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his government affairs advisor — to more easily raise funds through sponsorships and naming rights and the like. Of course it also makes it easier for them to spend that money. 
And without the pesky oversight that the county has.
The non-profit board would be free of the county’s cumbersome public bidding process and also be able to rid themselves of those needy county employees and their costly perks. Plus, board members don’t have to submit financial disclosure forms like electeds do, even though they are appointed by those same electeds.
Spring was quoted in the Miami Herald as saying that board members felt more free to raise funds if the foundation were autonomous from government control. “It’s a psychological issue,” he said.
Well, let them go to group therapy! Don’t give them carte blanche over the public’s asset. It’s not a physical issue. It’s not a legal issue. Spring is basically saying that the trustee board, as it stands now, could raise however much money it wants. There is something else going on here.
And for all the talk about how this will help the tourist attraction, I guess the mayor and his cronies forgot that Vizcaya is a county park first. It is ours. It is not his to give away. Just like the Crandon Golf Course on Key Biscayne.
Read related story: Carlos Gimenez’s next mancrush giveaway to Donald Trump
In true Miami-Dade style, the proposal is being hurried through. The county wants to have the new arrangement in place by October — which is the beginning of the fiscal year. The county can immediately start saving by the elimination of 70 salaries and benefit packages. That’s not arbitrary.
“He can’t balance his budget. This is 
about moving assets so you don’t have to pay for them,” said Miami-Dade School Board Member Raquel Regalado, who is the only declared candidate running against Gimenez in 2016 and has questioned the mayor’s priorities before.
“The problem with that is that the county has a responsibility to maitani these things and the question is are you violating the original intent of when this was given to you?
“Carlos Gimenez does not understand the idea of stewardship. As strong mayor, he is the steward of this and he has to do what is best for our community long term,” Regalado said, adding that other options should be exhausted before we auction off our assets.
“There are a lot of things that can be done with Vizcaya to make it more usable and more viable. There just never has been a desire to,” she told Ladra.
And she questions why, if this is really about what is best for Vizcaya, the science museum property had to be the hook to get this to happen. “Why do you have to add a development carrot? It’s really a ruse.”
Regalado actually approached the county about using the property for a school. Some kind of science and engineering magnet that could use the planetarium seems almost like a no-brainer. But the neighboring homeowners in swanky Bay Heights disapproved, worried about the traffic.
There’s also the possibility — should I dare say it? — of keeping it an open space in an area sorely lacking or even selling the property outright for what it’s worth, a pretty penny I bet, and paying down the debt on the construction and relocation of the new science museum. Would that be too logical?
But believe it or not, I’ve also heard that there could be a future change of course to a P3 project with shops and restaurants. Maybe a Deering Deli? A design store selling reproductions of the Vizcaya furnishings?
Imagine how the Bay Heights residents will feel about that!
Especially, since there is no public process, so there would be no vehicle for them to object or even comment on it.
And how many Gimenez friends and family plan members do you think would have their hands in that pot?
More than you can count.
Because this is not about balancing his budget, as Ms. Regalado said.
This, to Ladra, looks like a fire sale. Gimenez is giving away as much of the farm as he can before 2016.
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