The county torch will be passed again this week and Miami-Dade Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz will become the chairman of the board for the next two years, his final two years on the dais before he goes back to Sweetwater to run for mayor, a position he was first elected to in 1999.
He gets installed Wednesday morning.
And it comes just in time. Diaz, who is termed out after 20 years and five terms, has “run” twice before for the position that sets the commission agenda and the general tone. He awards the committee seats. He says who can talk when.
It’s something he’s always wanted. And now it’s become his swan song.
These next two years are supposed to both seal his legacy as a county commissioner and ensure his continued political future elsewhere (read: Sweetwater). And it’s been a long time coming.
But, boy, the timing seems like a sick joke. The pandemic health and economic crisis that has gripped Miami-Dade and the rest of the country for most of 2020 is extending into 2021 with a climbing number of cases, budget shortfalls, a declining tax base and the ugly specter of possibly cutting services. Businesses are closing permanently and unemployment is through the roof. Pandemic-related issues like crime and food shortages could become priorities.
And yet, it also presents opportunities. A frightened and confused community desperately needs some stability, progress and, yes, leadership. Their newly-elected Mayor Daniella Levine Cava isn’t going to be able to do so much on her own. The DLC administration is slow to get started and La Alcaldesa doesn’t have the gravitas or the consensus that she had hoped to walk in with. In fact, she may have lost some momentum.
Enter Pepe. His role as chair of the real boss — the 13-member governing body that is the Board of County Commissioners — is interesting and challenging not only because of the COVID-19 emergency and its resulting chaos, but because of the sea change on said body, with five brand new commissioners coming on board to shake things up.
After all, this is the guy that had the audacity to steal Jennifer Moon — the most experienced county budget executive — away from the mayor and create a new office of Policy and Budget for her to report to the board.
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Diaz was the unanimous choice that, in fact, was driven by the new crop of freshmen who see him as someone who is not afraid to make the hard decisions but will also give them their space and place. He is easy to work with, accommodating, a peace maker. He wants to be loved. So he’s nice to a fault.
“He listens,” said Commissioner Kionne McGhee, a former state rep that won the District 9 seat vacated by Dennis Moss. “He always listens to everybody. Really listens.”
When Commissioner Raquel Regalado was a Miami-Dade School Board member, she was assigned to the county value adjustment board, a body that assesses complaints and is empowered to lower the assessed value (read: property taxes) at the request of the property owner. The other two board members were former Miami-Dade Commissoner Juan Zapata and Diaz.
“Many meetings and many changes later we were able to reform the VAB and establish a truly collaborative outcome for the county and the school board at a time when Miami-Dade public schools needed it most,” Regalado told Ladra.
“This year, and next, the BCC will face the economic impact of the pandemic and trickle restarting our economy and retooling our workforce,” she added. “It will be difficult but it can be done if we streamline procedures and quicken the pace of our response to challenges.”
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“Chairman Diaz is the best suited to lead at this time because of collaborative nature, interest in innovation and dedication to outcomes. I’m looking forward to what lies ahead.”
Even Commissioner Joe Martinez, the grumpy one who was also sort of in the running for the chair this year, believes that Diaz will succeed.
“He’s been around a long time and hopefully has seen what works and what doesn’t,” Martinez told Ladra. “He’s in a rough position because of two anomalies. One is the COVID pandemic and how he will run his meetings. The second is term limits. You have new members and I’m sure they all believe that there is a better way to do things.”
Uh-oh. That there might be the reason he never stood a chance at chair.
“Whereas before, you knew where commissioners stood and what they fought for, that is now lost,” Martinez said. “I look forward to working with the chair and my colleagues to ensure that the best is done for the residents of Miami-Dade. With term limits, that is a bit cloudy.”
Whine, whine, whine. It’s no surprise Martinez, who has a great grip on the issues and policies before the board, didn’t get picked.
Diaz, on the other hand, is good at building coalitions. Friends say he has built his brand on being the “everyday Miamian” and that his humility, openness, accessibility and “street savvy” have made him a leader for years, if not officially then behind the scenes.
He is also perhaps the least partisan Republican member of the “old” board and has been willing and eager to work with colleagues “across the aisle” on important matters, such as the appointment of Daniella Cohen Higgins to the District 8 vacancy. He was pressured to go another way. But he joined the young freshman crew in supporting her. Las malas lenguas say it was a deal for the chairmanship votes. But doesn’t that just prove he can do this?
Last week and Monday, he had a series of sunshine meetings with each commissioner. He was all ears, they said. Sure, he had his goals and expectations, but he also listened to what the commissioners wanted to accomplish and how they could work toward that.
McGhee said he came away with the challenge to “make constituent services 99% of everything I do. He’s going to be about constituent-based services.
“He’s going to do everything he can to uplift the community and give people their voice to be heard,” McGhee said.
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That means making changes to the public comments procedures that have residents speaking in an echo-chamber lobby far away from the commission dais. Diaz has spoken to commissioners about bringing people into the chambers in groups to speak on issues.
None of the commissioners Ladra spoke to said that there was any booze served at these sunshine meetings. DUI Diaz does have that blemish from when he was arrested for driving his motorcycle under the influence in Key West in 2015. He was obviously drunk from the officer’s dash cam and body cam footage. But he got out of it saying it was some gastrointestinal thing.
But that’s the worst thing you can say about him. There have been aspersions of quid pro quo and conflicts of interest. None have been proven. And Ladra believes he’s going to be on his best behavior as chair.
Diaz wants to make an impact, leave a legacy. And that’s good for everyone.
Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz takes Miami-Dade lead in last two years added by Ladra on
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