Mayor Gimenez adds details to online calendar

On Oct. 31, 2011, Miami-Dade County started posting Mayor Carlos Gimenez's calendar on the Internet. Anyone can log on to the county's website and see the mayor's schedule for the day -- who he's meeting with and when, and the places he visits. Viewers can go backward in the calendar and every afternoon look to see what's on the mayor's plate for the next day.

But that only earned Gimenez an In the Works rating on the promise that he had written in his Miami Herald editorial board questionnaire during the 2011 campaign: "I would also post my calendar on the Internet. Everyone should be able to see who I am meeting with and what we are discussing."

The calendar's "what we are discussing" category was hard to decipher. For example, we had no idea why he was meeting with deputy mayor Alina Hudak on Nov. 1. When we inquired about the lack of detail, county spokeswoman Suzy Trutie told us the county would add brief descriptions.

We checked back about one month later, on Dec. 8. There are now more details about Gimenez's meetings. Here are a few examples:

Nov. 21: Meeting with Rep. Erik Fresen, gambling legislation
Dec. 2: Meet and Greet with Christian Goode: Newly Appointed President World Resorts Miami
Dec 5: Manny Rodriguez, FPL Regional director re: Turkey Point
Dec. 8: Conference call with the assistant Housing and Urban Development Secretary, Discussion of Community Development Block Grant and HOME Allocations

Not every event Gimenez lists provides details. For example, the calendar lists the names of reporters and media outlets but not the topics -- but reporters may not reveal to the county ahead of time a list of topics. Some other entries are still missing an explanation -- Gimenez had a couple of meet and greets with different individuals the last week of November and no information was provided beyond their names (Christopher Sanz on Nov. 29 and Patrice Gillespie on Nov. 30) -- we have no idea what interests they represent based on these calendar entries. But the calendar does provide Trutie's phone number for more information.

When we looked over Gimenez's calendar in November and December we were able to learn that he traveled to Israel not on county taxpayer dollars, had meetings with some key players related to current hot topics such as gambling and finances at Jackson Memorial Hospital, and is schmoozing with various folks and getting out and about -- visiting a senior center, speaking at a libraries conference and reading to pre-school kids.

The county has clearly added details to give the public a sense of what Gimenez is discussing with politicians, business leaders and other individuals and what places he is visiting. And now we rate this Promise Kept.