Last June, when Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez went on vacation, he designated his authority to Deputy Mayor Jack Osterholt.
When he went to Asia for two weeks from March 13 through the 28th this year and when he went to Israel for a week in November 2017, Gimenez also delegated all his “delegable authority” to Osterholt.
When he attended the Socrata Summit in Washington D.C. and to meet with Dell in Austin in October of 2015, he put then Deputy Mayor Alina Hudak in charge.
When Gimenez went to China in September 2015, he delegated to Deputy Mayor Ed Marquez. Poor Deputy Mayor Russell Benford only gets a Saturday here and there, like a dog gets a bone.
Even when he is gone for a day or an afternoon, Gimenez will delegate his duties and authority to someone of  his choosing to act as a temporary boss in his absence. Our globe-trotting county mayor names his own replacement — someone who was not elected — whether he is off with his wife or traveling with lobbying buddies, playing golf around the world or taking the afternoon off for a secret off-the-books meeting.
In fact, Gimenez has designated someone to be the de facto acting mayor more than two dozen times since 2015, which is as far back as one can search correspondence on the mayor’s website, using keywords “out of office.” There are likely more than we even thought. Ladra sent a public records request asking for them Monday, but we were still waiting for the complete list Friday.
So it makes him at best selfish and at worst a hypocrite when he claims that part of the issue he has with the strong mayor referendum in Miami is that the strong mayor would be able to name a successor who would temporarily step in should the mayor resign or be removed from office.
Yet, that is precisely one of the issues he has, Gimenez told Humberto Cortina Friday on Radio Mambi, where he got a free hour — maybe it was free because you know how Spanish-language radio is — to trash the referendum.
He wants to be the only strong mayor in town.
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Gimenez says all this with a straight face, like he’s not grooming Commission Chairman Esteban Bovo to be his hand-picked heir so that he still has a hand in operations (read: procurement) and his friends and family plan can stay pretty much intact.
And the mayor, who was ushered in post recall, wants to make sure he is not recalled himself too easily, which is why he also told listeners to vote for the county referendum that prohibits paying petition gatherers per signature. Good enough to recall former mayor Carlos Alvarez, to make room for Gimenez, but not good enough for him now.
There is not one single amendment or referendum question that the mayor campaigns for or against because it is the right or wrong thing to do. It’s all about self interest. Or self preservation.
Gimenez also spoke against state amendment 3, putting gambling in the hands of voters — because then his lobbying sons don’t have as many opportunities — and state amendment 10, which would give us an elected sheriff and supervisor of elections, because he doesn’t want his hand picked successor to lose that power that he’s been able to abuse so freely.
Read related: Elected Miami-Dade Sheriff, SOE could curb mayor’s abuse of power
But he only spent a total of five minutes on the other questions, focusing the hour-long interview on the strong mayor measure.
“This gives too much power to one person. Not Francis Suarez because we don’t know who comes behind Francis Suarez,” Gimenez said on Radio Mambi regarding the current mayor, who happens to be the son of his nemesis on the county commission. Francis Suarez being strong mayor would only help his father, Commissioner Xavier Suarez, if he were to run for top dog in the county, and Gimenez doesn’t want that.
Self interest.
Ladra may also believe that the Miami strong mayor measure should be rejected by voters because it gives too much power to one person. Gimenez is living proof.
But let’s not stop there. The strong mayor structure at the county should be eliminated — and that question should be on the next countywide ballot.

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This will be the year for Jeffrey “Doc” Solomon, a Pinecrest chiropractor who’s run for state House three times in District 115 and is finally on track to a win.
The evidence is not just in the internal poll that has him practically tied with the better-financed Republican transfer Vance Aloupis in the race to replace termed out State Rep. Michael Bileca. Or the fact that Hillary Clinton won this district by 10 points two years ago. It’s also in the barrage of negative mailers that have called Solomon a lobbyist and a tax dodger  saying he “isn’t trustworthy.”
Like in the state races in Hialeah, these negative attacks — really huge reaches in the dark — stink of last minute desperation. Ironically, or as expected, the attacks are what’s not very trustworthy.
He never registered as a lobbyist because he was not paid to lobby. Solomon, a chiropractor who has worked on TV sets, served as president of the Florida Chiropractic Association and advocated in Tallahassee on the organization’s behalf. He was an industry advocate in his role as the group’s spokesperson.
And after his business manager was found guilty embezzling $180,000 from his mobile practice, Solomon found that his business had failed to pay taxes from 2002 to 2004 and he immediately corrected it.
He did the same thing with the campaign documents that the Republican Party says he withheld. He was a first time candidate then, his own treasurer, and submitted the paperwork as soon as he learned it was missing. That is why he was never fined for the unintentional violation.
These details don’t matter to Aloupis, a time-groomed GOP poster boy who engaged in the same type of scare tactics against Jose Fernandez in the four-way primary but has since run from his Republican roots in an attempt to get the make-or-break NPAs in this race.
Read related: Vance Aloupis fails to mention GOP as required, courting NPAs in the general
Independent voters had a significant impact on the poll, done by the Solomon-connected Kitchens Group. While voters are pretty much split 45-45 on whether they want to keep the seat red or turn it blue more NPAs are siding with Solomon, 46-30 percent.
That might be because part of his platform is having Florida become an open primary state. He is the only candidate who openly talks about it on a regular basis and it makes this old NPA at heart feel warm and fuzzy inside. Certainly it is making many NPAs feel like they could have a friend in Tallahasee with Solomon.
When the choice was head to head between the two candidates, Solomon came out on top with 47% to 42% for Aloupis, with 11% undecided. The numbers are pretty close and well within the 5.5% margin of error, but represent a victory already for Solomon, who has been outspent by more than 5 to 1.
Aloupis raised $415,500 and spent $357,163 through October 12, according to campaign finance reports. Meanwhile, Solomon spent $65,434 of $87,757 raised.
“I’m running like I’m behind,” said Solomon, who lost to Bileca twice — first in 2012 and then again two years ago, losing 54-46. That gives him more name recognition: Only 37 percent of the voters polled said they didn’t know who Solomon was, while almost half of them don’t know Aloupis.
That could also be because Aloupis — an attorney and the $175,000-a-year CEO of The Children’s Movement of Florida — just moved to the area from Aventura, specifically to run in a seat he and the GOP believed he could more easily win.
The poll also showed a five-point lead in the district for gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum — and unfavorable numbers for Donald Trump.
Maybe Aloupis ought to stay away from the Trump-like attacks on his opponents.

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