The Miami-Dade Commission on Tuesday will consider giving away a county-owned property at 100 NE 84th Street to Family Action Network Movement, Inc, — better known as FANM — a non-profit that was founded in 1991 by Commissioner Marleine Bastien, who watched it grow over two decades into a globally recognized model for providing life-enhancing services to low and moderate-income families.
Bastien, who was elected in 2022 to succeed former Commissioner Jean Monestime, resigned as executive director last December. That’s less than five months ago.
The giveaway requires a two-third vote and the resolution, sponsored by Commissioner Keon Hardemon, waives the requirement of four weeks advance written notice. The 10,800 square foot property, with an assessed value of $906,000 (market value is $1.1 million), would be declared surplus, sold at a “nominal” price — and FANM would also be forgiven any owed, past due rent from the lease of the property.
Their past due rent is $140,920, according to the resolution before the commission Tuesday.

“In light of the nature of the proposed use of the property for the benefit of providing vital community services, and substantial expenditures which will be made by FANM, to construct, expand, and improve the property, plus the continuing costs of maintenance, a substantially compelling reason exists to convey the property for nominal value rather than to lease it to FANM and to waive the prior obligations,” the resolution reads.

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Mayor proposes paying commissioners $1 a year
If the voters in Coral Gables thought that the animosity on the commission and the toxic rhetoric from the mayor was going to end with last month’s election, they have another thing coming. Freshly re-elected with a solid 55% of the vote, Mayor Vince Lago, emboldened by his and his slate’s victories, is doubling down on the hate and disrespect, seemingly hellbent on revenge.
Such a sore winner.
It’s not just because he’s going to roll back the raises and car allowances that commissioners gave themselves in 2023. That was a campaign promise. If that’s what the voters want, and he’s following through.
But Lago wants to go further.
There are two items on the commission salary in Tuesday’s agenda. One of them will roll the salaries back to what it was  before the trio of Commissioners Melissa Castro, Ariel Fernandez and former Commissioner Kirk Menendez, approved the raises in the 2023 budget. But just so that readers know what this means financially: The mayor’s salary will go from $69,000 a year back to $47,400. The vice mayor’s will go from $67,000 back to $41,475 and the commissioners’ pay will go from getting $65,000 annually to $38,500. That’s a total savings of $75,625 a year,
And you get what you pay for.
Read related: Vince Lago, Rhonda Anderson handily coast to re-election in Coral Gables
But the other “proposed ordinance” would cut their salaries to $1 a year — starting with the very next paycheck.
That’s not political retaliation? Is that what voters want, too? This is more than just “elections have consequences.” It is why Lago doesn’t mention the $1 option in a self-aggrandizing piece he wrote for Community Newspapers.
And for whoever thinks that is not targeting Fernandez and Castro, a single mother that Lago has repeatedly disrespected in public, take a look at the second part of the ordinance: “Beginning October 1, 2026 the compensation would revert to the 2022-2023 fiscal year salary and expense allowances, including those increases tied to the annual increases in the CPI-W as provided in section 2-29 of the City Code.”
So, the mayor and the commissioners get their old salaries back with regular raises — 17 months from now — and for the six months or so that Castro and Fernandez will have left in office before their term is up. That sounds fair and non retaliatory at all.
Because it seems way too harsh, some have speculated that Lago is using that option as leverage to get the other items passed, which include the elimination of the car allowance, a requirement to get a four-fifths vote prior to spending any general reserve monies (unless there is a declared state of emergency), the addition of two new members to the charter review committee, to be appointed by the city manager and city attorney, and a rollback of commission expense accounts from $10,000 too $5,000 a year — for a whopping savings of $25,000.
But, wait. Lago goes further on this one, too.
The resolution also “amends the policy for allowable uses,” it says. Those uses include event tickets and donations to schools, which are understandable, but it also includes mass mailings and the printing of materials — like, say, the welcome packets that Castro gives to new homeowners with a lot of useful information.
Seems really petty. And certainly not in the best interest of the city. This is all revenge. The cost of opposing the great Lago.
There’s also an item to change the rules on public comments. That one may as well be called the Maria Cruz ordinance because it aims to limit public comments to only specific items on the agenda or the public comment period. Maria Cruz is a gadfly activist that speaks on many issues, sometimes too many issues. She used to be Lago’s buddy, but has become one of his most outspoken critics and led the failed recall against him last year. This is just a way to silence her. And others.
But remember, Lago is all about transparency.
Read related: Vince Lago scores with Richard Lara’s Coral Gables commission runoff win
As usual, Lago did not return calls and texts to his phone. But in that Community Newspaper piece, he writes his proposed changes will “bring clarity and decorum back to our public meetings.”
Lago also wants to put two questions on the ballot: One would ask citizens if they want to establish an Inspector General and the other would ask them if they want to convene a charter review committee every 10 years beginning in 2035 — which sounds like a way to get rid of the charter review committee for 10 years. Aren’t they supposed to convene after every U.S. Census?
But the mayor won’t risk the election date change on a referendum. He will try to do that by ordinance on Tuesday. Because he really doesn’t care whether the people of Coral Gables want it or not, and he’s not going to take the same chance as he did with the annexation of Little Gables, which voters overwhelmingly rejected. He’s not going to leave it up to them.
That item on the agenda Tuesday would change the date of the next general election from April 13, 2027 to November 03, 2026, and moving all subsequent elections to November. This would result in a four-month reduction for everyone. But for Castro and Fernandez, first. It would also expand the runoff period from two weeks to four and move the swearing-in date to five weeks after the election. Both the next election and the ballot questions would be on the Nov. 3, 2026 ballot.
So, basically, by the end of Tuesday, Coral Gables may change the way it’s elected its commission for 100 years. Happy centennial!
Unless, that is, either Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson and newly-elected Commissioner Richard Lara — who Lago thinks he has in his pocket — insist on this going to the voters. As said in Political Cortadito before, this will be Lara’s first test. Lago is not wasting any time testing his loyalty. Will herbier stamp everything? Or push back a little?
It’s possible that Lara is the only option. Anderson was heard telling someone who asked her to let bygones be bygones that “you reap what you sow.”
That means Richard Lara could very quickly become the most powerful person on the city commission as the swing vote. Both sides will rely on him for support.
There’s also a discussion item on the city manager, which was a central point of Lago’s re-election campaign — and his revenge tour.
Read related: Coral Gables Vince Lago may move to bring back City Manager Peter Iglesias
Several people have tried to convince Lago not to fire City Manager Alberto Parjus and hire former city manager Peter Iglesias back. “But he was my mentor,” Lago reportedly whined to the city clerk in the parking lot at the flag raising ceremony for the centennial, where a business leader took Lago aside for a word of advice: Stop it. Okay, two words.
Several city employees and supporters — including his campaign manager Jesse Manzano and former Miami-Dade Commissioner Kevin Cabrera, before he left for his post as U.S. Ambassador to Panama — reportedly asked him to keep his cool and, specifically, not to fire Parjus. They said he’s not feeling it and would rather “blow everything up.”
“He’s off the rails,” is what one Gables insider said.
In other words, he’s going nuclear. Scorched Earth mode.
L’Ego isn’t letting up on the public meltdowns and personal attacks on Commissioner Castro, either. The incident at El Carnaval de Barranquilla last weekend — where Lago called her names in front of her 8-year-old son and refused to stand on stage with her and the organizers — was not an isolated event. On Thursday, at the ribbon cutting for Plenitude Spa on Aragon Avenue, Lago made a repeat performance — refusing to stand with and walking away from a group photo with Castro — and even told someone, in captured cellphone video, that he was not going to stop behaving like a toddler and disrespecting her.
“This is the way it’s going to be from now on, until the next election,” he is heard saying to someone. Ladra thinks it is Belkys Perez, the city’s Economic Development Director. “This is the way it’s going to be.”
Somehow, Ladra doesn’t think this is what the voters wanted when they returned him to office.
The next election is in 2027 and the mayor just threatened to humiliate and embarrass an opposing commissioner for two years.
Oh, wait. Shave four months off that.
Earlier, when he was standing at one end of the group photo and Castro at the other, Lago broke out of the line, like a true diva. “I can’t. I can’t. I won’t,” he said, and you could almost see him bring the back of his hand to his forehead. Oh, the agony!
“Listen, Belkys, Belkys, I will not take any pictures unless they’re…” and the cellphone video sound trails off because Lago is not the focus of the event. Even though he thinks he ought to be. The mayor is heard again when he raises his voice to direct the show. “So, let’s take a picture the three of us and then take a picture with the commissioner after. Let’s respect that. Let’s do that.”
People look uncomfortable.
He also refused to cut the ribbon with Castro. “There has to be a standard here,” Lago is heard saying. “You can either have the actual mayor or you can have the commissioner.
But you’re not going to have both.”
¡Que pena! What a show!
Just outside the door, as Castro is taking her pictures, is when he is caught in the background, talking to Perez, probably. “Nope. You do enough damage to my family, to my wife and my kids, I gotta draw the line,” Lago said.
Read related: Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago lashes out at Commissioner Melissa Castro
Castro doesn’t know what he’s talking about. She has seen Mrs. Lago maybe twice ever — the woman is not as visible as Mrs. Francis Suarez — and never uttered a word to her or his daughters, she said.
“Mayor Lago has made it clear both through his actions and his words that he intends to wear me down,” Castro told Political Cortadito. “He even said he was going to have me at ‘pico y pala.’ That phrase is used to describe someone being broken down bit by bit. This is not just disrespected, it’s targeted, intentional and deeply inappropriate behavior from someone in pubic office.
“When the mayor says he’s going to have me ‘a pico y pala,’ he’s admitting what so many of us already see: This is about power, not service,” Castro said. “It’s about breaking a woman down, not building a city up. But I was elected by the people and I will not let anyone chip away at my voice.
“He intends to wear me down, humiliate me repeatedly or break my spirit little by little,” Castro said. “These public power plays only hurt the very people we’re here to support — our residents and local businesses.
“It’s upsetting to be treated this way in front of our community, especially as a woman, a mother and an elected official.”
Ironically, when Lago went to say a few words at last week’s ribbon cutting — he went on and on about how much he respects women. “I always like to see women entrepreneurs,” he said to the women who own and operate the spa. “And as the father of two young girls I’m pushing them to be exactly like you.
“We need strong women who do the right thing, take risks and start a business,” he said.
Ladra half expected him to be struck by lightning.
The post Post-election Vince Lago revenge tour in Coral Gables = political retaliation appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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Meanwhile, partisan politics creep into county office
Have you been arrested and actually gone to prison for mortgage fraud? Have you been caught drinking and driving on the job, or cheating taxpayers by running errands on the public dime? No problem! You can apply for a job at the Miami-Dade Elections Department. They won’t care.
Four months after newly-elected Elections Supervisor Alina Garcia took office in November, she hired a new executive secretary: Jenny Nillo, who was fired from the city of Miami Omni Community Redevelopment Agency after she was caught driving a city car to run private errands for former Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, the CRA chairman at the time, and stopping for cans of beer along the way. How she was not arrested for drinking and driving is a mystery.
But whatever. That’s in the past, Garcia said. So, apparently, is Nillo’s 2017 arrest for mortgage fraud and subsequent conviction and sentence of 36 months.
Garcia did not return calls and texts from Ladra. But she gave a statement to the Herald that said Nillo “has performed her responsibilities with excellence, integrity, and unwavering commitment.”
Surveillance video shots of Jenny Nillo playing hooky from her city of Miami job in 2021.
She really laid it on thick, calling Nillo “a dedicated professional and valued member of our team who has paid her dues to society and has demonstrated through her actions and work ethic that she is an outstanding individual fully committed to public service.
“Ms. Nillo is also a widow who, since the passing of her husband in 2017, has been the sole provider for her family — supporting both her 80-year-old mother and her 19-year-old son,” Garcia said. “Her strength, resilience, and professionalism reflect the values we uphold in our office.”
Really? What about her theft of taxpayer dollars and blatant disregard for the law or even common decency? Does that reflect the values you uphold in your office? Which, by the way, is really our office.
At least now, if Nillo works on a campaign during her work hours — like she did when Renier Diaz de la Portilla ran for county commission — she is still technically working in “elections.”
Read related: Jenny Nillo campaigned for Renier Diaz de la Portilla while on the public job
Nillo is making $45,000 a year, according to Tess Riski, who reported the scoop in The Miami Herald. That’s what she started at when ADLP forced her on the city’s Omni CRA in 2020 as a community liaison. She was making $53,000 when she was fired the next year after Florida Department of Law Enforcement Officers observed her drinking and driving and stopped her so she wouldn’t hurt anybody. But she was only fired from the CRA. Diaz de la Portilla hired her back to his district office, and she worked in the city even after his 2023 arrest in September on charges of bribery and money laundering, which were dropped last year.
Strangely enough, Ladra expected Nillo to be working with the ADLP campaign for Miami mayor. She has worked on all the Diaz de la Portilla campaigns for decades. And when Ladra asked the former commissioner, via text, if she would be joining him at City Hall should he be elected, he said she would. “Are you going to take Jenny with to the mayor’s office with you,” was the question. “Yes. Part of my team,” Diaz de la Portilla said Friday morning.
After reading about her new job, which the Herald reported started March 3, Ladra texted him again on Saturday. “I thought you said Jenny was part of your team.” His answer: “She is.”
That’s concerning because the Miami-Dade Elections Department is the one that is going to tally the votes for the city elections on Nov. 4. There should not be part of anyone’s “team” working there.

But then we have Garcia, a longtime Republican operative who is going to have a very difficult time putting her job before her party. It seems like she is still campaigning from her social media feed, going to events all over the county, mostly with other Republican officials. She was there last week to celebrate the swearing-in of interim Hialeah Mayor Jacqueline Garcia Roves, along with Hialeah’s former mayor and former Miami-Dade Commissioner Esteban “Steve” Bovo and Miami-Dade Commissioner and former state Senator Rene Garcia, who is allegedly running for mayor in the City of Progress, as well as a State Rep. Alex Rizo and a bunch of other electeds.
This is an election year in Hialeah, by the way. How is she going to remain objective? Ladra would be concerned if she was former Council Member Bryan Calvo. Looks like Calvo, who is also running for mayor, was left out of the group shot.
Read related: Meet our new Supervisor of Elections Alina Garcia and her storied past
It’s kinda strange to see Garcia, the head of our county election, hobnobbing with electeds — mostly Republicans — in Tallahassee and at local events. It’s kinda strange to see her celebrating Women’s Month with the Republican Party of Miami Dade County, which had invited special guest, former Alaska Governor and one time VP candidate Sarah Palin. It’s kinda weird to see our elections chief in Washington D.C. at an inauguration ball for a president who still insists, to this day, that he won the 2020 election.
Garcia’s social media feeds look like she is still campaigning – and using election events to do so.
In February, members of the Republican Party of Miami-Dade toured the Doral office, where Chief Executive Officer Christina White discussed voter registration, vote-by-mail ballots, and the procedures involved in managing a county-wide election, while Garcia stood near the back of the room with Kevin J. Cooper, the newly elected Chairman of the Miami-Dade Republican Party, like they were conspiring or something.
Ladra has not seen photos posted of a tour for the Miami-Dade Democratic Party.

This Jenny Nillo hire has to be a favor for somebody, right? Because a fair, competitive process in this economy would have drawn better candidates, for sure. But Nillo is a DLP loyalist lackey, a member of “my team,” as he says. And Garcia is self-proclaimed “Joe Carollo girl.” She worked with the Miami commissioner before she ran for the state senate before she ran for elections chief. Carollo and Diaz de la Portilla are both allegedly running for mayor of Miami against each other in another election this year that Garcia will oversee.
So, this favor of a hire only makes sense if what las malas lenguas say is true about a deal struck by Carollo and Diaz de la Portilla, for the latter to switch to the county commission District 5 race if, indeed, Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins runs for mayor, after all.
Read related: Alex Diaz de la Portilla is investigated on ghost city employee at Omni CRA
That’s one hypothesis, anyway.
Meanwhile, Ladra has some questions.
Does this mean Nillo, who worked at the county a long time ago, gets a third public pension?
Will she get to handle ballots in the Miami election?
What’s in the green gift bags that the Republican Party guests got at the tour?
Who is Garcia going to hire next? Perhaps former Florida Sen. Frank Artiles, who she also used to work for?
Artiles is appealing his November conviction and sentence — 60 days in jail and five years probation — in an election conspiracy case after orchestrating the sham candidate that thwarted the 2020 state senate race in District 37, tilting it for Republican Ileana Garcia and against Democrat incumbent Jose Javier Rodriguez.
So, he has election experience.
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More farmland in the Redland went poof last week when the Miami-Dade Commission approved an application so developers can build Bluenest at Krome: 700 townhomes on 91 acres zoned for 223 single family, detached homes.
The change in zoning from “estate density residential,” to “low-medium density” was approved at the Community Development Master Plan meeting Tuesday with a unanimous vote.
There was overwhelming community support for the project, even if many decided to simply wave to show they were in favor, and even if some seemed to be reading from a script or repeating talking points. Only a few people spoke against it. Supporters focused on how it would provide workforce housing in the area. “I see it as next generation housing,” said Ken Forbes, adding that the developer had reached out and met with the community.
But the reality is that only 20% of the units will be sold to people who make 140% of the area median income, which in Miami-Dade County is $79,400, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. And 140% of $79,400 is $111,160. If that’s who qualifies for affordable or workforce housing, the university students who were there hoping to be residents are going to have to think again.
Read related: Kendall residents oppose early talks for development of waste transfer facility
It also means 80% will be “sold for maximum profit,” said Vanessa McDonald, a Redland resident who spoke against it. “It’s lower than most prices, yes, but is it really affordable?”
Most of the opposition was about the density — and the encroachment of development into what is a mostly rural area.

“This project is an affront to our agricultural community. It does not fit in everything surrounding it,” McDonald said, adding that it would put a strain on schools, hospitals, landfills, water supply, fire rescue response times and other county services.
Natalie Grant, a lifelong resident of Southwest Dade and a black farmer, said she found herself “at the intersection of both hope and despair.” She said the project could completely transform the neighborhood, but negatively.
Miami-based Bluenest Development filed land use amendment applications last year for three separate properties in Southwest Dade that could add up to almost 1,100 new homes. Bluenest at Krome would be the largest, with 700 homes, including at least 140 townhomes, plus 148,104 square feet of retail and food stores, at the southeast corner of Krome Avenue and Southwest 272nd Street. The company already owns about 29 acres of the property and has the rest under contract.
The county encourages a mix of housing types on large developments, said Bluenest lobbyist Pedro Gassant, who’s fast-talking and fast-thinking presentation stole the show and made Ladra feel for a minute like she was watching a Showtime series. He is a rising star. Learn his name, because we will hear more from him.
Gassant began by confidently asking everyone in favor of the project to stand. Most of the audience in commission chambers at County Hall stood up. “This is such a great visual, I could just say this is my presentation,” he said.
But he did not. He did, however, turn what could have been a 25-minute presentation into a 8-minute one. And that surely scored points with some commissioners.
“You know that we’re the epicenter of the housing crisis,” Gassant said. “We have to do more to address the unaffordable issues we are facing. We are facing a crucial shortage. We have a very low inventory.” That has driven the average price of homes to $665,000, he said, and, subsequently, rents have raised as well.
Read related: Miami-Dade Commission to consider another agricultural zoning change
The market is only going to get worse, he said.
“The county has recognized that we have to accelerate development, and you know we have a limited land supply,” Gassant told them, adding that the townhouse component would help provide for the “missing middle.”
What does that mean?
“That means that with a $4,500 deposit, and $2,600 a month, you can own a home,” Gassant said, adding that a similar property as a nearby rental would require an $8,400 deposit for the first three months to move in. Over 30 years, a renter would pay over $280,ooo more, he added. “With no equity, no homeownership.”
The project also serves the entire community, which he said is a food desert, by having an on-site food market. And there isn’t going to an adverse traffic impact, Gassant added with a straight face. “The infrastructure there is enough to accommodate.”
Um, agree to disagree.
District 8 Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins said that she was pleased to see the number of people that spoke in favor. “It’s clear to me that you spent time in this community, speaking about this project,” Cohen Higgins said, adding that the support was from a diverse population of people.
That’s called good casting.
“What I heard from those who spoke were people saying we need affordable housing for sale, which is something that I have been trying to accomplish for my entirety as a commissioner,” Cohen Higgins said, adding that 99% of the time, affordable housing projects are for rent. “The American Dream is only achievable in this country for most with the ability to buy a home and pass that home on to” the next generation.
“At over $600,000, that ability is closed to so many in our community,” she said.
Cohen Higgins asked if the county could get more than 20% of the units earmarked for workforce housing, which is 140 units out of the 700, which would start at $341,000. She added that the United Teachers of Dade teachers union had sent a letter supporting the project because of the lack of housing that forces teachers to move to Broward.
She did not get a commitment from the developer, but was happy with it anyway. “It’s a big deal,” Cohen Higgins said. “We talk about our housing crisis all the time and I feel strongly that this is exactly the kind of project our community needs.”
Read related: Survey of Kendall residents shows they agree on Calusa, split on fluoride
Commissioner Raquel Regalado was interested in the infrastructure investment, which includes a regional pump station to meet the needs of the basin, that other developments can also use, so they don’t plant more septic sewers in the ground. “This is an area that does not have access to water and sewer and does not have the development required to get water and sewer,” Regalado said. “This is a community benefit.”
She also asked the developer to consider stormwater drainage when making their landscape choices and asked for a friendly amendment providing for that. The developer agreed.
Commissioner Kionne McGhee said he would support it because he would take them at their word on the traffic study, which was his major concern. “That traffic is horrendous between the hours of 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. due to the increase of density in the area.”
Commission Chairman Anthony Rodriguez said he liked the farm style design on the homes and the fact that the single family homes were on the perimeter of the property — two things he believes would help the project fit into the neighborhood.
“Development is coming. This is something that we are expecting. It is coming and this project is within the UDB line,” Rodriguez said, referring to the Urban Development Boundary for which the commission needs a super majority to approve development. “Our staff, it is not a common theme for them to recommend projects like this and the fact that they recommend it speaks volumes to the work that you put into it,” he told the developers, who were in the audience.
A few commissioners said the project was “great” and spoke about the importance of mixed-use, live-work-play projects to bring jobs to outposts of the county and reduce traffic.
Bluenest Development is on a tear in Southwest Dade, planing two new communities. Bluenest Naranja would have 284 townhouses on 26.3 acres at 15335 SW 268th St. Bluenest Roatta would have 100 townhouses on 8 acres at the northwest corner of Southwest 226th Street and Southwest 129th Avenue. The both will have 20% of the homes earmarked for workforce housing.
“Redland is not known for townhomes. But all of a sudden it’s been overwhelmed with townhomes,” Mary Waters, a resident of the area, said at the meeting Tuesday. She also used the word “row houses” to describe the Bluenest at Krome project. “It’s known for agriculture. That’s why many of us came to Southwest Dade.
“The density of population being put in these areas is overwhelming.”
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What is Crown Castle hiding from everyone?
Opinion By Lissette Monzon, Kendale Lakes resident
Our community is being littered with unsupervised radiation-emitting equipment — and we’re being told to accept it without question.
All across Kendall in Miami-Dade County, residents have been waking up to find 5G “small cell” towers built just inches from their property lines — without warning, consent, or clear answers. What began as a tech infrastructure rollout has spiraled into an accountability and transparency, public health and safety issue that local government is dodging at nearly every corner.
Read related: Kendall residents take fight against 5G towers to Miami-Dade commissioners
Here are the problems:
Public records withheld — Why?
In a troubling twist, Miami-Dade County has refused to release key public records related to financial transactions between Crown Castle, the private telecom infrastructure company behind the towers, and the county’s Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTPW). These records include payment details, permitting communications, and emails/texts—documents that legally belong to the public.
Lissette Monzon speaks to the Miami-Dade Commission about 5G towers last year.
An official records request for “all communication and financials from Crown Castle to the County from 2019 to date” was submitted in July 2024. The county then closed the request in January 2025 claiming they have “provided all they could” which was, in fact, only the permit and plan of the one tower in question (no financials or communication).
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava was alerted to the issue and she graciously assigned staff to assist. Yet, still today, no documents have been located by this staff either.
Despite official requests, the county continues to block access, leaving constituents in the dark about who is benefiting financially and why public oversight is being circumvented. This lack of transparency speaks volumes. It raises major red flags around trust and suggests a deeper problem beneath the surface of this tower rollout.
No safety reports required — a dangerous conflict of interest
Sticker on a 5G tower box
Even more concerning, the county accepts $170,000 from Crown Castle to expedite these 5G small cell tower permits. In addition, the county does not require radiofrequency (RF) safety reports as part of the 5G tower application process — despite federal expectations of local authority being the first line of defense in ensuring RF safety for any tower permitted in their municipality. These reports are supposed to verify that the towers meet basic safety standards for human exposure to radiation.
This raises serious concern…is there a financial conflict of interest in the permitting department?
The Report Crown Castle Didn’t Want You to See
Radio Frequency Compliance Reports are encouraged to be shared in good faith with any resident who requests it. Yet, after nearly eight months of requesting the Radio Frequency Compliance Report from the county and Crown Castle, the Federal Communications Commission had to intervene and get the document from Crown Castle – this is highly unlikely.
What was found was alarming: The report made assumptions about the tower configuration that didn’t match what was built in the official engineering plans. It referenced a generic “scenario” but not the actual tower. It failed to account for the tilt and height actually used. Finally, all those mismatched details were input by Crown Castle, with no third party verification.
“Miami is not a testing ground for corporate shortcuts. My children are not tradeoffs in the race to 5G or infrastructure dollars.”
— Lissette Monzon

Now, numerous Kendall homeowners are putting in for these public records to see if this is an isolated issue or a systemic problem in the permitting department, which accepts $170,000 from Crown Castle to expedite these small cell permits. In any other regulatory space, such errors would prompt an immediate investigation. But in the race to digitize everything, even safety checks are being sacrificed.
Read related: Kendall residents worry re 5G towers that pop up suddenly by their homes
Residents deserve to know:

How much money Crown Castle is paying the county — and where that money is going
Why safety reports are not required for 5G tower approvals. This is not preempted by the state law, in case anyone tries to tell you it is.
If elected officials will implement an audit of the Kendall tower permits and not allow antennas to be activated until data is accurately reflected in the safety report and the engineering plans.

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You know who may not want Miami-Dade Commissioner Rene Garcia to be the next mayor of Hialeah? His longtime friend, lobbyist Terrence “TC” Wolfe. It could cost him $150,000.
Wolfe is president of the resource referral non-profit that Garcia founded, H.O.P.E. Mission, and a government consultant who works out of the same building as the commissioner’s district office — and has hundreds of thousands in municipal contracts.
That includes a $150,000 contract approved by the Hialeah Council in March with Wolfe’s firm, NCGA Inc., which stands for New Century Government Affairs (Garcia is vice president at a different firm called New Century Partnership). It is a $50,000-a-year contract for three years — actually $49,992, for a total of $149,976 — basically to rub elbows with electeds and push the city’s federal legislative priorities.
Isn’t that the mayor’s job? And wouldn’t it be a conflict of interest if Garcia became the mayor of the city that has a $150,000 with his BFF?
Garcia was pretty insulted when asked about the potential conflict of interest and told Political Cortadito that in 27 years in government — he began as a Hialeah councilman and was a house rep and a senator for eight years each — he has never been accused of any wrongdoing. Well, except for that paper bag he delivered to Hialeah boletera Deisy Cabrera after her 2012 arrest for collecting ballots for several candidates, which he said was a pan con bistec for the hungry old lady and not a cash payoff to keep her quiet.
Read related: Deisy Cabrera plea deal saves politicians tied to AB fraud
Furthermore, he intimated that perhaps Wolfe wouldn’t have that contract if Garcia were to be elected.
“I’m not the mayor of Hialeah now,” Garcia told Ladra. “If I were to become mayor, that could be revisited. We’re talking hypotheticals, but if you know me, you know I’m transparent.”
TC Wolfe and Rene Garcia last December at a H.O.P.E. Mission reception and awards event.
Wolfe also has a contract with Miami Lakes that won’t be at risk. The $5,000 monthly payment that expires next March was approved last month, with a bid waiver. But he’s been working for the town since 2023 and even helped Miami Lakes get its stand alone zip code — so it’s not confused with Hialeah — and at least $3 million in federal appropriations for the NW 59th Avenue project, Town Manager Edward Pidermann wrote in a memo April 15.
“NCGA has also assisted in the preparation of requests for new appropriations for the upcoming federal fiscal year,” Pidermann wrote, recommending an extension of the contract that would give Miami Lakes time to issue a request for proposals and open a competitive process, “while ensuring that the Town continues to receive the necessary federal support during this transition period without interruption.”
It’s probably just a coincidence that Miami Lakes’ newly elected Mayor Josh Dieguez, a longtime Garcia ally, is listed as a director of H.O.P.E. Mission in public records with the Florida Department of Corporations. (BTW: So is Jeanette Rubio, who Ladra thinks is Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s wife.)
Wolfe is a respected lobbyist that also has contracts with many school boards across the state. He advocates for education and real estate interests. With an office in DC, Wolfe lobbied the U.S. House and Senate in 2023 on behalf of the Association of Builders and Contractors’ Florida East Coast Chapter.
He is politically active, but just a little bit. According to multiple records, he has donated to a number of Republican campaigns across the state and to Maggie’s List, a federal political action committee founded in Florida in 2010 to get conservative women elected.
Read related: Hialeah Mayor Steve Bovo exits with pension, names Rene Garcia ‘successor’
There’s been a lot of attention lately to the $10 million in Medicaid settlement money that was diverted to (read: stolen by) The HOPE Florida Foundation, the non-profit which aims to get Floridians off public assistance, run by Casey DeSantis, the governor’s wife, who is still mulling a possible run to succeed him. Like this was a kingdom. Turns out that the non-profit then gave the money to two different political action committees that fought the legalization of marijuana last year.
Turns out, one of the PACs was run by James Uthmeier, who was also chief of staff to Ron DeSantis at the time and appointed earlier this year to attorney general.
It’s only natural to wonder if our local H.O.P.E. — it is a word used in a lot of non-profits — is also a conduit for funds to political committees or candidates. But it’s financial records show that it operates on a much smaller scale.
H.O.P.E. Mission reported almost $138,000 in revenue in 2023 and spent just over $52,000 in wages, according to ProPublica. According to an IRS filing of the 990 form, for tax-exempt organizations, the year before, in 2022, H.O.P.E. Mission reported a total of “contributions an grants” of $186,524 and wages of $45,767. The document expresses that the non-profit also had other expenses totaling $109,000 in 2022 and $85,790 in 2023, itemized as meals, rent, events (probably including backpacks and school supplies for distribution in August) and contracts.
Nothing reported to PACs.
Over the course of five years, from 2019 to 2023, H.O.P.E. Mission reported getting $648,846 in grants and contributions. Ladra was unable to find any IRS filings or financial reporting for 2024.
H.O.P.E. Mission’s address is in Hialeah, in the same building where Garcia has his District 13 office. Garcia also had his district state senate office in that building and Esteban “Steve” Bovo, who just stepped down as mayor of Hialeah to go lobby in D.C., had his office there when he was the county commissioner in that district.
It’s also the address for Wolfe’s consulting firm.
Cozy.
Former Hialeah Councilman Bryan Calvo has suggested that Garcia, if elected, will “continue covering up years of wasteful spending,” which he said includes this “shady $150,000 consulting contract handed to a close friend with zero transparency.
“This is how they do business — taking care of themselves while Hialeah families struggle to make ends meet,” Calvo wrote in an email to voters after Garcia announced.
But Garcia said Calvo is making baseless accusations because he has no track record to run on.
He said Calvo is “an immature child” who “has nothing on me,” so he has to make things up. Calvo’s claim to fame, suing the city to get the 911 records and claiming issues with response times, was a political stunt simply to go against Bovo, Garcia said. “Is narcissist behavior caused an unnecessary panic in the city of Hialeah.
“I have always been very clear and transparent about how I do my job, since I’ve been in the legislature,” Garcia said, sending hurt that it would even cross Ladra’s mind that he would grease the wheels to help a friend. He said he resigned from the H.O.P.E. board “for that reason, to avoid any conflict.
“You can never question my integrity,” Garcia said. “Everything I’ve done in the public arena is in the interest of the people who I serve.”
The post Miami-Dade’s Rene Garcia connected to lobbyist with $150,000 Hialeah contract appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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