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Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernández may be termed out, but his political action committee raised almost a quarter million since he was re-elected, including more than $200K was last month alone — most of it on a single day.
What’s it for, if he’s termed out in 2021?
Sources say Hernández, who rules Hialeah with an iron fist and retaliates against his political enemies, wants to have a referendum on the ballot this year allowing him to serve another term. There’s even an item on Tuesday’s agenda to form a charter committee that would — guess what? — consider just that.
And it’s on the consent agenda, no less, which also has an alarming number of competitive bid waiver requests. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 501 Palm Avenue.
The resolution — which is certain to pass the Seguro Que Yes council — would provide for a charter committee to review the city charter “and propose any amendments or revisions that may be advisable for placement on the upcoming election ballot of November 5, 2019.”
Oh, really? How transparent is this guy? How much do you want to bet that ending term limits is on the list?
Read related: Hialeah mayor quietly moves to turn school property into housing
And does Hernández really think that the voters in Hialeah are going to let him get away with this? They certainly didn’t buy the “public safety” tax increase he pushed last year.
Hernández — who served previously as councilman for six years — will already have been mayor for 10 years, two longer than allowed by term limits approved by voters in 1995. He served two years, 2011-2013, when he replaced his mentor, Mayor Julio Robaina, in the middle of his term — Robaina had resigned to run for Miami-Dade mayor in the famous recall election — and Hernández is now in the middle of his second four-year term. He will have been in office 16 years by the time his rule ends in 2021.
In 2017, former Mayor Julio Martinez sued the city to enforce the charter, arguing that the mayor had already served two terms because terms were not defined by length of time. A part of a term was a term, his attorney argued.
Read related: Lawsuit aims to take Carlos Hernández off Hialeah ballot
They didn’t win, obviously, and now Hernández wants yet another term.
Pero por supuesto. What else is he going to do? That way, he can more easily raise money from city vendors and developers for his 2025 run for county sheriff, which would coincide with the end of his third term.
There is simply no other reason for him to be raising this kind of dough.
The larger contributions to the Hialeah For Progress PAC, according to the latest campaign report, include:

$40,000 from two Miami Lakes real estate companies tied to Robaina
$30,000 from Leon Advertising and Public Relations
$25,000 from a construction company called M&R Enterprises
$25,000 from a Coral Gables real estate company called CC Devco
$25,000 from a Hialeah Gardens real estate company called World Property Services
$20,000 from a Sunny Isles Beach company called 1101 E. 33 Holdings
$12,500 from Gonzalez & Sons Equipment
$10,000 from Miami Beach real estate developer Fredric Karlton

There is also at least $10,000 from amusement companies that run the maquinitas so ubiquitous in the City of Progress and at least $2,000 from companies tied to Rolando Blanco, the Hialeah power broker who accepted hundreds of thousands in loanshark money for Robaina from a now-convicted Ponzi schemer.
Read related: Who protects the maquinita mafia in Hialeah? Guess
There are also contributions from vendors to the city — reminding Ladra of the Ready For Progress PAC set up in Miami Beach that was all city vendors and contractors — and which had to be shut down.
But this is Hialeah.
The Tampa-based PAC has raised a total of $487,700, but a lot of it was used for the 2017 re-election. But Hernández has raised $228,000 in just February and March. More than $181,000 was collected on Monday, March 4.
The PAC has also spent $186,554 of its bank, almost half of it on the 2017 election. But since then, it also spent $12,500 last year on Imagen Magazine — probably to put Hernandez on the cover again — $20K for another PAC, run by former Chief of Staff Arnie Alonso, to promote a tax increase last year that failed miserably, and, most recently, $19,000 last month to McLaughlin and Associates, a polling firm based in New York.
Ladra hopes they asked if voters wanted to have someone in office for 20 years. If that’s what they intended when they passed term limits in 1995.
But chances are they won’t ask that.

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When it comes down to it — and there are less than 24 hours to vote — we can’t trust Jorge Fors with the future of Coral Gables.
This is a man who cheats on his property taxes for eight or nine years in a row — filling out a bogus homestead exemption on a Little Havana condo each March. A man who doesn’t respect the democratic vote of a group of Little Gables residents and thinks he knows better and wants to impose his will.  A man who hides behind a mystery PAC to smear his opponent without disclosing who is funding those lies.
“This is the first time in Coral Gables that I see this negative campaigning with blatant lies based out of a shadow Trojan horse PAC,” said Commissioner Vince Lago, who is supporting former Commissioner Ralph Cabrera in the race (as is Commissioner Pat Keon).
“The idea that you can just be ambiguous and attempt to destroy not only someone’s political career but their character… that to me is unacceptable,” Lago said, adding that he is concerned about the PAC’s investment.
Read related: Secretly funded attacks Ralph Cabrera with mystery mailers, lies
There have been at least five mystery mailers sent for Fors by the Jensen Beach-based Leadership for Florida’s Future political action committee since mid March — but nobody knows who paid for them. That’s at least a $50,000 investment from a special interest that wishes to remain hidden for some reason that can’t be good.
“This is a serious financial commitment to the impact of a campaign,” Lago said. “Who would want to make that impact?”
That’s a really good question. Who is Fors going to work for if elected? How can voters trust him not lie, cheat or steal the taxpayers’ money?
Sure, Ralph Cabrera has his faults but nothing like that. He’s moody and can be sarcastic. He doesn’t mince words and is brutally honest. He won’t just tell people what they want to hear. An insurance consultant, Cabrera is a little nerdy and anxious. He is both self-deprecating while sometimes having a chip on his shoulder. If you cross him, he might write you off.
But Ladra would say those are slight faults and most could be beneficial in a public official.
Read related: Florida Bar investigates candidate Jorge Fors for homestead fraud
The key word is honest. He would never cheat on taxes or lie about a homestead exemption — if only because it would haunt him 24/7.
And he loves Coral Gables. All he wants to do is protect the city from over-development and help it move forward with smart initiatives. He did a lot during his 12 years on the commission and, before that he served on the planning and zoning board and other committees. He wants to keep the quaint quality of life that he and his family have enjoyed for decades.
Jorgie-Come-Lately, who bought a house a year ago, hasn’t done anything for the city. He hasn’t even sat on a committee. He has no track record — except the negative campaign he’s run — and zero history in Coral Gables civic life. Ladra believes he hasn’t even been to one commission meeting.
Most of all, he has proven before and throughout the campaign to be dishonest. When it comes down to it, we don’t really know who he is. And we don’t really know who is behind him.
That is why we can’t trust Jorge Fors.

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