When Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez gives his State of the County 
address Thursday morning, expect him to be promoting himself as much as anything else.
That’s if the speech is anything like the mayor’s 2015 State of the County message, posted online Wednesday, which is the first page state of the county report that the mayor provides to commissioners.
The actual address will take about 30 minutes, said spokesman Michael Hernandez, who added that it will be posted online shortly after the address. Mike, who is probably wrote the message and is writing the speech, is good like that.
But, while the speech will be longer and have more glorious details, the message should provide a glimpse as to what the gist will be. It’s like an outline or bullet points.
Expect to hear an optimistic Gimenez talk a lot about better times ahead and jobs and increased opportunities through his multiple and similar initiatives and a little about the PortMiami tunnel and the county operating budget and body cameras for cops and how he’s going to focus on transportation now (because he hears the screaming). But, throughout, it’s mostly about “me, me, me.” What else does he have? I mean, when you have body cameras for cops in the Miami-Dade State of the County message, you must be grasping at straws.
“When I was first elected,” he starts, and then proceeds to take credit for cutting unemployment in half.
“My administration,” he starts again, saying they’ve worked hard to ensure that Miami-Dade residents got first in line for those jobs.
“During my entire career in pubic service” the mayor will utter tomorrow, actually saying with a straight face (we imagine) that he has been dedicated to public safety. He thinks he can say this because he was once a firefighter. But his actions against the police department and the fire rescue department — decimating several units, including public corruption at MDPD and refusing to fund operation of a million dollar fire boat that was once among our necessary resources — show that he cannot say that anymore.
“My administration will continue to put service to our residents above all else,” he says toward the end. Well? Isn’t that what public employees are supposed to do whether they are your administration or someone else’s?
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I guess this is to be expected, particularly since the mayor is seen by political observers as vulnerable to a 2016 challenge from either Commissioner Xavier Suarez or Miami-Dade School Board Member Raquel Regalado. Thursday’s event at FIU will likely have the feel of a campaign kick-off event, even though he’s done that already.
Here is Mayor Gimenez’s self-promotional State of the County report message, as posted online Wednesday, in its entirety, before Ladra continues:
Miami-Dade County has turned the corner. After several difficult budgetary cycles and other challenges, we are headed in a better direction
When I was first elected in June 2011, the unemployment rate in Miami-Dade County was 12.4 percent. Today, it stands at 6.7 percent and continues to go down. While government does not create the majority of the jobs in our County, it has set the conditions for job creation by keeping property taxes low and transforming how we deliver services.
The results from our approach are clear: Miami-Dade County leads Florida
in private sector job creation. In the last four years, 112,000 private sectors jobs were created in our County. In addition, 39 companies either relocated to Miami-Dade or expanded their local businesses over the past year. This resulted in $536 million in new capital investment and 2,000 more jobs being created. Many have been technology startups. This emerging sector, along with the first ever county-supported e-Merge Americas Conference, helped to highlight Miami as one of the top technology hubs in the country. Global companies like Microsoft and IBM have also become very active in our community. Code for America, a nonprofit that specializes in improving civic technology, selected Miami-Dade County to be the first municipal government in Florida to participate in their fellowship program.
My administration has worked to ensure that Miami-Dade residents are the first in line for the jobs that are being created here. The private sector should not look to import workers from outside our community. We have the talent right here and will train and educate our residents through the Employ Miami-Dade initiative. Launched in December, Employ Miami-Dade brings together federal, state and county resources to train and educate residents who are in search of employment in affected areas. Miami-Dade is already seeing positive results. Residents are enrolling in our training programs, graduating and receiving assistance with job placement. We have more work to do, but I am confident that Employ Miami-Dade will be successful.
Our economic growth has also resulted in a much better fiscal outlook for Miami-Dade County. We were able to close a $208 million budget gap without laying off police officers or employees who provide essential services. Our five-year budget forecast is balanced without relying on one-time revenues, and my administration signed new three-year labor agreements with five bargaining units. The agreements included a redesign of our healthcare plan that will result in a projected savings of $26 million over the next fiscal year.
During my entire career in public service, whether as County Mayor, Miami City Manager or City of Miami Fire Chief, public safety has always been my top priority. To enhance the work of our Miami-Dade County Police Department and build more confidence between our community and our officers, my budget for Fiscal Year 2014-2015 includes the deployment of 500 body cameras for our officers. Eventually, all of our patrol officers will be using this technology.
As our County continues to grow, the need to improve our public infrastructure is paramount. This past year, we opened the toll-free PortMiami tunnel which connects the world’s busiest cruise port to key highways, making it the preferred route for approximately 14,000 drivers per day. Miami International Airport continues to be modernized to accommodate for its unprecedented growth. The rehabilitation and expansion of the Bear Cut Bridge and our public transit system is further proof of our commitment to having first-class infrastructure. These improvements and future projects throughout Miami-Dade County give us the opportunity to provide our residents with jobs, while alleviating congestion on our roadways.
For these and many other reasons, I know Miami-Dade County has indeed turned the corner. We have weathered the fiscal storm and have come out stronger because we worked together.
My administration will continue to put service to our residents above all else. That is my promise to you. Together, your government, our residents and the private sector will continue to transform Miami-Dade County into a world-class community.
I can hear the applause from his cheerleaders already. But where are the questions about the quality of the jobs he’s helped create and how much it is going to cost for the storage and maintenance of body cam videos, and how much more our police force is going to suffer to fund that?
And was that line about turning the corner a sign that we may see a tiny tax hike this year? “We have weathered the fiscal storm,” after all, tightened that belt and done with less during the hard times. Does a return to better times mean we can afford to keep our libraries and firefighters in tact? Does it mean we get to keep our parks from being privatized by the mayoral millionaire mancrush of the moment? Because it’s going to be difficult for Gimenez to come back in six months in the budget process and say we are going to need to cut whatever services he wants to cut next or hike bus fees or garbage fees again.
Who is going to ask these questions? Who is going to respond to what he says? Nationally, the opposing party to the president gets to respond to the SOTU address. We should start that locally, as well.
Someone has to remind people about all the other stuff — the giveaways to millionaires, the obsession with stadiums, the coziness with lobbyists who are getting multi-million-dollar no-bid contracts, his complete and arrogant disdain for libraries and paramedics and police officers and a public vote on the Pets’ Trust.
Because did anybody else notice how he left ‘what a great thing Miami SkyRise is’ out of his message? Wanna bet he leaves it out of his speech, too?
Carlos Gimenez SOTC message to highlight himself added by Ladra on
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