UPDATED: Democrat Javier Fernandez is running against two Republicans in the special election for House District 114.
The official Republican is Andrew Vargas, law partner of former State Rep. and U.S. Ambassador to the OAS, Donald Trump lackey Carlos Trujillo. The unofficial Republican is the alleged “independent” candidate, Liz de las Cuevas, who entered the race as a Republican originally and was registered Republican until eight days before the qualifying deadline. No joke. Eight days before she qualified on Dec. 28, she changed her party affiliation to NPA.
But, hey, she still likes to take pictures with Gov. Rick Scott.
The candidate touted as the “true progressive” was in Hialeah on April 10 when Scott announced his run for U.S. Senate. De las Cuevas was back in the City of Retrogress six days later at the Trump “USA Open for Business” event touting his tax plan at the Bucky Dent Gymnasium. Vargas, the partner of Trump’s hand-picked OAS guy, didn’t take time off the campaign to go, but de las Cuevas did. And  Latinas for Trump co-founder Denise Galvez Turros liked her photo, left. Thumbs up!
Then de las Cuevas attended the Lincoln Day Dinner, the Miami-Dade GOP’s biggest annual fundraiser, on April 20. And in a debate on Actualidad Radio last week, she admitted that she would likely vote with the Republicans most often.
Then there’s Evelio Medina, a MAGA true believer behind the Deplorables Nation organization and events, and de las Cuevas campaign manager. Medina called Ladra Friday, coincidentally (read: not) five minutes after we called Vargas’ accountant and funky mortgage holder Richie Puerto. Ladra would love to see some law enforcement agency subpoena Medina’s phone records when they investigate that third party campaign contribution (Do you hear me, Kathy Fernandez Rundle, or do you only punish Democrats?)
Read related: Andrew Vargas’ $350K home loan looks like a 3rd party political contribution
When I mentioned that this went against his cult, Medina said he was de las Cuevas’ “cousin” and that blood was thicker than political waters. But Ladra’s not buying it.
Especially since there has been a shady political action committee working on the NPA candidate’s behalf for months, hitting Fernandez with negative mailers and touting de las Cuevas as the “true progressive.” This sketchy PAC, People for a Progressive Florida, has not reported a single contribution or expense, even though it has sent out more than a dozen mailers — and should have been investigated months ago and shut down or else why even have campaign finance laws in the first place.
People for a Progressive Florida was formed around the same time that de las Cuevas changed her party registration from Republican to NPA.
De las Cuevas has not raised much. She got donations for a total of $11,265 and loaned herself $9,000. Yet de las Cuevas has benefited from multiple mailers (like the one photographed right) — sent only to Democrat and NPA voters — urging them to reject Fernandez as a fake Democrat and vote for the real progressive in the race, de las Cuevas. So someone is investing in her. But we don’t know who because no information has been reported — which is what the Republicans would do if the money were theirs.
Read related: In 114 race, Andrew Vargas won’t speak for himself, lets PACs attack
All of this leads to only one logical conclusion: Liz de las Cuevas is a Republican plantidate, put into the race solely to siphon or peel votes from Fernandez, who can only win with large swaths of independents voting blue. Smart but sneaky strategy.
Ladra hopes that the Democrats and NPAs in District 114 are smarter.
De Las Cuevas finally called me back Saturday afternoon, a couple of hours after this was posted, to try to explain herself. She confirmed that she was originally running as a Republican but changed to NPA because she didn’t want to be a third wheel in a primary. “There were two other men running in the primary,” she says, referring to Vargas and Jose Pazos. “I didn’t want to participate in what I knew would be a negative campaign.”
Riiiiight. Because what female candidate with no name recognition wouldn’t want to catch the fallout from a negative attack race between two guys with no name recognition?
Asked if she truly considers herself a progressive, de las Cuevas answered affirmatively. “I am running a morally correct campaign, that is why I am not taking money from the parties,” she said, repeating over and over that she is an educator (which usually means she doesn’t work in the classroom).
But for someone who is allegedly so smart, she acts dumb when it comes time to put her progressive policy where her mouth is. She knows she is going to win. And, although she says she has nothing to do with the PAC that is obviously helping her — or, rather, helping Vargas, since she knows she is not going to win — she wouldn’t do what a true principled progressive would do and that is get off the ballot to give Fernandez, who would definitely advocate the progressive view in Tallahassee, a chance.
“I don’t care about that,” she answered when Ladra said that if Vargas got elected it was likely because of her. A true progressive, eh?
“I’m not stepping out of the race because I don’t feel like it,” she said, adding that she will run for office again.
Maybe next time she should be honest and run as a Republican. She can use that picture with Rick Scott in her campaign materials.
 

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A political action committee that continues to attack the Democrat candidate for Florida House District 114 may not the only sign of dark money in that special election. The Republican candidate got a second mortgage on his home last December for $350,000 from the treasurer of another political action committee working on his behalf.
The special election, which ends Tuesday, was called by Gov. Rick Scott after former State Rep. Daisy Baez resigned after she was caught lying about living in the district. Andrew Vargas lives in the district, dear voters. He may only have moved here recently, but he is so invested in his new home that he is, in fact, underwater in the South Miami house he bought with is wife in 2015.
Or is he? Could a second balloon mortgage loan he got four months ago, from the treasurer of one of his political action committees, actually be a campaign contribution? An illegal, third party campaign contribution?
Vargas, the law partner of U.S. Ambassador and former State Rep. Carlos Trujillo, got a second mortgage on his home last December for $350,000, even though he was still paying off a $468,000 first mortgage on a house that is assessed at $526,786. What bank would approve such a deal? Well, none probably. That is why he turned to his friend and firm’s accountant, Richard Puerto — who also happens to be the treasurer on his Citizens for Accountability and Transparency political action committee, which has been attacking Democrat Javier Fernandez for weeks.
Puerto made the loan Dec. 18, coincidentally (or maybe not) 10 days before the qualifying deadline for the special election. According to county clerk records, it looks like an interest-only loan — and the interest may only be $10 — payable in a year, so it has to be paid back a month after the November election.
The timing is not the only thing that is sus’. So is the source.
How does Puerto, 35, a partner in a small accounting firm who lives in a modest two-bedroom Dadeland area Kendall condo assessed at $133,165, also happen to have liquid large to loan just like that? That is the $350,000 question.
“Because I work like a dog. I have no life,” Puerto (photographed left) told Ladra Friday.
After explaining how this reeked of a third party contribution, and someone using the accountant as a conduit to hide the true source, Puerto said he understood the perception, but promised it was just him helping out a pal.
“It’s a mortgage, a normal mortgage. It has nothing to do with a donation. It only has to do with building a house,” he said.
“I’ve known Andrew for a very long time. I’m very proud of him and I hope he wins,” Puerto added. “I gave him a fair market loan. We’ve had various business transactions and his credit is an 850 with me.
“It’s a totally legit loan. It’s a line of credit, really.”
So it’s a $350,000 line of credit? Thanks for the clarification.
It’s not like Ladra is grasping at straws here. Vargas — who wouldn’t return multiple phone calls and text messages — has already shown a penchant for hiding behind secret funds. There has already been another PAC that has been attacking Fernandez since before the primary, but People for a Progressive Florida has not reported a single contribution or expense in their required campaign finance reports.
We just had to be sure. And, really, all we have now is a possible best case scenario. At worst, this is a third party contribution, impossible to track, and voters will never know who Vargas — who has been able to loan his campaign at least $60,000 — is truly going to represent in Tallahassee.
At best? He’s not terribly fiscally responsible.

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There’s not enough room in Coral Gables for both City Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark and Police Chief Ed Hudak. One of them will have to go, eventually.
Residents overwhelmingly hope that it’s the manager who is given the boot.
This could happen as early as Tuesday, when the city commission discusses the latest chapter in the grudge match between the two top municipal dogs: a questionable reprimand that Swanson unleashed on Hudak even after an independent investigation found the chief did nothing wrong when he stopped by an all female officer pool party last summer to say a few words of encouragement at the party host’s request. Mayor Raul Valdes Fauli, who put the item on the agenda, may have done so simply to ask Swanson to rescind the six-page reprimand that threatens the chief with termination.
But that may not be enough anymore.
Especially since residents — and maybe a couple of electeds, too — are comparing the ridiculously unnecessary and spiteful investigation into Hudak, which cleared him of any violations and was likely started by a bogus and politically motivated anonymous complaint, to an investigation by the Inspector General of Broward into Swanson’s management of Hollywood, where she was found to have intentionally and repeatedly lied to and manipulated that city commission and to have violated several city rules.
Maybe this is why Swanson has such a hard-on for Hudak — because he is law enforcement and can see right through her. Or is it really, as some residents swear, a 15-year-old grudge from when Hudak, then in internal affairs, investigated her BFF and appointee to the planning and zoning board, Maria Menendez, when she was Maria Alberro Jimenez and an assistant city manager in the Gables.
While it is hard to believe that a professional like Cathy would let a personal thorn in her side so long ago fester like that — or, at worst, get in the way of business — there is no other plausible explanation to what is very obvious animosity and open antagonism toward the chief since Swanson-Rivenbark was hired away from Hollywood in November, 2014, to replace Pat Salerno, who resigned after he was caught lying repeatedly and intentionally to the city commission in an effort to manipulate them. It’s noticeable because while residents, business owners and most of the city employees almost worship the guy — really, it’s like boy band fandom — she seeps disdain for him out of her every pore and has been railroading him since Day 1.
First Swanson brought in Frank Fernandez, from Hollywood, as her assistant city manager and director of public safety. He is listed as the head of the police department on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement database. She then dragged her feet to change Hudak from interim or acting chief to permanent status. First she wanted to make him co-chief with another police administrator, one who was in the former chief’s faction. When the city attorney explained that she could not do that, she begrudgingly made him chief — 10 months after she was hired and basically at the gunpoint of popular opinion and the city commission. But he is irrelevant to her, as proven when his opinions were ignored during the planning of the new public safety building. Swanson even overturned Hudak’s recommendation to fire Maj. Theresa Molina after the officer was caught spying on residents and commissioners at City Hall, likely on the orders of and reporting to Fernandez or Swanson herself. How else can you explain them letting Molina keep her job, suspended with pay (to the tune of $90,000 or so) until she maxed her pension? She wasn’t taking those cellphone pictures of Maria Cruz’s text messages for herself?
Read related story: Gables coverup on police ‘spy’ protects city managers
How come there was never an independent investigation into that? Even just phone records could have proved plenty. The same reason, Ladra suspects, that the investigation into this anonymous complaint about Hudak was delayed and then put into the hands of another Fernandez crony (more on that later): Because it could very well lead back to City Hall. Otherwise, why not have an independent investigator — heck, the same investigator, who knows the back story and the people already — do this inquiry too?
Each and every time the city manager goes up against him, Hudak has had a solid tsunami of support show up at City Hall. Expect another one Tuesday. There has already been an outpouring of support for the chief online and a group of residents who started an online petition form to contact commissioners, have been emailing everyone and even plan a press conference before the city commission meeting Tuesday.
Ladra hopes they demand an outside investigation of the anonymous complaint. Because the one who made the city look bad, the person who embarrassed the female officers and continues to put the city in a bad light with this witch hunt wasn’t Hudak but the anonymous complainant that posted a photo from the pool party on Instagram last July and then posted anonymous comments on the LEAffairs online forum.
The photo was posted by user dmannow256, who only has two photos from the day and nada else on their anonymous account with a caption suggesting that there were sex toys distributed (there were not, those were water guns):
“In the same week that Coral Gables was investigating two home invasions, the Chief of Police drove 30 miles outside the City during work hours to spend some ‘quality time’ with his female subordinates at a pool party. As you can see, he is in full uniform at a female only party in which sex toys (female in front of Chief) are being handed out to party goers. As brand new female officers we had no idea he was going to show up. In videos that are to follow, you will hear the disgust and embarrassment from people at the party as we are being visually raped by our boss. At this point we are too afraid to initiate a complaint against him as he is the Chief. I would hope that a City government would not let their chief law enforcement officer victimize the employees they should be protecting. I am sure Roxy Bolton is rolling in her grave as this goes on in the City she spent her life in. #citybeautiful #honortheuniform #pervert #hideyourdaughters #whatwashethinkingwith #newpolicechief?”
Certainly the investigation was warranted. Ladra wouldn’t want a complaint like this to go unanswered. But once the investigator, former Pennsylvania State Police commander Charles Skurkis said nothing bad went down, once each and every one of the female officers says that they did not feel “visually raped” but, rather, pleased the chief had taken the time to stop by, the city manager should have switched gears to investigate the complaint. Immediately. Not four months later. Especially since most if not all of the 14 women at the party demanded an investigation into whoever used them and embarrassed them for their own political vendetta against the chief as early as last August.
But Swanson had a better idea. She decided to hone in on the few recommendations that Skurkis made about moving forward and other things not related to the original complaint to continue her war on Hudak.  “An individual while serving in the capacity of Police Chief must remain cognizant, at all times, that his or her conduct may be closely scrutinized by subordinates, the media, and the citizens they serve, regardless of acting in an official capacity or otherwise,” Skurkis wrote, not realizing that for “community policing” to work in places like Miami or Miami Beach or Coral Gables, things like photos is gonna happen. She also hits him for not reprimanding one of those female officers for taking her patrol car to the party — even though the contract allows officers to take the car from “portal to portal,” meaning that you can sleep over your girlfriend’s or your mom’s or your friend’s house with the patrol car out front, you don’t have to drop it off at home first. Enough said. We don’t need to know the officer’s personal business, even though Ladra was told that Swanson was told of the extenuating and possibly embarrassing family/home/life circumstances — and is still making a big deal of it.
Swanson didn’t bring these reasons up when we spoke Friday. She told Ladra that the reprimand was warranted because Hudak lied to her. He told her that he was there to make a “motivational speech,” and none of the female officers reported a motivational speech. Well, you know Cathy, “motivational speech” are subjective terms. What he calls a motivational speech may be what someone else calls an attaboy, or attagirl in this instance. Some women did notice that he said some words of encouragement. Others weren’t paying attention. Ladra doubts that it was a mandatory “motivational speech” at a pool party he was invited to impromptu.
“Failure to consistently practice more professional and mature judgment moving forward will result in further disciplinary action, including termination,” Swanson-Rivenbark wrote in her reprimand, issued earlier this month.
For a bad motivational speech?? Or allowing a selfie in uniform? Seriously?!?
It sounds like a set up. Ladra is not the only one who thinks so.
“Ed Hudak is clearly being railroaded,” said Raul Mas, who has written a blog and a couple of emails about it. “It is obvious to me that Ms. Swanson is being petty and vindictive and that she will stop at nothing to install her lapdog, Frank Fernandez, as the Chief of Police.”
“She never wanted to appoint him,” said Maria Cruz, the citizen who was spied on. “She was forced to. But his hands are completely tied. Any decision he has made is overturned.
“Just rescinding the letter is not going to do it,” Cruz said. “What guarantee do we have that after she rescinds that letter, she is not going to do something else?”
Freddy Balsera, a political consultant with palanca, wrote Valdes-Fauli and all the commissioners on Monday. “The reality that the public knows full well, but the Commission refuses to admit, is that the investigation into Hudak and the subsequent report was merely a Trojan Horse that the Manager is employing to ultimately remove a Chief that she does not want.
“The erosion of this relationship began the moment the Manager assumed her job and has progressively worsened in a systematic fashion ever since.  And for all of my criticisms of the City Manager there is no doubt that ultimate responsibility lies with the City Commission which has failed to exercise its authority under the City Charter and address this controversy,” he added, accusing Swanson of “fabricating accusations, generating investigations and creating a hostile work environment” and warning of a voter backlash if Hudak is forced to leave the department.
“Stand up for Chief Hudak and hold the City Manager accountable for orchestrating this Roman circus, even if that includes her removal.  Don’t reward her record of violations and mismanagement that include misleading a City Commission; these are actual facts that speak for themselves,” he ended.
In an email response supporting Balsera, forwarded over and over again so it is making the rounds, Jorge Arrizurieta questions why Swanson doesn’t just fire Hudak if she can by charter. “Why create this circus and involve the Mayor and commission with this matter when she has the power by Charter to fire him. Is it because she doesn’t have cause to fire him? Therefore it’s better to smear his name with the hopes he goes away? Or is it because she never liked the fact the commission anonymously voted to re appoint him Chief despite her best efforts following her hiring?
“The reality is her best efforts have not ceased and won’t cease. Tomorrow is a very important day for our Mayor and commission to make a decision on whether the Managers approach to management is what is best for our city.”
Like Ladra said, there ain’t enough room in Coral Gables for the both of them. And the only one pushing Hudak out is Swanson.

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Andrew Vargas, the Republican candidate in the special election for House 114 to replace Daisy Baez, hasn’t confirmed to an invitation to the first debate for the seat, held by the League of Women Voters this coming Tuesday.
He won’t. He can’t. Because it is much easier for Vargas to attack Democrat Javier Fernandez with fake voter letters and a secret political action committee that doesn’t file required financial reports than it is to discuss the issues, which would show what an empty suit he is and expose him as the proxy for his business partner and puppeteer, U.S. Ambassador and former State Rep. Carlos Trujillo.
When Ladra called Vargas to ask why he hadn’t confirmed, he hemmed and hawed. “I have an event in the Gables the 19th,” he finally said. “Wait. Is it the 19th?” No, it’s the 17th, I corrected him. “Well, um, er, right now we’re doing the whole absentee ballot thing,” he said, adding that he would call me back later that evening, after 6 p.m.
Surprise, surprise. He didn’t. He wouldn’t. Don’t worry. Ladra didn’t expect him to. Just as we didn’t expect him to pick up the phone again when I called him again twice later (not now that he has me on caller ID). Just as I didn’t expect him to respond to the text I sent after he didn’t respond to the second phone call.
Nobody should expect him to call because Ladra had some difficult questions that he doesn’t want to answer, which is why he won’t go to the debate on Tuesday, which is really at least a couple of weeks late since absentee ballots were sent out last week and already 7,131 voters (or almost 30% of the ones that went out) have mailed them back in as of Friday. By Tuesday, it could be twice as many. Really. Ladra is not even sure Vargas will show up to the Miami Herald editorial board screening the next day (Sorry Nancy). Because (1) he thinks he doesn’t have to, (2) he really doesn’t have a leg to stand on and (3) he knows that Fernandez is going to Facebook Live the shit out of it, exposing his ignorance on the issues.
Also — its why he didn’t call me back or pick up subsequent phone calls — he doesn’t want to answer a bunch of uncomfortable questions:

Why did you change seats? You were filed to run in District 119, where State Rep. Jeannette Nunez (R-Doral) is termed out this year. Makes sense. You have roots there. You wouldn’t have to move. Why did you switch?
Will you run in HD 119 if you lose here?
How long did you live in District 119?
Do you live in District 114 now? How long have you lived there? Or do you plan to move there? This is especially important in this district because the last state rep lived a few blocks away in 112.
Why did you change from a Democrat to Republican in 2016? Did Trujillo “suggest” it?
Can you explain what it means to be the second most litigious attorney in the state when it comes to those sketchy “assignment of benefits” lawsuits against insurance companies? How many of those cases have you filed? And how does that affect rising insurance rates for everyone?
How much do you  pay for your insurance?
How much of your campaign contributions come from the insurance industry (including trial lawyers)
Are these kind of opportunistic switches, underhanded tricks and lack of access or accountability what we can expect if you are, either by sheer miracle or absentee ballot fraud, actually elected?

Vargas isn’t going to answer these questions. Not to me and not at any debate. Ladra asks voters to ask him directly when they see him — if they see him anywhere in either 114 or 119 — but I expect he’ll smile and shrug his shoulders and back away slowly. This is the kind of guy que tira la piedra y esconde la mano. Or he has someone else do the dirty work for him.
The anonymous attacks on Fernandez, for example, are almost certainly coming from his campaign.
The fake voter testimonials and other attack mailers from a PAC called People for a Progressive Florida with no financial activity — which should be investigated because mailers do not get made and mailed for free — are the way that Vargas speaks. It’s really pretty obvious. Sure, the attacks are made to look like they benefit Liz de las Cuevas, the independent who has denied knowing anything about the mailers or the JaviLobby.com website that attacks the Dem candidate for his profession. De las Cuevas has no money in her own campaign account (actually, she is in the red, spending $345 more than the $5,165 she raised) and wouldn’t know what to do with that money if she had it). Most likely, these are sneaky attempts by the Vargas campaign (read: Trujillo) to suppress the Democrat vote and peel NPAs off Fernandez. It’s smart, considering that Baez snatched this seat from under the nose of the better funded Republican John Couriel after Erik Fresen was termed out. And this was before unnatural disaster known as the Donald Trump Presidency produced the prediction of a national blue wave.
Of course the GOP candidates are turning to every dirty tactic to regain this seat.
Because Vargas isn’t going to be Trujillo’s bitch exclusively. Sure, he’s a proxy for Trujillo, who is President Donald Trump‘s Cuban amigacho and is now U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States, but, at the same time, doesn’t want to lose the sizeable palanca he’s built in the Sunshine State. But Vargas was also always a proxy for the Republican Party (read: incoming House Speaker Jose Oliva), even when he was running in the other seat just the other day.
He switched to 114 as soon a Baez was caught living outside the district and was publicly pressured to resign for having lied about it. In fact, dicen las malas lenguas that Trujillo may have executive produced that public pressure by calling on his Miami-Dade Republican Party friends to plan a series of picturesque picket protests in front of Baez’s District 112 house, custom made for video, that were covered by the local press (including yours truly). Why? Because it’s easier for this Pepe Cualquiera proxy to win a seat in a special low-turnout election (just add gobs of money).
Vargas has raised $416,000 between his campaign account and money spent by the PAC he is obviously connected with, which is Citizens for Accountable Government, which gets its money from other PACs that get a lot of their money from a lot of healthcare interests and Sunshine Gasoline Distributors, who also gave generously to Vargas. The money includes a $60K loan to himself, almost $80,000 in money and staff and research from the Republican Party of Florida, and small bundled donations from the Munilla brothers, who built the FIU bridge and other things all over the county, HCA Florida hospitals — yes, the one where former Gov. Rick Scott was CEO when they bilked millions from Medicare — Disney and a few others (like auto mogul Norman Braman).
But if you add up the ten or so mailers and the money spent by People for a Progressive Florida, you have… wait, you can’t add those expenses up because the secret PAC has not reported any contributions or expenses. Ladra doesn’t know how they managed to send so many mailers or host a website but DM me please and tell me what your secret is. Okay, if we estimate what that PAC has spent, it’s at least $200,000, conservatively. So that’s a total of $616,000 that we know of. So far.
Meanwhile, Fernandez, has about raised $141,524 in his campaign account with a few bundles of his own, including at least $22,000 from a group of construction and real estate companies or entities at the same six addresses in New York. His Florida Future PAC — which has launched a saynotovargas.com website, has collected another $33,725, about $30K of which is from the same NY construction and real estate firms.
But Ladra is certain of one thing: We will ask Mr. Fernandez about the interest of those New York donors and he will answer, because he has never avoided my calls and even returned a text once after 11:30 p.m. That’s the accessibility you want from your electeds, by the way, Mr. Vargas.
But we can wait until the debate Tuesday and ask Fernandez there. Because he will be there. So will de las Cuevas. The only one who can’t speak for himself is Vargas.
The Miami-Dade League of Women Voters will be taking questions in advance submitted to info@lwvmiamidade.org. Questions may also be submitted in writing the evening of the forum before it begins at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 17th (not the 19th, Mr. Vargas) at the Riviera Presbyterian Church, 5275 Sunset Drive.

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If you live or work near Miami Beach City Hall, you may have seen the big black billboard truck circling around this week with City Manager Jimmy Morales‘ face plastered on all sides. Yes, from far away it did look a little like Roger Stone’s face. It wasn’t.
“Shame on you, City Manager Jimmy Morales” reads the back of the truck. “Public safety workers deserve fair pay,” reads the side.
And no, this is not the police or fire union attacking Morales. It’s the Communications Workers of America Local 3178, which represents close to 400 employees, mostly lifeguards and 911 dispatchers — the other people whose jobs it is to save lives — but also clerical and code enforcement workers.
After more than two years of getting zero cost of living increases and ahead of Friday’s impasse hearing at City Hall, the largest union in Miami Beach — and the one with the most women and minorities — has ramped up its campaign calling on city leaders to treat them the same as the other city unions, all of which have gotten salary adjustments since 2015.
And they have recently gotten the support of the For Our Future Action Fund political action committee, led by Ashley Walker, former Obama for America state director who now works at Mercury Partners. In a short time, For Our Future has launched a website called MiamiBeachEverydayHeroes.com, an online advertising campaign (photographed right) calling Morales a union buster, at least one direct snail mailer and the traveling billboard. The group has also collected about 1,000 signatures in support of the workers.
Florida Division of Elections documents show that For Our Future Action Fund was created in 2016 and funded with $80,000 from a Washington DC PAC with the same name. It spent all that money on phone banks and political mailers in Palm Beach Gardens last year. There has been no expense other than bank fees since then through the end of March and April expenditures or contributions have not yet been reported so we don’t know who is financing this campaign.
But the union leadership felt as if they had no other choice but to get professional help getting their message out.
“The city manager hasn’t negotiated in good faith,” said union president Rich McKinnon. “We’re going to show tomorrow what we’re asking for and how much it costs versus how much it cost for the other employees.” He would not make the analysis available to Political Cortadito until after Friday’s hearing.
This battle has been a long time coming, however. The city declared impasse on the union negotiations more than a year ago. It took six months to agree on and argue before a special magistrate and another six months or so for the special magistrate to issue his recommendations and then no time at all for Morales to decline all of them. He dangled a small raise in front of the union, but only if they gave up other benefits, such as any right they have to go before the somewhat still powerful city personnel board with gripes or complaints. McKinnon said he is not willing to do that.
“I asked the city manager if he put that into the other contracts, and of course he didn’t,” McKinnon told Ladra, stressing that they just want to be treated equally.
The move certainly seems punitive and is not very flattering to Morales, who was once the personification of government ethics when he served as a county commissioner but has fallen quite far down the slippery slope since he crossed to the dark side.
McKinnon further explained that the CWA workers accepted necessary cuts in the past when the city was short on resources, but always with the idea that they would be made whole when the economic slowdown has ended. Currently, he added, the city has a surplus of about $9 million, while employees are still struggling.
One of those is Janelle Gilbert, a former schoolteacher who started as a lifeguard at the Flamingo Park public pool, the largest aquatic center of three in the city, and is now a supervisor there. A single mom who lives on $24.10 an hour in a one bedroom apartment two blocks from the park, Gilbert is proud to serve as a city Goodwill Ambassador and her 13-year-old son is a Police Athletic League volunteer. But she thought her promotion a few years back would mean her situation would improve.
“I’m grateful for my 40 hours but there’s not much difference because the cost of living keeps going up,” she told Ladra.
A 3 percent raise for Gilbert would represent about 75 cents an hour, but if she gets it retroactive — which is what sources tell Ladra the workers want — it could represent $300 or $400 a month more. “That’s a lot for a single mom,” Gilbert said. “I could get a new apartment for me and my son. That is life changing.”
Morales, McKinnon says, is standing in the way for no reason. It would only take about a third of this year’s surplus to make the workers whole again, he added.
Hmmm… isn’t that about the same amount of money that was stolen electronically from the city by someone who got the city’s bank account numbers and started transferring funds right under Morales’ unaware nose?
In fact, the trouble with the CWA contract started about the time the money started to go missing. Is Morales trying to make the shortage up on the literal backs of lifeguards and 911 call takers?
The impasse hearing begins at 9 a.m. tomorrow at City Hall, but don’t expect any updates in real time. McKinnon told Ladra late Thursday that the city had informed them that the meeting would not be televised and that there would be no public comments allowed.

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