(Continued from previous page)
Because, ladies and gentlemen, this has all been orchestrated by the Gimenez campaign so he doesn’t have to talk about the issues. 
He has repeatedly refused to debate Raquel on the real issues that she wants to talk about, public safety, transit, economic development and jobs, transparency and efficiency. He has missed a total of seven candidate forums, refusing to even respond to most of the invitations. He even missed the only public town hall meeting he had scheduled on the budget rather than reschedule it. Because Carlos Gimenez has a terrible track record of broken promises, special interest giveaways, no-bid contracts and favors for family and friends.
He can’t defend the police cuts he has made. He can’t defend the raiding of the half penny tax to balance the budget. He can’t defend overcharging property owners in special taxing districts. He can’t defend the $4 million no-bid contract he ensured went to the construction company that employs his son, Julio Gimenez. He can’t defend the $200-an-hour job he got for his best friend, driver and campaign finance chairman. He can’t defend the other botella job he secured for his daughter-in-law on another subcontract of the $139-million water and sewer deal (more on that later if other media decide not to follow up on it).
Read related story: Carlos Gimenez son’s firm got $4 PAC repair job
So, instead, the mayor deflects — he is really good at it — and points 
his finger and calls Raquel a cheat and a fraud. Gimenez knows it’s false and he doesn’t care that her kids will catch wind of his lies through their friends at school who heard it from their parents. And he infers that she cannot be the mayor of the county because of a complicated marital property situation in her personal life.
But if Raquel’s divorce and foreclosure and experience with the property appraiser’s office does anything, it makes her a better public servant because she can understand what many people in Miami-Dade go through. These experiences can only make her a better mayor. They could lead to better policies in the property appraiser’s office. They certainly can’t do us any damage.
What about the complications and experiences in the mayor’s personal life?
The mayor’s campaign operative has gone on the defense about a domestic violence complaint charged against the
mayor in 2005. But the mayor isn’t simply a witness. Carlos Gimenez, the dad, is a co-defendant along with his son CJ Gimenez, the lobbyist who called school board candidates just a few weeks ago and tried to bully them off the ballot. Gimenez campaign man Jesse Manzano wants us to believe that there was nothing to it just because it was dismissed. He says that it was a political attack launched weeks before an election. Oooh, that sounds familiar.
We don’t know what happened because the police report appears to have been destroyed — what luck for the Gimenezes, again! But cases are dismissed all the time — this one with prejudice — and that doesn’t mean the incident didn’t happen. Also, another complaint by the same woman was settled, court records indicate. And the dismissal might have been part of that settlement. And here’s the important part about this: A domestic violence complaint against Carlos Gimenez could sure have more implications on his job performance than any property tax oversight that a third party made on a house Raquel Regalado owned once upon a time.
For example, is this why Carlos Gimenez gutted the domestic violence unit at the Miami-Dade police department in 2014? Because it wasn’t for a lack of need. Miami-Dade 
is the state capital of domestic violence, with almost 10,000 cases last year. There was an 11% increase in Hialeah. Since 2010, there have been more than 25,000 cases in Miami-Dade. So why cut the unit from 30 detectives five years ago to 12 today? Why decrease funding? One detective said in an award-winning El Nuevo Herald story that of the hundreds of cases she’s investigated, only five have gone to court. She also says that in addition to law enforcement efforts, the county needs to invest in an awareness campaign because many cases aren’t even reported.
Why has Gimenez never lobbied in Tallahassee for more funds for victims? Why hasn’t he even issued a letter to the governor urging him not to cut homeless program funding that will shorten transitional housing for battered women from 22 months to seven months?
Read related story: Miami-Dade Police cuts by Carlos Gimenez cause concern
Why did he hire Daniel Junior — a Miami-Dade police sergeant with a domestic violence record of hitting and choking his wife — to lead the Miami-Dade Corrections Department, despite reservations from the staff, of which about 50% of the officers are women? It’s not like he didn’t know Junior’s past, which also includes a substantiated claim of slamming another woman into a wall, creating a 10″ X 10″ hole in the drywall.
The LEO Affairs website blog is full of comments about Daniel’s history with women. And the United Corrections 
Officers Federation urged Gimenez to name someone else.
“Members of this organization have serious reservations with the possibility of having Daniel Junior appointed Director,” wrote Executive Director Armando Quinoa in a memo to Deputy Mayor Russell Benford. “The membership does not support Mr. Junior and it will be just a matter of time before he embarrasses both you and Mayor Gimenez.”
Did he do all these things because he has a deaf ear to domestic violence due to his own family history? Is it because he thinks its okay to bully women? He certainly seems to be treating Regalado as a lesser candidate with language I doubt he would use against a man. “I didn’t just snap my fingers and boop, I’m the mayor,” he said to the Miami Herald editorial board this week in reference to Raquel. How can he get away with saying this about a lawyer who has served for six years as an elected official and serves on arts and homeless community boards? Too bad we can’t just snap our fingers and, boop, he’s not the mayor.
Why has he, as an elected official for 12 years, five as mayor, been so completely silent on the issue of domestic violence? Is it so that his incident wouldn’t come up?
Because domestic violence is, indeed, an issue for this community. And we really should get back to the issues.
Pages: 1 2
Regalado wants to debate issues; Gimenez? To create issues added by Ladra on
View all posts by Ladra →
