District 3 commission candidate moved around a lot
It’s campaign season in Miami, when voters just have to trust the candidates really live in their district.
This time, we have Rolando Escalona, a restaurant manager and a real estate broker turned political hopeful running for Miami city commission in District 3, who is raising questions about his residency. Escalona says he’s been living in a modest apartment on SW 1st Street for more than a year, which is just in time for him to qualify for this election cycle. But public records suggest he may have a more comfortable setup somewhere else entirely — in a home that just so happens to be in District 4.
According to his candidate qualifying paperwork, Escalona swore under oath that he has been living at the apartment at 700 SW First Street apartment since June of 2024. In mortgage documents signed with his wife, he lists a completely different address — a duplex at 128 NW 26th Ave. His broker’s license is there. His business address is there.
Sine 2019, he has lived at five different addresses in the city.
Read related: Third DCA strikes down Miami election change; November ballot is on
It’s natural for one to think that Escalona is pulling a page straight out of the Miami political playbook — the one where you rent an address just long enough to run for office. It’s the kind of “clerical inconsistency” that voters in Miami know too well.
Commissioner Joe Carollo, got dragged through a court fight over whether he actually lived in District 3 or in his small mansion in Coconut Grove when he ran in 2017. He moved back to the house on Morris Lane after it was carved into D3 during redistricting. But it doesn’t matter anymore since he is termed out and running for mayor now. And Alex Díaz de la Portilla, who is also running for mayor, also faced questions about his residency — nobody believes he lived in a 2-bedroom apartment with his brother, his brother’s partner and their child — before his own spectacular fall from grace.
In Miami, it’s practically a political tradition: win the seat first, then figure out where you live.
But Escalona says he hasn’t danced the political address shuffle. He admits he lived in the duplex from January to June of 2024, and said he moved to stay and run in D3 after the property was carved out of during the redistricting process. He didn’t want to run in District 4. Much like the way Commissioner Miguel Gabela had to move to another property he owned after his home was carved out of District 1 months before the election in 2023.
The mortgage documents tell another story. Apparently, Escalona and his wife told the bank that they resided at the duplex when they went to refinance it earlier this year. That was May 19, when the candidate was supposed to be living in the First Street apartment. The mortgage states, under the section titled occupancy, that says “borrower must occupy, establish, and use the property as borrower’s principal residence within 60 days,” and that they also must stay there for a year afterwards. Mortgage rates are often lower for a principal residence than they are for an investment property.
Read related: New Miami map draws opponent out of Alex Diaz de la Portilla’s district
Escalona says he’s not committing mortgage fraud. He said his wife, who is pregnant with twins (and due around the runoff time), continued to live in the duplex with his mother until recently. That maintained occupancy.
“After watching the chaos and dysfunction at City Hall, I made a commitment to do something about it, which is why I both he property in question and it was in District 3,” Escalona told Ladra in a long-winded text. “With City Hall being caught doing new maps that favored incumbents and politicians, a new map was ordered to e drawn and later adopted by the city.
“Given this change beyond my control, and my commitment to bring change to City Hall, my family and I made the decision that I would move into the new district. My wife stayed behind with my mother to tend to her and our property, while I stayed focused on my promise to do something to end the dysfunction in City Hall. In the beginning of this year, I decided to refinance the property as my wife was still living there with my mother. This is perfectly acceptably as per Fannie Mae guidelines.
“My home is not rented and is not an income-producing property,” he said. “As the year progressed, y wife decided to join me in our apartment in Little Havana as we welcomed the news that she was pregnant.”
Rolando Escalona at Easter with his wife and mother.
The rest of Escalona’s story fits the Miami mold: He came from Cuba as a young man 11 years ago and worked his way up through the hospitality business, from busboy at a ceviche place to general manager at the trendy Sexy Fish. In the meantime, he also earned a degree in political science and international relations, of course, from Florida International University, got a broker’s license, opened up his own corporation, EscalonaGroup, LLC, and bought a duplex in West Little Havana. Miami’s American Dream.
The broker’s license and the business use the address at 128 NW 26th Ave., which he and his wife, Astrid Carolina Gonzalez Nieto, bought for $800,000 in January 2024. They do not claim any homestead exemption there. But Gonzalez does claim both homestead exemptions and the Save our Homes exemption on a house she has owned at 9625 Nw 36th Avenue since 2021.
He is a sleeper candidate in the D3 race, where Joe Carollo is leaving, running against the commissioner’s baby brother, Frank Carollo, who had the seat from 2009 to 2017, and five of other wannabes, including Brenda Betancourt, the president of the Calle 8 Inter-American Chamber of Commerce, Denise Galvez Turros — a marketing professional who ran for office in 2017  and lost — and Rob Piper, who formed the political action committee that tired to recall Carollo in 2020. There are a couple of others, but they are not going to get much traction.
Read related: Leader of Recall Joe Carollo PAC joins Miami Commission race in District 3
Escalona has a lot of support from the same circles at mayoral candidate Emilio Gonzalez, the former city manager who sued to get the election back on this year. And he has raised almost $49,000 by the end of June, according to his campaign finance reports. That’s the second biggest bank after Frank Carollo. Of that, he loaned himself $5,000. Lobbyist Manny Prieguez, a former state rep who has backed both Gabela and Alex Díaz de la Portilla in District 1, bundled five checks for $1,000 each. And Escalona got $3,000 from Little Havana businessmen Bill Fuller and Martin Pinilla, who won a federal First Amendment lawsuit against Joe Carollo in 2023. There’s likely more to come there.
He also got two contributions from his wife. It doesn’t go over the $1,000 limit (except by $4.48, and that has to be a typo), but it was in two different checks four days apart with two different names — Astrid Gonzalez and Astrid Escalona — with two different addresses, according to the campaign finance reports.
Maybe Escalona’s wife doesn’t even know where they live.
The post Where does Rolando really live? A new case of Miami’s political address dance? appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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Looks like Lennar Homes, the country’s second biggest homebuilder and longtime Miami-Dade campaign donor, is back at the county commission asking for a little favor — the kind that turns farmland into profit.
On the agenda for Thursday’s meeting: Application No. CDMP20250003 — doesn’t that sound friendly? — which is really about turning 20.1 acres of land near SW 220th Street and 134th Avenue near The Redland from rural, estate-sized lots into a tighter, denser subdivision that could fit up to 13 homes per acre.
That’s right, the same piece of land now zoned for one or two houses per acre could soon hold up to 138 homes — if Lennar gets what it wants.
The legalese calls it a “small-scale amendment to the Comprehensive Development Master Plan.” In plain English: it’s a mini change to the county’s master blueprint for growth, one that doesn’t trigger the big, scary state-level review that larger projects have to go through. The county calls it “small.” But for neighbors who will suddenly be surrounded by hundreds of townhouses instead of mango trees and horses, it’s anything but.
Read related: Miami-Dade Commission approves 700 homes on 90 acres of mostly farmland
Rodan Estates, as the development is called, consists of 3- and 4-bedroom detached “cluster homes” — which means they are grouped together and share open spaces. The application states that 25% of the property will be open green space.
This isn’t Lennar trying to push the Urban Development Boundary line — not yet, anyway. That ask comes later when they present their plans for “City Park” (more on that later). This one’s about squeezing more houses onto land they already own inside the line. But these little inside-the-line density jumps are what make it easier to justify moving the UDB later. One brick at a time, mi gente.
Lennar, represented by lobbyists Hugo Arza and Amanda Naldjieff of Holland & Knight, wants to redesignate the property from “Estate Density Residential, which allows from 1 to 2.5 homes per acre, to “Low-Density Residential with One Density Increase,” which brings that up to between 6 and 13 homes per acre — if the design looks “urban”. That’s bureaucrat-speak for cramming in as many units as possible, as long as they look nice on paper.
The developer has even offered a Declaration of Restrictions, which usually means some promises about landscaping, sidewalks, or traffic mitigation — the kind of sweeteners that make commissioners feel better about saying yes. But those “restrictions” rarely restrict much once the bulldozers roll in.
County staff already reviewed the plan, as required, and found no major reason to block it. The Planning Advisory Board and the local community council have also held their obligatory hearings — though not many residents even knew what was happening, since the notice came buried in government websites with links longer than the Everglades.
Read related: Kendall residents oppose early talks for development of waste transfer facility
The proposal is being billed as a “small-scale amendment,” which means it can be adopted by the County Commission with one final vote — no lengthy state oversight, no extra review, no second reading. If the commission approves it Thursday, the change becomes official unless someone files a legal challenge.
And you can bet Lennar’s lawyers made sure everything lines up neatly for that quick approval.
Critics say this is part of a bigger pattern: Lennar and other developers slowly carving up South Dade, where property is cheaper, one small-scale amendment at a time, until the Urban Development Boundary — the line that’s supposed to protect farmland and open space — becomes meaningless. Today it’s 21 acres here. Tomorrow it’s 200 acres there.
Before you know it, the mango groves are gone and the traffic is even worse than it already is on SW 137th Avenue.
Ladra’s not against new homes — everybody needs a roof. But every time Lennar comes to the county commission, it feels like déjà vu: another “small” change, another zoning bump, another profit-driven project labeled as “smart growth.” And the public hearings? They’re held during the day, when regular people are working.
So call it “small-scale” if you want, but Ladra’s seen this blueprint before. A few acres here, a few zoning tweaks there, and pretty soon the nurseries turn into cul-de-sacs and the Turnpike turns into a parking lot.
They call it smart growth, but it smells more like sprawl in a suit — and Lennar’s been walking this county commission around the block long enough to know exactly which way to tug the leash.

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The post Miami-Dade: Lennar wants to build 138 homes on 20 acres of rural South Dade appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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Looks like that shiny new Trump Presidential Library and Hotel in downtown Miami may be shelved.
Historian, professor and activist Dr. Marvin Dunn filed a lawsuit this week to stop the transfer of prime downtown land next to the Freedom Tower — yes, that Freedom Tower, the one that symbolizes liberty and exile and means so much to so many Miamians — from Miami Dade College to the state.
The lawsuit says the college’s trustees broke Florida’s Sunshine Law when they quietly voted last month to deed over the property to the Florida Internal Improvement Trust Fund, which just so happens to be controlled by Gov. Ron DeSantis and his cabinet — the same folks who, surprise surprise, turned around and voted to gift that same land to Trump’s library foundation.
In other words, no open discussion, no transparency, no real public notice — just a “potential real estate transaction” that somehow turned into a high-rise shrine to the Orange One.
“We’re seeking an injunction against the transfer of the land to the state on the ground that the decision to give the land to the state was made in violation of the Government in the Sunshine Act,” said Dunn’s attorney, Richard Brodsky, a former state legislator who knows his way around Tallahassee’s shadows.
Read related: Miami Dade College gifts Donald Trump land for his library — and a hotel
Brodsky points out that Miami Dade College is still listed as the owner on the property appraiser’s website — which means, technically, the deal isn’t done. That gives a judge a window to block the transfer before the deed changes hands for good.

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Like a petulant brat who doesn’t like to be told “no,” Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago defied everyone and betrayed both his colleagues and his constituents this week when he displayed an Israeli flag in his window at City Hall, even though the commission had voted against raising the flag because of the outpouring of community opposition.
This should prove that he doesn’t care what anybody thinks.
Read related: Coral Gables commission backs off Israeli flag at City Hall after backlash
Lago hung a U.S. flag morphed with the Israeli one in the historic window of his office on the second floor Tuesday. He was so proud of defying the community sentiment that he posted a photo of it on Instagram, along with a photo of three young men — Ladra suspects his podcast pals — with Israeli flags prancing around at the park across the street.
“On October 7th, 2023 the world witnessed an unspeakable, heinous act as 1,200 innocent men, women and children were killed and 250 people were taken hostage by Hamas. It was the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” Lago wrote. “Today, we remember them and celebrate their lives as sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, neighbors and friends. Lives forever altered in an instant, by hatred and a lack of tolerance.

“We will always stand on the side of justice and our allies (Israel), never forgetting the freedoms we have as Americans.”
He also felt a need to make sure that everybody knows the “first photo is of the Mayor’s office over looking the front of city hall.”
Was that for the benefit of the Isreali consulate and embassy in Miami? After all, they were invited to “collaborate” on the post.
It certainly looks like the park protest was coordinated with the mayor’s office. There was no permit needed, said Gables spokeswoman Martha Pantin. “Individuals do not require a permit to display items such as flags, provided they do not block ingress, egress, or interfere with traffic flow,” she wrote in an email responding to a question.
Guess that means that anyone can show up tomorrow with flags from Palestine, Iraq, China, Russia, Libya. In fact, employees are also free to display another country’s flag from the windows of their offices and city vehicles, Pantin said.
“We do not have specific personnel rules regarding the display of personal items like flags, as long as they are not offensive in nature. Any items deemed offensive would be addressed in accordance with our standard policies.”
Perhaps they’ll tweak the official definition of “offensive.”
Read related: City raising an Israeli flag causes fuss and fury at Coral Gables City Hall
Pantin said “after checking with dispatch and the manager’s office, no calls or complaints were received regarding this matter.”
That was in an email sent at 4:51 p.m. It is not Pantin’s fault that she hadn’t yet seen the email sent 20 minutes earlier by Katherine Shehadeh, a resident who spoke at both public meetings against raising the Israeli flag on public property at a time when the world was denouncing what many — even inside Israel — are calling a genocide of the Palestinian people.
“In advance of next week’s meeting, where I know there will be further discussion on this point, I want to be sure everyone is aware of this post on the mayor’s official Coral Gables account that he made jointly with the Israeli Consul General, a foreign official, tagging a number of Coral Gables media outlets and his political action committee,” Shehadeh wrote in her email to Lago and the commissioners. “I want everyone to consider the moral and ethical implications of using their public office this way, particularly on a matter that was already addressed democratically and respectfully within the commission’s chambers.”
And that’s is the issue here. If Lago had posted an Israeli flag on his personal social media and raised a flag at his house on San Amaro Drive, there would be no problem. Like when Palmetto Bay Councilman Steve Cody posted something about the assassination of Charlie Kirk being ironic because of his stance on the Second Amendment. People wanted to skin Cody alive and demanded his resignation — which he has politely declined — but he wasn’t speaking as a commissioner.
Not only was Lago’s post on his official city profile, he went ahead and did this after a great deal of public debate — overwhelmingly against his idea of solidarity only with Israel — and his colleagues on the commission agreed to have some non-political show of remembrance instead. This is in your face defiance. More proof that Mayor L’Ego, who did not return calls and texts from Ladra, is a sour loser and a bully who only wants to get his way.
Is he always going to do whatever he wants despite what the commission votes democratically? Isn’t that what a dictator is?
Read related: Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago, allies bully and browbeat Melissa Castro
“It’s troubling to see the mayor once again ignore both the comission’s decision and the clear message from residents who asked us to keep City Hall neutral,” Commission Melissa Castro told Political Cortadito. “This isn’t leadership. It’s self promotion.
“Time and again, he’s shown that it’s not about residents want, it’s about what he wants,” Castro added. “Coral Gables residents came to City Hall twice to express their desire for neutrality, and the commission listened. We made a collective decision to keep our government impartial and focused on unity, not politics.
“When the mayor defies that vote and uses City Hall to advance personal agendas, it undermines public trust. A mayor should lead by example, not by personal ambition.”

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First in a series of profiles about the Miami mayoral candidates
Miami mayoral candidate Michael Hepburn says he’s “on the verge of making history” as Miami’s first black mayor. That’s a bold and confident statement — and one Ladra has heard before from more than one well-intentioned candidate whose campaign never made it past early voting.
Hepburn, a Miami native whose family roots in the city go back to 1896, is one of the other seven — not one of the six candidates considered frontrunners in a race that will certainly end in a runoff. But he is, arguably, the most exciting.
Running on a working-class platform he calls a “love letter” to his hometown. The non-profit executive, self-proclaimed sports and entertainment entrepreneur and civic advocate says he’s connected with 25,000 Miami households and stands as “the first Black Miamian to ever execute a bonafide viable campaign” for the city’s top job.
That “viable” part is where Ladra cocks her head a little.
Because while Hepburn’s passion is undeniable — his press releases and his website read more like a halftime pep talk than a political announcement — the climb to City Hall is a steep one, lined with big names, big money, and big egos. Hepburn, by his own admission, is “not a millionaire” and “not a recycled elected official.”
Which is exactly what Ladra likes about him — but also what makes this a long shot.
Read related: Primetime politics: Local 10 News puts Miami mayoral hopefuls in the hot seat
Hepburn has one notable endorsement — from entrepreneur Maxwell “Max” Martinez, who dropped out of the race before qualifying. Martinez, who placed second in the 2021 mayoral race against Francis Suarez, said he met Hepburn during that race, when Hepburn was running for city commission. He’s not only impressed with his work ethic, he also thinks that Hepburn can help drive policy and he likes that he’s a fresh face.
“The other names on the ballot have all been in office — you’re currently living in the results of their work,” Martinez, a fellow Democrat, said of Hepburn in a story in Florida Politics last month. “Mike fights the right way, and he’s never bowed to developer money or special interests.”
His campaign finance reports reflect that. Of the $36,000 and change he has reported raising, almost $34K comes from himself. The rest are in small donations, no bigger than $100. There are a lot of $44 contributions, to signify that he would be the city’s 44th mayor.
Hepburn, who won a Miami Herald Silver Night at Miami Central High, ran for commission in 2021 in District 5 and came in third, behind former appointed incumbent Commissioner Jeffrey Watson and Commission Chairwoman Christine King, who won that race with 65% of the vote and is up for re-election on the November ballot. This year, you can see many of King’s yard signs with Hepburn’s.
That’s by design.
“Because of District 5 is why I have a path to the runoff,” Hepburn told Political Cortadito. He didn’t want to compete with King for votes. He wants to share them with her.
“If I can cultivate my base and also galvanize those other communities in the city, then I have just as good a chance as anybody else,” Hepburn said, adding that the black vote is underestimated. There were 18,000 Miami black voters in the 2024 presidential election.
“They’re not engaged locally but they’ve never had anyone to vote for,” Hepburn told Ladra. “We’ve always been relegated to our district. I’m the first person who looks like me to run for mayor.”
Hepburn also ran for state rep twice and congress once — so this is his fifth try for public office — and has volunteered with the Miami Parks & Recreation Advisory Board’s Community Emergency Response Team, as a charter member of AmeriCorps and a co-founder of the Allapattah Neighborhood Association.
He is the executive director and principal of Reimagine Miami Foundation, Inc., a nonprofit he founded in 2021 that supposedly helps cover college expenses for public high school graduates — and has reportedly already doled out more than $160,000 to students. Funding sources could not be identified. Ladra could not find the non-profits 990s online, but small charities with gross receipts of under $50,000 are not required to file them.
Among the long shot would-be also-rans, Hepburn is a star. He’s already got some name-rec and he’s hitting the right populist notes: promising to lower the cost of living for working people, stand up to special interests, fire the city manager, and restructure the mayor’s office into five focused functions with 44 policy actions — a level of detail most Miami candidates haven’t even imagined.
He also vows to “take back the power of the dais” and “stand up against corruption,” which in this city is practically a campaign requirement. If you don’t say you’ll fight corruption in Miami, are you even running?
Read related: One-liners and other memorable moments from Miami mayoral debate
Hepburn’s plan touches on all the civic buzzwords: affordable housing, climate resilience, neighborhood safety, and uplifting children and seniors. But to break through the noise, he’ll need more than a heartfelt letter — he’ll need cash, coalition, and credibility beyond community boards. He couldn’t even get the 5% needed to be on the stage at the Downtown Neighbors Association’s mayoral debate last month, and called for the community to boycott the event.
He also suspended his campaign for a bit in June to try to recall Commissioner Damian Pardo for sponsoring the ordinance that moved the city elections from odd-numbered years to even-numbered years, which effectively cancelled this year’s mayoral race, where he had already been campaigning for months. Years? Another candidate, former City Manager Emilio Gonzalez, filed the lawsuit that forced the city to rescind the ordinance (it was found to violate the city and county charter) and put the race back on.
That said, there’s something refreshing about Hepburn’s tone. He sounds like someone who actually rides the bus, who has waited at a hot corner for the 7, the 11 or the 27A, and who still believes that City Hall can be fixed from the inside.
Maybe it’s naïve. Or maybe it’s the kind of earnestness this city needs after years of headlines about FBI probes, absentee mayors, and million-dollar condos no one lives in.
Either way, Hepburn is right about one thing: it’s personal.
And if history is made in November — and that’s a big if — it won’t be because of money or dynasty names. It’ll be because enough working-class Miamians decided to believe in one of their own.
The post Michael Hepburn writes ‘Love Letter’ to Miami, but will voters actually read it? appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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Political palanca is pushing the gas pedal
It looks like the BusPatrol program is still parked in neutral — and the Miami-Dade School Board could decide Wednesday whether to tow it away or try to fix it. And three members are very connected to BusPatrol lobbyists pushing for the program to be reinstated.
Six months ago, after rampant complaints, Sheriff Rosanna “Rosie” Cordero-Stutz pulled the plug on the “school bus safety” camera program, which had been in operation since June of last year and issued more than 144,000 citations. Ticketed drivers said there were mistakes and no real process to contest the fine. At least 8,600 citations have been contested.
The BusPatrol plan was supposed to be a turn-key solution that cost the district nothing. Cameras would catch motorists who passed stopped school buses, read license plates, and tickets would go out automatically, and the company would share the revenue with the district. But it turns out that “turn-key” really meant turn a blind eye.
Now, the district is still trying to figure out what went wrong — and how to get out of the ditch.
According to an audit report requested by School Board Member Roberto Alonso and released last month, the program was never properly vetted, didn’t include any clear chain of communication between the district, the sheriff, and the courts, and ignored public problems BusPatrol had already experienced in other states like New York and Pennsylvania.
But that didn’t stop then-Chief Operating Officer Luis Diaz from pushing it through last year. Nor did it go through the usual competitive bid process, because it was revenue-generating — meaning 70% of every $225 ticket went straight to BusPatrol, and the other 30% went to the district. No violation of policy, the auditors say. Just a terrible idea that looks good because it has netted the school board more than $9 million so far.
The program hit the road in June of last year — and blew the engine before 12 months. An investigative story by The Miami Herald and Tributary found that hundreds, maybe thousands of innocent motorists were getting $225 tickets even when they were driving on the opposite side of a raised median, which is perfectly legal. But the cameras apparently didn’t know that. And BusPatrol didn’t care. Because there was no clear way to contest them, many ticketed drivers just paid the fine. Even on bogus tickets.
Read related: Miami-Dade Sheriff to county leaders: Budget cuts handcuff public safety
In May, Sheriff Rosie said basta and hit the brakes. She announced on X that she was immediately suspending all citations. And Alonso requested the audit that basically confirmed what everyone suspected: Miami-Dade Public Schools never really vetted BusPatrol before signing on the dotted line. According to the district’s own internal auditor, the BusPatrol contract slipped through a loophole in the district’s procurement rules. Because it was “revenue-generating” and under $50,000 on paper, the deal didn’t have to go through a competitive bid process.
That meant no formal vetting, no references from other school districts, no testimonials. Staff told auditors that they relied on word of mouth and a Google search.
“We found a lack of evidence that BusPatrol and the overall program were sufficiently vetted prior to entering a contract,” the audit says. In plain English: They didn’t do their homework.
Turns out, the so-called turn-key program in one neat package — cameras, ticket processing, coordination with law enforcement, even court services — wasn’t what it was promised to be. The audit said the district “was not prepared for the scope of coordination needed” among the different agencies.
BusPatrol, of course, insists everything was done by the book. In a statement, the company pointed out that the audit confirmed the procurement process followed the rules — technically. But the auditors also “legal” doesn’t mean “smart.”
Superintendent Jose Dotres sent a memo to the schools police chief ordering him to work with the sheriff’s office to “fix the citation review process.” But the scope of the problem — and the lack of due process — was so bad that a class action lawsuit was filed in March against BusPatrol, alleging that Miami-Dade drivers were denied their right to contest the fines. According to a story aired by NBC6, an attorney for the motorists said the program “prioritized revenue generation over rights.”
Ya think? According to the audit, BusPatrol got around $22 million for 10 months of work.
In part, the complaint filed in court says BusPatrol “not only deprived citizens of Miami-Dade of their property without lawful justification, but also enriched the defendants at the expense of the public under questionable legal and ethical circumstances.”
So, just another day in 305 politics?
Read related: In Miami-Dade, first day of school jitters come with ICE deportation fears
BusPatrol wouldn’t explain much. In a statement, the company said the lawsuit was a “frivolous and baseless attempt to undermine a critical student safety issue in Miami.” For details about the saga, company executive Steve Randazzo told reporters only: “You’re going to have to ask the sheriff’s office.”
She’s not your biggest fan, dude.
But don’t worry, BusPatrol has friends in high places. And we don’t mean just State Rep. Vicky López — a potential replacement for Eileen Higgins on the county commission — who ushered the law that allows for Bus Patrol to install cameras in Miami-Dade school buses, and just happens to have her son and her brother-in-law on their payroll.
Since the suspension, as the Herald reported last week, the company has hired two politically connected lobbyists: David “Disgustin’” Custin and Tania Cruz Gimenez. Custin ran school board member Danny Espino’s 2024 campaign — for which Espino paid him more than $56,000 — and also worked for Mary Blanco, who paid him about $106,000. His gravy train in Tallahassee — former Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez and former State House Speaker Jose Oliva — is over, so he’s making his bed at the school board. Hey, he’s gotta sleep somewhere.
Cruz Gimenez, who helped elect Cordero-Stutz — and is now helping Miami District 3 candidate Denise Galvez — is married to Carlos “CJ” Gimenez, who is the son of the congressman but, more importantly for this story, the nephew of School Board Chairwoman Mary Tere Rojas.
Now Espino, Blanco and Rojas are key players in the fate of the BusPatrol program. Shouldn’t they all recuse themselves?
Instead, Espino has become the program’s biggest cheerleaders. At a committee meeting last week, the attorney proposed hiring the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings to handle the ticket challenges virtually. He said the system already works in Hillsborough County and could “provide the sheriff comfort” that there’s due process for drivers. He is sponsoring the revisions proposed to the board Wednesday.
Superintendent Jose Dotres tried to pump the brakes, warning the board not to promise the district would cover the administrative costs of those hearings. “We just have to be very cautious in saying that we are going to bear the cost,” he said.
The board votes on Espino’s proposal Wednesday. The meeting starts at 11 a.m. at the school board meeting downtown, 1450 NE Second Avenue.
Ladra bets there’ll be a lot of hand-wringing and finger-pointing — but not much accountability. Because in Miami-Dade, bad deals like this one always seem to have friends behind the wheel.

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The post Miami-Dade School Board to revisit flawed, ‘connected’ BusPatrol program appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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