Despite pleas from two municipal mayors and the executive director of the Miami-Dade County League of Cities to defer the decision, the five Miami-Dade County commissioners on the policy council moved forward a proposal to put a five-year moratorium on any new annexation or incorporation applications of unincorporated industrial or commercially zoned areas to preserve tax funds and, thus, services.
Two pending annexation applications from Doral and one from Florida City will be exempt. Also exempt: an incorporation application in Northwest Dade.
Oh, and any annexations of single family areas. This is only for commercial and industrial zones.
“Why isn’t anybody talking about the residential areas? Why? Because they cost more to service,” said Commissioner Kevin Cabrera, who sponsored the item, which now goes to the full commission for final approval. “They want to cherry pick the areas that produce revenue.”
Read related: Coral Gables cancels annexation efforts for Little Gables after public vote
Virginia Gardens Councilman Richard Block said their town should also be exempt because of attempts for 20 years to annex 450 acres just west of Miami International Airport, a process he called a “merry-go-round.” He mentioned other cities that have incorporated or annexed in those years and wondered if it’s because Virginia Gardens is a tiny square mile area with about 2,100 residents. In 2022, the county’s planning and zoning board recommended approval of the proposed annexation.
“All these other people got their brass ring and they got their annexations rammed through. We got stymied,” Block said. “We gotta be exempted from this ordinance and we gotta have an up or down vote.”
Miami Springs Mayor Maria Puente Mitchell asked for a deferral so the electeds in all 34 municipalities had “time to digest” the ordinance. “It came about very quickly and I don’t understand the rush.” She and others said there was no emergency. “It’s either a moratorium for all cities, or none at all,” Puente Mitchell said.
Sweetwater Mayor Jose “Pepe” Diaz, once a county commissioner not too long ago, said he understood how the county works but asked for a deferral so that there could be more clarity and understanding of the ramifications.
“We’re all good friends and we’re all trying to find solutions for our future,” Diaz said, asking the policy council not to “fast track” it.
Well, maybe they’re not such good friends.
“This is not a late filed item. This has been on the agenda for a week,” said Commission and Council Chairman Anthony Rodriguez. “If you guys didn’t catch it ’til Friday, I mean, then, lobby up. I don’t know.”
That could sound like the chairman is basically telling people to go through a gatekeeper.
Cabrera, who sponsored the item, said all the proper notice had been made and that it was an emergency because of the budget shortfall the county could be facing for the next five years, in part due to the establishment of the constitutional offices. “It’s a financial emergency,” he said, mentioning an item that passed the commission meeting last week to hire a consultant that would identify efficiencies and cost savings in different departments.
“We’re at a pivotal point in time with the constitutional offices being added,” Cabrera said. “If we continue to allow these areas that support these services, not support these services, what are we going to do?”
Read related: Javier Souto pulls back Westchester incorporation post resident pushback
He cited a memo from Mayor Daniella Levine Cava dated last July that says the proposed annexations of industrial and commercial zones “create significant financial impact” that could lead to adjusted services. “And adjusted services means less services,” Cabrera said.
Additionally, straw polls in both Miami Springs and Virginia Gardens indicated that a majority of the business owners and commercial property owners did not want to be annexed, Cabrera said. Business and property owners west of the MIA zone protested the proposed annexation into Virginia Gardens in January of 2023.
“Why should we raise taxes on small businesses to fund government that is out of control,” Cabrera said. “It’s not those small business fault that your millage rate is through the roof. Why don’t you review your finances.”
“Ultimately, a lot of these are land grabs,” Cabrera said.
Tough talk from someone who is going to be vacating that seat soon for an ambassadorship to Panama.

“A lot of people said they haven’t had time to digest this. It’s eight pages. It’s very simple. Unless its an exclusively residential area, there is a moratorium on annexations. It’s not that hard. If you and all the lawyers and all the members and all the city attorneys, village attorneys, town attorneys can’t figure out eight pages in more than a week, then I don’t know what to tell you, that’s very concerning.”
He saved his harshest words for Diaz.
“Mr. Diaz I know has called everybody under the moon, has not called me, the sponsor of the item. For somebody who says he has a lot of experience in county government, that’s kind of concerning,” Cabrera said. “And when he talks about process… it seems he has short term memory. In 2021, when he rammed through his annexations, which that was a ramming through, committee was waived and then he used his superpowers that is for emergencies related to Covid.”
Read related: Sweetwater annexation adds to tax rolls as Jose “Pepe” Diaz eyes mayor’s seat
“So if we want to talk about process, process was definitely not followed.”
He also reminded Diaz that he had voted in favor of two earlier moratoriums in 2005 and 2007.
“And those were about land grabs. This is because of financial issues,” Cabrera said. “We are protecting the county taxpayer.”
He said the five year term was necessary because the future of the constitutional offices and their costs are still unknown.
Commissioner Rene Garcia said he has always thought the county should all be incorporated and the county commission could just work on regional issues. But he supported the measure because of the uncertainty of future revenues and costs.
“It is a financial crisis, a financial issue that we have that we don’t know what it’s going to look like,” Garcia said.
 
 
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Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo is defending himself against another civil lawsuit, this time from two former employees of the Bayfront Park Management Trust who say they were forced to resign after they uncovered, and reported, inadequate accounting methods and questionable expenses. In their whistleblower complaint, filed last month, former executive director Jose Suarez, a longtime Carollo ally, and ex finance director Jose Canto allege that Carollo used the Trust to benefit friends and get kickbacks on overpriced and unnecessary deals.
Well, he’s not really defending himself. Carollo will once again be defended by former City Attorney Victoria Mendez, who is now in private practice, and former Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, who has defended Carollo before. Both work at Shutts & Bowen. Mendez joined last fall after she was unceremoniously fired from her post (read: allowed her to resign).
Ladra bets this is not what the commission had in mind when they let Tricky Vicky go.
Read related: Fired Miami City Attorney Victoria Mendez gets new gig at big firm, award
Commissioner Miguel Gabela, one of the architects of Mendez’s exit, is again bringing up a proposal to suspend any upfront payments of legal fees for elected officials “in certain cases,” providing for a review of future cases that require outside council due to conflicts of interest. It’s been continued twice and deferred once since he first put it on the agenda in November.
It’s on the agenda again for Thursday’s meeting.
But it’s something Gabela also brought up quickly in March of last year, only four months after winning his election, beating former Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla after the latter was arrested on public corruption charges and suspended from office (the case has since been dropped by the Broward State Attorney’s Office). Back then, Gabela wanted to stop payments to lawyer Benedict Kuehne, asserting a conflict of interest because he is retained to represent the city and commissioners and also suing Gabela and the city on behalf of Diaz de la Portilla, who wanted to disqualify Gabela on residency.
Read related: Miami Commissioner Miguel Gabela wants to slow the city’s legal spending
According to a complaint filed in federal court last year by QBE Specialty Insurance Company, a firm that provides legal insurance coverage for municipalities, Carollo’s legal defense costs — mostly spurring from the First Amendment violation lawsuit he lost against two Little Havana businessmen — had already exceeded $10 million.
 
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After several months of holding the Omni Community Redevelopment Agency hostage, Miami Commissioner Miguel Gabela — who has pushed for its expansion into Allapattah, the heart of his District 1 — looks like he is ready to compromise with a CRA all his own.
Miami Commissioners last month directed City Manager Art Noriega to expedite the establishment of an Allapattah Community Redevelopment Agency and secure funding so that they can begin “priority projects” by the end of February. The proposed boundaries are Northwest 39th Street to the north, Northwest 19th Avenue to the west, Northwest Seventh Avenue to the east and the Miami River to the south.
Read related: Fight over Omni CRA causes new rifts, alliances on Miami City Commission
Commissioner Damian Pardo, who has been fighting to keep the current Omni CRA boundaries, get an extension on its life and create a separate Allapattah CRA, must be smiling ear to ear. He’s also putting his money where his mouth is. Pardo wants the city manager to find a way to “claw back” $2 million in tax increment funding a year, for the next five years, from the Omni CRA to be directed for capital improvements, infrastructure repairs/enhancements and affordable housing projects in Allapattah. It’s on Thursday’s agenda.
That’s guaranteed seed money of $10 million that can be leveraged to get more.

Will Gabela go for it? He has previously said help like that is too little, too slow and that he wants to leverage the future TIF monies an expanded Omni CRA could generate for Allapattah. Will $10 million cut it?

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With no discussion or debate Tuesday, the Miami-Dade Commission approved the spending of more than $41 million for a new fleet of vehicles this year. Only Commissioners Micky Steinberg and Rene Garcia voted against it.
The rest of the commission voted to approve the purchase of 580 vehicles.
Miami-Dade County considers a vehicle ready for replacement it’s either 10 years old or has over 100,000 miles on it. Departments are supposed to look for replacements that could be “reallocated” from within the county’s inventory first.
“Repair history, age and mileage are also reviewed to ensure that replacement is more economical than repairing and maintaining a vehicle that is past its life cycle. Maintaining vehicles over 10+ years and/or over 100,000 miles can generate average annual maintenance costs in excess of $3,000 for light vehicles and $17,700 for heavy vehicles when compared to newer vehicles which are under manufacturer’s warranty for major repairs.”
Okay. But that means that if all 580 cars being replaced need maintenance at the heavy vehicle cost, it would still only be $10.2 million, instead of $41 million.
Read related: Miami-Dade Commission considers land buy near airport for $17 million

“The vehicles requested will be used to support various essential operations that service the Miami-Dade County community, to include water distribution and processing, police operations support and training, materials management, building and facility maintenance, community outreach programs, zoning enforcement and other related operational support activities that provide countywide services. The requested allocation will be used by departments as follows:

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Free testing available at County Hall next week
We’re No. 1! But we probably don’t want to be this time.
Miami-Dade is the nation’s leader in new HIV cases reported every year, according to the Center for Disease Control.  In fact, the county has had the highest annual rate of newly diagnosed HIV infections of all cities and counties in the United States monitored by the CDC since at least 2017 (42.9 cases per 100 000 residents back then). According to the Florida Department of Health, one in 82 adults in Miami-Dade County were known to be living with HIV in 2022.
This week, the Miami-Dade County Commission instructed the mayor to apply for up to $73.4 million in federal grants to test and treat people for and with HIV.
“Miami-Dade County once again leads the nation in new HIV cases,” said Commissioner Rene Garcia, who has been working to bring the number of HIV cases down for years, since his days in the state senate. “I think it’s important for us as a board to come together and the community to come together to see how we confront this epidemic once again in our community.”
Garcia told his colleagues on Tuesday that black and Hispanic women are the ones who are currently most affected and that he is going to work on some kind of awareness program through the healthcare community.
“We need to do a lot better job in making sure our people are tested and get them treatment,” Garcia said.

The resolution approved Tuesday retroactively authorizes the county mayor or her designee to apply for a combined total of up to $73,402,688 in Ending the HIV Epidemic Initiative (EHE) funds from the United States Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration (HHS) and expend them during a five year period from March 1 this year through Feb. 28, 2030. The funds would address Pillar Two (treat people with HIV rapidly and effectively to reach sustained viral suppression) and Pillar Four (respond quickly to potential HIV outbreaks to get prevention and treatment services to people who need them) of this initiative, according to the memo attached to the resolution.
At the same time, the commission approved the authorization of a one-year extension of existing contracts providing services already “in anticipation of this grant award” to “ensure that client services are not unnecessarily disrupted while a new RFP can be developed.”

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It’s been 19 days. Less than three weeks ago, President Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States, the de facto leader of the free world. But it seems like it’s been several months already. Maybe a year.
Ladra is exhausted. Numb. Scared. Angry. Dumbfounded. All at the same time. People are calling it emotional whiplash.
It’s weird that it keeps getting worse, even though you think it can’t get worse.
It couldn’t get worse than calling it the Gulf of America. Then it couldn’t get worse than approving immigration raids at schools and churches and hospitals. Then it couldn’t get worse when he rescind the 1965 Equal Employment Opportunity Act. Then it couldn’t get worse than the dumbest trade war in U.S. history, maybe world history. Then it couldn’t get worse than calling Canada a potential 51st state of the union. Then it couldn’t get worse than abolishing the Department of Education. Then it couldn’t get worse than proposing we “own” Gaza and redeveloping it into the “Riviera of the Middle East,” as if it were some real estate deal.
Then, Thursday, Russell Vought, co-author of Project 2025 — remember when Trump said he knew nothing about it? — was confirmed as director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, which often goes under the radar but can be key in implementing Project 2025, er, the president’s agenda. As has become the norm, it was a totally partisan vote.
“Confirming the most radical nominee, who has the most extreme agenda, to the most important agency in Washington,” is what Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called it in a floor speech. “Triple-header of disaster for hardworking Americans.”
It shouldn’t be surprising anymore and to some degree, it’s not. People have Trump fatigue. Our news alerts have never come in so fast and furious. Mental health experts are urging us to shut off notifications.
“Trump officials eye daily migrant detainee flights to Guantanamo Bay.”
“Illinois locked in legal battles with Trump administration over immigration policy.”
“Trump imposes sanctions on International Criminal Cout for investigating Israel.”
“Trump’s tariffs will raise the roof on home prices.”
“How Elon Musk boosted false USAID conspiracy theories to shut down global aid.”
“Miami-Dade teacher with DACA faces deportation after being detained by Ice.”
That’s just a small sampling over a 24-hour period.
The last one is about a middle school science teacher in Miami-Dade, a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, otherwise known as a DREAMer (someone brought to the country as a child), who had gone to a regularly scheduled immigration hearing, which is the process to legalize one’s status. This is someone who was raised here, educated here and certified here to teach our children. In other words, not a criminal.
Miami-Dade Public Schools, preparing for the impending raids, saying that student information is protected and that immigration officials can only enter a school campus if they have a judicial warrant.
This rapid fire of changes and information is a strategy, folks. They call it “flood the zone” and it is meant to overwhelm the media and public opinion so they can sneak shit in.
Did anybody catch the fact that Trump signed an executive order Tuesday pulling out of the United Nations Human Rights Council? Probably not. But it makes sense. He’s violating human rights right here in America, so why be a hypocrite?
Did you know that hours after her confirmation, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi created a “weaponization working group” to review all the cases against Trump? Let’s call it a political retaliation group because that’s what it is.
And while we were busy reeling at the crazy confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for health and human services secretary and Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence, nobody paid attention to the fact that employees at the new Elon Musk DOGE department were told to stop using a team communication platform called Slack at work until they can transition to a different platform that is “not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.” They don’t want anyone to know what they’re up to.
That’s the whole philosophy behind this “flood the zone” rapid fire strategy: Get people so confused and exhausted that they can’t really see the big picture. But we have to resist. We must stay vigilant.
Drink more coffee. Take your vitamins. Do whatever you have to do to stay on top of the Trump administration and its efforts to dismantle our democracy.
It’s only been 19 days. We have 1,442 days to go. At least.
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