Musical chairs in city of Miami means power grab for slush fund agencies

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Thank Changó and Ochún that Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has made newly-elected Commissioner Christine King the commission chairwoman.

Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla — who curiously served as acting chairman for just one special and limited two-hour meeting last week — would have been a nightmare, berating public speakers he doesn’t like and shutting them down whenever he wants.

So far, King seems polite, soft-spoken, maybe even respectful to the citizens, which shouldn’t be as refreshing as it is. She may be a fine chair.

But it’s really just about status. This position in Miami is not as powerful as it is in Miami-Dade, where Jose “Pepe” Diaz gets to sets the agenda and so pretty much acts like a gatekeeper for all legislation. Miami commissioners can get items on the agenda independently. All the chairman of the Miami Commission gets is to do is set the order of the day, tell people when to talk and when to shut up with that gavel, and add an extra $100,000 for the office budget, to supposedly cover the costs of the additional duties, whatever those may be.

Congrats Christine, but the power is really in the chairmanships of the different boards and agencies with their own big budgets of earmarked tax dollars (read: slush funds), and these are up for discussion again at Thursday’s city commission meeting. That means we could have another money power grab like we had last year. Remember?

Diaz de la Portilla quickly stepped up and grabbed the shiniest candy, er, leadership roles everywhere — chair of the Tourist Development Council, chair of the Omni CRA (temporarily) and vice chair of the Overtown CRA.

Read related: More Miami power play prove ADLP is the new boss, runs the show

Las malas lenguas say Diaz de la Portilla still really wants the Omni CRA, which is the crown jewel of these agencies — with $66.5 million in the 2022 budget.

What he’ll do with that money is anybody’s guess, but you can be sure there will be more than one ghost employee if he gets his way. And another planned area development for his big brother, lobbyist Miguel Diaz de la Portilla.

But he needs two more votes besides his own Thursday to take it from Commissioner Ken Russell, who should keep it because it is in his district.

ADLP’s got King, for sure. He helped her get elected and they are a little duo now. And he will help her keep the Southeast Overtown Park West CRA, which is how it should be.

So the question becomes who does he favor and who does he screw over to get the second vote?

One scenario is that he lets Commissioner Manolo Reyes keep the Downtown Development Authority for his vote on the Omni CRA. This would definitely be for Reyes’ vote because las malas lenguas say that everyone thinks it should change hands. It gives him something to give Ken in exchange for the CRA. But Russell also has the West Grove CRA in formation to keep him busy, as well as the race for Senate against Marco Rubio. So he is not expected to fight as hard as he did two years ago.

Read related: Change at Overtown CRA comes with Christine King — and favors her allies

But he could also gift King with the DDA, which only has a $14 million annual budget.

The other scenario is that this fragile reunion we’ve witnessed between ADLP and Commissioner Joe Carollo is really Carollo’s way to keep his beloved Bayfront Park Trust, which is all he really wants, so he can gift jobs to political friends and spend another million without discussion on a no-bid contract for a bunch of ugly dog and cat sculptures by his wife’s friend.

This is why Loco Joe is pretending to be all buddy-buddy with Diaz de la Portilla again.

It’s not that they bonded on firing the police chief. It’s not holiday cheer. It’s that Carollo es un interesado. It’s acting. Under his breath, he’s told people he can’t wait to stick it to ADLP with all the “evidence” he has.

Ladra wouldn’t be surprised if ADLP was thinking the same thing.