But it’s only one battle. The war may not be over.

One year, a dozen hearings and more than $1 million later, the Bal Harbour Shops have dropped their “conflict of interest” lawsuit against Village Councilwoman Patricia Cohen, who was targeted because she voiced opposition to the mall’s expansion plans, particularly any takeover of the old village City Hall. They said she had nefarious motives because of a relationship with the owners of the competing Aventura Mall.

Oh, and they dropped their insistance to buy the old, historic City Hall structure for the expansion.

Oh, and they’ve downsized about 30 percent and changed the footprint so there’s less of an impact.

This is a win, win, win for la abuelita councilwoman and the Village.

Or is it?

Read related story: Bal Harbour Shops pays for a referendum on City Hall sale

Because this looks like a sneaky subterfuge attack. It is no coincidence that the Shops dropped the suit and changed their stance after growing opposition (and about a month after the original post in Political Cortadito) which include two citizen petitions that are now in court. They want to build a new Village Hall? That means they must have future plans for the current one. Why else would the development agreement include the construction of a new City Hall where on a different Collins Avenue property? They don’t need Village Hall but they’re going to build a new one anyway?

Sounds sketchy.

“We have a Village Hall,” said Brian Mulheren, an activist who believes it indicates that they will come back to buy the city’s historic City Hall at a later date, after the shiny new Village Hall is completed and the old structure is standing next to a Barney’s or a Sak’s or something. It will be much easier then to get the required 50 percent of the voters to approve the sale of Village Hall to the mall.

That’s why the Bal Habour Citizens Coalition is challenging the denial of two petitions, one of which would have asked voters to bump up that voter referendum requirement to 60 percent of the vote. The other petition ask voters to make any expansion of the mall by more than 30 percent dependent on voter approval, also by 60 percent.

In other words, the residents want to have more control in a city where, recent Miami Herald stories show, some residents already control the Village Council. While there was no mention made of the mall in the Herald story about longtime resident Doug Rudolph‘s influence over city electeds and staff, there is reason to believe that he is involved in what is likely the biggest development project in town, if he’s involved in anything.

While two resident petitions to try to stop the expansion have been deeemed insufficient, that decision by the city clerk is being challenged in court. There’s a hearing to expedite that ruling Monday, not just because the Bal Harbour Shops’ plans could go to a vote next month, but also because two of the plaintiffs are over 65.

“The town is basically trying to stifle the voters,” said attorney JC Planas, who represents the coalition of residents. He told Ladra that the village charter does not speak of the requirement the clerk “arbitrarily” decided that the petitions needed. And, really, we’re talking about 200-some signatures here (they only need 10% of the 1,900 registered voters). You don’t think they would be easy to verify? Why wasn’t the coalition told that they needed to have an affidavit or whatever. Seems easy enough. 

From an outsider’s view, it looks like the town would rather face a lawsuit from the residents than another lawsuit from the mall, whose owners don’t want another lawsuit either — at least until after they get their expansion approved. The new plans to add 352,000 square feet of mostly retail do not include any public land. New stores would be built where the parking garage is now and a new parking garage would be built at the site of the Church by the Sea, 9700 Collins Ave., which was bought by the mall last year for $30 million.

This is a far cry from what was presented back then, when the mall’s objective was to incorporate the Village Hall into its footprint. The shops filed a lawsuit against Cohen saying she had nefarious motives to oppose it vis a vis a relationship with the family that owns Aventura Mall. They requested all emails relating to anything or anyone remotely connected to Aventura Mall, which turns out to be a lot. It was a really wide net, but after all the emails were reviewed, it was decided by an independent magistrate that only 19 emails met the public record criteria.

So the lawsuit was frivolous? A way to apply pressure perhaps?

Cohen is not exactly thrilled with the settlement. She is glad that the town isn’t paying for more attorneys. But she would have liked her day in court. “I have not been vindicated,” she said. 

 Thank goodness that the town is not liable for the attorneys fees, after the shops waived that. It’s already cost them nearly $800,000 in legal fees to defend mostly Cohen, who was targeted from the get go because of her vocal questioning of the need for the mall’s expansion and her adamant protection of Village Hall, which is the municipality’s only real historic building.

Read related story: Miami Beach’s loss is Bal Harbour’s gain — Jorge Gonzalez

In fact, the shops should pay that million to the city. And Ladra bets they will — somewhere in the development agreement for the downsized expansion there will be an open space dog park or a trolley loop or turning lanes or $1 million in programming for active seniors or something. Or maybe the new Village Hall is the sum of the bells and whistles for the council to give its go ahead yes.

“Nothing is off the table,” said Village Manager Jorge Gonzalez, who seems to look positively at the new proposal. He says the lawsuit was likely withdrawn to gain favor with the town. “It makes for a cleaner, less hostile environment for the review of this application,” Gonzalez told Ladra.

But a public vote on the matter has been eliminated, now that the mall isn’t using the Village Hall property. All it needs is two votes by the council. Hmmm… ya think maybe that is why they rethought the public town hall?

A community workshop has been set for April 4th to look at the new plans and get community input on what they would like to see. But it’s hard to believe any community input would be meaningful seeing as how the Village Council could vote on this new development plan as early as April 25th. Seems a little too quick after the workshop and while the legal challenge to the petitions is still being heard. It could get its final approval in May.

Which looks like the poine: Beat the residents with the petition.

“They’re trying to do a hit and run,” Mulheren said, noting that both Passover and Easter come between the workshop and the first hearing. “Two hearings and they’ll ram it through. This is a huge expansion of the shops and it means eight to 10 years of construction. The traffic will be worse.

“This will greatly affect our community and our way of life,” Mulheren said.

Ladra’s advice to Mulheren is to simutaenousely gather new signatures with whatever the required criteria was. It shouldn’t be so difficult if you just get signatures from one or two buildings. 

Tucked into the Miami-Dade Commission agenda Tuesday is a little item that will make Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez‘s best friend and campaign finance chair very happy.

One of the multi-million dollar contracts that will likely be awarded lists Ralph Garcia Toledo‘s company as one of the subcontractors. But nobody is going to mention it. Nobody brought up this cronyism at the Chairman’s Policy Council where the contract went up from $11 million to $22 million at Chairman Esteban Bovo‘s request.

Why should they? It’s just part of business at County Hall.

Read related story: Mayor’s BFF is back for another county contract payola

Garcia Toledo already has a piece of another contract, getting paid $200 an hour for mostly clerical work —  up to $18 million in 12 years. For work that could be done by a county staffer. Does that sound legitimate to you?

Now he’s getting more? Why not? If nobody stopped him the first time. 

The resolution is a contract award for $22 million for engineering services to Parsons Brinckerhoff to help the Department of Transportation and Public Works execute projects in its capital improvements plan and implement the all-powerful Strategic Miami Area Rapid Transit (SMART) Plan, including the study and implementation of future technology, such as driverless vehicles.

Ralph Garcia Toledo with the mayor’s daughter in law, Barby Rodriguez Gimenez, at a fundraiser years ago for a Miami commission candidate

GT Construction is listed among the 18 subcontractors. We don’t know what his piece of the pie is. Another $200 an hour? 

The first contract was awarded after Garcia-Toledo helped Gimenez win the 2012 election. He’s due another bite at the apple.

Read related story: Mayor’s pal Garcia-Toledo eats lobster with county staffers

There are two more contracts being awarded, each for $11 million, for the same thing: professional engineering services for the Department of Transportation and Public Works for their capital improvements and the SMART plan. And there are a dozen subcontractors on the other two — one for Parsons Transportation and one for Aecom Technical Services, which is the same company that messed up the reverse osmosis plant in Hialeah but the county still keeps contracting nonetheless.

That makes for 42 subcontractors — or 41, really, since Manuel Vera is on two contracts — who are feeding from this $44-million buffet.

The funds for the contract awarded to Parsons, and from there to Ralph Garcia-Toledo, are coming from the People’s Transportation Funds. Those are tax dollars approved by voters in 2002 when they approved a half cent tax to fund rapid transit expansion.

The dollars used to pay the mayor’s daughter-in-law for the subcontract that the company she is employed in also are taxpayer dollars.

So the mayor is using public taxpayer dollars to help his best friend and his daughter in law and the commission just rubber stamps it? Is that what we can expect for the next four years? 

The Cortadito Calendar will now be published on Monday to give people time to send Ladra the events they have planned for that week. Please keep sending info on your government meetings, campaign events and political powwows to edevalle@gmail.com so we have a full calendar each and every Monday.

This one is our first on a Monday and our first for March. It’s about a month before the next important local election — in Coral Gables. So we have the first candidate forum for those three races on Tuesday.

There’s also a commission meeting at the county, a city council meeting in Doral, a talk about women’s issues, the requested upzoning of a whole stretch of Little Gables, more hand-wringing over the future of North Beach and yet another powerful speech by our esteemed schools superintendent.

So, let’s get on with it.

TUESDAY — March 7

9:30 a.m. — The Miami-Dade County Commission meets to again ratify the awarding of $27.5 million to five companies for engineering services related to the water and sewer consent decree (more on that later), consider changes to the annexation and incorporation process, approve $1.8 billion in expenditures for building supplies for mulitple departments and designate an area of Miami Gardens as blighted so they can create another community redevelopment agency for their friends to raid. They will also consider giving yet another no-bid contract to a vendor who wants to open up at Miami International Airport and awarding a $1.5 million contract to Perez & Perez Architects for revisions to the 2008 11th Judicial Circuit Courts and corrections facilities master plans. And they will get a report on a plan to develop and maintain several county owned properties in the downtown Miami area, coincidentally or not including Cielito Lindo, the historic courthouse that needs to be redeveloped or replaced.

6 p.m. — The first of at least two scheduled debates for the candidates in Coral Gables begins at 6 p.m. at the University of Miami’s Fieldhouse, 1245 Dauer Drive (next to the Watsco Center). This “forum” put on by the Gables Chamber of Commerce every election consistently turns into a lively debate. Each group will be given 50 minutes, moderated by WLRN’s Vice President of News Tom Hudson. The first up will be the four candidates for the open seat, vacated by Jeannett Slesnick‘s move to the mayoral race. The second group will be incumbent Pat Keon against former Commissioner Wayne “Chip” Withers and the last will be the headliners, the mayoral candidates, Slesnick and former Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli. Residents can submit questions online at events@CoralGablesChamber.com or in person on 4X6 cards that will be made available. Scheduled to end at 9 p.m.

WEDNESDAY — March 8

10 a.m. — The Doral City Council meets Wednesday and on the agenda is the $2.4 million contract for paving and stormwater improvements to H&R Paving, the purchase of 25 police vehicles for $600,000, the negotation of two contracts for towing services in the city, and the creation of a partnership with Baptist Health South to jointly develop a wellness program at Doral Legacy Park. The meeting starts at 10 a.m. at Doral City Hall, 8401 NW 53rd Terrace.

6 p.m. — Women will unite to talk about issues near and dear to them at an International Women’s Day panel Wednesday that will touch upon reproductive rights, workplace equality and religious discrimination. Among the panelists are Maggie Fernandez, director of the Miami-Dade League of Women Voters, Latinas for Trump co-founder Denise Galvez, Safespace Board Member Alicia Consuegra and former Miami-Dade School Board member and one-time mayoral candidate Raquel Regalado, who has been consipcuously quiet on a lot of issues lately. The panelists start their discussion at 6 p.m. and will be there through at least 8 p.m. at La Palma Restaurant, 116 Alhambra Circle.

THURSDAY — March 9

11 a.m. — The Miami-Dade Commission Chairman’s Policy Council will hear presentations from both Lowell Clary, the FDOT’s former assistant secretary for finance, and Miami-Dade Expressway Authority Executive Director Javier Rodriguez before they discuss the possible financial avenues for transportation projects, specifically MDX funds, PTP funds, tax increment financing and community redevelopment agencies. Seeing as how this is Chairman Esteban Bovo‘s special committee for all the important stuff, it stands to reason that this is a preview of what we might see be presented at a future commission meeting.

6:30 p.m. — The Westchester Community Council will have a public hearing Thursday to consider a land use map change for 4.5 acres west of LeJeune from 9th to 16th streets from low density residential (2.5 to 6 dwellings per acre) to medium density (13 to 25 dwellings per acre). This is an area of unincorporated Miami-Dade that is called Little Gables and could be annexed into the City Beautiful. The council could make recommendations to the county’s planning department and commission at the end of the hearing, which begins at 6:30 p.m. at Ruben Dario Middle School, 350 NW 97th Ave.

7 p.m. — Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, who once was thought of as a potential Miami-Dade mayoral candidate and could be again for 2020, is speaking to the members of the Kendall Federation of Homeowners Associations at their meeting Thursday. Carvalho heads the fourth largest school district in the U.S., with 346,000 students and 52,000 employees. He is expected to talk about issues related to Kendall area schools. The meeting is at the Kendall Village Center’s Civic Pavilion in front of the Regal Cinema box office, 8625 SW 124 Ave.

FRIDAY — March 10

8:30 a.m. — Miami Beach North Beach Master Plan Steering Committee meets at the Normandy Shores Golf Club, 2401 Biarritz Drive. These are the people charged with turning the sleepy northern end of the city into a more bustling second or third “downtown” area. It includes the two-block Ocean Terrace, a slower, older version of Ocean Drive (ala 1988) where voters turned down a huge tower development in 2015. The steering committee is tasked with finding ways to revitalize the neighborhood and spur redevelopment while maintanining the pedestrian-friendly, modest, walkable scale that makes it one of the last vestiges of beachside old Florida.

Former Coral Gables Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli isn’t the only one who wants his old job back at City Hall. Former Commissioner Wayne “Chip” Withers, who served for 20 years before leaving office in 2011, qualified last month — for the seat occupied by incumbent Commissioner Pat Keon.

He could have run for the open seat. But Withers has personal, friendly relationships with three of the four candidates there, he told Ladra. Apparently, he does not have a friendly relationship with Keon. Withers supported Mary Young against Keon in 2013.

“I felt I could really go after an incumbent,” Withers said in his aw-shucks Forrest Gump style, which seems disarmingly honest.

And Keon is ripe for the taking. Not known for being exactly responsive to residents, she has become a target for some of the anti-development forces who don’t like some of the larger projects on the city’s horizon, including the Riviera Neighborhood Association, of which he is a member (and who reportedly was shopping around for a candidate), who fought hard against the Paseo project and is now up in arms about a possible overlay zoning district along South Dixie Highway. The commissioner always seems to be making excuses for developers, they say. She treats residents like they don’t know what’s best for them and she knows better.

Read related story: Jeannett Slesnick winning mayoral money race

“There is a general concern that when the choice is between the wishes of a residential community and a developer, they feel that its in favor of the developer a lot of the time,” Withers told Ladra. “Whether that’s perceived or real, it’s there. And there’s an erosion of trust.”

Keon said she was not surprised when Withers jumped into the race. “People were looking for someone to run against me, and I guess he was the taker,” she told Ladra. “We’ll still run a good campaign. He has name recognition. He was a good commissioners for along time, but he said he was tired of it. Now he’s back.”

Keon said it’s all because Withers is mad that the Paseo project was approved last year. But, she added, she only voted in favor after developers scaled down the size and height and made it more palatable for the surrounding neighborhood. “They brought it down a lot and stepped it back from the neighborhood.”

But Withers said the project is still too large and out of scale for the people who live adjacent to it and, more importanty, that the process was flawed. The peer review was tainted, he said, because it was done by architects who worked for the project’s architect on other sites or boards. And he did not get a notice about the zoning hearing because he lives 1,150 feet away on Hardee and the city only notifies residents within 1,000 feet.

He wants to increase notification to residents within a three-mile radius. He also wants to change the amount of time between first and second reading from 30 to 60 days and require a 4/5ths vote on land use changes.

Read related story: Coral Gables explores more development along U.S. 1

Withers said the more recent move to create a zoning master plan for U.S. 1 “is scary” and that the city should work to redevelop or revitalize its 1.8 miles along the federal highway with the cities of South Miami to the southwest and Miami to the northeast for a more consistent zoning application. Otherwise, he says, what we may end up with is a canyon of tall buildings like there is on Bird Road just east of Ponce de Leon Boulevard.

“This is why I got back in,” he said. “All these projects coming online. If we don’t get everything in order, it’s going to be a mess,” Withers said.

“I know I’m an old guy,” said the 65-year-old grandfather. “But I was there for 20 years and I know what worked and what didn’t work.”

He said that things put on the books 20-years ago, like the Mediterranean ordinance that provides for more density as bonus for Mediterranean architecture, might be tweaked. Maybe bonuses should be considered for downtown infill development. “Maybe instead of getting an extra four floors for looking like a Mediterranean castle, you get a bonus for having more green space or more open space.

“I’m not a ‘burn it down’ guy. I know we need development. We have a downtown that pays a majority of our tax base. It would be stupid to kill the golden goose.

“But we can’t let it kill our quality of life,” he said.

Keon said that the city is doing better than it was when Withers was in office, with more money in reserves and a AAA bond rating. She sounds a lot like the city manager when she talks, and no, it is not just because both are women. It’s almost like Keon has picked up Cathy Swanson Rivenbark‘s buzzwords, cadence — even her southern twang.

Withers told Ladra he is staying out of the mayoral bout because he knows and respects both Valdes-Fauli, who he served with for many years, and Slesnick, whose husband he also served with on the dais.

But the Gables is a city where voters, not the candidates themselves, often create slates. Withers and Slesnick are already getting grouped together — along with Marlin Ebbert in the second commission race — by an endorsement from the Riviera Neighbhorhood group.

You can already see the yard signs for the three candidates all up and down South Alhambra and the surrounding streets.

And the $350,000 would go to an FIU program run by
a former president — who gave $20,000 to his campaigns

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez must have opened another drawer the other day. Because he found some more money for something he wants that means absolutely nothing to the constituents and people who he allegedly serves.

Gimenez wants to spend $350,000 to give 30 top administrators — the members of his inner circle and keepers of his darkest secrets — some leadership classes at Florida International University that the Miami Herald’s usually dry Doug Hanks very correctly interpreted as “lessons on self-awareness, body language and the impact of family backgrounds,” whatever that is. He forgot “how to engage with others.”

And, get this: Next year, Gimenez wants to send 100 staffers. Would that then cost the county $1.2 million? For an education in body language and self awareness?

Really? Really? This is the best way to spend our hard-earned tax dollars? Why don’t we let the cronies at the county compete with the already vastly eduated public? It’s not our job to ensure that they meet the standards of good leadership? With the inclusion of a psychologist on the panel of teachers, it seems that we are also providing these understandably traumatized public employees with much-needed therapy (is there a couch, too?).

There was so much hype a couple of years ago about former Commissioner Juan Zapata billing the county $31,000 for a Harvard “master’s” program — even though Commissioner Jean Monestime also got reimbursed $12,400 for a Harvard “executive business” course and nobody talked about that — that this seems a little, well, hypocritical at worst, frivolous at best. Ladra has it on good authority that the Zapata story was pushed by a Gimenez aide to discredit one of the mayor’s biggest critics. And now they promote this as progressive minded. How convenient.

Can it be because the mayor has been safely elected for the last time (at least consecutively), spending $350,000 on continuing education for 30 of the mayor’s chosen county employees — the ones who know where the bones are buried — is suddenly okay? Can someone say double standard?

Or could it simply be quid pro quo?

Carlos Gimenez shakes Mitch Maidique’s hand at a fundraiser at Jeff Berkowtiz’s home.

Former FIU President Modesto “Mitch” Maidique — who designed the FIU Center for Leadership and is employed by it — gave Gimenez at least $20,000 in campaign contributions to the mayoral account and both political action committees since 2011 (including $14,000 from his then-wife, Nancy Maidique).

Maybe former county commissioner Katy Sorenson and her husband should have donated to the Gimenez PAC to keep the Good Government Initiative at the University of Miami going. Certainly, his staffers would benefit more from ethics lessons than any self-awareness or body language bullshit.

Some of the new “students” identified in a Gimenez memo are the same members of his inner circle who already took a one-day, 10-hour “leadership course,” because one has to use the term loosely, at the same FIU scam, er, program in 2012.

Sure, it was just a one-day intensive course but that class (photographed to the left) was attended by Gimenez, his five deputy mayors — Russell Benford, Alina Hudak, Chip Iglesias, Ed Marquez and Bernard “Jack” Osterholt — his former communications chief Fernando Figueredo, his former deputy and current chief of staff, Alex Ferro, Inson Kim, who was his director of policy and legislative affairs then and is now heading the communications and outreach department, former senior advisor Lisa Martinez and Budget Director Jennifer Moon.

Guess it didn’t stick because they are all going back to school. Every one of the administrators who took the 2012 crash course are coming back to campus (with the exception of the three who are no longer at the county). Plus now the list attached to the mayor’s memo also includes what looks like every department director: Communications Director and Mouthpiece Michael Hernandez, Fire Chief David Downey, Police Director Juan Perez, Human Resources Director Arleene Cuellar, Transportation and Public Works Director Alicia Bravo, Water and Sewer Director Lester Sola, Seaport Director Juan Kuryla, Director of Cultural Affairs Michael Spring and so on and so on and so on.

These are people who make six figure annual salaries. Kuryla is at $297,000. Ed Marquez makes $267,000. Alina Hudak gets paid just under $259,000. Sola and Osterholt each make about $250,000. Which means they can all afford to pay for their own professional development. Why is that the taxpayer’s responsibility?

And shouldn’t they already possess this particular skill set? Wouldn’t this course be more geared to build a bench from the assistant directors and  supervisors who are really doing all the work anyway?

I mean, if Alina Hudak and Ed Marquez and Russell Benford and Lester Sola and Juan Kuryla don’t know how to read body language already, we’re worse off than anyone thought. What do they say about teaching old dogs? And we certainly don’t need them to be more self aware. We need them to be more aware of everybody else.

Or is this how Gimenez, who is on his last four years, trying to help his cronies be more employable when he’s gone?

This whole thing smells fishy. Too bad they can’t see Ladra’s body language. They would have no trouble reading it.

It says, “Bitch, please.”