The Mayor's Race: BIG UPSET! Raquel Regalado Forces Carlos Gimenez into a runoff. By Geniusofdespair

Mayor Tomas Regalado with his daughter Raquel.

Not able to garner at least 50% of the Vote, Carlos Gimenez, an incumbent Mayor, is forced into a  runoff with Raquel Regalado in November.

Mayor Tomas Regalado said this was the most important election of his life.

Save Dade, you should have co-endorsed. That was a mistake to just endorse Carlos without giving the other candidate a chance.

By the numbers...

Tomas Regalado and his 3 children

You must get 50% of the vote to win outright. This race will go into a runoff in November.

Sunday and I have NOTHIN'...By Geniusofdespair

I do like my latest painting. I don't why. It is not really that good looking. Maybe because it is someone helping another  person. I usually paint nice people as opposed to what I think of "real" people. Maybe my paintings would be better if I painted more authentically what I think of people.

I sat next next to the sweetest little girl at Books and Books. I have known her parents for years and I like them. She grew up to be such a gentle soul. I was happy to see that. Someday I will have to try to paint her.

Miami City Mayor Tomas Regalado got married in June.

Tomas & Ana Regalado

Jet Blue advertised a one day $39 fare. I got 2 tickets, it was for real. I am going to L.A. The catch, the way back is $159 but hey, still a good deal.

If you want to read a good take on Yogi Berra (a brief history to boot) read Kurt Stone, the Liberal Rabbi, Historian. Don't know Berra? He was one of a kind: "It ain't over till it's over" is one of his quotes.

I read in the Miami Herald that peanut butter and fluff day is coming. Maybe it is not called fluff, it is that marshmallow stuff in a jar. I thought, that could be interesting, I like peanut butter, until I remembered marshmallows are puffed up sugar. No kale or tofu in them. Hmmm. I really do hate anything without sugar in it. I am a sugar addict. Maybe I will have to celebrate Peanut Butter Fluff day.

Well, I was expecting Gimleteye to write about global warming,  !Jeb!, or flooding so I didn't prepare.

I could write about Donald Trump, who I will vote for. I do think he is a horrible human being. Why? Because of what he did to the residents of Doral. He didn't care. He said he would have his daughter meet with them, never happened. Liar.


video on local 10

If you don't watch the damn video here is a synopsis:

Doral golf course owner Donald Trump blocked the long time views of the golf course, had by residents, with Areca Palms leaving residents without light and views and diminished their property values. He even built islands in the water hazards and put the palms on them to block the houses from HIS view. Just imagine a golfer having to see a home? Oh, how awful for them. Some of the homes are valued at over a million dollars each. They are well maintained.

The high growing trees (they are classified as trees and grow over 20 feet and 8 to 10 feet in diameter) are being planted up against the people's units property line blocking their light and view. Donald Trump has left the people weighing their option of selling out their communities to highrise developers.

Donald Trump is a greedy bastard in my opinion. He should agree to buy the land so he has control on what is built instead of screwing the homeowners who were already there. So vote for him. If this is how he acts on the small scale, we will have a dictator. I suppose that is what everyone wants. As a Rino, I want him in the race.

Eye on Miami's Saturday Editorial Page: Turkey Point Hearings - Special Taxing Districts Op Ed. By Gimleteye and Geniusofdespair

Eye on Miami has replaced the Saturday Editorial Page of the Miami Herald - They do not have one

 
One of the very few chances for the public to be heard on the expansion of FPL Turkey Point and $24 billion of new nuclear reactors at sea level By Gimleteye

Mayors of three important South Florida municipalities (Tomas Regalado, City of Miami, Philip Stoddard, City of South Miami, and Cindy Lerner, Mayor of Pinecrest) are taking the lead in opposing the expansion of FPL's Turkey Point nuclear reactors. 

The public has very few opportunities to directly address the "deciders" on whether or not to allow the FPL plan to move forward. Here are two meetings and information related to public comments. Please take time to read the Environmental Impact Statement and comment directly on that document through the links provided below.

Turkey Point Nuclear Expansion: Meeting Information

These meetings will be hosted by U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Hearing in Miami, Florida

When: Wednesday, April 22, 7:00 - 10:00 p.m.

Where: Florida International University 
Stadium Club Room 
FIU Stadium 
11200 S.W. 8th Street, Miami

Hearings in Homestead, Florida

When: Thursday, April 23
First Session: 1:30-4:30 p.m. 
Second Session: 7:00 - 10:00 p.m.

Where: Hampton Inn and Suites 
Miami-South/Homestead 
Reef Room 
2855 N.E. 9th Street, Homestead, Florida 33033

Turkey Point Nuclear Expansion: Public Comment

By law the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission must take public comments into account. Public comments will be accepted until May 22, 2015.

Email: 

TurkeyPoint.COLEIS@nrc.gov

Mail:

Re: NUREG-2176

Cindy Bladey, 

Office of Administration 
Mail Stop: OWFN 12 H8 

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Washington, DC 20555–000

These meetings and comments are part of the federal licensing process and related to the recently released draft Environmental Impact Statement, available online at:

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/sr2176/. This information is also online at the City of Miami’s website at: http://tinyurl.com/MiamiNuclearMeeting

GUEST OP ED - CARLOS GIMENEZ COST CUTTING AND CONSOLIDATION CAUSES DEFICITS IN SPECIAL TAXING DISTRICTS

A special taxing district is a mechanism used by communities, wherein property owners elect to pay special assessments levied on their properties in order to receive public services and/or improvements, which could not otherwise conveniently or equitably be provided.

In Miami-Dade County some of these services include, but are not limited to:
Street lighting, Security guard services, Guard houses, Lake maintenance."

The Public Works and Waste Management department controls Special Taxing District funds. The section was headed by Don Tok for many years. The rates of each district were reviewed every year according to cost and growth.

In 2011 when Mayor Carlos Gimenez merged the Public Works and Solid Waste Departments he promoted a group of Solid Waste employees that included a Director  (now Miramar City Manager), Assistant Director  and  a Chief. The listed individuals were put in place by Gimenez for political reasons and many think were not qualified to oversee the finances of the newly created department.

Assistant Director Chris Rose chose to maintain low or cut rates on the Special Taxing Districts without permission from the County Attorney's Office to make Gimenez look as a mayor intent on cutting taxes. The result is that after 3 years of low rates there is a multi million dollar deficit of Special Taxing District funds and an ongoing analysis has uncovered the comingling of funds from different Special Taxing districts- something strictly prohibited by county ordinance. As a result, today Don Tok is being forced to resign and Alina Hudak could also be forced to resign. Rose has already left the county to City of Miami and he is not acknowledging responsibility for the deficit of funds.

A meeting was held Friday 4:30 pm with the Mayor, Kathy Jackson Director of Audit, and Alina Hudak also AD's from the Public Works Dept. as they tried to find a solution to the deficit  problem. 

According to department employees, the Section  has been running on "cooked" numbers for the last three years.

Example: A district where citizens paid $5,000.00 in special taxes had their service cut to $1,000.00 and now the taxes must be raised to $9,000.00.

The backlash of this deficit will upset citizens from every area of the county. Do you have a guard booth? It will effect you.  This incident has occurred due to the promotion of what I think are unqualified employees and for political reasons by a mayor intent on "cutting taxes" as a reelection tool.

The Best of Miami Herald's Jim Morin this week.

Gossip or Truth?

The Miami Dade County Aviation Department is about to finalize a $7.5 million deal in Tuesday's committee meeting by the commissioners approving the deal. The system awarded was never tested at the requirements from the airport. The FAA will do its due diligence since it is funding the majority of the project. Once they find that the system has not been tested and the FOD detection system has shown that it can not perform to the standards required FAA will then pull the funding and MDAD will come to the county to bail them out. (comment left on our blog)

Mayor Regalado: Full of surprises, now on the Nail Clipper. By Geniusofdespair

Eye on Miami's Version of SkyRise Miami a.k.a. the Nail Clipper. By the way that green space in the foreground is Parcel B where they want to put the unfunded museum.

Today the Miami Herald reported that Mayor Tomas Regalado, City of Miami Mayor, is not supporting County Funding of this project. The City of Miami had a referendum and the campaign pledge said to voters no public dollars, it would be privately funded.

County funds  are also  paid by City residents. City of Miami citizens pay both. So the referendum language would be a lie and it got 68% approval from the brain-dead voters.

Regalado said: "we can't continue to do things differently from what we promise the people"..."this isn't about $9 million. It's a moral issue."

...“I don’t have control over the county but I do feel the county should consider what the people of Miami voted for and were told,” Regalado said.

 Mayor Gimenez, I think this pot of money is being misused. The way Burgess and Nero designed it, it should be used for projects that were to generate large number of well paying jobs AND incremental taxes  the Skyrise project is .. Not really going back to the "original intent." 

Frank Nero, former head of the Beacon Council, said about the two projects proposed by Gimenez: "These are bread and "circus" type projects: Low paying tourist type jobs not the high paying above median wage jobs /with high incremental taxes which WERE the original  targets.

But he did say they were better than the little projects that the county commission committee voted on Thursday.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article2959719.html#storylink=cpy

The Soccer Stadium in Our Downtown, El Nuevo Herald Reader Sounds off on Mayor Gimenez. By Geniusofdespair

The gist of this El Nuevo Herald Opinion piece is that Gimenez is dumb, incompetent and totally oblivious to the desires of the voters.  It mentions that he is enamored of Beckham, promised him a waterfront stadium long before any of it became public news, and only after the port location was voted down and his offer of Museum Park encountered broad opposition did he embrace the need for a referendum.  The latter a testament not of his political skills but of his survival instinct, the type of politician that will change his stripes at a moment's notice.  The author can't believe that either Gimenez or Regalado are offering to place a soccer stadium in Miami's waterfront. It also talks about the poor deal he has cut with Arison and how expensive it will be for the taxpayers.  (Press read more for the google translator.)

Ramón A.Mestre

Carlos Giménez es el simulacro de un líder. El alcalde de Miami-Dade es como una criatura que flota en las corrientes del cálculo político oportunista. Ante el peligro, el movimiento característico de esta criatura es la retirada mal camuflada. En declaraciones sobre aumentos tributarios, en el deseo de complacer a sus lobistas favoritos, en sus torpes negociaciones con magnates poderosos que a ratos lo deslumbran, Giménez no manifiesta el talante de un alcalde metropolitano sino los instintos de un subalterno con rasgos de mandarín inseguro.

Podemos observar los reflejos condicionados de la criatura en su manejo de las aspiraciones de David Beckham y los socios del ex futbolista. Estos señores deseaban construir un estadio de fútbol en terrenos públicos adyacentes al puerto de Miami. Tras los primeros encuentros con un Giménez rebosante de placer en la presencia del astro inglés, Beckham le anunció a la BBC que el alcalde de Miami-Dade le “había prometido” el espacio codiciado junto a la bahía para la construcción de su estadio. Pero en cuanto se destapó el arreglo que Giménez tramaba con Beckham, comenzaron a escucharse fuertes críticas provenientes de funcionarios electos (sobre todo del alcalde de Miami, Tomás Regalado, cuyo municipio pudiese tomar posesión de todas las tierras del puerto si algunas de sus parcelas se usan para actividades que no son portuarias), directores del propio puerto, empresarios de empresas cruceras y algunos comisionados condales. Entonces, sin consultar con la Ciudad de Miami, y con la esperanza de quedar bien con Beckham, quien insistía que su estadio tenía que estar frente a la bahía, el alcalde lanzó otra alternativa controversial: el soccer stadium podía construirse en los terrenos de una dársena que le pertenece a Miami, una parcela situada entre el nuevo parque de los museos y la Arena de la discordia. Pero sucedió que las objeciones a la dársena fueron tan devastadoras para Beckham como las críticas que despertó la opción del puerto. ¿La respuesta de nuestro invertebrado líder condal? Otro viraje oportunista. Seguir el ejemplo del alcalde Regalado, quien en todo momento ha respaldado un referendo que nos permitiría a los votantes decidir si queremos o no un estadio de fútbol frente a la bahía. Beckham también se ha sumado a la alternativa de la dársena con referendo.

¿Por qué Giménez no abogó por el referendo desde el principio de las negociaciones con el grupo de Beckham? ¿Sería por la misma razón que lo llevó a apoyar tardíamente el referendo sobre la remodelación del Sun Life Stadium? Lo hizo después de permitir que Stephen Ross, el dueño de los Dolphins, le vendiera tras bambalinas un acuerdo que provocó una riada de críticas a Ross y a Giménez.

No se sorprendan si Giménez opta por enarbolar la bandera del referendo oportunista a fin de ratificar el acuerdo en torno a la Arena que acaba de negociar con Micky Arison, el dueño de los Miami Heat. Todo indica que el nuevo contrato sería lesivo para los contribuyentes de Miami-Dade. Giménez hubiese preferido mantenerlo en la oscuridad el mayor tiempo posible con el propósito de presentarnos a última hora un hecho consumado y privar a los críticos de la oportunidad de crear un fuerte estado de opinión adverso al pacto antes de la votación de la comisión, la cual debe aprobar o rechazar el contrato. Pero si a Giménez le sale mal el negocio, siempre le queda la opción de apoyar un referendo (con el beneplácito de Arison, claro) atento a los intereses que guían las conductas de nuestro alcalde.

A propósito de intereses: En un artículo sobre las discusiones suscitadas por el proyecto del estadio de fútbol publicado en estas páginas, Giménez hizo la obtusa afirmación de que todos los argumentos, a favor o en contra del estadio de marras, eran obra de personas con “mucho que ganar o perder” y cuyos “intereses” impulsaban sus posturas. Así Giménez revelaba sus propias motivaciones: las de un alcalde con ínfulas de hombre puro que se ha convertido en el socio interesado de un grupo selecto de lobistas y de consejeros aúlicos. Confundía sus móviles de político oportunista reculador con las ideas y convicciones de quienes ni siquiera recibimos un dólar confederado para exponer nuestras opiniones. A favor o en contra de los temas que abordamos.

El Nuevo Herald 

Read in English (google translation):

Our Mayors Are Blind to Illegal Signs. Guest Blog by Peter Ehrlich, Jr.

In our metropolis awash with hundreds of brazenly illegal, commercial advertising signs, it's really no wonder that Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez and City of Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado once again are turning their blind eyes to the latest outrageous lawbreaker: The Miami Children's Museum.

The two mayors' contempt for the rule of law is shameful. And so is the Children's Museum's arrogance, as well as that of the so-called "civic leaders" responsible for its governance.

The museum, built on property leased from the City of Miami on Watson Island, recently installed three giant, programmable signs on two of its exterior walls – two signs facing eastbound MacArthur Causeway traffic, the third facing westbound traffic.

The signs, whose images change every few seconds, are manifestly illegal under the county's Sign Code. Both mayors know that, because Mayor Gimenez's own County Attorney Robert Cuevas told them in a forewarning, April 2012 written memorandum.

The countywide Sign Code contains 10 simple rules that determine whether a programmable sign is legal or is illegal. And those regulations apply throughout every city, not just in Miami. Both mayors know that, too.

One rule requires that programmable signs advertise only products and/or services available on the sign's premises. Another rule requires that the size of the property on which the sign is located – in this case, the size of the museum's property leased from the City of Miami – be at least 10 acres.

Among other advertisements recently, the museum's signs have blasted commercial messages for cruise-ship vacations, air travel abroad, resort stays in the Dominican Republic, and tickets to a technology exposition. None of those goods and services is available for purchase at 980 MacArthur Causeway, the museum's street address.

Moreover, the museum's building footprint is well under one acre in size. With modest outdoor patio and yard areas, the museum's entire leasehold property is enormously smaller than the minimum 10 acres required by the Sign Code.

The rules are simple. The violation of law is undeniable.

What's a community to do about this obvious and insulting lawlessness by The Miami Children's Museum? What's a community to think of the countywide mayor and the Miami mayor who turn their noses up at a law they are sworn into office to uphold?

Several options present themselves:

Tony E. Crapp to Be City of Miami Manager. By geniusofdespair

Longtime Aide/Chief of Staff to Mayor Tomas Regalado will be appointed this week as the next City of Miami Manager, replacing outgoing Carlos A. Migoya.

I don't know whether or not he is suited to be a City Manager but I have always liked Tony Crapp, he is respectful of citizens and when I went to see him, he seems genuinely interested in my issues and he was eager to be helpful. I wish him luck!

Regalado Said Today That a Budget Hole Predicted for City of Miami. By Geniusofdespair

At the City of Miami Commission Meeting going on right now, Mayor Tomas Regalado said, according to current projections, there is a $40,000,000 shortfall in the City of Miami Budget passed in October.

City of Miami Police Chief Exposito: Ugh! By Geniusofdespair

It is looking very bad at the City of Miami Police Department with Miguel Exposito at the helm. Do I smell Cronyism with a capital "C"? And, worse, look at this quote from the Miami Herald article by Daniel Shoer Roth:

"All city employees, with few exceptions, supported Regalado. It would be virtually impossible for me to nominate someone who didn't back Regalado," said Expósito...

You have to support Regalado to get promoted? Better: How about not asking a candidate for promotion who they supported. Wow, this goes in our "Believe it or Not" index too (also see story about the stimulus today). Two stories in one day go to that index, can you believe it? I know what the Chief was TRYING to say: That since most officers in the City supported Regalado, he had little else to choose from (aside: except for the officers demoted) but it sure didn't come out right.

Regalado's Chief of Staff, Tony Crapp, Jr. By Geniusofdespair

Longtime staff member for Tomas Regalado, over 10 years, Tony Crapp, Jr. is now the gate keeper. I thought you might want to know what he looks like in case you bump into him at City Hall. He always has been friendly to me, he is very personable. He made a salary of about $65,000 in 2007.

The good looking guy on the right is also Tony Crapp. Tony E. Crapp, Sr. was appointed Executive Director of the North Miami Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) in 2006. He was an Assistant Miami-Dade County Manager for 4 years and then did a short stint (4 months) as the first Executive Director of the Miami-Dade County Community Redevelopment Office. I am pretty sure they are father and son. That is all I know about the Crapps.

Photos From Mayor Tomas Regalado's Swearing-In Ceremony. By Geniusofdespair

Congratulations Tomas Regalado! That is the Unreformable County Commissioner Barbara Jordan talking to one of the "Browns". They moved the UDB for their application to build a shopping center/office park last cycle, winning an administrative hearing opinion (against environmental groups). Hit read more for more photos taken with a GOOD camera this time...each is linked to a story or link from this blog.

Miguel Diaz de la Portilla - Working as a Lobbyist trying to move the UDB for the Ferro Application.
County Commission Bully Joe Martinez.
County Commissioner Bruno Barreiro - One of the unreformable majority.
I just liked her hair, it added a little color to the event.
Infamous Lobbyist Armando Gutierrez - Ran Regalado's campaign and he is a family friend. Schoool Board's outspoken Marta Perez. She is also an erratic voter on the Regional Planning Council, representing the School Board.
South Miami Mayor Horace G. Feliu. I saw him stand up at a Public Service Commission hearing saying that South Miami supported the two new nuclear reactors proposed at Turkey Point. Nice going Horace. Did the residents vote on this?
County Commissioner Carlos Gimenez (left) talking to two guys - Anyone know who they are?
School Superintendent Alberto Carvalho.
Ick.