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.

Another cool $1 mil in mayoral race

The campaign finance reports were finally posted online by the elections department late Monday afternoon and it shows that at least another cool million was raised between both candidates in the heated Miami-Dade mayoral race.

Julio Robaina is up to $1.7 million, raising $400,000 in the last three weeks. Former county commissioner Carlos Gimenez is not too far behind with almost $300,000 more to get to just over $900,000 in his campaign account. The PACs all got more money, too, including another $360,000 for Gimenez's Common Sense Now, which is at $1 million.

More on the money later, after I've had a chance to read over the reports. Still coming, maybe after Tuesday: How rich did the consultants get?

Uncle Luke: His man buys ballots

When the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office questions Luther Campbell about his endorement-for-a-favor , they should ask him what he knows about Julio Robaina's absentee ballot operation.

Uncle Luke, who came in fourth in the May 24 primary and later endorsed Robaina because Carlos Gimenez would not give his friend a job, went on twitter today and tweeted his man out. He was trying to slam the Miami Herald's Sunday story about absentee ballot brokering, but he ended up slamming his own candidate, too.

"This paper is so one sided its a shame the two of them use brokers not one. Election in Miami if you have the money you can pay for votes. I'm the only one that didn't pay a broker," Campbell posted on his twitter account, unclelukereal1, around 8 a.m. today. Gimenez has told Ladra that he does not have a broker and his campaign finance reports do not show any of the known "baloteros" on his staff, while Robaina's PACs are, indeed, paying the queen of the absentee ballot machine, Sasha Tirador.

Last week, Campbell (photographed here with me at the first Miami Foundation forum at UM) spelled his candidate's name wrong and said "Voting Robaino for good reasons he's the only on that cares about black people. You have to care about all people to be the Mayor."

It's RobainA with an A, Luke (I know, all our names sound alike). He's not going to like that you misspelled his name on your status update. And the charge that he is the only one who cares about your community is sorta ludicrous (I know, that's another rapper) in light of the support he has gotten from other black community and political leaders. Or do they not count? Only Uncle Luke's black community matters? Not any of the other people quoted here or in other media outlets.

As far as your assessment that Ladra (what do you mean I was your girl #2 to JR #1?) threw you under the bus, that is not true. "You ran the bus over me. Frank [Alvarado] told me," you responded to me on twitter. Luke, read my blog, don't let your colleauges tell you what I write. I never said you did anything wrong. Like I told you over the phone, before the signal died and the call dropped and you decided not to answer the phone again: You were doing what you could to ensure that your candidacy had some lasting legacy. It is admirable. Naive, but admirable. Robaina, however, may have done something wrong.

Ladra liked you before the primary because you had some great ideas and I thought you spoke straight. Your thoughts on transparency and the dual billing/insurance system at Jackson Memorial Hospital are topics that need further discussion and review. I hope Mayor Gimenez will follow up on those things.

Even your last-minute switch in your endorsement, and the (videotaped) admissions that followed about some sort of quid pro quo showed nothing more than a naive community leader trying to do something right, to save something out of and battling with his own personal feelings to do so.

The only thing I didn't like, still don't, is that you didn't stick to the truth.

Like I told you over the phone, Uncle Luke: You have nothing to hide or fear or be ashamed of. What you did was try to get someone you trusted into county hall after your shot was blown. Someone to watch over the things you care about, like the CRAs.

Luke told me that both men simply agreed to consider his recommendations. But that's not what he said on tape. He said we could review the video together, the unedited version that Frank still has. Frank said he would get it to me tomorrow.

I'll bring the popcorn.

EV + AB = 117,000 votes so far

Almost 40,000 early voters cast ballots in the county mayoral race, about 5,000 more than those who went to the early voting sites in the May 24 election.

Like the 77,500 absentee ballots, the majority of which Ladra thinks will still go to the machinery paid for by former Hialeah mayor Julio Robaina (though with a smaller margin than on May 24), the EV ballots could also go to the better bankrolled candidate, who reportedly had busloads of voters driven to the West Dade Regional Library on Coral Way and other sites. Numbers are high in each of the candidate's strongholds, but Ladra's informal exit poll Saturday of 160 voters shows that Robaina takes a small lead in the early voting statistics. At West Dade Regional, 100 voters were split 55 to 45 in favor of Robaina over former county commissioner Carlos Gimenez. And the JFK library in Hialeah was a little more than 2 to 1 for the heralded homeboy. Gimenez blew him away, however, 3 to 1, at the Coral Gables library. We chose those three top vote banks because they have consistently been the number 1, 2 and 3 early voting sites throughout this race and ended up again on Saturday, accounting for a third of the 39,691. Each of the three visited also got between 600 and nearly 1,000 more votes than on May 24, a likely result of stepped up efforts by both campaigns.

Voters who chose Robaina told me that they were fed up with the establishment and wanted to hold the line on taxes. "As a homeowner, that is important to me," said one woman who voted in Coral Gables. Roman Ayala, 70, voted for Robaina at West Dade Regional "because he is closer to the Cuban cause than Gimenez is. At least in my view," he said. Meanwhile, Gimenez voters seemed closer to Earth. "I've met him and talked to him and I agree with his policies and positions," said David Miller, 80, who is retired after having owned a clothing manufacturing business -- in Hialeah. "He is an honest man, approachable." Nurse Elizabeth Rodriguez, 45, said Gimenez had more experience and more integrity (her words). "I like his track record, his background, and how much he has done for the community."

Most of the Robaina voters did not want to talk about their reasons. Gimenez voters were only to happy to share. Likewise, Robaina (who got in a Buick SUV and was driven away as soon as I arrived at the JFK library in the afternoon) declined to chat with Ladra during two stops (yes, I asked twice) at the West Dade Regional library. I even told him I wanted to share the good news from the informal exit poll, but he just shook his head from 15 feet away. He won't even let me get near him (thus why he is so far away in the photo), walking away at a rapid clip and even in zig-zag to get rid of me. And my parents were afraid he would confront me. (No, I don't think I need any bodyguards, Candela writer, but thanks for the offer). Gimenez, on the other hand, greeted me at the Hialeah library and let me tag along as he spoke to voters. He posed for photos. I asked him about party involvement in this nonpartisan race (more on that later), something I did want to ask Robaina about but he never gives me the opportunity. He answered me. And they were fresh and spontaneous answers, not practiced and off point. I asked him about that infamous anti-Hialeah robocall, which he continued to say he had nothing to do with and that he would fire anyone working for him that was tied to it. I asked him for his take on early voting and he said he felt confident. He looked relaxed and carefree -- like a man without federal authorities breathing down his neck, a man with nothing to fear or hide. He's said he is "good with whatever happens." Bet Robaina is not. And I'm not judging him because I sure as hell am not good with whatever happens. I told Gimenez that I hoped I did not have to move out of the country after June 28. He said, very confidently, that I could stay put. "Other people might have to move out of the country," he said, laughing, relaxed and feeling good.

Maybe for good reason. The Bendixen Amandi poll shows that Gimenez's chances of being our next mayor increase with the voter turnout. Robaina's support base may be deeper (read: more motivated) but Gimenez's is wider. And so far, we have 117,000 votes cast, more than the 107,000 early and absentee ballots in the May 24 primary. If the trend holds out and we get another 10,000 extra votes, that could be a very good thing for Gimenez , indeed. That's the magic number in his email to supporters as well. He asks everyone to get 10 people to vote and I know volunteers have been asked to help on phone banks Sunday and Monday to make it happen.

Because EV and AB votes may hold the expected lead for Robaina, however narrowed by the Gimenez campaign's concerted efforts, but election day votes are what will take Mayor Gimenez to his righful place at County Hall.

AB machine has "turbo" in Hialeah

More absentee voters have cast ballots in the June 28 mayoral runoff than in the May 24 primary already, with six days left for people to return them.

As of today, the Miami-Dade Elections Department reports that 75,471 absentee ballots returned of the 126,980 requested. That's almost 60 percent. And it could top 80,000 by Election Day.

That may be a bad omen for former county commissioner Carlos Gimenez because former Hialeah mayor Julio Robaina got one and a half times the AB votes in the May 24 primary and has a far more sophisticated absentee ballot machine -- and the far more experienced Sasha Tirador, AB queen of Hialeah -- working on his side.

Tirador has been the target of several election fraud investigations but has never been charged with a crime. Last year, the state attorney's public corruption office closed an investigation -- after two years -- into absentee ballot fraud in the U.S. Congress District 21 campaign of Lincoln Diaz-Balart, who also had Tirador on his AB team and who has mailed out an endorsement ad for Robaina.

While the circumstances provie amble basis forsuspicion of illegal or improper activity in connection with the handling of absentee ballots by someone associated with the Diaz-Balart campaign, any chance of proving a crime is remote," wrote Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Joseph Centorino, in the close-out memo.

Among the findings were two ballots that were apparently tampered with seemed to have originally been marked for former Hialeah mayor Raul Martinez but changed for Diaz-Balart. In the investigation, it also says someone named Carlos Hernandez (could it be the mayor? then a councilman) admitted to picking up ballots under the name Juan (he said five or six campaign workers were told to use the name Juan) and that he gave them to Tirador. Neither Tirador nor David Custin, another consultant working for Robaina who was a subject of that 2008 investigation, would voluntaily agree to give a sworn statement in the investigation.

Centorino told Ladra that it is frustrating because, while Hernandez admitted to picking up ballots (and we hear the new mayor and council members are picking up ballots in this race also), the law that prohibits people from carrying more than two ballots at a time has no penalty attached to it. He says the legislature also made prosecution of absentee ballot "brokering" more difficult when it took out the requirement of having a witness sign the envelope. Their thinking was that the elections department does not confirm the witness signature so it was not necessary. But while it was not a good tool for the elections department, it was a great tool for prosecutors who could find "witnesses" to question if the signed hundreds of envelopes.

"Do we believe that there is absentee ballot fraud happening? Absolutely," Centorino told Ladra over the telephone some days ago. "Can we prove it? That's another matter."

He's heard the stories about people who are told at voting sites that they already voted absentee even though they say they didn't. "We'll ask them, 'Is that your signature?' And they will say no. Then we ask them, 'Who's signature is it?' But they won't know. Then the investigation dies."

Well, Ladra loves transparency and justice and will provide the SAO and the Miami-Dade Police public corruption unit (which we understand are working with the FDLE on this very thing) a helping hand. Some of the people they might want to talk to include these folks:

Maria Bustamante of Kendall has already filed a complaint with police. She voted in person at her precinct. Imagine her surprise when she got a letter from the elections department the next day about an absentee ballot she never requested. It said her request was invalid because her signature did not match the one on file. She never votes absentee, she told Ladra, and never requested that absentee ballot. So somebody requested it on her behalf. Most likely, someone with one of the campaigns, which often dedicate thousands of dollars to absentee ballot drives that have increasingly become important in races.

But while there is likely some absentee ballot fraud going on countywide, it is concentrated in two main areas, Little Havana and Hialeah, according to noted pollster Dario Moreno, who says that "only about 20%" of the ABs ballots in any given election can be manipulated in one way or another. He is working with Gimenez, and sources close to that campaign tell us that their AB return rate is pretty good in the Hispanic Miami enclaves of commission district 7. In many cases, it is simply a matter of going out to public housing buildings and talking with voters, asking them or convincing them to vote for your candidate, or filling out the ballots for them. In the most egregious cases, they can take ballots from mailboxes and open them with wax paper and irons, checking the candidates marked and either changing the bubble marked if they can or shredding the ballots if they can't.

And if past history and the numbers from the May 24 election -- where some Hialeah precincts got 30 percent turnout buoyed by hundreds of absentee ballots, compared to dozens or less in other precincts -- the City of Progress is also the City of Proxies. The formula is there. Lots of elderly voters and access to them through the Hialeah Housing Authority and city's public housing units, which add up to close to 3,500 residents. And everybody talks about it like it's common knowledge.

An educational campaign by the firefighters union and media coverage on the absentee ballot concerns have some voters changing the way they do things. Some told Ladra they would not let anybody carry their ballots for them. But many are still being hoodwinked.

Eida Ramirez got the call from her flustered sister in an adjacent apartment one recent afternoon. "There was a woman there asking for her ballot. She didn't know what to do," Ramirez said. By the time Eida arrived, the woman -- "she was well dressed, elegant, thin, young" -- was inside at the dining room table, helping Bedelia Ramirez fill out her ballot. Eida thought it strange and was glad she had already filled out hers when the woman offered assitance. But she didn't hesitate when the woman offered to deliver the ballots. Both sisters, who live in a Hialeah Housing Authority building, turned their ballots over to the unknown woman.

"Was it sealed," Ladra asked. "No. At least I didn't seal it," said the elder sister, who lives in a Hialeah Housing Authority building where she has also seen ballots collected at the comedor. "They come, all the politicos, and they bring little prizes and gifts."

Ladra didn't have the heart to tell them but the Ramirez sisters have a 50/50 chance of having their vote count. Because if they went with the elegant woman's candidate, it will get to the elections department. If they went with the other guy, it probably won't. It may end up in the trash or the back seat of someone's car.

Neryda Gonzalez said she gave her ballot to Elena, the secretary of the condominium association at Los Arboles in West Hialeah. She always gives Elena her ballot. So do all her neighbors. "She does it every year. She doesn't live here but she works here and she is involved in the campaigns every year.Everybody gives her their vote," Gonzalez told Ladra. Elena Alfonso answered the phone at the condominium office. When I asked if she was the one who was taking the absentee ballots, she said yes. When I asked if she would accept them from another building, from another condominium, if someone brought them to her, she said yes. "Of course." When I asked her what she did with them, where she took them from there, she got suspicious and asked who I was. When I told her I was a journalist and blogger writing about absentee ballot fraud, she said she put a stamp on them and put them in the mail. "To help the old people that live in this building," she said, adding that she has been doing that since she started working there four or five years ago. When I reminded her that she agreed to take ballots from an unknown caller from another property, she said she did not understand me. "The viejitos come to me all the time to fax things, to fill out the discount forms for FP&L," Alfonso said. "I'm just helping them again."

Luis Martinez said someone showed up at his door with some kind of identification badge and a clip board, looking very official, like from a county department. "He had my absentee ballot with my name and everything and my mother's. But it was already filled out with the candidates chosen also and all he asked me to do was sign. I ripped it up." Ladra told him to keep the ballot should someone come by before June 28. And to call 911.

Ramona Cabrera is one of several residents at a building on West 46th Street who said Mayor Carlos Hernandez (maybe it was him from the 2008 investigation?) came personally to pick up her ballot. She said someone first called her from the city and asked if she had gotten her ballot in the mail. She told them she had and had already filled it out and was getting ready to put it in the mail. "No! Don't do that," she said they told her very excitedly. "We'll come get it and put a stamp on it." But she already put a stamp on it, she told them. "We're going to be there anyway, we can pick it up and take it to the mailbox for you."

She said that within the hour, a man who identified himself as Carlos and who she knew as the mayor, was at the door with two other city workers, picking up her ballot. A neighbor at her home at the time gave them her ballot, too.

Ladra is still out walking in Hialeah talking to more voters. I mean 2,334 absentee ballots were sent out just this week: 408 on Monday, 1,058 on Tuesday, 368 on Wednesday and 608 today.

Evidence that the absentee ballot machine is in overdrive.

Robaina reaching $2.5 million mark

When all is said and done, the two final candidates in the county mayoral race will have spent more than $3 million between them to get out the vote.

Julio Robaina has raised more than $2 million and maybe close to $2.5 million so far in his bid to become the next Miami-Dade Mayor -- almost twice as much as former county commissioner Carlos Gimenez, his opponent, who has raised $1.3 million between his campaign account and his own PAC.

The former Hialeah mayor has reported $1.33 million in his own campaign account as of June 3, much of it in bundled maximum contributions from business partners and special interests (more on that later, it is a lot of math to do and business names to search).

But there are also six different political action committees working on his behalf. While Robaina's name is not on any of them, the supporters are the same as the ones who support his campaign (maquinita license holders, Jorge Arizurrieta, Sergio Pino) and the consultants that are being paid are all his consultants as well. Ladra has written about one of the PACs, the Truth for Our Community PAC, which is chaired by Hialeah Housing Authority Director Julio Ponce at the same Miami Lakes complex where Robaina and his business partners have their offices. Ponce was appointed by the mayor and was just given a $125,000 a year salary as well as a $900 car allowance.

Truth for Our Community has been around for years but since January has spent $13,000 on advertising and Hugo Arza, the attorney and consultant working for Robaina. They have since raised another $80,000, including $5,000 from Sergio Pino. So that's likely being spent now. A second PAC, associated with the same address, the same contriubutors and the same consultants, is Informing Our Communities: The Truth, which got in-kind donations of billboard advertisement and artwork totalling more than $16,000. Who provided it? Someone named Luis Robaina.

We also are familiar already with The Accountability Project, which is the misnomer of the year. Keith Donner's PAC is responsible for a $90,000 attack campaign against mayoral candidate Carlos Gimenez (they also led the attack ads against Coral Gables Commission candidate Brad Rosenblatt last April. Accountable indeed). A fourth PAC, called Citizens First has spent about $370,000 on, again, the same consultants (Ana Carbonell, Freddy Balsera, Julio Gonzalez-Rebull) and getting their funds from the same sources. More than $300,000 of that hascome from...

The biggest is our fifth PAC. Ladies and gentlemen, out of Tampa, we bring you Citizens to Reclaim Miami-Dade County Government (even though the expense reports call itDad County Citizens to Reclaim Government). You know how Robaina's people are with typos on their company names. Remember 172@Kendall?). They have raised a whopping $663,500 and spent $422 so far, mostly on the Robaina campaign. That means they are spending the other $240,000 (plus whatever they raise in this final stretch) to spend before the runoff. The director of that PAC is a man named Adriel Miguel Sanchez, who has an address in Hialeah and a business named Joint of Alberto that is not registered in Florida Corporations. But he also has addresses in Las Vegas and Orange County, CA. Ladra can't help but wonder if he's in the casino business.

Anyway, it seems Citizens to Reclaim is raising the funds to provide to the other PACs. In addition to the more than $300,000 transferred over to Citizens First, and another $75,000 given in two checks ($50,000 and $25,000) to The [Non]Accountability Project (which also got $1,500 from Robaina supporter and donor Jorge Arizurrieta), the Reclaim PAC with the Vegas baggage gave another $75,000, to a sixth PAC working on Julio's behalf, Floridians for Conservative Values, out of West Palm Beach. The PAC spent $63,000 of that on three consultants: Carbonell, Balsera and Gonzalez-Rebull, all of whom work for Robaina as well.

Dizzy yet? I know. Ladra needs a flow chart, too. The point is that -- even without adding up the funds donated to each of the PACs by the special interests that fund the Robaina campaign -- Robaina and his supporters are taking great pains to hide his campaign financing. Why else spread it out to six different PACs who transfer funds between them?

Gimenez reported raising $634,000 in total by the last reporting deadline in his campaign, and another $660,00 through his PAC, Common Sense Now. He has spent close to $900,000 of his funds, about half of the close to $2 mil that Robaina -- whose last report includes nearly $10,000 of contributions from his own companies and those where he is suspected of being a silent partner -- has spent as of June 3.

In fact, at this rate, they will likely break the $4 million mark between them.

Coming soon: Who are the political consultants getting rich in this race?

Gimenez House in Hialeah 'hood

Maybe Miami-Dade mayoral candidate Carlos Gimenez digs Hialeah, after all.

The former county commissioner has taken some disproportionate flack for a robocall that disses the City of Progress, which he says his campaign has nothing to do with (more on that later). But he sure spends a lot of time there. Saturday's caravan through the streets of Hialeah was not the first visit. He'd been to Maruch and Chico's restaurants before the robocall controversy. And likely it won't be the last visit, either. A little bird told Ladra that Gimenez will be waving at Hialeah drivers like he did Saturday from the corner of West 16th Ave and 49th Street -- la esquina que todo el mundo camina -- for the next two weekends. Let's hope he stays for more than five minutes (we were told by one of the many Hialeah firefighters there that he was late for another event or appointment).

Because Hialeah is worth the time. Voters here were more motivated May 24 than in any other part of Miami-Dade, with a 24 percent turnout compared to 16 countywide. Some precincts reported turnout as high as 35 percent. What's not to like? Well, maybe the disproportionate numbers of increasingly questionable absentee ballots that have been a staple of every victory won by former Hialeah mayor Julio Robaina, (more on that later) who got up to 70 and 75 percent of the vote last month in many city precincts. Hialeah -- and maybe absentee votes -- are what got him that 5 point spread victory in the primary.

So, it's only natural that Gimenez --whose numbers can only go up while Robaina's numbers can only go down, as reportedly evidenced by two internal polls, one on each side, that allegedly have the former commissioner leading -- would spend some time in Hialeah. He's recently had breakfast with his family at the two aforementioned political watering holes. This time, he started with breakfast at Maruch with his brood. And about 30 friends. Sporting an I {heart} Hialeah sticker upon his nerdwear (what's with the shirt and tie on a Saturday?) and talking to a busload of Gimenez shirt-wearing volunteers, the former commissioner acknowledged that they were in enemy territory. "Some people out there are not going to like us being here," he told them. "That's okay. We can't worry about that."

Also along for the ride this time: Former State Rep. (REP, District 116) and future candidate for something or other Marcelo Llorente and his campaign operatives Alex Ferro and JC Planas. Llorente, who placed third on May 24 and endorsed Gimenez right away, rode with Gimenez and his family ahead of the air-conditioned bus in the back of a large military-style truck. On board, too (the truck and the campaign): former Hialeah Police Chief Rolando Bolaños -- whose sharp and illustrated criticism of Robaina's adminstration is well documented on his facebook page -- his son, Danny Bolaños, a Hialeah Housing Authority employee and former and current council candidate (more on that later) and some Hialeah firefighters, who also drove trucks of their own in the early afternoon caravan of more than a dozen vehicles. Only Raul Martinez, the former mayor and current Hialeah mayoral candidate who has already given his support to Gimenez (or anybody but Robaina, really) was MIA. He would have been the cherry on top.

With these political heavyweights behind him, Llorente's 10-12 percent showing in some Hialeah precincts last month and the technical and moral support of the increasingly influential firefighters union -- not to mention the hits Julito is taking in the media about his business dealings and possible fiscal shortfalls at the city (read: missing money), many of which are being researched and leaked by members of the increasingly influential firefighters union -- Ladra thinks Gimenez is making a good investment of his limited time by spending some in his enemy's home turf, nicking away at it one vote at a time. (Plus, the chutzpah makes him sexy. Which is what Carlos needs more than anything else).

Let's see if Robaina carries the same or even similar weight in his Jockeys and shows up Thursday morning to a mayoral debate in Palmetto Bay, a Gimenez stronghold. I dare you, Julito. You can take your "we" committee for backup.

@everyone else: Ladra will start taking bets now.