The new Mike Hernández at County Hall will be, drum roll please, former El Nuevo Herald Editor and Vice President Myriam Márquez, who left the paper last summer. She will start in April and her salary will be the same $175,000.
Ladra hopes Myriam remembers her fondly from our days together on the City Desk and that this means I will get better access to the mayor and county documents. So far, it looks good. This is what she tweeted me after we broke the news Thursday afternoon:
“It’s not a rumor. It’s official that I will serve as communications director starting in April. Look forward to chatting with you Elaine once I start. Saludos.”
Nobody looks forward to it more than Ladra.
Everyone knows that Hernández stopped talking to me and responding to my emails, even public records requests, two years ago 
when I worked against his boss with the only viable candidate there was. He forwards everything to one of his lackies. He just cut me off cold and started badmouthing me (you didn’t think it’d get back to me, Mike?). But he never told me why.
Hernández has always had one foot out the door, though. As a progressive Democrat in a Republican world, he was often at odds with Gimenez policy and admitted to me once that he had to hold his nose for some of the things he was defending or promoting. But he was good at his job. Maybe too good.
Hernández did a lot to improve the county’s social media outreach, hosting the first Facebook townhalls with the mayor. He also worked diligently to improve the whole communications network and the community outreach department, which was plagued (and still might be) with 
nepotism and cronyism.
But his proudest moment is, no doubt, that little piece of theater of the absurd he orchestrated about Gimenez pretending to toy with becoming a Democrat. It was brilliant media distraction.
Anyone who knows Mike knows that he wanted real bad to be on the Hillary Clinton team and even hinted several times that he was going to get a post there. He didn’t. But now he’s joining other uber Democrats — Congressman Joe Garcia, Juan Penalosa and Ashley Walker — at the Mercury Partners government affairs PR agency. He may, someday in the future, need Political Cortadito to push a progressive candidate or a referendum or something.
Ladra holds no grudges, Mike. This phone is open to you always. Despite the last two years of rudeness and lack of professionalism.
Marquez was an assistant city editor on the English side (putting together the old “Local” section before it was 
absorbed into the A) before she went to lead El Nuevo in 2013. She helped the Spanish language paper grow its digital operation and increased local digital traffic by 28 percent and video views by more than 100 percent. During more than a decade at the Herald, she has won awards from the Florida Society of News Editors and the Society of Professional Journalists.
On Thursday, a few minutes after Ladra broke the news on twitter about her joining the county, Márquez made the official announcement herself. “I am thrilled to be joining the leadership team of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and to work with the professional communications staff of the 25 agencies that serve county residents. I start April 2.”
Minutes later, Gimenez tweeted “I’m happy to announce I have appointed @MyriamMarquez as Communications Director and Senior Advisor” and linked the county press release.
“Myriam is an expert with nearly 30 years of experience in innovative and strategic communications. Her demonstrated history in her field will be an asset to the county’s communications team,” Gimenez said (or Mike said for Gimenez).
“I am honored to become a part of Mayor Gimenez’s administration,” Márquez added, “especially during this most exciting time when people are connecting in new ways to build community through social media and civic engagement.”
That’s true. But then she already went into spin mode.
“I share the Mayor’s vision of improving our residents’ quality of life in cost-efficient ways that protect their pocketbooks, and I am excited about all the innovations underway,” Márquez said in the press release. “I look forward to public service. Helping our residents with accurate information to find the services they need will be Job One.”
Maybe she doesn’t really know what she’s in for.
New Carlos Gimenez mouthpiece is Myriam Marquez from El Nuevo added by Ladra on
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