Even though she has no plans to run against Carlos Gimenez in 2012, county Commissioner Barbara Jordan is definitely cementing her place as the Miami-Dade mayor's number one adversary. We already know Jordan is peeved Gimenez wants to lay-off 395 county employees that work for the county's Head Start program which provides social services to poor children.
She threw down her gauntlet at the July 19 meeting in which the county commission gave preliminary approval to Gimenez's budget. Jordan attacked hizzoner for allegedly not being completely honest during his campaign.
"You ran under the premise that you were taking things back to 2009-2010, giving the impression that everybody was going to be paying the same tax rate they paid in 2009-2010," Jordan hissed. "I am not playing with words. I am talking about what is reality. This is not reality. Everybody is not going to be paying the same."
A testy Gimenez didn't take kindly to being called a liar. "I was very careful what I said during the campaign," Gimenez snarled. "I don't like you putting words in my mouth."
Indeed, Jordan was splitting hairs. Gimenez has done exactly what he said he would do: eliminate the unpopular property tax hike from last year that led to the recall of Carlos Alvarez and Natacha Seijas. Every taxpayer will pay significantly less in property taxes this year.
However, a wrinkle in the mayor's proposal would have taxpayers in cities (North Miami and North Miami Beach are two examples) that contribute to the county's library and fire districts paying a slightly higher rate than taxpayers in cities like Miami, Miami Beach, Hialeah, Key Biscayne, and Coral Gables, which have their own library or fire districts.
In the interest of transparency, Jordan proclaimed, the mayor had failed to explain the wrinkle to voters when he was on the campaign trail. "The mayor never said depending on where
you live in Miami-Dade, some will pay less and some will pay more than they did in 2009-2010," Jordan asserted, who dismissively referred to Gimenez as the new "fire chief" once and the new "sheriff in town" twice.
"Actually I am the sheriff, maam," Gimenez retorted. "So be careful what you say now."
So does this mean we'll soon be seeing Jordan and Gimenez square off in a high noon showdown in front of the Stephen P. Clark Center? Let's hope so.
Below is video of the July 19 county commission meeting:
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