Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez continues to dodge debates with any of his challengers 
and is expected to be a no-show to the debate Wednesday hosted by a coalition of women’s groups — the first real public debate in such an important election.
A member and former vice president of the League of Women Voters of Miami Dade — which is hosting the debate with the YWCA of Miami-Dade, the Women’s Chamber of Commerce and The Women’s Fund of Miami-Dade — tweeted last week that the mayor had not responded to their first request. In fact, he is the only candidate not to respond.
So his campaign was sent a letter.
“As the incumbent candidate, we invite you to participate and join your fellow candidates at this debate,” it starts. “We hope you accept the invitation so that you may share your platform and vision for Miami-Dade with our members and community. Through this debate, it is our collective intent to encourage informed and active participation in government.”
Herald county reporter Doug Hanks retweeted her tweet and said “four weeks to go and no debate to cover yet.”
To which the woman replied: “I hope you’ll be there Wed, despite no Gimenez. The people should know all the candidates’ platforms.”
But c’mon, people! Do you really expect Carlos Gimenez to go anywhere in public where he might be asked uncomfortable questions about his pal Ralph Garcia Toledo‘s $200-an-hour job at Water and Sewer? Of course not. Or about his son’s threatening phone calls to candidates who dared run for the same school board seat as his aunt? Nah.
Even before recent news stories got Gimenez hiding his head in the sand, he was not looking forward to debates. He may have told El Nuevo Herald’s Enrique Flor that he would debate all the candidates as he did in 2011, but his campaign has repeatedly declined requests. He was a no-show to the Kenda
ll Federation of Homeowners Association forum last week. And a longtime Spanish-language TV show producer told Ladra that the mayor’s campaign manager, Jesse Manzano, had specifically said they did not want to debate his strongest rival, Miami-Dade School Board Member Raquel Regalado — the only one “within striking distance” according to polls — on a live show.
It’s not just because he’s an even worse speaker in Spanish than he already is in English.
It’s because he knows he can’t deny documented facts about his lack of vision and his mismanagement with special taxing districts and the People’s Transportation Plan half penny sales tax fund, which he has been misdirecting to balance the general budget. It’s because he knows he can’t defend his miserable track record with public safety, where he puts the optics of body cameras before the reality of a 500 officer shortage. It’s because he can’t deflect from the broken promises he has made in terms of transit solutions and transparency.
And it’s because he really doesn’t want to talk about his friend Ralph. 
Especially since Gimenez — photographed here with Garcia Toledo and former county aviation director Jose Abreu at Greenstreets in Coconut Grove around the same time Ralph started billing the county — might be subpoenaed about this and whatever other deals he and his BFF may have cooked up.
In fact, the only debate that Ladra believes Gimenez has accepted is the one on WPLG’s This Week in South Florida on Aug. 14 — which will be almost two weeks after absentee ballots are mailed out on Tuesday.
Happy coincidence? I think not.
But maybe by then we will know more into a criminal investigation into Garcia Toledo’s fraud. Ladra has been told that the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s office is looking into that lucrative inside deal. Because that’s what it is, ladies and gentlemen. Fraud. The wonderfully detailed Miami Herald story about how this totally unqualified insider — the mayor’s BFF, driver and campaign finance chair — got a lucrative contract where he has billed $672,000 in 18 months for having meetings and filing papers kinda glossed over one thing: That bill is intentionally and fraudulently bloated.
It appears that Garcia Toledo’s hourly rate benefits from a multiplier used in many municipal 
contracts. They pay vendors more when they have overhead — like office space, staff, equipment. All things that Garcia Toledo, whose address is a P. O. Box, does not have.
Going by past performance by our SAO public corruption unit, this investigation will not be completed before the Aug. 30 election and will probably end at Ralph. But if anyone thinks that Gimenez didn’t know about the inflated invoicing, well then they are not paying attention.
Remember how convoluted this whole process was when a $1.6 billion contract — part of federally- and state-mandated compliance projects we have to undertake in Water and Sewer — was awarded to AECOM after first being awarded to a competing company, CH2M Hill. Don’t feel bad for either of them. They both have a piece of this multi-billion infrastructure overhaul.
But you can be certain that Garcia Toledo’s subcontract as a contract manager — especially when there are probably dozens of county employees who are incredibly more qualified than he is — was part of the required criteria on the hush hush. It was part of the deal made. “You get this chunk of the billion dollar pie but you have to hire my buddy to do, well, really nothing.”
And Ladra will also bet that Ralph is not the only one who was made part of the deal. Las malas lenguas say his is not the only subcontract being investigated because of ties to Mayor Gimenez (more on that later).
An unofficial report in 2014 from the director of the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust said that “the decision making process as a whole, on a project of great significance to Miami-Dade County, has raised substantial issues regarding the integrity of the process and the fairness of the outcome, which could have a negative impact upon the public trust in County government.”
Ya think?
And that, again, is why Gimenez won’t debate. He knows he can’t regain the public trust so why bother having to try?
Especially if there’s going to be uncomfortable questions about his buddy’s sweet deal.
Gimenez ducks debates — and questions about pal’s deal added by Ladra on
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