The saddest part about Friday’s Miami-Dade Commission meeting wasn’t that commissioners ignored the fearful cries and pleas of more than 100 people who urged them to reject Mayor Carlos Gimenez‘s directive to hold illegal immigrants arrested in Miami-Dade for an additional 48 hours so they can be picked up by federal authorities. It was pretty […]
The construction of a new Miami-Dade civil courthouse — such an “emergency” in 2014, that leaders, lawyers and lobbyists rushed a ballot question for a courthouse tax that was soundly defeated at the polls (64%-36%) — is back on the horizon. More than two years later, county commissioners Thursday again looked to address the deterioration […]
After Miami-Dade Commissioner Esteban Bovo became the board’s chairman in December, he created the Chairman’s Policy Council, a new sort of super committee to take up the most important issues the county faces in the next two to four years — including the renovation of the historic downtown civil courthouse, which was once a $400-million […]
It was an odd thing to watch as speaker after speaker at Tuesday’s Miami-Dade Commission meeting be silenced — their mics actually cut off — and, in some cases escorted out of the chambers. Disturbingly odd. Chillingly odd. Members of the community had gone to speak on Mayor Carlos Gimenez’s directive Jan. 26 to the corrections department, telling them to […]
Reports would include data on no-bid contracts Three days after he was sworn in earlier this month, new Miami-Dade Commission Chairman Esteban Bovo sent a couple of memos to all the commissioners and several staffers telling them this is his show now and we’re doing things a little differently. Not because he flagrantly doled out […]
Gathering photos of our electeds from social media sites to share with you, dear readers, is time consuming and laborious and not all that personally fulfilling, which is why Ladra stopped doing it months ago. But this week marks a special ocassion. We had a few South Florida politicos in D.C. for the inauguration festivities […]
Miami-Dade Commission Chairman Esteban Bovo has named his new committee members, chairs and vice chairs and there are definitely signs that some of his colleagues are buds and some are, well, not. It’s natural to give chairmanships to those commissioners who voted for you as chairman of the board. That’s a longtime tradition and no […]
Expect to hear about transit, jobs and public safety To the victor go the spoils, don’t they? To the victor, also goes the spin. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez will do what he does best at this year’s State of the County address Wednesday: Pat his own back. Sure, he’ll provide shout-outs to his apologists and […]
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez was elected the commission chairman Tuesday. Sure, the board chose Commissioner Esteban Bovo, Jr. over Xavier Suarez. But the victory belongs to the mayor, who now has a compliant chairman and control of the commission agenda. You could see the satisfaction on his face when the two embraced after the vote. […]
County Hall is abuzz with speculation about who will become the chair of the Miami-Dade Commission for the next two years. But the only thing that is certain right now is that it won’t be unanimous, like it was in 2014 when the commission showed a unified body behind today’s Chairman Jean Monestime. In a very […]