Gonzolo Sanabria wants to be elected commissioner in a municipality where he never cared enough to vote ... by gimleteye

News that Gonzalo Sanabria was running for Coral Gables City Commission summoned memories of meetings of the county planning advisory board where Sanabria served as the pro-development vote collector for many years. As a citizen who attended many Planning Advisory Board meetings having to do with the Urban Development Boundary, I had first-hand experience how votes are tallied by applicants for development long before citizens ever stand up to the microphone to state their point of view. (please click, 'read more')

The stock scripts--like Sanabria's-- are so familiar, base, and worked out beforehand; that even newspaper reporters wonder what the fuss is all about. Hasn't it all happened before? What's the big deal? Every point is vetted by land use lawyers cozy with planning board members who will vote like Sanabria to move the Urban Development Boundary, defaulting to positions that might be useful in subsequent court cases, etc. etc.

The vote on Florida City Commons for instance, outside the Urban Development Boundary, in 2003 is exactly to the point. In the Miami Herald, Sanabria--now candidate for Coral Gables City Commission--defended his vote saying, "The environmental protections were there."

Bull. The Hold The Line Campaign, coalescing more than 150 business, community, civic and environmental groups, formed exactly because environmental protections for wetlands outside the UDB are NOT there. In the case of Florida City Commons-- a Lennar development that died on the vine but would have put more than 6,000 homes in Biscayne Bay wetlands-- the scam included the county surrendering control of future permitting to Florida City, whose weak commitment to environmental rules doesn't need explanation, only a drive through the area.

The entire history of development in south Florida is riddled with massive development projects seeking ways around environmental laws and, mostly, succeeding. That's the logic that Sanabria represents.

Because of the backroom dealing, I assumed Sanabria was making an opportunistic run at the Coral Gables City Commission for reasons that are obscure. Since that time, news that Sanabria has never even voted in a Coral Gables municipal election bears out that point of view. Joe Rasco made a run at Coral Gables city manager. Reportedly, Sanabria is gathering support from interests who wanted Rasco, one of the county development insiders, in that position. For some unstated reason, Republican office holders in the state legislature are also mounting a campaign in Sanabria's defense despite the fact the election is non-partisan.

So what does Gonzolo Sanabria really want?

Insider politics in Miami-Dade are invisible to the public. The pushing and pulling for influence and power never makes it to the pages of the daily newspaper. (Jim Defede was the last journalist to consistently report out those politics and he did it, not for the Herald, but earlier for Miami New Times.)

You don't have to be clairvoyant to see that even in the most lackluster economy since the Depression, that the lobby for development--as represented by Sanabria and his campaign manager, Armando Guttierez --are always looking for an edge; always looking for compliant public officials willing to carry out their zoning and permitting requests. As a former chair of the Latin Builders Association, Sanabria certainly was a full participant in the winding of the inner clockspring of government.

Most people wouldn't think much of failing to vote in a municipal election or blowing through a manatee protection zone (as Sanabria was apprehended, doing); but when that person is running for a public office, the underlying motives of deserve to be clarified. Uniquely among Miami-Dade municipalities, Coral Gables has advanced zoning and planning codes that are more visionary and restrictive of insiders who use the rules (or not) to break the rules to generate incremental profit from what is originally permitted or allowed. They help elect candidates who will be faithful to the principle that governmental processes exist to be gummed up. It's not hard work and it is done all the time.

It is really too bad that well-meaning people have fallen for the clap trap, but there it is. Hopefully Coral Gables voters will have reasoned through what is at stake in next week's municipal election and understand that Sanabria, who never voted in a Coral Gables municipal election, should not be voted for, in this one.