County Hall is abuzz with speculation about who will become the chair of the Miami-Dade Commission for the
next two years. But the only thing that is certain right now is that it won’t be unanimous, like it was in 2014 when the commission showed a unified body behind today’s Chairman Jean Monestime.
In a very important decision that could set the tone for the next two years, commissioners will elect the chair and vice chair on Tuesday. But while the two frontrunners couldn’t be any more different, both Xavier Suarez and the current vice chair Esteban Bovo Jr., were elected in the 2011 after-the-recall races and both are possible candidates for county mayor in 2020.
And, yes, it is a heated election for the chairmanship. Just because you can’t see all the behind-the-scenes campaigning, doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
Bovo and/or his people are telling everyone that he has the seven votes he needs. In fact, Back to the Future Commissioner Joe Martinez — whose people reportedly reached out for the public safety committee chairmanship — was told that Bovo doesn’t need his vote and that Sally Heyman had already been promised that committee.
In addition to Commissioner Heyman, apparently in a trade for the public safety committee, Bovo can probably count on his own vote and the votes of:
- Former chair Rebeca Sosa — because Bovo’s wife works for Sen. Marco Rubio, who is Sosa’s unofficial adopted son. She has been actively campaiging for Stevie.
- Javier Souto — because Esteban Bovo Sr. is a Brigade 2506 veteran and Bovo sponsored the ordinance that would ban the county from doing business with companies that did business in Cuba.
- Jose “Pepe” Diaz — because he is the mayor’s yes man and the mayor wants Bovo.
That’s five and he needs two more. Apparently, the rumor — that his camp has intentionally spread — is that he has the votes from Commissioner Audrey Edmonson and the current chair, Monestime.
But Ladra thinks Bovo is taking Edmonson for granted. Because, like, why? More likely, he may have the support of Commissioner Bruno Barreiro, because both of them served in the Florida House of Representatives even though at separate times. But that still makes only six. Because Monestime seems more ideologically and philosophically aligned with Suarez, who chairs his precious prosperity committee.
In addition to Monestime’s and his own vote, Ladra 
strongly believes Suarez will get support from Martinez and Commissioners Barbara Jordan, Daniella Levine Cava and Dennis Moss, just because they seem to be on the same side of most commission votes. He only needs one more. Will it be Edmonson or Barreiro?
Those two are arguably the only potential undecideds. And that is precisely why Bovo is spreading unsubstantiated and premature rumors about his alleged seven votes in the bag — to sway the undecideds. Or the soft leaning votes even. Because everyone wants to be with the winner.
Suarez has long indicated he wanted this position and has been campaigning longer. Some County Hall insiders think that he withdrew from this year’s mayoral race so that Mayor Carlos Gimenez would back him. Ladra believed them, especially when X seemed to ease off the pressure he had put on the mayor during previous years.
But no. Apparently, he was (1) refocusing his efforts to the chairmanship and (2) just being his collegial self.
It makes much more sense that Gimenez would campaign for Bovo because the compliant commissioner, who 
campaigned and raised money for the mayor’s re-election bid, would be a puppet for him ready with a rubber stamp to make the Gimenez agenda a reality. Bovo has already come out very supportive of the American Dream mega mall that many of his constituents in Palm Springs North and Miami Lakes do not want. In fact, the mayor and Bovo share many of the same, um, benefactors. The mayor can count on Bovo to move items to the agenda without going through the committee process and to get all kinds of contracts pushed through for his friends and family plan. We’ll see a new, sudden “backlog of contracts” that needs to bypass committee discussion and be pushed through.
After all, Gimenez has about $8 million of I.O.U.s out that he needs to start making good on.
There are several reasons the commission should choose X Tuesday instead of Bovo.
Suarez is a brilliant and persuasive speaker with a track record of proven leadership not only in his district but countywide. He is a charming, disarming modern Renaissance Man with a knack for bringing people together who gets along with almost everybody, including people from both sides of the aisle. An independent or no party affiliation voter, he has supported both Democrats and Republicans in state elections and has close friends and advisors from both the blue and the red teams. And he believes that light rail, not bus rapid transit, is what must happen for South Dade and that all the corridor mass transit projects can be sought simultaneously and paid for without more taxes. He has helped identify funding and it looks like he has come up with more initiatives and plans to get projects off the ground than anyone.
Bovo, meanwhile, is a GOP loyalist with absolutely no friends on the other side and such an integral part of that 
Hialeah absentee ballot machinery that his district office became a drop-off point for fraudulent votes in the 2012 election. He won his seat by stabbing his predecessor, former Commissioner Natacha Seijas, in the back, campaigning for her recall so he could take her place. Later, his chief of staff, who was moonlighting as a lobbyist, was busted in the same federal bribery case that took down former Sweetwater Mayor Manny Maroño. He has had some good days since, Ladra admits, but he is not known for building consensus, hires questionable staffers and is extremely disrespectful to the labor unions and employees, who generally dislike him. He supported Gimenez’s proposal to close libraries, saying they could be housed in park buildings. And he’s an early and consistent proponent of rapid bus rather than rail who also wants to pay for mass transit improvements with additional tax dollars by creating one or more special taxing districts in the areas it would serve.
But the biggest reason why we should want X as chair instead of Stevie is because Suarez is a stickler for process with a higher regard for transparency who will hold the mayor’s feet to the fire and represent the commission on the dais and in his office, while Bovo is a Gimenez apologist and pocket commissioner who will be looking out for the 29th floor and let the mayor control the agenda.
You know what? It should be unanimous.
Call your commissioner (phone numbers are on this website) and tell them that you want Xavier Suarez to be the chair. This is even more important if you live in District 3 (Edmonson’s office number downtown is 305-375-5393) or District 5 (Barreiro’s office number is 305-643-8525). Hurry up. The meeting starts at 9:30 Tuesday.
Tight race for commission chair: Xavier Suarez vs Stevie Bovo added by Ladra on
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