Justice? Punks get the book thrown, VIPs get the other cheek

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Ladra wants to be happy about it. Believe me. But it seems like the scales of justice are a little off, here.

The U.S. Attorney’s office announced today that a former Miami-Dade Public Works employee had pleaded guilty to a charge of bribery after an FBI investigation found that he was taking $13,000 in kickbacks — not in cash, but in appliances — from a vendor in order to help him get business.

George Brown, 50, was the Roadway Lighting Coordinator for Miami-Dade before he was arrested last summer. He was first hired by the county in 2002 and had an $80,000 annual salary when he was terminated in August. He was responsible for, among other things, overseeing the installation and maintenance of almost 25,000 street lights.

In 2011, a lighting contractor who owns several companies that sell products to the traffic system, sign, and lighting industries offered to make it worth his while if the county purchased his lighting products. The “rewards” doled out over the next two years include computer equipment, a 2.5-ton A/C unit, a Samsung stainless steel fridge and a KitchenAid built-in oven. And Brown, smart public servant that he is, did not have them delivered to the office. He would have these items shipped home or pick them up at the contractor’s office.

At some point during the investigation, the contractor — who has been a vendor at Miami-Dade since the 90s — turned snitch and wore a wire for the FBI. In one conversation, “Brown assured the contractor that no one else knew about their arrangement,” the U.S. Attorney statement said. In another chat, the two nailed down delivery details for $2,600 in stuff Brown was getting for his help with a lighting project on 27th Avenue in Miami.

Brown will be sentenced March 28 and faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Yes, you read that right. Ten years.

Wait, isn’t former Sweetwater Mayor Manny Marana Marono facing far less than that for his role in a kickback scheme where he got $60,000 or so in bribes to grease the wheels for a known bogus grant application process?

Now, don’t get me wrong. Brown should pay and be publicly shamed for his sins. But 10 years in prison seems somehow out of whack with his graft: 13,000 worth of stuff for directing business that already existed — the money was going to be spent anyway — to a “friendly” vendor who was already good enough to begetting county work for decades. It’s not like Brown created some bogus program or channel to divert revenue that would have gone elsewhere.

And I’m certainly not saying he should get off Scott free. Brown was rightfully fired, he should get zero retirement benefits. He should make reparations. He should get some time, certainly probation.

And maybe we need to open up a database of public servants on the take — kinda like they do with sexual predators — so that he doesn’t go set up shop in some other municipality.

But 10 years? In this climate? In an area where so many people get a pass for much worse?

In a climate where the mayor of the second largest city goes completely unscathed after admitting on television that he charged somene an illegal 36% interest on a personal loan. “No, that was principal. No, interest. No, principal,” Hialeah Mayor Carlos “Castro” Hernandez said, once he knew he was busted. In fact, the payee is willing to testify and has provided testimony that the 36% is, indeed, interest. Hernandez is tied to the same shady shadow banking industry that got his predecessor, former Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina snared by the feds for fraud and tax evasion. Yet Castro walks free and is able to bully people and abuse his power without interruption.

And Brown is facing 10 years.

In a climate where people get caught red-handed with absentee ballots — dozens or hundreds, it doesn’t matter — and are given a slap on the wrist? Even when there is proof that one of them tampered with an elderly woman’s vote?

In a climate where the State Attorney’s Office reportedly has proof — and witnesses willing to talk — that there was absentee ballot fraud in Robaina’s 2011 failed mayoral campaign. But we walk away from this?

And George Brown can get 10 years for taking $13,000 in electronic gifts to herd lighting contracts one way?

Does anyone else see anything wrong with this picture?

Felicidades to the FBI — which I also thank for being so aggressive lately — and U.S. Attorney Willy Ferrer and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Kaplan for prosecuting this big, bad case.

Now, can we get to the real corruption? There is plenty of it.

  Carlos Hernandez, julio Robaina, public corruption