Last June, when Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez went on vacation, he designated his authority to Deputy Mayor Jack Osterholt.
When he went to Asia for two weeks from March 13 through the 28th this year and when he went to Israel for a week in November 2017, Gimenez also delegated all his “delegable authority” to Osterholt.
When he attended the Socrata Summit in Washington D.C. and to meet with Dell in Austin in October of 2015, he put then Deputy Mayor Alina Hudak in charge.
When Gimenez went to China in September 2015, he delegated to Deputy Mayor Ed Marquez. Poor Deputy Mayor Russell Benford only gets a Saturday here and there, like a dog gets a bone.
Even when he is gone for a day or an afternoon, Gimenez will delegate his duties and authority to someone of  his choosing to act as a temporary boss in his absence. Our globe-trotting county mayor names his own replacement — someone who was not elected — whether he is off with his wife or traveling with lobbying buddies, playing golf around the world or taking the afternoon off for a secret off-the-books meeting.
In fact, Gimenez has designated someone to be the de facto acting mayor more than two dozen times since 2015, which is as far back as one can search correspondence on the mayor’s website, using keywords “out of office.” There are likely more than we even thought. Ladra sent a public records request asking for them Monday, but we were still waiting for the complete list Friday.
So it makes him at best selfish and at worst a hypocrite when he claims that part of the issue he has with the strong mayor referendum in Miami is that the strong mayor would be able to name a successor who would temporarily step in should the mayor resign or be removed from office.
Yet, that is precisely one of the issues he has, Gimenez told Humberto Cortina Friday on Radio Mambi, where he got a free hour — maybe it was free because you know how Spanish-language radio is — to trash the referendum.
He wants to be the only strong mayor in town.
Read related: Mayor Carlos Gimenez clan involved in Joe Carollo lawsuit vs strong mayor
Gimenez says all this with a straight face, like he’s not grooming Commission Chairman Esteban Bovo to be his hand-picked heir so that he still has a hand in operations (read: procurement) and his friends and family plan can stay pretty much intact.
And the mayor, who was ushered in post recall, wants to make sure he is not recalled himself too easily, which is why he also told listeners to vote for the county referendum that prohibits paying petition gatherers per signature. Good enough to recall former mayor Carlos Alvarez, to make room for Gimenez, but not good enough for him now.
There is not one single amendment or referendum question that the mayor campaigns for or against because it is the right or wrong thing to do. It’s all about self interest. Or self preservation.
Gimenez also spoke against state amendment 3, putting gambling in the hands of voters — because then his lobbying sons don’t have as many opportunities — and state amendment 10, which would give us an elected sheriff and supervisor of elections, because he doesn’t want his hand picked successor to lose that power that he’s been able to abuse so freely.
Read related: Elected Miami-Dade Sheriff, SOE could curb mayor’s abuse of power
But he only spent a total of five minutes on the other questions, focusing the hour-long interview on the strong mayor measure.
“This gives too much power to one person. Not Francis Suarez because we don’t know who comes behind Francis Suarez,” Gimenez said on Radio Mambi regarding the current mayor, who happens to be the son of his nemesis on the county commission. Francis Suarez being strong mayor would only help his father, Commissioner Xavier Suarez, if he were to run for top dog in the county, and Gimenez doesn’t want that.
Self interest.
Ladra may also believe that the Miami strong mayor measure should be rejected by voters because it gives too much power to one person. Gimenez is living proof.
But let’s not stop there. The strong mayor structure at the county should be eliminated — and that question should be on the next countywide ballot.

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This will be the year for Jeffrey “Doc” Solomon, a Pinecrest chiropractor who’s run for state House three times in District 115 and is finally on track to a win.
The evidence is not just in the internal poll that has him practically tied with the better-financed Republican transfer Vance Aloupis in the race to replace termed out State Rep. Michael Bileca. Or the fact that Hillary Clinton won this district by 10 points two years ago. It’s also in the barrage of negative mailers that have called Solomon a lobbyist and a tax dodger  saying he “isn’t trustworthy.”
Like in the state races in Hialeah, these negative attacks — really huge reaches in the dark — stink of last minute desperation. Ironically, or as expected, the attacks are what’s not very trustworthy.
He never registered as a lobbyist because he was not paid to lobby. Solomon, a chiropractor who has worked on TV sets, served as president of the Florida Chiropractic Association and advocated in Tallahassee on the organization’s behalf. He was an industry advocate in his role as the group’s spokesperson.
And after his business manager was found guilty embezzling $180,000 from his mobile practice, Solomon found that his business had failed to pay taxes from 2002 to 2004 and he immediately corrected it.
He did the same thing with the campaign documents that the Republican Party says he withheld. He was a first time candidate then, his own treasurer, and submitted the paperwork as soon as he learned it was missing. That is why he was never fined for the unintentional violation.
These details don’t matter to Aloupis, a time-groomed GOP poster boy who engaged in the same type of scare tactics against Jose Fernandez in the four-way primary but has since run from his Republican roots in an attempt to get the make-or-break NPAs in this race.
Read related: Vance Aloupis fails to mention GOP as required, courting NPAs in the general
Independent voters had a significant impact on the poll, done by the Solomon-connected Kitchens Group. While voters are pretty much split 45-45 on whether they want to keep the seat red or turn it blue more NPAs are siding with Solomon, 46-30 percent.
That might be because part of his platform is having Florida become an open primary state. He is the only candidate who openly talks about it on a regular basis and it makes this old NPA at heart feel warm and fuzzy inside. Certainly it is making many NPAs feel like they could have a friend in Tallahasee with Solomon.
When the choice was head to head between the two candidates, Solomon came out on top with 47% to 42% for Aloupis, with 11% undecided. The numbers are pretty close and well within the 5.5% margin of error, but represent a victory already for Solomon, who has been outspent by more than 5 to 1.
Aloupis raised $415,500 and spent $357,163 through October 12, according to campaign finance reports. Meanwhile, Solomon spent $65,434 of $87,757 raised.
“I’m running like I’m behind,” said Solomon, who lost to Bileca twice — first in 2012 and then again two years ago, losing 54-46. That gives him more name recognition: Only 37 percent of the voters polled said they didn’t know who Solomon was, while almost half of them don’t know Aloupis.
That could also be because Aloupis — an attorney and the $175,000-a-year CEO of The Children’s Movement of Florida — just moved to the area from Aventura, specifically to run in a seat he and the GOP believed he could more easily win.
The poll also showed a five-point lead in the district for gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum — and unfavorable numbers for Donald Trump.
Maybe Aloupis ought to stay away from the Trump-like attacks on his opponents.

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Voters in Hialeah and Miami Lakes have been barraged by a deluge of mailers that call Coral Gables firefighter and Democratic candidate for Senate a weak, tax-happy, socialist, communist puppet.
Yes, the Republicans, are very afraid.
They hand picked State Rep. Manny Diaz Jr. for the seat vacated by termed-out Rene Garcia, and are now finding it too steep of an uphill climb.
They poll, too, and their results must be the same as the two other polls that have Perez leading, if only by a little bit. A Public Policy Polling survey done from Sept. 26 through Oct. 1  has Perez, a one-time aide to former Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas — who supports and has campaigned with him — beating Diaz by 3 points. This is the same company that has gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum leading. An internal poll shows the same thing. Sure, it’s within the margin of error, but 21% were still undecided and the trend seems to lean blue. Hillary Clinton won the district by 12 points in 2016 and Barrack Obama and Bill Nelson each won the district by 4 points in their last elections.
“I feel really good for a first time candidate running against someone who’s been in office six years,” Perez told Ladra.
And it is pretty obvious that Diaz does not feel so good.
The no-show charter school administrator has sent at least nine negative mailers about Diaz, calling him weak on schools because he doesn’t support guns in the classroom and would rather see a ban on assault weapons and saying that he cozies up to Cuba’s Raul Castro and Venezula’s Nicolas Maduro. You know, because Hialeah.
And that’s what Miami Republicans do when they’re desperate.
Read related: Hialeah AB fraud: Working for Manny Diaz Jr.?
The Diaz campaign has only spent about $45,000 on mailers, but most of them have been paid for by the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee.
That has left Diaz, who has far outraised Perez, with a lot of cash for TV — he’s bought at least $180,000 worth of time since Sept. 28 — and other get out the vote efforts, like maybe some of the same absentee ballot fraud we know he committed in 2012.
According to the latest campaign reports through Oct. 12, Diaz had raised $613,345 for his campaign. That doesn’t include the $366,810 given to him in staff, rent, polling and data by the Republican Party of Florida. He’s spent $565,938 so far, mostly falsely attacking Perez out of desperation.
And that doesn’t include his political action committee, Better Florida Education — which has raised $607,800 all by itself — and two other PACs he’s affiliated with, which have been funded by Big Sugar, private prison companies and the charter school industry, among others.
Read related: Manny Diaz Jr. is a no show at work — and at debates
All the mailers are ridiculous but the one that says Perez is weak on schools is hilarious, too, considering that the PTA dad has the all the teachers’ union endorsements. All of them. He also has, naturally, all the firefighter unions.
That has helped him raise $136,323 to supplement about $75,000 from the Democratic Party for staff and other in-kind services. He spent a little more than $92,000, but he had a primary to go through while Diaz has spent his time name-calling and dodging debates, just like he did two years ago against the last challenge, Ivette Gonzalez Petkovich, who he only beat with 52% (and she had less money and support than Perez). So it’s not like he’s got a huge base to begin with.
Diaz doesn’t want to debate Perez because he knows his record is going to come into question and he’ll lose more of that. Republican’s aren’t super excited to vote for him already.
Perez is also affiliated with The Floridians For Change PAC, which raised another $351,000, which ain’t peanuts. For a newbie, he’s done pretty well fundraising.
Which may be another reason why Diaz is running scared.

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While this year’s Florida ballot is long on state amendments, city of Miami voters only have to remember three little words when it comes to their city questions: Just say no.
None of the Miami referendums put to voters should pass because none of them pass the smell test. Ladra will dissect them one at a time for you.
Let’s start with the strong mayor, which is getting the most attention, which is weird because it comes at the same time as a vote on providing public land for a massive commercial development complex disguised as a soccer stadium, which you might think would get more attention. But more on that later.
Say no to a strongman mayor
The strong mayor charter amendment would make the mayor the official key decision maker and put him in charge of day-to-day operations. Sure, he or she will be able to hire and fire staff — including the city attorney and city clerk — willy nilly and manage the $1 billion annual budget. But this is really a move on the procurement department.
There is no other reason to be strong mayor. Mayor Francis Suarez has already said that City Manager Emilio Gonzalez would stay on and do his job and make the same $300,000 annual salary and compensation package. Baby X just wants to be in charge of procurement without making it oh so obvious, same as his predecessor in Miami-Dade. Because that’s where the money is. Literally.
Read related: Recall Mayor Carlos Gimenez and strong mayor post
Who can blame him? He sees how great the strong mayor gig is for county Mayor Carlos Gimenez and his family and his friends and he wants what Carlos has.
Ladra predicts it will fail for the same reason: Because we’ve seen how the strong mayor gig has worked for Gimenez and his friends and family plan. This will be an unintended referendum on Gimenez, who abuses his power on the regular — you know, to give his BFF a $200 an hour job or make himself supervisor of elections for the day or wipe out a public corruptions police unit.
People have seen how it can go to one’s head. They will vote it down. As they should. This is the most important no.
The salary issue — that the city mayor will get 75% of the county mayor’s salary — is only part of it. And while Baby X has said that he will keep his same $130,000 salary and compensation package, this is a change that will be indefinite in the future. So a future Miami mayor will make at least $300,000 because the Miami-Dade mayor’s salary and compensation is at $478,000. Set in stone.
Besides, Suarez lost a lot of his luster and influence earlier this year when he sold his soul to the devil, er, Ladra means Jorge Mas and David Beckham on that real estate deal disguised as a soccer stadium. He really acted more like their paid lobbyist than the designated watchdog for the city chosen by voters to protect us from such scams. Lots of Suarez voters told Ladra later that they wouldn’t vote for him again today. They’re certainly not going to vote for his strong mayor wet dream.
Say no Miami Freedom Park soccer stadium
The Miami Freedom Park proposal would allow the leasing of the historic city owned Melreese Golf Course next to Miami International Airport to Beckham’s MLS group, who would build a a mega retail destination with shops, offices and restaurants, plus a 700-room. Oh, and a 25,000-seat stadium, too.
Let’s forget for a minute that there are hundreds of people — neighbors, users, kids who benefit from the no-cost program there — against it. The details of this $1 billion, 73-acre complex with 600,000 square feet of retail and restaurants, 400,000 square feet of office space and at least 3,700 parking spaces that have a business plan all of their own were negotiated in secret. There was no open competitive process.
Read related: Miami Commission should kick no-bid soccer shopping center out of Melreese
While there is still a lot to negotiate — another reason to vote it down — Mas and Co. would be paying the city a paltry $3.5 million a year in rent. For 73 acres?! Whoever negotiated on the city’s behalf should be fired.
If this is such a good idea, then why couldn’t it go through the normal open bidding process? The proposal should have been one of many taken in an open bid so the city could make the best use of the property — which just might be exactly as it is used now. Ladra has never stepped foot on Melreese. But that doesn’t mean she can’t appreciate it and that the green space should be replaced by a shiny new mega mall creating more traffic by the airport.
This, again, does not mean we don’t want soccer. But why do they have to keep picking and insisting on all these wrong places? Seriously! Someone needs to talk to them about West Kendall and getting them to invest in the rapid transit solutions we need there because that is what makes the most sense.
Don’t worry. Beckham won’t go anywhere else when we vote no. There are other opportunities for his group to make money with this stadium.
Say no to revamping Miami Riverside Center
The third question put to Miami voters, and one not getting much ink or radio time, is for the City of Miami to lease and its 3.1-acre Miami Riverside Center property, where its main — and outdated and cramped — downtown administrative offices are. In exchange, the city will get new digs.
After a competitive bid process two years ago, the city has been negotiating a lease and redevelopment deal with Adler Group, which owns an adjacent 1.6 acre property and wants to build three towers with 1,500 residential units, an office building that could be used by the city, with ground floor riverside retail and a public riverwalk.
It all sounds really good and it looks really pretty. You don’t have to be an urban planner to know that the space could be utilized better. And, all by itself, this might have been a yes. The process seems long enough and transparent. The proposal was chosen from 18 in total.
Read related: PACs pop up in Miami to push ‘yes’ on strong mayor, stadium park, MRC lease
But Adler — a well connected developer who has donated to Baby X’s campaign — is looking for a 99-year lease starting at either $3.6 million in annual rent, which in the fifth year would increase 1.5 % annually — or 3% of annual gross revenue, whichever is higher. And there’s the possibility of buying the property in the future at the minimum current value of $69.4 million.
While the lease is not as ridiculous as the Miami Freedom Park deal of 73 acres for $100K less, it does seem a little low. So does the sale price. The River Oaks Tower & Marina, a 21-story building on 19th Street and the river, sold for $61 million in September.
And that right there is part of the issue. Besides the fact that the city doesn’t yet have anywhere to go in the meantime and hasn’t really decided if it wants to go back to the same complex with 1,500 homes — shouldn’t we have more of that plan in place first? — that seems like a really low bargain price. Time to renegotiate.
It doesn’t help that there are a bunch of new PACs financed by special interests pushing the yes vote on each of these questions. Just say no is easier to remember going into the polling places and if Miami voters reject all three ballot questions, the city will get more serious about what it presents us in the future.
Think of it as a teaching moment.

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The race in House District 103 may prove once and for all that money alone doesn’t win campaigns.
Cindy Polo, the Democrat mom and anti-blasting activist who decided to run for office after the Parkland shooting, may have less campaign spending power than that of former Miami Lakes Councilman Frank Mingo: About $54,000, mostly in small donations from mom and pop sources, compared to Mingo’s $254,000, including a lot of maximum $1,000 contributions from mostly Tallahassee special interests.
But she seems to have more momentum.
“We planned on being at a financial disadvantage so we’ve been very strategic,” Polo said on Sunday, the eve before early voting begins.
An internal Democratic Party poll reportedly has her winning by single digits just beyond the margin of error. Ladra believes the source because it would explain why Mingo and his supporters — who include the powerful next Speaker of the House, State Rep. Jose Oliva — are acting so desperately.
There have been negative attacks either diminishing her inexperience or blaming her for the toll increases at MDX because she once worked at the agency (without any voting power). So it’s a very mixed message. One day she’s “just a mom” and the next, she single-handedly hiked tolls. Sounds like they’re really worried.
Read related: Possible plantidate forces Democrat primary in House 103 for the GOP
Well, they have been since the beginning, probably because Hillary Clinton won the district by 20 points two years ago — its really one of the most flippable seats in the state — which is why they planted that fake Democrat, Rick Tapia, against her in the primary. She handily beat him, 58-42.
Days later, the desperate Mingo camp came up with another strategy and issued a press release last month, seemingly picked up only by the Miami Laker, declaring war on the quarries and announcing — oh so timely — that if elected, Manny Diaz Jr. and Mingo would make anti-blasting legislation their first priority.
Pfffffft. Yeah, right. Nobody believes that. Like Mingo is the missing piece? They couldn’t get anything done when it was just Diaz and Oliva and Rene Garcia in the Senate? Rene, te estan despreciando.
Mingo is more like a second pocket vote for Oliva, who also happens to be his boss at Oliva Cigars. In fact, Oliva put him in office in Miami Lakes, to groom him exactly for this position. Just more of the same of what we’ve had for too long. Judging by his campaign contributions, he will make the expansion and facilitation of more charter schools his priority.
The announcement smells more like sweet desperation.
Read related: Rep. Jose Oliva lends juice for Miami Lakes sprint election
And Ladra predicts it will backfire. People in Miami Lakes, Palm Springs North and Miramar know that while Polo has been pressing the blasting issue for years — indeed it is how she became politically active — these blokes in office have been deaf and even taken money from the quarries, like the one in the photo above.
“The community is tired of the same old accusations and stories year after year. They are on to them,” said Polo, who has concentrated on the issues of blasting, gun control and education. “I’ve lived in this area my whole life. I grew up here. So it’s not something I need cliff notes on.”
She also has the endorsements from the Miami Herald and United Teachers of Dade, as well as the enthusiasm brought on by gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum.
All of which means that Mingo could still very well lose with all that money.

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