South Miami is poised to become the first city in the Sunshine State to require new single family homes be built with solar panels.

If the ordinance passes on final reading Wednesday evening, the requirement would also be for any homes that have renovations to 75 percent or more of its footprint. The threshhold was 50 percent at first reading (passed 4-0 with Commissioner Josh Liebman absent) but it was changed after some pushback from either the community or Big Energy disguised as the community.

A group calling itself Family Businesses for Affordable Energy has opposed the ordinance, saying it puts an unfair burden on builders and homeowners who want to renovate or expand. They made their case at the first second hearing last month and the item was tabled until this week.

“South Miami is already one of the most unaffordable communities in South Florida.  We believe that Mayor Stoddard and the city commission’s efforts to mandate $25,000 solar panels will make it even more unaffordable,” said Juan Penalosa, a paid spokesman for the group, who is trying to make this an affordable housing issue.

“We aren’t opposed to solar, far from it,” Penalosa said. “But, a mandate without any incentives and a mandate that will drive up home costs significantly when we are already struggling with affordable housing, is not the way to go about this.”

The group suggests that the city make the requirement only for homes larger than 2,000 square feet and not at all for existing homes that owners want to remodel.

But Mayor Philip Stoddard, a staunch environmentalist and biology professor at Florida International University, says the $25,000 cost is only for the largest homes that can afford it — the required coverage increases with square footage — and he has no problem including gentrifying homeowners who want to turn those little pink houses in the ‘hood into McMansions or their more aethetic equivalent. He says the investment pays off in the long run with higher property values and saved energy costs.

Furthermore, he suspects that Family Businesses for Affordable Energy is really a front for FP&L, whose representatives had early on expressed issues with any ordinance requiring solar panels.

“We also require that they put in trees and nobody complained about that. Coral Gables requires a barrel tile roof, which costs twice as much as shingles, and nobody complains about that,” Stoddard told Ladra.

“Solar is a benefit to the builders. They can charge more for the house. Solar is a benefit for the homeowner. Who are these family businesses? Because solar installers are going to be making money instead of FP&L. Builders are going to make money on this. The only ones who are not being helped by this are FP&L and Exxon,” Stoddard said, adding that the costs of solar are going down and it will cost even less in future years to install the panels.

“FP&L riled everybody up.”

It’s not unfathomable. The utility giant and other Big Energy companies spent $21 million last year trying to push a fake pro-solar amendment which would have actually limited the use of solar energy for years. The voters rejected it after their scheme was exposed. And the Family Businesses group’s website does seem to exist solely to bash solar energy, including sections on “solar horror stories” and “the real cost of solar.”

Penalosa told Ladra that he was offended by any such insinuation. A former Democratic Party operative and big Hillary Clinton supporter, he calls himself a progressive. Except he is also a mercenary for hire who told Ladra he was working with the local chapter of “a national organization of energy and family businesses.”

Key word: energy.

He’s not the only one who spoke against the measure at the meeting last month where the issue was deferred. A group of builders and some homeowners raised concerns about how this would affect an already inflated real estate market. Others raised concerns about safety in hurricanes — though we have pool screens and barrel roof tiles that definitely become missiles, so that’s nothing new. The FP&L spokeswoman also urged the South Miami commission to drop the matter, naturally, saying that electric bills in Florida are not that high. Move along, folks. Nothing to see here.

But, on this topic at least, Ladra tends to believe the nerdy science professor more than the professional spin doctor and the profiteering home builders and the mouthpiece for Big Energy.

“I’m doing this because the planet has three years to get our carbon emissions down or its going to clobber us,” he said. “We have precious little time to get this done. It’s not about me and it’s not about FP&L. This is about our children and grandchildren.”

The commission meeting begins at 7 p.m. at South Miami City Hall, 6301 Sunset Drive.

The Gimenez clan is apparently divided when it comes to the Senate race in District 40.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez — who some believe owes his current job to former Senator Alex Diaz de la Portilla — is not backing his old ally and, instead of just staying politely out of it, is the special guest at a fundraiser next week for former State Rep. Jose Felix Diaz, DLP’s main opponent in the primary.

Meanwhile, his daughter-in-law, attorney Tania Cruz, is helping the Dean. Must make for some awkward family dinners in Coral Gables.

It was only six years ago that the Dean helped Carlos Gimenez come from way, waaaaay behind — single digits behind — and beat former Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina for the county mayoral seat on the heels of the historic recall of Carlos Alvarez.  A year later, when ADLP ran for state House, the mayor’s lobbyist son, C. J. Gimenez, and his wife Tania became fixtures at the Little Havana home — pretending to help with the campaign but really there to drink his booze. And Alex lost to Jose Javier Rodriguez.

Ladra was there a lot, too, but she didn’t know that the candidate and Cruz — who was a staunch Democrat back then — had gone to Boston on a business trip (her words, not mine) barely two weeks before election day and got arrested together. It may explain a lot, however.

According to a story in the Miami Herald, they were both arrested one late night in October after they continued to chain smoke (probably Malboro Lights) in a hotel room even after they were repeatedly warned to stop. When they wouldn’t, they were asked to leave. When they refused, the hotel called the cops and they were arrested. They were reportedly drunk and belligerent, which is not entirely unbelievable if you know either of them. Charges were dropped and both DLP and Cruz told the Herald that the incident had been overblown and that they paid to clean the room — because throwing money at the situation makes the rude behavior suddenly acceptable, right?

In the Herald story, Cruz — who told the Herald she was part of Team ADLP and sat next to him at the Donald Trump Cuba rewind in Miami last month — said she and DLP, a political and government affairs consultant, were in Boston to “court a client” and she blamed Pepi Diaz for getting the misdemeanor arrest information into the hands of a Herald reporter. Diaz, naturally, denied it. But the reporter got it from somewhere.

Still, might she be the one to blame for getting Diaz her father-in-law’s support?

And the hits just keep on coming against former Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla in the Republican primary for Senate District 40, a special summer election brought to you by the arrogant, drunken, racist rants of former Sen. Frank Artiles, who was forced to resign.

That the attacks are coming from or on behalf of Artiles’ best friend and Tallahassee roommate make this offended morality campaign somewhat ironic. But you have to admit, Alex, as the OG Repulican bad boy, makes an easy mark.

Former State Rep. Jose Felix Diaz has waged an almost entirely negative campaign against Dean DLP. It has overshadowed the earlier question of who is more Republican (which one of Pepi Diaz’s operatives took issue with on my Facebook page, without disclosing she was a paid operative). He sent two bland pieces early on — a bio intro with a family portrait and a “jobs, jobs, jobs” piece that seemed like a cut and paste from insert Republican candidate here — and two more last week, when absentee ballots came out. They are unmemorable except for the one that makes it seem like he is for raising the minimum wage. “Bigger salaries for our community,” the headline says in Spanish. The fine print explains that it is about allegedly creating jobs by cutting regulations to businesses.

Other than that, Pepi’s campaign has been all about Alex. Even the two TV commercials that Ladra has seen have been mostly about not voting for Diaz de la Portilla. Don’t get me wrong, DLP is not without faults. There are reasons not to vote for him. But are there any reasons to vote for Pepi other than voting against Alex? You can’t tell from his campaign.

Diaz will swear he has nothing to do with the multiple attack mailers and, now, a new, anti-DLP website paid for by Making A Better Tomorrow, a Venice, Fla-based political action committee. But he knew it was coming. And he uses the same language and images in his TV commercials.

He could stop it if he wanted to. Don’t be fooled, dear reader, by the aw shucks Gomer Pyle smile. Remember, Mr. Amicable Pepi Diaz is the same guy who allowed a campaign against former State Rep. Ana Rivas Logan to question her Cuban roots and cast her as an unfit mother simply because she wouldn’t move out of the district they were drawn into together. And it’s not like Diaz has to hit him. The mainstream media is doing its part, most recently with a surprise report days ago about a 2012 arrest in Boston for smoking in a hotel room, despite repeated warnings not to, with Tania Cruz, the wife of CJ Gimenez, son of Miami-Dade mayor Carlos Gimenez (more on that later). Although some might believe the tip came from the Diaz camp.

But with DLP’s name ID and poll numbers so high, Pepi Diaz can’t take any chances. The mailers against DLP have been almost daily since the absentee ballots went out last week. They pretty much have the same theme, casting The Dean as a man with “serious character flaws,” like gambling, credit card debt, alcohol abuse and bouts of explosive violence. They include “living beyond his means” but everyone I know does that.

“Hi. I’m Alex Diaz de la Portilla and the rules don’t apply to me,” it says on the front of one. The back lists not one, not two but five attacks against DLP, including a Commission of Elections fine that was later reduced (they don’t say that) and the allegations by an ex-wife that he had violent impulses, especially under the influence of alcohol.

One of the mailers has a photo of Diaz de la Portilla holding what we are supposed to believe is a rum runner or something — but it is a mamey smoothie given to him by a voter in a pic he posted on Facebook. The most egrigious use of a batido de mamey ever.

It’s funny, but ridiculous, that Pepi Diaz is making an issue of alcohol given his BFF’s resignation was likely due to a drunken rant. It’s also slightly hipocritical to use an ugly divorce and the allegations of an ex wife who is also, by the way, a state lobbyist, particularly when your BFF racist ex-legislator buddy had hired a Playboy bunny and a Hooters girl as “consultants” on his campaign. Diaz is going to be the morality police now? No me digas! Where was he when his best friend and Tallahassee roommate was traveling with paid escorts?

But its not enough to mail the attacks. The Diaz team wants to have them online, in a website launched solely to attack the candidate, a campaign tactic that is being used more and more. There are 22 files of DLP “dirt” in a filing cabinet and visitors “click a tab to view the evidence,” at www.factsaboutadlp.com, which might be the work of the political strategist who attacked me and Ladra’s motives on Facebook the other day without disclosing that she worked for one of the candidates (she claims to be a digital consultant on Diaz’s campaign reports, whatever that is). And she should own up to it. Because it’s pretty good as far as hit pieces go.

Not that good, though. It didn’t include the 2012 arrest.

DLP seems unfazed. He did not respond to several text message this week but has told Ladra before that the voters in the district know him and that these tactics will backfire. “It’s started to backfire already,” he said last time we spoke, offering no details.

Maybe so. But Ladra feels that Pepi has no other choice, given ADLP’s high name recognition, than to go negative. In this short election cycle, the best Diaz can do is attack DLP and turn positive name rec into negative name ID — even if it would give whoever wins the Democratic primary an edge against him in a decidedly competitive general. Annette Taddeo and Ana Rivas Logan are two lucky women who must be very happy about all of this.

We’ll know if it worked in less than two weeks. But Ladra bets we see another hit piece before that. The way this campaign is going, we wouldn’t be surprised if the next mailer depicts the Dean and the mayor’s son’s wife as belligerent drunks getting arrested in a smoky hotel room.

Everyone is concentrated on the special elections this summer and there’s more than a year to go before the primaries for the state legislative races next year. But a few open seats have hopefuls planning early — none more than in House District 115, the seat vacated by termed-out State Rep. Michael Bileca, which happens to be where Ladra lives and votes.

There are now six candidates — including Jeffrey “Doc” Solomon, por supuesto — with opened accounts, according to the Florida Division of Elections.

Solomon is a popular chiropractor “to the stars” that has run unsuccessfully twice already as a Democrat challenger to Bileca. But he won both primaries against Ross Hanckock and then losing to Bileca. Last November, it was 46 to the Bileca’s 54 percent. But it was a 2-point slide from how he did in 2012, when he lost to 47-53.

Nevertheless, these are respectable numbers against a much better financed incumbent. Bileca spent a little more than $200K last year, compared to Solomon’s $62,800. Since he filed in June, Solomon hasn’t reported any campaign contributions for this race yet.

And in an open seat with no incumbent, Solomon might benefit just enough from much higher name recognition. That is, if he gets through another primary. So far, he is one of only two Democrats in the race. The other is James Linwood Shulman, who raised $2,852 in his first month, May.

But there might be a surprise before qualifying. Because while this is considered a Republican stronghold, it’s really just barely that. Former President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney were separated by just a few hundred votes in 2012. Our neighborhoods are split pretty evenly down the middle with a lot of NPAs, like Ladra, that could make the difference. It’s not completely unimaginable that this seat turns blue in 2018. Especially if the Trump trainwreck continues to unfold.

Read related story: Republicans start lining up for 2018 state primaries, challenges

Who knows, the Dems might wanna back Solomon. At least this perennial candidate has been consistent. After a brief and also unsuccessful run for Pinecrest city council, this is Solomon’s third attempt at this state seat. Maybe the third time is the charm. There’s something to be said about persistence. Gee, what a concept. Unlike a lot of 305 politicos, it hasn’t ocurred to him to move his residence in order to chase a more winnable seat because no esta pa’ eso.

And again, he’s got that coveted name recognition that Mr. Shulman, nice as he may be, ain’t got.

Are you paying attention Mr. Stephen Bittel? Or are you too busy eating crow after calling black legislators “childish” and licking your wounds fom the residency violation perpetrated by your protege, State Rep. Daisy Baez? Well, you wanted so bad to be chairman of the Florida Democratic Party, now get over your clumsy intro. There are bigger fish to fry.

Because there are four, count ’em, four Republicans already raising funds to run for the seat. That includes Vance Arthur Aloupis, CEO of the Children’s Movement and the heir apparent, who has already raised $150,900 — including an impressive $103K picked up in the first month (March) from many of the usual suspects, including some lobbyists, signaling that he is, indeed, the handpicked GOP choice. His political consultant is lobbyist Michaeld Cantens, who is also the son of former State Rep. Gaston Cantens.

The other Republicans are: Carlos Daniel Gobel who filed in March and has raised $1,975; Carmen Sotomayor, who filed in January and has reported raising $250; and Rhonda Rebman-Lopez, who filed earlier this month — so she’ll submit her first campaign financial report in July — and who has been way too excited about it on twitter.

None of them, so far anyway, stand a snowball’s chance in Little Havana. If this 115 primary were this summer, Ladra would predict a general match between Aloupis and Solomon.

But there’s more than a year to go before the candidates have to qualify. And who knows? Maybe if Annette Taddeo loses the District 40 special election this year, she’ll move back into Pinecrest in time for next. 

Two key unions announced Tuesday that they endorsed Annette Taddeo in her bid to replace former Senator Frank Artiles, who was forced to resign in April after he was caught in a racial rant against a black legislator.

The leaders of SEIU Florida and AFSCME Florida both said they were pleased to back Taddeo, who has always had the union endorsements in every single election she has lost and is running for the Democrat nomination against former State Rep. Ana Rivas Logan.

“We have a great opportunity to elect Annette Taddeo who has a proven track record of being a passionate and determined voice for the residents of Senate District 40,” SEIU Florida President Monica Russo, said in a statement. “Annette brings both grace and grit to this crucial race. She is a fighter and a negotiator. Should she win, expect Annette Taddeo to go toe-to-toe with the power structure to fight for the rights of working folks.”

Key words: Should she win. Because what Taddeo really has is a proven track record of losing elections. The SEIU should know that. They endorsed her last year against former Congressman Joe Garcia in that Democratic primary. So did the local AFL-CIO and United Teachers of Dade.

Read related story: Awkward! Annette Taddeo, Joe Garcia face off with polite jabs

“Taddeo’s candidacy has excited members because of her strong understanding of the issues South Floridians face, her plans to tackle income inequality and focus state government on the needs of working people instead of corporate CEOs and her commitment to protecting workplace freedoms,” the statement Tuesday said.

There’s no doubt that this could have an impact in a special election where there is a tiny little turnout projected. Much less than the 20,390 who voted in the district in the August Democratic primary. Combined, the local AFSCME and SEIU chapters represent more than 6,000 workers in Senate District 40 — which could give her an edge, if they all vote for her. The endorsement likely comes with some phone banking and certainly with bodies on election day to hand out palm cards at voting locations.

But, again, Taddeo had all the union endorsements and their people in 2016, and Garcia still beat her 52 to 48 percent.