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Happy New Year to everyone in Coral Gables. We wish you and your families a year of health and prosperity.
As we look ahead to 2023, we encourage you to work toward achieving your goals and keeping everyone accountable to their promises.
In this spirit, I’ve got a New Year’s Resolution, too. It’s a big job so I am hoping you can help me with mine and I can help you with yours. You see it is election season, time to hold our elected leaders and staff accountable for the job they did in 2022. It’s time to determine whether they sacrificed for the greater good, for inclusion and freedom.
For residents of Coral Gables, the next big accountability moment is on April 11, the city’s biennial general election. Candidates are already filing their financial information at www.coralgables.com.
Now it is important to note that the mayor is elected on two-year terms and all commissioners are elected to four-year terms on a non-partisan basis.
So I ask you to ask yourself the following questions:
Is the Mayor holding himself to the highest standards of non-partisan leadership in Coral Gables? Are you happy with the way he runs the meetings? Do you think he places priority on the most important issues of the day, is impartial and judicious?
What about your commissioners? Are they keeping to the high standards of the “City Beautiful,” its careful management of development and its iconic neighborhoods?
What about your City Attorney? Are their contracts with private vendors and nonprofits generating the appropriate revenue for Coral Gables and keeping them in line, if they falter? Are the City’s best assets being maintained to the standards that residents have come to expect and preserving and harnessing them for future residents?
Is the City Manager a proper steward of all of the city resources, including roads, the heights of buildings, determining the appropriate number of new residences and offices that can be developed throughout the city and taking care of the human assets that have helped to shape and build Coral Gables?
How about the City Clerk? Is he processing the information necessary to make the city fully transparent, making it accessible to the public at meetings, upon request and online through the Coral Gables website, CoralGables.com? Are businesses getting the information they need to be able to survive and thrive in the new year?
How about the lifesavers – the Police and Fire Chiefs. Are they taking advantage of the resources they have been given to care for the life and health of every man, woman and child?
All of these questions must be answered for the city of Coral Gables to function at the highest levels and to serve its residents. There is no substitute for hard work and 2023 is the year to hold each other accountable for this task we have placed on their shoulders.
And if you are so inclined, let me know what you think. Email me at grant@communitynewspapers.com or call me at 305-323-8206.
Have a great 2023!
I agree w/Mr Holmes …..I would further add the following questions:
Pensions and Salaries-Nobody talks about this, yet it takes a huge dent of the budget
Monster development of existing Garage by City MGR- Not necessary
Transparency or the lack there off in dealings w/developers
Permitting- You can go crazy trying to get one in this city.
Thank you.
The City of Coral Gables needs to enact a Charter Amendment, or put up for Rederendum Vote, like that of Miami Beach and Key Biscayne — requiring city-wide votes on any major development project.
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The Cities of Miami Beach and Key Biscayne require Voter Referendum approval of all major development projects.
I formally requested that each Commissioner place on the Agenda, and vote for, either amending the City Charter, and/or putting this matter up to a Referendum Vote, to accomplish this.
Vince Damian convinced the Commission to impose Term Limits circa 2010. This can be done.
Let’s be honest. Citizens United has ended democracy in Coral Gables. With developers out-donating all voters combined by 4 to 1, we now have a developer-ocracy.
If Coral Gables cannot summon the courage to do what Miami Beach and Key Biscayne have done, to return democracy to Coral Gables, Coral Gables cannot truly claim to be a national leader among Cities, having surrendered its democracy. It is that simple.
A smart corporate executive who wants to move to Miami-Dade County and raise his infant children, free of urbanization and the crime that comes with it, can no longer choose Coral Gables to keep his children safe. They must settle in Pinecrest, Kendale Lakes, or other City further from downtown Miami.
The horse is out of the barn; Coral Gables has passed a point of no return in becoming a megapolopolis.
Commissioners need to salvage what we have left of the soul of Coral Gables, by enabling the Referenda above described.
Sincerely,
Jackson Rip Holmes
Candidate for Mayor of Coral Gables
http://www.ripholmes.com