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Last night I attended the Coral Gables Commission Candidates’ Forum for the Mayoral Candidates, organized by the Ponce Business Association. The candidates in Group I (Mayor, two year term) are Ralph Cabrera and incumbent James Cason. Cabrera is an incumbent Commissioner but is term-limited for running to retain his current seat.

It was standing room only (about 150?) at the Coral Gables Congregational Church. There was a larger and more animated crowd than last week’s Group II Debate and they frequently offered partisan applause. This was not your average crowd and I wondered if there were many undecided voters present or if they all were supporting one campaign or the other — when the moderator flubbed a biographical fact about Cabrera during the introductions half the audience shouted “no”. There were even polite demonstrators outside, handing out fliers in opposition to the Coral Gables garage. Many of the questions submitted from the audience read like plants, designed to help one candidate or the other.

Local CBS4 news anchor Eliott Rodriguez again served as moderator. The format of the Forum was similar to last week’s: three-minute openings from each candidate, then questions from the moderator followed by some audience-submitted questions read by the moderator. Each candidate had two minutes to reply to each question, and at the end there were three-minute closing statements.

The word about this election is that the two candidates represent different, very divided, factions on the Commission. You can get a flavor of the gossip from Political Cortadito’s post Gables mayor’s race has third ‘candidate’ — the manager.

Both candidates made remarks that were rude or easily misinterpreted; Cason was more pugnacious than Cabrera, but nobody won this debate on style.

On substance it’s also a tougher call than I expected, in part because I still feel like I don’t know who is right about many facts on which the candidates differed.

• Is the Coral Gables crime rate up (Cabrera) or down (Cason)?
• Is the City Manager doing a great job (Cason), or worth retaining but needs his feet held to the fire sometimes (Cabrera)?
• Is Cason deferring too much to the Manager (Cabrera), or meeting privately with the Manager to shape the agenda in a manner that excludes other Commissioners (Cabrera), or a tireless public servant and paragon of openness who would happily meet with all Commissioners regularly (Cason)?
• Is Cason more confrontational with the Unions and City workers than necessary, and has he missed out on opportunities to negotiate in favor of shoving concessions down their throats?
• Is it true, as Cabrera charges, that the City would save money if it let the general municipal union leave the city pension fund, but the Mayor and Manager refuse to consider this option because it would mean less control over their workers?

Cason wins points for doing what he promised. Two years ago I thought it was fair to say Cason was a risky choice because, as a recent arrival to the City and to City politics, he was basically an unknown quantity. That argument cuts no ice today: Cason has a record on which he stands or falls.

So, while Cason wins points for doing what he promised, was what he was doing actually good? In some ways, yes; in others, not so much.

I think everyone agrees the City’s finances are in better shape today than they were two years ago. The whole Commission, and especially Cason, deserves credit for that.

I also agree that the City needs to upgrade infrastructure including roads and sidewalks. Cason wins a point for emphasizing that, although I didn’t hear Cabrera disagreeing with the objective, just the manner in which it was pursued without sufficient opportunity for citizen, or even Commission, input.

Cabrera has a record too. Cabrera wins points for opposing some initiatives that I don’t think were at all good:

• Forcing low-paid employees to take a 20% salary cut – which was moved into pension contributions — is pretty bad, especially if, as Cabrera charged, it made some employees lose houses or cars or forced them to go on Food Stamps. A de facto 20% pay cut is no joke for people living on a budget. Not making highly paid employees take a similar haircut seems to just underscore that someone has a management philosophy we cannot be proud of. Cason says that ‘City workers have tremendous salaries sand pensions,’ but how can that be true if some need Food Stamps?
• Spending $305,000 – yes $305,000! – on a bunch of “skinny palms” in a bunch of utterly pointless traffic islands on LeJune – a road the City doesn’t even own but will now have a continuing duty to pay to maintain a piece of. (Cabrera also claimed Cason pushed through the change without allowing citizen consultation or checking with Fire and Police about the negative effect on emergency service access during rush hour.)
• Waiving City procurement rules with some regularity and allowing no-bid contracts.
• It seems pretty clear that Cason takes a Tea-Party-like approach to unionized workers: he would rather impose things on unions than have to negotiate with them. That saves money in the short term, but isn’t a great labor relations strategy for the long term.

Cason tried to harp on Cabrera not winning any divided Commission votes in the past two years. That hardly seems surprising if there is a Cason-Kerdyk-Quesada majority that regularly votes against Cabrera-Anderson. The issue for me isn’t who was winning those votes, but who was right. And as I noted above, without key facts, it can be tough to answer that question. Meanwhile, Cason’s implicit argument that winning proves you are right and losing a divided vote proves you are wrong just reinforced his opponents’ narrative that he’s a bully.

Bottom line: I dunno. Neither candidate scored a knock-out in my view. I tend to agree with Cabrera’s view of labor relations and public participation much more than with what appeared to be Cason’s. On the other hand, Cason is better at articulating a vision of what he wants Coral Gables to be like and other than his strong anti-worker vibe has some sensible things to say about what is needed to achieve those goals – infrastructure repairs, a downtown night life that makes people want to stay after dinner. I just don’t much care for what I hear about his means of getting us there. One might argue that the advantage of a bull in a china shop is that it does tend to get where it is going. Or one might worry about who and what gets trampled on the way.

Below I reproduce my notes of the event for those who want a less filtered account of the forum and don’t get Coral Gables TV. The event was recorded for Coral Gables TV, which is available on Comcast Cable (channel 77), or Adelphia Cable (channel 97), or online if you have not disabled the vulnerable Siverlight plugin from your browser.
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Full write-up tomorrow, but meanwhile I can say that the Coral Gables Mayoral Debate this evening generated more heat than light. A lot of heat. I thought both candidates behaved pretty badly at times.

As we went into the meeting there was a group of very nice people handing out leaflets outside protesting the Coral Gables garage deal that puts the garage in the Grove, but doesn’t offer the neighborhood any service.

None of the protestors came inside to write out a question for the candidates, or if they did the moderator didn’t choose to ask it, but in any event the issue was never put to the candidates, which I thought was a real shame, especially since the Grove residents are suing, and seem to have a case.

After the event the Cason campaign was handing out 8.5 x 11 color printouts demonstrating the source of the Cason-with-a-liquor-bottle image that figured in the Cason attack ad that I blogged about last week.

Incidentally one of those mailers turned up here yesterday in an English-language version. Here’s the image in question:

Mayor Cason said the Coral Gables liquor bottle was not Photoshopped, as I had imagined, but rather was artfully cropped: the original image shows Cason accepting the bottle from the Mayor of Cognac, to whom Cason had just given the keys to the city.

Cabrera said the mailers were not sent by his campaign, but didn’t deny that he knew about them.

But like I said above, there was bad behavior on both sides, and I’ll get to work writing it up. I’m still not sure who I should vote for on this one.

Previous Coral Gables election coverage.

I just spoke with someone at the Latin Builders Association who said that the candidates’ event previously planned for tomorrow is not happening because too few of the candidates were able to make it.

Having missed the Group 3 event, I’m hoping that the all-candidates’ forum on Tuesday at the UMiami Fiedlhouse will be enough to help me decide who to vote for. In my experience, though, these cattle call events with a large number of candidates limited to brief replies to a small number of questions don’t necessarily shed as much light as one could wish.

I emailed the two sitting Commissioners I’ve contacted in the past, Maria Anderson and Frank Quesada, to ask them if they are endorsing anyone in the upcoming Coral Gables elections.

Here’s what they said:

Maria Anderson:

From my vantage point of 12 years on the Coral Gables City Commission, this will be the first time since 2001 that there will be 2 – 3 new faces serving our City. These new faces on our Commission will create an entirely new dynamic at City Hall. I am humbled for the three times Coral Gables residents elected me to office, however, as I leave public service, I am deeply worried about the future of my hometown.

The Mayor’s race in particular is pivotal. The standing mayor has become the puppet for a despotic City Manager. Furthermore the Mayor never truly expresses an opinion of his own. He is scripted by the manager, whose best interest does not seem to me to be in the best interest of Coral Gables.

Cason’s popularity with Cubans because of his Cuban Foreign Service work makes no sense to me. After all, I am a Cuban-born, 53-year resident of Coral Gables and my colleague, Ralph Cabrera is a Cuban born, 47 year resident. Our parents lost everything, and then made a life again in Coral Gables.

Shoddily re-paved streets and skinny palm trees do not a good mayor make. They are merely cosmetic cover-ups that hide the true issues. During his tenure as mayor:

1. Jim Cason refuses to admit that the City has had a 13%+ increase in crime. 2. Jim Cason approved an unprecedented number of no-bid contracts that cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars. A no-bid contract give one or two people or companies an exclusive “in” to make money without having to prove they are giving the best service. It’s the “good old boy” network at it worst. 3. Jim Cason views city employees like actuarial statistics and the manager behaves as if these employees are chattel because of a failure in leadership by the Mayor. Morale has flat-lined in City Hall. Jim Cason has not figured out that fairly treated employees give the quality service residents expect.

I have served with Ralph Cabrera for 12 years. He knows Coral Gables and has served the city for over 20 years. He raises his family and built his business here. As commissioner:

1. He has voted against increased fees for over eleven years. 2. He has demanded the truth on crime issues be released and educated the public on the matter by speaking to WPLG just two weeks ago. 3. He has voted against every no-bid contract proposed by the manager and the mayor, believing that waving the rules is wrong for the City and an abuse of the process.

I am voting for Ralph Cabrera and asking my friends and neighbors to do the same, because it is that important for our City!

(I gather that Maria Anderson is staying neutral in Group 3 because she is friends with both Mary Young and Pat Keon.)

Frank Quesada:

I am endorsing Vince Lago and Mary Young.

Vince Lago – I’ve known Vince for the past 14+ years. For as long as I’ve known Vince, he is the kind of person with an interest in helping others and has strong leadership skills. He’s also served on the City’s Planning and Zoning Board and although we don’t agree on every issue, he has proven to me that he cares about the City and is looking to improve and protect it.

Mary Young – I’ve known Mary for the last 2-3 years through her involvement in numerous community organizations. I’ve always liked her enthusiasm to help the community and her impressive business background.

Incidentally, I also emailed Vice-Mayor Bill Kerdyk, but didn’t get a reply. Given the performance he put on in the last election, I’m not sure if his endorsement wouldn’t count as a negative anyway.

I plan to go to the Mayoral candidate debate tonight. As I noted in my Coral Gables Commission Candidates’ Forum (Group II) Report the event was very informative even when the candidates tended to agree on the issues (as I said, I thought Ross Hancock made the best case for his candidacy). The Group 2 debate was very civil; I think there’s a decent chance of more fireworks at this one.

Political Cortadito dishes on the upcoming Coral Gables election: As Gables election nears, Lago, er, new faces are certain.

I haven’t felt right about PC since she started trashing Joe Garcia for no discernible reason, so feel free to take with a grain of salt.

Update: And she dishes on the Mayoral election too: Gables mayor’s race has third ‘candidate’ — the manager .

Some Coral Gables residents are getting a Spanish alternative to the English-language attack ad aimed at Mayor Jim Cason. It’s clearly a targeted mailing as I did not get one.

I think this one is perhaps going to be slightly more effective than the English one:

The main message is more streamlined: Cason is a big spender.

The image at the bottom left on which “Coral Gables” appears (via Photoshop?) on the label of a liquor bottle is a particularly interesting touch. Are they trying to suggest Cason is living it up on the taxpayer’s dollar? Or that he’s a big drinker? Seems below the belt either way.

Note that this mailer, like the English-language one, is sourced to “Citizen Action Inc. 1172 S. Dixie Hwy #250”.