Carlos Gimenez recall is recalled after budget concessions

You could see it coming: As Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos “Cry Wolf” Gimenez found money here for this, money there for that, signing five union contracts and balancing the budget without cutting jobs or closing libraries, the anger that drove a petty recall effort launched emotionally by a father in mourning is pretty much out of gas.

Retired Miami-Dade Fire Capt. Jack Garcia — who did not return Ladra’s calls earlier this week, seeing as how the petition drive was set to start Oct. 1 — told the Miami Herald that the recall effort was “on hold.” But the truth is, it was never going anywhere.

Without the big money that car mogul Norman Braman poured into the recall of former Mayor Carlos Alvarez and without the grass roots ayuda de los unions, this recall was never anything but on hold.

Garcia sees it as a victory. He was basically thrown into political action by the death of his son in a Fourth of July accident on the water and after Gimenez refused to refund a fireboat that he had cut from the previous year’s budget. Gimenez dug his feet in months ago, even fighting about it on air with CBS4’s Jim DeFede where he sounded like a petulant child who didn’t want to give up a toy.

But now the mayor has said he has found, wait for it, more money to eventually return the fireboats to the water. Meanwhile, he is working with waterfront municipalities to increase coverage.

And everything else is saved: police, libraries, crossing guards who got their 5% back. These were automatic recall supporters vanishing into thin air.

The mayor’s spokesman said that the recall effort had nothing to do with the mayor’s sudden flip flop on the fireboats, or the police layoffs, or the libraries. But he has to say that. Other sources at County Hall tell Ladra otherwise. While he may have been publicly shrugging his shoulders, a couple of insiders tell me the mayor did take it more seriously than he let on.

As he should. He is perceived as arrogant enough as it is so a good dose of humility might have been what did him some good.

And if Gimenez wasn’t worried, why on Earth would lobbyist Rodney Barreto get involved? Barreto called Garcia up back in August and arranged to meet at his Coral Gables lobbying firm so he could urge him — nod, wink, elbow — to drop the recall effort.

Because, you know, the lobbyists in town, they take care of our mayor.

Pft! What is that? It sounds like Uncle Joey taking Vinnie out for a ride to the docks to “talk” to him about mouthing off in front of the family.

It certainly doesn’t sound like nobody was worried.

But now we have to deal with an hinchado Gimenez, pumped up not only from the union deals but from the recall retraction, heading into the holidays with a clear path toward the 2016 election, which he has already won in his mind.

Ay, Dios mio!

budget cuts, Carlos Gimenez, Miami-Dade budget, recall

Carlos Gimenez recall is recalled after budget concessions added by Ladra on October 2, 2014
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