If there is any one single sign that shows that Miami-Dade School Board Member Raquel Regalado
is running for county mayor, it’s the rebuttal she issued Thursday to Mayor Carlos Gimenez‘s State of the County address.
Nobody — not even Regalado — can tell me now that she’s still undecided.
Somebody had to do it. But the fact that it was she who issued the only official video response certainly positions her as the No. 1 challenger to Gimenez in 2016.
That was likely her idea when Regalado posted a nearly two-minute video on her Facebook page hours after Gimenez spoke at FIU about the county “turning the corner” financially — which is going to come back and haunt him come budget time, just watch — and jobs initiatives and big ticket transit projects, for which he provided no funding sources. Regalado’s take on his speech is pretty much the same as Ladra’s — that it was soft on details.
The purpose of the speech, she says, is to provide direction on what to expect in the next budget.
“And, sadly, there were more questions than answers… as many of us wondered on the big projects and how we are gong to be paying for them,” Regalado states in the video, which was also produced in Spanish.
Read related story: Carlos Gimenez’s Miami-Dade SOTC: Much ado about nada
“One of the biggest issues was the lack of information
as to public safety. As many of you know, it has already been established that Miami-Dade County has a need for over 600 police officers in order to ensure that residents are being properly served,” Regalado says to the camera without smiling once. “Yet, there was no discussion of that, no discussion of the fleet of police officers or how were going to ensure that Miami-Dade County residents are being kept safe.”
Yeah, it looks like she took the opportunity to appeal to two segments of the population that has been discontent with Gimenez and his ways. The first was police and their supporters. The second is library advocates when she mentioned that reserves were used to keep libraries open this year.
“But those reserves are gone now. So the question is what’s going to happen to our library system. Are we going to be able to keep these libraries open? And what should we be doing to enhance the services that we provide to our residents.”
In what is increasingly becoming a transit-centered government conversation, she also mentioned traffic and transportation projects, and the lack of details provided for those issues.
“The MDX tolls have created chaos on our streets as we try to figure out how we get from one point to another. There was no discussion of the impact this has had on transit and very little discussion on the investments that needs to be made in infrastructure,” Regalado says in the video.
“As you know there is a need for transit leadership in Miami-Dade County and we did not see that in today’s state of the county,” she added. “At the end of the day, there was a lot of talk about big projects, very little specifics about how we are going to be paying for those projects and even less conversation about the services provided to Miami-Dade County residents.
“That is the sad part of today’s state of the county. It had a focus on big things and not on the residents and we hope that the Miami-Dade County Commission will do better when it establishes its budget.”
Read related story: Tiny gap in Raquel Regalado poll is huge, but no big surprise
Ladra is so glad she ended with this sign off: “My name is Raquel Regalado and this is my take on Carlos Gimenez’s State of the County.”
But it may have well ended with “My name is Raquel Regalado. And I can be a better mayor for Miami-Dade County.”
Because as if that wasn’t enough, Regalado then went on Spanish-language 
radio and the PBA’s Rapid Response program as well as WFOR CBS4’s Facing South Florida with Jim DeFede to deconstruct the mayor’s SOTC address and give the context Gimenez wouldn’t.
“These things have a tendency to be a little insider baseball like… but the purpose is to give us some idea of what is going to happen at budget season. This gives us no clue as to what’s going to happen in the budget,” she told PBA President John Rivera, adding that the speech was more like “a laundry list of the top ten things he thinks are popular.”
“I think he’s gotten caught up in the big things and hasn’t really gotten to the problem solving,” Regalado said, referring to a line in the mayor’s script.
The lame SOTC address will give Regalado plenty of fuel in weeks and months to come for the inevitable run for county mayor that she hasn’t publicly announced, but for which she is definitely tipping her hand with this semi-official opposition response, anointing herself as the one to go to for the anti-Gimenez soundbite.
Even Commissioner Xavier “Mayor Sir” Suarez, who is also mulling a mayoral run, had a kind word about Regalado’s TV interview Sunday on twitter. “Tested her understanding of county budget and our inefficient mass transportation,” Suarez tweeted in what seems like the first indication that he might back off and support her (more on that later).
Hopefully, other politicos will take heed and a rebuttal after the State of the County address becomes a regular thing — even for the next mayor and the mayor after that.
Raquel Regalado issues rebuttal to Carlos Gimenez SOTC added by Ladra on
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