The much ballyhooed ghost legislation that Mayor Carlos Gimenez had his staff 
write to legalize Uber and Lyft is not going anywhere.
Not anytime soon, anyway.
But it’s not because Commission Chairman Jean Monestime has been stalling, like Gimenez and his people have been saying on TV and radio shows for the past couple of weeks, since submitting the draft ordinance to the chairman for his consideration.
“Despite repeated claims by Mayor Carlos Gimenez that Chairman Jean Monestime is stalling consideration of his legislative ideas pertaining to Uber, Lyft and the Taxi Industry, there is no actual legislation in the system to consider,” said a statement from his office issued last week because he felt forced to issue a statement on the matter.
“No one has sponsored such legislation,” Monestime said in the statement. 
“When the Mayor convinces one of my colleagues to sponsor his legislative ideas, and the legislation has been properly submitted to my office by the County Attorney, I will consider it.”
And, even then, there might still be that promised workshop that has been cancelled and seemingly forgotten, he added.
“If the proposed legislation is initially approved (First Reading), and my colleagues are still interested in a workshop to review all prior proposals, I will then call a meeting,” Monestime said.
Read related story: Double standard: Miami-Dade lets Lyft, Uber run over rules
The strong mayor does not write legislation. He takes direction from the commission, which is something he conveniently forgets from time to time. There’s nothing on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting and while the mayor really, really, really wants it to be on the agenda for Dec. 15 — that way he can take care of it before the end of the year, like he has repeatedly said he would do — sources tell Ladra it’s a long way from being presentable.
“Right now, it’s not ready for prime time,” said Alex Annunziato, an aide to Commissioner Esteban Bovo, the transportation committee chairman who is taking the draft sent to Monestime and trying to make something of it.
He should know. Bovo was the one who sponsored two prior attempts — one of which died at committee and another which was withdrawn when the commissioner saw that he clearly did not have the votes. Even though his last attempt was called the “Santa Claus ordinance” by the cab owners and driver
s because it gave the ride sharing companies too much, it makes sense that he would be the one to do take up the issue again. When a commissioner sponsors something that fails, she or he still retains a placeholder on that issue and the right to resubmit.
The 51-page draft ordinance creates a new category for business permits called “transportation network entities” or TNEs and tries to address dozens of issues that are very controversial. County staff also took the 126-page ordinance that regulates taxicabs and tried to undo some of the “repressive” rules in an sloppy and insufficient attempt to create equity where it still doesn’t exist.
The mayor’s office has been promoting it on radio and TV since they presented the law three weeks ago. It would bring Uber and Lyft into the fold, legalizing their outlaw operations by charging them $2.50 for every passenger picked up at the airport (that’s $2 more than taxis and $2.50 less than limousines pay) and forcing taxi cabs — which have already been doing this on their own — to create apps for customers. They have said that the changes have come from a discussion had last summer in a meeting with taxi industry leaders.
Most notably, Mayor Giveaway also wants to forgive at least $1.4 million in
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