He was on.
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez was at the top of his game Wednesday, as he delivered the State of the County address to a packed auditorium at Hialeah’s Milander Park.
Okay, so yeah, he was totally in his element, a very friendly and almost adoring crowd. But he softened up his jowl and charmed like he hasn’t done in a while.
Conjuring memories of the good ol’ Golden Boy of days past, he seemed a dreamer again, determined and optimistic. He was the Gimenez you remembered, if only for a morning. Maybe even a little more charismatic, eliciting laughs and polite applause and greeting a mob of well-wishers and journalists afterwards, very much like the celebrity mayor he apparently wants to be, as evidenced by this photo he tweeted from the green room.
But if that’s what gives him swagger, so be it. He had that umph again that he once had before he got all beat up in the last year, starting with the ridiculous Dolphins stadium debacle and ending with the second override of his veto against employees, with a few admitted “missteps” along the way. He seemed more confident and comfortable, como en su casa, giving a speech that was peppered with Spanish along the way rather than all at once at the end. He was accessible and affable, giving props to Eddy Alvarez, the Miami boy who won the silver at the Olympics. “And for me, more importantly, he’s a fellow Columbus Explorer,” Gimenez said. He thanked commissioners individually and collectively and said he was going to work more regionally with mayors from Broward and Palm Beach, drawing laughs when he said you could see two things from space: “The Great Wall of China and the Miami-Dade/Broward county line.”
He was smart to keep soccer stadium talk to a minimal and chat instead of creating Tech Beach and bringing FIU students to work as interns at County Hall. And he actually talked about a few new topics that seemed on his back burner not too long ago — the P3s and transit concerns — causing a couple of longtime political observers to wonder whether one of the commissioners had not helped Gimenez write the speech (read: Juan Zapata, but only because Xavier Suarez would have used more words).
Even some of his biggest critics admitted to Ladra that they think he earned a ‘C’ — one said a ‘B+’. He gets high marks for the message and delivery, but loses points on the expectation he can execute any of it. Still, it’s worth watching if only because Gimenez is good at selling himself and you want to believe every word he says like you used to. So go to the county website where you can read the address and watch the recording.
But don’t think it’s all aw-shucks and no tiger.
Gimenez stayed tough on the negotiations with employees, sending the message that there would be no room for the concessions scheduled to end — furloughs, for example — to actually end.
Because the gist is he’s not raising taxes. And he knows his audience. Gimenez got a big applause when he said he would “hold the line on taxes.”
He wants a bunch of other new stuff, mind you — including a second world class convention center, when we don’t even have the first world class one yet — and a soccer stadium that could one day host the summer Olympics.
“We need to dream that big,” Gimenez said.
But while Gimenez the dreamer talked about efficiencies again and getting creative with private public partnerships, he never got specific about how he would pay for all the new stuff. And by saying that he is not going to raise taxes, which everyone knows is for political reasons, he is tying his hands and raiding reserves while our bond ratings drop.
He didn’t talk about that.
Maybe Gimenez ought to talk to Hialeah Chamber of Commerce President Mandy Llanes or Hialeah Park or medical center mogul Benjamin Leon about sponsoring county vehicles or commission meetings or something. Why not?
Llanes, emcee at Wednesday’s Gimenezfest, called everyone’s attention at the end, after we all got up to leave or rush Gimenez at the Leon Medical Center stage for photo ops.
“You gotta try the new casino,” he told the elected officials and community leaders there, plugging Hialeah Park.
Think about it. I’m not totally against a county commission meeting brought to you by Sedano’s.
Or a library sponsored by AT&T.
Carlos Gimenez gets a ‘C’ on State of the County speech added by Ladra on
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