The rumored recall against Miami Gardens Mayor Oliver Gilbert has not materialized.
Despite claims that there would be a petition filed last Monday by recall maven Vanessa Brito — who loves to take credit for the recalls of former Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez and Commissioner Natacha Seijas, even though it was Norman Braman‘s money that did it — there had been no paperwork filed with the city clerk as of 5 p.m. Friday.
Maybe Brito, gypsy conartist that she is, is too busy with her statewide gay marriage petition attempt that she will likely fail at also.
Mayor Gilbert told Ladra Friday that nothing had been filed and that he doubted the effort would be since Brito doesn’t have a legal reason to recall him. See? She has to abide by state criteria, which is very specific and did not have to be used at the county.
Her recall of Doral Councilwoman Bettina Rodriguez-Aguilera would have failed anyhow in court — even if she had turned in the required number and not fallen way short — because it did not fit the criteria.
But, hey, what does that matter if she can charge for her services in the meantime?
Sort of like in Doral, where she got paid depsite the fact that she could never come through. And, same as Doral, where everybody guessed but nobody came out publicly admitting to being her client, nobody knows who Brito is working for this time.
Former Mayor Shirey Gibson? Wanting to make a comeback to her comfort zone after her failed county commission bid against Commissioner Barbara Jordan? It would be a natural assumption, since Brito helped her with her failed campaign.
“No, I’m not,” Gibson told Ladra when asked if she was Brito’s client on the recall. “I haven’t spoken to Vanessa since the campaign. I have no idea what she’s doing or who she’s working for.”
Asked if she would run for mayor again should any real recall produce itself and be successful, Gibson said she would not.
Of course, it would be easier to ask Brito herself who hired her. Easier for other people. So you do it. She won’t answer my calls or even my questions when I ask them out loud at her self-promotional press conferences.
Someone who identified herself as Helen answered Brito’s phone and said Vanessa would likely not call me back, as usual. I told her that I had learned from the city that no paperwork had been filed and wanted to ask Vanessa about her timetable. “You’re going to write whatever you want anyway,” Helen said.
No, what I said was that I was going to write the story anyway. Not what I want, but what I know so far. What I want is answers, but we’ll do with what we have, which are Ladra’s observations, which are not half bad. Don’t let the perfect get in the way of the good.
If we had public records to go by, we could try to figure out who is really behind this. But Ladra could find no recall PAC for Miami Gardens and Brito’s Miami Voice PAC reported only $400 in contributions, $300 from her company Myami Marketing and $100 from herself, which is a great way to hide any real financier who maybe paid her directly. She’s done it before. Myami Marketing has given Miami Voice $5,000 and Brito admitted it was from a client — translation: third party contributor — who wanted to remain anonymous. That’s illegal. And, apparently, ignored.
She doesn’t have much respect for election laws. Case in point: Only after receiving two letters from the Department of State Division on Elections, dated July 11 and July 25, threatening action if she didn’t file a campaign finance report for her PAC Equal Marriage Florida, did she file something. But I’m sure she has a good excuse. Maybe it was complicated and she’s “all alone” and “it’s a lot of work,” like she’s said before. Oh, wait, she reported zero raised and zero spent.
Ladra thinks that effort is just like this rumored recall in Miami Gardens: Nothing more than a little hype.
Mayor Gilbert wants to think that’s all it is. He also does not like to speculate. Gilbert wouldn’t even try to guess who it is that is really after him.
But he doesn’t think it’s his predecessor, wanting her job back.
“Ms. Gibson would not do anything like this,” Mayor Gilbert told me. “Vanessa does political consulting for people who want to do recalls. I hazard not to guess who she is working for.”
But I can’t imagine anyone would still hire Brito, for a recall especially. Aside from the two in which Braman and Miami Lakes Mayor Michael “Muscles” Pizzi had an obvious heavy hand, the four other county recall efforts she mounted with great brouhaha fizzled and failed. Fast. And Doral’s was a bust, too. Her track record is awful.
Maybe that is why Gilbert doesn’t seem very worried.
“It’s very difficult to recall a mayor who is a member of the city council,” Gilbert said, noting that he is not a strong mayor but simply another voting member of the city’s governing board.
And he is quite sure Brito doesn’t have a valid, legal, state-sanctioned reason to oust him.
“She doesn’t have any reason at all,” he said.
And, well, I’d have to agree with that. No rhyme either.
Fake Oliver Gilbert recall another bogus Brito bungle added by Ladra on
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