Was it me? Or did the six candidates for Coral Gables City Commission, who spoke at the first forum or debate 
for the upcoming April election, all sound pretty much alike?
They all believe something has to be done about the pension, though they aren’t sure exactly what. They all think Interim Police Chief Ed Hudak is a helluva guy who should get the job permanently. And they all think — surprise, surprise — that the quality of life in Coral Gables is something special that should be protected at all costs.
Most of the answers at the Coral Gables Forum forum, moderated by CBS4’s Elliott Rodriguez, were the vanilla soundbites you’d expect from a crowded race for an open seat in a city where voters think they’re better than everybody else.
Read related story: Coral Gables: Three full races are on with 10 candidates
There was really no stand-out — well, unless you count Rip Holmes, a Miracle Mile property owner and longtime activist who is unabashed about the conflict of interest on his single issue: Getting a department store on the Mile. Holmes had the most laughs, including one for calling Hudak his “homeboy” — a term that Ladra thinks is going to haunt the police chief for quite some time. Maybe it should be his new nickname? Homeboy Hudak?
Ariel Fernandez — who worked for and loves to drop 
Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen‘s name, and did so twice Monday night — was the only one to break from the tried and true, common denominator buzz words like “controlled development” with a new idea: scrapping the $812-a-year garbage fee. “For a lot of young families, $812 goes a long way,” he said, adding that the $8.6 million operation, which would be 5% of the annual budget, can come out of the general fund.
None of the other candidates joined Ariel’s bandwagon — but they, again, agreed with each other on trashing his idea.
“Not one resident has complained to me about the level of our garbage pick up service,” said Sandra Murado, an immigration attorney with the largest entourage of supporters in “Ask Me About Sandra” t-shirts. They win the award for best spirit.
Tony Newell and PJ Mitchell, both candidates from races past, sounded like older versions of their former also-ran selves. And Jeannett Slesnick was not the bright star one might have expected. She gets bonus points for starting her opening statement on city issues instead of her resumé, like everybody else did. Murado, in particular, is a braggart who speaks three languages, understands five, has traveled abroad and studied in Belgium — because, you know, those things are going to come in handy when reviewing traffic studies and considering zoning change requests and parking variances.
“Most of you know me for my 40 years here in Coral Gables,” she said about her activism, her work as a realtor and her role as First Lady to former Mayor Don Slesnick for 10 years. But she quickly got to the gist of what the election is about for her. While she mentioned crime and the vacancy of almost 20 police officers, she hammered quickly and repeatedly on development during what looks like an unprecedented boom in the Gables.
She said she supported commercial development, but she raised a concern about the amount of projects and space in the pipeline and how that would affect the character of Coral Gables. “I’m just concerned that we need to take the proper steps to follow strict guidelines that are established,” she said. “There are 18 highrises coming up in the next year, year and a half.”
Read related story: Coral Gables: Jeannett Slesnick files to run for commission seat
When the question was asked about the funding formula for the Miracle Mile streetscape — which is 50/50 for property owners and city (read: taxpayers) — Slesnick again turned to development and cited on controversial project, the Agave project, which she said has 300,000 square feet of retail space, same as Miracle Mile. “We don’t want to have a ghost town in downtown Coral Gables.”
But Jeannett Slesnick was not as clear as she could have been. It seems she is not as used to speaking in public as I thought she would be.
Her husband, mayor from 2001 to 2011, stood near where Ladra stood with the other back of the room students, who include former Commissioner Wayne Withers, Commissioner Vince Lago, candidate Enrique Lopez and Gene Prescott, who owns the company that runs but thinks it owns the Biltmore Hotel. There were not enough seats for the 140 people or so there, and smiled and rocked on his feet and paced a little. Guess he’s not used to her speaking in public, either.
Or maybe he was reacting to the comments by some of the other candidates about things that they said had plagued the city for years. “Do I get a rebuttal,” Slesnick asked Ladra jokingly.
More to come. Writing through.
Coral Gables candidates forum shows no real stand-out added by Ladra on
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