Former Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez was having breakfast at Maruch with a reporter Thursday when the current mayor’s “enforcer,” Glenn “The Goon” Rice, burst in on them with a cellphone video camera and began his usual insane berating and assault. Martinez being who he is, not used to being pushed around, got up to confront […]
DEVELOPING STORY: Former Miami Beach city manager Jorge Gonzalez, who resigned after 12 years under pressure because he wouldn’t do the commission’s bidding, is back in government business: He was voted 4-1 to become the next city manager in the Village of Bal Harbour. Yes, that is the city that had the police chief that […]
Former Homestead Councilman Jeff Porter may not have as many headlines as the other two viable candidates in the Homestead mayoral race — which could arguably be a good thing. But he came out into the ring this week, with both fists swinging. Not one to bluff, Porter will see “amateur” Mark Bell‘s two-fer mailer […]
When we last reported the finances of the mayoral campaign in Homestead, we said that hotelier Mark Bell was winning slightly with a comfortable $3,500 lead over former Mayor Steve Bateman with Bell’s total reaching $18,500 in contributions in half the time. But Bell, husband to Miami-Dade Commissioner Lynda Bell, actually has more than three […]
Miami City Commissioners on Thursday hired a new city attorney: Deputy City Attorney Victoria Mendez was voted in 3-2 in what sources say was a very politicized process. Mendez was reportedly pounding the pavement at City Hall in the last few days to lobby commissioners on her behalf. So was her husband, Carlos Eduardo Morales — […]
Homestead City Manager George Gretsas will very likely get a two-year extension on his contract tonight, in part as a pat on the back for his role in the investigation that led to the arrest last month of former Mayor Steve Bateman on public corruption charges. Gretsas, hired last year, doesn’t get a raise in […]
The topic of last night was the county budget, but a couple of Miami-Dade Commissioners decided to take the opportunity to criticize the elephant in the room: a recall effort against one of their colleagues. Commissioners Dennis Moss, Bruno Barreiro and Audrey Edmonson each said that the recall — announced last week when Vice Mayor […]
It’s hard to believe it, but we saw it with our own eyes. And it’s on video tape for proof: One after another, people came before the Miami-Dade County Commission Tuesday evening and basically begged commissioners to tax them further to save libraries, fire-rescue services and dogs and cats. But mostly libraries. More than eight […]
A ‘message’ to the mayor: Careful, they may veto you. Without a doubt, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez was already walking a fine line. Last week’s last minute veto of an 8-4 decision by the county commission, for many, is just the last straw in a series of possible political abuses by the man we elected […]
On tonight’s big budget night, which everyone has been anticipating, commissioners are flying blind. Pretty much just like the rest of us. That’s because the last minute about-face made by Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez — who first proposed a small tax increase to maintain services and then switched to a more politically convenient (really? how’s […]