Their vote to change election year is illegal, he says
What is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis waiting for?
Last week, DeSantis said that he could suspend the Miami city commissioners who voted to move the election from odd years to even, effectively cancelling this November’s mayoral and commission races, and giving themselves an extra year in office. This, even though State Attorney General James Uthmeier had warned they could not do that without first going to voters.
Three commissioners voted last month to move the elections to coincide with midterm and national cycles to (1) save at least $200,000 a year and (2) increase turnout quite a bit. At least that’s what they say. The move gives Mayor Francis Suarez and Commissioner Joe Carollo, who were termed out this year, another 12 months in office. As if term limits were mere suggestions. It also gives Commissioner Christine King, who was up for re-election this year, another year before she has to campaign.
Carollo, who has threatened to run for mayor this year, voted against it. But even a broken clock is right twice a day. So did Commissioner Miguel Gabela. And these two rarely agree on anything.
Read related: Miami Commissioners pass election date change — and steal an extra year
King and commissioners Damian Pardo and Ralph Rosado voted for the change. They would be the ones eligible for suspension, if DeSantis makes good on his threat.
“The reality is local governments have to abide by Florida law,” the governor told CBS4 News Miami. “Could it come to the point where commissioners can get suspended? The law does provide me that as one of many recourses.”
Well, tick, tock, Ron.
Apparently, the “law and order” governor suddenly remembered the Florida Constitution exists after the public outrage reached DEFCON 3. Ladra can’t help but wonder what political pressure he’s getting. Because it’s not like he didn’t know this was coming. Back in April, the governor said he was “highly skeptical” of the proposal to change the election — which, in Tallahassee-speak, is what you say when you know it’s wrong but don’t want to get your boots dirty just yet.
Why didn’t he act then? Why wait until the ordinance passed? Hmmm. Could he have been waiting for the veto deadline to pass before so he could include Suarez in the suspensions? After all, by signing the legislation, Suarez has endorsed or, effectively, voted for it. And DeSantis is not a fan of Baby X. Not because they were both vying for the presidential nomination — Suarez was just posing — but because the Miami mayor once boasted he voted for Andrew Gillum.
But Suarez didn’t veto the ordinance. And his suspension sounds like a good idea — until you realize that could leave Joe Carollo, the vice chair of the commission, free to appoint all the replacements all by himself. Shudder.
So why has the state not taken any legal action? After all, it is another available recourse.
In fact, the only one who has sued so far is former City Manager Emilio Gonzalez, one of 10 announced mayoral candidates, who has asked the court to weigh in on the ordinance’s constitutionality. His lead attorney is none other than former Florida Supreme Court Justice Alan Lawson — so, you know, not some guy with a fax machine. “The City of Miami Commissioners unconstitutionally bypassed the democratic will of the people in a way that the Florida Constitution, the Miami-Dade Charter, and the City’s Charter expressly prohibit,” Lawson wrote in the complaint.
Read related: First lawsuit filed to stop city of Miami from cancelling November election
Translation: This isn’t just shady and self-dealing, it’s illegal. And it’s especially offensive in a community like Miami, where many voters have been stripped of their ballot box power before. In the lawsuit, Lawson compares Miami to lawless governments in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. The city’s attorneys took issue with that in their motion to dismiss.
“As for inflammatory hyperbole and political rhetoric, the complaint references ‘regimes’ like ‘Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, or Cuba’ to argue the City lacks a legal basis to move the date of elections by ordinance. What purpose does this serve? As far as the City can tell, none — except to distract from the weakness of plaintiff’s legal theories,” wrote Assistant City Attorney Eric Eves.
But even AG Uthmeier made the connection in a social media post: “Home to thousands of patriotic Cuban Americans who know better than most about regimes that cavalierly delay elections and prolong their terms in power, the City of Miami owes to its citizens what the law requires.”
Only in Miami, when politicos aren’t out screaming “comunista” at each other, they’re scrapping elections.
There’s a hearing on the Gonzalez lawsuit and the city’s motion to dismiss next week (July 16). Meanwhile, there are 10 mayoral candidates and eight commissioner wannabes in limbo. Should they be knocking on doors? Should they be binging on Netflix?
DeSantis can end all this nonsense with a flick of the wrist. Then Miami voters can have an election in November for the mayor and four commissioners.
The post Tick, tock, Guv: Ron DeSantis threatens to suspend Miami commissioners appeared first on Political Cortadito.
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‘Conflicting data’ and lack of strategic plan cited
The Coral Gables Fire Department has flunked a national assessment that evaluates the agency’s performance, response and delivery of fire emergency services to the community, resulting in the failure to get re-accreditation for the first time in decades.
But the mayor and the fire chief say it’s no big deal. The city can take the test again in about a year.
The department’s reaccreditation — which marks an agency’s commitment to excellence — was denied in April. Deferred is the official term. Which is government speak for denied for now.
In a very polite but unmistakably scathing letter, the Commission on Fire Accreditation International (that’s the big leagues, gente) let Fire Chief Marcos De La Rosa know that the Coral Gables Fire Department’s bid for reaccreditation was — how do we say this gently? — a big nananina.
People should not believe the hype at last week’s city commission meeting from De La Rosa, who acted like an administration cheerleader rattling off a far too long monologue of achievements — this many hires, that many fire stations built — and “the greatest fire enhancement since 1993.” He said that with a straight face. Just like how the department “led in the response and recovery of COVID.” Which was in 2020.
Shouldn’t they have more recent wins?
De La Rosa — who at one point wanted to fire 40% of the fire department as the fire chief in Hialeah (2009-2013) — was there at the request of Commissioner Melissa Castro, who fielded concerns after a story on the letter was published in the new, resurrected Coral Gables Gazette, which has already earned the ire and disapproval of Mayor Vince Lago — so you know they’re doing something right.
The fire chief said the deferral didn’t have any real life effect on the residents or businesses in the city. It does not affect insurance rates or the city’s ability to get grants, he said. That might be true. The city still has accreditation, after all. And insurance rates are based on the ISO (Insurance Service Office) classification, and the Gables is still a Class A.
But that’s completely irrelevant. Neither the letter nor the story mentioned insurance rates or grants.
And it seemed, from the language and tone of the statement that de la Rosa read from the podium, that his response was written by Lago himself.
“It is unfortunate that the very process that we use to push ourselves to be the best… is misrepresented with a political rhetoric of unsubstantiated allegations that have been presented time and time again in various venues,” De La Rosa read, adding that he was there “to address some of the allegations that were made in the post that were, frankly, made to create community concern and outcry.”
Read related: Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago scores trifecta on post-election revenge tour
He was really there, however, to give Lago a match to light under the union leadership, specifically President David Perez, something the mayor has done repeatedly and increasingly as they have supported his political opponents. In a long-winded attack, Lago blamed Perez for disclosing the letter, which Perez told Political Cortadito on Wednesday that he knew nothing about until it was published in the Gazette. It doesn’t matter. This gives the mayor political cover to go after him. He even got his shiny new puppet, newly-elected Commissioner Richard Lara, who has been in office for ten minutes, to suggest Perez resign from the department if he was the one that leaked the letter.
Huh? This letter is supposed to be a secret? Of course it is. What else does Lara not want Gables residents to know?
Let’s blame everybody else and keep the attention away from the contents of the letter, shall we? Because the official letter from CFAI, which is posted below, speaks for itself. Here are some Ladra-picked highlights:
After reviewing the department’s self-assessment, community risk analysis, and so-called “strategic plan,” the CFAI team unanimously decided that they’d rather not waste the gas on a site visit. Not this year, thank you. Not with those documents.
“Supportive materials lacked detail,” wrote Jim White, CFAI program manager at the Center for Public Safety Excellence.
Translation? Y’all made it up and hoped we wouldn’t notice.
They also pointed out that the department still hasn’t implemented annual program appraisals they were already told to do in a prior recommendation. So, either nobody read the last report, or someone at Station 1 is allergic to calendars.
Then there’s the strategic plan — or should we say, the strategic suggestion list? According to CFAI, the Gables Fire Department’s plan is really just a mishmash of city-wide goals and some loose program ideas duct-taped together and labeled “strategy.”
Apparently, asking people what they want before writing goals would’ve helped, too. The department’s “stakeholder engagement” process was so informal, it probably involved someone shouting questions from the new public safety building to pedestrians across the street.
Wait, there’s more.
The “Community Risk Assessment/Standards of Cover,” which is supposed to show how the fire department protects actual people based on real risk, was riddled with inconsistencies and contradictions.
The planning zones? Not fully defined.
The benchmarks? Based on geography — not population density.
The data? “Conflicting” numbers about response times, call volumes, and demographics. Which is super comforting, especially if your house is on fire. Let’s hope and pray someone read the right spreadsheet.
Read related: Coral Gables police, fire union: Lying Vince Lago is no pal of public safety
And while the CFAI folks were gracious enough to offer a second chance — with a Sept. 30 deadline to update those shoddy documents (or, if they really can’t get it together, March 31, 2026) — it seems evident that unless the department brings receipts, references, and something resembling accuracy, this accreditation train won’t be making a stop in Coral Gables, even next year.
The city has been instructed to “track changes” between now and then, because, well, nothing says professional fire safety planning like Microsoft Word’s editing tools, am I right?
De La Rosa blamed the findings on the lack of documentation — a real Sherlock Holmes, here — and called the criticism “an administrative deferral that gave us more time to meet” requirements or criteria. “Specifically an internal departmental strategic plan and an enhanced community risk assessment.”
Oh? Is that all?
Pero, por supuesto, the fire chief didn’t address any of those concerns. His speech was more like a pep rally or campaign stump than an actual response to the issues raised in the letter. There was lots of talk about the “core mission” being public safety and the “public trust” that the men and women of the department hold dear. Lots of talk about the “Coral Gables brand,” which De La Rosa is quick to instill in every veteran and new recruit.
He even had stickers printed up to hand out.
De La Rosa also failed to mention any problems with the city’s newish $4 million computer-aided dispatch system, installed in 2023 that, sources say, could be the reason for the “conflicting data” and documentation issues.
But hey, now that the public is aware of and heated about the fire department’s performance and assessment, maybe it will spark some real discussion that isn’t a blame game and political theater.
Or maybe it all goes up in smoke.
Coral Gables Fire Department FL Letter of Deferral by Political Cortadito on Scribd
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A group of elected officials flew to Panama City last week for the U.S. Embassy’s Fourth of July celebration, at the invitation of Ambassador Kevin Cabrera, a former Miami-Dade County Commissioner and Republican Party committeeman who was tapped for the overseas job by Donald Trump early in his new administration.
But almost all of them said they did so on their own private dime — and not using taxpayer funds.
“It was a great honor to celebrate 249 years of the United States Independence with our new Ambassador Kevin Marino Cabrera in Panama,” wrote Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Alina Garcia in an Instagram post where she poses alongside Miami-Dade Tax Collector Dariel Fernandez, Miami-Dade Commissioner Keon Hardemon and State Rep. Omar Blanco.
“God Bless the USA,” Garcia wrote.
Read related: Miami-Dade’s Kevin Cabrera leaves for Panama, county gets set to appoint
She did not return a call and text to her phone, but according to Ivan Castro, communications director for the Elections Department, the trip was official county business.
“The Supervisor of Election’s trip to Panama was an official trip, at the invitation of the U.S. Ambassador to Panama, Kevin Marino Cabrera, a product of Miami-Dade County. There are also around 90,000 registered voters living in Panama, many of them Miami-Dade County voters,” Castro told Political Cortadito.
“As a public servant, The Supervisor of Elections promotes all democracy in the U.S. and abroad,” Castro said, adding that all expenses were paid personally by Garcia “at o expense to Miami-Dade taxpayers.”
Fernandez was also there on his own dime, said Manuel “Manny” Orbis, the tax collector’s chief of staff. “He went private, paid by himself. It had nothing to do with the office,” said Orbis, who was once also Cabrera’s chief of staff.
Naturally, he and his wife, newly appointed Miami-Dade Commissioner Natalie Milian Orbis — who replaced Cabrera on the dais — were also invited. He said they only stayed one night at the La Compañia, a luxury Hyatt hotel that is also the restoration of a historic site in Panama City. Prices range from $200 to $300 a night.
Read related: Is a fix in for the District 6 appointment at Miami-Dade County Commission?
They were back in time for Fourth of July celebrations in Miami-Dade.
Blanco and his wife, a Miami-Dade schoolteacher, spent two nights and three days at the same hotel.
“My wife and I hadn’t spent a lot of time together this year,” Blanco quipped about the his first special session. “So we decided to make it a little vacation.
“I paid my own flight. I paid my own hotel. I paid my own food,” he said.
“I’ve known Kevin for a long time and he invited everybody, all the Dade electeds,” Blanco told Political Cortadito.
Neither Hardemon nor anyone on his staff returned calls from Ladra. And there was no response Tuesday to a query to Nicole Gallagher, Cabrera’s communications director, about who was invited and what the itinerary included.
But in a statement Friday, Cabrera underscored the U.S. government’s commitment to promote prosperity and security not just inside our borders but abroad to U.S. partners.
“President Trump is ushering in a new Golden Age for the United States, an unprecedented era of opportunity and strength,” Cabrera said. “As President Trump has said, ‘the story of America makes everyone free.’
“The United States and Panama have built a strong partnership that strengthens our countries and the entire hemisphere. Under President Trump’s leadership, we seek to expand our cooperation, which will make both countries safer, stronger, and more prosperous.”
Does “expand our cooperation” include taking over the canal, as Trump has threatened to do?
The post Miami-Dade elected officials say they went to Panama on their own dime appeared first on Political Cortadito.
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Posted by Admin on Jul 9, 2025 in Fresh Colada, News | 0 comments
County commissioner endorses Jackie Garcia-Roves
Surprise, surprise. Not.
Miami-Dade Commissioner René García officially pulled the plug last month on his not-so-convincing bid for Hialeah mayor, confirming what just about everyone in political circles and their abuelas already knew: He was never really in it to win it.
The District 13 commissioner — whose turf includes parts of Hialeah, Hialeah Gardens, Miami Lakes, and some of that unincorporated no-man’s land in northwest Dade — filed in March to run for mayor in the November election. But from day one, Garcia was bluffing like a Magic City poker player with a busted flush.
He filed quietly, without any fanfare or press conference. Remember when former Mayor Esteban “Stevie” Bovo, who resigned in March to go lobby in Washington, D.C., (where his wife works with Secretary of State Marco Rubio ) went on La Poderosa to say he was trying to convince Garcia to step up and run for mayor — eight days after the county commissioner had already filed paperwork? Because not even Bovo knew.
That paperwork, by the way, was stamped by the city clerk on April Fool’s Day. Was that a forewarning?
Read related: ‘Rene Garcia for Hialeah Mayor’ could be a decoy for someone else to run
Garcia, a former state senator who started his career as a Hialeah Council member, gave Political Cortadito and other media outlets classic politico non-answers to questions in April — something about Florida’s resign-to-run law and how he had months to decide. “I am considering it seriously” he told Ladra, two weeks after he filed the paperwork. He said he was “talking to residents and trying to figure out where I best serve.”
Guess he got his answer. Garcia is staying put in his comfy county commission seat, saying he can best serve his constituents there and citing the tough budget year ahead. “Now is not the time to step away. Public service is not about chasing titles,” he said in a statement, practically polishing his halo. “It’s about answering the call to serve where you are most needed.”
Or it’s about answering the call to be a placeholder until Bovo and the Hialeah political cabal could figure out who to back, between former Council Member and Interim Mayor Jacqueline “Jackie” Garcia-Roves and Councilman Jesus Tundidor, who would have run for the county commission seat if Garcia had stayed in the city’s mayoral race. Spoiler: It’s Garcia-Roves.
Garcia snubbed Tundidor — his former political protégé, having once served as his legislative aide in Tallahassee — and endorsed Garcia-Roves last week, when she officially filed to run and had a press conference to announce it. Ouch. That’s gotta hurt. Although it seemed obvious from the love René showed Jackie at her swearing in (photos from Rene Garcia’s social media).
“Although I know votes are not transferable,” René Garcia said to the TV cameras last week, standing in front of City Hall, “and Jackie is going to have to work to assure the voters in this city that she is the most upstanding, because I know she is the most upstanding and capable to serve our community.”
He did not return calls from Ladra to provide more specific details as to what makes her the most upstanding nd capable.
The interim mayor resigned her council seat, which she won in an unopposed re-election in 2023, on the day after René Garcia said he was not going to run. And Ladra doesn’t believe in coincidences.
Read related: Steve Bovo’s parting gift: Retirement benefits for himself, Hialeah electeds
So, what did Tundidor fail to promise the establishment? Or what did Garcia-Roves offer?
“I really don’t know what it is,” Tundidor told Ladra Tuesday, sounding a little hurt. “René Garcia is a mentor of mine. I worked for the guy. I did everything I could to help him.”
Rene Garcia did stick his neck out to go against the establishment, supporting Tundidor when he first ran in 2019.
“I guess it has to do with other people. I think they got to him more than I did,” said Tundidor, who resigned his seat last month, on the same day that Garcia announced he would not run. It’s not effective, however, until the new mayor is sworn in. Por si las moscas.
“The good thing is, we’ve been down this road before. We’re a lot more known now than in 2019, so this road doesn’t scare me. I’ve been battle tested. I’ve proven myself,” Tundidor told Political Cortadito. “I hope people really look back to see who’s done what while they were in office.”
Hialeah’s mayoral race is always a political blood sport. And this year is no exception. Qualifying ends July 28, and there are already at least six hungry candidates circling City Hall like it’s a fresh croqueta tray at a campaign event. They include mixed martial arts fighter Manuel “Manny” Reyes Jr. 79-year-old commercial real estate owner Bernardino Norberto Rodriguez, and real estate investor Marc Anthony Salvat.
But, really, there are only three viable candidates, so far. Garcia-Roves, Tundidor and former Council Member Bryan Calvo, who lost his primary race for Miami-Dade tax collector last year, getting 48% of the vote, and has already been campaigning for about five months. All three served on the council together.
Calvo — who tangled loudly and publicly with Bovo over public records and emergency response times — is seen as the anti-establishment choice and could benefit from a tug-of-war between Tundidor and Garcia-Roves over the establishment support (read: money) and vote.
Garcia-Roves has more people pulling on her side of the rope, including Hialeah Housing Authority Executive Director Julio Ponce, who has access and serves as gatekeeper to thousands of vulnerable voters (more on that later) and who gave the interim mayor a big hug when she filed last week, captured by Univision 23.
First elected in 2019, beating longtime activist Milly Herrera with 54% of the vote, she was part of the corrupt Carlos Hernandez Seguro Que Yes council. She drew no opponents four years later and recently had a campaign event that raised almost $70,000 for her political action committee, New Conservative Leadership, even before she announced her candidacy last week. The most recent campaign finance report, filed for the quarter ending June 30, shows that $20K of those contributions come from the same maquinita coin game companies that donated heavily to the campaigns for Hernandez and former Mayor Julio Robaina before him. She uses the same longtime Hialeah campaign consultant, Ana Carbonell.
It’s like the whole Hialeah mafia is lining up.
But Garcia-Roves has not sponsored a single piece of legislation in more than four years.
“Clueless,” is a word mean people use to describe her. Too often. Las malas lenguas say she is easily controlled and will be a puppet for Bovo and René Garcia and even Hernandez to continue pulling the strings.
Tundidor was first elected in 2019 and was also re-elected in 2023 without opposition. Before that, he was on the city’s planning and zoning board. He won his seat in his first race working against the establishment and the Hernandez campaign machinery. He has sponsored several key legislative initiatives in the city, including a ban on permanent RV homes in single family residential neighborhoods, and recently passed an affordable housing ordinance. He told Political Cortadito Tuesday that he’s already knocked on 800 doors.
Calvo was elected in 2021, winning in a runoff against Angelica Pacheco with more than 67% of the vote (Pacheco was subsequently elected in a different election and suspended by the governor after she was arrested on healthcare fraud charges last year). Calvo resigned to run for tax collector last year and lost in the primary to Dariel Fernandez, but still got more than 50,000 votes and only came up 4,000 short. Add that to the fact he’s been knocking on doors since February and he’s got plenty of name recognition. Some might argue that it’s more than Garcia-Roves and Tundidor, who are at slightly different degrees of relative anonymity.
They are certainly going to be easier to run against than Rene Freaking Garcia.
Read related: Bryan Calvo becomes first candidate to file for November Hialeah mayor’s race
“For me, it’s great news,” Calvo told Political Cortadito on Tuesday. “Rene was always the person with the most positive name I.D.”
Calvo also challenged the other two candidates — both of whom have advantages as current electeds (more on that later) — to a debate. “Every resident deserves the opportunity to see and hear directly from the candidates and to ask questions about the issues that matter most,” he said.
“Their game is to hide the candidate,” Calvo told Ladra, adding that Garcia-Roves’ public statements are “highly edited and scripted.”
Anyway, this latest round of musical chairs in the City of Progress promises to be one of the best telenovelas this year. With a crowded mayoral field and with five council seats — including two special elections — on the November ballot, the city is heading into one of the most crowded and, likely, chaotic election seasons in recent memory.
Stay tuned. Ladra will be watching. With popcorn. And a cortadito. Dark, por supuesto.
If you want to keep reading about Hialeah’s upcoming elections, let Ladra know with a contribution to Political Cortadito by clicking here. Thank you for supporting independent, grassroots government watchdog journalism.
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Posted by Admin on Jul 8, 2025 in Fresh Colada, News | 0 comments
The Miami Commission is moving forward with a plan to kill off the Bayfront Park Management Trust — which is currently being investigated and audited after allegations that Commissioner Joe Carollo misused its funds — because, you know, actually fixing something is way too boring when you can just burn it all down and call it “reform.”
The item is up for second and final reading Thursday and the subject of a sunshine meeting Tuesday night at the Olympia Theater, which is safe from redevelopment by a charter school company but only for now (more on that later).
Commissioners already gave it first reading approval in a 3-2 vote last month that surprised exactly no one who’s been paying attention, because it is newly elected Commissioner Ralph Rosado‘s IOU or thank you gift to Carollo, who poured close to $1 million from his political action committee into making sure Rosado won the June special election in District 4 to replace the late Manolo Reyes.
Rosado said the Bayfront Park Trust is not being run “optimally,” and been plagued by decades of dysfunction and infighting. “It has generated more than its fair share of controversy and has run its course,” he said, calling the Trust a “political football.”
How original, Ralph. Did Joe give you that one? Because there is no way that this is not a favor to him.
Rosado’s District 4 is as far away from Bayfront Park as you could possibly get in Miami. What does he know about the Bayfront Trust history and operations if it’s not what Joe told him? Nada. He didn’t campaign on this. And it’s actually something that Joe already tried but failed to do in February, one month after he was accused of mismanaging the Trust.
Coincidence? Please. The abolition of the Trust is the political football — passed from Carollo to Ralph.
It couldn’t be more obvious that this is a political back-scratching.
Read related: Ralph Rosado’s payback to Joe Carollo: Abolish Miami’s Bayfront Park Trust
This wouldn’t be an issue if the Bayfront Park Trust had not been wrestled away from Crazy Joe and given to Commissioner Miguel Gabela after two former employees said they were forced to resign when they raised concerns about questionable transactions that indicated Carollo used its funds as a personal political piggy bank. The allegations, worth repeating, are that Carollo, who was chairman of the Trust for more than seven years used/misused the Trust’s funds, among other things:
to pay for his own political ventures
to support Carollo’s District 3 Political Office
to pay and overpay Carollo’s political allies
to overpay Carollo’s District 3 Social Media provider
to overpay for a 2007 Vet mobile that was never used and that had a suspicious and seemingly untraceable past
to pay for Carollo’s Holiday Party
Only now that these things have come to light and he is no longer chair has Carollo suddenly decided that the Trust, which was súper important before, is superfluous. Check.
An investigation and forensic audit into the financial discrepancies will reportedly continue, even if the trust is chucked. But Joe “Not My Fault” Carollo will still succeed in having muddied the waters: The Trust must have been the problem, not him, because the commission got rid of it.
Ladra, too, is tired of watching Carollo and Gabela slap-fight over the sandbox. Well, not really, though she understands how some people might be tired of it. But Rosado’s solution — to take the park’s business, budget, issues and management and put it under the city manager’s purview — does not sound better. Nothing says fiscal transparency like the Miami city manager’s office, am I right?
Rosado also floated the idea of having the park managed under a “conservancy” — which sounds fancy until you realize it’s like rebranding a mess as an “experience.” And conservancies are about land acquisition and preservation, not managing assets.
Also, Gabela is just getting started on making the changes at the Trust that would put in the required guardrails so nobody else can abuse it like Carollo did. He practically begged for more time to get the job done.
“I’ve been there four months. We have done a l0t of positive things,” Gabela said. “I just want to right the ship.”
Commissioner Damian Pardo — whose District 2 includes the downtown — agreed and said that the Trust was finally making strides and that residents were finally being heard. He said that there is a master plan in the works, which makes sense, and that the money generated by Bayfront Park activities — like the Ultra Music Festival — should not go into the city’s general fund.
Read related: Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo and the Bayfront Fountain of corruption
The debate turned into another shouting match between Carollo and Gabela, who at one point offered to resign to save the Trust because he said it was all a political power grab. And — though he has a point — because he loves to play martyr.
Refreshing her referee role, King tried to make it seem like this wasn’t a political hit job. “It’s not that Carollo did a bad job and it’s not that Gabela is doing a bad job,” King said — which is sort of like saying, “This isn’t a dumpster fire, it’s really just a very enthusiastic barbecue.”
King joined Carollo and Rosado to vote to abolish the Trust. She said it was a distraction causing too much fighting on the dais.
Tellingly, King, Carollo and Rosado were all absent Monday evening during the re-grand opening of the renovated Bayfront fountain , which was Carollo’s crowning jewel. Mayor Francis Suarez was there. So were Gabela and Pardo.
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In Coral Gables, it’s apparently looked down upon to ask questions.
The city commission last week censured Commissioner Melissa Castro for, get this, having the nerve to contact the Florida attorney general for an opinion on a controversial and politically-tainted decision in May to move the city elections from April of odd years to November of even years, to coincide with the midterm and general elections, without going to the public for a vote on the matter.
¡Que atrevida!
Castro asked Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier if moving the city’s general election from April to November, without a voter referendum, was, you know, legal. She believes it is a violation of the city charter and the county Home Rule, which states that these type of changes must be made by voter referendum. “Unethical and unconstitutional,” she said.
Uthmeier hasn’t written back. Probably too busy pushing that Alligator Alcatraz merch (more on that later). But he did provide an opinion to a Miami commissioner who asked practically the same question about that city’s move to change elections from odd years to even. He said they have to go to a public vote first.
Read related: Coral Gables commissioner Melissa Castro challenges election date change
The Gables commissioner believes that this opinion would also apply to the City Beautiful and presented an ordinance last week that would repeal the vote to change the election, effectively putting it back to April in odd years. The commission, with Commissioner Ariel Fernandez absent, did not second her motion and it died.
Then, they decided to censure her for asking.
Pero, por supuesto. Mayor Vince Lago and his new echo chamber Seguro Que Yes majority took advantage and took it a step further by voting to censure Castro for, well, asking a question. Nevermind that the AG is there precisely for that reason. Apparently, in Coral Gables, doing your homework without asking your classmates first is grounds for detention.
L’Ego — who was censured in 2023 by the old commissioners majority for disparaging and insulting the three members he opposed on radio and television appearances — called it “deeply troubling” that Castro didn’t first run her legal curiosity by him, Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson, or Commissioner Richard Lara. After all, nothing screams transparency like backroom consensus-building before seeking a legal opinion. Am I right?
Never one to skip the spin cycle, Lago read his prepared comments, which regurgitated all the axes he has to grind against Castro. He also cited some random (and questionable) polling that allegedly shows 75% support for the date change. But when his little grupito tried to gather actual signatures to change the election date via petition, they failed miserably. According to a status report from the Miami-Dade Elections Department, the Lago group submitted 4,983 petitions on changing the election from April to November. Of those, 1,461 were valid and 3,522 were not valid.
Is that sloppiness or fraud? We still don’t know.
Read related: Coral Gables changes city elections to November, cuts terms by 5 months
Always ready with a lectern-worthy lecture, the mayor also said that Castro’s letter sent a subliminal “horrific message” to Tallahassee that the commission was not united. First, it’s not. That’s not such a terrible thing to have checks and balances. She doesn’t represent Lago and the commission. She represents her constituents that voted for her.
Second, and more importantly, this shows that Lago’s real concern isn’t about violating Home Rule — it’s about hurting feelings in the capital. You see, according to the mayor, the state was already giving the Gables side-eye after past commission antics (like self-approved raises and the musical chairs of city managers). He says the past two years of infighting on the commission has cost the city millions in appropriations, which has not been independently verified.
Anderson, meanwhile, whipped out her go-to proverbial pearls and clutched them with theatrical flair to censure Castro. As always, she spent way too much time chastising Castro for offending her senses. Castro, she said, omitted critical facts in her letter and was “trying to sabotage” the commission by asking for the opinion from Uthmeier without checking in with them and without calling a special meeting to get their input.
“No member of this commission on the down side of a vote should reach out and try to overturn a decision of this commission without the advice and consent of this commission,” Anderson said, calling out Castro for a typo in her letter — she wrote “2027” instead of “2026” — and wielded that gaffe like a smoking gun. As if that indicated that Castro was trying to sneak in an extra year.
“Big typo,” Anderson snapped, trying to summon up all the gravitas of a courtroom drama.
But if typos are now grounds for political flogging, half of City Hall should be sentenced to a proofreading boot camp.
“In order to make it clear to you that this type of behavior is improper and should not be tolerated in the future, I move for your censure,” Anderson said.
Castro was unfazed.
“Though the mayor, and I want to make it extremely clear — I will not stand here while this commission tries to take away residents rights,” she said. “If I would have to reach out to the general attorney again, I would do it 1,000 times. I was trying to undo a wrong this commission made. If you want to go ahead and vote for the vice mayor to censure me for standing up for my people, for standing up for my residents, then go ahead.”
Read related: Coral Gables commissioner Melissa Castro challenges election date change
“I think there’s been, unfortunately, so far too much attention put on you, Commissioner Castro,” Lara said, like a jealous mean girl friend.
Besides echoing Anderson and Lago, which is what Lara does best, the newly-elected commissioner — who keeps saying that this is what the voters elected him to do — also questioned Castro’s motives, suggesting that her request of a legal opinion was encouragement for the state to sue the city. Really? An attorney, Lara poo-poohed the legality of any legal opinion, hinting that it was merely a recommendation.
City Attorney Cristina Suarez had already written a “formal legal opinion” at Castro’s request, saying that the AG’s opinion was “non-binding and advisory only.”
Did Castro want to stop the election move? No. She simply wants to let voters decide. What a concept! And, at the same time, she said it would avoid a possible legal battle with the state, which has already stood on the side of voters.
“This is me throwing a lifeline to some of the commissioners here,” Castro said, after quoting Uthmeier’s letter to the city of Miami and reiterating that it would apply to any city in Miami-Dade County. She also cited a quote from former Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas about the city’s potential legal risk.
“It’s me trying to help you guys. I don’t want us to go against the state,” she said.
“Just put it on the ballot,” Castro added, who presented a cute little power point that showed how residents were left out of the decision-making. “Let’s make it fair and transparent. It’s not a big deal. If you are sure that people are going to vote for November, what is the issue with putting it on the ballot?”
Apparently a very big deal for Lago and company — big enough to not only shut Castro down, but also throw in an unnecessary public shaming for good measure.
Resident activist Maria Cruz, a former Lago ally who has smelled the coffee, said it was just like Lago to dismiss the public: “Daddy knows best,” she said. “We know what”s best We don’t care what the people want or do not want. We don’t even want to hear it.
Read related: Miami Commissioners pass election date change — and steal an extra year
On the other side, Claudia Miro, who lost her second election bid this past April, came in — as if on Lago’s cue these days — with her own reprimands, said she didn’t like to have Coral Gables compared to the city of Miami (where she used to work, btw) and said the City Beautiful’s election change was different because it would shorten terms, while Miami commissioners effectively extended their terms by a year. She said voters made it clear in April’s elections how they felt by supporting candidates who supported the move.
Miro also accused Castro of “the height of hypocrisy” because Castro didn’t call for voter input when she and Fernandez and former Commissioner Kirk Menendez increased their salaries in 2023. Which is a bit like arguing that someone who jaywalked once doesn’t have the moral ground to call the police when they see a hit and run.
The commission voted May 20 to move the elections from April in odd years to November in even years, which effectively shortens everyone’s terms by five months. The reasons are, on paper, to increase voter participation and save $200,000 a year in election costs. Opponents say it would give developers and special interests (read: big money) an advantage.
But it’s very interesting that the mayor and his majority don’t care about “voter participation” on this issue.
Castro also pointed out the city spent $244,000 defending its plastic ban and another $185,000 fighting residents over the plans for a Wawa across from an elementary school, which were eventually abandoned. And now, the city wants to risk another six-figure legal battle to save $200,000 by moving an election?
That’s not fiscal responsibility — that’s the civic version of clipping coupons while leasing, um, er, a Maserati.
In the end, Castro’s “lifeline” to her fellow commissioners was met with cement shoes. And the Commission keeps sailing full speed ahead into a potential legal storm, hoping the Tallahassee gods won’t strike the with a bolt of thunder.
So much for Home Rule. In Coral Gables, it’s “Lago’s rules.” And if you dare to question them, without permission, bring an umbrella, a flak jacket — and spellcheck.
The post Coral Gables Commissioner Melissa Castro censured — for asking a question appeared first on Political Cortadito.
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