Alex Ferro, the new chief of staff to Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos “Good to Go” Gimenez, got an 88 
percent increase in his salary when he took over last week for former Chief of Staff Lisa Martinez.
Son of Ambassador Simon Ferro, a lobbyist and land use attorney, and cousin to former State Rep. Marcelo Llorente, another lobbist, Alex Ferro now makes $145,000 a year instead of $79,000.
Ladra will do the math for you: His take home pay went from $3,040 every two weeks to %5,575.
It’s still less than Martinez made — she left making $180,000 — and Ladra is sure that Gimenez’s office will tell me, when they call me back eventually, that he has all these additional duties now that he did not have as director of external affairs, which sounds like a made up name if you already have a communications chief. Maybe it means he travels with the mayor to external places, like he went with him to the White House last year (second from right in photo above).
Maybe Ferro is worth every penny of $145,000-a-year. But is that the wisest thing to do — give an 88%raise to one of his cronies — when Gimenez is under fire for cutting services and threatening layoffs if more sacrifices aren’t made by employees? When we don’t have enough money for all of some of our cops and librarians? When we don’t he enough money for a fire boat?
Is it the wisest thing to do under threat of a recall?
Remember, former Mayor Carlos Alvarez gave big raises to his inner circle also before he was recalled so that Gimenez — or Carlos II, as some have taken to call him — could be elected.
Ferro did not return a call to the office and Gimenez spokesman Michael Hernandez declined to comment on the matter, directing all questions to Ferro.
Carlos Gimenez new chief of staff gets 83% raise added by Ladra on
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