nice guy and a good public servant, but leaves you at a disadvantage as a politician.

Of course, he also quoted one or two intellectuals. But it seemed like a parade of minutia, and it didn’t really move the ball forward. Bovo talked about the future much more forcefully and persuasively and positioned himself as someone with a sense of urgency. “We, as a board now, enter a new dynamic — the dynamic of term limits,” Bovo said, referring to the term limits that were approved by voters in 2012 and are finally going to start kicking in. Six commissioners are running for their final time in 2018 and termed out in 2022. (Monestime, Heyman, Levine Cava, Sosa, Souto and Diaz). The ones re-elected this year, save Martinez, will be termed out in 2020 (Jordan, Edmonson, Barreiro, Suarez, Moss and Bovo).

While Suarez promised to inspire them, Bovo promised them a legacy.

“The time of procrastination, the time of long deliberations when at the end of the day studies would end up on the shelves, I believe are no longer present. I would like to see the county move progressively foward over the next two or four years,” he said, and those commissioners probably heard angels singing.

Transportation is going to be a priority, Bovo announced, like it wouldn’t be for anybody. And he mentioned a proposed “policy council that works hand in hand with administration to move policy forward… whether it’s funding for transportation or how do we address our prison.”

Notice he said administration instead of commission.

That’s why we still need Suarez to be the chairman for the community. Let Bovo represent the mayor, er, I mean the commission. X can assume a much more important role, which is to represent us and be the reality check for Mr. Puppet Chair.

It may be the only shred of checks and balances we have left.

County Hall is abuzz with speculation about who will become the chair of the Miami-Dade Commission for the next two years. But the only thing that is certain right now is that it won’t be unanimous, like it was in 2014 when the commission showed a unified body behind today’s Chairman Jean Monestime.

In a very important decision that could set the tone for the next two years, commissioners will elect the chair and vice chair on Tuesday. But while the two frontrunners couldn’t be any more different, both Xavier Suarez and the current vice chair Esteban Bovo Jr., were elected in the 2011 after-the-recall races and both are possible candidates for county mayor in 2020.

And, yes, it is a heated election for the chairmanship. Just because you can’t see all the behind-the-scenes campaigning, doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

Bovo and/or his people are telling everyone that he has the seven votes he needs. In fact, Back to the Future Commissioner Joe Martinez — whose people reportedly reached out for the public safety committee chairmanship — was told that Bovo doesn’t need his vote and that Sally Heyman had already been promised that committee.

In addition to Commissioner Heyman, apparently in a trade for the public safety committee, Bovo can probably count on his own vote and the votes of:

• Former chair Rebeca Sosa — because Bovo’s wife works for Sen. Marco Rubio, who is Sosa’s unofficial adopted son. She has been actively campaiging for Stevie.
• Javier Souto — because Esteban Bovo Sr. is a Brigade 2506 veteran and Bovo sponsored the ordinance that would ban the county from doing business with companies that did business in Cuba.
• Jose “Pepe” Diaz — because he is the mayor’s yes man and the mayor wants Bovo.

That’s five and he needs two more. Apparently, the rumor — that his camp has intentionally spread — is that he has the votes from Commissioner Audrey Edmonson and the current chair, Monestime.

But Ladra thinks Bovo is taking Edmonson for granted. Because, like, why? More likely, he may have the support of Commissioner Bruno Barreiro, because both of them served in the Florida House of Representatives even though at separate times. But that still makes only six. Because Monestime seems more ideologically and philosophically aligned with Suarez, who chairs his precious prosperity committee.

In addition to Monestime’s and his own vote, Ladra strongly believes Suarez will get support from Martinez and Commissioners Barbara Jordan, Daniella Levine Cava and Dennis Moss, just because they seem to be on the same side of most commission votes. He only needs one more. Will it be Edmonson or Barreiro?

Those two are arguably the only potential undecideds. And that is precisely why Bovo is spreading unsubstantiated and premature rumors about his alleged seven votes in the bag — to sway the undecideds. Or the soft leaning votes even. Because everyone wants to be with the winner.

Suarez has long indicated he wanted this position and has been campaigning longer. Some County Hall insiders think that he withdrew from this year’s mayoral race so that Mayor Carlos Gimenez would back him. Ladra believed them, especially when X seemed to ease off the pressure he had put on the mayor during previous years.

But no. Apparently, he was (1) refocusing his efforts to the chairmanship and (2) just being his collegial self.

It makes much more sense that Gimenez would campaign for Bovo because the compliant commissioner, who campaigned and raised money for the mayor’s re-election bid, would be a puppet for him ready with a rubber stamp to make the Gimenez agenda a reality. Bovo has already come out very supportive of the American Dream mega mall that many of his constituents in Palm Springs North and Miami Lakes do not want. In fact, the mayor and Bovo share many of the same, um, benefactors. The mayor can count on Bovo to move items to the agenda without going through the committee process and to get all kinds of contracts pushed through for his friends and family plan. We’ll see a new, sudden “backlog of contracts” that needs to bypass committee discussion and be pushed through.

After all, Gimenez has about $8 million of I.O.U.s out that he needs to start making good on.

There are several reasons the commission should choose X Tuesday instead of Bovo.

Suarez is a brilliant and persuasive speaker with a track record of proven leadership not only in his district but countywide. He is a charming, disarming modern Renaissance Man with a knack for bringing people together who gets along with almost everybody, including people from both sides of the aisle. An independent or no party affiliation voter, he has supported both Democrats and Republicans in state elections and has close friends and advisors from both the blue and the red teams. And he believes that light rail, not bus rapid transit, is what must happen for South Dade and that all the corridor mass transit projects can be sought simultaneously and paid for without more taxes. He has helped identify funding and it looks like he has come up with more initiatives and plans to get projects off the ground than anyone.

Bovo, meanwhile, is a GOP loyalist with absolutely no friends on the other side and such an integral part of that Hialeah absentee ballot machinery that his district office became a drop-off point for fraudulent votes in the 2012 election. He won his seat by stabbing his predecessor, former Commissioner Natacha Seijas, in the back, campaigning for her recall so he could take her place. Later, his chief of staff, who was moonlighting as a lobbyist, was busted in the same federal bribery case that took down former Sweetwater Mayor Manny Maroño. He has had some good days since, Ladra admits, but he is not known for building consensus, hires questionable staffers and is extremely disrespectful to the labor unions and employees, who generally dislike him. He supported Gimenez’s proposal to close libraries, saying they could be housed in park buildings. And he’s an early and consistent proponent of rapid bus rather than rail who also wants to pay for mass transit improvements with additional tax dollars by creating one or more special taxing districts in the areas it would serve.

But the biggest reason why we should want X as chair instead of Stevie is because Suarez is a stickler for process with a higher regard for transparency who will hold the mayor’s feet to the fire and represent the commission on the dais and in his office, while Bovo is a Gimenez apologist and pocket commissioner who will be looking out for the 29th floor and let the mayor control the agenda.

You know what? It should be unanimous.

Call your commissioner (phone numbers are on this website) and tell them that you want Xavier Suarez to be the chair. This is even more important if you live in District 3 (Edmonson’s office number downtown is 305-375-5393) or District 5 (Barreiro’s office number is 305-643-8525). Hurry up. The meeting starts at 9:30 Tuesday.