SB 700 takes aim at Alligator Alcatraz shenanigans
Florida lawmakers may finally be waking up and smelling the cortadito.
After years of the governor stretching “states of emergency” like chicle viejo to move money around with zero oversight, Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith has filed SB 700— a bill that basically says “oye, enough of the permanent emergencies already.”
And make no mistake: this bill, filed Tuesday, has Alligator Alcatraz written all over it. In neon letters. Visible from the Turnpike.
Because what better reason to rein in emergency powers than the largest, most expensive, most secretive, most environmentally disastrous boondoggle Florida has cooked up in decades?
That’s right. Ladra is talking about the infamous, billionaire-sized swamp headache known as Alligator Alcatraz, the “temporary” migrant concentration camp that was built on an “emergency” order that just kept being extended… and extended… and extended… while the state signed enough no-bid contracts to make every lobbyist in Tallahassee salivate like a hungry pitbull.
Read related: Daniella Levine Cava finally takes a tougher stand vs Alligator Alcatraz
Under SB 700, a governor can’t just keep renewing an emergency forever — or for two years, or three, or however long it takes to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars into politically connected contractors. One year. That’s all the guv gets. ¡Y basta!
The bill says:

Any state of emergency renewed by the governor expires after one year.
After that, the only way to keep it going is a two-thirds vote of both chambers.
And the Legislature has to put a firm end date — before the next regular session ends.
Oh, and if lawmakers pull the plug? The governor has to immediately issue an order ending it.
AND he can’t declare a “substantially similar” emergency right after to get around it. Bravo.

Let’s remember how we got here.
Gov. Ron DeSantis declared an “immigration emergency” and, with that magic wand, bypassed standard procurement rules — you know, the boring democratic, open, transparent ones — and green-lit a massive detention camp in the Everglades on the Dade-Collier airstrip.
Within days — not weeks, not months, days — the state signed an avalanche of contracts:

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City Hall politicos must be starting to sweat
The citizen-driven overhaul of Miami’s busted political structure — the one the commissioners hoped nobody would pay attention to — is picking up steam. Stronger Miami, the political action committee formed earlier this year to put three major charter reforms on the 2026 ballot, announced this week that they’ve already collected more than 15,000 petition signatures from registered Miami voters.
That’s more than halfway to the 20,500 they need by this summer. And, believe me, City Hall is officially on notice.
This momentum comes right after voters last month overwhelmingly passed Referendum 3, creating Miami’s first-ever Citizens’ Redistricting Committee — something the commissioners did not want because, well, they prefer drawing their own electoral safety nets.
Read related: Miami Voters get it right on the fine print referendums: Yes, No, Yes, Yes
“Miami voters made their voices undeniable this November,” said Mel Meinhardt of One Grove Alliance, who has basically become Miami’s accidental good-government mascot after the city’s illegal 2022 gerrymander carved Coconut Grove into political confetti. One Grove is one of several community organizations in the Stronger Miami coalition.
“Fifteen thousand signatures and counting shows a city ready to turn the page,” Meinhardt said.
En otras palabras: People are tired of the five-headed political hydra running the city like their own private fiefdom.
The proposed charter amendment would bring exactly the kind of changes electeds would never put on the ballot themselves:

Expand the City Commission from five to nine members. Smaller districts. More representation. Less concentration of power. Also fewer opportunities for the infamous Three-Vote Mafia to cut deals in the dark.
Move city elections to November of even-numbered years. Higher voter participation. Lower costs. Fewer sleepy, manipulated 20% turnout races where commissioners get elected by their neighbors and donors’ employees.
Create real, enforceable redistricting standards. No more Franken-districts drawn around donors’ properties and commissioners’ future ambitions. The newly formed independent committee would actually have rules this time.

Commissioners had a chance in September to put the election year change on the Nov. 4 ballot — but it wasn’t as important as they made it seem when they didn’t get an extra year out of it.
Read related: City of Miami election year change won’t make November ballot, after all
There’s still a question about the election calendar move to even years. Does that extend the terms of whoever is sitting those chairs when the switch happens? That’s what Commissioner Damian Pardo wanted to do — give himself and Joe Carollo and Mayor Francis Suarez an extra year in office — when he proposed and passed moving this year’s elections to 2026. Thank Ochún (and Emilio González) that a judge set them straight: This kind of change has to be approved by voters.
And it looks like they may get the chance. Stronger Miami has more than half the signatures and have until the spring to get the rest if they want to put it on the 2026 ballot.
Back in April, Ladra told you how Stronger Miami launched this petition drive after the federal court ruling that shot down the city’s illegal 2022 redistricting maps. The judge not only tossed the maps — he slapped the city with marching orders to create a fair process going forward.
That ruling created the seed. The petition is the fertilizer. And City Hall’s arrogance is the sunshine.
Josh Kaufman, statewide organizer at the ACLU of Florida and Stronger Miami’s field general, said the quiet part out loud: “Voters are demanding a City Hall that truly represents them. With 15,000 signatures already collected, it is clear the movement for a stronger and more democratic Miami is only growing.”
Miami hasn’t expanded representation since it was founded. Yet the city has exploded in population and complexity. We still have five commissioners for 460,000 people — about 90,000 residents per commissioner.
Most well-run cities have half that ratio.
Read related: Petition aims to add Miami commission districts, change election to even years
But why change a system that works… for the politicians?
As Anthony “Andy” Parrish — PAC chair, watchdog and professional Miami BS detector — told Ladra once: “The solution to the pollution is dilution.” And baby, Miami has industrial-grade political pollution.
Parrish even suggested requiring commissioners to work out of district offices instead of that future Taj Mahal at Melreese. Imagine commissioners having to face actual residents on a daily basis. ¡Qué horror!
Increasing the commission to nine seats aligns Miami with the governance structure of other large metropolitan areas like Atlanta and Minneapolis, ensuring the city’s leadership reflects its diverse population. It also “lowers campaign costs for newer candidates to emerge, diluted concentrated power and makes local government more representative, and it makes it easier for city of Miami residents to have access to their city commissioner,” according to the Stronger Miami website.
Let’s be clear: this success will not go unnoticed. Miami commissioners love concentrated power like developers love variances. They are not going to sit back while residents take away their cozy little 3-vote empire. If history is any guide, we can expect dark money PACs and scare tactics, a barrage of bad texts, disinformation campaigns, whispers about “outside groups” and maybe even a last-minute “alternative” proposal designed to confuse voters.
Because nothing terrifies a Miami commissioner more than actual democracy.
The takeaway here is that 15,000 signatures isn’t just momentum — it’s a warning shot. Miami voters are awake. They’re angry. And they’re organizing.
Stronger Miami still has a mountain to climb, but they’ve already accomplished the thing the commission thought impossible: making real reform look inevitable.

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…Because Miami-Dade needs another committee
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava announced last month that she’s forming yet another advisory committee — this one to help the county celebrate America’s 250th birthday in 2026. Because if there’s anything this county loves more than ribbon cuttings and slogans, it’s a shiny new task force stacked with political appointees.
They’re calling it the Miami-Dade 250: We Are America Celebration Advisory Committee, which is already a mouthful and sounds like something cooked up after a long branding session and an even longer cafecito break.
The mayor says Miami-Dade has “a unique story to tell — one defined by unity, resilience, innovation, and shared values.”Ladra will pause here so readers can stop rolling their eyes.
Sure, Miami-Dade has a story to tell. Several, actually. Whether this committee will tell the real one — the messy, complicated, sometimes scandal-sprinkled version — remains to be seen. But don’t hold your breath.
According to the press release, the committee will “guide and elevate” the county’s participation in the national Semiquincentennial. Say that five times real fast.
In practice, that probably means a long list of meetings, subcommittees, planning retreats, and PowerPoints before anyone decides whether we’re getting a parade, a mural, a hashtag, or all three.
Read related: Miami-Dade budget restores 100% funds to non-profits = self preservation
The new group’s homework assignment includes drafting a countywide plan, coordinating with state and federal partners, encouraging civic engagement (good luck), hunting for money, and making sure Miami-Dade’s efforts align with whatever the national commission is doing. In other words: bureaucracy meets birthday party.
And who gets a seat at this table? Nine appointees selected by:

The mayor
The county commission chair
The League of Cities
The Legislative Delegation
The School Board
GMCVB
HistoryMiami
AFL-CIO
And a youth representative, presumably to prove this isn’t just an adults-talking-to-themselves exercise.

“It’s an opportunity to celebrate our history, while showcasing our community’s incredible diversity and the values that unite us,” La Alcaldesa said in a Facebook video post. “To ensure Miami-Dade’s full participation in this milestone… the committee will bring together civic and community leaders from across Miami-Dade to help guide the preparations for this historic year.
“Its members will play a key role in developing a comprehensive, countywide plan for events and initiatives that honor our history and celebrate our patriotism. As the gateway to the Americas and one of the most dynamic communities in the nation, Miami-Dade County perfectly captures the spirit of unity, resilience and progress that define America.”
Read related: Financial finesse? Miami-Dade budget shortfall disappears in final version
The mayor’s office will staff the operation and start corralling appointees in coming weeks. The first meeting is set for January 2026 — because nothing says “sense of urgency” like launching a committee six months before the anniversary year actually starts.
Look, Ladra isn’t knocking the idea of celebrating America’s 250th birthday. It’s a big deal. But Miami-Dade has more pressing issues — you know, like housing affordability, transit that never arrives, and the small matter of sea level rise licking our toes — than figuring out which county department gets to cut the “We Are America” cake.
Still, Levine Cava gets to send out a nice press release, everybody gets to feel patriotic, and maybe — maybe — we’ll get a celebration worthy of the milestone.
Or at least a commemorative logo. We’re really good at those.

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This time there’s an audience, pero igual
Ladra would like to congratulate the Miami Dade College Board of Trustees for finally holding a real public meeting on the Donald Trump Library land giveaway — or, as it will go down in history, The Hialeah Shuffle.
Because make no mistake: Tuesday morning’s “do-over” vote — in which the bootlicking board reaffirmed their decision to giveaway 2.6 acres of prime real estate meant for the school’s growth to their cult leader like it was a promotional tote bag — was less about transparency and more about checking a Sunshine Law box while keeping the public at arm’s length. Far from the downtown campus this impacts, far from students, far from the faculty, and far from the local downtown residents with the most at stake.
Seriously. Why else would you move the meeting from MDC’s central Wolfson Campus — you know, across the street from the land in question — to an 8 a.m. meeting in Hialeah? Ladra sees you, Board. That’s called crowd control.
And yet, even in Hialeah, even fighting rush hour traffic, nearly 80 people showed up. Imagine how many would have packed the room downtown. Ladra imagines it, and the trustees probably did, too. Which is precisely why they drove everyone out to the Ciudad Que Progresa for this little performance of “public engagement.”
Read related: MDC Trustees to vote again on Trump library land; still smells like a done deal
Let’s be clear: The re-vote was never in doubt. The trustees were going to vote yes again no matter who spoke or what they said. A couple of them had made that abundantly clear. Tuesday wasn’t a decision-making meeting; it was a legal maneuver to wipe away the stink of that September vote — the one they took without letting anybody know what land they were giving away, to whom, or for what purpose.
That’s the vote that triggered university professor and historian Dr. Marvin Dunn’s Sunshine Laws lawsuit. The one that says the college’s trustees broke Florida’s Sunshine Law when they quietly voted 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 this giveaway.
Dr. Marvin Dunn leads a protest at the Freedom Tower weeks ago.
And Dunn, who has become a one-man moral megaphone in this mess — and also organized “Stop the Steal” protests in front of the Freedom Tower — showed up Tuesday to remind them: “This sham meeting will not get rid of my lawsuit.”
Woof.
Despite this re-vote, Judge Mavel Ruiz hasn’t dismissed Dunn’s lawsuit, and she already blocked MDC from transferring the deed once. Dunn’s attorney, Richard Brodsky, said it wasn’t over yet: “We will conduct discovery, depositions, document request and the like to get the bottom of what happened here.”
Meanwhile, the college’s lawyer compared Dunn’s transparency lawsuit to “the lawfare the 45th and 47th president faces every day.”
Ladra eye-rolls in Spanglish.
Read related: Lawsuit challenges MDC giveaway of downtown Miami lot for Trump library
Tuesday’s meeting wasn’t a public hearing. It wasn’t livestreamed like regular meetings. Some speakers were even told they needed “permission” to speak until Chairman and former State Rep. Michael Bileca walked it back at the last minute. Very Sunshine adjacent.
Most of the speakers were against the giveaway. Ladra wasn’t there, but Politico’s Kimberly Leonard live tweeted the whole thing (bless her heart) and kept a pretty solid count, and several local TV news channels also recorded and aired snippets.
Many noted that it might not be the best use for the land, which was purchased by the college un 2004 for projected student growth and used as a parking lot in the meantime. One man called the location — next to the Freedom Tower, a beacon for local immigrants — “an abomination.” Trump’s treatment and policy toward immigrants has been cruel and unusual.
“The irony of building this facility next to the Freedom Tower, Ellis Island of the south, is too rich to pass up,” said award-winning documentary filmmaker and local activist Billy Corben.
He also warned that it may not just be a library. There has been talks about building a hotel next to it as well.
“It’s a real estate deal guys, that’s all,” Corben told board members. “I presume some of you own property in the county, residential, commercial. Why don’t you donate it for free to the present? Of course not. It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous for me to even say it or suggest it. It was absurd when you heard it out loud.
“If you wouldn’t do it with your property, don’t do it with the college’s property.”
Read related: Miami Dade College gifts Donald Trump land for his library — and a hotel
Democratic Party Chair Laura Kelley broke it down to the bottom line: Giving public institutional land to a politically affiliated private foundation undermines MDC’s neutrality and distracts from educating students. There has been and will be backlash.
A recent poll shows 74% of Miami-Dade residents — including 59% of Republicans, 94% of Democrats, and 69% of independents — are against this scheme.
But on Tuesday, there were also a number of speakers who were supportive of the move. That included a group of Miami Young Republicans who were on a field trip — Ladra hopes they carpooled — and our very own Republican Supervisor of Elections Alina García, who loves the idea of a Trump library, “regardless of whether you like the President or not,” she said, while definitely liking him.
“It’ll be a great tourist attraction, a place for our kids to go learn about the office of the presidency,” Garcia said.
Other supporters also noted that it would be a great tourist attraction and an “honor” to have the Trump Presidential Library in the city’s downtown. One man urged the board not to “cave to a woke and angry mob.” He really didn’t need to worry.
After the speakers had their say, almost three hours worth, the board had its script. Board Member Roberto Alonso, who also serves on the Miami-Dade School Board (and was first appointed there by Gov. Ron DeSantis), told WSVN Channel 7 that it was “a great opportunity to listen to the feedback and to take that into account on our vote.” Ladra calls BS.
For all the trustees’ claims that they wanted to “hear from the community,” they revealed next to zero new information about what MDC is getting in exchange for land appraised at $67 million and likely worth hundred of millions more.
No public negotiations. No benefit agreements. No cash. Not even renderings. Allegedly there is $3 million earmarked for “architecture and engineering,” pero nobody can see a single drawing? Dale.
Read related: Donald Trump’s Thanksgiving social screed serves hate instead of turkey
In fact, the last time MDC sought to develop this exact same property — in 2016 — they wanted $20 million plus student-focused cultural amenities. This time MDC gets…checks notes…zero dollars a promise that Trump’s billion-dollar legacy tower will somehow, someday be good for the college. Y ya está.
The only thing we got from Bileca was justification. They did it in Boston. They did it in Austin. The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, sits on 9.5 acres donated by the University of Massachusetts — but in 1976, 13 years after JFK was assassinated. The University of Texas Austin donated 30 acres for the Lyndon B. Johnson Library (okay, before he died).
Trustee Marcell Felipe even told the public they should be grateful — because according to Trump advisor Steve Witkoff, “Miami was lucky” to get chosen. Other cities would “donate the land and pay to build the library,” he claimed.
So, by that logic, MDC should feel honored to give the land away for free. Even tu abuela would call that gaslighting.
The trustees — five in person, two by phone — voted unanimously again to hand the land to the state’s Internal Improvement Trust Fund, which already approved giving it straight to Trump’s library foundation. MDC officials promise they’ll negotiate conditions later, maybe even get a revenue share someday, if something profit-making appears.
But once you give away prime Biscayne Boulevard real estate, that leverage is gone faster than a taxpayer dollar in Tallahassee.
The only requirement the state placed on Trump’s foundation? Start construction within five years.
No student impact analysis. No community benefits agreement. No financial return to the college. No transparency.
But hey, why start doing any of that now?
At least they got their redo vote. In Hialeah. At 8 a.m. With the board members’ minds already made up.

You can help get more independent, watchdog government reporting of our local government and political campaigns to our community with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Ladra thanks you for your support.

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Just when we thought the list of people running for a seat that doesn’t even have an election date yet was long enough, aquí vienen former Miami-Dade Commissioner Bruno Barreiro and onetime congressional candidate Gloria Romero Roses — business leader, community builder, assisted living maven — are now the newest contestants in the Florida House District 113 Hunger Games, er, race to fill Vicki Lopez’s suddenly-vacant seat now that she was appointed to the Miami-Dade District 5 seat by the county commission.
And we have two primary sweepstakes.
Remember when Ladra told you last week that the race had already gotten muy interesante with three candidates running: Antonio Javier “Tony” Diaz and Frank Lago, who will now battle with Barreiro in a Republican primary, and Democrat Justin Mendoza Routt, president of both the Historic Bayside Civic Association and the Miami-Dade Young Democrats, who is backed by the same machinery that put the former D5 Commissioner Eileen Higgins in office and is running her Miami mayoral campaign.
Romero Roses has now forced a Dem primary — and she’s bringing a 40-year résumé, an MBA, and a press release so polished it practically winks at you. Growing up in South Florida after coming from Bogotá and being raised by her single mom — a nurse who worked double shifts, so we checked all three political bio bingo squares right out the gate — Gloria says Miami is “at a crossroads.” And honestly, con la renta como está, who can argue?
Read related: Three wannabes are vying for House seat 113 — but there’s no election yet
She says working families and seniors are getting priced out while Tallahassee politicians are busy fighting over drag queens and pronouns. And she’s not entirely wrong. She’s running because Miami “deserves leadership that solves problems, not creates them.”
That’s una indirecta if Ladra ever heard one.
Her platform is a painfully familiar list of staples: Affordable housing, childcare, elder care, insurance… basically the full Miami survival kit.
Romero Roses says she wants to expand access to capital for housing, speed up project delivery, and roll out “smart growth,” which is the development buzzword of the day. She also calls childcare “economic infrastructure,” which Ladra actually agrees with — considering it costs almost as much as college tuition.
Then there’s her deeply personal Alzheimer’s story: nine years of caring for her mom, which led her to operate an assisted living facility and advocate in Tallahassee and D.C. Miami-Dade has the highest Alzheimer’s rate in the country, she notes, and she says she wants to create something called an “Elder’s Trust.” Ladra is not entirely sure what that means yet, but it sounds like something abuelo would approve of.
Insurance? Of course. Everybody running for anything in Florida in 2026 is required to mention insurance reform at least twice in every speech. Gloria says she’s seen how skyrocketing premiums are hurting families and small businesses and promises “data-driven, practical reforms.” Where have we heard that before?
She wraps it all up with a line about leadership you can trust, stability, affordability and a pep-rally “¡Pa’lante!” — which is a great slogan unless someone else in the race already bought the domain name.
Florida House District 113 encompassesKey Biscayne, the Roads, Brickell, Coconut Grove, Little Havana, and more. It’s an interesting mix of voter demographics.
In 2012, the Democrats pit Romero Roses against then Congressman King David “Nine Lives” Rivera. Ladra called her Annette Taddeo 2.0. Barreiro, meanwhile, had resigned his county commission seat in 2017 to run for congress and also lost. He also flirted with running against Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo. And last month, he submitted an application for the commission appointment, but was passed up.
Still, make no mistake: Barreiros’s jump into the GOP primary among two relatively unknowns is going to change the landscape. And Gloria’s entry shakes things up for Democrats who are hoping to flip the seat.
HD 113 was already a political game of musical chairs, with viable candidates jockeying for a district that still doesn’t have an election date. That officially makes it the hottest seat no one can sit in yet.

You can help get more independent, watchdog government reporting of our local government and political campaigns to our community with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Ladra thanks you for your support.

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Miami Beach Commission runoff candidate Monique Pardo Pope — yes, the same Monique whose family history Ladra still can’t believe is real — is now the subject of an official Florida Bar inquiry after documentarian and professional Miami trouble-stirrer Billy Corben accused her of lying about his legal record. And, folks, the Bar doesn’t just open files for fun. Only one in four complaints even get this far.
But apparently Pardo Pope’s mouth — or her typing fingers — have gone far enough that the Bar wants to take a closer look.
According to the letter Corben got this week, the Bar is looking into his complaint that the candidate intentionally lied about him after he revealed those now-infamous family details: that she is the daughter of serial killer Manuel Pope, a former Sweetwater cop who idolized Adolf Hitler, murdered nine people in the ‘80s, tattooed the family dog with a swastika, and was executed by the state via lethal injection.
Corben also resurfaced her old social media posts calling her dad her “hero.” She has since deleted them — but the internet is forever.
When the Miami New Times asked her about all that back in September, Pardo Pope fired back by claiming Corben had “lost a defamation case” because he “made a career of slinging mud.”
Except that never happened.
Read related: Miami Beach commission candidate is daughter of cop-turned-serial-killer
Corben — who, love him or hate him, has the Emmys and Murrows to back up his career — pointed out that the only defamation case he’s ever been involved in ended with his side winning a six-figure fee award under Florida’s anti-SLAPP statute. That’s the opposite of losing.
So he sent her a cease-and-desist letter. Because of course he did.
And two months later, she still hasn’t retracted her statement. Which is how we end up with a Bar complaint landing on her doorstep six days before her runoff election. Feliz Navidad.
Corben’s complaint quotes the Florida Bar’s own rules, including the parts that say lawyers should not engage in “dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation” and shouldn’t go around disparaging people with false claims.
Corben calls her words “unambiguously dishonest” and adds a law nerd burn — pointing out that a lawyer with more than a decade of practice should know better than to lie about the outcome of a case from her own judicial circuit.
Ouch.
Read related: Miami Beach commission runoff: Two women, one seat — and the city’s future
Now, Pardo Pope has until Dec. 10 — the day after Miami Beach voters choose whether to send her to the commission dais — to respond. Then Corben gets 10 days to rebut. Ladra suggests stocking up on popcorn.
Meanwhile, voters in Miami Beach’s Group 1 race to replace termed-out former Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, who lost a bid for mayor, have a choice between Pardo Pope, a Republican with deep pockets (a third of which are her own pockets), and Democrat Monica Matteo-Salinas, who actually finished ahead of her in the general with 23.2% of the vote to Pardo Pope’s 20.1%. Pardo Pope only squeaked into the runoff by less than a point over Brian Ehrlich.
In a week, voters will know if who they chose will be representing them while also juggling a Florida Bar investigation.

You can help get more independent, watchdog government reporting of our local government and political campaigns to our community with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Ladra thanks you for your support.

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