Rolando Escalona to be snubbed at Sunshine meeting about Miami DDA

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Miami Commissioner Rolando Escalona called a Sunshine meeting this week to discuss the Miami Downtown Development Authority and, specifically its spending and services in Brickell, which he represents.

But Commissioner Ralph Rosado, who is chair of the DDA, told the city clerk that he would not be attending. Las malas lenguas say Commissioners Christine King and Damian Pardo will skip it, too. Commissiner Miguel Gabela confirmed to Ladra Wednesday night that he would go.

It’s sort of a slap in the face with a clear message to the new commissioner: Stay in your lane, bro.

Except that this is squarely in Escalona’s lane. Brickell is part of District 3 and when he ran, Escalona promised the voters there that he would find out what they are getting for the additional taxes they pay to the DDA.

Read related: Downtown, Brickell residents still question Miami DDA benefits, future

This is the second time Escalona tries to meet with DDA Executive Director Christina Crespi, who did not tell Ladra if she was still going even if Rosado is not. But she’s on a spring break vacation with her family so probably not.

The first time the commissioner tried to meet with her didn’t go so well, either.

What started as a routine request for a briefing turned into a minor standoff weeks ago, when, all of a sudden, Rosado Chief of Staff Leo Cossio inserted himself into the meeting. Like a spy. Crespi must have told Rosado that Commissioner Escalona wanted to meet with her, because Escalona didn’t. Because he doesn’t need someone to hold his hand.

Escalona, to his credit, hit the brakes. Cossio’s presence could become a Sunshine violation if they discussed anything that would be voted on in the future. No backroom chats. No gray areas. If this conversation was going to happen, it would happen in the sunlight. So he called a Sunshine meeting. All by the book. Weeks ago.

The topic? The long-simmering questions surrounding the DDA — its spending, its services, and, more specifically, what exactly the Brickell financial district is getting for the extra taxes it pays.

This wasn’t supposed to be dramatic. Escalona simply wanted answers. How much of the DDA’s budget actually goes to Brickell? How many grants are being handed out there? How many ambassadors are assigned to the neighborhood? Cleanup crews? And will they get holiday lights? You know, like the ones that make downtown sparkle every December?

Basic oversight. The kind of nuts-and-bolts questions you ask when you represent a district that’s footing a big chunk of the bill.

For he part, Crespi told Ladra that the DDA has provided Escalona’s office with spending reports and noted that he had attended not one but two DDA ribbon cuttings — as if a couple of ceremonial scissors and a PDF or two somehow substitute for a real, line-by-line accounting and an in-person Q&A. Apparently, showing up for photo ops now counts as due diligence. Because Miami.

Read related: Miami Downtowners seek state DOGE assistance on tax relief from DDA

As of Wednesday afternoon, the other elected official who had confirmed attendance was Miami-Dade Commissioner Vicki Lopez, who happens to be vice chair of the DDA.

But here’s the awkward part: does she know she may be walking into a meeting where the city commissioners — the very people who oversee and fund the DDA — are nowhere to be found? Because if not, someone might want to send a courtesy text.

The no-show by Escalona’s colleagues isn’t just a scheduling conflict. In Miami terms, it reads as a brush-off. A shoulder shrug. A hint that he shouldn’t be meddling in this.

And for a newly elected commissioner trying to do things by the book, that’s not just unhelpful — it’s disrespectful.

All of this is also happening at a delicate moment for the DDA, an agency that’s been around for decades but is now facing louder and more organized calls for its dissolution.

Downtown and Brickell residents have been increasingly vocal about the extra layer of taxation — and what they perceive as uneven benefits, questionable spending, and generous giveaways to billionaire brands that don’t always trickle down to the people paying the bills.

Escalona, who was just elected by the voters there, is stepping into that conversation not as a bomb-thrower, but as someone asking: show me the money. And instead of getting answers, he’s getting silence.

That’s not a good look. Not for the DDA. Or for Rosado.

Read related: Effort to dissolve Miami DDA cites ‘bloated’ salaries, redundancy, UFC gift

Here’s the part that should make the DDA nervous.

Escalona wasn’t elected with decades of baggage. He’s not tied to old alliances. And so far, he’s shown a willingness to follow the rules — even when it slows things down — if he can move the needle. But it also seems that he’s not going to go away when ignored. If anything, being iced out may have the opposite effect.

Because when a commissioner calls a public meeting to ask how taxpayer money is being spent — and nobody shows up — it doesn’t make the questions disappear. Sometimes, it makes the questions louder.

“If they don’t go, I will just ask the questions in public anyway,”  Escalona told Political Cortadito. “All I want to know is how that money is going to my residents.”

And if he doesn’t get answers Thursday, he said he is going to bring it up as a discussion item at the next commission meeting. Where the other commissioners can’t hide.

The Sunshine Meeting is scheduled at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, March 26, at Miami City Hall, 3500 Pan American Drive. It can also be viewed online on the city’s website.

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