After what turned out to be yet another City Hall cage match between Miami commissioners Joe Carollo and Miguel Gabela, the commission voted to abolish the Bayfront Park Management Trust. Not right now. But by January of next year.
This was Commissioner Damian Pardo‘s brilliant idea. Both he and Gabela folded fast like a pair of vinyl strap lawn chairs. And they didn”t have to. It looked early on like they could have killed the whole concept of ending the Trust with a 2-2 vote because Commission Chairwoman Christine King had to leave after the lunch break. Carollo even said he didn’t want to take up the item because he knew it could be killed with a tie. Didn’t they get it? And when Commissioner Ralph Rosado said he wanted to hear the item, they had the opportunity to do just that.
And they blew it. Damn newbies!
Read related: Miami’s Ralph Rosado aims to kill the Bayfront Park Trust for Joe Carollo
In the end, the Trust was finished with a surprising 3-1 vote. Surprising because Carollo voted against it and Pardo and the new Bayfront Trust chair, Gabela — who had been fighting for the Trust’s survival somewhat aggressively — voted for the abolition. Next year, the management of both Bayfront Park and Maurice Ferre Park — and the millions that Bayfront takes in from vendors and events — will be in the control of the city manager’s office.
Or something. They have six months to figure it out. Maybe they can vote to reinstate the Trust, instead.
Rosado, elected last month to replace the late Manolo Reyes, was the one who sponsored this item. But alert readers might recognize it as a stunt Carollo pulled in February. That was one month after he and the city were sued by two whistleblowers who were forced to resign from the Trust after they found financial discrepancies that indicate fraud and abuse by Carollo, who was the chairman for the past seven years. There is no way the two things are not related.
Rosado said it was his own idea. He’s been watching the Bayfront Park Trust for years and it’s an embarrassment, he said. It’s a distraction and a black eye on the city of Miami.
But Carollo first proposed this in February, right after he was accused of using the Trust funds as his own personal political piggy bank. And his accusers have the receipts.
Also, Rosado he had just told the commissioners to give the Miami Downtown Development Authority a chance to address issues that were brought by residents who don’t want to be taxed anymore so that the agency can just give the money away to billionaire brands like the UFC and FC Barcelona, while paying bloated salaries for duplicated position.
So, the DDA, which was established in 1967, deserves another chance. But the Bayfront Trust, created 20 years later in 1987, does not? Check.
Carollo, who was removed as chair earlier this year after the allegations of his abuse of the funds surfaced, claims the park flourished under his management. Millions in revenue! Events galore! The fountain danced! And the grass practically trimmed itself!
Read related: Commissioner Miguel Gabela set to expose more Bayfront Park Trust issues
But Gabela has launched an investigation and financial audit into the Trust’s finances under Carollo’s leadership, which might be why he wants it abolished now, not later. It’s hard to interview witnesses if they are scattered to the winds.
It was hard to watch Gabela cave in to Carollo, especially after he was so vehemently against the abolition. Turning up the volume and getting personal with jabs — he flashed a picture of Joe in his wifebeater shirt and reminded folks about that arrest — it almost seemed at one point that he was going to throw a chair.
Carollo accused Gabela of trying to politicize the Trust and stage a personal vendetta. Gabela countered by pointing out the pile of lawsuits, the whispers of mismanagement, and the fact that an actual forensic audit is in motion something that would normally make most public officials go quiet, but not Carollo, whose middle name might as well be “Litigation.”
It’s all gotten so familiar, you could almost set your watch to the shouting.
The post Miami Commission ends Bayfront Park Management Trust in surprise vote appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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Remember those lifetime term limits that Miami commissioners are set to put on the ballot? The one that would prevent legacy professional politicians from coming back again and again?
Not so fast, gente. There’s now a loophole for the most professional of all, current Commissioner and former Mayor Joe Carollo, who is threatening to run for mayor, and former Commissioner Xavier Suarez, who then went on to serve as Miami-Dade commissioner in District 7 and is still reportedly mulling a return to the Miami mayoral post.
What started as a bold move to end Miami’s reign of revolving-door political reyes y reinas is now looking more like a cleverly disguised no-bid traffic circle. And another huge bait and switch.
Commissioner Damian Pardo, who swore this change, which would have to be approved by voters in November, would be “transformational” (his word, not ours)—is suddenly looking super bendy after some behind-the-scenes tweaking ahead of a final vote this week. And surprise, surprise: the edits might just open the door for both Carollo and Suarez to run for mayor in 2026.
Because in Miami, “lifetime” apparently means “unless you wait a little while and come back with a different haircut.”
The original version of Pardo’s plan was simple and actually had teeth: two terms, period. Whether as commissioner or mayor, and regardless of whether you served a full term or just a couple of cafecitos’ worth of time in office. Even a single day would count. That would’ve effectively cut off career politicians like Carollo and Suarez from ever returning to the throne.
Pero no, caballero. That was before the city lawyers and political calculators got involved.
Now? The resolution on the actual language for the ballot includes a tidy little clause: “time served as a result of having been elected to fill a vacancy” won’t count toward term limits. Translation? If you got in through a special election, sorta like Commissioner Ralph Rosado did last month, you still get to serve two four-year terms after that. And if you only served part of a term, like Carollo and Xavier Suarez has, that doesn’t count.
¿Y entonces? ¿What was the point? Didn’t Pardo also champion the change in election year, effectively cancelling this November’s election for mayor and two commissioners, precisely to prevent this kind of thing from happening.
Read related: Miami lifetime term limits, election year change intertwined, like bait & switch
Pardo, who does not return Ladra’s calls anymore, has always insisted this isn’t about any one person. The Miami Herald quoted him saying, “I don’t know how it impacts Joe Carollo or anyone.” But, as Charlie Cale from Poker Face would say: BS. Even his advocates, the ones he recruited to support this on social media videos, are absolutely sold to the change in election year, which gives everyone an additional 12 months in office, because the “sacrifice” is worth getting rid of Joe Carollo forever.
Pardo says it’s about fairness. About legality. About making the reform “legally defensible.”
Does he really mean that this is what is needed to get the votes? Carollo should get on board now — even though this could technically prohibit his brother Frank Carollo for running for his seat again. And it also helps defend against a possible veto from Mayor Francis Suarez, if he wants to do his dad a solid.
“Joe Carollo has been mayor twice. Xavier Suarez has been mayor four times,” former Miami Commissioner Ken Russell, who is running for mayor, told Political Cortadito. “If this ‘lifetime’ term limit doesn’t apply to them, then it doesn’t mean anything.”
Read related: Miami Commissioners pass election date change — and steal an extra year
He also raises an interesting question: How did this language change from the first vote, which directed the city attorney to draft language that would exclude everybody, regardless of the length of terms they served? Did he get orders from Pardo to make the change? Who put their finger in the pot?
Did he get consensus from the commissioners? Like, finding out what it would take to get it to pass? Wouldn’t that be a violation of the Sunshine Law?
This change has gone under the radar. The Miami Herald’s Tess Riski wrote about it over the July 4th holiday weekend and most people, Ladra would argue, don’t even know about it.
The city commission meeting begins at 9:30 a.m. at City Hall and can also be viewed online at the city’s website.

The post Bait and switch on lifetime term limits proposal for Miami mafia politicos appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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Pressure mounted after weeks of inaction, soft words
Finally! After weeks of soft punches and lackluster response, Miami-Dade Mayor Danielle Levine Cava has found her spine and is fighting back against the fascist forces that built and are operating a secret immigration jail in the middle of the Everglades — on an abandoned airstrip that we, the people, own, by the way — without so much as a whisper of due process or transparency.
As far as Gov. Ron DeSantis is concerned, Miami-Dade can go pound sand. Who needs local government or Home Rule when you have emergency powers and delusions of grandeur?
Up to now, Levine Cava has been too polite, citing mostly environmental and financial concerns in very bureaucratic messages. But on Tuesday, she demanded the state provide the county with actual accountability and a peek into the 3,000-bed detention compound plopped down like a giant slap in the face — or federal middle finger pointed at Miami-Dade leaders and residents.
It was almost like she had no political aspirations after this.
But that changed this week, just as the first detainees were getting uncomfortable in their new digs, perhaps in response to a letter sent to the mayor from a coalition of community groups and a pair of billboards that called her out and told residents to urge her to sue the state. Maybe she had to poll first?
In the sharply-worded letter of her own to Attorney General James Uthmeier (a.k.a. DeSantis’ old chief of staff turned full-time enabler), the mayor asked for monitoring access, remote video, weekly updates, and in-person inspections of the sprawling complex, which the AG himself proudly branded “Alligator Alcatraz.” That name ain’t even creative or ironic. It sounds like the punchline of a bad Florida Man joke.
They even have merch. For $30 you can own a t-shirt and for $27, a “trucker’s hat.” Proceeds go to the Republican Party of Florida. Because they see Alligator Alcatraz as a revenue source. Maybe that’s the punchline.

To be fair to the mayor, this quiet power and land grab has happened faster than the cafecito turnaround at the Versailles ventanita. The state took over the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport on June 23, and poof — that was the end of local authority. One minute it was county land in the middle of Big Cypress swamp; eight days later, it was a DeSantis internment camp, complete with chain link cages, a 10,000-foot runway to sneak people out of the country and zero press access.
Even Immigration and Customs Enforcement is trying to distance itself from this abomination, pointing fingers at Florida. This is all the state’s doing.
So, what’s changed Levine Cava’s tone in two weeks? Let’s see…
Read related: Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s fluoride veto was carefully cast
National horror story newscasts about the inhumane conditions in ICE facilities and poor treatment of detainees, including a 75-year-old Cuban man who was detained for deportation because of an 1980s marijuana arrest and died in custody in Miami, may have gnawed at her. Half of the deaths in ICE custody since the beginning of the year, by the way, have been in Florida. And that’s before they built a concentration camp of soft-sided tents on a patch of flood-prone wetlands at the edge of the Everglades to keep immigrants that are being snatched off the streets.
Videos have been posted of water pooling around electrical wires at the grand opening tour taken last week by President Donald Trump and DeSantis, which was catered — gotta have finger food for the hungry haters — by local eateries that are now being boycotted. Family members of the first detainees have reported their loves are lacking food (they get one meal a day), basic hygiene and access to legal representation. A group of state legislators were denied entry, even though they have a legal right to come up in for a surprise inspection whenever they want.
Digital billboards shaming the mayor into action — at I-95 and NW 135th Street and on the Dolphin Expressway, facing west — followed a letter sent by a coalition of more than 50 organizations asking La Alcaldesa and the commissioners to sue the state and get Alligator Alcatraz shut down. The letter points out how the whole deal is rips off the county, which is smart because the way to our electeds hearts is through their wallets. The state has offered to pay just $20 million for land worth ten times that, and that would be paid out of disaster funds allocated for things like hurricane relief. The annual operation is estimated at $450 a year, while the state expects to see a $2.8 billion budget shortfall next year.

“DeSantis’s move to seize land owned by Miami-Dade County worth an estimated $195 million has been met with almost no resistance by local officials,” starts the letter from the organizations — which include the ACLU, the Florida Immigrant Coalition, Florida Rising, Community Justice Center, Dream Defenders and Engage Miami, among others. They expect more from our leaders in a county with the highest percentage of immigrant residents in Florida, where more than 54% of residents are foreign-born and more than 70% are Hispanic. They criticized Levine Cava’s “meek resistance” and said her previous communication with the governor had been “technocratic.”
They pointed to “catastrophic” potential impacts, which range from environmental to fiscal to humanitarian.
“The mad dash to open a 3,000 person detention camp is irresponsible and dangerous. Confining immigrants in cages within tents on the ancestral land of the Miccosukee and Seminole Tribes during Florida’s extreme summer and hurricane seasons is a deliberately cruel scheme designed to inflict suffering on those held there. That kind of cruelty is reminiscent of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s inhumane tent city in Arizona, which was shut down after years of lawsuits from mistreated prisoners.
“Environmentally, Alligator Alcatraz threatens one of the most ecologically significant and fragile landscapes in North America. The proposed development site is surrounded by sensitive habitats that are already under increasing pressure from climate change, invasive species, and human encroachment. The heavy infrastructure and increased activity associated with a high-security detention camp, including lighting, road traffic, noise pollution, water discharge, and waste generation, would further fragment wildlife corridors and degrade ecosystems protected under federal and state law.”
Then there’s the slap in the face to the native Americans who were in the Everglades before we were. For Florida’s indigenous peoples, the site is priceless sacred ground. Miccosukee tribal member Betty Osceola has been out there protesting almost every day.
Read related: Miami-Dade commissioners sit silent as resident is dragged out of County Hall
“There are also serious questions about how such a site would protect any semblance of due process for immigrants,” the letter states. “Will those detained in this Everglades Detention Camp have access to lawyers? Will loved ones be able to visit and keep in touch with those in detention? Will there be any oversight by third-party groups on the conditions at this detention camp and the treatment of those detained there? Considering the horrific conditions at other detention facilities in Florida, like Krome Detention Center, the mistreatment and death of detained immigrants seems inevitable – and intentional.”
It’s almost certain that people will die at Alligator Alcatraz. If they haven’t already. Authorities denied that there was a medical emergency even after an ambulance was seen leaving the compound this week. A local hospital official confirmed that they had treated a detainee from the brand new facility. Once caught, authorities admitted someone was transported, without providing any details. But they said he came back and was fine. How can we believe anything they say?
“Authoritarianism festers when executives like Ron DeSantis are allowed to rule by decree. Even before Alligator Alcatraz, DeSantis had defined his political legacy by gleeful cruelty against immigrants. Miami-Dade officials have to unequivocally stand up for all their constituents and push back against those profiting from human suffering in Florida. While we appreciate that Mayor Daniella Levine Cava offered some mild resistance with her letter to the Governor outlining environmental and financial concerns with the project, this moment requires leadership and courage and unequivocal opposition by this body to stop the state law enforcement descension on the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport site in the Everglades.
“We call on Mayor Levine-Cava and the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners to file a lawsuit to stop the operation of Alligator Alcatraz, the dehumanization of Florida residents, and the destruction of our shared natural resources. Any failure to act now implies complicity for the human rights abuses and deaths that will follow if Alligator Alcatraz is allowed to operate.”
What’s she gonna tell her grandchildren?

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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?
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