Saturday, February 01, 2014

What is it about the 29th Floor? Mayor Carlos Gimenez is Satisfied to be Viewed as Arrogant. By Geniusofdespair

When exactly did the Mayor's brain get scrambled?
When Carlos Gimenez took Lynda Bell under his wing, I knew all was lost. When he held a fundraiser for her I fell off my computer chair which is usually stuck to my butt.

We here at Eye on Miami endorsed Gimenez.  Of course Julio Robaina (the bad one) was a disaster but we did have faith in Gimenez. He came into office and gave out all those large salaries and kept Burgess Staffers -- 2 bad signs -- and little by little he lost our faith and support.  Here is our original endorsement to show you we can be wrong and we admit it. Or were we right? Did the candidate we endorsed change dramatically?

P.S. In his most current misstep, the Mayor is doing a reversal. Why he even conceived of not evening out precinct voter numbers this election (to help prevent long lines at the polls) was pure idiocy. And his excuse was so lame. Don't blame Penny Townsley. She can't make a move without the Mayor.

His Press release Jan. 31st:
After receiving feedback from Miami-Dade County political party leaders, and conferring with Chairwoman Rebeca Sosa, a discussion item on re-precincting will be added at the February 19th Board of County Commissioners meeting. This will provide members of the public and local political party representatives the opportunity to express any concerns they may have to the full Board. It is of utmost importance that every Miami-Dade County voter be confident about our electoral system.

34 comments:

Anonymous said...

This isn't even going in to his new election time nonsense by not redistricting voting precincts. Does he really think having medical marijuana on the ballot is going to be low turn out? And that's just the start of what could end up on there. He's an A$$HOLE, always has been. I hesitate on pushing for an elected elections department head when I think of KFR - she's elected too, kind of like council person for life, literally, Shiver in Florida City. However, Gimenez controlling the elections in Miami Dade in 2014 is almost a guarantee win for every republican currently seated or running in a close campaign locally.

Anonymous said...

Everyone called it, even those who endorsed him: he had no vision then or now. He is tone-deaf and insensitive to constituents pleas or concerns. He has no grace. He showed these traits during the epic library battle. Even after he lost, when the commission voted to fund the libraries, he took a personal swipe at the librarians in the chambers, his own county employees. His newest project is delivering the soccer stadium and you have to ask, who is he really working for?

Anonymous said...

Why was a search warrant not executed on his office for the ballot fraud?
It only took an hour to have one executed on Francis Suarez office.
Why was it denied?

Anonymous said...

Is brain isn't scrambled, it is fried.

The Burgess brain trust is half his problem. The Lobbyists are the other half.

Anonymous said...

If the mayor is representing all the voters of Miami Dade county, which is what he was elected to do, the voting precincts would be quickly equalized so most long waits would be eliminated. How lame is the bipartisan committee that approved waiting for the next election after this upcoming one.

Gabby said...

You were wrong here in your endorsement:

The question is: how to balance the burden fairly. This task is vastly complicated by the county commission. On balance Carlos Gimenez has the best skills of any candidate for mayor to navigate the county commission and, more importantly, to supervise the county manager, whoever is chosen to fill the vacancy. Carlos Gimenez is best qualified to provide calm, open and transparent leadership to restore public trust in county government. For this reason, we support Carlos Gimenez for Miami Dade County Mayor.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Mayor Gimenez had no problem giving corrupt Juan Kuryla a massive $300,000 County Director's salary, a 70% increase while the current Port Director remains in his job and while all other employees get cuts. Kuryla has a shady background. He is favored by this administration and commission because of his ability to cater to their needs, including numerous junkets like the June 2014 trip he is organizing to Spain and France for insiders paid by taxpayers. The 2014 Port budget also includes a $5 million item for payment in a legal judgment against the County for a judges ruling that the Port of Miami has a way of doling certain business permits illegally protecting incumbents -- ``creating a handful of entrenched privileged companies". The judge said evidence showed other ``established, qualified, competent and trustworthy,'' companies were denied permits even as some incumbents who didn't use their permits received automatic renewals. Kuryla works the backchannels and selection process, where privileged insiders are awarded business, and taken on travel junkets while those who are not tied into the system of lobbyists, commissioner aides and certain County staff are denied. Kuryla should be fired, not promoted. Stop the travel junkets for friends and family, save millions.

Anonymous said...

Did anyone notice it's a "discussion" item, nothing more. The BCC doesn't control the elections department, Gimenez does! But, I'll bet money everyone GOPer on the BCC is going to act "concerned", Gimenez will talk forever about nothing (along with le Pew and Souto) and the end result will be the same. It's another dog and pony show brought to you by Gimenez. The same guy who voted against the Marlin's shoved the Jackson Bond issue on the ballot when no one new about it who didn't have a local election, supported the Dolphins renovations because the taxes wouldn't be coming from people who don't live here, and now, let's give away more public land because it worked out so well with the Miami Heat (not)! I'm just wondering when the recall is. I'm sure between the County employees including the Librarian's he's detaxed to into non existence......PS: detax is a new made up word!

Anonymous said...

Who are players on this so-called bi-partisan committee?

Anonymous said...

You made a mistake when you endorsed him. He was not good. Robaina was not bad. You were suckered by the Herald. Anyone who knew Gimenez could have told you what he was: a "politician for life" looking for a new gig. He is arrogant, disconnected to voters, elitist and pedantic.

Anonymous said...

Carlos Gimenez has been a huge disappointment. When he hired Ed Marquez, one of the many Jeff Loria and David Samson lobbyists, to be the County CFO taxpayers knew we were screwed. Then he kept all the George Burgess deadwood empty suit executives... Then he broke numerous campaign promises... Now he panders to lobbyists paid by David Beckham's handlers. Taxpayers are still paying $3 Billion (much more after multiple re-financings...) for the Marlins debacle. $3 BILLION.

Anonymous said...

Isn't Lynda Bell on the bi-partisan committee?

Anonymous said...

The Mayor of Miami fired Gimenez as City Manager for the same reason the voters should fire him in 2016: NO VISION.

Anonymous said...

The Commissioners do not want to recalibrate their re-election campaigns to adjust to re-precincting. They prefer to deploy their campaign workers to the same precincts that had the biggest turnouts four years ago when they got elected. Keep in mind, they have the same voters in their districts, they just vote at different locations - it is not rocket science to make the adjustment, but these commissioners are not rocket scientists.

Anonymous said...

Anon above is right. Who cares about a bunch of voters who have to wait in long lines. It is all about staying in their comfort zone. As long as they feel comfortable about their own re-election campaign strategy, who cares if voters are inconvenienced?

Anonymous said...

How would future elections have run, the voter lines and wait times, had 22 out of 49 library locations been shut down with 40% of library staff laid off? West kendall, north shore, lemon city, model city were all library branches on the Mayor's original chopping block. Early elections are mandated by the state to be held in libraries, election depts. or city halls. Such thoughtless and reckless policy making or something else?

Geniusofdespair said...

http://www.miamidade.gov/mayor-memo/Mayor's_Election_Advisory_Group%20-%20Final_Report.pdf

Their report

Anonymous said...

The Mayor is out of touch with his community. He's a climate denier in the county most at risk of sea level rise. He tried (and continues to try) to dismantle the public library system even though these beloved facilities are needed more than ever. He sought to eliminate first responder positions and animal welfare programs. He vetoed restoring public employee benefits. He dismantled the environmental regulation department. He governs by poll -- specifically by push poll to reinforce a radical view not supported by the public.

Anonymous said...

I think there were some very good community advocates on this Board. I only went through the 1st 25 pages of the report and don't see where they recommend not reprecincting? Does anyone know where it is because I'm not going through all 140+ pages. I think it's pretty telling they're ALL running away from Absentee Ballots to "Vote by Mail"! We're "so close to the United States" in Miami Dade. Even with true civic leaders on the Board, we're screwed.

Anonymous said...

Fact: The massively long lines at many Miami-Dade County precincts occurred on the first Tuesday of November 2012, disenfranchising thousands of voters.

Fact: A variety of reasons were cited at that time for the delays, high among them significant imbalances in the size of voter rolls, precinct by precinct by precinct.

Fact: This coming Tuesday will mark the 15-MONTH anniversary of the voter-roll problem's manifestation.

Question: On that anniversary Tuesday, Miami-Dade County government is going to talk about the problem for the first time. Is anyone going to ask the mayor why he has dithered for 1.25 years over a community need so great and so easily resolved by drawing fresh lines on a familiar map?

Anonymous said...

Arogant extrinaire! He is such a jerk that even his inner circle hates him but only say it privately for the obvious reasons. Bell is a whack out mean blatantly corrupt individual who is enriching herself as fast as she can pocket the money. Gimenez does the same but discretely. He uses family members as his buffer. But but are crooks who rub it in our faces each and very day. And the commission feels helpless because he threatens their pet projects if they don't play along! That's why are youth are fleeing this communist country- oops I meant to say county.

Anonymous said...

To answer one of the previous comments, someone high up in the police dept did not have the backbone to let public corruption investigators go directly to a judge for a search warrant. Instead the mayors office was given heads up all the while the state attorneys office denied the warrant. Let's not forget the fraudulent ballots helped Gimenez, Fernandez Rundle, Bovo and others in the cartel. In fact property appraiser Pedro Garcia won every single voting location and early voting as we'll and still lost to Carlos lopez-cantera who won only because of the fraudulent absentee ballots. And now he's Lieutenant governor. Only in corrupt rich miami-dade county!

Juan said...

Giminez has always been arrogant.It was just not as apparent when he was a county commissioner. His real aspiration was to be defacto county manager. His enormous ego could not deal with the fact he was fired as city manager of Miami. He was able to ride the anti-marlins stadium sentiments to the mayors office. This was also due in large part to the less than stellar opposition.
He clearly is being directed by his lobbyist friends and Cronies .. Folks like Garcia Toledo .. Jorge Luis Lopez... And the rest of the Gimenezites ! Gimenez is an arrogant Bully cut from the same cloth as governor Christy of NJ. His philosophy of governing is "my way or the highway ..." He thinks he's so knowledgeable but the shame is that he is SO arrogant. He doesn't even realize that he doesn't know what he doesn't know. He should read the book "A team of rivals " about the Lincoln presidency. He might at least get a clue (although I doubt it )!
His bully tactics with the libraries .. The unions..employees or anyone who dares disagree with him speak volumes. He has also co-opted the commission with his puppets like Bell doing his dirty work.

A mayor of a major urban International city needs vision and ability, experienced in political science and civics not just politics and rhetoric .a Leader who engenders and solicits differing views .. Can articulate a SHARED community vision and have the ability via consensus building to implement that vision. A tea party apologist is not going lead this city to take its rightful place as a thriving international center no matter how many prepared speeches he reads off his I-pad.

Gimenez needs to be turned out office, along with Bell and some of the other members of the brain dead coalition on the commission who do his bidding.

The issue will be finding a creditable candidate to run against his lobby fueled political machine .

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Mahalo said...

No one is more disappointed than me. I did everything I could to help his campaign from the very beginning. I loved how he fought against Burgess and Alvarez as a commissioner, and I truly believed he was a reformer.

Anonymous said...

One really good point mentioned here deserves repeating. It's been 15 months since the botched election, more then enough time to have studied the issue and made corrections. It is inexcusable that they have failed to do so.

Jose said...

The anon above is confused about the role of librarians. Librarians do not staff the polling places and have no official role in the election. Early voting can be held in any public building, including all public schools, so there in no shortage.

Youbetcha' said...

Any changes in the elections department, elections methodology or campaign finance would result in the opportunity for our incumbents to be removed.

This is definitely the ultimate example of "the fox guarding the hen house". There is no self-serving politician on earth that will endanger their chances for re-election.

It takes tremendous ego to run for office. It takes a lot of spine to stand up and ask people to vote for you, because you are the BEST.

More often than not, a new candidate will not state they are the BEST, but will try to present their credentials to convince you that they are the stronger candidate.

The incumbents tend to exaggerate their accomplishments and want believe they are selling the truth because they are top dog and you, the voter, are plain-old-stupid if you do not believe it. Arrogance results in politicians lying to themselves, their staff and their family. Voters are pawns. (What are you going to believe what you are told or what you really see day-today?)

And staff is the worst. The staff egos reflect that of their boss. Humble community-serving political staff is uncommon. Who gives a crap if you work for the Mayor, et al.? Just do the job well and we will respect you as a damn great county, city, state, federal employee.

Anonymous said...

The Elections Department should be given to the Clerk's Office. The Mayor does not seem to fully understand his role in this regard. He uses his office and power to actually support candidates while at the same time managing the very election mechanisms and operations of the elections themselves - conducting the elections, counting the votes, and announcing the winners.

After facing nation disgrace in this regard, that these precincts have not been redrawn by now, is a slap in our faces. We are the ultimate bosses here. We pay for everything. They only have to deal with us enmass at election time, and the world knows we have been treated like dirt. If they can't get these precincts redrawn by time for the election to defeat Scott, then we need to clean house and get rid of them all.

Anonymous said...

Gimenez made numerous promises during his election campaign to demand that the County enforce its Sign Code against illegal outdoor advertising, especially illegal billboards and other illegal signs. Once elected, Gimenez reneged on his promises and in fact, Gimenez and his staffers are pushing legislation that would allow more illegal LED billboards and other types of illegal outdoor advertising throughout Miami-Dade County.

Anonymous said...

I hope everyone realizes that many of these comments are written by County employees, most in the Mayors office who are witness to the ineptitude of this man. He is THE worst mayor in the history of Miami-Dade. .,,,, and I work in the "inner circle".

Anonymous said...

Is that Frank Sinatra singing Strangers In The Night?

Anonymous said...

You were wrong - and I tried to tell you both back then. Gimenez was an arrogant Commissioner, it was easy to see he would follow suit as Mayor. Now we are stuck with him, and it sucks.