Cancelled: The special Miami commission meeting Friday to put two questions on the November ballot — one to change the municipal election year and another to approve a new and improved Marine Stadium deal.
Also cancelled: The November referendums on both those things.
There was no quorum at the meeting Friday, said City Manager Art Noriega, who added that the marine stadium item was not ready anyway. Apparently, Commissioners Joe Carollo, Miguel Gabela and Christine King had better things to do. Carollo missed his morning “Crazy Joe Show” on America Radio for “city business,” but we don’t know what that was, if not the meeting.
“We were going to defer one or two items anyway and I think that may have led to the fact that we don’t have a quorum,” Noriega told a room full of people who were there to speak on both items and apologized. He said “there are new dynamics” to the marine stadium deal, which means that is the one that was going to be deferred.
Read related: Miami Marine Stadium’s revival plan could be on city’s November ballot
“We are still full steam ahead on getting the marine stadium done. So, don’t be disheartened that we’re not going to get it on the ballot in November,” Noriega said. “We are still 100% committed.”
Not so much commitment on the other item, though: The election year change that has caused much hand-wringing and legal expenses on the city’s part after three commissioners tried to move this year’s mayoral and the districts 3 and 5 elections to next year — effectively giving themselves an extra 12 months in office — without the voter’s permission. Mayoral candidate Emilio Gonzalez sued to stop it from happening and four judges told the city to stuff it. Then, both Mayor Francis Suarez and Commissioner Damian Pardo — who had sponsored and championed the change by ordinance — said they were going to put it on the ballot as quickly as possible.
Turns out, it’s not going to be possible this year.
“As for the other item, I really don’t have a perspective on that, and if it will come back or when,” Noriega said, not even saying what the other item was.
And did he just say “if?”
How did this very important piece of election reform, so important that commissioners were willing to cancel an election and give themselves and extra year in office, suddenly get on the back burner. Oh, wait…
“Guess it’s not important if it didn’t give them an extra year in office,” former Commissioner Ken Russell posted on his social media, where he also posted a photo of himself qualifying for the mayoral race, the first of an expected boatload of candidates to do so on the first day Friday. The deadline is Sept. 20.
But it was still going to give them an extra year in office. There’s just no hurry now.
A source in Pardo’s office said Friday that as the last opportunity for the commission to approve the ballot language and submit the question to the county supervisor of elections.
The election change referendum would have asked voters whether to align City of Miami elections with state and federal cycles to increase participation and reduce costs. If approved, it would begin in 2032, which means that those elected in 2027 (districts 1, 2 and 4) and those elected in 2029 (districts 3 and 5) would get a bonus year in office.
“This single five-year period would exist solely for that purpose. Those elected during those cycles would have voter approval for the additional year,” Pardo said. “More importantly, this reform would not affect the terms of the current mayor or commissioners.”
Read related: City of Miami drops legal fight to change/cancel election, takes it to voters
Well, that last part is not entirely true. It might affect Pardo and commissioners Gabela or Ralph Rosado. Only Commissioner Carollo and Mayor Francis Suarez are termed out. Chairwoman King will be termed out after the next term, if she is reelected in November.
Pardo did not return calls and texts to his cellphone and district office. His chief of staff, Anthony Balzebre, also did not return a call and a text. At this point, it might be Pardo’s orders to ignore Ladra. But an outside public relations consultant sent out a really lame statement on the commissioner’s behalf:

“We’re disappointed that two voter referendums could not be heard today due to a lack of quorum. The special meeting was scheduled to advance two items to the ballot: moving City of Miami elections to even-numbered years and advancing the Miami Marine Stadium item.

“Both were drafted ballot questions so residents, not commissioners, would make the final decision, but for those resolutions to move forward, a commission vote was required. With only two commissioners present, short of the three needed for a quorum, the meeting could not proceed, and the commission did not take any votes,” Pardo said in his carefully crafted message, where he again stressed the importance of increasing voter participation from 20% to 70% or more.
But he didn’t limit his comments to his precious election reform.

Read Full Story

Just weeks into the new school year, Gov. Ron DeSantis and his right-hand anti-Woke doc, Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, are taking aim at something else that has kept Florida kids healthy for decades: vaccines.
At a press conference Wednesday, Ladapo said the state is going to eliminate every last vaccine mandate, because forcing kids to get shots to go to school is “wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.” Yes, he really said vaccines were like slavery.
But he offered zero details about how this would actually work. Right now, all 50 states and D.C. require certain vaccines for students to attend school. We’re talking the basics: polio, diphtheria, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B. Stuff that stopped wiping out kids a generation ago thanks to public health, not thoughts and prayers.
Read related: Gov. Ron DeSantis sends Florida DOGE squad to sniff out Miami-Dade budget
Florida would be the first state to toss those requirements out the window.
Doctors and public health experts are calling it exactly what it is: reckless. Dr. Rana Alissa, president of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said vaccines are especially important in schools because, let’s face it, they are like petri dishes. Smart parents take precautions at home when it’s back-to-school time so they don’t get sick, too.
South Florida has already seen declining vaccination rates. Miami-Dade’s kindergarten immunizations have slipped almost 3% since 2019. Broward dropped by 10%. In 2024, there was a measles outbreak in Weston that infected seven kids at Manatee Bay Elementary. This year, the CDC has logged more than 1,400 measles cases nationwide, including six in Florida.
Miami-Dade School Board Member Luisa Santos told Roberto Rodriguez-Tejera on Actualidad Thursday morning (and it’s so nice to have him back, even temporarily) that there are already exemptions for religious and medical reasons. Nobody really asks any questions, though. And there has been a sharp increase — from 3,700 in the 2019-20 school year to 7,200 last school year. Statewide, Florida had 10,556 non-medical exemptions in the 2024–25 school year, the second-highest total after Texas, according to the Center for Disease Control.
“So it is something this community for different reasons is already saying, ‘I’m going to take this exemption,’” Santos said. “But that puts the whole community at risk.” Particularly immunocompromised children, teachers and staff.
But not yet. Santos explained that students are still required to be vaccinated to be in public schools this year. DeSantis and Lapado can get good press for their red meat base from this, but the state lawmakers would have to make that change for next year. That’s almost a sure bet though, since the Republican-led legislature has been sharpening their anti-woke talking points.
Mirroring the national debate, local parents and leaders are mixed on the topic. Some anti-vaxxers and GOP champions are cheering the move.
“Florida continues to lead the way on medical freedom,” posted Miami-Dade Commissioner Roberto Gonzalez, who has been trying to grow his political profile since he led the county’s drive against fluoride. “Proud to stand with the MAHA commission in protecting every Floridian’s right to make their own health decisions free from mandates and government overreach.”
Others worry that there could be outbreaks.
“Are we losing our minds? This is getting ridiculous and pathetic,” Congresswoman Frederica Wilson posted on X.“Are we trying to kill millions of innocent children? Childhood vaccines save lives. Abolishing them is INSANITY. 
“As a former teacher and principal, I know how vital childhood vaccinations are. Ending vaccine mandates puts the whole community at risk of preventable diseases. Decades of research show the effectiveness of vaccines, and we cannot just disregard the health of our children,” Wilson said. “Joseph Ladapo’s tenure as Florida’s Surgeon General has been marred by misinformation and harmful narratives. Enough is enough — Governor DeSantis must fire him, or Joseph Ladapo must resign before more harm is done.”
Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith kept it short: “Today is a great day for chickenpox, measles, and polio in Florida.”
Miami-Dade School Board Member Steve Gallon III seemed offended by the slavery comment. “The comparison of vaccinations to the horrors of slavery is incredible,” he posted.
‘This is devastating news,” Jill Roberts, associate professor at the University of South Florida’s College of Public Health, told Axios Tampa Bay. “You’re going to leave kids susceptible to diseases that are deadly and have lifelong consequences.”
Even Republican Sen. Rick Scott was scratching his bald head and told Marc Caputo, “Florida already has a good system that allows families to opt out based on religious and personal beliefs, which balances our children’s health and parents’ rights.”
United Teachers of Dade, the local labor union for teachers in the county’s public school system, issued a statement calling the plan “deeply concerning,” because it could expose vulnerable children to preventable disease. “From our standpoint, for decades, school vaccinations and requirements have played a role in keeping classrooms healthy,” said UTD spokesman Ricky Junquera, who was also a political advisor for former Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell in her 2024 race for Senate.
Osmani Gonzalez, president of the Miami-Dade County Council of PTAs, was far darker: “This is the type of policy that creates the possibility of preventable tragedies and the unnecessary loss of children’s lives within our schools,” he told The Miami Herald.
And Ladra can’t help asking the obvious: Why are we pretending polio and measles are woke?
Because that’s what this is really about. Not health. Not kids. Not science. It’s about the next culture war headline for a governor desperate to keep his name in lights — even if it means Florida becomes the testing ground for preventable epidemics.
The post Ron DeSantis wants to make Florida the first state to scrap vaccine mandates appeared first on Political Cortadito.

Read Full Story

Miami commissioners are dusting off the Marine Stadium dream again.
Yes, the same stadium that’s been rotting since 1992’s Hurricane Andrew. The same Brutalist concrete beauty on Biscayne Bay’s Virginia Key, whose neglect preservationists have been crying about for decades and has been listed as a historic since 2018 . The same architectural treasure that the National Trust for Historic Preservation has listed it in the 11 most endangered historic places.
The same project mayors keep calling a “legacy.”
The commission will have a special meeting Friday to decide whether to put a ballot question on the November election asking Miami voters if they’re ready to hand the keys to the shuttered landmark and the Flex Park next door over to a private entity — that will only charge the city $500,000 a year.
City Manager Art Noriega is already polishing the PR.
“We’re finally at a point where we have a plan and a trajectory for the renovation of Miami Marine Stadium, that incredible historic venue, a gem in the city of Miami…. lost to all of us for such a long time,” City Manager Art Noriega says in a hype video he dropped on Instagram last week. “This will reactivate that stadium. This is something we’re all going to be proud of in the next few years.”
If Ladra had a nickel for every time we’ve heard that, she could pay the higher tolls proposed for the Rickenbacker Causeway — which, by the way, might soon look more like U.S. 1 on event days.
Read related: Third DCA says no, again; Miami loses third try to cancel November elections
Noriega was short on details, however. All we know is that after decades of false starts, broken promises and glossy renderings gathering dust, the city issued another public solicitation for a private operator to restore and run the architectural and waterfront landmark. Apparently, they selected Global Spectrum L.P., a venue management company that is rebranding itself as Spectra. It has managed public events in the United States, Canada and the Middle East.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who has made it clear that the Miami Marine Stadium revival is on his last term bucket list, has had extensive business and political dealings with countries and organizations in the Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Dubai — connections that have drawn scrutiny regarding potential conflicts of interest with his role as mayor and as an attorney for an international law firm.
Suarez has pitched the Marine Stadium revival as a legacy project. But this is the same guy who has spent years jet-setting, crypto-pitching, hobnobbing with celebrities, creating content and running for president. Now, in his final months, he wants voters to hand him the ribbon-cutting for an icon that’s been rotting away for more than three decades during which it has become a magnet for graffiti artists and taggers.

The city’s capital improvements department shored up the structure two years ago and posted a YouTube video about it, saying it was the beginning of the renovation. The repair of corroded grandstand support columns reportedly cost $3 million.
But the renovation stalled, again. Now, Baby X clearly wants to fast track this legacy project.
Ladra could find no trail linking Spectra to Mayor Suarez. Zero. Nada. Which is surprising. He is a senior partner at DaGrosa Capital Partners, which invests in sports, healthcare, and real estate. Keyword: Sports. And he has also received payments from a real estate developer with a Miami project for consulting services. Who knows how many side gigs Suarez has.
Read related: What corruption probe? Mayor Francis Suarez enjoys Egypt wedding, Miami F1
So, let’s not get complacent. Given 305 politics, “nothing to see here” often comes with a wink and a whisper. We’ll keep our ear to the ground. If Spectra starts sponsoring private gala dinners with the mayor, Political Cortadito readers will be the first to know.
According to an article this week in Miami Today, the company is working under the name OVG360, or Oak View Group, which incorporated in Florida on July 22. So it’s brand new. Principals are Alexander and Maria Rojas of Kendall. Alexander Rojas also opened another corporation in April, 3CM Development, with Hector Muruelo, senior project manager at Terra, and a veteran of residential and hotel development.
Spectra has managed the Miami Beach Convention Center for 12 years and Oak View won a new contract with the city in April.
One rendition of what a renovated Miami Marine Stadium might look like.
Their proposal for the marine stadium project is all bells and whistles: better acoustics, expanded seating, an eco-friendly Flex Park, “world-class” everything and fancy new food options. Breakwater Hospitality (The Wharf, Pier 5, JohnMartin’s) and Groot Hospitality (restaurants and nightclubs) is in the mix. They promise to pour $10 million into the facility — half after the opening and the other half five years later. In return, they want a 10-year contract with three possible 10-year renewals, a $500K annual management fee, plus commissions on sales, sponsorships and a cut of the booze and burgers.
In other words: everybody makes money if the place makes money. Which sounds fair until you remember how often these “public-private partnerships” end up being a public expense and a private payday.
Ladra was unable to get details on who actually pays for the restoration, which was last estimated to cost about $62 million. The commission approved $45 million in bonds for the project in 2016, but the ability to access to funds has expired. Earlier this year, city leaders discussed funding the restoration with a new bond, historic preservation tax credits and/or tax revenue from local convention facilities development. The National Historic Trust and the Friends of the Miami Marine Stadium (former state house candidate Daniel “Danny” Diaz-Leyva is a board member) have also been allegedly fundraising for this for years.
The 6,000-seat stadium was designed by the late renown Cuban-born architect Hilario Candela when he was 27 years old. When it was poured in 1963, its 326-foot, fold-plate roof was the longest span of cantilevered concrete on earth. It was used as a backdrop to the 1967 Elvis Presley movie Clambake. There were performances by Jimmy Buffet and others and a political rally for Richard Nixon. It was added to the National Registry of Historic Places in 2018.
This month, it was used as a backdrop for a GQ cover photo of football player and “America’s sweetheart” Travis Kelce, a copy of which could already set you back $14.99 on eBay.
Read related: City of Miami drops legal fight to change/cancel election, takes it to voters
The marine stadium deal is the second ballot item Miami commissioners will discuss Friday. They are also teeing up a referendum on moving city elections to even-numbered years, after courts slapped down their attempt to give themselves an extra year in office. So, Miamians may be asked to bless both an “election reform” and a management deal for the marine stadium in the same election the city tried to cancel just weeks ago.
Will voters bite? Maybe. After all, the nostalgia for the marine stadium and the glory days of powerboat races, rowing regattas, Easter Sunday services, and boat-in concerts under the stars on Biscayne Bay runs deep. But Ladra can’t help but wonder: Is this really about saving a landmark for the people?
Or is it about delivering a shiny new venue to the same old power players who always seem to score these city contracts while providing a new, positive footnote for the mayor’s Wikipedia page?
The post Miami Marine Stadium’s revival plan could be on city’s November ballot appeared first on Political Cortadito.

Read Full Story

Melissa Castro gets last laugh, appoints Kirk Menendez
Sue Kawalerski became the latest casualty of the Vince Lago Revenge Tour last week, when the Coral Gables Commission did something longtime City Hall watchers couldn’t remember ever happening before: They voted to boot a sitting member of the Planning & Zoning Board against the will of the commissioner who appointed her.
But later, right before the meeting ended, Commissioner Melissa Castro pulled a surprise replacement rabbit out of her hat, and dramatically announced that she would then appoint former Commissioner Kirk Menendez — who ran Mayor Lago this year after calling him corrupt — because she is someone she can trust who knows the city.
You could hear a pin drop in commission chambers. People thought Lago was going to spontaneously combust.
With a 3–1 vote, the commission had already yanked Kawalerski, a thorn in developers’ sides and a vocal critic of overbuilding, right out of her seat.
Read related: Coral Gables moves to ‘fire’ longtime activist from planning zoning board
The official excuse? A slick, 18-minute hit reel put together by Coral Gables TV and presented by City Manager Peter Iglesias, showing Sue arguing with staff, sparring with board members, and pressing Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado about rapid-transit zoning at a July meeting. She was “publicly berated,” Iglesias said. But that was only the proverbial last straw.
“This is not about silencing a voice or punishing a vote. This is about upholding the standards of integrity of the planning and zoning board,” Iglesias said, adding that because it is a quasi judicial body, it has to fair, impartial and defendable in court.
“Board members are expected to ask difficult questions and represent residents, but they must also conduct themselves with professionalism and respect. When the conduct falls short of these standards it jeopardizes the city’s credibility, undermines the residents ability to challenge incompatible projects and ultimately harms the community we serve.”
He read from talking points. City spokeswoman Martha Pantin would not tell Ladra who wrote the talking points for him.
“This resolution has nothing to do with how Ms. Kawalerski voted on any issue. Board members are free to interpret facts and cast their votes according to their judgement,” Iglesias read, hardly looking up from his notes. “The concern here is her conduct and comments at recent meetings, which are prejudicial, disrespectful and derogatory.”
Lago and his loyal bobblehead soldiers, Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson and Commissioner Richard Lara nodded gravely, and claimed it was all about “standards.”
Standards? ¡Por favor! If Iglesias, Anderson or Lara really cared about standards, they should focus on Lago, who is constantly demeaning and insulting labor leaders, colleagues and residents from the dais. This wasn’t about Kawalerski’s “outburst” with Regalado. This was about control. About tightening the grip on the P&Z board so it won’t push back against big projects.
Lago even dragged out old grievances, accusing Kawalerski of tossing papers at him once — how dare she! — and they rehashed unfortunate comments she made years ago about Asian UM students and that may have been taken out of context. Ironically, Iglesias didn’t know if they were Japanese or Chinese students. Maybe he thinks they are the same.
The mayor presenting Sue as a racist is rich. Remember when Lago signed a letter in 2020 with other parents and alumni at the Carollton School of the Sacred Heart, where his daughters attend, against teaching any critical race theory? Los pajaros tirandole a la escopeta.
But, hey, Lago wanted Kawalerski out and he would use anything he could throw at her to paint Kawalerski as the problem — which she is, but for developers.
“It’s a pattern of behavior,” Lago told his colleagues last week, adding hat Kawalerski is “ill-prepared and an activist,” as if the latter is a bad thing. She was also the only member of the P&Z board that is not tied in one way or another to the development industry. “What we’re looking at is a lack of professionalism,” Lago said.
Exactly the point. Sue Kawalerski is not a professional on that board. Her role is of that of concerned resident — and she played it to perfection.
Iglesias and Lago and his echo chamber wanted to put the blame on Kawalerski for The Mark development, a pair of student housing towers that are slated to go up where the University Shopping Center on U.S. 1 is across from the University Metrorail station.

“Because of her actions, a developer determined they could not receive a fair hearing before the city’s planning and zoning board. As a result, the project was shifted to the Miami-Dade rapid transit zone process, bypassing the city’s review,” Iglesias said. “This decision has serious consequences. The project can become larger and more massive in scale under the RTZ process. The city lost the ability to manage the permitting process or have meaningful input. The city can no longer impose usage or signage limitations. The outcome is detrimental to the city of Coral Gables and its residents.”
Read related: Miami-Dade Commission takes over Coral Gables zoning near UM Metrorail
Iglesias said he met with her personally to tell her he was going to remove her. “I did not want to blindside her.”
How nice of him.
“This decision is not about one individual. It is about the responsibility we all share to preserve the integrity of the city’s processes and protect the interests of the coral gables residents,” he said. “Removal is a difficult but necessary step to restore credibility, fairness and the effectiveness of the board.”
It looks like Peter rehearsed.
But Ladra is pretty sure the developer would have gone to the county anyway if the city had not approved all its asks.
Commissioner Melissa Castro, who appointed Kawalerski in 2023 and reappointed her this year, was the lone “no” to remove her. She read a prepared statement from Sue, who couldn’t attend because she was at work (the commission didn’t start talking about her until 8:30 p.m., by the way). In it, Kawalerski called the move exactly what it is: a smear campaign to stifle critics of runaway development.
“During my term, many development projects have come before the board and I have always evaluated them based on two criteria: Do they comply with our zoning code and comprehensive plan? And, have the residents directly affected by the projects been effectively informed, consulted, and satisfied with the project,” Kawalerski said in her statement.
“I have voted FOR the majority of the projects that came before me based on those criteria. I voted against the projects which did not satisfy the criteria. Most if not all of those were not compatible with the neighborhood and received very negative responses from the residents” she added. “Only projects that require approval for bonuses, like the Mediterranean bonus which adds more height, or other additional requests not covered in the code, come before the board. In other words, developers come to Planning & Zoning to ask that they be allowed to build something they normally do not have a right to build.
“Far too often, I have witnessed board members showing unrestricted enthusiasm over projects, not asking critical and necessary questions, or staying silent, and then voting ‘Yes.’ I was not one of them.  Neither was fellow board member Felix Pardo,” Kawalerski said, referring to the longtime architect and activist who ran against Anderson in April and lost.
Read related: Felix Pardo nabs anti-development base from Rhonda Anderson in Coral Gables
Pardo might be axed next.
In fact, in an email response to residents who protested Kawalerski’s removal — and Castro said there were at least 70 — Lago claimed the whole thing was ”an example of the constant misinformation campaign by Castro and Fernandez.” He also wrote back that “the Bagel Emporium site is NOW NO longer under our control due to the behavior of Sue K., and Felix Pardo.”
Said Kawalersk: “First, the mayor doesn’t even have the respect to call me by my full name.  He is laying blame on the two of us, who are fighting for residents. Why isn’t he?”
A few residents agreed. “Sue Kawalerski has been fighting with us on this since before she was on the planning and zoning board,” said a woman who called on Zoom, adding that the residents had simply asked for one less floor and the developer didn’t want to give. “It had nothing to do with Sue. She did nothing wrong.
“You guys never got involved in this. I’ve never seen you at one meeting,” the woman said.
“We are sick and tired of these internal wars,” said Maria Magdalena Estupiñan. “Sue is not the problem. What you’re doing right now is making Sue as an excuse. It’s not Sue’s fault that we’re looking more and more like Brickell. Sue is not the problem.”
Lisa De Tourney, a member of the city’s Parking Advisory Board, echoed that sentiment and said she’s “seen far worse behavior, even up there on the dais.”
Amen, sister.
But Kawalerski isn’t going anywhere. She’s still president of the Coral Gables Neighbors Association and promised this is “just the beginning.” In fact, Ladra bets she’ll make more noise out here than she ever could on the board.
“She may continue to do so as loudly and as often as she wants, but not as a member of the planning and zoning board. That voice is not being silenced,” Lara said with a straight face. He shrugged — he shrugs a lot — and said Sue serves “at the pleasure of the majority” — as if that makes it any less of a power grab.
“There can be no reasonable person that can say there wasn’t berating of officials. To take a different position would be saying this is acceptable behavior — and it’s not.”
Read related: Coral Gables commission launches legal fight with Youth Center group
In the end, the commission should have been careful what they wished for. Because they got rid of Kawalerski, but now they’ll have Menendez in her spot. Whoa, whoa, whoa, Lago said after he regained his composure. He asked the city attorney, practically begging for a yes, if it had to come back to the commission, but Castro had already directed her to bring it back at the next meeting.
Technically, Lago and his lackeys could block the Menendez appointment, which has to be approved by a majority vote. Ladra doesn’t know if there’s a precedent for not accepting someone.
Would that mean that any three votes could block any board appointment? And wouldn’t that just make Lago’s personal political vendetta more obvious?
The post Coral Gables commission ‘fires’ development watchdog P&Z member appeared first on Political Cortadito.

Read Full Story

Sheriff gets her millions; firefighters still up in the air
Budget season is usually messy, but this summer has been a full-on disaster. And Thursday night at 5 p.m., Miami-Dade residents get their first chance to sound off at the budget hearing before commissioners take their first vote.
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava has been in cleanup mode for weeks, backtracking on the most controversial cuts she dropped on July 15 like a ton of bricks. Remember? Arts funding, senior services, even mowing the grass at the neighborhood park were on the chopping block. Commissioner Marleine Bastien, usually an ally, called it a “community train wreck” and a “budget without soul.” Commissioner Kionne McGhee said “working families are left out.” And they weren’t wrong.
Now, suddenly, between borrowing some funds from the future and tweaking here and there, La Alcaldesa suddenly found almost enough money to fill her $402 million hole. How does that happen?
Read related: Critics say Miami-Dade 2025-26 budget could possibly put public safety at risk
The loudest battle, of course, was with newly elected Sheriff Rosanna “Rosie” Cordero-Stutz. A change in Florida’s Constitution required Miami-Dade to spin off its police agency into an independent sheriff’s office after the November 2024 election. The Republican lawwoman cried foul earlier, saying that the mayor’s budget was “defunding the police” because she got “only” $55 million more. She wanted $94 million more than what the Miami-Dade Police Department got last year.
Last week, the mayor blinked. Levine Cava announced an extra $31 million for the Sheriff’s Office, bringing Rosie’s total to about $1.1 billion. That fight? Defused. “This is a victory for every resident, family, and neighborhood in our county,” Cordero-Stutz said in a statement. “With these resources secured, the Sheriff’s Office can continue to meet the needs of a growing community.”
So, that means the sheriff must have also done some belt-tightening. She asked for $94 million, got a total of $86 million and can still meet all her needs? So, $8 million was what? Padding?
But don’t think the drama is over. There are still plenty of hot potatoes baked into this budget:

Parks lifeguards: Gone at natural swimming holes like Matheson Hammock. That cut survived.
Charity & arts grants: Some money is back, but nonprofits are still short about $11 million.
Water rates: Levine Cava scaled back her 6% hike to 3.5% after Commissioner Raquel Regalado stepped in. But it’s still an increase.
Garbage fees: They’re expected to go up, even as the future of solid waste disposal in the county is a dumpster fire.
Senior centers: Little River stays open. South Dade? Still slated for closure.
Transit: The MetroConnect shuttle gets the axe, unless an alternative pops up. Bus and rail riders still face a 50-cent fare hike. MetroMover might start costing up to $100 a month for downtowners. Tolls on the Rickenbacker Causeway to Key Biscayne are slated to go up by 200%.
FIFA: The public and some commissioners question if now is the best time for the county to shell $46 million in cash and services to the FIFA World Cup related activities (read: parties).

The big fight now is over the mayor’s plan to dump $28 million in chopper costs onto the fire rescue department to pay for air rescue services themselves through their separate tax. Currently, the county pays out of the general fund to operate the four helicopters that fly critical patients to the hospital to get them there faster and douse brushfires from the skies.
Read related: Mayor Daniella Levine Cava wants Fire District to pay for air rescue helicopters
But here’s the rub: The choppers serve every inch of the county — even the five municipalities that don’t pay a penny into the fire district: Miami, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Hialeah and Key Biscayne. And, basically, Levine Cava’s idea is to let those people ride for free while the other municipalities and the people in the unincorporated county areas foot the bill.
Levine Cava insists she’s protecting “core county services” while keeping the property tax rate low. She says her original proposal was a “snapshot in time” before her staff nailed down more one-time surplus dollars. But her critics aren’t buying it.
Commissioner Roberto Gonzalez mocked her on social media: “It looks like, after the self-induced ‘perfect storm,’ as she calls it, the ayor followed the imaginary yellow brick road to the pot of money that was waiting right where she left it,” Gonzalez wrote Thursday on the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Enough with the games and storytelling, we’re not in Kansas anymore!”
So, now the stage is set for Thursday’s first public budget hearing at County Hall. Residents, nonprofits, cops, firefighters, seniors, and straphangers all get their turn at the mic. Two minutes, if Commission Chairman “King Anthony” Rodriguez feels generous. Otherwise, they’ll get 60 seconds. Then, the commission takes its first vote on the mayor’s ever changing proposal.
Round two comes later this month. And Gonzalez says he wants a change order by the Sept. 18 hearing that fully funds the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department’s air rescue operations. He was flanked by Commissioners Rene Garcia and Natalie Milian Orbis and Congressman Carlos Gimenez — who had to jump into the debate — at the fire union’s press conference last week where he demanded that police and fire be fully funded. The fire union has threatened legal action.
“What we have is no longer a mismanagement of funds,” Gonzalez said in a video posted on his Instagram. “What we really have is a failure to prioritize the things that are important to the residents of Miami-Dade County.
Read related: Facing $400M budget shortfall, Miami-Dade cuts senior meals, lifeguards, more
“I am sick and tired of the shell games,” said Gonzalez, who has seemed to be campaigning for higher office recently. “The mayor says that we’re in a deficit. Then she says that we’re not in a deficit. The mayor says that she lost money. Then she says that she found money. Folks, there is one thing that we cannot play with, and that is the safety and the lives of our residents.”
Some things never change on the 29th floor — and that includes finding magical drawers of money when you most need to.
Speaking of which, enter Gimenez, the former county mayor. Because, por supuesto, he shows up at press conference to wag his finger at his Democratic successor. “They need more money, more units, more firefighters,” Gimenez, a former fire captain and city manager, blasted as he stood with fire union leaders and firefighters.
Excuse Ladra while she coughs up a hairball. Because we all remember when this same Gimenez, as county mayor, proposed rolling “brownouts” at fire stations — putting one or two units out of service every shift and rotating which neighborhoods would lose coverage. That was his idea of fiscal responsibility. Now, he’s suddenly the defender of Fire Rescue’s funding?
Levine Cava’s camp wasn’t having it, either. As Gimenez spoke, her comms team blasted out a slick video of La Alcaldesa, smiling, “setting the record straight,” and praising firefighters as “heroes” while touting the raises and new trucks she’s delivered in her five years. She insists the helicopter shuffle is just an accounting move: “The services remain unchanged, and the public will not be impacted.” Her budget folks point out that Fire Rescue has actually grown 10% under her watch and say delays are about land costs and backlogged fire truck orders, not dollars.
The union isn’t buying it. “Lives hang in the balance,” union president William “Billy” McAllister warned. “When seconds count, sometimes we’re minutes away.”
So, now, we’ve got the firefighter-turned-mayor-turned-congressman tag-teaming with union leaders and Republican commissioners against the current mayor. The same guy who once pitched cutting back fire coverage is now crying wolf about a “dangerously unfair” budget.
Ladra says grab your helmets, gente. The helicopter fight is only fueling the flames as commissioners get ready to take their first budget vote Thursday night in a meeting that might look look less like a policy debate and more like a campaign commercial.
Ladra can’t help but wonder if the congressman is going to make an appearance.
The first public hearing of the Miami-Dade 2025-2026 proposed budget starts at 5:01 p.m. Thursday at County Hall, 111 NW First Street, and can also be seen online on the county’s website.
The post Miami-Dade County commission set for budget showdown, hearing Thursday appeared first on Political Cortadito.

Read Full Story

After months of swearing up and down that they had the authority to move Coral Gables elections to November without asking anybody, a majority of the commission suddenly got religion this week and voted to let residents decide. But don’t be fooled: it’s not exactly democracy at work.
Instead of putting the question on a regular ballot where most people actually vote, the commission scheduled a special mail-only referendum for April 21, 2026 — guaranteeing that only a sliver of the electorate will weigh in on an issue that affects everybody. If this is really about turnout, why pick the one path that ensures turnout will be tiny?
Ah, because then it’s easier to affect the outcome.
Read related: Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago caves on election change; wants public vote
Mayor Vince Lago, Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson, and Commissioner Richard Lara — the same trio who passed the ordinance in May to unilaterally shift elections — spun this as giving voters “the final say.” What they really did was load up a special April 2026 ballot with a bunch of their pet charter changes, hoping to turn a political setback into a political jackpot.
Among them: setting up an Inspector General’s office, forcing the charter review committee to meet every 10 years, and requiring voter approval for commission raises. And, of course, a measure that says future election-date changes must go to the voters — which is rich, considering these very same commissioners already voted to do it themselves without asking anyone. And then defended that vote.
The whole thing was conditional, though. The referendum would only happen if Miami lost all its appeals in the parallel election-change case. And they did. If Miami had prevailed in changing their election from November in odd-numbered years to even-numbered years — effectively extending terms by an extra 12 months — Coral Gables would have stuck with the ordinance already passed and move elections to November of next year anyway, without having to get the pesky voters involved.
So, L’Ego’s sudden change of heart is less about giving the voters a “final say,” and more about giving himself a political insurance policy.
Read related: City of Miami drops legal fight to change/cancel election, takes it to voters
Commissioner Melissa Castro — who has been the only consistent voice for a real referendum — voted no. Not because she  opposes asking voters, but because she opposes doing it this way. She argued for putting the question on the April 2027 ballot, instead of rushing into a mail-only vote in 2026. She even showed a slide deck with all the extra printing and mailing costs, which adds up to almost $80,000.
“Let’s do it the right way,” she urged. “Don’t do it just to get me out of office.
“You said I wouldn’t win an election. To be honest, you don’t know if I’m going to run again. I don’t know if Im going to run again,” Castro said. “But I could guarantee you one thing: If I’m going to run, I’m going to win. There’s no fighting that.
“So, don’t be so worried. Don’t be so preoccupied,” she told the mayor. “I would never get into something I can’t win.”
Lago brushed it off, claiming long-term savings once April elections are gone. But it’s pretty obvious that the change is about making it harder for independent candidates like Castro and Commissioner Ariel Fernandez, who were elected against the mayor’s wishes in 2023, L’Ego has made it clear with statements about “special interests” not controlling the election outcome.
But while she voted against the move on principle, Castro was thrilled that the commission voted to put the election change on the ballot. “This is a complete victory but not for me,” Castro said. “For the people of Coral Gables.”
Well, maybe. But right now, it feels more like a victory for Lago and company, who get to reframe their blunder as magnanimity — while still making sure the vote happens under their terms, on their timeline, with their question on the ballot. The mayor even suggested that the city do some “educational outreach,” which he said lacked for the Little Gables annexation referendum that city voters rejected overwhelmingly (63%) last year. And Ladra suspects Lago is going to bring that annexation attempt back (more on that later).
Read related: Coral Gables voters reject annexation of Little Gables — and Mayor Vince Lago
Y por supuesto they want a mail-only referendum in April of next year. They can control the smaller turnout. But it undercuts the whole “increase turnout” excuse that LALala campaigned on. If increasing participation from 20% to 30% in odd-numbered years to 80% with state and general elections is the true goal, why not wait and do it when the most voters will actually vote?
There is a perfectly good alternative that won’t cost as much: Having the referendum on the November 2026 midterm ballot. That would guarantee a higher turnout and would also allow the city to make the change after the April 2027 election, because voters would know that the candidates they elect for mayor and commissioner will serve a term that is five months shorter. If it’s true that he’s polled Castro’s seat five times and she is “underwater,” as he said in last week’s commission meeting, then he should be confident that his candidate, whoever she may be, will beat Castro in April. No? Or would she only lose in November?
Could it be that this isn’t really about turnout or saving money at all, but about controlling the process and future elections?
The post Coral Gables puts election year change on the ballot — a mail-in only ballot appeared first on Political Cortadito.

Read Full Story