The first public hearing for the 2019-2020 Miami-Dade budget Thursday was pretty uneventful. It passed 10-3 and there was very little protest. Most of the speakers simply want more money for affordable housing or some program. Nothing really seemed dire. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez must be doing the happy dance. He seems to have hoodwinked […]
Years past, residents would come to the Miami-Dade County budget hearings to beg for the restoration of police jobs or library hours or to save grant funding for this or that community-based organization. This year, the majority of the speakers at the first hearing for the $9 billion 2019-2020 budget on Thursday had one request: […]
As expected, Miami-Dade Commissioner Xavier Suarez made his mayoral dreams official Friday when he announced publicly that he was going for the top county post vacated by his nemesis, the termed-out Carlos Gimenez. “I want to put the resources of this county to work for the residents and taxpayers in a way that is both […]
Last year, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez scolded county commissioners for plans to protect the environment, reduce crime in South Dade, create programs for children and fund fare-free circulators, like the trolleys in many cities, in unincorporated parts of Miami-Dade. We ain’t got the money, honey, the mayor told them. He complained of a five-year budget shortfall […]
A contract extension approved by the Miami-Dade Commission last month for one of the firm’s involved in the bridge collapse at Florida International University will get another look at the next commission meeting. Commissioners last month approved an 18-month extension for Munilla Construction Management — which is five months into a bankruptcy filing after the March 2018 […]
Elected officials are set to consider a secret deal, months in the making, that gives public land for development and operation of a Baylink monorail to a partnership between a manufacturer in communist China, a gambling giant pushing for a casino in Miami — and two of the mayor’s best friends/lackeys. No, this is not the plot […]
Immigration policy is driving a wider rift between Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, who in 2017 kowtowed to President Donald Trump’s flimsy threat on cities that did not honor immigration detainer requests — becoming the first U.S. mayor to ask “how high sir?” — and Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava, who wants to replace him in 2020. Upon […]
It wouldn’t be summer if the mayor wasn’t in Paris. This year’s annual vacation to Paris on the taxpayer dime also got Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez an England stamp on his very cramped passport as he, Commissioner Barbara Jordan and a delegation of six other county employees and three Beacon Council lackeys take an eight-day jaunt […]
The fight over the Coconut Grove Playhouse is more than just a political battle between two mayors who may very well be facing each other on a ballot near you soon. It is proof positive that Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, who wants to sell off every part of the county he can before he is out of […]
Voters will get to decide if the newly created elected Miami-Dade sheriff’s seat, tax collector and supervisor of elections will be partisan positions or not after the county commission voted last week to put the referendum on the 2020 ballot. The sheriff’s position was created last year by voters who also made the elections head […]