People are still a little pissed off about Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez rescheduling two planned budget town hall meetings this week to go off to other events, including the recognition at the White House Tuesday of the 1972 Miami Dolphins championship team.
But it didn’t seem to cramp his style or damper his diversions in D.C.
After the ceremony, it looks like the mayor got together for a reunion with a few of his old buddies from Christopher Columbus High, which may be appropriate since he graduated from that boys’ Catholic high school in 1972.
Don’t know what that has to do with the Dolphins, however.
“I guess he got confused. Forgot he was mayor. He woke up today thinking he was a Dolphin cheerleader,” said Mike del Portillo. Ladra corrected him and informed him that Gimenez has been the Dolphins head cheerleader since he negotiated that “unprecedented deal” that would help them get tourist tax dollars to pay for part of their $350-million facelift.
Most people who talked to Ladra about his trip were angry with the mayor’s decision to ditch them for the team he tried to get public financing for instead of facing them to explain his plan to close libraries and shut down fire trucks. Some will be downright livid when they see him smiling for photo opps in the East Room.
This facebook picture shows JB Aleman, Raul Martinez Jr. (Class of 1992) — who works for Congressman Joe Garcia (D-District 26 and Belen) and, so, was probably hanging around the 1600 Penn anyway — Ricky Arriola, our “Not So Golden Boy,” Frank Veloso, Danny Arriola, Alex Ferro, the mayor’s deputy chief of staff, and Eddy Arriola. Not sure who Aleman and Veloso are, but Ladra speculates that these cute, clean cut Arriola boys with the nearly matching ties could be the sons of former Miami Manager Joe Arriola, who was the city’s top administrator for three years after Gimenez left the post to run for office in 2003.
Don’t know what any of that has to do with the Dolphins, however. Much less with their ’72 season.
And all I can say to the mayor is that I hope all these people bring him votes. Because he is losing them now faster in Homestead and Florida City where he was already losing friends and making more enemies due to the failure to follow through on the no-kill shelter. See? Many thought that shelter would be built in and bring jobs to Homestead — which is where many people abandon their unwanted pets anyway, thinking, maybe, that a nice farmer will take care of them.
“This shows no respect. How arrogant,” said Vivian Gonzalez, a pre-school teacher who had cancelled other plans to go to the budget town hall. People she knows had made “save the libraries” t-shirts to wear together and everything.
“I was so angry I can’t even tell you how angry I am. I know how many people and how many different groups were going,” said Pamela Gray, a Redland area activist who plans on running for state rep in 2014. She had to hurriedly call 10 or 12 people she had urged to go and speak at the budget town hall to tell them, um, er, nevermind. They mayor doesn’t really want to hear from us, after all.
“It’s offensive to the voters down here. We’re like the ugly stepchild of Miami-Dade and its just ridiculous,” Gray said, doubting that the mayor didn’t know about the DC trip earlier.
“Like Gimenez didn’t know about this last week? He waited until the day before to announce he would have to reschedule the meeting?”
Yeah, Pam, because if he had mentioned it days earlier, the outcry may have forced him to double back and do another flip flop — like he did with the budget — skipping the trip to save face with voters. And then he would have missed the photo ops.
Mayor Carlos Gimenez hobknobs with friends in DC added by Ladra on
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