Did you hear the one about the mayor’s campaign consultant working a side gig for a casino giant? No, there’s no punchline. Because it’s no joke.
Up until just a few months ago, Jesse Manzano-Plaza –
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez‘s political strategist, campaign spokesman and chief apologist — had been working for Resorts World and Genting, the Mayalasian New York partnership that wants to build a massive slot house in downtown Miami, for at least a year.
That’s right. That means he had both jobs at the same time.
Wouldn’t that be a classic example of a conflict of interests? The mayor is supposed to represent our best interests. So are his people, by extension. But one of his operatives represents the best interests of a casino giant that wants variances and land use changes so they can bring slots to Biscayne Bay. Or, well, he did until just the other day.
In fact, we wouldn’t even have known about Jesse’s side job — and he would still be working for Genting today — if he hadn’t been forced to quit after his client sued the county (read: us taxpayers) to force the casino a few months ago. And how much you wanna bet his departure is just a leave of absence. There could be his job waiting for him after the election — if he wins.
And how many other clients does Manzano have that could take advantage of his connection to the mayor and the mayor’s leverage with commissioners? We just don’t know. He won’t say. He comes from the Carlos Curbelo school of secret lobbying clients because they used to work together.
Read related story: New purple spindoctor duo: Jesse Manzano & Ben Pollara
But he is also still a junior partner at LSN Partners with Marcelo Llorente and Alex Heckler. They lobbied for CH2M Hill, the engineering firm that won a $139-million contract and which put Ralph Garcia Toledo, the mayor’s BFF and former campaign driver, in a $200-an-hour job at the Water and Sewer Department — $672,000 billed to the county so far since December 2014 — for going to meetings and tracking the progress of certain projects.
Yes, I know. Time to break out the flowcharts. The conflicts of interests that stem from the mayor’s office are hard to track without flowcharts.
Manzano went on live Spanish-language radio in May after the Miami Herald exposed his 
lobbying job with Genting to defend himself. “Unfortunately, I have to make a living,” he said, trying to turn the tables by calling any attention to this obvious conflict a political attack. Because any criticism of him or Gimenez is a political attack, didn’t you know?
But Jesse admitted to having been a registered lobbyist for Genting from 2011 to 2015, when he last registered — which was nine days before getting his first paycheck from the mayor’s political committee. Since joining the mayor’s team, he said he’s only worked as a “communications consultant” for Genting. Yeah, that’s lobbying with a different name. He was communicating with Gimenez in an advocacy role and consulting Genting on how to get the mayor on their side.
Like with $60,000 in campaign donations from Genting and the Capo Group, which owns the Genting resort in Bimini. That’s a good start.
“I am not registered as a lobbyist for the company,” Manzano said in the interview with Roberto Rodriguez-Tejera. “I haven’t been since last year. Precisely to avoid whatever perception that could create.”
Read related story: Jesse Manzano and Carlos Gimenez, together again for 2016
Perception? Perception, bruh? The reality still is that someone close to the mayor and working to re-elect him to office is also and simultaneously working to seek concessions — whether as a lobbyist or as a consultant or as a publicist — for his client, a casino giant that needs access and favors from politicians.
How is this not a conflict? Are we to believe that Jesse didn’t know about the lawsuit coming against the county? Because 
that seems far-fetched. More likely is a scenario in which Genting sought Manzano’s advice on handling public opinion and what in the business is called “crisis management.” It is also likely that Manzano’s very insight into and access to Carlos Gimenez was pivotal to his role. Or is somebody going to tell us that Jesse, knowing Gimenez and having daily contact, didn’t give Genting the best possible work product he could? Or did he, instead, warn the mayor about the lawsuit? How conflicted he must have felt. Exactly.
But the problem really isn’t Manzano. The problem is Gimenez. Because this is a pattern with Carlos Gimenez. The people closest to him have ties to county vendors and developers with big plans to take advantage of us. It is so commonplace and expected now that people regularly refer to these inside deals as the mayor’s “friends and family plan.”
- His lobbyist son works for Donald Trump at the same time as Gimenez wants to give the millionaire presidential candidate a public golf course.
- The company that employs his other son gets a $4 million no-bid contract to re-roof the Adrienne Arsht Center after a leak
- His daughter-in-law Barby lands a job (wink, wink, nod) with another subcontractor for “public outreach” on the same multi-million water and sewer project mandated by federal and state courts that his BFF is living large off.
- His in-laws get multiple no-bid contracts for multi-million dollar construction projects at the airport and elsewhere
- His best friend and campaign finance chair gets a juicy $200-an-hour post for mostly “clerical work,” by his own admission, and has billed the county more than $672,000 in 18 months.
- And now we know his campaign consultant is paid by the casino giant that wants to bulldoze its way onto Biscayne Boulevard. Or was paid until the other day. And will be paid again.
Why do I feel like Ladra’s forgetting someone? This is one of the reasons why the public has lost faith in local government. Because of insider deals and conflicts of interests that erode our trust.
And if Carlos Gimenez is the king of the sweet insider deal, and he is, Jesse Manzano is the court jester. He’s the clever entertainer, or “licensed fool,” used by the king to distract the commonfolk (read: us voters) with magic, storytelling and sleight of hand. That’s what he does when he serves as the mayor’s mouthpiece, which is a lot lately.
Jesse is the one who represents the mayor in public forums (county spokesman Mike Hernandez can only work on campaign stuff in secret, not out in the open). Gimenez nunca da la cara. He is afraid to debate or even face Raquel Regalado, his only real and viable challenger, 
even on air at separate times. So he always sends Jesse or Mike (who has also consulted for private companies and now wants to be head of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, God save us), to respond and speak for him. This week, Manzano has gone on the radio and Spanish-language TV to attack Regalado and defend his boss. After all, Genting is not going to get anything out of Raquel! So Manzano is using a poorly researched and possibly libelous blog post that he planted the seeds of to malign the only real challenge to his ace in the hole for Genting and CH2M Hill and whatever other clients he may have that we don’t know about because they haven’t sued the county yet. Jesse is really just doing his job.
The only question is, which job and for whom?
Who does Carlos Gimenez spokesman really represent? added by Ladra on
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