Mayor Carlos Gimenez puts Fins before voters — again

Mayor Carlos Gimenez puts Fins before voters — again
  • Sumo

The Miami Dolphins trump the community again.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez has cancelled Tuesday night’s  budget town hall in Florida City — which has been advertised for a month — so he could go to Washington, D.C., to help celebrate the 1972 champion football team being recognized by President Barack Obama in what seems like a too convenient propaganda ploy.

This is the second trip Gimenez makes for the fins, after traveling last Spring to Tallahassee to lobby for the “unprecedented deal” he negotiated with them that would give them public financing for their $350-million upgrade job, a bill that was killed when it failed to reach the House floor.

“The mayor was invited personally by the White House,” said the mayor’s spokesman, Fernando Figueredo. “It’s an honor and he didn’t want to postpone the budget town hall but he couldn’t say no.”

Well, yeah, he could have. He’s had lots of practice lately, saying no so many times to first responders, animal lovers and bookworms who beg him to property fund services so that fire stations and libraries do not have to close.

Figueredo said that Gimenez will take advantage of the trip — he’s flying in Tuesday morning and flying out that night — to also meet with administrators in departments where the county is waiting for grant monies, like transportation, and that the mayor did not want the budget town hall to go on without him so it was rescheduled for Sept. 3.

The budget town hall for Thursday in West Dade was also rescheduled for next week, Aug. 28, because the mayor will be in Orlando for a national manufacturers’ conference.

Or maybe he just needed a break from all the browbeating he’s been subjected to at these budget town halls. Especially the last one in Aventura, where the residents rallied on behalf of the firefighters — and Gimenez accused them of being the relatives of county employees. Really? Really?

Ladra heard that the county firefighters union — which had sent mailers out to voters in Aventura, perhaps bringing out more than the expected crowd — had already sent out mailers to voters in Florida City and Homestead about Tuesday’s town hall and to West Dade voters about the one there Thursday.

Somebody may have told him about it, too, and he decided he needed a breather.

But at the very least it shows where his priorities are, doesn’t it. And Ladra suspects it’s not going to sit very well with people who had planned to go to the town hall and accommodated their schedules in order to do so.

Ladra has got a call in to Florida City Mayor Otis Wallace and a few southern end activists to see what they think. Stay tuned.

 

 

8 Responses to "Mayor Carlos Gimenez puts Fins before voters — again"

  1. **The mayor was invited personally by the White House,” said the mayor’s spokesman, Fernando Figueredo. “It’s an honor and he didn’t want to postpone the budget town hall but he couldn’t say no.” **

    Well yes, he really could have said no. This city is desperately in need of improvements, one of which is to the concentration camp known as Miami-Dade Animal Services!

    He’s basically called the people of this city idiots, seeing as we’re too stupid to know what we voted for. Good luck getting elected again wanker.

    • But Miami is a city of idiots. Look at your ridiculous history. And your State; a bunch of real winners supporting graft and greed and lining the republican pockets. Don’t believe it? Hmmm. Just take a look at all the public work projects that had study groups and how many of those projects were abandoned. Fortunately for you, the biggest waste was not in Miami; you take second place only to the wonderful $5.00 per month surcharge placed on every electric bill for a nuclear power plant that has now been abandoned. Florida – the land of nuts and squirrels. It deserves every ill that comes its way.

    • HI, MY NAME IS ILEANA AND I AM AN ANIMAL LOVER . I AM A CAREGIVER FOR CATS AT TROPICAL PARK. I ALMOST GOT ARRESTED FOR FEEDING CATS THREE WEEKS AGO. IT HAPPENS TO BE THAT THERE IS AN ORDINANCE ON NOT FEEDING FERAL ANIMALS. THIS PROBLEM HAS GOTTEN OUT OF HAND. I FEEL WE ALL NEED TO PROTEST AND FORM AN ORGANIZATION TO STOP THE ANIMAL CRUELTY THAT IS BEING IMPOSED BY THE MIAMI DADE CRUELY PERSONNEL. IF YOU AGREE PLEASE RESPOND.
      REGARDS,
      ILEANA

  2. Daniel Berger “On Tuesday, Gimenez will travel to Washington D.C. to attend the White House commemoration of the 1972 undefeated Miami Dolphins. On Thursday and Friday, the mayor will travel to Orlando to attend the 2013 U.S. Manufacturing Summit in Orlando.”

    For a government official, such meetings are booked well in advance. They are announced months beforehand as participants require plane tickets and hotel accommodations. So, Miami-Dade County residents get 24 hours cancellation notice for one public forum and 72 hours notice for another.

    This demonstrates more poor planning and the willingness to inconvenience the public. Now we know what it feels like to be a County Commissioner when the Mayor can’t decide how to fund county departments and hands us a last minute budget switcheroo.

    Enjoy reminiscing about 1972 when you’ve caused havoc in 2013.

    https://www.facebook.com/SaveTheMiamiDadePublicLibraries

  3. Doesn’t surprise me a bit! I had even made arrangements with work so that I could show up to Thursdays meeting.

  4. Iwas under the impression that the Mayor was a REPUBLICAN I guess I was wrong. Mayor Penelas was never invited to the Whitehouse by President Clinton, so what bonds these two together. HMMMM I wonder!!!!

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