The bond referendum for the Miami-Dade Courthouse tax failed miserably last week, but Cielito Lindo is still in deplorable conditions and there are still health and safety hazards that need to be addressed. Maybe it just needs to be shut down. That’s what Commissioner Juan “El Zorro” Zapata is going to suggest at Wednesday’s public […]
If (read: when) former Congressman David “King Nine Lives” Rivera drops out of the race for Congressional District 26 and runs, instead, for state House race in 2016, it may not be in District 105 where he lives, which is the seat now held by State Rep. Carlos Trujillo (R-Doral). Rivera could move to District 118, […]
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos “Mr. Givewaway” Gimenez and several commissioners believed that they were about to dole out $62 million Thursday in gifts — well, grants from the Building Better Communities general obligation bond — to fund small economic development projects for neighborhoods from Palmetto Bay to Opa-Locka. Among those projects, there was $18.5 million earmarked for […]
The third time was the charm. Miami-Dade Commissioners gave yet another sweetheart deal to yet another sports team Tuesday– the second in a month — as they voted 7-4 to support a plan concocted by Mayor Carlos Gimenez in which the county will pay the billionaire owner of the Miami Dolphins millions of tourist tax dollars […]
All this hand-wringing about the possibility of a Major League Soccer stadium at the Port of Miami may be for nothing. It appears there is not enough support on the Miami-Dade Commission for the giveaway of 20 acres of land at the port to make way for the development of a 25,000-seat stadium. Miami-Dade Mayor […]
Miami-Dade Commissioners are expected to ask Mayor Carlos Gimenez and Aviation Director Emilio Gonzalez on Wednesday to take a new, fresh look at the much-ballyhooed and delayed Airport City project at Miami International Airport and come back in 60 days with a recommendation for the best use of the property. Some observers think it’s really […]
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez doesn’t only have his much-talked about five deputy mayors who, combined, make more than $1 million a year. He’s also got 12 aides, six secretaries, three assistants, three media people and one senior advisor who I think is now his chief of staff. Oh, and two student interns. No wonder Gimenez has […]
When Miami-Dade Commissioner Juan “El Zorro” Zapata foiled the mayor’s plans and voted to override his veto of a majority decision of the restoration of employees’ pay, he didn’t just end a prolonged impasse with 11 of the county unions. In one moment, the arguably low-key commissioner, whose office sends out fewer self-promotional press releases […]
Miami-Dade Commissioner Juan Zapata had the “leader moment” Ladra hoped for and became the hero for public employees Tuesday — and a hero for democracy everywhere. But that may not have been his intention when Zapata became the swing vote that gave the county commission the super majority it needed to override Mayor Carlos “Not […]
It should be resolved today — the 5% deduction taken from county employees since 2009 will most likely be returned to them in a piecemeal way. It will likely be fashioned after the agreement reached with the two unions at Jackson Health System, which happened without Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, who keeps saying it is […]