The word is out there again: Recall
Every so often, there are rumors about a recall of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez — who made his lucky break on the recall of another Carlos — since he was elected after a special and historic mayoral recall.
It happened early last year, after Gimenez cozied up to our racist U.S. 
president and betrayed this community on sanctuary cities and a few years before that when he proposed to close down libraries and fire police and firefighters. Both times, thousands of people protested and many of them begged for a recall, but no actual petition ever materialized.
In 2014, there was an actual — albeit emotionally-fueled and feeble — recall attempt by a bereaved, retired firefighter father whose son died in a boating accident after the mayor cut fire boat services. Jack Garcia was not able to raise much money for his cause, however, and suspended the campaign after six weeks, calling it a victory because Gimenez restored fire boat services.
Read related: Carlos Gimenez recall is recalled after budget concessions
Today, it’s a number of insults and abuses: The $100k raise he wants, the hiked water fees, the stealing of the half-penny tax to pay for operations, the refusal to build rail to the south, the travel on taxpayer dime, the pushing for the Kendall Parkway MDX extension, the abuse of power to 
help his lobbyist son, the parceling away of our county piece by piece to his friends and family.
There is definitely an anti-Gimenez sentiment en la calle and Ladra thinks it would not be difficult to collect the 60,000 or so valid signatures we would need, especially during early voting next month and on Nov. 6, when hundreds of thousands of eligible voters head to the polls for the midterms.
Read related: Termed out Mayor Carlos Gimenez gives self undeserved 70% pay raise
But let’s face it: Recall efforts cost money. A lot of money. Just ask auto mogul Norman Braman, who bankrolled the ouster of former mayor Carlos Alvarez to make room for the rise of Gimenez. Ever wonder if Braman is even a little bit sorry? It would cost even more now because Gimenez can raise a ton against it from the interests that benefit from him staying in office.
So, who besides Braman has the kind of money that could m
ake a recall happen? Well, maybe father and son Suarez.
Miami-Dade Commissioner Xavier Suarez — who has half a million in his Imagine Miami PAC — wants to be county mayor in 2020 but Gimenez is going to do whatever he can to stop him. And the mayor is already giving Baby X, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, a major challenge on the strong mayor referendum. A recall of Gimenez now can save the fam some future headaches.
First, article 8.02 of the Miami-Dade municipal code requires we send a proposed draft petition, including ballot language, to the county clerk, who must give it the legal green light. Any elected official is eligible for recall, but it must be one year since last elected. Check on that.
Read related: Mayor Carlos Gimenez clan involved in Joe Carollo lawsuit vs strong mayor
Then we have to get four percent of the eligible voters of Miami-Dade to sign that approved recall petition. That’s four percent of 1,406,082 (as of last July, so it might be a little more). That means you need to get 56,243 signatures. Or 
maybe 80,000 signatures or so to make sure that 60,000 are good.
That does not seem insurmountable with the upcoming election coming. Not if you have enough people collecting signatures.
You can also appeal to the nearly half million people who voted for the Pets’ Trust initiative only to have Gimenez slap them in the face and refuse to respect their vote. I’d be willing to bet we can get 50,000 just among them.
Once we collect the signatures, we have to present them back to the clerk for canvassing and confirmation. Once they are confirmed, they go to the county commission, which then has to set the recall election no more than 45 to 90 days after they were confirmed.
That means we could be rid of Gimenez by February. Que alivio.
This is also arguably our last chance to recall him before his term is up in 2020 — and Gimenez can do a lot of damage between now and then. So if anyone is in any kind of position to help fund a recall effort — and yes, X, Ladra is talking to you — please don’t let this timely opportunity slip by.
It’s now or never.
Rumors persist of a new recall effort to oust Carlos Gimenez added by Ladra on
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Miami has long been known as “The Magic City”, and thanks to Mayor Carlos Gimenez, this “Magic tradition” continues, particularly with his making half a million votes for The Pets’ Trust initiative disappear.
And, while the Mayor is fond of traditions, perhaps the next one in which he might participate would be the Recall Carlos Tradition. His career is one bone the voters would delight in burying.
…we’re not fans of ” favor “, but I ask how is the County Mayor that much different from the rest of us? By the measure of rigidity, flexibility or fluidity, we think he’ll bend before he breaks.. He brought the police contract dispute to a conclusion. He replaced the marine patrols. He was present in the county response after Irma’s pass, to comfort the public within the possibilities, for government to relieve the hurt of the private citizens. He’s termed out, and we’ve all lived longer under politicians whom each of us oppose out of political coloration. In the short period that remains in his mandate we should sweetly induce him to provide the extension of metro-rail to Florida City and show his empathy with the youth of South Florida, who would not waste many useful hours a day riding bumper to bumper on our metropolitan corridors. We know Metro-Transit has run budget short falls, and the Nat’l. Transportation Adm. Has had to come and inspect the use of federal funds. We shouldn’t impute a department’s difficulties, on one who participates from the outside. He can stimulate a community push for a project that would really ease our young citizens into tomorrow.
I’m in. Hand me a clipboard, petitions and pens. Only thing is since I don’t speak Spanish you’d need to post me in a position that’s not so high in Hispanic percentages of population. Gimenez instead of funding The Pet’s Trust reneged on his PROMISE to fund it dissing half a million of us saying ‘we didn’t know what we voted for.’ WE DAMN WELL KNEW WHAT WE VOTED FOR and he, the county commissioners and county attorney all approved the ballot language. So instead of by now having eliminated murder in his hell hole ‘protection’ shelter we continue KILLING DOGS, CATS, KITTENS & PUPPIES DAILY the majority of which are young, healthy animals THAT WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN BORN BECAUSE THE PET’S TRUST WOULD HAVE SPAYED/NEUTERED the majority of pets in the county by now. Carlos Fidel Castro Gimenez enjoys killing animals – there’s ZERO other explanation. Let’s get this authoritarian despot OUT of office!
So let me get this straight! When you are trying to win an election Carlos Gimenez said he would take a salary cut to make a point that former mayor Carlos Alvarez was making too much. Now Carlos Gimenez is giving himself a $100,000 salary increase! How many pensions is he up to? Unlike Carlos Alvarez, Gimenez is being extremely selfish, he only wants a salary increase for himself!
Carlos Gimenez is a TYPICAL Cuban politico . A self serving predator .
I find out who the older ” Calle Ocho’s ” support and I vote the opposite . I cant go by who the ” others ” support and go with them because they don’t vote at all .
Its not about political party here because that doesn’t mean a thing . The politicos are Miami Cuban “Cosa Nostra” .
Regardless of how corrupt and inept you are here you seem to have a career in politics forever . New candidates aren’t even looked at .
I don’t see public will to evict him since the devil we know is better than the devil we don’t.
Then there is just the basic cost benefit ratio. How much less is this unknown experienced replacement going to squander or skim in 18 months? IMO not enough to to make it worth the effort.
BTW not to be a Gimenez’s apologist but that fireboat IS a white elephant and should be moth-balled. It doesn’t save lives or put out ship fires ( the Coast Guard’s tasked with life-saving rescue and has greater resources). What MDFR is good at is showing up late then posting photo ops of them “assisting” Ask anyone who hangs out on the water on the weekends and watches those guys “train” by slowly cruising around the party sand bars in their 3 million dollar toy “observing”
The city of Miami has a fire boat docked at Bayside. The county’s boat is at the port. They are very close and just a duplication of service. There is a mutual response agreement between fire departments in this county so Miami would respond if called even outside city limits. I agree with you that the county should moth ball their fire boat. Just a big waste of tax dollars.
Hi Ladra do a go fund me page? And where do I sign
https://www.dropbox.com/s/usmmgh6slwheo7e/Academy Award To Gimenez.MOV?dl=0
It is not very often that an elected official has the opportunity to dismiss the votes of 500,000 people. Mayor Gimenez did it. But then, in the role of a lifetime, he “acts” like he cares about voters with an amazing performance at the Board Of County Commissioners. Watch the facial expressions that appear to be sincere, all the while….500,000 people know the truth.
In all fairness the county has been raping the water department of their funds for years. This the money they would have had to fix the sewer system in the older parts of the county that are in need of repair. Gimenez put an end to that practice. Now to fix the sewer system an increase of the water and sewer fee had to be done to do these repairs.
The county has also been using the half-penny for transit maintenance way before Gimenez was even elected commissioner. He use to complain about it when he was commissioner and even threatened to do a recall of the half-penny tax. Unfortunately he has done nothing about this when he became mayor. I would have raised the county wide millage rate to cover the transit maintenance and use the half-penny tax for what it was intended for.
As far as the Kendall Parkway it is needed to alleviate at least some of the traffic for us that live in the western part of the county. If you want to see what traffic is like out here I challenge you to come out to West Kendall at 7:00am and drive to downtown Miami during a school day and see how long it takes you. You would be the first in line to support it.
It looks like this article is also an indirect support for Xavier Suarez for mayor in 2020. I worked at the city of Miami when he was mayor and he did nothing to improve the city but pave West Flagler Street. While he is a nice man I don’t believe he is what we need to lead this county into the future.
Gimenez is no saint and none of us would be in that position but he is better that what we had before and I do give him credit for trying to relieve the traffic in the western part of the county which is urgently needed.
Where Is the Paper to sign ? This poor Administrator should be Fired ?