Corrupt Carlos Gimenez is caught by ethics commission covering his tracks

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Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and other top county officials used burner cell phones — yes, the kind used by drug dealers and money launderers — during their 2018 China trip so we wouldn’t know they met with representatives from Genting, which later became part of a group with an “unsolicited proposal” to build a monorail to connect downtown Miami with Miami Beach.

Now, after an investigation by the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust into a possible conflict of interest and violation of public records laws, we know that the “unsolicited” proposal from Miami Beach Monorail Consortium for what everyone calls Baylink was exactly what they discussed at special covert meetings in Hong Kong that were not advertised as part of the trade mission to China and Japan and were scheduled on the days before the trade mission started.

So it was actually a solicited proposal.

The inside deal already stunk because it was brokered by former Gimenez campaign man Jesse Manzano and the driver-turned-insider Ralph Garcia-Toledo, who was rewarded for his loyalty with a $200 an hour job at the county’s Water and Sewer Department and named fundraising chair of the Gimenez 2016 campaign. Manzano joined Garcia-Toledo’s Aqualand Development, one of the companies in the Monorail Consortium, in 2019, a year after the China trip. It’s pretty amazing to Ladra that anyone would not know even then that this deal was already cooked.

Read related: New, secret Carlos Gimenez ‘Baylink’ proposal benefits pals

Especially now that we know that Manzano and Garcia-Toledo — who both do business as a lobbyist and contractor for Genting, respectively — played a key role on that March 2018 China trip as the only non-government visitors at the Genting receptions. There were about two dozen other businessmen on the trip to Beijing, Qingdao and Shanghai, but none of them got to go on the Hong Kong leg to meet with Genting and cook up their own inside deal.

Manzano and Garcia-Toledo were so involved that others on the trip, including Commissioner Audrey Edmonson (commissioners Jose “Pepe” Diaz and Jean Monestime also went), just assumed they were there to represent Genting (which, turns out, they were). Garcia-Toledo apparently “arranged” the meetings, according to the Ethics Commission report that came out last week, which cites emails between Ralphie Boy and Public Works and Transportation Director (and secret side dish) Alice Bravo that basically shows he was in charge (here they are photographed recently at a La Carreta).

The Hong Kong leg of the trip was not disclosed on itineraries provided to the media, according to the investigation report. And text messages for that period can’t be recovered because Gimenez and his staff and lobbyist friends used burner phones.

Really? Burner phones? Like that’s not suspicious af?

And now we also know that Manuel Gonzalez, the Chief of Economic Development and International Trade and organizer of this trip, not only chose Garcia-Toledo as godfather to one of his children but was a principal of Aqualand until 2016. Say what?

Shady af.

Remember, Gimenez and all the commissioners and officials who went on this trade mission have their own cellphones. Some of them have two — a government issued cell phone and a personal cellphone, so they can make calls and text about things outside the public purview. Why would they need burner phones if they didn’t want to communicate in super secret? If they weren’t planning to do something so unethical or illegal that they didn’t even want traces of it on their personal phones?

Read related: Carlos Gimenez and lobbyists in China is same old thing, different language

Also, when the mayor returned from his trip, he talked to the press about his disappointment with the trackless train but said nada about the meetings with Genting, including a dinner with the CEO aboard a Genting cruise ship. Really?

The meetings included one with the Hong Kong Tourism Council that the CEO also attended and the county’s argument is that the reunions were not on the “draft” itinerary because they were last minute additions. However, the county presented an award to the tourism council. Could they just whip out an award just like that at the last minute?

It couldn’t be more clear that this insider deal had been cooked before Gimenez brought it to the commission as an “unsolicited” proposal a year later, asking the commission to authorize what was really a sham open bidding process — to justify what was really going to be a no-bid contract anyway — for just such a project.

Not surprisingly, and surely as intended, the same group of insiders came back with the only proposal and county commissioners nearly unanimously directed Gimenez to evaluate the plan and come back to them with a recommendation. (Can you guess what it’ll be?”

But somehow, the Ethics Commission — proving its uselessness once again — has chosen not to issue any ethics enforcement action, which Gimenez boasted about during an online press conference on Wednesday.

Not so fast, Corrupt Carlos!

Commissioner Eileen Higgins, who has been a huge disappointment to many in her district and could face a real challenge from two Hispanic men — Renier Diaz de la Portilla and Miguel Soliman — has asked county attorneys how she can rescind or her vote on May 19 to have the mayor evaluate the single proposal and come back with a recommendation. (Psssst, gringa, it’s not the only vote you should rescind.)

“I no longer believe this is the best path forward for the people of Miami-Dade County and would like to present such a motion for consideration by my colleagues,” she wrote to County Attorney Abigail Price-Williams.

Higgins also asked Inspector General Mary Cagle to weigh in.

Read related: Renier Diaz de la Portilla files to run against Eileen Higgins in Miami-Dade

“Yesterday, I became aware of new, relevant information that deeply concerns me,” Higgins wrote to Cagle about the May 22 letter from the Ethics Commission — which came three days after county commissioners voted almost unanimously to have the mayor evaluate his pals’ proposal and come back to them with a recommendation (can you imagine him saying no? Because Ladra can’t). Only Commissioner Xavier Suarez voted against it on May 19.

“This letter details occurrences which demonstrate to me a lack of transparency dealing with a March 2018 trip to Hong Kong which was not publicly advertised and was removed from official county business schedules provided to the media,” Higgins wrote. “This is not acceptable, and via this letter, I am respectfully seeking your input on who best can lead an objective RFP process moving forward given the findings of this report.

“I cannot ignore this lack of transparency, even if it means the residents and workers of Miami-Dade County must wait even longer for Baylink,” she finishes.

We also cannot ignore the obvious abuse of office and conflict of interests that are clear and present here.

But does Higgins or anyone, for that matter, think that this is the only time Gimenez has secured an inside deal for his pals?

It is not so strange that the useless Ethics Commission took two years to investigate this — Ladra raised red flags when the “unsolicited” proposal first came up — and hasn’t sanctioned Gimenez or anyone else and Ladra doesn’t expect much from Cagle because she also depends on Gimenez for her job and her budget.

But it’s time that the investigation be turned over to the State Attorney’s Office for some real consequences. Miami-Dade State Attorney Kathy Fernandez-Rundle is running for re-election this year and if she won’t do it maybe we should vote for someone who will.

Miami-Dade Ethics Commission report on secret Beach monorail deal by Political Cortadito on Scribd

  Carlos Gimenez, Eileen Higgins, Jesse Manzano-Plaza, public corruption, Ralph Garcia-Toledo, transportation