Eugene Flinn wants his job back as Palmetto Bay mayor

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We’ve seen some local political comebacks, lately.

Founding Miami Lakes Mayor Wayne Slaton returned to office last year after the former mayor was arrested on bribery charges. Former Homestead Councilman Jeff Porter was elected mayor in that southern city last year after that mayor was arrested on other public corruption charges. In 2011, former Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez became county commissioner.

Now, founding Palmetto Bay Mayor Eugene Flinn wants back in.

Flinn, who last ran for a county commission seat and lost to Vice Chair Lynda Bell in 2010, told Ladra this week that he would soon make a formal announcement of his intention to run for his old seat against incumbent Mayor Shelley Stancyk. But it seems to be one of those best kept secrets — since everyone else apparently knew he was going to do this.

He is already registered as a candidate on the village website, which only means he may intend to run in the Nov. 4 election. And while he opened a campaign account Thursday — former Councilman Howard Tendrich is his treasurer — we won’t know for sure until qualifying in August.

“Good for him. He keeps threatening to do it,” Stancyk told me, adding that she is not worried and that it doesn’t change her campaign.

But while there are also two others registered to run in the mayor’s race — Peter England and Palmetto Bay Councilman Patrick Fiore — Ladra has a feeling this does change the campaign. Flinn just made this race interesting. Or ugly. Or both.

Flinn, who has stayed active with his own blog (or blogs because many suspect he is one of the anonymous ghost writers behind South Dade Matters) and supporting other candidates, like United Teachers of Dade “government specialist” (read: lobbyist) Karyn Cunningham — who is running for a council seat again — told Ladra that the four years out of office has given him a fresh perspective. And he doesn’t like what he sees.

“It’s hard to watch what’s going on right now. We’ve worked so hard the last 10 years,” Flinn said. “I want to make sure we move forward in the right direction.”

He made vague accusations about infighting within the village council, where Vice Mayor John DuBois and Stanzcyk apparently do not like each other. “There is too much squabbling going on,” Flinn told Ladra. Guess whose side he’s on?

He also expressed disappointment that the village had not yet broken ground on two new fire stations that Miami-Dade wants to build in the village to reduce response times there and in neighboring municipalities. They have been talked about forever — well, since Flinn’s time. He even went to Washington D.C. and hired lobbyists to urge Congress to pass a bill so they can use two acres at the USDA property in the village.

“I’m shocked it hasn’t moved forward,” he said.

But Stanczyk, who also said she was not going to get into a pissing match with Flinn, says it has. She told Ladra Thursday that she expected an application to be coming to the council within the next two months or so for a fire station at the Palmetto Bay Village Center property with an alternate site being looked at on 67th Avenue, but away from residences.

Miami-Dade Fire Chief Dave Downey told the council at a meeting last December that they were looking at six sites, but that the U.S. Department of Agriculture Research Services site at 13602 Old Cutler Road — which is the one that Flinn lobbied for when he was mayor — might be a long shot. He said while the USDA is willing to sell 2 acres to the county for a fire station, it would take an act of Congress for it to happen.

While he doesn’t want to “put all our eggs in one basket,” Downey urged residents and council members to pressure Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen to get the bill back on the agenda. It was pulled last session after concerns were raised by residents at nearby King’s Bay.

In any case, it seems that the fire stations may become part of the campaign rhetoric, especially if Flinn brought it up even before he was out of the gate.

Flinn just better hope it’s not like former South Miami Mayor Horace Feliu‘s stab at a comeback in February or Raul Martinez‘s effort in 2011.

  Eugene Flinn, Shelley Stanczyk