The race for Hialeah mayor — which was already shaping up to be a good old-fashioned street fight with chancletas flying — has turned into a full-blown telenovela. And the one smiling quietly in the corner right now is Council President Jesús Tundidor, who’s watching both of his rivals trip over their own scandals just weeks before Election Day.
First, there’s the sitting mayor, Esteban “Jackie” García-Roves, who apparently decided the building code didn’t apply to her. The Miami Herald broke that little gem earlier this month: unauthorized additions to her home, built without permits. Maybe she thought inspectors would just look the other way — it is Hialeah, after all. But it’s never a good look when the one in charge of enforcing the city’s rules gets caught breaking them herself.
Read related: René García ditches Hialeah mayoral race — after stirring the political pot
According to the Herald article, records from the Hialeah Building and Code Compliance Department show Garcia-Roves’s property is currently under an active code violation for “building without a permit.” An inspector noted the violations were for “addition, awning, re-roof, fence, and columns,” and provided photographs that documented the changes made to the Hialeah home, like roof extensions in the back and a cement wall where there was none.
The Herald also found Miami-Dade Property Appraiser records that show one of the roof extensions could be for an addition to the home, like a guest room or an efficiency.
Then, just when García-Roves thought the heat was off, Bryan Calvo managed to hand Tundidor another gift — courtesy of his own family’s tax mess.
According to another Herald story, Calvo, who loves to talk about integrity and transparency, lived for years in a home that was receiving a low-income senior property tax exemption that his parents weren’t actually entitled to. Yep. The “senior” exemption. For low-income households.
Except young Bryan wasn’t exactly low-income. He was a Harvard student, later a law school grad, and a Hialeah City Councilman earning $44,000 a year — all while living in a house that got a tax break meant for abuelitas living on Social Security.
The County Property Appraiser’s Office eventually caught it, thanks to an anonymous phone call from a concerned neighbor (and you know that’s Hialeahese for “someone from the other campaign”). The Calvos had to cough up $5,282.97 in back taxes and penalties.
Calvo says it was all a misunderstanding. That his parents applied, not him. That he didn’t even know about it. That nobody meant any harm. Sure, m’ijo. And the dog ate the homestead paperwork, too.
Read related: Three former Hialeah mayors ‘host’ quiet fundraiser for Jackie Garcia-Roves
He told the Herald that his parents just wanted to protect the family home “like many Hialeah families.” But here’s the difference — most Hialeah families don’t have a Harvard-educated son running for mayor while taking a senior exemption.
The house is pictured in 2022 on the left and more recently on the right. Notice all the changes.
This isn’t the first time Calvo’s image as a clean-cut reformer has taken a ding. Remember, he’s already had to resign from the City Council to run for office and was hit with residency questions during his run for Tax Collector. The guy’s got more explanations than campaign slogans at this point.
Meanwhile, Tundidor — who’s been keeping a low profile and focusing on talking about infrastructure and fiscal management (imagine that, issues!) — is looking more and more like the only adult in the room.
So now, with two opponents dragging their baggage behind them — people are starting to get tired of the excuses and García-Roves’ little construction scandal didn’t exactly inspire confidence either — Jesús Tundidor is walking into the final stretch of the race with what may be the most precious thing in Hialeah politics: a relatively clean record.
At least, so far. Because in Hialeah, as we all know, that can change faster than you can say permiso de construcción.

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Old CRA director gets nearly $200K in exit package
It must be nice to have friends in high places. Or maybe just the right commissioner on your side.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez’s chief of staff, Carlos I. Suarez — no relation, but definitely part of the mayor’s extended orbit — is about to float gently from one cushy taxpayer-funded gig into another. The Omni Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) Board is expected Thursday to approve his appointment as executive director — complete with a $265,000 salary, $800 car allowance, $200 cell phone stipend, and a benefits package that would make a county administrator blush.
That’s a huge raise from the publicly recorded compensation of approximately $180,000 Suarez makes now.
Add the 5% annual raises and another 5% cost-of-living bump every year, and you do the math. He’ll be making nearly $300,000 by the end of next year — and that’s before the CRA’s famously generous executive 401(a) contribution of 15% of his salary.
For comparison, that’s more than Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava ($200,000). It’s more than Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ($141,400). And more than a state Supreme Court Justice ($258,957).
And for what, exactly? The Omni CRA — which encourages redevelopment to alleviate slum and blight in parts of downtown and Edgewater — has a staff of fewer than 20 employees and a budget that’s largely on autopilot.
Read related: Fight over Omni CRA causes new rifts, alliances on Miami City Commission
But it does have a board made up of city commissioners, including Commissioner Damian Pardo, who happens to chair it. And Pardo also happens to have become Mayor Suarez’s most surprising ally this year — moving with him on controversial initiatives like the proposed lifetime term limits for commissioners and changing the city’s election year, which would have extended their terms by a year. And Francis Suarez is term limited. He’s out.
So is this appointment a thank you to the mayor from Pardo? Or is it a “With this, I owe you nothing” parting gift, now that Suarez is about to be out of office and out of staff? Ladra bets it’s a little of both.
Either way, the timing stinks. Suarez is out of City Hall in a few weeks. His guy lands a golden parachute, courtesy of the CRA. And it’s all dressed up in bureaucratic language — a resolution full of “whereases” about nothing really — when everyone in Miami knows this is a political redevelopment at its finest.
Isiaa Jones, the former director, will get an exit package totaling $191,244, which includes 20 weeks severance — which indicates she did not leave on her own — $33,000 in an “employee manual” payout and more than $48,000 in accrued sick and vacation time.
So, this is a very expensive employee shuffle. Calls to Commissioner Pardo and his chief of staff were not returned.
Carlos I. Suarez, a bilingual Miami-native and Cuban-American, holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Florida International University and an MBA from Nova Southeastern University. Suarez held management roles in the cruise industry — including at Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises — for more than 12 years, according to his LinkedIn profile. He then worked as chief of staff at the U.S. Mission to the Organization of American States and as acting assistant administrator at the Latin America and Caribbean Bureau of USAID. After that, he became a lobbyist before joining the short-lived and always doomed Francis Suarez presidential bid and then his staff when the White House didn’t pan out.
While the board cites authority under Florida Statutes for the appointment, critics say the move is more about political alliances and patronage than redevelopment expertise. Shouldn’t there be a more professional, open, transparent process?
The Omni CRA — which was almost not extended last year — has been through enough political subterfuge already since former Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla snagged it away from former Commissioner Ken Russell in 2021 and used it as a shakedown central for contributions to one of his baby brother’s ill-fated campaigns. Then Diaz de la Portilla was removed after investigators found his aide, Jenny Nillo, running errands and drinking beer out of a paper bag in a city car while she was supposed to be working on the public dime. Then he was put back in and fired the executive director, Jason Walker.
Read related: Alex Diaz de la Portilla is investigated on ghost city employee at Omni CRA
Then he was arrested for public corruption charges that included bribery and money laundering related to a scheme where he took at least $245,000 in political committee campaign contributions from the owners of a private school and gifted them a park so they could build a sports dome for their students. The charges were ultimately dropped, after the city rescinded the plan for the Centner Academy’s extension into a public park. But it revolved around the CRA being in the wrong hands.
Do we really want to do that again?
The CRA board — city commissioners wearing a different “hat” — will vote Thursday, but if you think this is anything but a done deal, you must be new here.
Stay tuned. Ladra will be watching to see whether any of the commissioners — besides maybe Miguel Gabela, who sometimes shows signs of a conscience — even blink at this obvious insider handoff.
Because for everyone else, it’s just another day in the Magic City — where the revolving door between City Hall and the CRA doesn’t just spin, it glides on silk bearings.

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Coral Gables Commissioner Melissa Castro has had enough of the quiet quid pro quo culture that seems to linger like cologne after a ribbon cutting. So she’s bringing a little disinfectant to the dais.
Castro plans to introduce an ordinance that would make it crystal clear that no elected official in the City Beautiful can cash in on development projects they helped approve. Not while they’re in office. Not two years later. Not ever, if Castro had her way.
The proposal, which the commission will take up on Tuesday, would ban the mayor and commissioners from doing any business — consulting, contracting, or otherwise — with developers, contractors, or vendors whose projects went before them. The restriction would last through their time in office and for two years after they leave.
Because apparently, some folks think the statute of limitations on ethics is shorter than a building permit line.
“This would stop an elected official from voting on something and then getting a contract on the back end,” Castro told Political Cortadito. “Even if someone votes ‘no’ to something, they can get others to vote ‘yes,’ or whip up the votes.”
“I don’t want to say corruption, but it’s corruption,” she told Florida Politics.
In other words: If it walks like a bribe and quacks like a bribe, it’s not a tip.
Under Castro’s proposed rules, developers would have to swear under oath — via an “anti-kickback affidavit” — that they haven’t and won’t offer any payment, favor, or job to elected officials tied to a project in order to get any type of permit. If they lie, they risk losing their permits, canceling their contracts, and being blacklisted from city business for five years. How can it be enforced once the permit is issued? Because there will be a number of inspections before the project is done, Castro said.
Read related: Vince Lago loves himself, business at Coral Gables State of the City address
“Anytime you hire a contractor, you would need to disclose it until you have a certificate of occupancy,” she told Ladra.
And if any of the city’s current or future politicos think this is just window dressing, they might want to note that false statements would also go to the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust. And maybe even the state attorney.
It’s all part of Castro’s bid to close what she describes as a glaring it’s-not-a-bribe-if-it’s-later loophole in the city’s ethics code. And it would include her own permit expediting business. That’s what grownups call leading by example.
But let’s be honest: This seems aimed at Mayor Vince Lago more than anybody. Lago is the one who said at the Graziano’s grand opening that the was proud of the work his company did on the build-out. Then there is all the business with developer Rishi Kapoor, who was paying his best buddy, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, $170,000 as a consultant while he sought development approvals there.
Lago also got part of a $640,000 commission in the 2023 sale of a Ponce De Leon Boulevard lot where the real estate developer planned to build a luxury high-rise, for which he likely needed zoning variances. The payment went to a brokerage firm owned by former Hialeah Councilman Oscar De La Rosa which listed only five real estate agents hanging their licenses there, including Hialeah Mayor Esteban Bovo, lobbyist Bill Riley (who was arrested with former Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla on public corruption charges in 2023), Lago and his former chief of staff at Coral Gables City Hall, Chelsea Granell, who has been promoted to director of legislative affairs.
Then, afterwards, Lago and some partners — including Baby X cousin Esteban Suarez — also rented a retail space, a former karate studio across the street from the Ponce development site, to Kapoor for about $12,500 a month, according to sources cited by the Miami Herald. Kapoor rented the space shortly after Lago and his partners bought it in order to open a sales office for the luxury condo he wanted to build at 1505 Ponce de Leon and paid more than $152,000. But the space sat empty all the while.
Read related: What transparency? 22 reasons NOT to vote for Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago
But as the owner of a MED Expediters, Castro’s legislation could also easily apply to herself. After she was elected in 2023, Castro asked the Ethics Commission if her firm could continue working in Coral Gables. They said yes, but barely. It came with warnings. So, she stopped doing business in the city altogether. That was just easier. But that hasn’t stopped Lago from hitting her with false accusations and intimations that she has a conflict of interests.
In fact, his political action committee, Coral Gables First, launched a whole new website to discredit Castro last Wednesday, which questions why she ran for commission. It was a day after Castro explained the legislation she was bringing to the commission to a group of people at a town hall meting for the Gables Good Government. Even though he wasn’t invited, Lago showed up and sat in the front row, to intimidate her probably. He wasn’t able to, and actually got riled himself instead when Castro started talking about the anti-kickback ordinance. The next day, his PAC launched the attack site — a pathetic attempt to smear her and slow her roll at City Hall.
But it’s going to be hard for Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson and Commissioner Richard Lara to oppose Castro, for once. Both ran on transparency and reform. Voting “no” on this would be like running on “clean government” and then asking developers to Venmo you later.
The timing of this move is delicious. Mayor Lago — who never misses a chance to spar with Castro and her frequent ally Ariel Fernandez — just asked Miami-Dade County to take action against the Commission on Ethics, complaining about their investigator in his “matter under initial review” (which is technospeak for investigation) into whether or not he lied when he signed an affidavit swearing nobody in his family had any financial interests in the annexation of Little Gables (when his brother was a lobbyist for the owner of the trailer park there).
So, while the mayor’s over there on a vendetta trying to discredit the watchdogs, Castro’s proposing to actually strengthen the leash.
The ordinance also comes as Miami-Dade’s political landscape is littered with recent examples of pay-for-play gone wrong — from the dropped bribery case against ex-Miami Commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla, to the conviction of former County Commissioner Joe Martinez, who got caught pocketing payments from a supermarket owner.
But at least in Coral Gables, someone’s finally trying to close a loophole. Because even if the payoff comes after a vote, it doesn’t mean it’s not a bribe.

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Part of a series of profiles about the Miami mayoral candidates
If you listen to Emilio T. González long enough, you might start to believe Miami’s former city manager really is the retired Army colonel who’s going to march into City Hall, root out the corruption — and straighten everyone’s ties while he’s at it.
But then you remember — he used to run the place.
Yes, the same man now promising to fix the dysfunction in Miami government was knee-deep in it from 2018 to 2020, when he served as City Manager under Mayor Francis Suarez. Back then, González managed a $1.7 billion budget, 4,400 employees, and one very fragile relationship with Commissioner Joe Carollo, who spent most of those two years accusing him of all sorts of things, including forging documents about his own home improvements.
González, who jumped into the 2025 race early and has come out grinning from every debate, was cleared of those charges. But it’s no surprise that in this year’s mayoral race, the ex-manager and the always-litigious Carollo are circling each other again, both trying to look like the hero riding in to save Miami from itself. But Carollo is increasingly seen as a clown. And Gonzalez is the man who did actually get the race back on the ballot through a lawsuit after the city commission cancelled it to move the elections to next year.
Read related: Ethics board clears former Miami city manager Emilio Gonzalez in deck case
Nobody else did that. Just Emilio Gonzalez. He deserves the hero status that some are giving him.
He doesn’t come, however, without the ifs, ands or buts — weakness that are also his strengths
First, the GOP support. Gonzalez has gotten endorsements from Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Rick Scott and, even as far away as Sen. Ted Cruz from Texas. These aren’t exactly a shock — they share Republican credentials. Gonzalez was the director of the National Security Council under President George W. Bush and then served as the director of the U.S. Citizens and Immigration Services department. And the city of Miami’s core elderly Cuban voters are solidly Republican, so it sells with them.
But these electeds do not typically weigh in on a city of Miami election and it does make one wonder how much control Gonzalez would give to the state and the federal government if he is elected mayor. He has already been attacked by the Miami-Dade Democrats in mailers and texts that refer to him as the MAGA mayor. Can we trust him? Will he help to deport our neighbors?
Are those matching suits?
Gonzalez said he will be a mayor for all of Miami. And, while he went to Tallahassee weeks ago to talk to Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia about the DOGE audit of Miami and sat in the front row of the invitation-only press event last week, has been courting the black vote hard, going to inner city churches on Sundays. “My allegiance is to the working families of Miami,” he told Political Cortadito.
And Ladra has spoken to some non-GOP voters who were so impressed with his knowledge and his plans that they will bubble in his name. They see him more like a Reagan Republican than a Trumpster, but his loyalty to the GOP is still a little unsettling.
His penchant to bring up his Army service is another weakness that is also a strength. While some voters respect it as a sign of leadership and patriotism, younger voters, Dems and independents might think that means he would welcome troops sent to Miami by the Trump administration.
Read related: Partisan divide is strong in Miami mayoral race, Gonzalez vs Higgins
The third strike is also seen as a plus in some ways, and that is his city of Miami experience. González has been part of the leadership circle before. Plus: He knows where all the bones are buried. Minus: He may have helped bury some of those.
He’s not some fresh-faced reformer stumbling in from the suburbs. This is a man who’s been a federal bureaucrat, a national security advisor, an airport boss, and the city’s top administrator.
He’s been inside the machine. Now he’s running on fixing it.
“I’m running to restore trust in City Hall,” González said at his kickoff event. “Our residents have lost respect for our leaders. They don’t believe anything they say.”
González’s campaign theme is fiscal accountability. He says he wants to audit the city’s $400 million Miami Forever Bond — $100 million earmarked for affordable housing and $300 million for resiliency — to find out, in his words, “where it went.”
“When I left the city, our budget was $1.5 billion. Today it’s $3 billion,” he says. “We have doubled in five years. We got $400 million from the bond, $140 million from the feds. Where is it?”
That’s a great question. The problem is, Emilio was sitting in the manager’s chair when that bond money started flowing. If there are accountability measures missing, it could be his fault. He could have built them in then.
Still, his message resonates with Miamians who are sick of watching the same people trade favors and feuds while the grass at the parks rises with rents. González says he’ll run a leaner government, cut property taxes, and prioritize police and firefighters — “the real public servants,” as he calls them. He has a bunch of endorsements from former and current law enforcement.
Read related: In Miami mayoral bid, Emilio Gonzalez goes for the law and order vote
He backs the governor’s plan to phase out ad valorem property taxes altogether, which sounds nice until you realize that money funds half the city’s general budget. His answer? “If families can tighten their belts by ten percent, so can the city.”
Sure, Colonel. But when was the last time a family’s “ten percent” came out of code enforcement and pothole repairs?
González’s backstory reads like a Miami patriot’s dream résumé: born in Havana, raised in Tampa, served 26 years in the Army, taught at West Point, worked in the Bush administration, worked as a lobbyist and ran Miami International Airport for four years before taking over City Hall.
He calls himself “battle-tested.” And it’s true — the man’s been through bureaucratic wars in Washington and political minefields in Miami.
But Ladra’s skeptical when lifelong insiders try to sell themselves as reformers. You can’t be both the firefighter and the guy who built the house out of matchsticks.
González’s resignation in early 2020 came amid mounting tension on the dais — and, let’s be real, a toxic culture that didn’t start or end with him. He said he left to care for his sick wife, which Ladra respects deeply. But the whispers that he was pushed out have never quite gone away.
Now, five years later, he’s back with a vengeance, promising to audit, cut, streamline, and sanitize the very government that once spat him out. He says he will end the abuse of power and weaponization of government by having “swift and serious consequences,” including termination, for employees who “intimidate, investigate, or retaliate against residents, whistleblowers, or small business owners. He also says he will create a “permanent oversight presence” at city hall by inviting the Florida State Attorney’s Office, the Floria Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight (FAFO), the City of Miami’s new Inspector General Office, and federal law enforcement. Notice no mention of the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, the county’s IG or the county commission on ethics, which is another sign of his GOP stripes.
Read related: Poll has Eileen Higgins in Miami mayoral runoff with Emilio Gonzalez
Nobody doubts that Gonzalez, the only one of the front runners never elected before, is a serious contender. He consistently is one of the top three in polls, hanging with Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins and former Miami Commissioner Ken Russell. And is campaign financing is also on par with Higgins’, with a political action committee that has collected more than $900,000 since March, including at least $500,000 from his own asset-management firm.
That’s either confidence in his own campaign or the most expensive self-love gift in Miami politics this year.
Emilio González is polished, prepared, and pragmatic. He knows how the city runs — and how it breaks. He’s saying the right things about accountability and corruption. But this isn’t his first cafecito at City Hall. If Miami’s voters want a real outsider to clean house, they might not find him in the former city manager’s office.
Still, Ladra will give him this: when he says Miami deserves better, he’s not wrong. The question is whether the colonel’s brand of “reform” means new rules — or just new generals.
Because in Miami politics, the war never really ends.

Help Ladra bring you deep coverage of the city of Miami, the type of coverage you can’t get anywhere else, with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Thank you for your support of independent, watchdog journalism.

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But the math ain’t mathing on $94.5 million in bloated budget
Leave it to Tallahassee to come to Miami and tell us we’re spending too much cafecito money.
Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia — the same Republican pit bull who used to run the state GOP and branded himself with the slogan “Government Gone Wild” — brought his latest traveling roadshow to downtown Miami Thursday to declare that City Hall has gone wild with spending.
Standing in front of a crowd of mostly friendly faces — and at least one mayoral candidate trying not to nod too much — Ingoglia wagged his finger at Miami’s $1.2 billion tax-funded budget, saying it’s “millions too high” based on inflation and population growth. Specifically, $95 million too high. This was a very performative presentation of the first findings of the promised state DOGE audit. That’s the Division of Government Efficiency that models itself after the national one.
Only problem? When reporters asked Ingoglia for the actual math, he said those numbers weren’t available.
So, basically: ‘Trust me, I’m from Tallahassee.’
Read related: Miami, two more Miami-Dade cities may have state DOGE look into books
He did say that if Miami had “kept spending in line” with inflation since 2000, the city would be spending about $95 million less today. But he didn’t say what should be cut — parks? trash pickup? code enforcement? — or how he’d handle the thousands of commuters who use city services every day without paying city taxes.
So, it was really just an invitation-only campaign event for former City Manager Emilio Gonzalez, who has gotten the endorsement of Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Rick Scott and just about anybody on the state’s GOP train. Ladra fully expects Gonzalez — who was sitting in the front row like teacher’s pet, but didn’t speak (he’s too smart for that) — to use the event in campaign literature any day now.
Last month, Gonzalez posted a photo of himself in Tallahassee with Ingoglia, saying DOGE would do a full “deep-dive audit” once he becomes mayor. So, they’re not already doing it? What are they doing now? Just a quick perusal of the budget?
Ingoglia’s stop was really part of a statewide “cut the fat” tour he’s using to push his 2026 full term campaign — and possibly to help bossman DeSantis build support for a constitutional amendment to cap or even eliminate property taxes.
“We’re doing this in an effort for serious property tax reform,” Ingoglia said at the news conference, “including possibly the elimination of homestead property taxes altogether.”
He promised “detailed breakdowns” of wasteful spending “later,” but for now, it was more bark than bite.
When pressed on what “fat” he’d trim, Ingoglia punted, saying the city could afford raises for cops and paramedics if it stopped overspending elsewhere. Sounds great in a press release. Harder to do when you’re paying to keep the lights on and the streets clean for almost 500,000 residents and the thousands of people who work in the city but live elsewhere.
Read related: Miami Downtowners seek state DOGE assistance on tax relief from DDA
City Manager Art Noriega didn’t mince words. “Absurd,” he called it — and “absolutely politically motivated.”
The city fired back with a statement saying the CFO’s analysis was “incomplete,” “shortsighted,” and “unrealistic” for a major urban center that provides regional services.
“As Miami-Dade County’s urban core, the City of Miami serves as the government seat for the majority of city, county, state, and federal agencies. The urban core also houses most of our major corporations and attracts a significant number of visitors each year,” the city said in a statement that sounds a lot like a list of excuses.
“As the primary provider of essential services to those buildings and complex infrastructure, the City maintains primary responsibility for public safety and infrastructure management and operations. The City’s financial and operational stability remains vital to ensuring continued service delivery and sustaining economic vitality for residents, visitors, and the community at large. A formula applied to a suburban or rural city would never reasonably apply to a city that inherently is as complex and unique as the City of Miami.”
Translation: Nice try, Blaise, but this isn’t Hernando County (which he used to represent in the state senate).
And for the record, Miami has been cutting tax rates while growing services, Mayor Francis Suarez pointed out — conveniently from behind a press statement, not a podium.
Read related: Anthony Rodriguez, Florida lawmakers discuss elimination of property taxes
“Recent comments from Florida CFO Blaise Ingoglia suggesting Miami ‘overspent’ by $90 million misrepresent the facts. Miami has shown real fiscal discipline, making tough choices to protect taxpayers while maintaining essential services,” said Suarez, who is termed out and looking for more work. He also took a dig at the state, which “has never reduced its 6 percent sales tax, the single largest tax burden paid by Floridians.
“What they’ve offered instead are short-term tax holidays and temporary exemptions, essentially tax gimmicks, not permanent structural relief. Meanwhile, the state’s budget has grown from $92 billion in FY 2020–21 to $117 billion in FY 2025–26, a $25 billion increase, or nearly 25 percent growth in five years,” Suarez said. “Miami isn’t overspending, we’re leading by example. We’re delivering results within our means, lowering taxes responsibly, and setting the statewide standard for efficient, accountable government.”
Ingoglia insists Miami’s got “a lot of fat that needs to be trimmed.”
That line drew a quick amen from — who else? — Commissioner Joe Carollo, who is also running for mayor and never met a “government waste” headline he didn’t love, unless it is about his own lawsuits or his own spending at the Bayfront Park Management Trust, which is another audit we’re still waiting for.
Carollo told The Miami Herald the city “has a lot of fat” it can cut, though Ladra wonders if that includes the extra lawyers they’ve hired to defend all those Carollo lawsuits.
This whole dog and pony show wasn’t really about spreadsheets or efficiency — it was about political theater. Ingoglia’s DOGE tour is setting up his election next year as well as the DeSantis-backed tax amendment campaign. And Miami, with its billion-dollar budget and flashy skyline, makes for the perfect villain.
It also doesn’t hurt that the headlines could help the Gonzalez mayoral campaign.
Ladra is not saying that there should not be an audit of Miami’s books. But it shouldn’t be a political message. It’s worth watching what those DOGE audits actually find — if anything ever makes it past the slogans. Because sometimes, the loudest watchdogs are just barking for votes.
And until Ingoglia shows us his work, this DOGE looks a lot more like a Chihuahua than a Rottweiler.

Help Ladra bring you deep coverage of the city of Miami, the type of coverage you can’t get anywhere else, with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Thank you for your support of independent, watchdog journalism.

The post DOGE Days in Miami: Florida CFO Blaise Ingoglia calls BS on city spending appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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While everyone’s gossiping about which of Miami’s 13 mayoral hopefuls will make it to the runoff — and whether Joe Carollo will start yelling before or after Election Day — voters might miss the fine print on the four ballot referendums that could quietly reshape City Hall.
Because the devil isn’t always in the candidates — it’s in the charter amendments.
After all the hand-wringing over the election year change — which was so important that the commission actually cancelled this year’s election to get ‘er done — that charger amendment will not be on the ballot. They couldn’t get it together in time, which kind of begs the question of how important it really was. Also, the lifetime term limits item was supposedly “intricately intertwined” with the election year change. Or was that just a sales pitch?
Read related: City of Miami election year change won’t make November ballot, after all
The referendums that did make it to the ballot are:
The ‘We should’ve done this 30 years ago’ charter review commission
The first ballot question is the most harmless-sounding: create a Charter Review Commission to review the city’s constitution every ten years. Apparently, Miami’s been winging it for decades.
Commissioner Ralph Rosado, the new kid on the dais, says he was “surprised” to learn there was no system for regular charter reviews. Welcome to Miami, Ralph. Around here, we don’t fix the roof until it’s raining inside.
Each commissioner, the mayor, and the city manager would appoint one member — which means yes, it will still be political, but at least it’ll be scheduled. The group would hold public hearings, take input, and recommend changes that might later end up on the ballot.
Ladra’s verdict: It could be politically charged. It will be more bureaucracy. But it’s a necessary evil.
PS: Don’t be surprised if the “public hearings” end up happening in front of the same ten political insiders who show up for everything. You know who you are.
The ‘Trust us, we’ll get a fair price’ land sale loophole
This one should make taxpayers clutch their wallets. The city wants to loosen the rules for selling city-owned land — a change pushed by City Manager Art Noriega, who says the current system makes it too hard to sell “excess” property.
Right now, the city needs three bids or voter approval to sell land worth over $500,000. This amendment would let the City Commission approve the sale with a 4–1 vote if they can’t get enough bidders. Voters would still have to approve the sale if it’s waterfront property.
Read related: The city of Miami wants to sell your public land with no public vote
Noriega says it’s just about two leftover residential lots in The Roads neighborhood that the city could not turn into pocket parks, but c’mon. This is Miami. “Excess property” today could be “exclusive luxury development” tomorrow.
Las malas lenguas say this could be about the sale and redevelopment of the Miami Police Department headquarters, which sits on a pricy piece of property in the downtown.
Ladra’s verdict: Hard no. The words “City of Miami” and “real estate deal” in the same sentence should always make you nervous. The city does not have the best track record with its stewardship of public land.
P.S.: Somewhere, a lobbyist just heard this and ordered another bottle of Dom.

The ‘No more gerrymandering (we promise this time)’ redistricting reform
After a federal judge tossed Miami’s last redistricting map for being racially gerrymandered — yes, that actually happened — the city agreed to create a citizens’ redistricting committee to draw future maps.
This referendum would ban maps drawn to favor or disfavor incumbents. Translation: no more slicing up Coconut Grove or Little Havana to protect commissioners’ turf.
It’s part of a lawsuit settlement that already cost taxpayers nearly $1.6 million in attorneys’ fees, thanks to the NAACP, GRACE, and other community groups who were tired of commissioners playing political Sudoku with neighborhoods.
Read related: Miami redistricting map is thrown out again, ACLU’s map is in for now
Ladra’s verdict: About time. But we’ll see how “independent” these “citizens” really are once commissioners start whispering their names into the mix.
P.S.: Expect at least one “concerned citizen” to be someone’s cousin. Probably a cousin with a PAC.
The ‘lifetime ban on professional politicians’ term limits
Here’s the one that’s got City Hall veterans clutching their pearls. Commissioner Damian Pardo’s referendum would create lifetime term limits — two terms for mayor, two for commissioner, period. No more sitting out a term and boomeranging back like a bad sequel.
That’s bad news for Miami’s political lifers who’ve been haunting City Hall since the 1980s. But of course, they managed to carve out a Carollo-sized loophole.
The first version of Pardo’s plan would’ve barred Joe Carollo from ever holding city office again, but the final version says that filling a vacancy — like when Joe became mayor in 1996 — doesn’t count. So, yes, Crazy Joe can still run.
Meanwhile, Frank Carollo is trying to reclaim his old District 3 seat, meaning Miami voters could end up with both Carollos back in power. Somewhere, the city charter just groaned. This amendment would prevent that kind of thing from happening again. So, Keon Hardemon might have to make other plans.
Ladra’s verdict: Vote yes. If we ever want a future that doesn’t look like a rerun from 1999, it’s time to send the dinosaurs to retirement — permanently.
P.S. Someone tell Joe this means he might actually have to get a hobby. And no, suing the city doesn’t count.
Read related: Bait and switch on lifetime term limits proposal for Miami mafia politicos
The bottom line is this: These four referendums don’t have glossy mailers or attack ads, but they’ll quietly decide how much control Miamians actually have over their own government — or whether the same five people keep calling the shots.
So after you bubble in your picks in the mayoral and commission races Nov. 4, scroll down that ballot. Read the fine print. Because in Miami, the quiet questions are sometimes the ones that matter most.
And if you don’t, don’t complain to Ladra later when your tax dollars end up paving the driveway of someone’s “excess” property.

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