Coral Gables Vice Mayor Mike Mena is under fire for his vote last week to sell a city-owned parcel used as a surface parking lot near the Village of Merrick Park to his bosses in a no-bid secret deal that nobody knew was coming.
It may be two years away, but newly-minted Coral Gables Vice Mayor Mike Mena just lost any chance he had to be re-elected in 2023.
No, it’s not just because of the condescending matter in which he dismissed resident-driven ideas from newly-elected Commissioner Rhonda Anderson, who proposed amending the zoning code to require approval and notice for “as of right” commercial developments. The Gables Insider correctly called Mena’s arguments mansplaining. It was also pathetic.
With less than two weeks before qualifying ends, Coral Gables Commissioner Mike Mena still has no opposition in his group in April’s upcoming election. And chances are it will stay that way because of his war chest.
Mena has amassed $111,650 in contributions since last April, according to the last campaign reports filed this week. That includes $31,950 just in January, his second best month and the best since July.
This is someone who, again, has no challenge at all.
Having spent only about $10,000, Mena is holding onto a fat 100K to unleash on anybody who dares run against him (qualifying ends Feb. 22). It’s smart. He’ll have to return or donate the money to charity if he is elected unopposed, but not before he sends everyone a big thank you and spends some of it gratuitously on furthering his next political aspiration.
In the only real race for the group 4 seat vacated by Commissioner Frank Quesada, former Commissioner Ralph Cabrera also had his best month, with $21,650 collected in January for a $31,620 total. This includes $1,000 from former City Attorney Elizabeth Hernandez, $250 from former Commissioner Jeannett Slesnick and $250 from David Bolton, the late great Roxcy Bolton‘s son.
Cabrera, who has spent a little more than $6,000, is running against former Interim City Manager Carmen Olazabal, who has raised a total of $22,871, including nearly $9,000 last month, and attorney Jorge L. Fors, who has proven himself quite the rainmaker with $11K more in January for a grand total of $81,775 so far.
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At least half of Olazabal’s money is from outside Coral Gables, and a lot of it comes from family and friends in Puerto Rico. She also has a $250 from former city manager to anyone Merrett Stierheim, who made $50,000 as a city manager’s consultant when Olazabal was in charge.
Meanwhile, she has spent the most of the three candidates in the open race, with $11,500 or about half her total — already out in expenses that include fees for “consultant” Dario Moreno, who is really a pollster and data guy who gets paid publicly while Carmen Cason, the former mayor’s wife, does much of the ground work.
Fors has only spent $2,360.
It is also notable that Fors, a newby — whose contributions include a $1,000 gift from former Commissioner Wayne Withers (ouch Ralph!) — has raised more than Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli, who has raised $80,800, including $13,350 last month.
Read related: Newby leads cash race in Coral Gables 3-way contest in open seat
Valdes-Fauli — who only won by less than 190 votes last time — has also blown more than half of his wad, spending more than anybody else by far. Last month he spent more than $17,000 on holiday cards, media and campaign literature, through the company of his campaign manager Jorge de Cardenas.
This means he has less than $40,000 in hand, which means there’s still time ladies and gentlemen. This would not be a hard race to win. Valdes-Fauli is a crybaby who is hugely unpopular, even the people who pretend to like him. He disappeared for 13 years after leaving office in 2001 and suddenly wants to be relevant again. Yawn.
But, so far, it’s not like he has much to worry about. His only challenge is from perennial candidate Jackson “Rip” Holmes, who sounds like a crazy person when he talks about aliens behind the Boston bombing and “sacred Jeb Bush” — who he has apparently forgiven for sending him to prison for 3 years after he made a threat — has only been able to get money from himself.
He has loaned his campaign $615 and spent nearly $500 on a voter’s list and a logo. Holmes does not list any expenses for his website so Ladra wants to know who his server is. He apparently is going to run the campaign on a shoestring budget of iphone videos.
There are still a couple of months to qualify, but so far there are no challengers to Coral Gables Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli and Commissioner Mike Mena in the April election.
That’s too bad, because neither of them deserve an easy slide without a challenge.
There are three candidates — including former Commissioner Ralph Cabrera and one-time crazy ass city manager-for-five-disastrous-minutes Carmen Olazabal — running for the open seat left by Commissioner Frank Quesada, who apparently is not running for re-election. Instead, Quesada is backing the third candidate, Jorge L. Fors, who looks like a bigger Mike Mena and raised incumbent money in his first two months. (But more on that later.)
Read related: Interim Coral Gables manager got a 20% raise — but ‘for now’
The mayor and Mena are vulnerable, and Ladra hopes anyone waiting in the wings won’t wait much longer to come out and stop the flood of money going to them — $47,200 for Valdes-Fauli and $70K for Mena, according to their last campaign finance reports (found on the city’s website) through November — simply because there is no other choice.
Heck, Mena feels so free in his seat that he didn’t raise a dime last month.
Both stood by while the police chief and his employees were dragged through the mud unnecessarily by the city manager’s office. They stood by like they currently stand by paying Frank Fernandez a six figure salary to stay at home and look for another job.
But while Mena has been pretty much in a coma and only put his big boy pants on yesterday, Valdes-Fauli has been arrogant and awful to people, even right from the dais. He also talks out of both sides of his mouth, telling people he was going to get rid of City Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark — as far back as the campaign trail two years ago — and then defending her every chance he got on the dais. His story changes for the audience.
Cabrera, who lost twice against Cason, won’t try a third time. He is running for commissioner because its safer in an open seat and he can do just as much without the ribbon cutting ceremonial stuff.
Read related: Coral Gables Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark quits job in battle with chief
Former Commissioner Jeannett Slesnick is a possibility. She only lost to Valdes-Fauli by 187 votes and later learned that hundreds of her friends had not voted. If she runs again and makes sure those friends turn in their absentee ballots, she should have it in the bag.
“I think I could win. I just don’t know if I want to spend the time,” Slesnick told Ladra after the tree lighting Friday. “It took three months out of my life.”
While she prefers to spend her time these days raising funds for Democrat candidates to higher office — which she is very good at — she could very well be talked into it.
Ariel Fernandez is another good possibility. An activist turned one-time commission candidate, Ariel — who has stayed active — has the Hispanic name that would help the Hispanics who only voted for Raul out of some misguided loyalty to culture turn. After all, Valdes-Fauli traveled to Cuba under the Castro rule and defends the opening of relations with a country that still criminalizes political speech.
Like I said, he is not that hard to beat.
Fernandez said he would need to raise a lot of money to beat Valdes-Fauli but Ladra believes he can win without the big bucks by making the election a referendum on the mayor.
Who else is there? Anyone?
It’s been two weeks since Cathy Swanson Rivenbark, officially and reluctantly resigned as city manager in Coral Gables in the light of major commission resistance to her battle with the police chief and insistence that her No. 2 keep his status as the highest ranking cop in the city.
In an ironic twist, Assistant City Manager Frank Fernandez — who many believe is the cause of all the anguish with his sworn status and public safety domain — seems to be sticking around. Fernandez is still a top city administrator, though he is no longer overseeing public safety. The police and fire chiefs report directly to interim City Manager Peter Iglesias, who has made it very clear that Chief Ed Hudak is the top sworn officer in the city.
Everything is happening quietly and quickly, so as to not get any more negative attention that the city leaders hate so much. But, although it is not on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting, some of the details of the new administrative structure — and hints about the future — may come up anyway. An ENews blast sent Sept. 19 said “The City Commission will discuss the process for hiring a new City Manager at the next Commission Meeting scheduled for September 25.”
Read related: Coral Gables Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark quits job in battle with chief
Ladra’s sources said they expect the mayor to bring it up in his comments. And word is Iglesias will be made acting manager for the foreseeable future, perhaps forever.
Neither Mayor Raul Valdes Fauli nor Commissioner Mike Mena, who have re-election bids six months from now, want to have the whole city manager mess in the public eye with a national search at campaign time. Las malas lenguas say they want to put it off ’til after the April election because they don’t want it to become a campaign issue.
Ladra says too late!
But further than that, there are rampant rumors that Iglesias already has the job permanently. Even while residents and business leaders demand a true national search that is not a total joke like the last one.
Commissioner Vince Lago told Ladra in a text message that he was in no hurry to make another change.
“I am interested in giving Peter a few months to acclimate and show his ability,” Lago wrote. “The issues with Frank are still being ironed out. They are reviewing his job responsibilities and seeing how he can continue to serve in a limited capacity in regards to public safety.”
Ladra heard Fernandez doesn’t even have an office at the police station anymore. Nobody saw him there Monday.
But is he still going to wear a uniform? Is he still gonna carry a gun?
Read related: Coral Gables leaders to discuss police structure; or will it be more theater?
And there is still the issue of human resources, which he also oversaw. If he can still hire and fire police personnel and force Hudak to work with people that he would have passed on, it’s still a problem. That’s something that maybe should be discussed. Is the new Internal Affairs major who was hired despite Hudak wanting someone else going to stay on as well?
And if Fernandez is not overseeing public safety, which — as he and Swanson-Rivenbark liked to stress — is his wheelhouse, then what the hell is he going to be doing? Historic preservation? Parks and Rec?
Iglesias, photographed here taking his seat on the first day of his new job Sept. 11, was hired away from the city of Miami in 2016 by Swanson-Rivenbark to oversee Public Works, Development Services, Parking, Historical Resources and Cultural Arts, Economic Development, and Community Recreation. Some think he’s part of a Bermuda triangle with Fernandez and Cathy but he’s made it clear to commissioners he’s his own man.
Sources say he’s a very capable and straightforward guy and, according to the city, he still makes $179,263.34 a year. No raise. Not yet anyway.
But he’s an engineer, a scientist, a geek of sorts. He’s not a generalist or a deal maker. And some are gonna say he’s not typical city manager material.
Maybe that’s a good thing.
According to the separation agreement signed with the city, Swanson gets a severance of 20 weeks at $3,942 a week for $78,840 and maybe another week if she can sell her accrued sick time. She also gets a 401K valued at $196,458 after the city contributed $51,250 a year for almost four years. But she must give up her car, her medical insurance and her life insurance.
It seems like the bronze version of Pat Salerno‘s golden parachute.
Read related: Pat Salerno upped his retirement benefit before he left
Swanson-Rivenbark wasn’t at the Sept. 11 meeting where her resignation was accepted unanimously. She wanted to be. Sources say an 11th hour effort to list her laurels and make a case for herself was thwarted. So Swanson-Rivenbark put it on paper, in a three page resignation letter with a five page addendum of her proclaimed achievements. To no avail.
Like Ladra said, the decision was unanimous. Even Commissioner Pat Keon, her most stalwart defender, had given up by then. Mounting missteps in the manager’s personal vendetta battle against the popular police chief had already disillusioned the other four at varying degrees. The key was Commissioner Mena, who woke up from a coma just in time to maybe ward off a legit challenge to his seat next year, which is why he wants, shhh… be quiet.
Who? What?
Exactly.
Move along now. Nothing has happened here.
Anti-development activists against recent upzoning in Coral Gables lost in last month’s elections when every single one of their candidates got beat in their respective races, including former Commissioner Jeannett Slesnick who lost the mayoral bid to former Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli by 187 votes.
Now, they may lose again on Tuesday, when commissioners are set to take the final vote on a controversial development near the historic Coral Gables Elementary School that wants variances to more than double the allowed density.
It will be the first real test for the new commission on the issue that defined the election.
Read related story: Mike Mena (read: developers) win Gables race, as expected
The 33 Alhambra project will raze a number of two-story apartment buildings along Navarre and Minorca avenues, Galian Street
and Alhambra Circle and replace them with a mixed-use complex with retail and residential rental units in 10 floors. It got approved 4-1 at first reading in December. Want to guess who was the sole dissenter? The answer is Slesnick, who isn’t there anymore. That might be why the lawyer for the developer asked to table the second hearing last January, after more than 60 people showed up to speak against it. Attorney Zeke Guilford asked for time to see if the developer could make some compromises to address community concerns, but it’s obvious they were just stalling until after the election. It’s not a coincidence it’s coming up at the second meeting since. Because the compromise they’ve come back with is hardly really a compromise.
Maybe it’s even a bait and switch. Maybe the plan was always for 146 units, which is still more than twice the 56 allowed under current zoning guidelines. By giving the inflated 184 originally in the plans, this may seem like a relief to some. But not to all.
Residents have signed a petition saying it’s still too big. 
They are expected to show up. And that’s why the city is having this item at 5 p.m. time certain instead of during the day, to facilitate the working class families that live around there who are upset about the disingenuous “compromise” and who want to balk publicly at the traffic study that says the project will only bring 58 new car trips during the morning. Laughable.
Read related story: In Coral Gables election, only a sweep will change the course
Ladra suspects that this new commission — what? With a land use attorney on it and all — is poised to approve this project, even thought it will dwarf the two story historic elementary school and cast a shadow as well as a traffic nightmare on that whole neighborhood and even though they will hear from dozens
of residents who will beg them to reconsider.
But let’s give them the benefit of the doubt. They did the right thing by moving this discussion to 5 p.m. Perhaps they will do the right thing and force the developer to downsize even further. Certainly twice the number of units normallly allowed should still be a win, no? Instead of trying to maximize their profits with efficiencies and one bedrooms, maybe they could increase the number of two-bedroom units in what is a desireable neighborhood for young families and bring the size down?
At the very least Coral Gables Commissioners should demand a valid traffic study that might give them more gravitas when they approve this, as well as grounds for some impact fees to pay for more police officers, since there’s such a shortage.
Because taking this traffic study at face value will show us that developers really did win in last month’s elections.
