Veto in Miami makes Mayor Francis Suarez a hero? He's just doing his job

The accolades are ridiculous.

Over and over again — at the city commission meeting Thursday, on Spanish radio, on the internet, in the street — people keep thanking Miami Mayor Francis Suarez for his veto of the self-serving lifetime pensions for electeds that commissioners had voted earlier this month to give themselves.

But isn’t he just doing his job? It’s nice to see Suarez do something for the taxpaying citizens of Miami instead of for himself — for a change.

Yes, he could have gotten a windfall. He did the math and told everyone how much he has sacrificed. The total expected benefit, if he lives to 92, is $6.3 million he said. “And I expect to live beyond 92,” he said, “so I would have been paid almost the entirety of my salary for twice the amount of years that I’ve served. I never ran with the expectation of getting a pension nor do I desire one.”

And then he gave the real reason:

“I just want to thank my wife and God for the opportunity to prove conclusively to the residents of Miami that my commitment as a public official is to serve them and not myself,” the mayor said.

Yeah, he’s going to have to do more than one veto if he wants to prove that.

It’s not a huge sacrifice. Suarez reported a net worth of $4.45 million last year. That’s an increase of almost 30% from the $3.45 million he reported the year before. His real estate holdings, which includes a $2.2 million house in Coconut Grove, grew by $1 million in 2023. He has something like 17 different side jobs, many of them defined as “consulting” jobs, which we now just means palanca.

In fact, one of those got him in trouble, right? Suarez is reportedly under investigation for getting $10,000 a month from developer Rishi Kapoor, for “consulting” while the developer secured permits for his projects. Where was his “commitment as a public official” then?

In fact, with all his side projects — including his five-minute jaunt for the White House and his trips to Texas and elsewhere to expand his national profile — it’s nice to get the mayor’s attention on his elected duties rather than his portfolio.

Remember, this is the same mayor who used his “commitment as a public official” to attend some fancy Formula 1 events, go to a billionaire’s wedding in Egypt and to organize and promote last year’s Future Investment Initiative Priority Summit, a Miami Beach event sponsored by the government of Saudi Arabia, which is currently under investigation by the US. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs for using American assets to boost efforts to clean up the regime’s image. This is the same government that stands accused of arbitrary arrests, torture and political assassinations, like the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The event, which also benefitted the firm Suarez works for, was part of an investigation into the repressive regime’s PR push in the U.S.

Anyway, Suarez has only 375 days left in his last term as Miami mayor to make up for all the time lost. There are rumors he wants to run for Miami-Dade mayor in 2026, or even governor. But if Trump wins, Baby X thinks he’s going to get some kind of ambassadorship or something. Either way, it’s time to clean up his image. How better than by doing the right thing? For once.

Suarez also took all the wind out of Commissioner Miguel “Mike” Gabela‘s sails. Gabela had said he was going to move at Thursday’s meeting to have the item reconsidered so it could go to a referendum for the public to vote on it, instead.

But, you know, Gabela had said that before — on the radio station he likes to disparage now because they caught him flip flopping — so maybe the mayor couldn’t trust his word.

Gabela told Ladra on Friday that he had spoken to the mayor and he was the one who got the veto. The commissioner said he changed his mind (again) after he “heard what the voters had to say.” Was the pension item on the August ballot? No. He likely means his constituency. And the people on the radio. And the newspaper editorials. And the community outrage.

He said it was “a distraction” from his real agenda, which is extending the Omni CRA into Allapattah (more on that later). He just wants this pension business to be over, Gabela said.

He probably doesn’t know yet that in Miami’s political arena, his on-again, off-again push for a self-serving pension will never really be over. Expect to see it again on campaign mailers in 2027.

Veto in Miami makes Mayor Francis Suarez a hero? He’s just doing his job added by Ladra on October 25, 2024
View all posts by Ladra →