MIAMI (WSVN) - Two mayors of different municipalities in Miami-Dade expressed their discontent with how Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez has implemented new orders without first talking to other leaders.
Several mayors across South Florida met for a meeting on Thursday morning.
City of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez expressed their frustrations with the lack of communication between Gimenez’s office and their offices.
They said they did not speak to Gimenez prior to him issuing the emergency order to shut down indoor restaurant dining rooms, ballrooms, banquet facilities, party venues and short-term rentals.
They also said the back and forth of deciding to close gyms and fitness centers and ultimately allowing them to stay open was also never brought to their attention beforehand.
Suarez and Hernandez said they are not happy with his leadership and wish they were in communication with Gimenez.
“I’m going to tell you what I’m going to do,” said Suarez. “I’m calling Mayor Gimenez. I’m going to call Mayor Gimenez, and I’m going to tell Mayor Gimenez that, you know, it’s incumbent upon all of us to communicate because it doesn’t look good for anybody, frankly, number one. Number two, the decisions that we may have to make could be an order of magnitude greater in severity than the decision that we’ve had to make.”
On the same day, the Miami-Dade mayor’s office announced Gimenez signed a $14 million agreement to have 250 more contact tracers in Miami-Dade County.
Mayors at the meeting said bringing these contract tracers to the county is just a little too late, that they should have been put into place months ago.
“Where is the evidence?” said Hernandez. “That evidence is tracing and we haven’t had any tracing in this county since the beginning.”
They said they are happy to hear more are coming to the county but there should be more of them.
“We need those people, when they test positive, to know instantly,” said Miami Gardens Mayor Oliver Gilbert. “We need to be able to contact their friends and the people that they’ve come in contact with.”
When asked about the possibility of another stay at home order, every mayor in attendance at the meeting said it would not be something they would want to implement. However, if cases continue to increase, it may become their only option moving forward.
Copyright 2025 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.