David Custin left two commissioners off lobbying reports

Miami Beach campaign consultant and lobbyist David Custin is raking in the bucks representing vendors and developers with business deals before the very same people he helped get elected.

It’s nice work if you can get it.

It also smacks of influence. If you put people in office it stands to reason they owe you. They also want to please you if they want to keep their seat because you might run their re-election campaign — or you may run someone else against them.

This is why it is required for lobbyists in Miami Beach to note which city officials — both elected and staff — they have relationships with when they register to advocate for any entity. People are entitled to know who the lobbyist is close to.

But in the registration form for TC Miami Beach Marina, where Custin was paid $10,000 a month to redevelop the marina and Rebecca Towers (which he has since withdrawn since the project never moved forward), he fails to disclose two relationships.

Custin notes that he has relationships with Mayor Philip Levine and Commissioner Michael Grieco, whose campaign he ran in 2013. But he doesn’t include Commissioners Joy Malakoff, whose campaign he also ran in 2013, and Jonah Wolfson, whose campaign he ran in 2011.

In fact, David Custin also ran Judge Andrea Wolfson‘s campaign so you might think their relationship is even closer. But of 15 registration forms filed with Miami Beach in the past two years, Wolfson is not listed in any. Malakoff is only listed on seven.

Did he just forget? Or was he afraid it would be just too blatantly obvious that he holds way too much influence on the city of Miami Beach’s governing body?

Attorney and computer VJ Steve Cody came up with another video asking why Custin is hiding those connections.

But the consultant could be facing more than just some more much-deserved ridicule. He could be facing ethics charges and fines. Because Custin submitted those documents under sworn oath.

Because lying under oath is, effectively, perjury, and because he did it 15 times, Custin is facing a possible $15,000 fine. Even though there is a maximum jail time of 1 year for each count, Ladra doubts he’ll get to wear the orange jumpsuit.

But he should get community hours. I say cleaning up the bay is a good place to start.

David Custin, Jonah Wolfson, Miami Beach politics, Philip Levine

David Custin left two commissioners off lobbying reports added by Ladra on October 10, 2015
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