Carlos Gimenez cronyism could cost us future millions

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and his pals on the county commission are trying to sell us a bridge. Not just any bridge. His buddy’s bridge.

Recent hand-wringing over the selection of a firm to design and build an iconic, new signature bridge over Biscayne Boulevard along I-395 has cast a spotlight on just how Gimenez uses the office of the the county mayor to benefit his friends and family members.

The beneficiary this time (again) is Pedro Munilla, who is cousins or something with the mayor’s wife and CEO of Munilla Construction Management. The company gets a lot of government contracts. But not this one (the rendition inset in this paragraph). MCM was one of five firms that bid on the $800 million “signature bridge” project, in partnership with Fluor Enterprises. But it was ranked second by a Florida Department of Transportation selection committee after a process that has taken, on and off, about 25 years. Archer Western/De Moya  was ranked first.

Read related story: Miami-Dade mayor’s pal gets $6 mil extension on contract

Pedro Munilla, pictured here with his wife, is often out at galas with Mayor and Lourdes Gimenez.

One week later, Gimenez wrote a letter asking the FDOT, which is providing $600,000 and overseeing the project, to delay the contract so that the county could weigh in (read: so that Munilla can get a second chance). And he’s using some of his pocket commissioners, like Sally Heyman — well, to be honest, the Munillas write a lot of checks — to try slow the process down. Heyman passed a resolution at the Transportation Planning Organization Thursday urging the FDOT to let them review the bids and provide feedback. It’s not like they don’t have the time anyway, she added, if the Munillas file a bid protest as they have said they intend to do (don’t they always?). That could take up to five or six months to resolve, according to FDOT Secretary James Wolfe, who looked like he couldn’t believe they were even talking about this.

Feedback on a selection that has already been made? To what end? Do these lunatics actually expect the FDOT to suddenly change their minds, switch gears and award the contract to the obviously politically-connected, second-ranked bidder that applied palanca?

That is the $800 million question. And, yes, they do. Because that’s how it’s done in the 305. The FDOT is a state agency used to dealing with state contracts where procurement is less, well, political. But it’s really not that complicated as everyone wants to make it seem. The argument that the mayor and Heyman are making center on the premise that there has not been enough community involvement. Suddenly, out of the blue, after the contract has been awarded, during a public process with dozens of meetings and during which a county commissioner served on an advisory committee, the mayor wrote that the county wants to have more input.

How much you wanna bet he wouldn’t be seeking that input if Munilla had gotten the contract?

This is the Archer Western/De Moya bridge designe that was ranked first by FDOT. It is meant to look like a water fountain.

Because the truth is that, despite a Miami Herald story earlier this month that looks planted and almost manipulated by the mayor’s staff, there has been plenty of discourse and public input on the project. And Ladra is not just talking about the Aesthetic Review Committee on which Commissioner Audrey Edmonson sat, which was how the FDOT settled a lawsuit from city of Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado and then Commissioner Marc Sarnoff in 2013.

“What was settled in 2013 was not honored,” Heyman said at Thursday’s meeting.

Really, Sally? Really? Only Miami Gardens Mayor Oliver Gilbert got it right. The committee makes a recommendation. That doesn’t mean their recommendation has to override what the FDOT technical committee decides is the best bridge for traffic control reasons as well as aesthetic. Remember that easing traffic is the real reason they are doing this. Aesthetic concerns are just an additional bonus.

Read related story: Pot calls kettle black in Trial Rail bid protest by MCM’s Munilla

In fact, let’s review the history of the public input into efforts to build this particular bridge, which the FDOT started to look at around 1992. This timeline was put together with the help of three people close to the process, including a transportation professional and an engineer who has been working on different versions since the original 1992 one. Plus, Ladra was here the whole time.

Even back then, the back up from the northbound I-95 ramp on the 836 was causing havoc on downtown traffic, where ingress and outgress also wasn’t cake. There was also projected growth (its come true) that needed accomodating so they came up with a master plan that was not very masterful, just pretty much just widening and adding lanes. The black community balked because, shit, it looked like a repeat of what messed up Overtown so long ago when they first built I-95 and I-395 right through the community’s commercial streets. In 1996, the project died because there was so much community opposition.

People still talked about doing something in the future, though. They had to. They knew something had to be done eventually. Ideas included tunnels and elevated options. Somewhere between 2003 and 2004, the TPO’s predecessor, the Metropolitan Planning Organization, asked the FDOT to look at it again and while they were doing that, Regalado and Sarnoff sued the state to ensure it would be an iconic bridge that would represent the city for decades to come. The settlement was the creation of an unprecedented aesthetics review committee that had, among its members, a representative from each the county, the city of Miami, the Downtown Development Authority and a the Adrienne Arscht Center for the Performing Arts, which was next door.

This commitee not only had a chance to take the original 18 bridges submitted and shortlist it to seven, they were also given a scoring role, which was not agreed to in the lawsuit settlement. They were given far more power than the FDOT needed to give them. But the state didn’t stop there.

The FDOT opened up an office in Overtown and met with hundreds of people over the course of years. Congresswoman Federica Wilson took a group of people because Ladra saw a picture of that meeting and of about a dozen other meetings where they discussed what they wanted to see in their neighborhood. Perhaps they couldn’t look at specific drawings. They couldn’t. The procurement process has to be done in a “cone of silence” precisely to keep the politics out of it. But they provided feedback on what they wanted to see. There was so much feedback, in fact, that transportation officials soon realized they would not be able to just widen and add lanes. They had to bring some life back into the neighborhood if the project was to move forward. The design includes a park underneath the bridge, the “Heritage Trail” that serves sort of like an North end Underline on steroids with actual historic significance in a part of the county and city that is too often ignored (more on that later).

The process has won awards for its public input. It has been an uprecedented process for FDOT.

And, now, because of the political meddling of a corrupt mayor, they will likely not repeat it. Who would blame them? This cronyism crap is probably also going to cost us millions in the future. Just when we are going to need state and federal dollars the most for our SMART plan to expand mass transit, our mayor pulls the political palanca stunt. Does he really think the FDOT is just going to forget about it and come back for more of this? Heck, there’s already talk that Tampa officials are calling the state agency and saying they will let the FDOT spend the $600 million in Tampa any way they want. And, believe me, those calls are getting more and more attention.

Read related story: Carlos Gimenez son’s firm got $4 million PAC repair job

Ladra is certain that the second-ranked Munilla bridge was pretty. It does look like dancers, however, and that may be why it got a perfect score from John Richard, director of the Adrienne Arscht Center for the Performing Arts (which three years ago gave a no-bid contract worth $4 million to a company that employed the mayor’s son). Richardstanked the other bidders and gave the Munilla project the only perfect score, which is the only reason that the Fluor/Munilla project got scored half a point under Archer Western. Expect Gimenez and others to make a big deal out of that small gap. But please remember that the only reason that happened was Richard’s scoring. He dnot only gave the only perfect scores to Fluor/Munilla, he was also the only one to score the Archer Western bridge as poor. Everybody else was either very good or good or excellent (which is what Edmonson ranked it). And remember that Richard’s facility depends on Gimenez for subsidies that are now competitively sought by other facilities, like the Frost and PAMM museums.

Maybe Richard is acting on Gimenez’s behalf. Because there is no doubt here that Gimenez is acting on his buddy Munilla’s behalf.

The fact that he is so bold and blatant about it is what should be most concerning. Because it shows that Gimenez, who is termed out after these next three and a half years, is going to use his remaining time on the 29th floor to get his friends and families as much as possible.

Like an $800 million bridge.

Legislator admits she doesn’t sleep in District 114

State Rep. Daisy Baez announced Friday that she was dropping out of the Democratic primary to replace former Sen. Frank Artiles in District 40. But, maybe Baez should resign from the legislature altogether.

That’s not only because she still lives in outside the district — admitting to Ladra on Saturday that she sleeps in District 112 — but also because she quite possibly lied on her voter’s registration form, which would be a third degree felony.

Baez cited her mother’s failing health as the reason why she was withdrawing from the special election to replace Artiles, who resigned after getting caught insulting other legislators in a racially- and sexist-tinged rant.

“My life today is a direct reflection of my mother’s decision to immigrate to this country and work multiple jobs to ensure that I could live the American Dream,” Baez said in a statement sent just after 1 p.m.

“Just after announcing my intention to run for the Florida Senate, my mother’s health deteriorated and it became clear to me that spending time with her now is of utmost importance. As her daughter, caring for her is my number one priority. Therefore, I will not pursue a campaign for the Florida Senate,” she said. “Instead, I will spend the upcoming weeks with my family and continue to use my voice in the Florida House to speak out clearly and forcefully to fight for better jobs, to protect our environment, to ensure we all have access to affordable health care, and to support our public schools.”

That would be the right thing to do. But the news also comes three days after a Miami Herald story exposed the fact that she likely does not live in the district she represents, which explains why Baez was bold enough to think she could run for a Senate District where she doesn’t live. Now we know she’s done it before. And it looks like it took time to sink in. Because that same day the story came out, last Tuesday night, Baez was at a South Dade Democrats Club meeting showing no signs of backing down.

On Friday, it seems, she finally realized that she can’t overcome this development in a race against two veteran politicians with higher name recognition who — bonus — actually live in the district (Annette Taddeo and Ana Rivas Logan).

Read related story: Three women to battle for Senate 40’s Democrat spot

Which brings us back to why she should resign. Because the voters of House District 114 do not have any representation right now, have not had any representation during this past session. And they deserve some.

Baez apparently let people believe that she had moved from her house on Malaga Avenue (photographed) in District 112, to an apartment on Anderson Road, which is in District 114, right before the election. But the Herald found discrepancies in that. Other people live in the apartment at Anderson and neighbors said that Baez does not live there. Her dogs and campaign staff were at the house on Malaga, which she said was being renovated so she can put it on the market.

It’s more likely that she never moved out of the house where her dogs apparently live. When Ladra spoke to her Saturday afternoon, Baez admitted that she was sleeping at her house, the Malaga house outside the district.

“Right now, I’m sleeping at that house, yes. But I think I don’t want to talk about the situation any more,” she said. “I’m trying to correct the situation. I made an offer on a property today.”

What a coincidence. Today.

Baez said she had always intended to move into the district and said she has documents to show she began the process for a loan in January. But she has not had time between the legislative session and her 92-year-old mother’s health to purchase a new home. “I pretty much left for Tallahasee immediately after I was elected. I’m a normal human being with a million different things to deal with.”

The problem with that is that one of the things she apparently dealt with was trying to fool the public into thinking she lived in the district. When asked multiple times if she ever lived in the Anderson Road apartment, Baez refused to answer but intimated that she had not.

“For the intent of the law, I changed the address,” which sounds to Ladra like she changed it on paper but not in real life. So I asked her again? “When was the last time you slept there?”

“I understand what you are getting at and I’m not going to answer. At this point, I’m focused on getting this corrected and taking care of my mother,” she said.

“Okaaaaaay. Did you ever sleep there even one single night?”

“I understand what you are saying. We are trying to correct that. We feel that we complied with the law at the time,” Baez said. “I’m working fast and furious to correct it. It was not my intention to be outside the law.”

Aha! Outside the law. So, Baez must realize that she may have committed a third degree felony when she filled out a voter’s registration form on Nov. 2, a week before the election, changing her address to the Anderson Road apartment.

Read related story: Red goes blue, blue goes red in four flipped 305 seats

Ladra likes Baez. An Army vet and small business owner, she is on the right side of most issues, even if she is in the minority party and no position to do anything about it. Still, her voice is one that is needed on issues of immigration and housing and education and the environment. So that’s why this hurts. She had the best intentions, but the ends do not justify the means. She should do the right thing and quit. She lied to the people who voted for her. She does not represent them. Her blind ambition — the same ambition that caused her to jump to the Senate race after four months — caused her to run in a district that was not her own.

People have to stop doing that! It wasn’t right for Artiles — who was a state rep in 2011 when Ladra discovered him living in Palmetto Bay, outside his district — when he did it, nor for former State Rep. Eddy Gonzalez, and it isn’t right for Baez.

And Ladra knows the Dems aren’t going to want her to just give up the seat they just won, but they could lose it in two years anyway if someone uses this against her. And that voice she has is going to be somewhat hampered by the fact that it now comes from someone who tried to pull the wool over the voters eyes.

After having been part of the 2016 presidential campaign, Latinas For Trump co-founder Denise Galvez, a Miami mom with a boutique marketing shop, wants to run for Miami city commission.

Galvez filed paperwork earlier this month indicating she intends to run as Denise Galvez Turros in District 4, which is the seat Commissioner Francis Suarez will have to resign from when he qualifies for the mayor’s race this summer.

You might recognize her from TV. Galvez did a lot of television and radio interviews last year as a Latina Trump supporter. And while that may be a liability in some 2017 and 2018 electiions, this city district — which includes Shenandoah, Silver Bluff, Coral Gate and Flagami — might not be one of those. Trumpistas might do well here among the Cuban super Republicans.

Read related story: Local Latinas come out for Trump with Brickell event

“I was being asked to consider other positions in state office by people in the party,” Galvez said. “But I wasn’t going to do that to my kids and my family.”

Meanwhile, she was attending local events and hearing from local candidates.

“There was nobody I could see myself backing,” she said.

Someone suggested she stop looking for somebody else and throw her own hat into the ring. The timing made sense for her, to start campaigning over the summer. “I started to make calls and talk to people and the more excited they got, the more exicted I got. ‘This is your backyard,’ they would tell me.”

It’s a rare opportunity as an open seat, even though Galvez will face at least three other hopefuls so far: perennial candidates Ralph Rosado and Manolo Reyes as well as wannabe political consultant Tony Diaz. The one that concerned her the most was Rosado. The two are friendly. She has supported his causes and both went to City Hall to protest conditions at Douglas Park.

“I’ve known Ralph for a long time and have been a friend. I’ve helped him with other things,” Galvez said. But she feels he is out of touch with the district’s needs, campaigning on economic development and The Underline project. She says crime is the number one issue of concern to the people in her Shenandoah neighborhood. Her car has been broken into. Her husband, reknown musician and popular Miami High School Band Director Juan Turros, had his stolen.

Read related story: Patient Ralph Rosado re-launches Miami Commission bid

Rosado and Reyes (Diaz hasn’t raised a dime) may have had a head start with fundraising and canvassing, but let Ladra warn you know, Denise is a force to be reckoned with. She is a workaholic with boundless energy who is not afraid to say what she means and mean what she says, even when she is dead wrong, which she is often on the Trump stuff. And I suspect she will be able to raise money from some party people who may feel like they owe her one. Because they do.

She doesn’t need much. She is a marketing guru who will do a lot of her own media and has the name recognition that a year of TV appearances gets ya. But it will be important to have some.

Rosado has raised a whopping $436,790, according to the last finance report filed this month and counting through April 30. But he’s been fundraising for exactly four years, since April of 2013. he has also spent $165,998 of that so he has about $270,790 left, according to the last report as of April 30. Reyes has raised $140,940 and spent $82,900, leaving less than $60K in hand. But he’s got more momentum this time around.

Ladra can see where a smart, well-spoken woman might find an opportunity among these three Hispanic men.

Normally, this would be a good thing. It would be nice to have some estrogen up on that dais. And she will definitely use that sole female candidate thing to her advantage.

But Denise’s blind defense of everything Trump does causes me to worry about a future with “alternative facts” in Miami city government.

Another elected office is suddenly going to be prematurely vacant soon: Miami Lakes Vice Mayor Tony Lama is expected to resign in July to move to Seattle for a plum job at Amazon dot com.

But the replacement will be an appointee until the next election in Miami Lakes, which is not until 2018.

Lama, first elected in 2012 and re-elected last November with 61 percent of the vote, will be the principal business development manager for the online giant, joining a former colleague who went to Amazon last year. Specifically, he will be working on the marketing and roll-out of new products and services. Something called “enterprise solutions.”

Let Ladra be the first to say wow.

“It’s an exciting opportunity,” Lama, 39, said Thursday. “It’s a good move for my family. It’s not so much about money. It’s an opportunity to work at a company that has been disruptive to so many industries and such a great place to work.”

His wife and four children, age 8 to college freshman, are excited about the chance to live in the mountains on the West Coast and be exposed to a different climate, both environmentally and socially. “It’s good for them to see the world from a whole different perspective,” said Lama, who has worked in the contact center software industry and discussed the move with his extended family and friends.

“I would have never guessed four months ago that I’d be contemplating a move outside of Florida and here I am,” Lama said. “These are exciting times with the technological changes in how businesses communicate with or deliver to consumers.”

Read related story: Graft in Miami Lakes: A tale of 2 council members, A and B

Lama’s last meeting will be in July — just in time for a newby successor to go through the budget process. He and his family will make the journey across the country over the summer, so the kids can start the new school year there.

According to the town charter, Mayor Manny Cid will then have 30 days to make a recommendation to the council, which would have to approve any nomination, to fill in the term until the next regularly scheduled election in Miami Lakes. That won’t be until the next countywide election, the August primary of 2018.

“It’s going to be a huge loss for the town,” Cid told Ladra. “Tony isn’t a guy to just be up there. He has put initiatives forward and he has thrown elbows when he has had to.”

Cid mentioned three big achievements right off the bat: the police contract, which became a model for other labor agreements in the Lakes and other municipalities; the Lakes Living app that allows residents to report a pothole with a phone pic; and Lama’s efforts to get a connection from 67th Avenue to the Gratigny Expressway as the main objectives that his collegue has accomplished.

Lama is to speak Thursday afternoon at the Miami-Dade Transportation Planning Organization meeting to urge board to pass an amendment that would make the partial interchange at 67th Avenue a priority.

“He’s leaving us with a strong legacy,” Cid said.

But while it won’t be easy to replace him, Cid already has two or three people in mind for the recommendation. “We’re fortunate in Miami Lakes to have a deep, deep talent pool,” he said.

Let’s hope he considers Elizabeth Delgado, even if she is an ally of former Mayor Michael Pizzi. While she lost to Lama with only 39% of the vote last November, that still represents 4,930 Miami Lakes residents who put their confidence in her. That’s far more than seven councilmen.

And it might be nice to have a woman on the dais again.

It has to be the biggest host committee in formation list that Ladra has ever seen and far too many people to name them all here.

But among the most notable “young professionals” hosting a fundraiser Thursday night for Commissioner Francis Suarez‘s bid for Miami mayor are Congressman Carlos Curbelo, Coral Gables Commissioners Vince Lago, Mike Mena and Frank Quesada (careful with the Sunshine Law, boys), Miami Lakes Mayor Manny Cid, Hialeah Councilman Paul Hernandez, Miami Beach Commissioner Micky Steinberg, Aventura Commissioner Denise Landman, Coral Springs Vice Mayor Dan Daley, State Reps. Nick Duran and Jose Felix Diaz, former State Rep. Marcelo Llorente and even Jebby Bush. Yes, the son of our former guv who ran recently for POTUS. Him. Former State Rep. Erik Fresen was on an earlier version of the host committee, before he pleaded guilty earlier this month to “willfully failing to file a tax return” for one of the nine years he skipped. He has since been conspicuously removed from the list.

There’s also a large contingency of Miami-Dade Carlos Gimenez people, starting with the fundraising guru Brian Goldmeier and including his lobbyist son, C.J. Gimenez, and his wife, Tania Cruz, as well as one-time G-man J.C. Flores.

Throw in Democrat operatives like Christian Ulvert and Ben Pollara rubbing elbows with Republican lobbyists like Michael Cantens and onetime House candidate Daniel Diaz Leyva and former House staffers turned campaigners like Javi Correoso and it’s a huge and rather diverse (read: bipartisan) crowd at the event in Wynwood Walls, the hippest place in Miami for young professionals to be.

Read related story: Francis Suarez says definite maybe to Miami mayoral race

“These are the people cutting their teeth to make the city great today and they are the people who will be making the city great tomorrow,” Suarez told Ladra Wednesday. “These are people who often feel ignored, disenfranchised and dismissed.”

Um, did he see the list? I don’t think the sons of mayors and presidential candidates feel disenfranchised too much.

“It’s important to engage these young people,” Francis “The Future” Suarez added. He is 39 years old, which is three years older than his father was when Miami-Dade Commissioner Xavier Suarez became the first Cuban mayor elected in Miami in 1985. “It’s a generational passing of the baton or turning of the page. The city needs an infusion of youth and enegy and technological know-how. Not every fundraiser has to be a big money event. It is great to incorporate new people.”

The suggested donation for this event is $100, a low ask considering the crowd. But Baby X can afford to low ball. He doesn’t really need the money.

Suarez has raised close to $2.6 million and still has more than $2 million on hand between his campaign account and his political action committee, Miami’s Future. This, despite the fact that he doesn’t really have an opponent. Not yet anyway. Sure, there are three other guys with no name and no money who have filed paperwork that shows they intend to run, but Suarez is not sweating them.

“It’s a minor miracle that I’ve gotten this far without any opposition,” Suarez said. “And it may sound like a cliche but I pray for the best and prepare for the worst. So I’m working very hard, assuming there’s going to be competition.”

The elephant in the room — or not in the room, as it were — is Commissioner Frank Carollo, who is termed out but still hasn’t jumped into the mayoral contest. At least not officially. Political observers think that it becomes less likely with every passing day. But he could surprise everybody. And he is raising money for something. Someone at the Related Companies sent out an email last moth to raise money for Carollo’s re-election campaign until, ooops, a second email made a correction saying it would be for whatever Carollo’s future entails.

In its first month, the brand new PAC that checks were solicited for, United for Good Goverment, raised $107,000, according to the campaign finance report.

Read related story: Beleaguered Francis Suarez drops out of Miami mayoral race

“Frank has to decide what he wants to do,” said Suarez, who abandoned his attempt to run for mayor in 2013 against Mayor Tomas Regalado. after several setbacks by campaign staffers, including two arrests for filling out absentee ballot forms online, a situation that was completely unintentional and that really should have been handled differently by the State Attorney’s Office because nobody was defrauded. “I get along with Frank. We have taken strides not to fall into the same Carollo Suarez dynamic and it’s been positive.”

The other possibility that has been pretty much squashed now is former Miami-Dade School Board Member and county mayoral candidate Raquel Regalado, who is the current Miami mayor’s daughter. While Ladra has been saying for months that she had no interest in running for the city seat, her recent foray into a congressional bid to replace the retiring Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has shut people up — for now anyway.

“If she didn’t have that opportunity, there would be rumors about there still being a possibility,” Suarez acknowledged.

That may free up more “young professionals” who might have been hard-pressed to pick between the two to join host committees.