Category Archives: Coral Gables

The Coral Gables Forum (previously known as the Ponce Business Association) will be running candidate debates for the upcoming Coral Gables Commission election. According to the calendar at their web page, this is the planned schedule:

• March 2, 2015 – Candidate Forum for City Commission Seat
  Group V – Coral Gables Congregational Church 7:00pm
• March 9, 2015 – Candidate Forum for Mayor Seat
  Coral Gables Congregational Church 7:00pm
• March 16, 2015 – Candidate Forum for City Commission Seat
  Group IV – Coral Gables Congregational Church 7:00pm

According to an announcement reprinted at the Watchdog Report,

events will be held at the Coral Gables Congregational Church (3010 DeSoto Boulevard) from 7:00pm to 8:30pm.The doors will be open at 6:45pm so audience members can submit questions to ask the candidates. Our moderator will be Eliott Rodriguez of CBS WFOR-TV. If you have any questions please contact us at coralgablesforum@gmail.com.For more information on the Candidates Forum and future events please visit our website at www.coralgablesforum.com.

I attempted to find out yesterday if the events will be televised on Coral Gables TV, but was unsuccessful. All I could learn is that they haven’t decided yet. (I sure hope so – I’m going to be out of town on the 9th; anyone available to video it for me if need be?)

There will also be a Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce event, held on the UM Campus a location TBA, but according to the charming lady who answers their phone, they haven’t set a date yet. When they do, it will appear either on the front page of their web site or events page. Last time it was in the fieldhouse on the UM campus.

Democracy is saved! Frank Quesada has drawn an opponent in Coral Gables Commission Group IV: Enrique Lopez, alternately described as a brilliant man and a “crony” of former Mayor Don Slesnick.

Not that there seems any groundswell to replace Quesada, but it’s still good to have a contest. Even good representatives should have to justify themselves to voters periodically. If, as George Volsky suggests, Lopez is allied with Slesnick, and given that Jeannett Slesnick is very much a candidate in Group V in her own right, it looks as if the sub-text, or maybe the actual text, of the election may shape up to be Casonites v. Slesnickites.

That could get heated.

Official City of Coral Gables : Candidates page now shows six candidates — perennial candidate Jackson Rip Holmes is back in the fray.

With this many candidates every candidate’s event is certain to be unsatisfying since they will just get a chance to soundbite, and there will little substance and less back-and-forth. Unless of course the people organizing the events change the round-robin format, and that is Not Gonna Happen…

Already?.) If I’m reading the election info page correctly, today is the last day to qualify, so unless someone else files today, this is the full field.

Meanwhile I’ve gotten some campaign mailers and leaflets. So far they vary along a continuum from bland (Ariel Fernandez) to vaguely repulsive (Sandra Murado). To the limited extent they discuss issues, they all are for trees and city beautification, and against crime, road congestion, and high taxes. Where they differ is the extent to which they have demonstrated a zeal to cut city workers’ pensions. Personally, I’m not real impressed by a candidate whose claim to fame is chomping on the hides of city workers, most of whom don’t get high salaries.

Other than pension “reform” will there be any actual issues in this campaign, or will it be one of personalities and track records? Not that in fairly good times (we have a great new City Manager) there’s necessarily anything wrong with that: It could be that for small-city government, when there’s no crisis personality is a reasonable basic litmus test. But for folks like me who don’t pay attention except briefly every two years, that makes it just that much tougher to figure out who to vote for.

April 14 — just over two months away — there is going to be an election for Mayor of Coral Gables and for an open seat on the Coral Gables Commission. Vice Mayor William H. Kerdyk, Jr., who has been in office since 1995(!), is stepping down due to term limits.

So in a couple of weeks I’ll have to start paying attention to Coral Gables politics again. A lot has happened since the ’13 election.

[UPDATES: THERE ARE MORE CANDIDATES — See Fifth Candidate in CG Commission Race Group V and And Then There Were 6 and Contested Race in Group IV]

As usual, I’ll try to go to some candidates’ events (please post any info you have about where/when they are in the comments!), send the candidates an updated version of my questionnaire, and maybe even try to do a phone or in-person interview with each of them. Please use the comments below to suggest issues/questions I should be asking about.

Meanwhile, a key fact: Voter registration closing date is March 16, 2014.

The candidates

For Mayor (Group I, two year term): This is a rematch election between incumbent last election was fought over two main issues: Cason’s support for the then-City Manager Pat Salerno, and Cabrera’s claim that there had been an uptick in crime. Cason and his supporters ridiculed that claim, and he won re-election.

Funny thing, though–soon after the election it started to look like Cabrera was right all along. First City Manager Pat Salerno resigned after being caught hiding traffic accident data from the Commission (the underlying issue was planting of expensive and unnecessary palm trees – so Florida). Short of outright embezzlement (and we’ve had that in Coral Gables in the past), I can’t think of a better reason to get rid of a City Manager than hiding info from the Commission. ¹

Then the Chief of Police I had got snookered about crime data like almost everyone else. Score another win for Ralph Cabrera!

But, wait a minute, a later data audit by the FBI (the FBI does data audits???) said the numbers were not cooked? Now I’m confused again… Expect to hear more about this during the campaign until we are all sick of it.

• Ralph Cabrera campaign webpage. Recent Herald and Political Cortadito coverage of Cabrera.
• Jim Cason campaign webpage. Recent Herald, and Political Cortadito coverage of Cason.

For Group IV (four year term): Frank Queseda is running unopposed. Once it was usual to speak of a Cason-Kerdyk-Quesada majority, but Queseda broke with Cason on the critical issue of ousting the City Manager after he was caught misinforming the Commission and, if memory serves, also broke with Cason on the decision to oust the Police Chief for faking traffic accident data.

For Group V (four year term): this is the seat Kerdyk is vacating. We are entitled to hope for an upgrade. There are four candidates:

• Ariel Fernandez (campaign website)
• PJ Mitchell (campaign facebook page; the campaign website was blank when I visited)
• Sandra Murado (campaign website)
• Norman Anthony Newell (Is there a campaign website?)

Both PJ Mitchell and Norman Anthony Newell ran in Group III two years ago, in the election won by Pat Keon (49% of the vote). In that race Mr. Mitchell got 7.38% of the votes, Mr. Newell got 6.00%. Amazingly, perennial candidate Jackson Rip Holmes (1.32%) does not appear to be running this year.

Conducted in off years, Coral Gables elections can be low turnout affairs. Although there are more than 31,000 registered voters in Coral Gables, fewer than 7,200 voted in 2013. So every vote counts more than you might think. With multiple candidates in the race you don’t even need a majority to win. There’s no runoff, much less the instant runoff voting system I favor for multi-candidate elections.

Note: Just in case it is relevant I thought I should direct candidates and their friends to the House Rules on Coral Gables political coverage. Worth reading before you try to enlist me in sliming your opponents.

1. Incidentally, as I understand it, Commissioner Vince Lago deserves a good share of the kudos for standing up for basic principles of honesty and good government and making Salerno go, which might be enough right there to get my vote when he runs for re-election.[]