When Miami-Dade Commissioner Juan “El Zorro” Zapata foiled the mayor’s plans and voted to override his veto of a majority 
decision of the restoration of employees’ pay, he didn’t just end a prolonged impasse with 11 of the county unions.
In one moment, the arguably low-key commissioner, whose office sends out fewer self-promotional press releases than most of his colleagues, turned from the freshman on the dais to the darling of the moment — spurring whispers about a possible mayoral run in the future. Whether you like what he did or don’t like it, he suddenly has everyone’s attention.
He went from zip to Zap, just like that.
And, perhaps unwittingly, he knocked Mayor Carlos “Not So Golden Boy” Gimenez down a notch from his ivory perch. In fact, some think that the override Tuesday may have something to do with the sudden brakes put on the Major League Soccer stadium deal that is now going to be negotiated through the summer (more on that later).
The relationship — remember that Gimenez’s daughter-in-law worked for Zapata when the latter was a state rep and some say she wanted a county job, too — was notably strained at the soccer VIP reception Tuesday night after the vote.
“I went over to him and greeted him and said, ‘I just came by to say hello.’ And he wasn’t very pleasant,” Zapata told Ladra.
Does he expect backlash? “I would hope not. But I understand that there are folks who have vindictive personalities,” the commissioner said. “I hope he can remain positive and constructive.”
He called his “painful vote” a “calculated risk.”
“Obviously, I am not as concerned about my own political well-being,” Zapata said. “I stuck with the mayor as long as I could and when I saw that what I wanted to see wasn’t going to happen, I did what I had to do.”
Zapata’s surprise switch — he had been on the losing side of the vote to restore the workers’ 5% for “group health care” — was unexpected at County Hall, where Gimenez was reportedly secretly working on a plan to save the day himself. He needed the veto to stick so he could come in and propose the piecemeal compromise ala Migoya that Jackson Health System employees had negotiated. Even Commissioner Barbara Jordan said out loud that she doubted her motion to override would pass. Gasps and at least one audible “Wow” was heard in commission chambers after Zapata’s well-enunciated “yes.”
“Holy shit. I’m floored,” read one text message to me from a firefighter watching the battle between the unions and the county administration.
“Where did that come from,” asked one County Hall employee.
“It was like watching a mob hit in broad daylight,” said another source.
Nobody, except the people closest to Zap, saw it coming. Even Gimenez, who had vetoed the restoration twice and had beat one override attempt, had what some called a shocked look on his face as he stared Zapata down at in commission chambers after the vote. See, Zapata spoiled his cynical plan to come in and be the one to resolve this when he basically told him, “Too late, Mr. Mayor. You had your chance.” My words, not his.
His words were “bandaid” and “long term” and “frustrated” and others like them.
“I was supporting the mayor. I was of the hope that he would come up with a plan,” Zapata said. But the failure to reach an agreement with labor was just the latest in a series of shake-my-head moments since he was elected to the commission in 2010.
“The last year has been a very frustrating period. I didn’t realize we had very little input in putting together the budget,” said Zapata, who as a state rep had to shave millions off of the state budget and cut services to people with disabilities, so he doesn’t just talk the talk.
“I’d love for the commission to be more engaged in the budget process. I got in there with such high expectations and am faced with this culture.”
He said he met with budget staff and mayoral staff and asked questions about the long-term plan, only to be thwarted each time.
“We’re heading toward a collision and nobody is saying, ‘Wait a minute. Let’s put on our seat belts and slow down.’ I kept asking, ‘Where are we going? What’s the long-term plan?’ Nobody had an answer for me. It was the 5%. It was the 5%. That’s all they kept saying. But that is not a long term solution. Structurally, it’s unsound. It just keeps creating a hole for next year,” Zapata said.
“At some point, it needed to happen. There isn’t a nice way to deal with these things.”
He called the would be Migoya compromise — the phasing out of the 5% over time — “just another bandaid. A different bandaid.
“We cannot keep tapando el sol con un dedo,” he told told Spanish-language radio queen Bernadette Pardo, using an oft repeated Cuban saying that literally means you can’t cover the sun with your finger and figuratively means… I am not sure there is an English language comparable saying but it’s something akin to pulling the wool over our eyes or burying your head in the sand.
“I’m not going to sit here and keep lying to the residents and telling them everything is fine,” Zapata said, which is good since the mayor has that covered.
Zapata told Ladra the same thing he said on the air — that the 5% was a bandaid, an unsustainable way to balance the budget and would not work in the long term and that the mayor had repeatedly failed to address the structural issues that will continue to cause budgetary problems year after year after year. He also said that the mayor’s compromise-to-come should have been negotiated last year.
He also said that if there will be layoffs, that so be it. “There are too many employees and too many salaries that are too high,” he said, hopefully hinting that he’d like to see some cuts to the top, not just the bottom.
“I’ve always believed that if you have to take bitter medicine, it’s better sooner than later.”
But if Zapata’s profile rises with his bold break from Mayor My Way or the Highway, Gimenez can only watch as his political stock plummets even further.
“This reminds everyone that the mayor only has so much power and that the real power lies with the county commissioners,” said Terry Murphy, a consultant who works for labor unions.
The media has characterized it as a “stinging defeat.” Ladra would add that it is yet another epic fail in a long list of “missteps” that the mayor has taken since he sided last year with the billionaire owner of the Miami Dolphins against taxpayers. Or maybe it was when he hooked up with the Hialeah hoodlums for their endorsement in 2012. Karma is a bitch, man.
“His stock went down. Something like Black Monday,” said one lobbyist and longtime political observer. “His biggest problem is, he’s lost his magic.”
Ladra disagrees. Gimenez never had much of a “magical” persona. In fact, several unrelated people have used the words “cardboard box” when describing his personality. His “magic,” if you will, was always that he was not some ivory tower type with his hand in every pot. He was a fireman, for goodness sake. A man of the people. But he seems to have forgotten that. I think his biggest problem is his self-righteous, holier than thou stance in which no idea, except his own, is worth a damn.
By all witness accounts, Gimenez stomped out of the commission chambers Tuesday, calling the override — the second one after commissioners resorted pay to aviation and sanitation workers in September — “completely irresponsible” and saying that, if he could, he would veto it again.
“Without hesitation,” he wrote in a memo to department directors.
I guess he really doesn’t like democracy, huh?
He was quoted as saying that Zapata had decided to teach him an expensive lesson using taxpayer money. Well, last time I checked, Mayor, that was employee paycheck money — which is technically still taxpayer money because most of them pay taxes, too. And if there is a lesson here, good. We can never stop learning, right? Oh, wait, not the mayor. He knows everything already.
The mayor can’t accept that he was wrong in his approach to labor negotiations. He has threatened to fire personnel and cut resident services to make up the reported $41 million shortfall that the restoration of worker pay causes to his poorly crafted budget. Because even though we have a $20 million surplus in the healthcare fund and we have lower than projected claims for three years straight, he wants to continue pouring money into that (Ladra thinks it’s so he can cut taxes in 2015 right before his re-election).
But we’ve heard him cry wolf before. Remember the closing libraries and fire stations?
Everyone except the mayor says that the restoration of employee pay can be done with more efficiency and better budgeting. Who do you believe?
Ladra does believe, however, that Gimenez will try to make this as painful as possible and then blame Zapata and the other eight for it.
Zapata does not show signs of backing down and seems prepared for the blame battle that is coming. On the radio Wednesday, he said he was willing to deal with whatever consequences.
“If someone has to assume responsibility, I will,” he said.
Which is a good thing — since the mayor won’t.
Zap! Mayor Carlos Gimenez stock drops, Juan Zapata’s rises added by Ladra on
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