The city of Coral Gables commission is playing chicken with the budget. At stake: Millions of taxpayer dollars. A standoff became clear during the second budget workshop Wednesday and it doesn’t look like it’s going to end well — with a potential $10 million cut in services (and taxes) if commissioners can’t make up their […]
Well, what do you know? Pushed into a corner by a majority of Miami-Dade County commissioners and an army of activists and angry residents to restore the funding cuts he proposed for transit services (bus routes and Metrorail hours), Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez suddenly found at least $16.2 million we didn’t have before. More found […]
You know how they say good news travels fast. Well, it also travels more. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez announced a series of budget town hall meetings, starting next week, where residents will have the opportunity to ask questions and provide input on his proposed 2015-16 county budget. And there are a whole 10 of them […]
Members of the PBA bargaining unit will meet again with Miami-Dade Human Resources Director Arlene Cuellar today to try to reach an agreement on the contract with the Miami-Dade Police employees, both sworn and civilian. But already it looks like things are going better than before — if only because they are talking and this […]
We all heard Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos “Cry Wolf” Gimenez say it repeatedly last month and in August: He had saved the day. There were not going to be any layoffs at the Miami-Dade Police Department. Well, either he lied or he flip flopped, because at least three police department employees received notices Wednesday that their […]
You could see it coming: As Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos “Cry Wolf” Gimenez found money here for this, money there for that, signing five union contracts and balancing the budget without cutting jobs or closing libraries, the anger that drove a petty recall effort launched emotionally by a father in mourning is pretty much out of […]
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 […]
After the Fourth of July boating accident that killed four people in Biscayne Bay caused a renewed demand for the county to put a fire rescue boat in the water, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos “Cry Wolf” Gimenez hunkered down and refused to refund the fire boat, saying that it probably wouldn’t have made a difference anyway. […]