Hialeah council's criminal cuts

Just when you thought the election season in Hialeah could not get more surreal, the Seguro Que Yes council passed su alcaldito Carlos Hernandez's bogus 2011-2012 city budget Wednesday night calling for the illogical and unnecessary termination of 105 of 271 firefighter paramedic positions despite a packed house of protestors and a barrage of honest, researched, logical and impassioned pleas from residents, employees, firefighters, police officers and children -- and without asking a single real, legitimate question. That practiced-in-front-of-the-mirror peppering by Councilwoman Vivian Casals-Muñoz does not count. All she did when she asked smirky questions she knew the answers to already was present a premeditated and written justification of her eventual Oui nod-and-bob to help her at the ballot. Watch for some of that dramatic "challenging" to come out in her literature or campaign speeches.

The rest of the council was as criminally negligent to their community as she was when they sat silent and did not give anyone in the audience the courtesy of answering one question. How would this affect response times? Silence. How would this affect services? Silence. Has this 40 percent cut in fire rescue personnel been analyzed to predict or forecast potential ramifications? Silence. How many firefighters are needed, mimimum, to keep the city safe? Silence. Where are the operational plan and the reorganizational chart that go with these cuts, both public records that were requested Monday? Silence. In fact, Council President Isis "Gavelgirl" Garica-Martinez spoke more when she was ejecting four or five of the objectors (including yours truly) from the council chambers or from the building as she and her colleagues ignored laws, constitutional rights, Robert's Rules of Order and legal processes to make strategic campaign platform speeches about a month from Election Day. And alcaldito Hernandez left the dais again in the middle of a public budget hearing, in the middle of someone's comments, snubbing residents and employees he shows no respect for, so he could give TV interviews (read: campaign for votes). Really? Ladra has a question (well, another one): Is this the way elected officials should act?

Just another day in the Hialeah races.

Wednesday's bogus budget hearing has been called a circus, a joke, a train wreck, a show. But Ladra's favorite was a crime. Because what this council did when they rubberstamped the budget they know is false and full of holes just has to be criminal. It's fraud. It's robbery. It's abuse of power. It's all of that and it's blackmail and extortion, too. Because the firefighters who went armed with truth and the support of the community were told they could make the layoffs, at least the immediate ones, go away. Disappear. Just like that. If, of course, they agreed to an offer from the city that was made in writing on Monday, more than two months after the administration prematurely declared another impasse during a bargaining session, which is the appropriate setting for a new contract offer, and at which this offer was never made.
It's not that the firefighters would not consider giving up holiday pay. Union President Mario Pico -- speaking to reporters outside the chambers after he, too, was thrown out when he challenged the criminal lies at the hearing -- has repeatedly said that the firefighters -- many of whom have been serving Hialeah longer than some council members -- are willing to make sacrifices to help the residents preserve their quality of life. They simply want transparency and the comfort of knowing they didn't sell everything they had to earn to keep giving funds away to questionable quid pro quos and that they won't have to do it again next year because there is a solid recovery plan. Hernandez and his herd should applaud them for that. Everyone who has watched this 2 1/2 year process -- in which the city has been found guilty twice of unfair labor practices, declared impasse three times and illegally fired 17 firefighters to try to affect the contract vote (a decision that cost the taxpayers $800,000 in overtime plus the backpay they are now ordered to provide for the 16 firefighters they were ordered to hire back) -- knows it wouldn't be that easy, though, and that the city only made that phony offer because they know it can't be accepted without going back to the table, where they intend to add a few more demands, of course, but don't want to have to show nada to justify it. All that offer is, in truth, is an illegal and improper 11th hour Hail Mary pass made publicly to save el alcaldito and the incumbent candidates from the critical backlash and career-ending fallout their dubious and dumfounding decision has already had. This phony profer, which would have saved only $1.3 million when the city last week was demanding cuts to "balance the budget" that totaled more than $7 million, is a bait and switch con job and Ladra would not be surprised if it was not planned all along. It is not the only thing the council will need, but if the firefighters had conceded, they would have claimed victory and use the contrived "compromise" to promote their questionable candidacies.

Councilman Luis Gonzalez -- who probably drew the short straw because he is not on the Nov. 1 ballot -- actually took the opportunistic liberty to ask about the offer (read: campaign stunt) in a question to the mayor that was obviously staged for the benefit of the TV cameras. It was such a set-up for su alcaldito to start proliferating on how he was willing to negotiate and trying to protect the residents with this offer, that Ladra could not control her bark and was tossed from the council chambers -- and the building -- again for speaking out of turn. I take whole responsibility. Something the Seguro Que Yes mess could learn to do. I know I wasn't supposed to object, but I found the scene ridiculously abusive. And someone had to stop that charade. "Excuse me, the councilman can't make an offer here at a budget hearing. Or in that letter you sent," I interjected. "That is why there is a bargaining process." Council President Isis "Gavelgirl" Garcia-Martinez warned me to stop talking. But Gonzalez -- after regañando me with a whiny "I don't even know who has the floor" -- went on with his pre-scripted, made-for-TV effort to give el alcaldito his two-cent soundbite. There was no way this watchdog was going to let that happen. "I'm sorry but he simply cannot make an offer like that from the dais," I said again, asking deputy city attorney Lorena Bravo, who sat in for William "Go-Between" Grodnick on his paid Jewish holiday, to advise them that a contract offer in this venue (read: political campaign stunt) would be illegitimate. She did, actually, eventually. And I applauded -- as I was led out of the chambers by a police officer on order by Police Chief Mark Overton, who later trespassed me from the building -- even before I received the public records I requested about Ladra's first-ever trespass warning at the Hernandez et al campaign office opening Sept. 10. This time, they didn't give me a case number but maybe it was because Overton (who las malas lenguas say is looking to get a job in Broward county) realized he stepped in it and sent a sergeant to tell me once I was outside the building -- yes, escorted outside the building by three police officers -- that I could return to the lobby only and only if I behaved. Yeah, this is the thanks I get for basically helping them out by pointing out a mistake they were about to make.

But while it is fun to watch former Mayor and current mayoral candidate Raul Martinez consistently show all the council members up on budget issues with trick questions they fail every time and it's entertaining to watch former councilman and current candidate Alex Morales teach them a lesson or two at every meeting, you don't have to be a professor or a successful administrator for a quarter of a century to know more about the council membrane's jobs and roles than they do. Even a watchdog and one pissed off, redneck firefighter and a whistleblower cop and a single mom and a pre-teen child -- who got a standing ovation when he told them that if they were in school, "you would get an F in budget" -- know more than these bobble heads.

Pathetic. Sad. Unacceptable (read: rejectable come November). And it has to be criminal. It just has to be abuse of power when the city administration suddenly finds $3.5 million in cost reductions from one budget hearing to the next in order to make this hollow campaign season offer. That just has to be a crime. They are holding the citizens and the people who work in Hialeah hostage for their personal and political gain. That just has to be a crime. They make up positions and programs to pad the budget in other areas so they can dip into these funds later on down the year. That just has to be a crime. They give away fist over fist of taxpayer funds by awarding millions of dollars in no-bid contracts and change order increases for campaign contributors. That just has to be a crime. They hide monies and change the story every other day from surplus to deficit to surplus to shortfall. That just has to be a crime. They intentionally turn their heads to the poor math skills, gaping holes and padded pillows all over the budget presented as a "budget in stages" -- a new term nobody has ever heard of that was invented for convenience. Let's call it a pretend budget instead. That just has to be a crime. And they commit all these crimes against the residents and their own employees while risking the lives and property of the taxpayers who pay their $44,000-a-year salaries and the salaries of their assistants and their multiple lackies and botella friends. That just has to be a crime.

Ladra felt uncomfortably and uncharacteristically numb for several hours after she left the scene of the crime Wednesday night and took a walk for a cortadito, dark, like the night. It is almost time to get ready for the next day and I still can't believe sometimes that it wasn't all a nightmare. Because how could anyone get away with so much? Where's the cavalry? And just where were our other electeds that should be representing Hialeah's people against the criminals? Miami-Dade District 13 Commissioner Esteban Bovo, State Sen. Rene Garcia (R, District 40) and State Rep. Eddy Gonzalez (R, District 102) did not return my calls and were absent at both the first and second readings (read: accessories before, during and after the fact). So was former State Sen. Rudy Garcia (R, District 40), who is running for the mayor's seat also but has been criticized for not having attended one meeting or voiced one concern over the aforementioned crimes. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez has been a busy bureaucrat with his own budget, but has anyone at the county given a thought to or looked at how Miami-Dade taxpayers could be impacted when the Hialeah council starts stealing their service providers to cover for a fire rescue department that was decimated for political retribution motives. That just has to be a crime.

After all, somebody -- or some body --  has to be held responsible if even one person dies as a result of longer response times or decreased services caused by these unnecessary cuts. Because that really has to be a crime.

Ladra calls it political homicide.

Mayor's lies must be challenged

Let's add another tall tale to the long list of lies Hialeah's alcaldito Carlos Hernandez wants to feed his constituents: The firefighters threatened with mass firings want to raise taxes and won't make a deal.

What a crock from the man they call "the Rock." But get used to it. He is truth challenged. The firefighters fight this emergency with the truth and have been handing out flyers telling residents and business leaders about the mayor's dangerous plan of political retaliation. Alcaldito only has lies to give the hundreds of citizens who have called to demand that he keep the firefighter staff as is.

The mayor's office is actually telling these hundreds of callers to call the fire union instead. "Call Mario Pico," one woman told me when I called, "and ask him why the union does not want to come to an agreement with the city." Other callers are told to call the fire union president, and the mayor's staff provides the phone number, because the firefighters want to raise taxes to preserve their benefits. 

Let's be clear: The firefighters, like Ladra, know that there does not have to be any tax increase because the council is squandering funds elsewhere. Like with no-bid contracts (about $1 million in the last meeting alone), some of which go to companies or people who make campaign contributions. Like the created positions for cronies and lackies, some of which just got "salary adjustments" -- including one mayor's aide that went from $1,776 a month to $2,884 a month. Would the mayor need to raise taxes for these things? The firefighters, like Ladra, know that there do not have to be any new taxes in order to maintain staffing levels where they are, which are already insufficient to cover a city of 220,000 residents that swells to a population of 500,000 during the weekday. This "tax increase" argument is a scare tactic used to bully and smear the firefighters even more.

But su alcaldito has to say that. He has no defense, no excuse for his threat to cut 40 percent of the firefighter paramedic personnel. It is threat and it is extortion because both he and the council president, Isis "Guttermouth Girl" Garcia-Martinez have publicly said that if the union were to make concessions -- not negotiate, but just take the concessions the city wants to force on them -- there would not be anybody fired. Really? Is that even legal? Let's rewind to July 20, when it was the city that declared impasse on the union not even two hours into negotiations. And they had planned it. The impasse document was prepared beforehand and brought into the meeting -- which shows a total lack of good faith. The city went into those negotiations clearly intending to declare impasse (and they will lose again when this is legally brought to the state board that oversees public employee relations).

This is just political payback because the union backed his opponent, former mayor Raul Martinez, in this November election and his mentor/master Julio Robaina's  opponent, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez. Otherwise why would Hernandez distribute an old newspaper article about past hostilities between the firefighters and Martinez at his press conference about the budget? What does that have to do with the 2011-2012 allocation of funds?

By the way, Mayor Gimenez, why are you so silent on this? Won't this affect county services, too? Aren't you representing Hialeah citizens also, Mr. "Mayor for All"? Wasn't this a group that backed you and helped you get elected?

For that matter, where are the other elected leaders that represent and speak for this community? I contacted Miami-Dade Commissioner Esteban Bovo, State Sen. Rene Garcia (R, District 40) and State Rep. Eddy Gonzalez (R, District 102) -- all of them former Hialeah council members who are quite easy to find in the City of Progress during election season -- before the first budget hearing last week and asked if they were going to go. I have yet to hear back from any of them. I guess election season for them is too far off.

So let's call their offices, too, to see what they think.

• Gimenez can be reached at 305-375-5071 or mayor@miamidade.gov
• Garcia can be reached at 305-824-5058 or at 305-364-3100 and his district office is at 3814 W. 12th Ave, just above the campaign office for su alcaldito and the incumbents minus one
• Gonzalez can be reached in Tallahassee at 850-488-1683 or his district office in Hialeah Gardens, 10001 NW 87th Ave., 305-364-3066.
  

Ladra wonders if they will redirect calls to the firefighters or the Hialeah mayor's office, where the blame really lies.

Gimenezes weigh in on Hialeah

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez has been silent on the upcoming elections in Hialeah, where one of the mayoral candidates and several council wannabes worked hard for his campaign and recruited family members and friends -- even contributors.

But that silence will be broken before the Nov. 1 election.

Ladra had to find Gimenez at the Miami-Dade Young Democrats meeting Tuesday night-- where he spoke candidly and confidently about the budget cuts he had proposed (more on that later) -- because now that he's got the job, he is so busy with the budget and assembling his dream team staff he is much less accessible and never calls to chat. Sigh. They all forget the morning after. When asked if he was supporting any Hialeah racers, he said "Not yet."

Then he flashed that smile and repeated it. "Not yet."

Which means that he will eventually lend his support, either publicly or privately, eventually. "I had a lot of those people support me and work hard in Hialeah," Gimenez said. "I'd like to show my appreciation."

The candidates that helped Mayor Gimenez are all on the Back To The Future slate against all the incumbents (yes, you are supposed to hear the theme song in your head). It starts with former mayor Raul Martinez, who went on Cuban AM radio regularly to defend Gimenez and blast his one-time protege and successor, failed mayoral candidate Julio Robaina for something or other and who is likely to have former State Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla -- who was crucial to the Gimenez campaign's turnaround -- on his election team. The mayor may also show some loyalty to Professor Alex Morales -- a former city councilman and housing director who was fired by Robaina and did some research and put together some of Robaina's misdeeds for the media -- and former cop-turned-housing-official Danny Bolaños (in this photo in a Gimenez caravan on West 49th Street in June), who put his own campaign on hold to stand for Gimenez at early voting sites for a couple of weeks (as evidenced by a window of inactivity in his campaign finance report). Former Mayor Julio Martinez, who qualified earlier this month to run against former police spokesman Jose Caragol, and former councilwoman and teacher Cindy Miel, who qualified Monday for a rematch run against Council President Isis "Guttergirl" Garcia Martinez -- because someone has to stop Garcia's public chusmeria -- hosted a fundraiser meet-and-greet for Gimenez at La Carreta before the county runoff. Maybe Gimenez won't go out on a limb and support all of them. After all, there are some colorful characters on this slate -- which, by the way, could grow before it's all said and done.

Las malas lenguas tell Ladra that Frank Lago, the chief of staff to Sweetwater Mayor Manny Maroño who lost his bid to replace Esteban Bovo at the state house to Jose Oliva, could join the Back To The Future slate with Martinez, et al. Sources close to the two campaigns say Lago has been courting both Martinez and former State Sen. Rudy Garcia to share resources and my gut tells me he is working the Martinez slate harder (and was spotted chatting with Professor Morales at Maruch recently). The former mayor told Ladra he had not spoken to Lago in weeks but that he had yet to return a call. Lago has told Ladra he was never going to go with acting alcaldito Carlos Hernandez, but felt loyalty to Guttergirl because she helped him with his state house run. Well, that was then. This is now: Guttergirl and perhaps other incumbents urged Lago to switch groups and run against the unbeatable professor -- their only chance to keep Morales out of their hair -- rather than Easy-out Paul Hernandez, another rubber-stamper.

Then there is this telltale sign: Attorney Carlos J. Gimenez, lobbyist son of our new mayor and "absolutely" a Raul Martinez supporter, and his boss State Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, will host a fundraiser for Lago at their Coral Gables office Thursday, Sept. 8. Um... wait... Didn't Lago support and help Robaina and his clan and talk badly about his dad and work against them? "Yes. But then he found out what trusting that guy does to you," Gimenez Jr. said, adding that Lago, a fellow Christopher Colombus grad, helped his father in the runoff. "Was it disappointing to me that he would support Robaina even at first? Yes. But at the end of the day, the political reality is look at where he was running," the future county commissioner (you heard it here first) said about the state house race, which included most of Hialeah in its district.

The fundraiser next week is Lago's campaign kick-off, said Gimenez, who added that one thing became clear during the county mayoral campaign: "Hialeah needs a change for the better, a clean slate," Gimenez said. "It needs people who are competent and honest. That's what I want. That creates an even playing field."

In that effort, he said, there will likely be more fundraisers as Gimenez Junior reaches out to other non-incumbents, council candidates, who supported his dad's run for mayor.

"We are going to be supporting Danny Bolaños, Cindy Miel, Alex Morales," Gimenez told Ladra. "In coming months, hopefully we'll have events for all of them

Ladra just wishes that some of them had come before Lago.

Seijas & Gimenez on mayor's job

Recalled Miami-Dade Commissioner Natacha Seijas has said several times since she came out of hiding a few weeks ago, first in an El Nuevo Herald and then on WQBA, that Mayor Carlos Gimenez -- who served on the dais with her for six years -- didn't actually run for his seat.

"He didn't run for mayor. He ran for manager," said Seijas, who is critical of his budget cuts and micro-managing.

Gimenez has not been as accessible or easy to get a response from since he was campaigning for office, so Ladra tracked him down at a Miami-Dade Young Democrats meeting Tuesday night at City Hall Restaurant downtown.

"Natacha Seijas should read the county charter," Gimenez said with that same sly smile he's had since his confidence returned just before the runoff and he got his sexy back.

"The voters of Miami-Dade eliminated the county manager's position and put those duties under the mayor," the mayor said.

"So, I did not run for manager. But I did not run for mayor," he said and smiled again.

"I ran for strong mayor."

Budget breakfast for Bovo & Seijas

Breakfast came with a side of budget matters Tuesday morning for a new county elected and his predecessor at a Miami Lakes Latin American cafeteria -- and Ladra is the luckiest dog in the world to have been put in the right place at the right time (more on that later).

Miami-Dade Commissioner Esteban Bovo and veteran commissioner Natacha Seijas Millan, whose seat he snatched in May after she was recalled last March, met for about an hour over cafe con leche and Cuban toast and the mayor's proposed 2011-2012 budget, which Seijas brought with her in a tote bag, marked with post-its and inked notes in the margins. "You can't give up a bad habit," she later told me, referring to the obvious study she had made of the two-inch book which details in list after list after list the $7+ billion operating county budget. Bovo had asked for the meeting, both confirmed, to "pick her brain" -- even though it was a budget vote that put her on the recall chopping block and fast-tracked his eventual rise to what is known as the Hialeah commission seat, which was largely seen as his inheritance anyway. "This budget is such a big thing," Bovo said when I approached their table at the end of their meeting (photographed here, under the TV, very badly with my new 007 phone that I have not yet mastered) He was very surprised to see me. She, maybe not so much. (More on that later).

Apparently, Bovo turned to Seijas because he can't find anyone to cozy up to at County Hall. The former Hialeah councilman and state representative (R/District 110) seemed a bit lonely when he told the six-year Hialeah Councilwoman and 18-year commissioner -- as I listened from a table away -- that he did not know who to trust and that the administration, particularly department directors and supervisors, "know more than you do" and don't always provide the full picture. "We know as much as they tell us. Then you start realizing nobody tells you the truth," Bovo said, adding that people's body language changes when he walks into a room. The climate at Government Center is quite different from his days at Hialeah Hall or the State Capitol, he said.

"This is 13 gunslingers, all on their own," Bovo told Seijas.

Sitting in a short-sleeved PBA t-shirt and a pair of blue shorts with the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue logo, her hair pulled back in a ponytail and a face with no make-up, a noticeably slimmer Seijas sat up vindicated like she kept saying "I told you so," in her head. But, out loud, she simply told him he was right to be careful with his confidence. She gave him the names of a few "straight-talking" administrators in some key departments (Ladra will never tell) and told him about a few to avoid (Ladra will check them out, too). She was exceedingly nice to him, considering that he has kept a distance since he aligned himself with the familia -- because these people are like one, big, political mafia -- who betrayed her. That includes former Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina and the council, especially Council President Isis "Guttergirl" Garcia Martinez, who she felt particularly hurt by. (And, yes, Ladra may change nicknames from time to time if the mood strikes her and the reason is right).

"I told Julio one day during the recall, 'I feel like I have a knife in my back with your name on it. I don't know why. But one day I will,'" Seijas said later to Ladra as we sat on a bench outside the eatery on Northwest 154th Street. She told me she later learned that voters who lived in Hialeah housing were told they would lose their homes if they did not recall her (read: absentee ballot fraud). And everybody knows they didn't do this without Robaina making it happen through Housing Authority Director Julio Ponce, who headed a PAC that supported Robaina, who supported Bovo. The new commissioner also had some of the same consultants working for him as Robaina's campaign did -- including absentee ballot queen Sasha Tirador (paid about $90,000 by the Bovo campaign) and veteran media handler Julio Gonzalez Rebull (who billed $80,000 for "media buys"). Why did Robaina betray his godmother? Maybe because he thought he would be mayor and has become addicted to those "yes"es -- therefore needing Bovo for that fix. But Ladra thinks the shared consultants (read: more billing for basically the same work) also played a role as elections become more and more of a cottage industry, especially in the wake of the recalls -- and the threat of more recalls. And why would Bovo -- who helped her fight the 2006 attempt to recall her but did not even say how he voted in this recall -- betray Seijas? Maybe he lost patience and wanted to take his turn now. When asked why she would meet with Bovo after he allegedly threw her under the bus, Seijas downplayed his role -- even though he had raised $68,000 for his campaign for her seat by March 7, a week before she was ousted -- and said he only capitalized on the recall for votes in the commission race May 24. "I called him and asked him to stop talking about me in the campaign. Just not to mention me at all," she told Ladra, after breakfast was over and Ladra strolled over to their table to say hi and ask what they were doing. "We've been friends for years," Seijas said.

"Even through her recall, we had conversations," Bovo later told me in the parking lot as we walked to his car. "While I may not agree with that vote on the budget that got her recalled, she still has 18 years of knowledge. It would be foolish for me as an incoming commissioner not to have some kind of relationship. We disagree on some things, but we've always had a dialogue."

That dialogue Tuesday morning started late. Ladra, who had been so conveniently tipped off to the meeting, got there early and sat at the last table, where she had some angle on every other table. Seijas was on time and walked to the second to last table next to mine, then took a seat facing opposite me, in the same direction. It could not have been more perfect. Here I was with my sunglasses on and yesterday's paper in my face so I didn't scare them off and now I think she knew I was there all along. Bovo came about 10 minutes after -- and I don't think he had any idea that they would be watched and eavesdropped on. They chit-chatted about family and Hurricane Irene and, briefly, the efforts of Palm Springs North residents to incorporate into a new city. He mentioned the take-home car debate. "I don't know if it's a big deal or not," Bovo said. "The media sure seized on it."

Then the powwow started to get good.

Ladra was sitting at the table next door and overheard Bovo mention Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez's super-salaried staff in the midst of tough union negotiations that call for big cuts. "He's had a hard time justifying that," Bovo told Seijas. "And there's no justification. The more he tries to explain it, the more he confuses people."

Bovo said he and the other commissioners were "poring through this budget and trying to use the auditor's office to weed some of these things out." He said that services would have to be cut, but he wanted to preserve basic services, like police and fire and solid waste. "These are services that need to be defended. Everything above that has to be at the table."

Of course, the two veteran Hialeah politicos talked about the upcoming city elections. But later, each told Ladra that they were not supporting any candidate -- yet. Seijas said she would likely not support anyone publicly. But, if only because both mayoral candidates Carlos Hernandez, the acting alcaldito, and former State Sen. Rudy Garcia are tied to Robaina, whose betrayal she will avenge, Ladra expects her to help former mayor Raul Martinez. Bovo, who is reportedly leaning to supporting Garcia, said he might come out for one candidate but he wanted to hear the hopefuls talk about the issues instead of each other. "And I haven't seen that dialogue yet," he said. "Right now they are just insulting each other. It's like a family feud."

A family feud, indeed. A dysfunctional family feud. And Ladra sniffs a maternal rat in the home. Seijas waited for me as I walked with a surprised and somewhat jittery and concerned Bovo to his vehicle. She seemed unfazed by the fact that a political blogger and journalist had overheard her saying quite a few things. "It's a public place," she said, and shrugged. He is another story. Bovo very obviously did not know that I had been tipped off to the meeting and that I had gotten there early so I could spy. He seemed genuinely concerned about what he may have said, in confidence. He might find he can't trust anyone outside of County Hall, either. Seijas, who seems a little smarter or more politically savvy, did not seem surprised and, in fact, seemed downright giddy to see me. We had spoken on the phone a few times but had not properly met (not since I became Ladra). She was sitting on a park bench outside the restaurant and flagged me over when she saw me walking back from Bovo's car. In other words, she did not act like a veteran politician who would be visibly livid if a journalist eavesdropped on private conversation with her successor and then confronted her about it. She was calm, relaxed and seemed to be in control. We will name her guest director of this episode of As Hialeah Churns. Because I believe she may have always known that someone was watching and listening and might have sat down at that table right next to mine so I could see and hear better.

Some people as persistent and paranoid as Ladra might jump to the conclusion that the "tip off" about the meeting that put me there at the right time and place might have been arranged. It strikes me as unlikely that the tipster would betray the former commissioner's confidence without her express permission. In other words, I may have been used by Seijas and/or her supporters to burn Bovo back. But if this is what it is like to be used, can I go again, please? Again! Again! Because as Ladra is used by predators to try to exact some kind of revenge or advantage in some kind of political theater, I can also get real, authentic, unfiltered and unrehearsed perspective from the prey (in this case, Bovo). And a chance to show people the man behind the curtain.

So, political operatives take note: Ladra is willing (read: happy and eager) to be used as a minor supporting role in your payback political productions as long as I have the freedom to use the information I gather any which way I please -- and lift that curtain even higher.

Mayor's town hall tour takes off

Hours after announcing his new $1.2 million (and counting) senior staff, days after he proposed the elimination of 1,300 positions and cuts for the rest, and exactly one month after he was elected in a close and caustic race, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez pretty much coasted through the first town hall meeting on his hurried 2011-2012 budget with the $400 million discount.

Sure, the standing-room only crowd was mostly his friendly, hold-the-line Kendall and suburban supporters, so one would expect he would hit a homerun, even with many difficult and heart-wrenching questions that came from worried county workers (read: practically begging for their jobs). But he was much more than just visibly comfortable in his own skin. Gimenez was on his A game. He has an A game. He was funnier, much funnier, friendlier, happier, spontaneous, more confident, natural and -- dare I say it again? -- sexier. Sorry, sir. But it's that new swagger. It's how you naturally basked in the warmth of the mass well-wishing and respectfully rose to the challenges to the changes you champion. It's how you patiently and, like a public servant should, answered every single question -- there had to have been more than two dozen -- with specific details, consistency, context, authority, honesty and a frankness and openness that I've never seen in municipal government. For a new mayor, you seem to have an old hand for this, I told him after the dialogue with the community.

"Probably because I'm back at what I do best, or what I think I do best, and that's being a manager," Gimenez said. "I'm more comfortable in this role as mayor than I was as a commissioner."

And I think he's going to be much better at it if certain commissioners with aspirations of their own(read: Chairman Joe Martinez) do not put up too many roadblocks.

Ladra applauds his true and transparent public outreach -- and, yes, that was una indirecta al alcaldito Carlos Hernandez of Hialeah -- which should be the way all governments behave and bodes well for an open Gimenez administration. The mayor, photographed here talking with former mayoral candidate Gabrielle Redfern and her campaign coordinator/friend Kathi Waldhof, respectfully and politely scoffed at the suggestion that his town hall tour to at least seven and up to 11 communities -- which takes him next week to Little Haiti and (can't wait) Hialeah -- was a great start to his re-election campaign (the primary for county mayor is in 13 months). And even though that's what it felt like, especially with the three smart, pretty-boy "former" campaign staffers Ladra likes to call the G-Men (Alex Ferro, Tom Martinelli and Jeve Clayton) buzzing around, finger-punching messages into their expensive smart phones. And if they deny that they never even dreamed that this might be a chance to evaluate voter reaction and measure the mayor's likability, well then they are not as good as they think they are.

Still, the dream team went separately. Mayor Gimenez arrived alone -- he drives himself these days -- and stayed longer than he planned to, answering every single question. I repeat that because it is, in and of itself, beautiful and (unfortunately) remarkable. It is also worth mentioning that the Q&A ended took two hours, twice as long as intended. Then he stayed to talk to anyone and everyone who wanted to shake his hand and/or take a picture with him and/or, privately instead of publicly, ask the mayor if there was another place for this 11-year employee or that longtime public works man. He looked everyone in the eye, listened without rushing them, took cards (which Ladra later saw him give to one of the pretty boys) and told everybody that, while no guarantees, he or someone would follow up. He spent quite sometime with a young student from his alma mater, Christopher Columbus High (photographed here). When he left, a 15-year county employee walked with him halfway to where his car was parked. No security. No entourage. No staff. No sergeant at arms. Just this likely disgruntled employee and the mayor, who held his sports coat over his shoulder and casually chatted with no regard to his own safety. Ladra followed from an appropriate distance. It's the watchdog thing. Even though I love the honest everyman appeal of it, Ladra would feel better if he had one bodyguard (ojo, Candela). But one of the G-Men told me Gimenez hates it when they tag along. Whatever he said to the guy must have been good. "He's going to do whatever is in the best interest of everybody," said the employee, who would not tell me his name or the department he works for. "He's going to fix it." As they were walking, they stopped halfway when someone else driving a white SUV pulled up with his wife and three kids in the back seat -- coming to or from Chuck E Cheese's, probably -- and Gimenez stuck his head in the window to say hello. He even went to the back window to greet the kids and rub one's head. He was stately, elegant, kind, generous with his time and his words, almost noble, as ridiculously over-the-top as that sounds. He was the epitome of a leader, which is what everybody is really longing for.

"The antithesis of Alvarez," one Kendall resident noted.

And, while his senior staff of deputy mayors each making a quarter million has raised eyebrows and seems to mirror the mistakes that cost former county mayor Carlos Alvarez his job via recall (and is something we have to more on that later), Gimenez updated voters on the progress of his campaign promises. He cut his salary in half and commissioners' budgets as well (any leftovers of which he wants back into the general fund). He aims to bring real charter reform during one of the scheduled three elections next year -- if not through an agreeable commission then via a petition drive, he told me later. But, probably most importantly, he rolled the "Alvarez tax increase" back to the magic number of 9.7405, which equals $175 less a year for the owner of a $200,000 house, explained Budget Director Jennifer Glazer-Moon. And it was sooooo refreshing to hear her speak in straight-forward English and do the math for us. (Ladra hopes this government for the people thing is a trend. Where is the like button?).

"The people on March 15 spoke very loudly," Gimenez said. "More than anything else, the tax increase bothered the people in Miami-Dade County. Both me and my opponent said we'd go back to the 2010 rate, which is 9.7405." See? He said it again. He dreams that number.

But that $200 or so per home will mean some sacrifices, he said. The presentation seemed to highlight some details Ladra heard for the first time, including the layoff of 21 code enforcement officers and 62 fire department civilians, decreased funding for agricultural initiatives, the closing of the boot camp at the women's jail, new fees for the pick up of large dead animals ("I'm talking big, like cows and horses, which we get calls on," Moon said) and, last but certainly not least, "medical transportation fees," which sounds like another name for fire rescue or ambulance transportation fees, which have been controversial every time, deemed a danger to elderly and low-income residents who may think twice about calling 911 as well as double taxation for basic services, like a rush to the nearest hospital in the care of trained, taxpayer paid paramedics whose initial first steps basically save your life. Okay, if you can't tell, Ladra is not a big fan of unAmerican ambulance fees. More on that later, though, because people seemed to be kind of oblivious to all of those details -- well except the code enforcement layoffs; they heard that one -- and came with their questions already in mind. First, they were written submissions from the audience read by Suzie Trutie, from the county's communications department. But then Gimenez took queries from the floor.

More than 20 people lined up in the standing-room only community center (at least 150 people were there) in West Kendall and took turns asking questions -- and making suggestions. A constant stream of people seemed to feed the perpetual cue. Almost an uncomfortable number of them -- and I say that only because it was painful to hear their very authentic concern -- were county employees wanting to know, basically, if he could save their job one way or another. Some don't even know that they are on the chopping block. "There are rumors," one woman told me later. The layoffs of the nearly two dozen code enforcement officers was met with some concern. Gimenez said that would be one of the priorities to bring back when funding returned. He defended the elimination of 62 civilian positions from the fire department, saying the ratio of civilians (close to 500) to sworn personnel is 25 percent when the norm is 10. He also defended the retirement of both county fireboats, saying the service could be handled out of a waterfront station. Maybe the answers were not always what people wanted to hear, but he was honest and direct, and kind about it, and he didn't hem and haw and change his position or use a bunch of buzz words that mean nothing. He said top management was asked to provide the positions recommended for removal and that each would be evaluated individually. He also said he hoped that the bulk of the 1,300 positions could be cut from the 1,700 that are vacant, or that people who lose their jobs could transfer over to one that needs filling. But he said he did not think that everybody would stay at the end of the day. The one time he did not know the answer, he admitted the details were new to him and turned to Moon who he said did know. His natural, candid, intimate and unguarded dialogue with the audience gave him an air of honesty rare in county politics.

Yeah, okay, so Ladra is still admittedly a fan who got her Gimenez fix -- been having withdrawals since his swearing-in -- and feels vindicated about her vote. But I'm not the only groupie. Rosa Ortega got up from her seat to tell the mayor that he was "mucho mas simpatico en persona". See? I'm not the only one who noticed the swagger. One man waited in the question cue and publicly thanked God that Gimenez was elected. (Ladra already thanked the employees of Hialeah and the rebellious Republican women of the local GOP).

And, as always, I'm not forever listening to the same old hits. While still supportive in general, I'm concerned about the inner circle and am going to take up the new and improved Carlos Gimenez on this, I'll call it an invitation, to keep him honest. Okay, so maybe I will just invite myself. I don't think he has necessarily missed me, but I have certainly missed his sleepy face and the G-Men's constant attention (los interesados que son). So, Ladra thinks she's going to take a few walks downtown and sniff around in the coming weeks before September's budget hearings. Let's find out how the mayor's "top dollar" super staff will help reduce costs overall (and, really, can't you just do with the four deputies and not get that extra one, sherriff? So former State Rep. Marcelo Llorente, who came in third in the mayor's primary, can run for something else instead). Let's get details on his strategy for rolling out real reform (and, really, please don't align yourself with gypsy con artists who manipulate the process for private gain). Let's see how the details for the layoffs play out in real life. Let's see who on the dais will roll with the punches and who is going to try to punch the air out of the mayor's roll. Let's see him put our money where his mouth is and if he's really as open as he can be.

Let's see if he can really show us once and for all, like I think he will, that we elected the right guy.

Gimenez hires "deputy mayor"

This breaking news just in: An hour or two after Jose Mallea called Ladra to tell her he was only going to be the interim chief of staff for new Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, Ladra gets the word that Key Biscayne Village Manager Genaro "Chip" Iglesias -- the mayor's former chief of staff when he was commissioner in District 7 -- got the permanent gig. (Kudos to fellow blogger Frank Alvarado for making the prediction).

He will start in mid September and will make an annual salary of $225,000 (that's more than his boss and it is not including benefits) as a Deputy Mayor. That's because in addition to representing Gimenez and running the mayor's office, Iglesias will supervise several of the departments that remain after the mayor downsizes the county. He also said that there might be more deputy mayors named in the near future. (There goes the mayor's cut in his salary).

We had already heard Iglesias' name float around and were told he might become the next fire chief. But even though he was once captain at the Miami Fire Department, that seemed off and we didn't use it. We do know Iglesias (who was also once chief of staff to former county commissioner Jimmy Morales and Gimenez when Gimenez was Miami City Manager) was restless in paradise and had become a finalist for the Pinecrest Village manager job. (He already called them and told them to take his name out of the hat).

Mallea could not be immediately reached and Gimenez is in a meeting, according to his press guy, so I will have to wait for details. Tom Martinelli, the former Marcelo Llorente campaign staffer now working on the mayor's transition team, also said he would get back to me later with a full list of who has been hired and what they are going to earn in pay and benefits.

Iglesias put in his 60-day notice with the village council and that will take him until Sept. 11, meaning he can start Sept. 12 -- one day before the first budget hearing. So, of course, he will be moonlighting. "I'll be helping out unofficially," he said.

Before this last minute change, Mallea -- who will apparently stay through mid September when Chip takes over -- told me he was only going to be a temporary chief of staff until the mayor got his office in order and that he would work for nada, as a volunteer. Just as he did on the campaign. Maybe his new restaurant, The Local in Coral Gables (opened this year with high school chum Mauricio Lacayo) is doing that well. But Mallea -- who also owns JM Consulting Group, a political consulting firm that also does "private advocacy work" (read: lobbying) in DC -- said he won't get paid a dime for county work.

Now, that worries Ladra. Because decent, transparent compensation (especially in a job that someone else is about to get about $18,000 a month for) is not only fair and ethical, it leaves little room for conjecture and things that make you go hmmmmm. Non-existing compensation makes you go hmmmmm because it seems -- at least from the outside -- like there is something under the covers. Quid pro quo? Future favors? A job for someone else close to him (although the mayor's recent history suggests Homey don't play that... sorry to steal, poet).

Maybe Ladra is just too cynical these days and there are other good people, other heroes like the ones who helped Gimenez get elected, that do it out of the goodness of their hearts (or their hatred for Robaina) or their concern for the wellbeing of this community.

Forget being chief of staff. That guy should run for office.

Campaign man turns lobbyist

The heated campaign for county mayor seems to beaten down JC Flores. He's done with political promotion, he says. Now he wants to promote to politicos.

After what some might call his greatest achievement ever -- taking an underdog candidate with somewhat lackluster public speaking skills to the second highest post in the state -- Flores has accepted a job with AT&T. As a lobbyist, of course.

Many county workers were disappointed to hear at Wednesday's swearing-in of the new mayor that Flores, sporting a fresh beard after he shaved the longer one after Election Day, he would not be joining the staff.

"I wanted a life," Flores told me Wednesday after his last client, Mayor Carlos Gimenez took the official oath of office (he took it five days earlier to get started on the hard work).

This means that Gimenez must be looking for someone else to take over the 2011 campaign, and quick since there is only 13 months to the primary.

Maybe former State Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who is said to be vacationing in Spain or somewhere else in Europe (they have rehab there, too, you know) will land the job if he promises to behave himself. Maybe former State Rep. JC Planas, who has been hanging around also, will take over some of the duties. Maybe Ana Carbonell, who managed the Julio Robaina campaign quite skillfully (Oh, c'mon! She had to sell a really bad product) wants to use her skills and talents for good instead of evil.

Any other ideas/nominations from the public?

Oath taken today, test tomorrow

Although he has been at work since the day after the election and was sworn in privately so he could really start talking with authority to the unions and his staff, Mayor Carlos Gimenez (photographed here sitting next to his wife, Lourdes, between speeches) was sworn in at a public ceremony Wednesday that was more about family and faith -- three separate religious leaders gave their blessings (a reverend, a rabbi and a brother from Christopher Columbus High, where the mayor went to school) -- than pomp and circumstance.

He thanked his family and supporters and the standing-room only crowd was curiously devoid of the usual suspects. Like his victory party last week, it was mostlylongtime friends and supporters, county workers and firefighters and Republican Party women. Few lobbyists. None of the big ones.

But since he was already sworn in five days ago, the public oath also provided for a little campaigning opportunity. After all, Mayor Gimenez is also still a candidate who faces a primary in 13 months.

The mayor didn't have to reiterate his campaign promises about his own 50 percent salary cut and the cuts that would have to be made to roll back the tax. He didn't have to go on again about March 15 as if it were a real mandate when 17 percent of the people vote (oh, right, fewer elected him). He didn't have to promise real reform and a return of the public trust. Because it sounded a lot like a campaign speech (maybe it was for the benefit of the media recording the moment) and it was pretty much wasted on an audience who (for the most part) voted for him and will again. Although, truth be told, Ladra couldn't help but create mental columns for how the commissioners voted June 28 and suspects not all cast for their new captain. Today they seemed to be on board his ship. Let's see if that's the case Thursday at the first commission meeting.

Because it's going to be a fun one. There are a few big-ticket items on the agenda for tomorrow:

• The sale of $100 million in "bond anticipation notes" (read: loan) for "interim financing" for transit to pay or reimburse the county for improvements already approved in the People's Transportation Plan, including $6 million in new train cars for MetroRail and $85 million for the MIC Earlington Heights line. These monies are apparently part of the plan of providing for a balanced budget on nine days. The resolution provides that the loan be repaid in 14 months at a total of no more than $120 million. (Citibank is recommended as the loaning agent, not former Hialeah mayor, county mayoral loser and freelance loan officer-under-investigation Julio Robaina, whose interest rates might have been higher).



• The issuance of $42 million in bonds to pay for part of the paving of the new baseball stadium, adopted on first reading on May 17 -- after Gimenez had resigned to run for mayor in a campaign where his stance against public funding for the stadium was key.



• The issuance of $400 million in paper notes in anticipation of bond monies (read: another loan?) for financing of Building Better Communities projects already approved.



• The approval of a permit for MAT Concessionaire to drill 914 holes in Government Cut and fill them with "grout" in preparation for FDOT Port of Miami tunnel project.



• A change in the comprehensive development master plan and land use map, from "agriculture" to "office and business" for 120 or so acres between Southwest 132nd and 142nd avenues and 333rd and 336th streets in what is called "Villages of Homestead." The site is outside the Urban Development Boundary but within the Urban Expansion Area of 2025 and the applicant, Homestead-Miami Speedway, LLC, wants to have the site included in the 2015-2025 UDB area. This is a second reading. The first reading was approved 9-1 in March. But Commissioner Audrey Edmonson voted against it, not Gimenez, who said he supported Commissioner Dennis Moss' item because it was different from most UDB applications and that the commission could ensure protection (whatever that means). There will be a public hearing on this item at 9:30 a.m.
  

So, in the first meeting for our new mayor, who is loved by the tree-hugging UEL bunch, the commission is poised to move the UDB line, one of the things the mayor said he would not do while on campaign, and approve the drilling of 1,000 holes along our shores. Environmentalists are going to scream, even if there is wetland protection funding in a separate item and a fixed bicycle path crossing the Coral Gables waterway on the agenda, too.

Then, the county will vote on issuing $42 million in bonds to pay for paving part of the baseball stadium, which he voted against and also became a pivotal point in his campaign. Add to that another $20 million in debt right off the bat to budget for transit and the $400 anticipated notes (if we spend it now we can't spend it later) for the community projects.

Well, even Ladra knows that transit and community projects need money, it just seems like a lot packed into one meeting and, being a dog, she can't help but wonder if the mayor's former colleagues (who swarmed the mayor and waited in line to embrace him and have their photos taken with him) aren't piling it on the agenda on purpose. "As a former member of the board, I think you're good people," the mayor said, and the audience laughed a little. Maybe some of these items on the agenda are jokes, too. They sure sound funny enough. But too many of them are too real for this to be a coaster.

Ladra has a feeling this first test is not going to be so easy for the new mayor, who better have been pulling an all-nighter studying this agenda after the hoopla of the afternoon. He knows better than anybody else that voters are watching closer than ever, and could pass or fail him as early as in 13 months.

The tiny margin that mattered

The high-priced consultants and image brokers, communicators and veteran political advisers to our new mayor Carlos Gimenez certainly helped him win that narrow victory last week against the one-time front runner with three times the bankroll. But, in the end, despite what some 1A stories may say, the win came down to Hialeah's own team of rabid Robaina refugees who hammered away day in and day out at the discrepancies and dishonesty of their homegrown candidate.

In an election won by fewer than 4,200 votes, they became the tiny margin that mattered. And Ladra takes her hat off to these very real and modern Independence Day heroes.

Using social media on steroids and hounding traditional news outlets with information they often researched on their own, they turned traditional word-of-[bad]mouth into an art as they pressed their point that the city's former mayor, Julio Robaina, was not someone who could be trusted with the county government (neither its public money nor its public workforce), which became the biggest distinction when the candidates started sounding the same on policy issues like taxes and budget cuts and reform.

This tiny margin that mattered is an unlikely cast of characters that includes retired Police Chief Rolando Bolaños, who discovered facebook and used it as "my own newspaper" to post history lessons about Robaina's connections and conflicts of interest; Eric Johnson, a mad-as-Hell firefighter who made it his personal mission to burn down Robaina's political aspirations, one public record at a time; former Councilman (and current council candidate) Alex Morales, who took the time after he was fired by Robaina as director of the Hialeah Housing Authority to put together a dossier on his questionable activities for authorities, reporters, anyone who wanted a good read; the most popular politician ever from Hialeah, former Mayor (and current shoe-in mayoral candidate) Raul Martinez, who came out of hiding and went on Cuban AM radio to try to try to balance out the pro-Robaina slant on most stations; the fearless woman in white, union president Barbara Hernandez, speaking on behalf of scared-stiff city employees who Robaina always sacrificed -- cutting pay and benefits instead of raising taxes -- because they could not vote for him before, but who are county residents who remembered to not vote for him when they got the chance in a county race; the cops who broke rank with the administration that, at least publicly, supported Robaina; Fire Union Prez Mario Pico, who became the Gimenez campaign point man for anyone who wanted to help in Hialeah and who motivated his troops and recruited his own army of a family for a volunteer door-to-door educational campaign to try to stop absentee ballot fraud by assuring elderly voters of their rights; even the impostor "Claudia Fernandez" posing as Robaina's first wife on facebook, and posting a hilarious photographic Who's Who of the former mayor's inner circle that really ought to be published as a coffee table book.

Gimenez himself said his "Hialeah support team" was "obviously" crucial to his campaign.

"They helped me a lot with manpower, with signs," Gimenez told Ladra between photo ops at the victory party Tuesday night. "They had some information about my opponent that obviously helped paint a better picture of who he is because they knew him better than I did," Gimenez said. "He did some things over there that I wouldn't have done."

Moments earlier, the former city of Miami firefighter and chief had locked in a grateful and emotional embrace with Hialeah Fire's VP Johnson, the ATV-riding redneck who breathed, ate and slept his obsession to obliterate Robaina's lead and, really, candidacy for anything ever again. For Johnson, it was the end of a more than yearlong effort that was as much about keeping Robaina out of the county coffers as it was payback. Not for him -- he'll tell you a million times because he forgot if you are one of the people he's told this a million times to -- but for the single mothers who lost their homes and the babies who slept in cars because of deep salary cuts imposed unfairly on the lowest paid workers by his former boss. He says this with such conviction each time and fast blinks back tears in his macho man eyes that you know he's not only reliving the truth, but has given these colleagues whatever help he can. For his crusade, he has cashed in every single favor he's ever had. But his role, from Ladra's viewpoint, was pivotal. In addition to being one of Ladra's alleged "handlers," Johnson must have had his hands all over Jim Defede and Enrique Flor and Jay Weaver and Laura Isensee and Frank Alvarado and every other reporter and blogger that he hounded with information and documents he went to the trouble of getting and copying himself. You know, reporters are thinned out these days. He can take credit for most if not all of the "negative" (read: the ugly truth) stories that came out about Robaina's misdeeds in the Miami Herald, El Nuevo Herald and all the television channels. But he doesn't ever. He told Ladra recently that he never wanted credit, just success. Which he got.

"They say democracy dies in the shadow of darkness and we just turned the lights on," Johnson said, though I am sure he ended it with "baby" or "boo-yah" or something cocky like that as redneck firefighters who feel vindicated might say.

More than simply turning on that light switch, however, these Hialeah heroes followed Robaina's campaign with a magnified spotlight, spreading questions and concerns like wildfire over dry Everglades in a controlled blaze.

Robaina knows that these thorns in his side could very well account for every single one of the 4,108 votes he was defeated by last week, only months after he was elected with a five point lead. If he had lost by those same five points, or 10 points as polls suggested, it might not have hurt as much as it likely still stings today that his machinery couldn't beat the tiny margin that mattered.

I know one former police chief, one pissed-off firefighter, one lady in white and a couple of others who might smile when they read that.

Gimenez officially mayor Friday

In a quick and private, informal ceremony, Carlos Gimenez is expected to be sworn in this afternoon in front of his wife, his parents, his mother-in-law, his sister-in-law -- all the retirees, essentially -- and Judge Ivan Fernandez, who will administer the oath and make him the mayor.

Photographed here at his victory party with his entire family behind him Tuesday, Gimenez will surely miss his children's presence. Carlos Gimenez, Jr., his wife Tania, the mayor's daughter Luli Gato and her husband Danny and his daughter-in-law Barbie have been by his side throughout the campaign. But most of them have to work today and can't make the event.

The mayor himself has already been at work since Wednesday, the day after he narrowly defeated former Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina for the Miami-Dade mayor's seat. He has 15 days to prepare next year's budget for commission review. But since he is not really officially in charge until the canvassing board certifies the election and a judge makes him swear on a bible to take care of us, he can't really tell his minions what to do. County Manager Alina Hudak and others have been sharing information with him because, well, they know he is going to be their boss eventually. It makes sense to get on his good side. He already told Hudak that he wants to cut the mayor's salary and benefits by half and get as close to 25 departments, from 50, as possible (though we don't know if he can do that in two weeks). He is also looking at recommending other cuts, like the car allowance for commissioners, which he may just lower to $400 or $500, and offer more credit if the car is a hybrid. He has said he wants to roll back the "Alvarez tax" hike. In fact, the swearing in is scheduled for tomorrow right before a staff meeting where he is expected to ask top administrators to provide him with multiple budget scenarios, recommending 10 to 20 percent reductions.

In fact, that's why he's in a hurry to get sworn in. There is a meeting scheduled with department heads at 2 p.m. tomorrow -- but it may get pushed back or rescheduled if the canvassing board does not certify the results by noon so he can be sworn in at 1 p.m. Because he can't spend county resources, he can't give directives, he can't really negotiate with the 10 different labor unions, until he is mayor. (Photographed here at the victory party with some county cops, he told them that their bargaining would be easier than what he expects with the firefighters union). And if there is anything that is consistent about Gimenez, the nerdy, by-the-book, policy wonk, Richie Cunningham type, he does not break the rules.

The privacy of the event in the mayor's conference room is because a more formal and public swearing will be scheduled next week. Most likely on Wednesday. Most likely in commission chambers. And the mayor wants this to be an in-and-out thing. He has a meeting at 2 p.m. to go to and he really just wants to get to work. It is expected to last 10 minutes or less. And nobody else -- not any of his friends who helped elect him, no special interest supporters, not even his children, who have to be at work at the time, will attend this historic moment. Ladra feels bad about that. But at least the media -- which was invited at the last minute in a press release sent out by the mayor's transition team -- can capture the moment.

Gimenez planned the earlier swearing-in, however, for all the right reasons. He has two weeks to present his lean-as-promised budget and he wants to spend the better part of the day on Saturday working on just that. This mayor is not about the pomp and circumstance of a full blown affair like the kind last month enjoyed by newly minted commissioners Esteban Bovo and Xavier Suarez, who apparently enjoyed the partylike atmosphere. Gimenez would rather avoid the bigger ceremony -- except that the public is expecting it -- because he just wants to focus on the job at hand.

And that is exactly why we elected him.

'Neutral' activist worked for mayor

The chairwoman of the Miami Voice recall PAC, Vanessa Brito, has repeatedly said she was going to stay neutral in the mayoral race and has been made a media darling -- including a Best Local Activist nod from New Times, which apparently does not vet its best candidates -- for her role (read: paid Norman Braman campaign coordinator) in the historic recall.

But Brito has been working on the campaign for our mayor elect, Carlos Gimenez, for the past few weeks, at least. Maybe longer. Perhaps New Times should have named her Best Professional Activist. Here she is hiding from my camera at the Gimenez victory party, although she jumps at every other media exposure opportunity and even creates them when she can.

Not only did Alex Diaz de la Portilla tell me himself, between insults on Tuesday, that Brito was working with him on some of his campaign tasks -- which we know includes advertising and the absentee ballot drive, and I will bet on the latter -- but a Hialeah firefighter also told me, unwittingly, that he took some financial report from the city to her house (we assume he got permission from Gimenez campaign people) so she could have the "PAC attorney" look them over and see if there was some mismanagement they could attack on. As far as Ladra knows, the PAC attorney is Miami Lakes Mayor Michael "Muscles" Pizzi, whose own town overwhelmingly voted for former Hialeah mayor Julio Robaina, who was narrowly defeated in the mayoral runoff Tuesday. But why would they need Muscles's help with that? Maybe it was supposed to be "PAC accountant." Although, really, anybody with a basic grasp of math can see that there are discrepancies and not a lot of transparency with Hialeah's finances. People have asked questions already and I expect the next city council meeting to be fun. (I'll be in the back row). Anyway, I called Vanessa and left her a message about her getting the financial reports and why she was working for the mayor when she said she was going to stay out of it. She never called me back. But she immediately called the firefighter, because she knew where I had gotten the information, and I was sitting next to him when the call came in on his cellphone.

And while Brito denies being the one behind the emails sent by vb@speakupmiami.us -- who began to praise the Political Cortadito once Ladra started sniffing around this subject, but thanks anyway -- and truthabout@8milliondollarmayor.org and rescuemiami@rescuemiami.info and ben@rescuemiami.info, the IP addresses for all four of those emails come back to the same IP address as brito@miamivoice.org and brito@myamimarketing.com. Let's repeat that: All six emails have the same IP address, which come from the same domain client or host server. And even the emails from Hugo and Ralph Arza, who were working for Robaina, come from the same IP address. Weird, huh? (More on that a little further down) It could even mean they come from the same computer or network of computers at the same physical address. But it could also mean that the same client at go daddy owns the domains or the same host server hosts all those domains and emails. It could be that one consultant opened all those domains for her and also opened the Arza domain. But we don't know because she won't discuss it.

We do know that social media and email blasts are one of Brito's specialties and a staple of her campaign strategies. Despite several replies to these emails, asking these people to come forth, only one email has been returned. I asked the speakupmiami writer -- who began the first missives citing the Miami Voice voter guide -- to please call me so we could establish it was really an independent group, not just another pseudonym for the same old people (like the PACs are). In the reply, the writer cited the movie Inception and said,"If you've seen inception then you'll understand that I although I cannot call you will have to take a leap of faith."

Later, when I insisted, the writer added more: "Look my name is Victor, I haven't been out of college too long, but was really interested in investigative journalism. One of the reasons I follow you is because I thought your questions and writing were right on the mark. A friend of mine got me involved with all this as he brought up politics in the city and county I realized how bad things were and could get. I've just been following the campaigns since the recall but things have gotten too hot I think. I am humbly stepping away but stay in touch," it said. Ladra pressed, and explained the IP discrepancy. "That I have no idea about, I do not work in computer technology or anything I don't know how that works, and I said I was interested in investigative journalism, I am new and do not know much." Ladra pressed again, asking for just 60 seconds by phone. If I could hear Victor's voice, that would certainly go a long way toward easing doubts. His answer: "I'm a little busy right now but if you give me a little bit I will try to give you a call."

That call never came. Subsequent attempts to reach "Victor" have been met with no answer.

Brito did not respond to a telephone message left on her voice mail. She did reply to an email request. "That's absolutely not true. I don't know who those people are and in fact, contacted them about the initials. You can post anything you want. If you haven't contacted the people who own the site, then you're not doing your job. I will ask you once more not to contact me again." But I did. I have to try harder. "You should have a tech help you out with IP research. I will not have anything to do with false accusations regarding this. I am asking, once again, that you do not contact me again - for this or any other issue."

I did try her again today, just before I posted this. I had tried her yesterday, too. But she does not want to -- or cannot -- explain this seeming conflict of interest.

She sent me (under the subject line "good research") the registration of speakupmiami.us to a Tallahassee address who is also behind rescuemiami.org, another pro-Gimenez group. Ladra was thinking the same thing: Flow chart! But it proves nothing because, as everone knows, you can have a registered agent hundreds of miles away and still be sending emails from the computer in your home, which is what the IP address footprint may indicate. At least, according to people who know far more about this than me. I did get tech help. And according to all the forensic computer and people with dedicated host servers, the dedicated server that hosts the Miami Voice email also hosts the other groups. And also hosts emails that come from Hugo and Ralph Arza at ralpharza.com. So all those emails are being routed through the same internet client.

It makes sense that Brito would want to join a winning mayoral campaign, and get a bite at a piece of it so she can later claim credit. Photographed here at the Gimenez victory party, where the self-promoting opportunist got herself a soundbite on WSVN Channel 7, Brito is also a political consultant with a marketing firm and while she has repeatedly insisted that the two hats are separate there seem to be blurry lines. But Ladra can't help but wonder if she worked both sides. The Arza email connection is one weird thing. And then there's this little "Twilight Zone" moment: The Miami Lakes office used as campaign HQ by former candidate Roosevelt Bradley, widely considered a Robaina plant who later endorsed the Hialeah pick, was also listed as the address of a political consultant with an inactive corporate name paid by North Miami Councilman Scott Galvin in his Congressional bid, on which Brito worked last year, and whose expense report has other vendors with inactive corporations or nonexisting addresses (more on later).

All of this might be explained of course. I believe in giving one the benefit of the doubt. But Brito will not give an explanation or even talk about any of these things. And that gives the doubt more benefit.

Meanwhile, the "neutral" Miami Voice chaired by a political consultant did give out one endorsement -- to Sweetwater Mayor Manny Maroño's chief of staff Francisco Lago, a buddy of Brito's from her FIU days, in his unsuccessful bid for the state rep seat vacated by the new Miami-Dade district 13 Commissioner Esteban Bovo, who decidedly won the seat of former Commissioner Natasha Seijas Millan, who was the only one of five targetted commissioners that Brito's efforts -- which she admits were paid for by Norman Braman -- was able to oust. (That's success?) Anyway, Lago's latest campaign finance reports do not show direct payments to her (the final one is not in yet, though), but she could have gotten the trickle effect of the $102,000 or so paid by Lago through Sasha Tirador, who also worked on Robaina's campaign with David Custin. Both Tirador and Custin also worked for Braman on the recall, with Brito.

It's all just too close for comfort. But this business is terribly incestuous. Yesterday's enemies are working on campaigns together today. Take the case of Emiliano Nuñez, a direct mail specialist who was paid more than $3,500 by the Robaina campaign before the primary and then got hired by the Gimenez PAC, Common Sense Now, and made another $5,815 after Robaina's people did not rehire him for the runoff (maybe that was their mistake). Nuñez told me himself that he will work for whoever hires him, which may leave a bit to be desired, but it's honest.

Brito, on the other hand, is fooling the public by saying she is neutral when she is stumping for one of the candidates. And I cannot imagine she is doing it for free, but that shouldn't matter.

This hypocrisy is something that our new mayor needs to distance himself from. He should know better, after he was already burned by her once, when she did the press release and radio spot against Gimenez for the Accountability Project.

And he should distance himself from her if he wants to continue to be known as honest and transparent. Because she is all about smoke and mirrors.

AB vote split is good for Gimenez

The absentee ballot count in the Miami-Dade mayoral race is in and the split is almost 50/50 -- which bodes very well for former county commissioner Carlos Gimenez.

Ladra is going to predict now that Mayor Gimenez wins by more than five points.

Former Hialeah mayor Julio Robaina, and his expensive absenteel ballot machinery, had whooped Gimenez in AB votes during the May 24 primary, 3 to 2. Robaina had about 9,000 votes more and started the race with a 41 percent of the vote to Gimenez 28 percent.

But this 50.44 percent lead for Robaina is so tiny it's the best thing Ladra has heard all day. And I am not alone. Pollsters Fernand Armandi and Dario Moreno had told me (and everybody else who would listen) that Robaina needed a strong AB lead to win. His own people know this and I bet Julito is sweating it right now like he was at that Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce event weeks ago, bullets dripping down his long-sleeved token guayabera shirt.

Gimenez is expected to take both the early voting and the Election Day precinct voting, so that tiny half point lead should be gone very soon.

Stay tuned, people.

Two hours more hours to vote

The biggest problem in the Carlos Gimenez mayoral campaign came right before noon today: rain.

The wet weather is expected to affect the small "rush" of voters who typically go to their Election Day precincts to vote. And turnout has never been more important in a race than it is today. Of course it's desireable to have a high number (read: 30 or 40 percent) of the registered voters come out for any race, let alone a mid-summer county mayoral election resulting from a recall in which 17 percent of the electorate participated.

But in this contest, the saying "every vote counts" has never meant more.

Former Hialeah mayor Julio Robaina, who has somewhere around $3 million or more to spend and bought himself a powerful absentee ballot machine, can only benefit from low turnout. Especially since there has been higher turnout in his stronghold: About 5,000 more absentee ballots -- where Robaina decidedly won -- were castffor this runoff than on May 24 (10,000 more votes cast in total). Robaina decidedly beat him in the AB votes (of course, he has the tried and true queen consultant of ABs, Sasha Tirador, who has made billed more than six figures already in this contest, we can add the other races up later) 3 to 2 practically, with 9,000 more than Gimenez. And Gimenez -- who is now on top of the polls, where Robaina was before May24 -- only beat him by a margin of less than 500 votes in the early voting period. But maybe he will have a wider margin in that extra 5,000 EV ballots.

Still, precinct voting is key to both the Gimenez campaign, which hopes it is high, and the Robaina campaign, which hopes it is low. Both campaigns have reported optimistic support. But the elections department has no turnout numbers until the votes are all in.

It is up to the voters to make one of these candidates' day, rain or shine.

Radio to retract race reprimands

Univision Radio is going to have to eat some cuervo on Election Day. And front-running candidate Carlos Gimenez couldn't buy better advertising.

After being accused of having a slant for Julio Robaina, the station will have to admit that two of it's veteran talkers, Oscar Haza and Roberto Rodriguez-Tejera, basically lied live on their programs on Monday -- the day before this important mayoral race -- when they aired their needless disgust for the other candidate over a commercial that questioned the integrity of some reporters, an ad that never existed. (Note to teachers: Excellent example of irony).

Admittedly feeling a little vindicated after her own run-in with one of these radio personalities, Ladra can't wait to hear the retractions that will reportedly be aired tomorrow during both the Haza show in the morning (starts at 8 a.m.) and the Rodriguez-Tejera show in the afternoon (4 to 6 p.m.). But, while it's at least an admission from the station -- widely regarded as Robainaland -- that the men lied or misspoke or whatever spin they may put on it, a taped retraction in some woman's apologetic corporate voice as the extent of any apology for having slandered Gimenez -- deliberately or unintentionally misleading voters -- is not enough. Especially after the Robaina campaign has already used the non existing radio spot in his own ad heard on Radio Mambi Monday night (and when was that commercial produced? Could Robaina have been flagged to it before the talent spoke of it on the air?).

These two men used their own voice and their own airtime and whatever credibility they have with the important viejito voting block to slander a career public servant who is so painfully squeaky clean that the other campaign continuously makes up faux dirt that fails to stick. No, it is only fitting that these two self-descried "journalists" devote some of their own airtime to either admit they are or tell us why they are not, at the very least, predisposed against Gimenez. Haza, in particular, should spend 13 minutes on the subject. That is about how long he dramatically went on and on and on Monday about how offended he was by this commercial that questioned the integrity of some Cuban AM radio talk jockeys who call themselves journalists and have been unquestionably biased in this and other campaigns (not open minded, equal opportunity political harassers like, ahem, well). Haza went so far as to ask Gimenez publicly to retire it from the air. Problem is, it was never on the air. It was not produced by the campaign, approved by the campaign, paid for by the campaign, placed on paid airtime by the campaign. That commercial was produced by one of multiple part time consultants or a volunteer (depending on whose talking to Ladra) on the campaign (someone who is likely fired by now), without the prior knowledge or approval of the candidate or the campaign manager (Are you crazy? Because they are not). In fact, the first time they heard about the ad was after Haza -- who also had a debate on his TV show last week and said Gimenez bailed when he knew the former commissioner was not doing debates and had declined -- talked about it in his morning show. "We didn't know anything about it until today, until it was on the radio," said campaign manager JC Flores, adding that a "statement" by Univision Radio would make it clear that the ad was never paid for or, as the disclaimer says, "approved" by the Carlos Gimenez campaign. People close to the campaign and inside the station on Southwest 8th Street told Ladra similar stories. Basically, someone -- either an unappreciated member of the multi-consultant team or an overzealous volunteer -- produced the piece on their own to impress the future mayor and his kingmakers. But the promo got pinched before the protege could pitch it. Somehow, the piece got turned over to "talent" (Univision Radio's word, note they don't use "journalists") to make into a campaign issue on the eve of the election. Rodriguez-Tejera reportedly said on his show that he "heard" (this is how they do it, folks) Gimenez was in the studio Friday recording the piece. I didn't hear that first hand but I understand that is why the retraction will be aired on his show as well. But it was not true. Gimenez was not there on Friday.

I did hear Haza's dramatic speech, though. Because I was flagged to it on the internet by Chuny Montaner, the web content producer for Univision Radio, who did not return a call (no message because her voice mail was full, la pobre) or a text message. She apparently sent a mass email with a link to a clip from Haza's show on their website, but it's gone now. (And she should now send another mass email explaining it was a mistake, not just an email to "recall the email," which is also not enough.) On the website, before they took it off, it was titled "Haza asks Gimenez to retire promo" -- a promo that never saw a working day in its life? It never aired or was even known to the campaign to exist. And Haza's piece sounded like a Robaina endorsement. I called Haza, then texted him before I called him again. I think he may have thought it was someone else before I introduced myself. He said he remembered me (I've been on his show a few times for some U.S.-Cuba policy issue or another) and then I asked him when was it that he had heard this commercial that he was so outraged about on the air.

"Hello? Hello?" The call seems to have been disconnected. Maybe his battery died. All I know is I called back and left a message for him to call me back at any time. Maybe he will in the morning. Or he can just explain on the air how he had come to the conclusion that the commercial aired, who had given it to him, if he indeed heard it, and with what motivation, and how he might avoid doing that again.

But the conversation shouldn't end there. As a community, we need to have more dialogue with the owners, producers and "talent" at Univision Radio, the supernova of Cuban AM talk radio, about what seems like a longtime image -- real or perceived -- of their stations as slanted sanctuaries of slander-for-sale. Yeah, that's right: I went there. Again. This is not new territory, people. Please don't anybody feign surprise or offense at this suggestion. This perception is out there and has been for decades. I'm just talking about it openly. It doesn't help that Rodriguez-Tejera devotes six shows to attacking Gimenez on a robocall that only 1 percent of the population heard and hasn't spent one minute on the attack ads against Gimenez paid for by a PBA-funded PAC. It doesn't help when someone who sounds like a veteran radio personality does robocalls for Robaina and uses the easily-identifyable signature theme music in the soundtrack. Campaign finance reports show tens of thousands of dollars paid to political consultants (in addition to line items for production and airtime on TV and radio) for what many political insiders admit are payoffs to on-air personalities and their handlers at the stations. In fact, there is one veteran program host whose nickname on Political Street is "Tres Lucas" because his going rate is $3,000 a show (and Luca is Cuban slang for $1,000).

There are people reading this blog who know exactly what and who I am talking about. And there are people at Univision Radio who know that this perception exists. If they do nothing to address it, they basically allow it to grow and give their talent license to make it a reality.

If none of this is true, the perception still needs to be discussed in the open so that the rampant rumors are put to rest and the community assured. If the perception is even the tiniest bit real, then it's time for a frank discussion about saving Cuban radio from itself.

Regardless, this is a topic -- the influence of Cuban radio on elections and public opinion and the extent of any bias, real or perceived, within -- that needs further discussion. And I invite -- no, dare is a better word -- the powers that be at Univision to dedicate a post-election show on the matter.