Damn the manatees! That’s basically what the Miami-Dade Commission said on Wednesday when it approved the Miami International Boat Show’s application to increase the number of boat slips by about a third to almost 1,000 and have “sea trials” — kind of like test drives for boats — in sensitive manatee nesting and feeding areas […]
Oooops! The Florida Legislature is already knee deep in committee meetings and the budget was presented by the governor on Thursday. Many if not most municipal governments have already sent their legislative priorities and designated lobbyists to Tallahassee to fight for their pet projects and piece of pork pie. But not Miami, where city commissioners […]
Former Sen. Oscar Braynon, who represented Miami-Dade and Broward in both the Florida House and the Senate for the last 12 years, has joined The Southern Group lobbying firm. State law says he can’t lobby his old colleagues in Tallahassee. But he can lobby members of the executive branch, said Nelson Diaz, managing partner at […]
Two sneaky attempts to stop the crack down on puppy mills have been thwarted, thanks mostly to animal rights activists who kept their eye on the bouncing ball and waged a campaign of complaints to get two amendments pulled from legislative bills this session. And they took on one of the most powerful lobbyists in […]
Ralph Garcia-Toledo, the man who went from being Mayor Carlos Gimenez‘s driver to being a grossly-overpaid $200 consultant subcontractor on a $140 million water and sewer contract secured by his BFF, the mayor, sure is living the mogul’s life. Here he is at Joe’s Stone Crabs, enjoying a leisurely lunch, we presume, with two lovely […]
Carlos Gimenez is not the man I voted for in 2011. The man we once considered an outsider on the dais, the voice of the people, has turned into the consummate inside deal broker, a man so entrenched in special interests and corrupt that his best friend and campaign finance chair has a $200-an-hour county […]
One of the main criticisms on Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez is that he is too comfy close with lobbyists. It’s not just Ladra. A June 2013 poll showed that 55% of the people think he’s too beholden to lobbyists and special interests, and is being led by them rather than by the best interests of the […]
There has been a changing of the guard at the congressional office for U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Miami) as her longtime friend and most trusted adviser becomes a federal lobbyist. Longtime Chief of Staff Arthur “Art” Estopiñan — who has been with her for 26 years, or almost the beginning — is leaving for the […]
UPDATED: David Custin wasn’t always so successful in Miami Beach. Before he played a crucial role in electing Mayor Philip Levine and Commissioners Joy Malakoff and Michael Grieco in 2013, Custin was really just a glorified mailboy-turned-campaign-consultant who dabbled sometimes as a lobbyist. He only had one client, the red light camera American Traffic Solutions, Miami Beach […]
From the timing-is-everything department. Water and Sewer Department Director Bill Johnson, who used to be director of the Port of Miami, has been tapped by Florida Gov. Rick Scott as head of Enterprise Florida, which recruits corporations to relocate to Florida and tries to retain companies that are thinking of moving. It’s a really soft […]