Ralph Cabrera’s commission race advantage: others are unelectable

Looks like the third time is the charm for former Coral Gables Commissioner Ralph Cabrera. Even if it’s just through the process of elimination.

Cabrera, an insurance consultant, has tried to get back on the dais twice since he left office in 2013. But both times he ran for mayor against Jim Cason. This time he is running for commissioner because, after all, it’s a city manager run government where all votes are equal. And because it was an open seat.

But because it was an open seat, it also attracted some people who would never even think of running against a sitting commissioner. And Cabrera — who is running on his experience and has the endorsement from the police union, the firefighters union, Gables Commissioner Vince Lago and SAVE — has the clear advantage in this election, which ends Tuesday.

Because the other three candidates are basically unelectable.

The first to write off is Jackson “Rip” Holmes, an, um, colorful downtown property owner who has run unsuccessfully a bunch of times and whose single mission is to bring a department store to Miracle Mile.

But he has baggage galore: Holmes, who can barely finish a thought let alone a sentence, has a 2008 domestic violence charge, later dismissed, from one of his two mail order-type brides and a conviction in 1988 of threatening Jeb Bush, whose father was president at the time, that landed him in federal prison for three years. He has since said the whole thing was a misunderstanding and lavishes Bush with praise on his website, www.ripholmes.com.

Also, Holmes believes the Boston Marathon bombing, the Sandy Hook tragedy and other horrible attacks were inside jobs done by or with the assistance of extraterrestrials. And he has uploaded more than 500 videos to YouTube, the most recent of which are campaign related. Check them out. Cheaper than going to the movies.

Next we can lose former interim city manager and Cason crony Carmen Olazabal, who carried Pat Salerno‘s water and helped him lie to the commission about public safety. Olazabal learned everything she knows from Salerno. She doctored a document from the police department to indicate that there wasn’t an increase in accidents on Ponce de Leon Boulevard due to some palms planted on corners.

Turns out there was. The cover-up ended with Salerno’s forced, on-the-spot resignation and the uprooting of several palm trees. Olazabal’s exit, not by choice, came months later. But not before she gave herself a 10% raise. Employees dislike her and distrust her so much, most of them are supporting Cabrera.

Today, Olazabal, who is basically running on her gender, has her own government consulting business, working on specific projects (read: no-show jobs) for municipalities, which could present a conflict of interest if she is elected. She was hired by Miami Lakes, for example, to manage the FDOT funded completion of a 1.5 mile route between an elementary and a middle school.

Olazabal is really looking for a job. The four-year commission term pays $31,585 a year.

The last to cross off is attorney Jorge Fors, who has never been involved in any Gables civic life and suddenly wants to be a commissioner because, he says, he had a baby. In truth, Jorgie Come Lately was recruited by the outgoing Frank Quesada, who endorsed his friend despite the fact that Fors has actually claimed an illegal Homestead exemption on a Little Havana condo he didn’t live in for almost a decade each and every year.

“I’ve known Jorge a long time and we’ve had cases together, he’s a great guy,” Quesada said in a text message last month after he declined to accept or return my calls. “When he discovered the homestead issue he resolved it.”

Except he didn’t just “discover” the homestead issue. He paid the back taxes, interests and penalties in January because he was running for office and after Ladra started sniffing around and pulling public records.

It’s not like he claimed a false homestead exemption once by mistake and forgot about it. Every year, before March 1, property owners have to claim their exemptions. For eight or nine years, every year, Fors checked the box to claim an exemption on a 5th Street condominium he admits he never lived in. The whole time, he voted in Coral Gables, not the city of Miami.

For a lawyer, he seems to have a disdain for the law. Because that’s not the only one he broke. He has a traffic history a mile long and was arrested for open containers and underage drinking in college. And he’s been caught parking in the handicap space — twice. He is trying to make annexation a campaign issue, using fear tactics to get votes, even though it was supported by a majority of the commission as well as the police chief.

So, we got a nut job, an opportunist liar and a scofflaw cheat fearmonger on the ballot with Cabrera, who may rub some people the wrong way with his brutal honesty but has definitely proven himself as a public servant. He didn’t go along to get along but why would any interested voter want that?

During his 12 years on the dais, Cabrera lowered taxes twice, brought free wifi and Giralda Under the Stars to the downtown, created the citywide traffic advisory committee, sponsored new residential zoning to fight against McMansions, strengthened the valet parking ordinance, spearheaded an insurance RFP process that saved the city 30% on renewals, created a local vendor preference program and did a lot more you can find on his website. He actually has a good track record.

Next to the others, he’s a poster boy candidate. So strong are his chances that he is the only candidate being attacked by negative mailers that have no factual base and paid by unknown campaign operatives and donors, which becomes another reason to vote for him.

This should be Cabrera’s year. Not before a runoff with either the liar or the cheat. But he should win that, too.

Carmen Olazabal, Jorge Fors, Ralph Cabrera

Ralph Cabrera’s commission race advantage: others are unelectable added by Ladra on April 5, 2019
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