Coral Gables voters got a mailer this week that attacks Ralph Cabrera on development, calling him a “career politician” and saying he approved 40% of the tallest buildings in the city.
But nobody is taking the credit.
Not only is the figure pulled out of the sky, with no reference to any research or parameters — are we talking about the five “tallest buildings,” for example? — the piece says it is paid for by a Jensen Beach political action committee that told Ladra Friday it had nothing to do with it.
So that means we do not know and may never know who really paid for the mail piece. Unless we can get the State Attorney’s Office to investigate. Because someone did break the law here.
Read related: Coral Gables candidate Jorge Fors had illegal Homestead exemption
Ladra’s first guess was that the piece came from Jorge Fors‘ camp. Neither Carmen Olazabal, the onetime interim city manager, nor downtown property owner Jackson “Rip” Holmes have the funds you would need to do this kind of mailer. And, besides, the Leadership for Florida’s Future PAC has ties to Fors’ campaign manager Steve Marin, who got $63,000 from them last year.
But Marin, who said he was paid for work on state races, told Ladra he had nothing to do with the hit piece, either. “I don’t have a PAC for this reason, said Marin, adding that Fors’ mailers will come directly from the campaign.
Ladra specifically asked a PAC administrator if they had maybe sent it on behalf of Steve Marin. Debbie Millner, wife of PAC Chairman Michael Millner, vehemently denied sending it on behalf of anybody.
“We know nothing about it. We didn’t send it out,” Millner told Ladra Friday morning. “No one asked us if they could use our political committee at all.”
Leadership for Florida’s Future doesn’t have any contributions or expenses reported since October, except for $1,300 paid last month in accounting fees. The report for March won’t be filed and public until after the election April 9.

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Former State Sen. and current Miami city commission candidate Alex Diaz de la Portilla had another stellar month for fundraising in February, more than doubling his total to almost $86,000.
But at least half of the $45,380 raised in February, according to the campaign financial reports filed last week, was through bundles, which generally indicate donors with more than just a passing interest.
That includes $2,250 in 11 contributions from real estate development companies tied to Sergio Pino, $5,000 in five maximum contributions from real estate development companies controlled by Henry Torres, $3,000 in three maximum gifts from property management companies held by Lewis Swezy, $3,000 from lobbyist Eric Zichella, another $5,000 from real estate and development companies controlled by Rolando Delgado, $2,500 from former State Rep. turned lobbyist Eddy Gonzalez and $2,500 from hotel developer Richard Meruelo.
Ladra can’t help but wonder if these folks want a piece of the Miami Freedom Park Pie, the mega shopping/office/retail complex disguised as a soccer stadium that is planned for Melreese Golf Course. It’s got room for a hotel, too. The Dean — whose first month was also marked by a bunch of bundles and lobbyist dinero — is running for the seat vacated by the termed out Commissioner Willy Gort, who opposes the mega complex as planned.
Read related: Alex DLP bolts out of Miami gate with a campaign cash advantage
The open seat has drawn a number of candidates.
The only one with more money than Diaz de la Portilla is Miguel Angel Gabela, who loaned himself $100K. He raised another $17,000 but has spent more than half of that so far. Horacio Aguirre has spent the same $8,575 or so, but he has raised a total of $42,425. Eleazar David Melendez, the former aide to Commissioner Ken Russell, raised $4,442 in February, but spent $3 more. He has a total bank of $22,165. The only other person to have raised any funds is Yanny Hidalgo with $12,087, and spent $2,561 of that.
Former congressional candidate Michael Hepburn has withdrawn from the race and none of the other three candidates have raised a dime.
But, wait, there’s more. Because Alex DLP’s political action committee — the one he used for the senate race and then the county commission race — has raised almost $22,000 since October. He’s also spent almost $10,000, including $3K to Absentee Ballot Queen Sasha Tirador.

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Voters in Pinecrest have been asked to decide by next week whether the village should issue $15 million in bonds — the largest in the village’s short history — to provide access to the last 739 properties that do not have Miami-Dade drinking water and add fire hydrants.
If the referendum passes — it’s a mail-in ballots only election and they are due March 26 — property owners will have to pay an additional 23 cents per $1,000 of taxable value every year. The average homeowner would pay about $158 more a year — or a month’s worth of Starbuck’s. Of course, there are homes that will pay much more than that. Over the next 20 years, the average homeowner will pay a total of $3,160 to fund the completion of the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer infrastructure in the village, approximately 18.5 miles (98,000 linear feet) of waterline, and add 208 fire hydrants to village streets.
The fire hydrants will be added because the work is being done — not because they are needed. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue has repeatedly told Pinecrest that they have plenty water capacity to handle any fire in the village.
But proponents of the hookup — which include former and current electeds — are using that to scare people into voting yes.
Read related: More money, less scrutiny, in Miami-Dade water projects
Hooking up to county water has been a big Pinecrest issue since even before incorporation in 1996.  “It has been one of our top priorities over the years, and we have made significant progress on completing this system,” said Mayor Joe Corradino.
“Over the past 22 years the idea of going to referendum has been discussed but not acted upon,” Corradino said in a online message to residents on the city’s website page dedicated to the water vote. “Our Village Charter allows a referendum. Today we have never been closer to completing this project. The number of homes and the total cost are such that we can hold this referendum.”
Back then, there were about 1,500 properties that relied on wells rather than county water. The 2004 countywide Building Better Communities bond referendum supplied Pinecrest with $4.3 million for the water system. The Village also got a Florida state grant of $1.5 million for the infrastructure up to the sidewalk. The $5.8 million paid for infrastructure up to the sidewalk completed about 10 years ago, said City Manager Yocie Galiano, calling that Phase I and Phase II of the water system.  Property owners still had to pay for the service hook-up connection from the public right of way to their homes/buildings, she said.
The red properties are the ones that need lines. The yellow properties already have lines and will have to pay for hooking up to water in addition to the additional tax.
Galiano said only 535 or so homes were hooked up as part of Phase I and Phase II. Then the county money ran out. Another 200 or so were homes or properties that were redeveloped or for whatever reason and paid out of pocket to hook up on their own, almost one by one. The 739 homeowners who remain did not want, at that time, to pay an assessment to finish the job.
Miami-Dade County policy dictates that the cost associated with new water infrastructure be borne by private developers/private property owners. Revenue from the sale of water to existing customers can only be used to fund expenditures and improvements to the existing infrastructure, not new infrastructure — not unless they can cover it with “economic development” like the megamall in Northwest Dade.
After some lobbying for years by a group of the affected homeowners, the village council voted to put the referendum on the ballot in January. It was a 4-1 vote, with Councilman James McDonald dissenting. In an op-ed in Community Newspapers, McDonald wrote that it was unfair to saddle the entire town with a 20-year tax on something they will not reap benefits from.
“Once these water lines are built they will be turned over to Miami-Dade County for the county to derive all the revenue. Pinecrest gets nothing but debt for 20 years,” he said. “From my perspective, it is not fiscally responsible to do this to incur the largest bond debt ever in Pinecrest’s history and then give the infrastructure we build to Miami-Dade County.
“Pinecrest will not own the water lines nor will it get the revenue stream from the users to finance the bond,” McDonald wrote. “It is simply not appropriate to saddle the entire village with a debt that will only benefit 740 parcels and where Miami-Dade county will receive the revenues.”
McDonald said he can think of plenty of other things that more village residents would prefer spending that kind of money on — parks, a gymnasium, maybe — and then there’s the nagging little fact that it does nothing about the fact that 95% of the village has septic tanks, a growing sea level rise issue.
If the infrastructure was funded via a special taxing district of only the 739 property owners affected, that would cost an average of about $20,000 over 20 years, city administrators said. It would be $1,500 annually, not $150.
Still, some property owners don’t care if it’s not their problem: They don’t want to pay for their neighbors’ upgrades.
“While I fully realize the issue at stake, I just cannot seem to grasp the concept of making every Pinecrest property owner (whether it be a home or vacant land) for an issue belonging to just 750 homes,” wrote Francisco Mehech in a letter to the editor in the Pinecrest Tribune. He owns four properties and just sold a property that he had to personally pay the hookups for, he said.
“It just doesn’t seem fair to place the burden of these select few into the pocketbooks of the many other property owner and/or residents in the Village,” Mehech wrote, adding that he is a no.
But there is no organized opposition. And there is organized advocacy.
Proponents have formed a political action committee called Pinecrest H2O, with former Councilwoman Cheri Ball as treasurer, to push the yes vote. It is unfortunate that some of these advocates — who include former Mayor Cindy Lerner — seem to be misleading voters and provoking fears about fire safety to get the referendum passed.
Corradino said that while the village will “facilitate this referendum,” the village cannot, by law, advocate for a yes or no vote. Except it sure seems they have their fingers crossed.
The web page features a colorful, upbeat image of the word “Inspire” and the village undertook an aggressive “get out the vote campaign” that included eight — count ’em, eight; two per week, including the last one this past Saturday  — public workshops for residents and property owners to learn about the project and see the map. The village slapped posters in public spaces and sent postcards to all registered voters and a letter from the administration explaining what the financial impact would be.
They got one of those FDOT-like signs with the blinking lights to remind folks to vote — and they hired a guy with a spinning sign on U.S. 1.
“We are doing everything we can to get the vote out,” Galiano said.
It’s apparently working. The Miami-Dade Elections Department reports that as of Tuesday, 3,948 ballots had been returned from the 13,300 mailed to voters. That represents a turnout so far of practically 30%.
“In over two decades we have never been closer to bringing this issue to a conclusion,” Corradino said. And we’ll know next week.
Unless, of course, there’s a lawsuit.

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A subcommittee in the Florida House will hear the first bill Tuesday to legislate the process for felons to get their voting rights restored, which voters approved last year with the passage of Amendment 4 by 64% of Florida voters.
But in the typical bait and switch style of our Republican-controlled legislature, it seems the as yet unnamed bill’s true intention is to make it as difficult as possible for convicted felons to register to vote.
Supporters of the state constitutional amendment that passed last year — including Desmond Meade and the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition that promoted a winning campaign for the “second chances” amendment — have come out against the bill and urge others to also.
Meade, right, called it an “unconstitutional overreach,” which is way too polite.
Ladra calls it a slap in the fact to voters who overwhelmingly approved the amendment and who want to see these people’s voting rights’ restored.
Neil Volz of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition says the measure changes the definition of completed sentence, which has already been established by the Florida Clemency Board. It will also give non-judicial officials a say on the criteria.
The ACLU issued a “make the call” call for voters to call their state reps on the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee and urge them to vote no.
Their Suggested call script:

“Hi, my name is _________ and I’m calling on behalf of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition and 1.4 million formerly convicted people throughout Florida who just had their voting rights restored by Amendment 4 last November.
I’m a Florida voter, and I want to say that I am opposed to Proposed Committee Bill 19-03 in the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee.
I am opposed to the bill because it will restrict the number of people who are eligible to vote. This bill would change the law to allow people outside of the judicial system to determine who can and can’t participate in our democracy. Florida has an existing standard for completion of sentence that is currently being used. Changing that standard represents a threat to what the nearly 65% of Florida voters who approved Amendment 4 intended.
I ask that the Representative please vote NO on 19-03 in the Criminal Justice Subcommittee tomorrow morning. Thank you!

Who to call:

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Maybe nobody had heard of him in Coral Gables before Jorge Fors, Jr., decided to run for city commission. But they may have heard of him at the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
The city commission candidate has gotten 31 traffic tickets in 18 years.
A 2008 photo from Jorge Fors’ Facebook page shows the open container charge in 2005 was not an isolated incident.
He was also arrested three times in his indiscriminate youth, although he may have been allowed to sign his “promise to appear.” One was for underage drinking in 2003 in Gainesville, another was for open container in 2005 — probably at a UF game — and a third for unauthorized possession of a driver’s license in 2003, which sounds like he probably had a fake ID found on him when Florida Highway Patrol stopped him for speeding in St. Lucie County on the same date. He got pre-trial diversion for the first two charges but nolle pros on the third.
Read related: Ralph Cabrera outraises opponents in 4-way commission race
Fors is running for the open seat vacated by a retiring Commissioner Frank Quesada against three other, better known candidates: Former Commissioner Ralph Cabrera, onetime city manager Carmen Olazabal, and downtown property owner Jackson “Rip” Holmes. It’s certainly not going to help Fors for more Gables voters to know that he has amassed 31 traffic tickets since 2000. And while, sure, many of them were in his more indiscriminate youth — eight are in 2002 when he was 19 — he had his license suspended in 2015. We know because he got a ticket for knowingly driving with his license suspended.
The most recent ticket is for running a red light in 2016.
Read related: Coral Gables candidate Jorge Fors had illegal Homestead exemption
Of course, Fors says that wasn’t him. That was his father, who has the same name. And, we supposed, Papi was driving his car, too? In any case, these came up under his name and date of birth, not his dad’s.
In fact, Fors (pictured on a motorcycle here from a vacation photo posted on Facebook) has an excuse for everything. This is the same guy who told Ladra that he had a right to claim Homestead exemption on a condo in Little Havana for at least eight years while he lived with his parents in Coral Gables. He said this after he already paid $14,000 in back taxes, interest and penalties for having claimed that exemption fraudulently. So he knew he had no right and still tried to excuse himself.
There are also three tickets for running red lights, three more for blowing through stop signs, three for speeding — one looks like speeding in a school zone — and at least one careless driving ticket. He had no excuses for those.
And for someone who drives like he does, he takes too many chances: Fors was also cited three times for not wearing his seat belt.
Read related: Coral Gables candidate Jorge Fors stirs annexation fears for votes
Fors would not return several calls and texts to his cellphone inquiring about the arrests. He ignored more than one text specifically asking about the arrests. This is his emailed defense, in its entirety, for his traffic history:

“As a young driver, I was cited for avoidable things like failing to have proof of insurance or registration, as well as some citations resulting from inexperience but, as a 35-year old father, I can promise you that I am a safe and responsible driver.
But have you analyzed the details of these citations?  I’ve only ever been found ‘guilty’ of three citations my entire life.
With regard to ‘speeding,’ I’ve only been stopped for  ‘speeding’ three (3) times in my entire life and I was only found guilty of actually speeding in the case of one ticket.  One being dismissed, and the other being withheld.  Keep in mind, the most recent one was almost 12 years ago, and before that 15 years ago.  I don’t think it’s fair to say that I have an issue with speeding.
With respect to red lights, it’s a similar situation.  There is only one (1) red light camera ticket in 2014 for which I was found guilty. I never received any notice in the mail about this one so I don’t know much about it.  I learned of it long after they entered the fine and the time to pay it expired — I tried to complain but eventually gave up and just paid it.  The 2013 and 2016 tickets were also red light cameras.  The 2016 one was not me, it was my father (same name). The one in 2013 was dismissed (I believe I showed that I was simply making a right turn on red), and one in 2010, over 8 years ago, was not a red light camera, and it was withheld.

Anyplace else, voters might shrug their shoulders. But this is Coral Gables, where some residential streets recently got 25MPH zone signs to slow traffic down. Two years ago, former Commissioner Jeannett Slesnick — who voted against the reduced speed limit because she said police just needed to enforce the 30MPH limit — lost the mayoral race by just 187 votes after Raul Valdes-Fauli painted her as a racecar-driving speed demon in attack mailers that may have worked.
Gables voters are not going to like this about Fors. No wonder the police union couldn’t give him their support (they endorsed Cabrera).
Following is a list of traffic citations for Jorge Fors, Jr., and dates issued as well as criminal arrests:

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