It’s been two weeks since Cathy Swanson Rivenbark, officially and reluctantly resigned as city manager in Coral Gables in the light of major commission resistance to her battle with the police chief and insistence that her No. 2 keep his status as the highest ranking cop in the city.
In an ironic twist, Assistant City Manager Frank Fernandez — who many believe is the cause of all the anguish with his sworn status and public safety domain — seems to be sticking around. Fernandez is still a top city administrator, though he is no longer overseeing public safety. The police and fire chiefs report directly to interim City Manager Peter Iglesias, who has made it very clear that Chief Ed Hudak is the top sworn officer in the city.
Everything is happening quietly and quickly, so as to not get any more negative attention that the city leaders hate so much. But, although it is not on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting, some of the details of the new administrative structure — and hints about the future — may come up anyway. An ENews blast sent Sept. 19 said “The City Commission will discuss the process for hiring a new City Manager at the next Commission Meeting scheduled for September 25.”
Read related: Coral Gables Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark quits job in battle with chief
Ladra’s sources said they expect the mayor to bring it up in his comments. And word is Iglesias will be made acting manager for the foreseeable future, perhaps forever.
Neither Mayor Raul Valdes Fauli nor Commissioner Mike Mena, who have re-election bids six months from now, want to have the whole city manager mess in the public eye with a national search at campaign time. Las malas lenguas say they want to put it off ’til after the April election because they don’t want it to become a campaign issue.
Ladra says too late!
But further than that, there are rampant rumors that Iglesias already has the job permanently. Even while residents and business leaders demand a true national search that is not a total joke like the last one.
Commissioner Vince Lago told Ladra in a text message that he was in no hurry to make another change.
“I am interested in giving Peter a few months to acclimate and show his ability,” Lago wrote. “The issues with Frank are still being ironed out. They are reviewing his job responsibilities and seeing how he can continue to serve in a limited capacity in regards to public safety.”
Ladra heard Fernandez doesn’t even have an office at the police station anymore. Nobody saw him there Monday.
But is he still going to wear a uniform? Is he still gonna carry a gun?
Read related: Coral Gables leaders to discuss police structure; or will it be more theater?
And there is still the issue of human resources, which he also oversaw. If he can still hire and fire police personnel and force Hudak to work with people that he would have passed on, it’s still a problem. That’s something that maybe should be discussed. Is the new Internal Affairs major who was hired despite Hudak wanting someone else going to stay on as well?
And if Fernandez is not overseeing public safety, which — as he and Swanson-Rivenbark liked to stress — is his wheelhouse, then what the hell is he going to be doing? Historic preservation? Parks and Rec?
Iglesias, photographed here taking his seat on the first day of his new job Sept. 11, was hired away from the city of Miami in 2016 by Swanson-Rivenbark to oversee Public Works, Development Services, Parking, Historical Resources and Cultural Arts, Economic Development, and Community Recreation. Some think he’s part of a Bermuda triangle with Fernandez and Cathy but he’s made it clear to commissioners he’s his own man.
Sources say he’s a very capable and straightforward guy and, according to the city, he still makes $179,263.34 a year. No raise. Not yet anyway.
But he’s an engineer, a scientist, a geek of sorts. He’s not a generalist or a deal maker. And some are gonna say he’s not typical city manager material.
Maybe that’s a good thing.
According to the separation agreement signed with the city, Swanson gets a severance of 20 weeks at $3,942 a week for $78,840 and maybe another week if she can sell her accrued sick time. She also gets a 401K valued at $196,458 after the city contributed $51,250 a year for almost four years. But she must give up her car, her medical insurance and her life insurance.
It seems like the bronze version of Pat Salerno‘s golden parachute.
Read related: Pat Salerno upped his retirement benefit before he left
Swanson-Rivenbark wasn’t at the Sept. 11 meeting where her resignation was accepted unanimously. She wanted to be. Sources say an 11th hour effort to list her laurels and make a case for herself was thwarted. So Swanson-Rivenbark put it on paper, in a three page resignation letter with a five page addendum of her proclaimed achievements. To no avail.
Like Ladra said, the decision was unanimous. Even Commissioner Pat Keon, her most stalwart defender, had given up by then. Mounting missteps in the manager’s personal vendetta battle against the popular police chief had already disillusioned the other four at varying degrees. The key was Commissioner Mena, who woke up from a coma just in time to maybe ward off a legit challenge to his seat next year, which is why he wants, shhh… be quiet.
Who? What?
Exactly.
Move along now. Nothing has happened here.

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DEVELOPING STORY: After a series of major missteps, a protracted and seemingly personal battle with the popular police and several threats, both public and private, to quit her job, Coral Gables City Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark resigned Monday after almost four years at the helm of the City Beautiful.
Police Chief Ed Hudak wins.
The big question on everyone’s lips is: Does Cathy take Assistant City Manager Frank Fernandez with her?
Probably. You can’t be the city manager and the top sworn police officer in the city, which Fernandez is — the crux of a lot of the city’s problems. Las malas lenguas say that Assistant City Manager Peter Iglesias — who may or may not have resigned previously — will be named interim until a replacement is found.
The resignation comes one day before the next commission meeting and two weeks after the last one, in which Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli basically called Swanson Rivenbark a liar.
The discussion item was Commissioner Mike Mena‘s, who was reporting on the ongoing “talks between the city manager and the police chief,” which is better described as mandatory crisis counseling with commissioners. It’s come up in several commission meetings and was likely to come up again on Tuesday.
But Commissioner Vince Lago told Ladra Monday that he would not let it become a drawn out swan song. “It is time to move forward and concentrate on Coral Gables businesses and its residents,” Lago said. “The separation agreement hasn’t been signed. But we expect to name an interim city manager at tomorrow’s meeting.”
As Ladra writes this on Monday afternoon, the ink is not even dry on Swanson-Rivenbark’s resignation and exit package, which may not be finalized until Monday evening. More details to come as story develops.
Swanson came back to Coral Gables in 2015 after Pat Salerno resigned abruptly, rather than face questioning about lies he told the commission. She immediately started to make changes, hiring her  people from Hollywood, including Fernandez, who she put in charge of public safety.
 
 

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The showdown that some people thought was gonna happen two weeks ago in Coral Gables City Hall over the city manager’s handling of the police chief may come Tuesday when commissioners finally talk about the strange structure that has an assistant city manager act as the de facto head of the police department.
Well, wait a minute. Nevermind. It might not happen at all.
Seems that the original item to discuss the administrative structure — which has been fueling if not directly responsible for serious issues from vacancies to morale — has been changed at the last minute. Now the mayor wants to discuss “constructive talks underway between the city Manager’s Office and Police Chief.”
Oh, really? You don’t say.
Maybe Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli is satisfied that the Fraternal Order of Police is now going to choose the investigative agency or investigator who looks into the “anonymous complaint” (read: trash job) against Chief Ed Hudak for dropping by, after being invited, to a pool party thrown for female officers. But this consolation prize is not enough.
The Coral Gables FOP is only getting this opportunity to find a truly independent investigator — and they’re going to suggest three options they are okay with — only after it was revealed right here on Political Cortadito that City Manager Cathy Swanson Rivenbark had tried to manipulate an investigation by the same agency once before. Emails obtained by Ladra show that Swanson tried to whitewash a background investigation that was done before the hiring of Assistant City Manager Frank Fernandez, who s also the “director of public safety.” She asked the investigator to ignore and not seek any information from the Broward PBA because it would shed some negative light on Fernandez, who she apparently had already decided she was going to hire no matter what. What it means is that she wanted the information that she already knew existed off the reports that commissioners would get.
Wait a minute. Again? Isn’t this the kind of thing that did former City Manager Pat Salerno in? And how can anyone know when the city manager is telling the truth? Ladra would suggest you can’t. Swanson cannot be trusted. This is not the only reason why.
She already orchestrated a massive cover up when she put Maj. Teresa Molina on paid leave until she retired after the police officer was caught spying on citizens and electeds during a commission meeting, taking cellphone pics of text messages over Maria Cruz‘s shoulder. Everybody knows that Molina was doing this for someone, not for her own health and pleasure, but there was never an investigation into that and, instead, the major was given what amounts to a paid vacation for her silence.
She then paid a $50,000 penalty fee to suspend a study in progress that the city commission had requested on the impact of recent and proposed development on the U.S.1 corridor, She did this on her own without seeking the commission’s approval.
She’s hired a number of cronies, some with six figure salaries for positions that didn’t exist before she got to the City Beautiful (more on that later).
And Ladra will bet that she knows more than she lets on about the “anonymous complaint,” which was really a planted precursor meant to trigger an unnecessary investigation meant to provide the city manager with fodder to fire the chief. When that didn’t pan out, after her independent inquiry cleared Hudak of any wrongdoing, the city manager stretched and misconstrued the investigator’s words to issue an obviously gratuitous and retaliatory reprimand — more than 10 years in the making — which she was forced to rescind two weeks later.
If not then why go to such extents to keep the investigation into the “anonymous complaint” from happening?
Swanson is a good actress and she is also a good producer. At the last meeting, a citizen who spoke seemingly spontaneously and of his own accord about not needing an independent investigation into the “anonymous complaint” — and, indeed, trying to discourage the city from pursuing it — seems to have done so at her request.
Emails obtained by Cruz show that attorney Terence Connor — who also, by the way, gave Commissioner Pat Keon $100 in her last election — may have gotten a call from someone in the city administration inviting him to come to the meeting.
The attorney had previously written an email to Keon in November saying that it would be inappropriate to end the investigation that was started by the “anonymous complaint” midstream. That email was apparently forwarded to Swanson, who then forwarded it to Raquel Elejabarrieta with one line from her. “You should drop him a note.” The email was sent at 10:18 p.m. the night of April 24 — after residents showed up at City Hall to support Hudak and, in many cases, trash her.
Hmmm. You should drop him a note.
Valdes-Fauli and other commissioners — and Ladra mean Vince Lago, because we know Mike Mena is a useless empty suit who won’t do anything — should ask Swanson what did she mean by that?
They should also instruct her to go back to the administrative structure that existed before she came to the city, where the police chief is the police chief and reports to the city manager and police officers don’t feel like they have two different bosses. Hudak needs to be able to be chief and control the department and be listed as the head of the agency at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, especially Internal Affairs, where Fernandez hired someone against the chief’s will.
And Fernandez should go with Swanson — they seem to be a package deal — and the city should look for a new city manager they can trust.
And maybe they need to add the Terence Connor emails to the scope of the investigation of the “anonymous complaint.” Ladra would seek his phone records.

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The Coral Gables City Commission is poised to approve a mostly symbolic ban on the sale of assault weapons — there are no gun stores in the City Beautiful — even though state law prohibits cities from enacting gun restrictions and they could be removed from office.
Let’s keep our trigger fingers crossed.
Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli sponsored the measure, which is on the agenda as a first reading, in the wake of the Parkland school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High last month, where 14 students and three educators were gunned down by a 19-year-old with an AR-15. On Feb. 27, almost two weeks to the day, Valdes-Fauli led the commission in a 4-0 vote (Commissioner Vince Lago had left early, wink wink) to instruct a very unwilling city attorney to write the ordinance with the ban and bring it back to them.
This is pretty much campaign theater for a mayor who has already decided he wants another term next year. Valdes-Fauli has gotten quite a bit of ink and air time from this gimmick, so of course he’s going to ignore City Attorney Miriam Ramos’ warnings about this being an invalid act and the potential consequences — fines of up to $5,000 and removal from office.
Valdes-Fauli told any reporter who gave him a minute that he would gladly pay the price. “If that helps prevent the death of one of Coral Gables’ children, I would happily pay it,” he was quoted as saying in the Miami Herald.
Except it won’t save anyone’s life. Because, as we said in the first sentence, there is no gun store in Coral Gables. So, even if the law passed and remained valid, someone could buy an AR-15 in Coconut Grove and bring it to Miracle Mile. And, also, if he is removed from office it will likely be because the ordinance is illegal. So he’s done nothing.
Jack Thompson, a Gables resident and City Hall pain in the trolley, says that the mayor and his cohorts who vote yes on this must be removed from office by the governor. That it’s not a matter of maybe. That it’s not a choice.
“Should this renegade Coral Gables Commission actually pass its ordinance Tuesday, which calls for violating state law, please proceed with summarily removing all those voting to do so from their offices,” Thompson wrote over the weekend in a letter to Gov. Rick Scott. “The statute in question MANDATES their removal. It does not give you, Governor Scott, the option not to remove them, as the operative word in the removal statute is ‘shall,’ the most powerful command verb in the English language.”
Oh, please let him be right. Everybody but Lago, who has apparently told people he will vote against the ordinance Tuesday, is a waste of space up there anyway. Let’s clean house. Voters need a do over, too.
That’s not to say that Ladra isn’t for a statewide ban on assault weapons. But the way to do it is a binding referendum question on the ballot, which some people are trying to get for the 2020 election. Ladra would like to see it on this year’s ballot, while the momentum is there. This is what the city of Coral Gables should be doing. Pressuring their legislators in Tallahassee and Washington D.C. to pass a wider ban. Because what good is a ban in Coral Gables if some nut can cross the street and get an AR-15 in West Miami or Coconut Grove.
That is the weapon that Nikolas Cruz used to kill 17 people on Feb. 14. It was purchased in a Coral Springs strip mall. Yet, you don’t see Coral Springs Mayor Skip Campbell, whose community is right next to Parkland, moving to pass an illegal ban that would mean nada. Instead, he wants to collect petitions to put it on the 2020 ballot and let voters do what our Republican legislators won’t.
Because the desire to ban these weapons of war and high-capacity magazines is very real. A Quinnipiac University poll done the week after the Broward school shooting, 67% of the respondents said they were in favor of a nationwide ban on the sale of assault weapons.
But what Valdes-Fauli and his yes people are doing is not so real. It’s theater. It’s a PR stunt to make them look good because gun control suddenly became the hip new thing for politicians to embrace as the teenagers becoming 18-year-old voters demand it.
And it could even be illegal.
“Coral Gables‘ City Attorney Miriam Ramos has publicly and rightly informed the Commission that she will not certify as legal its vote to violate this law,” Thompson wrote in his letter to the guv. “She is a lawyer who takes seriously both her oath upon becoming  lawyer to obey and support the law and her oath of office as City Attorney. If this ordinance is passed, she will not sign off on it.”
Indeed, “the city attorney’s opinion regarding the ordinance remains unchanged,” says the memo in tomorrow’s agenda package.
“You have to love a client who pays its lawyer, with tax dollars, to give legal advice which it chooses to ignore,” wrote Thompson. “Sounds like we have a local manifestation of Trump.”
You know who else are lawyers? Valdes-Fauli and Commissioner Mike Mena. One would think they would know better.
“The Florida Bar has remedies for such brazen oath-breaking,” Thompson wrote, and Ladra has no doubt he is seeking their disbarment.
 

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Coral Gables Commissioners sided with the city manager instead of the police chief on Tuesday when they supported a “separation agreement” that allows a police major who spied on a resident at a public meeting last year to retire from the department with her full pension in November rather than be fired outright.

And, in the process, they swept something under the rug that could have implicated the city manager’s office in more widespread spying on activist residents, selected employees and maybe even commissioners.

Because Maj. Theresa Molina –caught taking cellphone pictures of a resident’s text messages during a city commission meeting in September — wasn’t taking those pictures for herself. Let there be no mistake about that. Yet the investigation and Tuesday’s discussion did not go in the direction that it should have — which is up and into the city manager’s office.

That is why Molina has been, basically, protected from any real punishent this whole time, rewarded with the maximum pension benefits and, literally, paid — to keep her mouth shut. To keep the inquiry from moving up.

Read related story: Coral Gables cover up on police ‘spy’ protects managers

Molina has been suspended with pay since, earning her six figure salary the whole time she is, supposedly, sitting at home catching up on the Food Network shows (more than $90,000 on suspension). The decision by the commission Tuesday to support the city manager’s recommendation means Molina gets to stay on through November to reach the minimum threshhold necessary to apply the rule of 70 that allows her to retire with $500 more a month.

So, basically, rather than discipline her for spying on Maria Cruz (photographed left), who, by the way, was texting commissioners Vince Lago and Frank Quesada so she could be recognized and speak about the police shortages, City Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark has rewarded Molina. Make no mistake about that. Molina was rewarded for her work, being a good spy — which is precisely what she was doing on September 28 last year and what should have been, what should still be, investigated.

It wasn’t a mistake. Molina didn’t suspect a Sunshine Law violation. It was a public meeting. Maria Cruz is not an elected official. She’s an active old lady resident with a legitimiate gripe about police shortages. Which is precisely why Molina was spying on her. Part of the investigation that did not get discussed Tuesday was the testimony from Maj. Raul Pedroso and Molina herself, which seem to contradict everything Swanson-Rivenbark said on the dais.

Pedroso, for example, indicates that there had been prior conversations between Molina, himself and Assistant City Manager Frank Fernandez, the director of public safety, about suspicious conversations and texting taking place in secret between some commissioners and some residents or employees of the police department. Apparently, from Pedroso’s testimony to the Internal Affairs investigator, these three sore losers have been talking about this “conspiracy” since Police Chief Ed Hudak was named interim chief instead of one of them.

“Maj. Molina, she was witness [to] what, what we have suspected,” Pedroso said in his sworn statement. “Which that these are the types of communications that are happening, that don’t appear to be the way that’s intended to in an open government.”

So, basically, they suspected that Maria Cruz was communicating with commissioners and Molina was getting proof for them.

Read related story: Gables Police major suspended for spying on resident

Ladra finds it curious that the mayor and certain commissioners had the time to bring up the sins of policemen past — which Swanson wisely listed on her report so she could change the narrative (it is a classic crisis management tactic and it worked somewhat) and justify her slap on Molina’s wrist — but they didn’t talk about the testimony that seems to indicate that what happened September 28 was not an isolated incident of rudeness but, rather, officially sanctioned government spying.

Molina didn’t take one photograph. She took six. Maybe as many as eight, because two were erased. Too blurry, she said in her sworn statement. She took the photographs from behind Maria Cruz’s shoulder, without her knowledge, in a sneaky and undercover fashion. She admits to going into investigative mode. She had to zoom in on them to see what was being said. She said she could read the messages were for Lago and she knew it was about the police shortages and about Maria Cruz wanting to speak but said she thought the resident was circumventing the rules. Maria Cruz was actually alerted by another witness in the commission chambers who thought the major was acting suspiciously. Molina, in her testimony, said she was just gathering evidence to report something she believed was a violation of the Sunshine Law.

But Molina didn’t then go and tell the police chief that a Sunshine Law had been violated. She didn’t take it to the city attorney who was right there. No, instead, Molina immediately showed the photos to Fernandez. Did he tell her to erase them because she had violated someone’s rights? No, he told her to show them to the city manager. And Swanson-Rivenbark says she told the major right away that what she had done was wrong.  “When she spoke to me as we went to the ribbon cutting for the NSA vehicles… I immediately said to her ‘It’s her right to text the commissioners.’”

And yet, Molina says in her own testimony that she didn’t realize she had done anything wrong until City Attorney Craig Leen told her once the commission meeting resumed after the NSA photo opp that residents could text commissioners any time they wanted. Wait, didn’t Cathy tell her just five minutes earlier or not? Probably not.

And Molina didn’t know it was wrong to photograph the communication of someone who is not under investigation? Are you kidding me? It’s unlikely the city would accept that as a legitimate excuse from a 23 veteran who once was considered for police chief — if it weren’t also convenient. Because this allows the city manager and her right hand man to move past this ugly little chapter without anyone having to know how involved they were in the spying.

Read related story: City uses legal muscle to gag Coral Gables activist

And also so they can keep it up. In recent days, Ladra has heard of other possible incidents in which Fernandez and his cronies have been reportedly reading other people’s emails and eavesdropping on conversations. He allegedly asked staff in Information Technology if they can find out who got blind copied on a critical email sent by Maria Cruz, who said Tuesday that she felt like she was in Castro’s Cuba again.

“Fidel Castro took over Cuba when I was 12 years old. Twelve. And I saw many injustices. Ms. Molina’s actions toward me took me back 60 years,” Cruz told commissioners when she begged them to terminate the major.

“Please, please send a clear message to anyone that in Coral Gables, no police offcer is above the law.”

The problem in this situation, however, is that those above the police officer are complicit.

Did you have a nice, loooong weekend? Well, just because it’s a shorter week doesn’t meant there’s not a lot going on.

The cities of Miami and Coral Gables have some controversial items this week sure to pack their respective city halls while South Miami has a dejavu on affordable housing and the county has another one of those “we love soccer” meetings about a proposed stadium in Overtown. We also have yet another march downtown. This one is family friendly!

No, it’s not a typo. I got no notice from the Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club meeting in Miami Beach. Maye they are skipping this week?

And since when did Saturday become a day to do political stuff? No, really. Please stop that.

Got an event for the calendar on a normal day of the week? Get me the 411 on your 305 government and club meetings, campaign fundraisers and political powwows and get in the calendar. It’s easy. Send an email to edevalle@gmail.com or invite me on Facebook or hit me up on twitter like some of these people did.

TUESDAY — May 30

9 a.m. — There is going to be a lot of upset residents at Coral Gables City Hall Tuesday. Not only is there going to be a 2 p.m. time-certain discussion item on the commission meeting agenda, thanks to Commissioner Vince Lago, about the police major who spied on resident Maria Cruz during a commission meeting in September — will Maj. Theresa Molina be fired or will she pass go and collect $100,000 and a really fat pension for the rest of her life — there may also be talk about the police shortages and a 5 p.m. time-certain second vote on the controversial 33 Alhambra development that seems to have made some cuts in units and parking, but which nearby residents still don’t want. If you want a seat, get there early. Or you’ll be watching on the TVs outside the commission chambers on the second floor of City Hall, 405 Biltmore Way.

10 a.m. — After deferring it last week, Miaim City Commissioners will consider taking Watson Island back from a developer that promised 16 years ago to turn it into a hotel/retail destination with parking and a marina. Commissioner Ken Russell believes that the developer has missed a deadline earlier this month to start construction. Some city staffers say they did enough to meet that standard. It will certainly make for an interesting discussion as there are a group of Venetian Island residents opposed to the development. They and State Rep. David Richardson wants the process to start over. And maybe it should, considering it was made 16 years ago! The special meeting begins at 10 a.m. at City Hall, 3500 Pan American Drive.

6 p.m. — The city of South Miami may finally be moving along on the long-promised Madison Square affordable housing project along Southwest 59th Place at 64th Street, next to the St. John African Methodist Episcopal Church. The South Miami Community Redevelopment Agency will consider transmitting the proposal with a variance for four stories rather than the maximum two and another variance for reduced parking. This has been talked about for years but has been held up by one thing or another. In 2015, the original contractor cancelled its contract with the city over delays in getting the necessary variances. Will we see a dejavu on Tuesday? The project now has been divided into two, the East and the West parts. The CRA will also consider two unity of titles for the 15 properties involved. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. in commission chambers at City Hall, 6130 Sunset Drive.

WEDNESDAY — May 31

2 p.m. — An update on the SMART mass transit plan for Miami-Dade is coming up at Wednesday’s Transportation Planning Organization’s Transportation and Mobility Committee meeting. County Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz will ask the committee to amend the plan to extend the bus express rapid transit (BERT) corridor limits of the Florida Turnpike Express. There will also be presentations on the Miami River tunnel feasability study and on the Miami-Dade Quick Build Program. The meeting begins at 2 p.m. in Miami-Dade commission chambers at 111 NW First St.

6:30-8 p.m. — The city of Miami Beach will have a community meeting on the kayak launch project planned for the waterway north of 73rd Street and west of Dickens Avenue, which will take about two months to build and will not affect the community garden. The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at the North Shore Park and Youth Center, 501 72nd Street.

THURSDAY — June 1

8:30 a.m. — The Mayor’s North Beach Plan Steering Committee meets at 8:30 a.m. at the Normandy Shores Golf Club, 2401 Biarritz Drive. Ladra doesn’t know where to get an agenda but this group is on a roll. Most recently, and at the behest of Commissioner Ricky Arriola, the committee has been pushing to get a version of Wynwood Yard, an outdoor venue in the popular Miami neighborhood with a lot of food truck events and where Shakira gave an impromptu concert the other day, on the city-owned lots across from North Shore Open Space Park. North Beach Yard would be similar to the original concept, but more retail-oriented. There may also be an organic farm for onsite restaurants to use and for locals to buy fresh produce from as well as an artists’ showcase. It would be interesting to see what the committee follows that up with.

6 p.m. — Soccer in Overtown? Some people love the idea. Others hate it. There will be a community discussion on Thursday about the sale of Miami-Dade county owned property in Overtown to David Beckham and partners so they can build the Major League Soccer stadium they have been talking about for years. Miami-Dade “officials” and staff are expected to be at the YWCA, 351 NW 5th St., but the notice on the county website doesn’t specifically say that Mayor Carlos Gimenez will be there. He was at the first one of these community meetings but there are at least two more next week.

SATURDAY — June 3

9 a.m.-1 p.m. — Miami-Dade Commissioner Esteban Bovo and the town of Miami Lakes will host a family fun day picnic at Picnic Park West, 15151 NW 82nd Ave. There will be a farmer’s market, free rides, music, and raffles.

11 a.m.-2 p.m. — The March for Truth in downtown Miami Saturday has attracted a bunch of politician candidates. Tallahassee Mayor and gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum, perennial candidate (Senate 40 this time) Annette Taddeo, Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez and Miami Beach Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez — both of whom have announced plans to run for Congress next year since Ileana Ros Lehtinen is retiring — will be at the anti-Trump demonstration, organized by a coalition of groups that include Women’s March, Indivisible 305, Indivisible Miami and RiseUp Florida. They demand truth and transparency, including an impartial investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and ties to President Donald Trump and so many of his friends and family. To get people to go, they are also briging food trucks, musical acts and face painting. No joke. Bring the whole family to the political march! Festivities begin at 11 a.m. at the Stephen P. Clark Center, 111 NW First St.

11 a.m.-2 p.m. — If you don’t know your Hurricane 101 yet, you must not be from around here. The Village of Palmetto Bay is offering a town hall on hurricane preparedness this Saturday at the municipal center, 9705 E. Hibiscus St. And here Ladra thought for sure Palmetto Bay Mayor Eugene Flinn would be at the march.