MELISSA BLOCK, Host:
The economic upheaval of the last several years has had a big impact on the nation's politics at every level. In Florida's Miami-Dade County, it's changed the entire tone of local government.
As part of our series looking at the challenges faced by the nation's mayors, NPR's Greg Allen has this report.
GREG ALLEN: Carlos Gimenez has been a fixture in Miami-Dade County for many years, as a member of the Board of County Commissioners, before that as city manager and fire chief in the City of Miami. But now he suddenly finds himself in a new job.
(SOUNDBITE OF A SWEARING-IN CEREMONY)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I, Carlos Gimenez...
CARLOS GIMENEZ: I, Carlos Gimenez...
MAN: ...do solemnly swear...
GIMENEZ: ...do solemnly swear...
MAN: ...that I will support...
ALLEN: On July 6th, Gimenez was sworn in as the mayor of Miami-Dade County. It's Florida's most populous county with 50 departments, 27,000 public employees and a $6 billion annual budget. It's a job he ran for and won, after the earlier mayor, Carlos Alvarez, was recalled. That recall, in March, was part of a national wave of voter anger over taxes.
The former mayor, Gimenez recalls, pushed through a budget that - during a time of high unemployment and falling housing prices - raised property taxes and gave salary increases to unionized public workers.
GIMENEZ: It was unfortunate for the taxpayer because they had to pay more. And it was unfortunate for the mayor
ALLEN: Shortly after the county commission approved that budget, a recall campaign started that eventually ousted the mayor. Gimenez - a just-the-facts kind of guy, never known for his wit or sense of humor - voted against that budget. He's often been a dissenting voice on the county commission, opposing government spending plans. In that recall, he recognized an opportunity. You know, Miami-Dade County is no different than the rest of the country. There was a groundswell against increasing taxes. There was a groundswell against labor unions, in terms of their contracts and all that. And so, I just don't think that some of the powers that be, you know, in the county hall, they were listening to what really was going on. And it cost them their jobs.
Gimenez won a special election, and one of his first acts was to produce a county budget nearly 20 percent less than the current $7.6 billion. The plan rolls back property taxes, cuts 1,300 county jobs, and depends on more than $200 million in concessions by police, firefighters and other unionized employees.
Gimenez concedes that the last piece - asking workers to pay more for health care and retirement, and at the same time to accept a salary cut - will be tough for unions to swallow.
GIMENEZ: I fully expect that we're going to go to impasse with labor. I will try to work with them as much as I can to see how we can work things out. And a lot of it is counting on those concessions.
ALLEN: The final word on those cuts rests with members of the county commission. But the commission has already given the mayor's plan preliminary approval and now has little wiggle room left. Commission Chair Joe Martinez says his main concern is with county workers on the low end of the wage scale.
JOE MARTINEZ: When you add up the concessions that will be taken, some people it's about a 20 percent cut. When you're talking $40,000 that you make a year, you're leaving some people with $32,000. And these are people who are residents, taxpayers, who have mortgages, rents; they pay the light bill, the phone bill, everything else, just like you and I do.
ALLEN: Given the message of the recall, and the county commission's near unanimous support of Gimenez's austerity budget, even the public employees' unions seem resigned to the cuts. Greg Blackman represents some 5,000 county professionals who are members of the Government Supervisors Association. In a county where the unemployment rate is near 14 percent, he believes these cuts aren't good for his members or for the county economy.
It's no surprise, he says, that they're being proposed by Gimenez - a longtime fiscal hawk. What's disappointed Blackman, and other union leaders, is how the rest of the commission has fallen in line behind the mayor.
GREG BLACKMAN: There is a fear in the commission. They're scared of being recalled, so they're making decisions that are not really based on what's best for the county. They're making these decisions, I think, based on fear.
ALLEN: As a reform candidate, Gimenez says he'll also work to change the county charter, to impose term limits on county commissioners, plus restrictions on lobbying and a ban on outside work.
He has limited time. In winning a special election, Gimenez knows that he has just over a year to carry out his agenda before going back to the voters once again.
GIMENEZ: They're taking me out for a test drive, and so I better hit all the gears and I better make all the turns. I have a listing of what I said that I will do, I'm going to do it. And then the voters will decide next November.
ALLEN: Gimenez is currently holding a series of town meetings, where voters will have a chance to kick his tires and look under his hood.
Greg Allen, NPR News, Miami.
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