Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez is termed out and cannot run for another term. So says a lawsuit filed Monday by a former mayor that seeks to keep him off the ballot this November.

Hernandez was council president and automatically became the mayor when former Mayor Julio Robaina resigned  in May 2011 to run for Miami-Dade mayor. The city charter says he is to serve the remainder of that term until a special election is called to fill the vacancy. That happened in November of 2011, when voters chose Hernandez over both former Mayor Raul Martinez and former Sen. Rudy Garcia.

Because Robaina won that term in 2009, Hernandez had to run for re-election again two years later in 2013. He won again, handily, getting 81 percent against former Mayor Julio “The Other” Martinez and Juan Santana.

The lawsuit filed Monday by attorney Jose “Pepe” Herrera on behalf of Julio Martinez says the city charter, which states “no person shall serve as mayor for more than two consecutive terms.” It doesn’t say two “full” terms, the lawsuit says. It doesn’t say two whole terms. In fact, it doesn’t have any adjectives at all. Just two conservative terms. Which Hernandez has served.

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“Simply put, a term is a term, and absent any durational adjective, section 2.01 of the city charter must be construed to its plain meaning and grammatical syntax,” the lawsuit states, adding that Hernandez’s argument that a partial term cannot be counted could be intentionally manipulated to “avoid the intent of the electorate” that passed term limits in 1996 and who didn’t include the word “full” when describing the two terms.

That would indicate that Hernandez, who launched his re-election campaign in March, can’t run again.

The lawsuit was filed against Hernandez, Hilaeah City Clerk Marbelys Rubio-Fatjo and Miami-Dade Elections Supervisor Christina White. There will be a press conference Tuesday morning at Herrera’s office, 2350 Coral Way, Suite 201. Herrera is representing Julio Martinez pro-bono. “I like protecting the public interest and dislike bullies. It’s why I went to law school,” Herrera told Ladra.

Looks to Ladra like he’s got a case. Could we finally get rid of Hernandez based on a technicality?

“He paid Grodnick, but he can’t pay me off,” said former Mayor Julio “The Other” Martinez (photographed), referring to former Hialeah City Attorney William Grodnick, who apparenty provided an opinion to the mayor before he retired some months ago that says he does have the right to run again.

Funny enough, Grodnick had the exact opposite opinion in 2008 when then-Councilman Esteban Bovo wanted to run for a fourth term. Bovo, who was elected to fill out the term vacated by the indicted former Councilwoman Maria Rovira in 1999, had not served three full terms — the limit in the charter — but only two and a half. Grodnick told Bovo back then that he could not run again.

Read related story: Carlos Hernandez lies again — under oath this time

“He contradicted himself.  But when you are three months away from retirement and Carlos tells him to do something… it’s just n opinion. A city attorney can do that and be wrong,” Martinez told Ladra. “You can’t buy me off. Now, we are going to a real judge.”

Martinez, bless his soul, doesn’t want to run for office. “No, I’m not going to run for shit. I just don’t want him to run,” he said, pardoning his own French. “We in Hialeah voted for our mayors to be limited in office to eight years. Now he is going to be there for 11? No. I don’t think so.”

Which of these ballot bandidos will run for Hialeah mayor if Carlos Hernandez can’t?

While Martinez won’t run himself, he has plenty of ideas for who might be interested in an open seat once Hernandez is barred by a court from the ballot: Bovo himself, though Ladra thinks he is eyeing the county mayor’s seat, Sen. Rene Garcia, who is termed out, Council President Luis Gonzalez — who, las malas lenguas say, got peeved that Hernandez wasn’t giving him the seat, as promised — and even Councilwoman Isis “Gavelgirl” Garcia-Martinez, who was on the outs with Hernandez at the end of last year but seems to have patched things up because she won’t return anyone’s calls.

Ladra hears former State Rep. Eddy Gonzalez, who has threatened to run for Hialeah mayor like the boy who cried wolf, is making too much money in the private sector, lobbying and “consulting” in government affairs.

Someone has to be thinking about it already. Herrera, who is on a roll recently, has a case here and Hernandez is due some cosmic karma.

Our only fear is that he would run for county commission or — dare I say it? — senate. God help Hialeah.

Gathering photos of our electeds from social media sites to share with you, dear readers, is time consuming and laborious and not all that personally fulfilling, which is why Ladra stopped doing it months ago.

But this week marks a special ocassion. We had a few South Florida politicos in D.C. for the inauguration festivities surrounding our new President Donald Trump. It’s a historic moment. And these electeds — especially State Rep. Jose Felix “Selfie King” Diaz — made it easy for me. Diaz is so proficient on twitter one has to wonder where he finds the time to legislate.

So here are some of my favorite photos from this week’s mayhem in the capitol. The first five are courtesy of the Selfie King himself, who looks like he had a ball. Or two. Or three. And an actual run-in with the POTUS, who Diaz said was the first person to ever fire him. Did he yell “You’re fired!”? We need more of this story, State rep.

And with our new Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson.

And with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

And with Congressman Matt Gaetz.

And with State Rep. Carlos Trujillo, who is being considered for an ambassadorship.

That was at the Florida Ball, which was also attended by Miami-Dade Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz, who unfortunately did not post photos, and Miami-Dade Commmission Chairman Esteban Bovo and State Sen. Rene Garcia, who did.

Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen may not have supported Trump’s campaign at first, but she fell in line and did not boycott the inauguration. I don’t know about Carlos Curbelo because he has me blocked on social media. But IRL tweeted several pictures, including this one “enjoying bipartisan representation” with Congressman Ted Deutch (D-Boca Raton/Margate)

Doral Councilwoman Ana Maria Rodriguez enjoyed the nice D.C. weather with Republican superwoman Marili Cancio. Love that tree behind them.

Former Doral Councilwoman Bettina Rodriguez-Aguilera posted several photos of herself and her friends on Facebook. Some during the day getting to and at the actual inauguration. And then later at a reception and at the Freedom Ball. Nice gown, chica!

Despite having Democratic opponents in a Hillary presidential year, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Florida are endorsing two Republican incumbents in this year’s election: Sens. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla and Anitere Flores.

They’ve also endorsed Sen. Rene Garcia, but that’s different. Garcia has no opponent. Miguel DLP and Flores, however, are running in hotly contested districts against challengers supported by the Florida Democratic Party in a rush to win seats this year.

And the three GOP senators are the only Republicans AFSCME endorses in a sea of Democrats.

AFSCME is Florida’s fastest growing union, which is part of a 1.6 million member union that advocates for fairness in the workplace, excellence in public services and prosperity and opportunity for all working families. And like most unions, it typically backs the blue ticket.

But they have broken from the trend for these three.

Why?

“Our wages, benefits, working conditions, health and safety, and even whether we have jobs at all, are in the hands of officials who influence our future,” said Willie Pouncy Jr., AFSCME Florida Region 3 PEOPLE Chair. “After reviewing where Senator Flores stands on the issues important to our state and to the members who live or work in her district, we believe she is the best choice in 2016 for our families, our communities and those we serve.”

And they are not alone. In the case of Flores, who helped kill a law that would have scrapped the county’s wage-theft protection program, she also has the endorsement of the Florida Professional Firefighters Association and every elected official in Homestead, all but one Democrats. Diaz de la Portilla regularly enjoys the support of police and firefighter unions.

“I have a proven track record of effectively fighting for working men and women in our community,” the eldest of the DLP brothers told Ladra.

Said Flores: “During my time in office, I have advocated for a stronger economy, raising incomes and more affordable healthcare benefits for hardworking families— matters important to all Floridians.”

So who is Andrew Korge, who is running against Flores, and State Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez, who is running against DLP going to get?