Former Miami Lakes Michael “Muscles” Pizzi may like to say he’s half Cuban and may sound like the name of an Italian mafia enforcer, but he’s got the luck of the Irish. Suspended last year after he was arrested in an FBI bribery string, Pizzi let off last month by a jury that was simply […]
When former Coral Gables City Manager Pat Salerno resigned abruptly in April, city commissioners apparently did not have enough confidence in Acting City Manager Carmen Olazabal to leave her alone on the job as the city’s top administrator — even though she got a 20 percent raise to rise to the occasion. So they hired […]
After a five-month process that included a trolley tour of the historic City Beautiful and the wining and dining of five finalists, Coral Gables made history by naming its first black city manager. Whoops. Nevermind. Some people are calling it the curse of Pat Salerno. After a long and excruciatingly public process bungled by a bad background […]
Finally, there have been some dates released for the much anticipated debates between Democrat incumbent Congressman Joe Garcia and Miami-Dade School Board Member Carlos “Crybaby” Curbelo, the Republican nominee who wants to unseat him. But not one of the public English-language debates scheduled are in Miami-Dade. And Ladra doesn’t really feel like driving two hours […]
Looks like for the first time since the county budget process began months ago with threats of a 10% pay cut and reduced library hours and the threatened layoff of somewhere around 700 employees, from police officers to park workers, we are quite possibly looking at a really best case scenario where there won’t be […]
Even if Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos “Cry Wolf” Gimenez comes to terms with all ten of the workers’ unions by giving them back some of the sacrifices they made five years ago — like holiday pay and furloughs — there are some employees who are left out of such negotiated agreements. Across the county, 2,000 to […]
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos “Cry Wolf” Gimenez got another labor victory Thursday when the largest group of county workers, members of the AFSCME Local 199, voted overwhelmingly — with 97 percent approval — to ratify a new agreement with his administration. Gimenez was proud of the achievement — the third agreement with labor unions signed so […]
Coral Gables does not have a new city manager pick. As reported first by Political Cortadito, the man chosen by commissioners last week to replace former City Manager Pat Salerno will not be running the city in October, after all. James Beard will stay in Atlanta, where he is chief financial officer, after he withdrew […]
Does Coral Gables have a new city manager? Maybe. Maybe not. City Commissioners chose a new top administrator last week, but a routine background check turned up a 2011 child abuse charge that may give them a cause to take another look. James Beard said that the “bogus charge” was dismissed and that he had already explained […]
There is no debate date set yet between the two candidates in what has been deemed as one of the most closely watched and flippable congressional races in the country, but the themes in Florida’s District 26 are already going from local to national. It’s not like challenger Carlos “Crybaby” Curbelo is going to completely drop […]