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- [00:01]
Billy Corben
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- [00:23]
Eileen Higgins
There.
- [00:27]
Billy Corben
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- [01:25]
Eileen Higgins
Subject to change Bribery, money laundering and official misconduct. We've had enough. Families are struggling. Businesses can't thrive when City hall is filled with corruption. Nothing gets done for the people. Miami City Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portillo was arrested and charged with money laundering and criminal conspiracy.
- [01:49]
Billy Corben
Joe Carollo was ordered to pay more.
- [01:51]
Mike (Sports Announcer)
Than $63 million for abusing his power at City Hall.
- [01:55]
Eileen Higgins
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is currently under FBI investig It's a giant clown car.
- [02:00]
Political Rap Artist
Full of frauds and cowards shitting on democracy Fabulously fond of bribery and laundering Dirty pay for play money Diaz de la Portilla Ponzi Postalita clandestinely plotting schemes Reyes King and Kova White be the corollo here. Corruption reigns supreme in Miami. The jokes don't only write themselves in Miami, they get elected here as well in Miami we're slowly sinking in the sea in Miami if you were smart then you would flee dysfunction Construction Mafia's got less corruption they're the worst we're all cursed. Hang around for a second verse. Where else is the status quo to be a scumbag? Bring on society. The feds are under Suarez, it's cleaner. And Juarez, it's hard to take us seriously in Miami. Hardass and Fado took a stand in Miami Then the commission had him canned. No, nothing happens up aboard in Miami but somehow it's all ignored in Miami. The jokes don't only write themselves in Miami, they get elected here as well in Miami. We're slowly sinking in the sea in Miami. Me in Miami In Miami they want you. They want you to pay no heat to the crimes they do.
- [03:40]
Billy Corben
They want you, they want you to.
- [03:42]
Political Rap Artist
Pay no heed to the crimes they do.
- [03:44]
Billy Corben
Please do not record if democracy has been spared here in Miami after a failed attempt to cancel this year's election. Although Damian Pardo would have you believe we're not canceling the election, we're just not having it this year. I had to do the same thing. I had to go to dictionary.com to figure that out also. No, no, no. We are postponing it. And I'm like, wait a second. Ok, so step one in a postponement is canceling and step two is rescheduling. And you know, as the famous economist once said, in the long run, we're all dead. So some people wouldn't live to see November 2026. And some of those people might have been the candidates. In fact, however the election is happening, I don't know that anybody knows that it is, but it's happening. And after eight years of mayor, Mayor Suarez is going to be, I guess, moving to Dubai. I'm not really sure. Somewhere in the. In the Emirates. Joining us now, the third, I would say top contender. I'm guessing your in house polling shows you as the front runner for the next mayor of the great city of Miami. County Commissioner Eileen Higgins. Your launch video there kind of shows you highlighting initially corruption. We hear a lot of candidates talk generally about corruption and cleaning up city hall. What is it that you think is the issue with corruption in the city of Miami and what are the other issues that you think are central to this city in this campaign?
- [05:19]
Eileen Higgins
When you are dealing with a city hall that is completely involved in scandals and disruption and distractions and corruption, nothing gets done for the people, right? So I live in the city, I love this city, right. It has a lot of potential energy. But way back when, remember Tomas Regalado? He was mayor and we passed the Miami forever bond and there were supposed to be all Kinds of drainage projects and park improvement projects and public works projects and police station improvements. And most of those haven't even gotten started. So when you're dealing with whether it's a commission and then also administration that is so distracted with all these lawsuits and all these other shenanigans, they're just not focused on the things that a city needs to become a world class city. And you know, you know what people, you talk to people all the time. I talk to people all the time. The affordable housing crisis is real. If you try to get a permit for anything, right. You want to paint your front door, you can wait two years. But certainly if you want to build a new affordable housing, between the time you get the approval from the commission, get your permits, it's four years. You haven't even broken ground. They can actually build it in two years. Less time than the bureaucracy. And so corruption ends up holding us back a lot from being the place we need to be for the residents that live here.
- [06:43]
Billy Corben
I was looking for more specifics, but I understand what you're saying, but you brought up something and I'm curious about it because what's happening at Melrese, this sports welfare deal that the city did for its largest parkland, its largest contiguous piece of green space that they gave away to pay for a shopping mall, hotel, soccer stadium, and maybe a little bit of a park, too. I've noticed that that structure is being slapped up in record time. I've never seen anything in the city of Miami, maybe in the county of Dade, on that scale, getting built faster on what was originally a super, A toxic Superfund site that was supposed to be remediated and mitigated. And what is the county doing over there? Is it just bought and paid for? Is just like. Is anything properly permitted, inspected? Was the remediation done for the toxic waste that was buried under the Mel Reese Beckham Moss stadium?
- [07:38]
Eileen Higgins
Yes. And the county's Department of Environmental Regulatory Management, Durham, as their. Most people, most of us know them. They were the ones that went through and supervised all of the soil remediation. Right. Because you often have to do that on big sites, particularly golf courses. Right. Because they are so heavily used with pesticides and other things to keep them green. They're overly green thanks to chemicals. So that, to my knowledge, has gone. And they would not have been able to even get a notice to proceed and break construction had that environmental cleanup not happened. You're right.
- [08:11]
Billy Corben
Are you confident about that oversight from the county?
- [08:14]
Eileen Higgins
I do feel confident of that because I'M sure you've heard other people on your show complain that Derm is so slow in everything that they do well.
- [08:21]
Billy Corben
But that's my point of small business owners who are trying to open up a restaurant. It takes them three years to open a 500 square foot space at Bayside. Because in no small part, not only because the city permitting process, but the county process as well, yet we can slap up the tens of thousands of seat soccer stadium. I mean, should anyone have any confidence in that structure and in the environmental safety of that property?
- [08:46]
Eileen Higgins
I have confidence in Durham's looking at the environment. They would not have been able to start construction if Derm had not passed that. Which means they are complying with all of our county codes and all of the state codes as well as. Well, you probably know this, but Durham is a delegated authority for a number of environmental permits from the state and also from the federal government. So I feel good about that. But it is very clear that the entire administration of the city of Miami is harnessing all of it can do. Because those construction permits are, you know, 99 out of 100 of those permits are coming through the city. So it is interesting, right, because they can manage to permit and get a soccer stadium built quite quickly. And by the way, I'm excited we're having soccer here. But at the same time, if I were to put into permitting, which I did, right, I just tried to permit an affordable housing building very, very low income seniors on 17th Avenue in Little Havana and took 15 months to get the permit out to build to just break ground on housing for low income seniors. So the city has to be able to do more than one thing at the time. We have to be able to get a homeowner permits to replace his windows with hurricane windows. We have to be able to build affordable housing and sure, go fast on a soccer stadium. We should be able to build things more quickly in our community.
- [10:10]
Billy Corben
But why can't we? Is it because these sort of these big money oligarchs of the city who are your campaign contributors as well, incidentally, Moss and FP L and Adlers and related and Tara and all the. All the usual suspects are on your donor list. They're the ones who seem to get things done a lot faster. Whereas some poor schmuck looking to build a fence has to wait years on end.
- [10:34]
Eileen Higgins
The system of permitting is broken for everyone and every single person. And I will tell you, I do build large structures and we have the hardest time getting them permitted in the city of Miami. But the System is broken. If you look into how they run their permitting software, everything is run in series, nothing's running in parallel. Right. So department A reviews department B and then department E has comments and it goes back and starts over the county permitting process. Everything goes in parallel. So you can get different approvals. Right. The landscaping people, people don't care about the plumbing people, why should they? Right. In general, we can get those things done. So the equivalent building in the county permitting system, basically. So I'll give you an example. I was able to permit a 12 story affordable housing building, also low income seniors. I secret shopped the city and the county. One was in the county zoning, the other was in the city zoning. Right. Both are located in the city of Miami, by the way. Right. One's in the rtz. So we control the zoning and permitting process. Put them in on the same day this building was 12 stories. Which means it's a different fire code. Right. It's much more complicated to go above eight stories. I had that thing permitted in 107 days. We are going to have people living in that building in November. And on the same day we submitted the eight story building. So the simple building, right? No complicated structural and fire codes. Right. That's where the national fire code changes. And that took 15 months. Right. So you are dealing with the same exact thing. Two governments. One can help you get something done and the other just simply delays. And by the way, time is money. And in that case, time keeps people out of housing. But think about the resiliency projects. We've got streets flooded everywhere. And forget about the fact that time is money. While they're waiting for their permits to fix their own bloody streets, we're flooding. So time is also risk when it comes to resiliency. And I don't care what anybody says we're facing, you know, the seas are rising and the storms are coming and they cannot delay this stuff.
- [12:41]
Billy Corben
Well, I referenced earlier the effort on the part of this commission to not only cancel this election, but of course gift themselves an extra year in office unilaterally without bringing it as a referendum to the voters of Miami. And that was a lawsuit brought by your opponent, Emilio Gonzalez, the former city manager of Miami, who successfully litigated that. And objectively, thanks to him and his efforts, legally, the election is back on. Where were you on that? You were conspicuously absent from that entire process. There were very few overtly public statements of support of that effort. And then the moment he won, a fundraising email appeared in our inboxes with the Subject victory for democracy. I understand that, you know, what do they say victory has? You know, has a thousand parents and failure as an orphan. But where were you? It's.
- [13:34]
Eileen Higgins
So I'll tell you. First of all, I was out knocking on doors, talking to voters and getting ready for an election, because I guess, unlike other people, I went to school and I learned how to read. And so I read the county charter. So I knew we were going to have an election. And I certainly was prepared to get involved in the lawsuit. But I'm also smart enough to know there's zero reason for two people to be in the same lawsuit when Amelia was busy doing that. Good for him. Right? But it's also indicative of the kinds of folks that are running. Right? They are literally in court all the time. And I thought, well, Emilio suing, fine. But I do disagree that I was nowhere to be found, because I did numerous television interviews, I did numerous radio interviews, all talking about the fact that it is terrible to just take a year. And long before that lawsuit was settled, I was on the record on numerous TV and radio stations saying, if I'm elected in November, I will submit an item for approval by the board and the commission. I'm sure they will do so. To take one year off my first term in office, we must move elections to 2028. So the Commission is right in that they got to give up a year. They can't take a year. Yeah, I mean, that's ridiculous.
- [14:57]
Billy Corben
We can have the even year debate. I think that's an interesting exercise electorally and intellectually, to talk about the merits and perhaps not of moving elections to even years. I mean, I guess Emilio Gonzalez really owned that media cycle, if you will, as a result of being the plaintiff. But the perception was that he was out there proactively fighting to save democracy, I imagine is how his campaign might spin it. And you kind of snuck in there after the fact to exploit his victory. And incidentally, incidentally, Commissioner, you would have benefited from a one year delay. So I wasn't entirely surprised to see you sit it out.
- [15:38]
Eileen Higgins
I don't know.
- [15:39]
Billy Corben
You'd have an extra year in office at the county. You'd have an extra year to fundraise. You'd have higher Democratic turnout in an even year election than in an odd year.
- [15:47]
Eileen Higgins
Billy, I would not have benefited in any way. The reason I'm running for mayor is the city needs fixing now. It does not need fixing next year. So, no, in my opinion, like you may electorally think I would have benefited.
- [16:01]
Billy Corben
Yes. And financially, you would have benefited.
- [16:04]
Eileen Higgins
Well, I don't know about that, but here's what I can tell you.
- [16:06]
Billy Corben
Another year of fundraising, another year as a county commissioner. Fundraising. That what you're to county vendors and to county lobbyists.
- [16:12]
Eileen Higgins
Your opinion of what I'm thinking and feeling during this process, which is not what I was thinking and feeling.
- [16:18]
Billy Corben
No, I'm saying objectively, I'm saying that's great.
- [16:22]
Eileen Higgins
Emotionally, this is for me. I am running for the city of Miami because the city of Miami doesn't work. We are having an election at a time of great difficulty for our environment in our nation, for the people who live here. We are facing disrespect. We are facing the end of TPS, which, by the way, in our county could affect 15% of our population. We are facing a declining, I mean, every hotel owner and every restaurant owner, it's the worst summer they've ever had. Tourism is down. There is a time and a place for getting a different kind of leadership that talks about this place and the people who live with it and manages it professionally with competence. So I would never have benefited as a city of Miami resident by waiting for an election for another year. That is another year where things go badly for us rather than have the opportunity to start on a different path. I never felt that way and I never would. And by the way, you're right, it's easier for me to win next year. I have to work harder to win this year. There's a reason they do these off year elections. So they minimize voter turnout and they have their little centers that they control folks in. I have to get out there and tell different people, guess what? There is an election on November 4th. Because if I weren't in this race, I would not have any mailers in my mailbox telling me to go out to vote for mayor. Nobody wants a person like me to vote for mayor. Right. They want just a very small pool. We. But for me, it is so crucial that we get a different kind of government and that we get somebody in there that works. I have a track record of working. You know, I'm a mechanical engineer, worked in the private sector. I started in manufacturing. I have 20 years of work experience in the private sector. I've run large divisions. I have turned businesses around and. Well, actually, I don't know if I've ever told you this story, but I was pretty successful. And then at one coaching session, you know, you go to these, whatever, corporate retreats, we had to write our own obituary. The question was, what do you like about it and what's missing. And for me, what was missing was the giving back part of the life. And so one year later, I quit my job. I was the director of the Peace Corps in Belize. And then I continued my federal service in the State Department as a diplomat in Southern Africa and then also in Mexico. So I went through a very big change to move to the giving back part of my life. And. And I do have. I'm in my last term on the County Commission. I feel comfortable there. I succeed and I achieve things for about a third of the residents. But I'm afraid for our city if we don't have competent leadership at the helm. And I have a different work experience for them. Right. Everybody else has been an individual contributor. They're attorneys. Okay, that's great. But that doesn't mean they've managed hundreds of people and thousands of dollars and managed buildings. And so when I get in there to fix things, I've actually fixed things in the real world. I haven't just like in my mind thought they could be fixed. And then I go into a meeting and go, well, do you think we can fix this? Well, I know we can fix it. I know how to fix it. So. I never wanted the election to be next year, by the way. I wouldn't have declared until next year if it was next year. Who wants to be a candidate for two years? That's awful.
- [19:56]
Billy Corben
You'd already declared because you thought there was going to be. Everybody thought there was going to be an election.
- [20:00]
Eileen Higgins
But there is. There is.
- [20:05]
Billy Corben
This episode is supported by FX's the Lowdown, starring Ethan Hawke. Allow us to introduce you to Lee Raybon, a quirky journalist slash rare bookstore owner slash unofficial truth seeker who's always on the tail of his latest conspiracy. This time, his most recent expose puts him head to head with a powerful family that rules Tulsa. Meaning only one thing. He must be onto something big. FX's the Lowdown premieres September 23rd on FX, stream on Hulu.
- [20:38]
Mike (Sports Announcer)
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- [21:36]
Eileen Higgins
Today.
- [21:47]
Billy Corben
We are back with Miami Dade County Commissioner and arguably, according to her polls anyway, frontrunner for the city of Miami mayor. An election that is actually happening in November, although I think vote by mail ballots probably go out at the beginning of October. We're practically in the middle of voting right now. You opened up lots of cans of worms before the break, including tps, which is for people following along at home. Temporary protected status for a community for a minority majority community like ours affects the Cuban community, the Haitian community, the Dominican community, the Colombian and Venezuelan communities. I mean, it has a dramatic impact. That said, a great big series of scandals this year had to do with the 287G contracts and commitments that various municipalities, cities, towns, counties make with ICE and federal immigration enforcement to effectively commit to collude with local law enforcement to what what immigrant groups would argue is terrorize immigrant communities to not trust and engage their local law enforcement or even report crimes because they're afraid that their legal status or immigrant status is going to be called into question. I remember a meeting at the county earlier this year where Camila Ramos, a Miami Dade county resident, an activist who is there attempting to understand what was going on because some of these meetings get a little confusing and it's not entirely certain what you're voting on or not voting on. If there's not going to be a quorum and sudden you're not, they're gonna cancel the meeting, tried to engage her government and was dragged out like an animal by Sergeant at Arms. You didn't say anything. You were sitting up on the dais.
- [23:28]
Eileen Higgins
No, that is not correct. I was out of town. I was in Washington at meetings that day. I was not on the dais that day. It was terrible what happened and I'm sad about what happened.
- [23:37]
Billy Corben
The Sergeant Arms doesn't have authority of that chamber. The commissioners do. Anyone could recognize her. Certainly the chairman could have recognized her. To his credit, Renee Garcia was the only commissioner who came out after the meeting and said to that that was terrible. It's not very encouraging for someone who regularly attends City of Miami commission meetings that are run slightly more civilly than what we saw in that episode. But how are people to have confidence that they are going to be able to freely and constitutionally engage with their government?
- [24:05]
Eileen Higgins
What happened that day was wrong. She should never have been dragged out. That was inappropriate and our chairman should have said something, but he didn't. And he should have and he didn't.
- [24:16]
Billy Corben
Did you talk to the chairman about it?
- [24:18]
Eileen Higgins
We are not allowed to talk because of the Sunshine Law and things that we may have to vote on.
- [24:21]
Billy Corben
Did you call a Sunshine meeting so that you could have a conversation about how you. About how the meetings are run and how we don't have law enforcement use the faces of our residences to open doors?
- [24:34]
Eileen Higgins
That's our sheriff department too, by the way. Let's be very clear. And you know, so.
- [24:38]
Billy Corben
But in the chamber, in the chamber, any one of the commissioners can recognize her.
- [24:43]
Eileen Higgins
It was not right. I'm sorry I wasn't there that day, but as you well know, forgive me.
- [24:48]
Billy Corben
I was mistaken about the President.
- [24:49]
Eileen Higgins
Yes. No, I was not there. And I'll tell you why I wasn't there. I was in Washington because at that point in time we were doing a lot of back and forth to try to get the last $489 million for the Northeast Corridor commuter rail. And so I am in charge of that project. And so it was important to make sure that that was in the federal budget. And it is. So, you know, so every now and then you're not at a commission meeting during a moment where it probably would have been good to be there.
- [25:14]
Billy Corben
But Speaking of budget, $402 million deficit in the county this year, yet we're giving sports welfare by the tens of millions of dollars to the billionaires at FIFA, to Stephen Ross, who you all voted to increase the sports welfare that he receives for special events, particularly World Cup. So the World cup subsidies are in excess of 66, $0 million. While we're talking about increasing the cost of public transit for some of our hard working class county residents, talking about charging for Metro Mover, talking about cutting serious services for some of the neediest of our residents and members of our community. Why all this sports welfare when we're facing this kind of deficit? And how do you account for that fiscal irresponsibility at the county when you want to be the mayor of Miami?
- [26:08]
Eileen Higgins
Well, I think you probably. Well, I don't know because since we didn't get home to five in the morning, so I don't know if you heard what I said. At our budget hearing. But I told the mayor she should look into cutting the FIFA contributions in order to fully fund our cbo. So that was the direction I put on the dais for the budget. And listen, I want FIFA to go well. I want the world cup to go well. We all do.
- [26:32]
Billy Corben
But they don't need the money.
- [26:34]
Eileen Higgins
They're an organization that is really rough to work with. And as that agreement was made with Mayor Jimenez, da da, da da. There were some commitments to it, but I said to the mayor, cut it. There's a fan fest that's going to be happening downtown. I don't even know if they're going to be able to raise the money to do it. To me, that's the perfect amount of money that could. You could move from fan fest and that go right back into CBOs, because when we were looking at. And we should back out, too, because this is something that's really important for the residents to know because they think we have a budget shortfall. It's not actually true. We have a completely changed government, right? We used to have one unified government in the county, and now we have six governments in the county. And the county had ample notice and.
- [27:23]
Billy Corben
Ample opportunity to prepare for that.
- [27:24]
Eileen Higgins
So that is a. Per. Six things always cost more, right? You got six procurement departments, six HR departments. Six. This is six. Right. And so you have a permanent shift of essentially half a billion dollars out of what we consider the county government into the tax collector, the sheriff's office, this, that. You know, we used to have a police department for $800 million. Now we have one for 1.1 billion. We're just as safe, right? Nothing's changed, except she's spending an extra $300 million. Right?
- [27:57]
Billy Corben
So, again, all this was predictable.
- [28:00]
Eileen Higgins
Unfortunately, the voters. The voters approved that. I voted against it, obviously, because I know that six things cost more than one thing.
- [28:07]
Billy Corben
So I voted against.
- [28:09]
Eileen Higgins
I'm an engineer, so I voted against a lot of math.
- [28:12]
Billy Corben
But this was all long enough ago that the. That the city commission, the county commission, forgive me, should have taken the necessary precautions if that included austerity measures in years past when we were flush with federal Covid cash and. And everything else. But nobody made those preparations, not mayor Danielle Levine, Cava, and not any of you county commissioners.
- [28:34]
Eileen Higgins
Billy, what would you have us do? We were able to fund the arts institutions all along, and we've gotten almost to 100% this year. And part of it is, you know, raising the alarm, saying we need to do things a little differently. We've Gotten some input from the private sector. We've gotten some other things. By the way, the mayor was able to bring the sheriff to the table and also the tax collector. So I think the negotiations, she's done a reasonable, reasonably good job in a terrible, you know, in a hard situation. But I would much rather have made sure that we recovered from COVID properly and had our CBOs activated. Activated. Activated and versus having money sitting in reserves and having slowly but surely cut those services off. And I think we're going to find on Thursday night that will do pretty well, and the CBOs will have funds back. And as you well know. You know, I not only talked about it, I also, you know, wrote the mayor a memo saying, the CBOs matter to me. I want them. These are vital services. And we live in a country where much of the social safety net is provided outside of government. Right. When you go to Europe and other places, people pay a whole heck of a lot more in taxes. And so the social safety network is one within the government. But in our country, that's not the case. Some of it's from the government and some of it's coming in from all of these beautiful community based organizations who are embedded in the community, know individual niche needs, and actually are able to raise in a charitable fashion, too. So it's a. It's a nice, efficient system.
- [30:09]
Billy Corben
Let's pivot. You have, I think, been on the side of advocating that effectively the RTZ should supersede Miami. And let me explain to people what that means. The RTZ is the rapid transit zoning to which to me is a total bullshit workaround by lobbyists and real estate hucksters and the oligarchs of this community to say that, well, we're close enough to a Metro rail station that we get all kinds of additional units. And every single one of those units can add millions of dollars potentially to the bottom line. And so when you add additional floors and hundreds of additional units at these buildings, where everybody's gonna drive this idea that everybody's gonna suddenly use the total, total fraud. And this has transformed the city of Miami. It's made traffic far worse. It's obliterated tree protections. We've put some of the most massive and dense developments along or near Metro rail where people can't even get how do you get the last mile or how do you get the last few blocks or whatever. Nobody's actually foregoing cars to take Metro Rail. Now all of a sudden you're going to come to the city and say what we should Continue to abdicate to the county.
- [31:17]
Eileen Higgins
Here's what I can tell you about rapid transit zoning. First of all, in the district I represent, which is downtown in Brickell, there is not more density. Under the rapid transit zone, there's less density. Miami 21 in downtown Umbrickel permits 1,000 units per acre. I'm talking about the county's zoning.
- [31:38]
Billy Corben
US 1 through Coconut Grove going all the way into Coral Gables.
- [31:43]
Eileen Higgins
I will never ever believe we should have low density near a transit station. Right? There's no way to expand roads, absolutely none. We are going to have to have density near transit stations. Then you've got to, you know, taper down, taper down. As you, you know, you need to blend, blend, blend into the single family home neighborhoods. Has to be done. Let's be very clear. This county is almost 300,000 units short of housing. In order to get our housing affordability crisis, we are out of land, right? We are bouncing. Let's be very clear. We've got a swamp to our west. It's a very nice swamp. It's the everglades. We've got a swamp to our south, also nice, the Everglades. We got water. The east, it's the ocean. And we got Broward county, the north. So if we're going to get our housing affordability crisis, it is a supply and demand. We do have to build. We're going to have to get used to sometimes. There's an apartment building near a metrorail station. So that is important to me and I'll tell you why. The top two costs that every single family confronts is the cost of housing. And we talk about that all the time. No one should spend more than 30% of their income on housing. But no one is supposed to spend more than 40% of their income on housing plus transit. It's an index called the h T. And in our community we far exceed that. So when we're able to build affordable housing near reliable rapid transit, we're checking off the boxes on two of the top biggest costs. So I'll give you an example of a building. As a matter of fact, you'd have a good time coming over there right next to the Brickell train station we built Magnus Brickell. That is a site that's about 454 units. And I remember going to the banks, they said it could never be done. 92 of the units are for very low income seniors. They're paying about $200 to $300 a month, depending on their income, to live in a luxury building next to a transit station. We also have about another third of the units which are for workforce that 80% of, you know, so young people. And then there's some market rate which is fine, that helps us pay for these, you know, these rent stabilized apartments. And I was out and I thought, how's this going to work? Got these little vejitos, we got these hyper cool like young folks living, they all get along great. And when you go and talk to those residents, the old people feel safe living there because young people are there. And the young people feel cared for because they call them their abuelos. And that is mixed income. And so it's not all luxury. It we are building these buildings.
- [34:34]
Billy Corben
A lot of it is luxury, Some of it's luxury. But on the county part of it is luxury.
- [34:39]
Eileen Higgins
Some of it is.
- [34:40]
Billy Corben
A lot of it is luxury.
- [34:41]
Eileen Higgins
Some of it is.
- [34:41]
Billy Corben
No, some of it is county, Some of it might be workforce. Not a lot of it is affordable and most of it is luxury. Most people cannot afford to live in these RTZ high density buildings. That's just the reality of it. Am I wrong? You're built, I mean, Mercedes buildings or whatever. This totally out of proportion Vizcaya station thing is in Shenandoah, which is not a tapering down. It is a dramatic change in a single family home.
- [35:09]
Eileen Higgins
Nothing is happening on that. So I don't even know what you're talking about on that.
- [35:12]
Billy Corben
But that is a project that you helped to champion, is it not?
- [35:16]
Eileen Higgins
I totally changed it. So I mean I rejected what they put in because it was inappropriate. You've got to remember the county has two zoning codes. One is you can have in the rtz. We're different from the city.
- [35:28]
Billy Corben
But this is important though for the people of the city to know that. Because a lot of people in the city have issues with this and have done battle with you, with the county, not just you, but with the county over this. And you might have a very different philosophy from how your future constituents in the city of Miami may feel about this.
- [35:43]
Eileen Higgins
Well, I'll tell you, when I talk to people in Overtown and Liberty city and little Haiti, they're happy to have apartment buildings in their neighborhood where they can afford to live and they are thrilled with the county's projects. Right? We just opened a beautiful building in Overtown and I remember I was talking to somebody, they were like, oh my gosh, there's like that target and the building so pretty and da da da da. There's 500 low income seniors living in there. There's Not a single person. Every single unit in that building is for low income seniors. We just are opening another building. Actually I got a VTS tour. They got their certificate of occupancy, the Atlantic Station building and that's a workforce building. Everybody is 120% of area medium and below and there's low income units in there. So when you get out and talk to folks that currently are living in their parents home, right? Or old folks that are just have nowhere else to go. So when I was in Magnus Brickell the other day, there was a gentleman that burst into tears and he says thank you for building this. Right? Not like I took the hammer out, but anyway, it was my project. But I said where were you living before? He goes, I was living in my car and this is a person that is elderly and so will I take a little traffic in order to build a unit for a person like that to live in. I will always make that decision and there will be people that will not like me for it and will not vote for me for it. But we have a housing crisis and it's at every age and every income level and housing near transit can help help solve that.
- [37:30]
Billy Corben
What does Zyn give you? Not just smoke free nicotine satisfaction, but real freedom. Freedom to do what you love and choose your rewards. With Zinn rewards you can redeem points for premium tech outdoor gear and gift cards to your favorite retailers. Find your Zinn and keep finding rewards that fit your lifestyle@Zinn.com rewards. Warning. This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. There is a story in Political Cortadito about how you were approached at a Miami Climate alliance meeting by someone from the Sierra Club who asked you to meet with them about composting versus incinerator. I imagine you were quoted as having said that you would not meet with the Sierra Club as long as they employed Ken Russell, the former Miami City commissioner and one of your opponents for mayor.
- [38:31]
Eileen Higgins
I did not say that. Now I did not.
- [38:33]
Billy Corben
Were you joking? Might you have said it in jest?
- [38:36]
Eileen Higgins
I don't think so. I don't. I don't think so. Matter of fact, I think Ken's put out a video saying that that was not true. So.
- [38:43]
Billy Corben
Well, I don't think it was there. But what is. What about the. This is an issue about composting versus incinerator which you seem to flip flop on.
- [38:49]
Eileen Higgins
No, no, no. Composting incinerators are totally different. So the incinerator. Let's be very clear. Mayor Daniela Living Cava, who Is like, I think the world's top environmentalist. Right.
- [39:05]
Billy Corben
Let's not get carried away.
- [39:06]
Eileen Higgins
She's pretty. She's better than all of us. So for years, every memo that's.
- [39:11]
Billy Corben
We can agree to disagree, Right?
- [39:12]
Eileen Higgins
But every memo that's come out has said that the most environmentally safe method is to use incineration. And it's, it's what's called a mass burn facility. It's very different from what we have. So mass burns away. Yes. So I'll tell you what, Donald Trump got involved because he just, you know, whatever. One of my colleagues made a phone call and he decided he was just going to. That was it and caused. So basically everybody caved to the president and we are now on our commission have made the most unenvironmental decision possible for the rest of our lives. Every piece of garbage in this community is going to go on a diesel truck, Right? Because we have bought electric garbage trucks. They don't work very well yet. They will eventually, maybe 10 years from now. So now we're going to put them in a diesel truck and we're going to truck everything to a landfill in the center of Florida. Landfills produce a lot of methane, which is way worse. It's the worst of all of the gases for heating up our planet. And they also leach into the groundwater. Right. So this is.
- [40:11]
Billy Corben
Our incineration generates a lot of CO2 as well.
- [40:14]
Eileen Higgins
This because methane is different. I know methane is very different. The other thing with waste to energy facilities. So our plan would be to have all of the energy that is generated is actually fueling our electric fleet. Because now we do have a lot of electric fleet, although, you know, our regular trucks, the heavy, heavy ones are not quite there yet. So I don't really know. This probably means there's something wrong with me. But whenever I'm on vacation, Europe, I now go visit incinerators. I visited them in Finland, I visited them in Vienna. They're in residential neighborhoods. This technology is what every advanced country in the world is using with the exception of the United States of America. And it's interesting, I was at a neighborhood association meeting the other day because they were, you know, because there's a lot of misperceptions about what a mass burn and waste to energy facility is. And I explained my reasoning that I feel very good about being the vote. That said, I would like a mass burn facility. I would like to use new technology that is good for the environment versus old technology, which is notoriously bad for the environment. And trucking the Other piece in all of that is our county commission, which I voted against, voted to raise the cost of disposing garbage for the residents of the city of Miami by about $40 million over the next 25 years. So we're doing something that's bad for the environment, that costs us more. And so I was at this neighborhood association explaining this, and this guy raised his hand and he goes, you know, well, I'm an environmental scientist. I thought, oh, I wonder what this is going to go. And you know what he said to the group? Everything she said is correct. The best decision we could have made for the environment. So all of my colleagues made a popular decision. I stuck with science and the environment, and I feel good about that.
- [42:10]
Billy Corben
I've talked to a lot of your current and soon to be former constituents and many of them are extremely disappointed about you resigning one year into a four year second and final term as county Commissioner. Further, a great many people in the Democratic Party and you're running a very sort of Democratic centric campaign. In fact, I think your polling probably over indexes Democratic turnout in an odd year. But then your political consultant also told us that Kamala Harris was gonna win Miami Dade county by 15% and that James Reyes was gonna win Sheriff by 10%. I think he got that exactly in reverse. Setting that hustle aside, your resignation will flip the Miami Dade County Commission from majority Democrat, not that it really matters, to majority Republican. I understand there's already some sort of deal is in the works with Vicki Lopez. A criminal, by the way, a criminal whose sentence was commuted by President Clinton. A woman who has continued to prey on this community for the benefit, financial benefit of her family. Setting aside whether or not Vicky Lopez will get your seat, we're talking about in a special election. Diaz La Portilla, Alexia Zapartia might run for your seat. Joe Carollo might run for your seat.
- [43:20]
Eileen Higgins
I mean, neither live in the district.
- [43:21]
Billy Corben
It's a cesspool out there. I'm just, I think a lot of people feel that you're abandoning them. At the very start of this term, you had an RFP out to transform downtown that presumably the next commissioner will basically take over. And people are frightened about that prospect. What do you say to those people who feel abandoned by you?
- [43:39]
Eileen Higgins
So 2/3 of the people in my district will continue to have my representation, this time as their mayor rather than on the county Commission. So actually closer to their day to day lives, as you know, the city has a ton of impact on how we live as, how we live as residents. I Can tell you that 3,000 of them signed a petition to get me on the ballot. So there is a lot of grassroots support.
- [44:07]
Billy Corben
That's just money. But that's a Christian Ulvert hustle. You could just as easily pay the fee and qualify. He gets to skim a bunch of money from the campaign that your donors are donating in order to spend tens of thousands of dollars to collect petitions. That's not indicative of anything.
- [44:20]
Eileen Higgins
We've got young, young college and high school students out there on the weekends. They've been helping. They're charming. We're trying to teach them good skills, like, you know, spreadsheet skills and calendaring skills and all these other things so they benefit. But the point is there's. People are not telling me they do. I do. Oh, we're gonna miss you on the commission. But then they say we need you as mayor. Right. Because you don't get to make the perfect choice right now. There is.
- [44:48]
Billy Corben
What about your constituents in Coral Gables?
- [44:49]
Eileen Higgins
Your constituents in don't represent Coral Gables.
- [44:52]
Billy Corben
There's other municipalities. Miami Beach.
- [44:54]
Eileen Higgins
I do represent Miami Beach.
- [44:55]
Billy Corben
Key Biscuit.
- [44:56]
Eileen Higgins
I do not represent.
- [44:58]
Billy Corben
Where else are. Where else is your district?
- [44:59]
Eileen Higgins
Miami.
- [45:00]
Billy Corben
Gerrymandered. Things are ridiculous. Gerrymandered districts. Let me ask you this one thing before you go. And you knew this was coming because I've mentioned it a couple times. We've talked about it offline. I think one of the most underreported scandals, corruption scandals in Miami Dade county is your political consultant, Christian Ulvert, who is a puppeteer of. He's really the county mayor. He, in my estimation, works as an unregistered lobbyist for companies and moneyed individuals. In addition to Qatar, which is Hamas headquarters in the Middle East, a misogynist, homophobic, and terrible regime in addition to being the headquarters of the Hamas terrorist organization. But he also represents businesses in Miami Dade. In Miami that do business with the government and yet doesn't register as their lobbyist. And yet they continue to get big money contracts and deals from Mayor Daniela Levine Cava and the county commission. Why should we let him. Him into the city where there was no doubt he is going to work as an unregistered lobbyist. Once again, he's gonna shake down as he has at the county business owners and lobbyists and people. I understand right now, people think he's very vindictive. People think you were very vindictive. And there. And there are people who you've done business with at the county, developers and lobbyists and people who have donated your Campaign. There are people who have never met you in the city that feel like they are being intimidated into donate to you because that's how Christian has positioned this. Why should we let what I believe to be the worst, most underreported and underexposed scandal in Miami Dade politics, a corruption scandal, in my opinion, into Miami City Hall? Aren't we just trading one Miami mafia for another Miami Mafia? If we let Christian Ulvert into City.
- [46:42]
Eileen Higgins
Hall, first and foremost, he does not play any role in how I govern.
- [46:47]
Billy Corben
But he's going to lobby you as mayor of Miami.
- [46:49]
Eileen Higgins
He does not lobby me now as county commissioner, you know, he's gonna go.
- [46:54]
Billy Corben
Around to people and say, I'm the mayor's guy. I have the mayor's ear. He does it at the county.
- [46:59]
Eileen Higgins
He doesn't do it at the county with me.
- [47:01]
Billy Corben
Oh, come on.
- [47:02]
Eileen Higgins
He does not do it with the county as me. And let me tell you why, right? I don't need his advice on how to operate things. I need his advice on which doors to knock on to win my campaign. Let me tell you why. First of all, I'm a fully formed, functioning adult.
- [47:18]
Billy Corben
MA or Daniela Levine, Cava is not.
- [47:20]
Eileen Higgins
A fully formed, functioning adult. Let me tell my work experience is very different than her.
- [47:24]
Billy Corben
He chooses her staff. Her staff doesn't respond without checking with him first.
- [47:29]
Eileen Higgins
Billy, politically, she is a different person than I am.
- [47:32]
Billy Corben
But he is going to do this at the city. He might not do it to you. He's going to do it to the city commissioners. He's going to go and shake down business owners and lobbyists and special interests just like he does at the county.
- [47:44]
Eileen Higgins
This is not going to make a difference. Every single person makes a difference in the people. Does that make a difference to me and how I operate? You can just look at my track record.
- [47:53]
Billy Corben
So what's going to happen? He's going to. He's going to go lobby for three votes on the city commission, and you're going to veto something that Christian Overt as an unregistered lobbyist has put together for one of his outside.
- [48:03]
Eileen Higgins
If it's bad for the residents, you bet I'm going to veto it. Let me tell you, Billy, I have 20 years in the private sector, right? I don't need advice on how to build buildings. I've built buildings. I don't need advice on how to run fleet. I've run fleets. I don't need advice from anybody on how to run emergency operations. I've run emergency operations in other countries, in the developing world. I don't need anybody's advice on how to organize contracts. I've negotiated contracts, by the way. Sometimes I've done them on blood diamonds to make sure that people. You forget I have worked in the foreign service. I have experienced this different. I am perfectly capable of being mayor. I need a campaign consultant.
- [48:45]
Billy Corben
Say you're not, but we are the company we keep. You know his reputation. You know the damage he's done to this community and to the party. And yet you continue to employ him and put him in a position where he can leverage his relationship with you to personally profit himself at the expense of your constituents.
- [49:04]
Eileen Higgins
I can tell you I do not speak to him about any county business.
- [49:08]
Billy Corben
You don't have to.
- [49:09]
Eileen Higgins
So that's not going to change.
- [49:10]
Billy Corben
You don't have to. What I said if you can go around and buy three votes on the commission and make maybe even a veto proof majority on the commission again, we can continue to have this conversation. I just don't think he's good for this community. How do we know that? Are we better off now than we were four years ago? Are we better off now than we were eight years ago? Is the Democratic Party more or less of an entity? And he's been one of the leading, quote unquote progressive political consultants in this community.
- [49:35]
Eileen Higgins
Just go to work and I work on my project.
- [49:38]
Billy Corben
Florida is red. Miami Dade county is red. The Miami Dade County Commission is going to be read. That's on Christian's watch. He controls the Miami Dade Democratic Party. He has clients. I mean what I'm saying is like he is going to be a problem at the city if we let him into the city. And I think people don't talk about. I know this sounds like in the weeds or inside baseball, but the man is the de facto mayor of the county and has clients that he goes and gets multimillion dollar contracts with the county. He may not lobby you, but he's lobbying your colleagues. That's presume he's lobbying them. I understand, but he's gonna do that at the city of Miami. And this will get. You will give him that leverage if you were elected.
- [50:17]
Eileen Higgins
I don't give him that leverage now. Nothing's going to change on November 4 after the election is finished. I have never ever let him influence how I decide things in the operational capacity. Does he understand how you know when we should knock on doors and how to knock on doors and should we send direct mail and not. You bet he does on campaigns. But when it comes to running the county and the County, My role in the County Commission. I know how to do that job a heck of a lot better than he does. And I do have people that advise me, but he's not one of them.
- [50:51]
Billy Corben
But you don't deny that he will have an outsized role and influence at the city.
- [50:56]
Eileen Higgins
He can call anybody he wants. There is zero reason for them to be influenced by him unless they decide to be. That's on them. That is on them. That is not on me. I have never, ever combined my campaign team with my work team. I don't need his advice on these things. There is not a single thing he can tell me about how I got the northeast corridor funded at the federal government. There's nothing. He knows about that. I know about that. That I'm the one that's been to Washington 10 or 12 times to make sure we get that half a billion dollars. I'm the one that managed to get myself to be the chair of the National Association's Transportation Steering Committee because I knew I would learn all of the things I needed to learn to make sure that our community gets our transit projects funded. And so I know how to do these things. I don't need business advice. I need campaign advice. Advice. And I'm happy to have his campaign advice. But he will not be in my business.
- [52:01]
Billy Corben
County Commissioner Eileen Higgins. We've gone so over. It's actually election Day. I believe it's November. November. Thank you so much for joining us. This was a lot of fun.
- [52:12]
Eileen Higgins
Cheerio.
- [52:13]
Billy Corben
We should do it again.
- [52:14]
Eileen Higgins
We should.
- [52:15]
Billy Corben
She doesn't mean.
- [52:16]
Eileen Higgins
No. I don't want to come here ever again.
- [52:19]
Billy Corben
Cocaine.
- [52:24]
Eileen Higgins
Howdy.
- [52:24]
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