The Miami-Dade Commission voted 10-1 Wednesday to approve the annexation of two square miles into the city of Sweetwater, practically doubling the municipal’s geographic footprint and adding millions to its tax rolls with the mostly commercial area just to the west. And the timing couldn’t be better: Commission Chairman Jose “Pepe” Diaz, who is termed […]
Miami-Dade Commissioner Joe Martinez is facing two challengers, but only one is a real threat. Former State Rep. Robert Asencio is a sleeper candidate who beat none other than David “Nine Lives” Rivera in 2016 for a House seat in 118 — by a scant 53 votes. Despite a canyon-sized gap in their campaign financing, […]
There are a whopping 25 candidates running for one of seven Miami-Dade County commission seats. That’s more people than you can have at a summer camp this year. With five termed-out posts, this election is a potential sea change that could alter the whole culture at County Hall. Maybe. Because most of the presumed frontrunners […]
County commissioners really want Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez to put the contract for the synchronization of traffic lights — yeah, we all thought that had been done already — out for a new bid after a locally prominent serial campaign donor filed a bid protest and said his company did not get the same advantage as […]
As if anyone needed more proof that someone is pulling his strings, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez last week publicly admitted that he stopped the request for proposals process to replace the Santa’s Enchanted Forest holiday operation after someone — and he won’t say who — asked him to. Say what? So, he does work for someone other […]
Miami-Dade Commissioner Joe Martinez has been after the state and the county to open a coronavirus testing center at the Youth Fair grounds, where there is already a field hospital, and on Tuesday, he got word that testing would begin on Wednesday. Adults with COVID-19 symptoms must make an appointment first by calling 305-499-8767. On March […]
Years past, residents would come to the Miami-Dade County budget hearings to beg for the restoration of police jobs or library hours or to save grant funding for this or that community-based organization. This year, the majority of the speakers at the first hearing for the $9 billion 2019-2020 budget on Thursday had one request: […]
Sweetwater Mayor Orlando Lopez must be feeling the heat as the days get closer and closer to the runoff for his seat against former mayor and longtime nemesis Jose M. Diaz — and, perhaps, his ouster from City Hall. Because on Monday and Tuesday, a week before the runoff, a mailer landed in some voters’ […]
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 […]
Newly elected Commissioner Joe Martinez is sort of on a war path. And there is no bigger casualty than former Commissioner Juan Zapata. Martinez has several items on Tuesday’s agenda to start to undo some of the things that Zapata is most proud of from the last four years. Martinez will ask his colleauges to strip […]