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| Ralph Garcia Toledo the Mayor's right hand man during his campaign. |
These guys/lobbyists are just too close to Gimenez according to the June 6th Miami Herald, also on the Mayor's trip were:
Several Gimenez supporters are traveling as well: lawyer Marcelo Llorente of LSN Partners and his managing partner, Alex Heckler; and Ralph Garcia-Toledo of G-T Construction Group and his wife, Vicky Garcia-Toledo, a partner at the law firm Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod. Gimenez’s daughter-in-law Barbara Rodriguez-Gimenez, director of client relations at the law firm Genovese Joblove & Battista, is also a delegate. All are registered as lobbyists at County Hall.
Jorge Luis Lopez was also in Spain with the Mayor.
All three of these guys ARE JUST TOO CLOSE. Llorente, Ralph Garcia-Toledo's wife Vicky are lobbyists for CH2M Hill on this giant contract. Regarding what is going on read these two articles:
The Miami Herald on this contract. And:
The Miami Herald.
THIS WHOLE THING SHOULD BE LOOKED AT WITH A FINE TOOTH COMB. TOO MANY FRIENDS INVOLVED. Too much hanky panky. I thought Mayor Gimenez was different but he is just like Alex Penelas always with a bevy of lobbyists at his side. Also read Miami New Times, Francisco Alvarado on Toledo, very good article.
29 comments:
This is all just too sleazy. Carlos Gimenez should not be allowing his so-called friends to make money off the taxpayers of Miami-Dade County. Vicky Garcia-Toledo and her lobbyist husband?
Jorge Lopez who these days seems to be closest to the Mayor, considering he spends most of his days in the 29th floor offices of the Mayor. He is a lobbyist for one of the water sewer bidders too.
Ralphie? Ralphie? Lobbying your close buddy Carlos for government contracts? Say it ain't so.
Everyone needs to look at what's going on with CH2M Hill in North Miami.
They are the prime remediation contractor for the Biscayne Landing project. They are cutting every corner imaginable.
This is just in Miami-Dade. Google to check out their history around the globe.
Garcia-Toledo is going to receive mega-bucks on this contract: not as a lobbyist but as a subcontractor?!? What experience does he have with water and sewer infrastructure? (rhetorical question: answer is none)
He and lobbyists Alex Heckler and Marcelo Llorente are too close to the Mayor. No need for them to accompany the Mayor on the business trip to Europe. They call themselves the "go to" guys to do business in the county.
I guess this is the price a Mayor pays for bribing Marcelo to support him in the runoff.
Vicky Garcia-Toledo, Ralph's wife, is also the mother of lobbyist, Christ Moya. (She is 18 years older than her husband)
One thing... GT (Garcia-Toledo) Construction is to get a part of non-engineering administrative fees, so it sounds good, but it is a large percentage more than a real engineering firm could be getting and the County spending wisely... Time is of the essence and the County/Mayor needs to make a decision, the BUCK stops there an the clock is ticking for the County...
Awesome you hit a nerve at the 111 building & now your blocked from the wi fi.
If we are to take all of the lobbyists out and out of towners for the selection and let the County (Department, Mayor and Commissioners) choose, who would they select? Let them be responsible for the delays, penalties, corruption and unethical behavior of the firm they select... Lobbying rules in America...
CM2H Hill is one of the most corrupt engineering firms in the nation. Google it.
If you were competing for a multi-million dollar contract in Miami-Dade County, who would you hire? After reading that the Mayor goes on a European vacation with certain people, you do the obvious thing...put them on your team. The staff on the selection committee have read the same stories in the paper. They know who went on vacation with the Mayor. In order to be competitive, business people do the logical thing.
The entire problem begins and ends with the Mayor. Allowing lobbyists to facilitate your vacation (fine dining, meetings with the Pope, luxury ground transportation) is absurdly disgusting.
Something definitely stinks, and this fish rots from the head.
The trip was an economic development trip attended by dozens of people. Dozens. It was Gimenez's administration that wanted additional scrutiny placed on this by the Ethics Commission. Read the article a bit more carefully next time instead of jumping to conclusions.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/09/25/3651075/miami-dade-mayor-to-consult-ethics.html
Take a look for yourself
It sounds like no wheeling and dealing happened in Dade county while the mayor had Everyone corralled overseas.
What started off as a time of such hope, on the heels of a recall, has developed into a horror story. RGT and co are bad news for Miami-Dade County. Profiting off public money, profiting off relationships. Same with Heckler, same with Llorente. What have these two accomplished in their lives other than cut a deal after an expected electoral shellacking? All those people are completely irrelevant in the long-run, and will go back in to the shadows once the Mayor's out of office, whether that is 2016, 2020, or before then for some other reason like a recall.
This county is becoming a putrid example of how government should be run. It is embarrassing.
To last Anon:
You took the word right out of my thoughts: PUTRID
I spent some time reading up on this guy and the rest of the Gimenez team. Their relationships with each other, business and personal, their companies, contracts, travels, and that's the word that summarizes it: Putrid.
How much longer will the voters of this county put up with this? We thought Alvarez was bad? Gimenez has turned out to be much worse.
Gimenez said he met Ralph Garcia-Toledo when Garcia-Toledo volunteered to be Gimenez's full-time driver at the very beginning of his original run for Mayor in 2011.
Garcia-Toledo drove Gimenez around all day, every day during the Spring 2011 primary campaign and the general campaign in his big expensive SUV.
I always thought that was suspicious and that Garcia-Toledo had an ulterior motive. Now my suspicions are confirmed.
You are kidding yourself if you think this is limited to Mayor Gimenez. This sort of thing has been going on in Miami-Dade forever. Every large contract every Department has ever put out has been a circus show of lobbyist influenced decision-making at the County Commission and Mayoral level. They've never really hidden it either.
I know from reading this blog that Jorge Lobez is your source. He is trying all his dirty trick to reverse the outcome.
The selection committe consisted of outside members. Or none county employees.
Talking about CH2M HILL, it is the largest engineering firm and was listed as number on engineering firm in the world by the most prestigious engineering magazine for the same type of project.
Why no one says the other firm is headed by Pete Hernadiz the previous deputy county manager. He promised his firm this project will be his, but failed. He keeps trying. He hired every scum back lobbyist in Dade county.
Look AECOM history, just we're kicked out of a project that cost the client $300,000. See the September 2, 2013 issue of ERN.
One of Aecom subs is under investigation for corruption on the same project ,,,,
Pete Hernandez was kicked out of the city of miami for corruption and under investigation by the FCC for playing game with the financing of the baseball stadium.
AECOM should compete on qualification not connections and rumors.
The SEC is investigating former City of Miami City Manager Pete Hernandez and his former boss disgraced ex-Mayor Manny Diaz.
The great Francisco Alvarado covered this sleazy relationship last year.
http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2012/08/rafael_garcia-toledo_is_a_driv.php
I added it to my article thanks for the link.
That 2012 Francisco Alvarado piece is fucking amazing. So at the very beginning of Gimenez's 2011 run, Ralph gave Gimenez a $10,000 check for his campaign? How is that legal? Because there are strict campaign contribution limits, I assume that it was for some third party PAC effort. Was the Gimenez campaign allowed to accept big donations to a third party PAC? I thought candidates had to keep an arms length distance from PAC fundraising? The whole thing reeks to high heaven!
Alvarado is the top investigative journalist in Miami these days (after G.o.D., of course!). He wrote ANOTHER article on this deal in late August. Confirms everything you wrote.
http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2013/08/colorado_firm_told_miami-dade.php
Lynda's best friend Mike Shehadah works for CM2H.
Lynda's best friend Mike Shehadah works for CM2H.
I hope our Mayor does not get involved in anything that even looks like criminal activity. The former Mayor of Detroit just got 28 years in prison for a bunch of crimes, and 34 other people were convicted of corruption including lots of city officials. He forced water department contractors to take his friend as a partner, or risk losing lucrative deals. The friend then shared the money with the mayor.
28 years in prison. Yup. Carlos Gimenez? Manny Diaz? Tomas Regalado? You all paying attention? The ex-Mayor of Detroit got sentenced to 28 years. The paper said he barely apologized.
They simply followed the money. . .
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