Lobbyist Ron Book, who secretly worked against the Miami-Dade Commission during the last session in Tallahassee — even though we pay him to work for us — by sneaking puppy mill language into not one but two failed legislative bills, could have lost his juicy contract Tuesday to lobby for the county in Tallahassee because he didn’t request a waiver as required. See? Lobbyists are allowed to work against taxpayers on an issue, as long as they get a waiver from the county first.
Even if that did make any sense at all, it seems like Book would rather pedir perdon que pedir permiso. He did not seek a waiver when he worked for the Petland chain of stores this past session and against any municipality’s ability to regulate the sale of puppies from puppy mill breeders that put profits before the animals’ welfare and needs. Aventura, Margate and Hollywood all have local ordinances banning puppy mill sales that would immediately be null and void. Miami-Dade doesn’t have one — yet, because Ladra was told that one of the commissioners is writing an ordinance as you read this.
Read related: Animal activists beat Ron Book, squash 2 puppy mill bills in Tallahassee
A rule is a rule. And other lobbyists have been let go because of conflicting interests, most recently Ballard Partners because of their representation of Uber in Tallahassee while the ride sharing company was still hammering out regulation details in the 305. Several speakers urged the commission to deny Book a waiver after the fact.
“Mr. Book has acted as some sort of double agent getting money from both sides of an issue. Usually double agents work in secret with opposing sides,” said Michael Rosenberg, co-founder of the Pets’ Trust Miami, an initiative that passed a non-binding referendum in 2012 to fund a massive low-cost spay and neuter operation throughout the county.
“Mr. Book found a willing legislator to insert a few sentences hidden in a bill of over a hundred pages, whereby tangible property sold in stores would be beyond the control of the county. The tangible property was really describing dogs and cats because the client Mr. Book represents was also paying him to make sure Dade County commissioners and commissioners across the state could not restrict animal sales in retail stores in their communities,” Rosenberg said, adding that Book should not only NOT be given a waiver but should also have to make up for his lapse in judgement by working on pro-puppy legislation.
Truth is, the mercenary, er, I mean lobbyist clearly crossed the conflict of interests line.
But Book was given an 11th hour reprieve Tuesday when the item was deferred at the request of Commission Chairman Esteban Bovo, who said he wanted Book to be present to defend himself before any action was taken. There’s no hurry, he said, because Book — who skipped the meeting to be with another client even though he knew he was on the agenda — can’t stab them in the back again until next year, at the earliest.
Maybe the other client Book was meeting with was Petland, you know, to plan their 2019 strategy.
But the real reason that Bovo gave him a reprieve is because the chairman is running for mayor in 2020 and Book is known as a prolific fundraiser who was able to get his own daughter elected to Senate. Surely, Bovo will hold this out as long as he can so that he can squeeze Book for as much mayoral matrix moolah as he can.
Lucky for us, we have Commissioner Rebeca Sosa holding Book’s feet to the fire. She said she wants him back before the commission sooner rather than later to resolve this. Hopefully, she will put it on the agenda for the very next meeting.
“They were already working in Tallahassee this year without asking this commission for a waiver. I have a big problem with that,” Sosa said. “Either they work for the county, or they work for someone else.
“They are not here today. Why? When they knew this was on the agenda?”
Because Book is used to getting his way, even when he is not in chambers. Because there’s always someone who wants to be mayor.

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Two sneaky attempts to stop the crack down on puppy mills have been thwarted, thanks mostly to animal rights activists who kept their eye on the bouncing ball and waged a campaign of complaints to get two amendments pulled from legislative bills this session.
And they took on one of the most powerful lobbyists in the state to do it.
It’s a testament to the power of grass roots organizing that the Pets’ Trust and other animal rights groups like the Animal Legal Defense Fund beat powerful Tallahassee lobbyist Ron Book — and perhaps something that we can apply to other issues, such as gun sense and charter schools.
“It was a victory for ‘we the people’ and a lesson in how our government is supposed to work,” Michael Rosenberg, one of the Pets’ Trust founders, told Ladra.
Related: Carlos Gimenez keeps rejecting voter-approved Pets’ Trust
Book represents Petland, a chain of pet stores — and the first result on your screen if you google “puppy mills Florida.” The Humane Society and other agencies have investigated the chain, which is the biggest national retail supplier of puppy mill dogs. There is one in Kendall. Basically, they resell puppies from USDA-licensed breeders that, activists have proven, put profits over the health and well-being of the dog, keeping hundreds of dogs in cramped and substandard conditions. Many die are kept in wire cages with urine and feces for days. Many die or have injuries and illnesses. The dogs that breed live in captivity their entire lives, with one purpose only: breed more puppies for profit. It’s a very sad existence.
Last year, the city of Miami passed an ordinance that prohibits the sale of any dogs that were bred in puppy mills, like in this photo right. Stores can sell pups from hobby breeders, who treat their animals like pets and only breed once or twice a year. Another 57 or 58 municipalities have similar laws include Hollywood, Hallandale Beach and Hillsborough County.
Book tried twice to get amendments into two different bills to basically void any local puppy mill ordinances like those. The first was a carefully disguised line in the Agriculture and Consumer Services department’s 300-page bill about oyster farming and seed labels. It didn’t even include the word animal or pet in it. Supporters contended it meant anything that could be bought or sold legally.
But animal activists saw right through it and it was removed.
Then, State Rep. Halsey Beshears (R-Monticello), right, tried to sneak it back in again Monday, filing an amendment to 160-page tax package to prohibit municipalities from restricting the sale of “taxable personal property” that could be legally sold. That would include dogs and cats. And it was caught again.
Monday afternoon, the Pets’ Trust sent the following email blast:
“Our legislative sessions ends this Friday. During these final days, lobbyists seeking to implement the agendas of their clients are doing some sneaky things. Mr. Ron Book is the lobbyist for puppy stores and is one of the top lobbyists in the state. He convinced Representative Beshears to support puppy stores and Mr. Beshears listened, adding an amendment  (two sentences in a 300-page bill) that stops communities from banning puppy stores. This is not the way our government should operate, with a powerful lobbyist dictating to a representative what he wants
How about what WE want!!!!? Please call Representative Beshears and urge him to reject that amendment and fight with us to stop puppy stores.
Then, call Senator Lauren Book, the daughter of Ron Book.  While Lauren fights to protect abused children, Ron Book leads the way to protect abusers of puppies. Call Senator Book and ask her to fight against this Bill, and to enlighten her father on the horrific puppy mills
CALL NOW!!!!
Please send to ten other people.”
Ladra thinks it was that last line that did it.
Signed by Pets’ Trust founders Rosenberg and Rita Schwartz, the email sent to more than 33,000 supporters included both lawmakers’ office numbers. Then, Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava forwarded it to her email list. The senators must have been deluged with calls.
Related: Animal shelter show hides truth about services, kill rate
The next day, an angry Ron Book emailed Rosenberg, calling the email blast he sent “trashy.” But Ladra doesn’t see anything trashy about it. It’s honest. Just plain matter of fact. And, guess what? It was effective. The amendment was pulled Tuesday evening.
Or we could say it was “trashed.”
Next email campaign should be to get Miami-Dade — which passed an ordinance in 2014 that forces stores to advertise the source of their puppies — to get more aggressive and outright ban the importation of any animals from puppy mills. Especially now that, as the Tampa Bay Times reported, the federal government is redacting the reports from the USDA investigators on these hellholes. What good is knowing the source if we can’t find out anything about their history?
Commissioner Levine Cava — who some may think forgot her promise to help voters make the Pets’ Trust initiative that passed with 65% become a reality — is working on a puppy mill ordinance, but may not have the support she needs.
Call your commissioner and tell them that this is a no brainer.
And to not let any lobbyist help write it up.
 

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It’s like he’s been backed into a corner.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez lied again last week and slandered, again, a pair of animal activists who worked hard to get the Pets’ Trust Initiative passed by 65% of the voters in 2012 and who are brave enough to keep fighting ever since for that vote to be respected.

Michael Rosenberg and Rita Schwartz certainly have been very active in politics since Gimenez first funded the Pets Trust initiative and then scratched it in 2013. They may get a little too excited sometimes. They certainly get creative — Ladra particularly loves this video with the chihuahua — and they certainly get passionate.

But they do not, ever, incite violence. In fact, their email blasts and protests seem exceedingly polite to a man who has repeatedly ignored these people while telling others that all Rosenberg and Schwartz want is the millions for themselves, a ludicrous and impossible claim since they would have absolutely no control over the county’s funds. Ladra has seen some of the many emails they send Gimenez gatekeeper Michael Hernandez to try to meet with the mayor or just set the record straight. They might be a tad bit sarcastic, but they are exceedingly polite. There’s no other way to describe their approach.

Happier times: Michael Rosenberg and Rita Schwartz talk and smile and take photos with Mayor Carlos Gimenez in 2013, when he said he was going to fund the voter-mandated no-kill initiative.

The mayor knows this. He knows that these two animal lovers do not incite violence. So when Gimenez outright makes that claim to a misguided Miami Herald reporter and then on TV to a Univision 23 cameraman, he is basically giving them a victory in court with their slander lawsuit.

There are three things one must establish to prove slander: The source must know he or she is spreading a lie. Check. He must have an intent to hurt or discredit the subject of the lie. Check. And the lie causes the subject’s reputation to be tarnished. Check.

Because some people might believe him.

But that will be the hardest part to prove. Because most people realize that this is Cry Wolf Gimenez’s desperate attempt to keep his job and maybe even an acknowledgement that the 65% of the people who voted for the Pets’ Trust knew what they were voting for and will prove it to Gimenez by voting him out of office Nov. 8. He knows that Mike and Rita pull votes. He knows that the Pets’ Trust supporters are one of the reasons he is facing a runoff in the first place. He knows that he is really hated by thousands of animal lovers who may have even voted for him in 2011 and 2012 but now feel he is the devil himself and hold him personally responsible for the continued killing of thousands of dogs and cats at the county shelter.

Many of these people do comment on Facebook and in stories in the Miami Herald. Many of these comments are entirely too personal and passionate. Some people say they want him to suffer what the animals have suffered. They call him an asshole and other names. They are understandably frustrated by his disrespect of their votes and the continued and, perhaps, even worsening conditions for animals in Miami-Dade.

I hadn’t seen any death threats,  however, until the Herald story about the single one they quoted.

“Better watch yourself in Miami i don’t have much to lose, ever see what s person that nothing to lose is capable of?? i WILL kill you if not ill start with your family and loved ones,” wrote someone calling himself “nakmuaythai.” Turns out his name is Daniel Bowes and he lives in Ottowa. And Rosenberg has never heard of him.

“Daniel who,” Rosenberg asked.

What’s more, a Miami-Dade police spokesman told the Herald that detectives do not consider the posting a “viable threat” (they were probably pissing in their pants from the laughter) but the investigation is “nevertheless ongoing.” Really? With our limited police resources? Because this is what the mayor considers a police priority?

Michael Rosenberg spent three days in a cage to call attention to the plight of our stray animals.

For the mayor to speculate that the threat was at the direction of Rosenberg and Schwarz is just ludicrous. For him to speculate out loud is dangerous. There are many people (Ralph Garcia Toledo et al) who stand to lose millions of dollars if Gimenez is not re-elected. They might go to great lengths to silence his detractors — who have now been singled out by name.

“I’m calling them out,” Gimenez told the Herald.

“The people responsible are Michael Rosenberg and Rita Schwartz,” he said in his choppy Spanish. “They have led a campaign called ABC, Anybody But Carlos, and that is part of their campaign, pretty dirty and with lies.”

Let’s forget for a minute that the ABC campaign you see on bus benches throughout the county has been paid for by the Dade PBA. Ladra doesn’t think she has ever seen any public official — let alone the mayor of the fourth largest county in the country — talk like that publicly about a couple of civilian activists. And for what? He knows that Mike and Rita have no ties to that man in Ottawa. But he’s mad at them and, boy, there is hell to pay for going against him.

In fact, Ladra wouldn’t be surprised if this story was pitched by someone on the Gimenez camp. Because we certainly have seen similarly hateful and vitriolic comments on the Facebook posts of stories about Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump or Marco Rubio or David Rivera or Rick Scott. Especially Rick Scott. Why was the story just about Gimenez? Perhaps because it was pitched by someone on the Gimenez campaign in order to discredit a group that was hurting his re-election chances?’

Or was it to put a bull’s eye on Mike’s and Rita’s backs?

Rosenberg fears for himself and his family. He has gotten a police watch order on his home. They obviously think it’s a more viable threat than the comment against the mayor.

He also wants an apology from the mayor. He should get one, but he won’t. Gimenez is so arrogant that he is literally blind to the fact that he is wrong more often than he is right. In this case, he knew he was lying to begin with. It matters nothing because it’s all about perception.

It’s too bad that David Ovalle or some other Herald reporter doesn’t spend as much time as they did stringing together the worse comments they could find to actually investigate the claims of the animal activists — that the death count is only down because the county has changed the way it counts euthanized cats and dogs, that the increases in animal services funding has mostly gone to salaries and benefits, not spay and neutering programs.

There is still time to actually do a fact check on Gimenez with this, David. Wouldn’t that be more challenging? It’s a better story.

Meanwhile, Ladra is going to make a complaint about some commenter herself. We have taken to moderating reader comments here on Political Cortadito in recent weeks, since some people are (or one person specifically is) trying to use my space to malign others and myself without any context and to make threats. I have been told that I deserve to be “trashed,” whatever that means. And I have received multiple threats from the same source about shutting the website down. I haven’t taken them seriously but people say that I should and, in light of this story, perhaps they are right. Because some of Ladra’s friends and loyal readers say the commenter — who sometimes goes by the name of Got-A-Point and sometimes other names but with the same IP address — is Gimenez spokesman Mike Hernandez. Others say he is the mayor’s son, CJ Gimenez.

So let’s find out. Ladra will print out some of those comments and see if the Miami-Dade Police Department can’t find out who the commenter is.

But I am willing to bet that whoever it is is far more directly connected to Carlos Gimenez than some loudmouth in Ottowa is to Mike and Rita of the Pets’ Trust.

The following is a letter written to one of the Miami Herald editorial board members by Michael Rosenberg and Rita Schwartz, co-founders of  the Pets’ Trust, after the paper’s Facebook live interview of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez. With their permission, Political Cortadito is publishing it as an open letter to the entire editorial board.

“I don’t know if you and your fellow board members have watched the House Of Cards with Kevin Spacey, but if not….your interview with Carlos Gimenez was like an extension of that show, particularly when he spoke about the Pets’ Trust.  I have shared the Herald editorial video with several dozen people and they all commented on how visibly tense or annoyed he became when the words Pets’ Trust was brought up.

The Mayor loves to say about us “They just want to increase taxes and I’m not going to do it”.  He says that over and over no matter where he is (House of Cards!).  In 2012 when we first went to the Mayor and Commissioners about the idea of saving our animals, the economy was sinking, and there was no money. The only way to get the additional funds was to ask the community if they would agree to reach into their pockets to invest in our animals. The people of Miami Dade County said yes.  In 2014, 2015, and 2016 there was no need to ask for a tax hike. The property tax dollars were pouring in.   In 2015 over 250 Pets’ Trust supporters went to the County Commission meeting and 25 people spoke. NOT ONE ASKED FOR A TAX HIKE. They all said use the surplus to honor the vote. Watching the Mayor give you that same political answer, “they want to increase taxes,” is politics at its worse. He uses those words to dismiss the will of the people, rather than finding a way to honor the will of the people. He should not be our Mayor…EVER AGAIN!

During the interview he stated, “What do those Pets’ Trust people want?” I suppose you must believe he has been calling us day and night to find out that answer (House of Cards!). We have tried to meet with him for TWO YEARS! HE refuses to meet with us because facing the truth from those telling the truth is not something that is part of his make-up. He should be using us as an example of how democracy works. Of how people come together for a common cause. Rather, he denounces us publicly over and over.

How many more times do we have to hear him say and imply that that we are in it for the money!?!? He knows full well how those funds would be handled.

These slanderous charges are part of our lawsuit against him. The Mayor continues to tell the public that we are getting the money (House of Cards!).

We have written his office over and over and over demanding he stop saying this, or prove it. But, he doesn’t have to stop, and this shows us more than anything what kind of person and Mayor he is. When we hear this, we always ask for the proof.  What doesn’t exist can’t be found, but the Mayor keeps saying it. The bully pulpit is aptly named in this case!

You asked him if there was a personality clash. He denied it, but there most certainly is. The Mayor does not like to be challenged with persistence, determination and facts. Can you imagine the atmosphere he has created among the people that work for him, who wouldn’t dare challenge him for fear of losing their jobs? I once asked a police major how many more officers she needed in her district. She would not answer for fear that it would get back to the Mayor. Can you imagine how much better our County could be if we had a leader that respected his employees….and respected the voters, a mayor that implemented the will of the people. Well we don’t have that. We have a government of fear.

Soon you will make an endorsement. Your editorials in the past two years have practically BEGGED people from the community to run for office so fresh ideas could re-energize our thinking, our way of doing things. Take a look at your endorsements these past two years. Sometimes new people are simply not qualified and you endorse the same old same old….but sometimes new blood stands out with character ideas so refreshing that it would be a sin to not have them as our leaders.

The people of the Pets’ Trust have watched Carlos Gimenez up front and personal for four years. He lied to us. He slandered us. He missed an incredible opportunity of using our example to inspire people to become involved.

If the Miami Herald were to endorse a person like that, it would suggest business as usual is okay, and that the change you speak of so often and eloquently  for our community, will be delayed again.

In other words, the House of Cards continues to grow, and the people grow more and more distant from participating in government.  Forty years of public service is enough. We need new and younger people with bold ideas.

I read that in the Miami Herald.

Michael Rosenberg and Rita Schwartz, co founders of the Pets’ Trust.

Michael Rosenberg spent time in a cage to call attention to the plight of our animals.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez will lead another dog and pony show today. Or should we call it a dog and cat show?

The opening of the new animal services shelter in Doral is 12 years late, since voters approved it in 2004, but comes less than two months before absentee ballots drop in a hotly contested mayoral race where he is sliding. That is not a coincidence.

It’s also not a solution.

Sure, it’s a little more than a bandaid. This new shelter will be a cleaner facility with newer equipment and space for 100 more dogs, which Ladra bets will fill up in the first week. The dogs will have air conditioning. Woo hoo. But it’s mostly a shiny, new distraction to appease the animal advocate community and another cutie pie puppy photo op for Gimenez et al.

He won’t mention the 15 dogs and 12 cats that were killed in two days last week so they wouldn’t take up room in the new shelter. The dogs had names like Simba and Bruno and Zeus, evidence of a better life once. They were too old or too sick or too ugly to be transported to the new shelter.

Or maybe the county didn’t want to mess up the new “killing room.” How much you wanna bet that’s not included in today’s VIP tour?

Will it take 12 years for the 2012 people’s vote to be respected? Sure, the Pets’ Trust Initiative ballot question was non-binding, a straw ballot. But if 65% of your constituency votes for something, don’t you think you ought to do it? Gimenez has continued to thumb his nose at the 483,491 people who voted for the dedicated funding to a massive spay and neuter program that would bring the county to a no-kill status. Even though that is more than the number of people who have voted for Gimenez. Ever. In all his elections.*

Is that it? Is it jealousy, bruh?

That’s the only reason Ladra can think of that makes any sense as to why he continues to ignore the people’s will, the people’s freaking mandate. That vote was to fund a $20-million plan that would focus on massive spay and neuter programs in retrofitted low-cost neighborhood clinics with an extra $15 a year or so in taxes. The question was exactly as such:

Would you be in favor of the County Commission increasing the countywide general fund millage by 0.1079 mills and applying the additional ad valorem tax revenues generated thereby to fund improved animal services, including:

• Decreasing the killing of adoptable dogs and cats (historically approximately 20,000 annually);

• Reducing stray cat populations (currently approximately 400,000 cats); and

• Funding free and low-cost spay/neuter programs, low-cost veterinary care programs, and responsible pet ownership educational programs?

Carlos Gimenez says we didn’t know what we were voting for. Ladra would argue that the 126,525 people who voted for Gimenez in 2012 didn’t know what they were voting for. That’s much more reasonable.

A dog is visibly nervous, perhaps he senses the other dead animals in the room, as he awaits his fate at the Miami-Dade animal shelter “killing room”

Meanwhile, he has increased the funding and is spending almost as much as the Pets’ Trust plan would have spent, but without making a dent in the stray population. The first year, he increased the funding from $10 million to $14 million for animal services. The next year it went up to $16 million and last year it went up again to $17 million. That is close to the $20 million that was needed in the Pets’ Trust plan, which was written over months and with the participation of our Animal Services Department director and several animal rescue groups and organizations. But instead of going to low-cost spay and neuter services that would lower and control our stray population, Carlos Gimenez hired more veterinarians and technicians at the shelter. The bulk of that money is going to staff salaries and benefits, not to spay and neuter services, which is the only way to make a dent in the stray population control.

About $300,000 went to a consortium of local veterinarians — who fought the Pets’ Trust plan tooth and nail — to do spay and neutering. About 5,000 operations were performed over two years and the money is gone. The Pets’ Trust plan says we need between 100,000 and 125,000 surgeries a year to cut down on the stray population.

And the best thing about it is that the budgeting would have decreased over time. Instead of going up and up like it is now, the budget would be decreasing because fewer surgeries would be needed and fewer animals would be killed.

The numbers the county is reporting from Animal Services now on the 90 percent save rate are a fraud. We have lower kill rates only because they take in fewer dogs and cats. They ship some of what they do take in to other states where we don’t know what happens. They turn people away at the gates. They tell callers to go to Broward. They don’t count owner surrenders if they can convince the owner to euthanize. They refuse to take in strays and abandoned dogs called in by residents.

One drive around the Redland with the activists who go out every evening to feed the strays dumped and abandoned there will prove to anyone that Animal Services is not doing its job (more on that later). A group from Orlando came in one day a few months ago and rescued 54 dogs. In one day. They took them back to Orlando in a caravan of 14 vehicles. You know that if you go out in one day and find 54 stray and abandoned dogs in a 12-hour period that Miami-Dade Animal Services isn’t doing its job.

Carlos Gimenez isn’t doing his job either. He is not representing the people who voted him into office. He just likes to cut ribbons a couple of months before his re-election.

The Pets’ Trust people — now organized as the Animal Power Party political action committee — will have a protest at 10:30 a.m. today in front of the new shelter ribbon cutting, 3599 NW 79 Ave. They ask that protesters wear red in solidarity. The protest has become more about democracy and respecting the people’s vote than even animal welfare.

*Gimenez got 10,844 votes to become District 7 commissioner in 2004, was elected sans opposition in 2008, then got 55,180 votes in the post recall free-for-all of 2011 and 102,445 in the runoff against Julio Robaina, and finally 126,525 votes in 2012 against former Commission Chairman Joe Martinez for a grand total of 293,994 votes. In 2012, a total of 483,491 people voted for the Pets’ Trust.

Disclaimer: Ladra’s alter ego, Elaine de Valle, is working with #TeamRaquel to get Raquel Regalado elected mayor instead of this clown we have now. This blog post, however, is not part of her work product. This is what Ladra does and has done since 2010. This blog has been Carlos Gimenez biggest critic since he was involved in voter fraud in the 2012 election. We will continue to highlight these stories as long as the mainstream media does not. And the fact that Ladra is helping Raquel Regalado does not make any of the aforementioned false. It is all still true.