It wouldn’t be summer if the mayor wasn’t in Paris.
This year’s annual vacation to Paris on the taxpayer dime also got Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez an England stamp on his very cramped 
passport as he, Commissioner Barbara Jordan and a delegation of six other county employees and three Beacon Council lackeys take an eight-day jaunt through London, Southampton, Paris and Marseille.
Traveling with the mayor and Jordan are Jordan’s chief of staff Andre Ragin, Jr., Gimenez Chief of Staff Alex Ferro, Port Director Juan Kuryla, Miami-Dade Aviation Director Lester Sola, Beacon Council President Michael Anthony Finney, Beacon 
Council Senior VP of Economic Development James Kohnstamm, and also Stanley Rigau, VP of International Economic Development — because, you know, two heads in Europe are better than one — and Manuel Gonzalez and Maria Dreyfus-Ulvert, chief and senior trade development specialist, respectively, with the Miami-Dade County Economic Development and International Trade Unit.
The group of 11 landed in London Wednesday and, in the afternoon, visited the Smart Mobility Living Lab, “the U.K.’s most advanced environment for development Connected and Autonomous Vehicles and the transit technology of the future.”
Read related: Miami-Dade mayor, lobbyist pals head to Paris Air Show
Is Ladra the only one who thinks that if someone wants to pitch something to the county, they can do it here without it costing us something every year.
On Thursday, the Miami-Dade delegation traveled to Southampton, where they stayed at the Leonardo Royal Hotel, pictured here, and attended the Shipping Festival Service at Winchester Cathedral. On Friday, they signed a sister Port agreement with the Port of Southampton and toured the cruise terminals.
After a 3 p.m. train to Paris, everyone was free to do what they wanted for the 
evening, says the itinerary provided to Political Cortadito by the mayor’s office. They were expected to arrive at the Paris Boutet Hotel, a 5-star luxury hotel in a historic building in the heart of the Bastille District, by 10:30 p.m.
“Rest of the evening on your own,” the itinerary says, but what they really mean is everyone is on their own all day Saturday until Sunday morning.
A free Saturday in Paris. Well, on us, that is.
Sunday morning after breakfast, the group — or some of them, not all we bet — will depart for an Aerospace Alliance sponsored cruise reception and then take a two-hour ride on a yacht. By 1:30 p.m., they should be back and have the rest of the afternoon on their own to visit the sights.
On Monday, they attend the Paris Air Show, which has become a Miami-Dade tradition under Gimenez’s rule.
He has gone at least three, or is it four times on the public dime? When is it too many? When does it become an abuse?
This excuse of going under the guise of economic development every single 
year is really insulting. You go once, maybe. If ever. Yes, the mayor is meeting with people who want to do business here. But these entities that want to do business here could come here to pitch it here. Video and 3D presentations these days are amazing. And maybe Miami-Dade county could use the economic boost of an 11-member delegation from France staying at one of our five star hotels.
Ladra is still unconvinced that these junkets actually achieve anything that wouldn’t have come our way anyway. Miami International Airport and PortMiami are very attractive venues to partner with.
At the air show, the itinerary indicates several meetings, including two — one 
with Atlas Air and one with Air France Industries — set up by the Beacon Council. They also have a meeting with the head of Airbus Urban Air Mobility Unit, which are the flying car people, and lunch with the CEO of Bollore Logistics, which opened a Foreign Trade Zone facility in Miami last year.
Read related: Carlos Gimenez is back from Europe tour of Spain, Switzerland
The delegation gets back to their luxury hotel by 5 p.m. and have the evening 
to explore Paris on their own.
On Tuesday, Gimenez and his entourage take a train to Marseille — they visited the city in 2015 as well — and a bus to City Hall to meet with Marseille Mayor Jean Claude Gaudin, who then hosts a lunch in the Dade delegation’s honor at a restaurant within walking distance. We bet it’s fancy schmancy.
After that, they visit the iconic CMA CMG tower in the central business district, a building designed by Zaha Hadid that serves as the 
headquarters for CMA CMG, a major shipping company in Europe. They meet with senior Vice President Mathieu Friedberg and get a tour of the central operations. Woo!
Then, after a bus, two trains and a van ride, they should be back at the hotel in Paris by 9:15 p.m.
Some members of the delegation leave Wednesday. Others stay for meetings with the Paris Chamber of Commerce — which Ladra thinks is code for “free day” — and leave Thursday morning.
Ah, another night in Paris.
The mayor’s office was not forthcoming with the expenses from this trip and said they would have that information after the delegation returned.
They also said that they had no knowledge of any future travel plans for Gimenez, who went to Spain and Switzerland last year. But c’mon. He’s out of office of November next year, you just know he’s going to get another couple of trips in.
That passport isn’t going to stamp itself.
Carlos Gimenez back in Paris again after London leg of taxpaid trip added by Ladra on
View all posts by Ladra →
What a shame we
Don’t have a legitimate State Attorney. This nonsense wouldn’t be happening
Hey Ladra
Where can I sign up for a fancy vacation like this on tax payer dime
Nothing new here. The most corrupt mayor in the nation with a cast of usual brown nosed public sector maggots living high on the hog on tax payer funds and the benefits and pay stolen from every county employee since 2012. All happening under the eyes of our corrupt State Attorney and her satellite “public dog watch” agencies, and the inept public corruption prevention squads at MDPD, FDLE and the FBI. There is no hope for this sorry county. Saw it off the State of Florida and let it float off to wherever.
It appears the taxpayers are getting screwed, again. How many wives and how many lobbyists are making the trip? Carlos Gimenez and his office must know how much the flights, transportation and hotels cost! Why is he hiding the info from the public.
My rule for trade missions was that no less than 50 private sector travelers would have to sign up – which meant the travel agency would take care of my expenses. The other rule is that the enterprises in the private sector hosted the events on their dime. Net cost of the entire trip to the City of Miami = zero.
Did anything come out of them? Well, the single most clear correlation came from a trip to the Far East, including Hong Kong, where the stop was sponsored by Swire.
The company had stalled in its plans to develop Brickell Key. Afterwards, they made the decision to complete the Brickell Key complex, to a scale perhaps 4 times as big.
You would have to ask Steve Owens if the time we spent together was a factor in the decision to expand the investment in Brickell Key.
As for transportation, what Mayor G has derived from these trips is totally negative: Somehow, from trips to Europe, where trains/trams take you everywhere, he has concluded that trains are “nineteenth century technology.”