It was an odd thing to watch as speaker after speaker at Tuesday’s Miami-Dade Commission meeting be silenced — their mics actually cut off — and, in some cases escorted out of the chambers. Disturbingly odd. Chillingly odd. Members of the community had gone to speak on Mayor Carlos Gimenez’s directive Jan. 26 to the corrections department, telling them to […]
Reports would include data on no-bid contracts Three days after he was sworn in earlier this month, new Miami-Dade Commission Chairman Esteban Bovo sent a couple of memos to all the commissioners and several staffers telling them this is his show now and we’re doing things a little differently. Not because he flagrantly doled out […]
Gathering photos of our electeds from social media sites to share with you, dear readers, is time consuming and laborious and not all that personally fulfilling, which is why Ladra stopped doing it months ago. But this week marks a special ocassion. We had a few South Florida politicos in D.C. for the inauguration festivities […]
Miami-Dade Commission Chairman Esteban Bovo has named his new committee members, chairs and vice chairs and there are definitely signs that some of his colleagues are buds and some are, well, not. It’s natural to give chairmanships to those commissioners who voted for you as chairman of the board. That’s a longtime tradition and no […]
Expect to hear about transit, jobs and public safety To the victor go the spoils, don’t they? To the victor, also goes the spin. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez will do what he does best at this year’s State of the County address Wednesday: Pat his own back. Sure, he’ll provide shout-outs to his apologists and […]
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez was elected the commission chairman Tuesday. Sure, the board chose Commissioner Esteban Bovo, Jr. over Xavier Suarez. But the victory belongs to the mayor, who now has a compliant chairman and control of the commission agenda. You could see the satisfaction on his face when the two embraced after the vote. […]
County Hall is abuzz with speculation about who will become the chair of the Miami-Dade Commission for the next two years. But the only thing that is certain right now is that it won’t be unanimous, like it was in 2014 when the commission showed a unified body behind today’s Chairman Jean Monestime. In a very […]
The deadline to qualify for any one of the seven Miami-Dade County Commission seats up for election this year ended at noon Tuesday and three commissioners can breath a sigh of relief. Bruno Barreiro, Esteban “Steve” Bovo Jr. and Barbara Jordan are automatically re-elected because nobody dared to run against them. The three Bs — Barbara, Bruno […]
Hey, President Obama: We don’t want your stinkin’ Cuban consulate here. Okay? Let the spies go to Tampa or Key West. That’s what Miami-Dade Commissioners told the leader of the free world last week when they voted to approve a resolution that urges the federal government to seek another location for a consular office to […]
As part of the effort to right the ship with the special taxing districts that were getting charged too much or too little, county commissioners will consider on Wednesday a move to put the control of those neighborhoods — and their special taxing monies — in the hands of municipalities. Not only will cities and […]