Heyman’s coup attempt on Chair’s choices fails

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Miami-Dade Commissioner Sally Heyman basically accused former Chairman Joe Martinez of using his office funds last year to benefit special interests (read: his interests) during the heated election against Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez.

Oh yes she did.

Okay, okay; Heyman didn’t actually name Martinez by name, but on Wednesday she proposed changing the way that the chairperson can use their discretionary office funds, requiring they be spent on countywide agencies and programs rather than those in their districts, which she said she saw a lot of last year.

“Especially at election time,” she added. And who was the chair then?

“It wasn’t me she was talking about,” said Commissioner Audrey Edmonson.

“I know what you’re trying to do. I saw it as well. But we could have voted it down,” Edmonson said, referring to commission approval of Martinez’s expenditures. “We had that chance.”

She followed Commissioners Dennis Moss and Jean Monestime in opposing the measure.

“I understand what you mean but the chair needs to have the flexibility to make those decisions,” Moss said, adding that each commissioner can also allocate funds to both district and countywide programs.

But what seemed to Ladra like a post-resignation attack on Martinez may have seemed to the commissioners like a coup attempt on their current fearless leader, Chairwoman Rebeca Sosa. And her troops rallied around her rather quickly and stomped the revolution out with very little effort.

Even Barbara Jordan, who was cast against Sosa as another chair candidate, defended her new captain.

“I believe in the integrity of the chair. Everybody doesn’t operate it in the right way,” Jordan said.

Sosa herself seemed a little offended.

“It’s a matter of trust. We’ve had a lot of chairmen before and not had anything like this come up,” she said.

In the end, nobody voted for Heyman’s idea.

Long live the queen.

That’s it. Ladra found her nickname: Chairwoman Rebeca “La Reina” Sosa.