Rosen Gonzalez says this commission stint will be less toxic
Miami Beach Commissioner-elect Kristen Rosen Gonzalez says she wants to leave campaign negativity in the past and focus on governing.
When she returns to the Miami Beach City Commission next week, Kristen Rosen Gonzalez says her fellow commissioners will meet “Kristen 2.0” — a more mature, seasoned politician who wants to rewrite her reputation as a firebrand activist prone to political feuds.
Rosen Gonzalez, who was elected to her old position Tuesday, said she wants to put the vitriol of a heated campaign season behind her and focus on the issues that matter to her supporters, like enhancing public safety, stopping the sale of the North Branch Library property and preventing the construction of a new fire station where the South Shore Community Center is now located.
She said she has enough allies on the Commission to move her agenda forward.
Rosen Gonzalez “I feel so optimistic for the community because we’re going to move away from the toxicity,” she said.
But not everyone has received her with open arms. Rosen Gonzalez said two of her biggest critics, Commissioners Ricky Arriola and David Richardson, did not congratulate her on the win after supporting her opponent Raquel Pacheco in the race. Mayor Dan Gelber, who also endorsed Pacheco, did congratulate her.
Arriola instead took to Facebook on election night to make a cryptic “Game of Thrones” reference about impending doom, writing “Winter is Coming.” The next day, he posted a photo of Rosen Gonzalez and her supporters celebrating the election win alongside a cartoon showing Batman surrounded by his worst enemies.
Arriola said he was hopeful, but not optimistic, that Rosen Gonzalez had matured since her first stint in office in 2015. But he said her behavior on the campaign trail — like falsely calling herself Hispanic, falsely claiming the endorsement of the Miami Beach Democratic Club and questioning
Pacheco’s status as a “decorated” military veteran — lead him to believe that she is still “the crazy Kristen of 5 years ago.”
He said Rosen Gonzalez “has promised to be a new person probably every time you meet her.” In her previous comeback attempt in 2019, she also referred to herself as “Kristen 2.0.”
Arriola said Rosen Gonzalez’s election will bring “gridlock, mayhem and craziness” to the commission chambers and get in the way of advancing projects he said are important for the city, like building the fire station and a new library in North Beach.
“Sometimes you need to be able to work cohesively as a body,” he said. “Kristen has no interest in building a coalition or being cooperative. She is a flamethrower and likes to disrupt things.”
‘SHE IS GOING TO TONE IT DOWN’
Rosen Gonzalez said Arriola and Richardson had been “verbally aggressive” to her during the campaign, but that she wanted to move past their disagreements and work together to help move the city forward. Instead of attacking each other, her critics should debate policy proposals, she said.
“Let’s debate the issues,” she said. “Just debate me on the issues, let’s not attack each other.”
Gayle Durham, a resident activist who supported Rosen Gonzalez in the race, said voters elected her to “push back” on over-development and be a part of a new “resident coalition” on the commission. Durham said during Rosen Gonzalez’s last term, she accomplished policy goals while being in the minority.
“Kristen is a new person and she is going to tone it down. She promised us no personal attacks because she realizes now she has to build consensus on the dais,” Durham said.
She said Arriola is “stirring up the trouble.”
“He would love for her to go off the rails and say, ‘Hey I told you so,’” she said.
The hostility during the campaign was an extension of the political bad blood Rosen Gonzalez has shared for years with certain members of the commission, born from her time as an activist lobbying elected leaders and from her 2019 campaign. She has referred Richardson to the inspector general and the MiamiDade Commission on Ethics, and accused Gelber of tampering in an election by extending early voting to coincide with a city-sponsored turkey giveaway. Gelber was cleared by the inspector general in the so-called “turkey gate” incident. The report found that Rosen Gonzalez campaigned at the food drive.
She said she has extended an “olive branch” to her new colleagues, and looks forward to their first meeting. She will be sworn in Monday, along with Commissioner-elect Alex Fernandez and unopposed incumbent Commissioner Mark Samuelian.
A FIANCE’S EXPLETIVE-LACED, CHAMPAGNE-SOAKED DIATRIBE
At her victory celebration Tuesday, Rosen Gonzalez sent a message to her colleagues “who were not so supportive” that she wanted to forget the campaign and “put all of this in the past.”
But earlier in the night, she called out the MiamiDade Democratic Party — which endorsed Pacheco — and told a Herald reporter that Richardson owed her an apology. She texted party Chair Robert Dempster Wednesday asking for an apology, too, Dempster told the Herald.
In a champagne-soaked victory toast after the election win, her fiance, chef Bernie Matz, delivered a vulgar, Spanglish rant listing all of her political opponents that she beat.
“Le ganó a Dan Gelber. Le ganó a f---ing Donna Shalala. Eileen Higgins, you f---ing b---h,” Matz said before a laughing Rosen Gonzalez stopped him and pointed out that he was being filmed. He then called out Richardson, prompting Rosen Gonzalez to again ask that he stop. “Everybody, everybody. She beat them all. David Richardson, we know you David Richardson.”
Rosen Gonzalez said Matz became emotional after a bitter campaign.
“Bernie was emotional, but I understand where he’s coming from because it was a very hurtful campaign,” she later said.
Rosen Gonzalez said she “hated” Richardson during the campaign for dissuading voters to support her with negative messaging. But she has moved on, she said.
“In September, I really hated David. He played a lot of dirty tricks on me,” she said, later adding: “I want to get along with everybody.”
Prior to the campaign, Rosen Gonzalez asked the city’s inspector general and Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics to investigate whether Richardson was legally allowed to advertise his name at food drive events he organized. On social media, she likened such self promotion to the actions of
“despots like Fidel Castro and Nicolas Maduro.”
Richardson said the inspector general never contacted him about the complaint. He said the Ethics Commission closed the file. He shared a photo of an email the executive director of the commission sent to Rosen Gonzalez stating there was no prohibition on the use of an elected official’s name at a food giveaway.
The two have also been at odds over legislative proposals Richardson has supported, like a plan to sell off the Byron Carlyle Theater and redevelop it as a workforce housing complex with a cultural center on the ground floor. Richardson said Rosen Gonzalez will likely oppose much of the legislation he proposes, but he will behave cordially with her when they become colleagues.
“I’m hopeful that we will be able to conduct the business of the city in a very cordial and dignified manner, because I think we owe our constituents that level of professional service,” he said.
Gelber, who was reelected to his final term earlier this month, said “collegiality is paramount” to the business of the commission and wished Rosen Gonzalez success.
“Once you create personal rivalries, then ideas take a back seat to the identity of whoever is advancing them,” he said. “I always thought it’s important to have a process which is thoughtful, informed, orderly and collegial.”
Rosen Gonzalez said she will work to rewrite the narrative about her.
“I’m now going to have to work very hard to show residents that none of these things that are being said are true,” she said.
Martin Vassolo: 305-376-2071, martindvassolo