Deposition: Mayor used his influence with permitting, parking For months, Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago has been hinting that Commissioner Melissa Castro — who Ladra swears he has a big crush on — was doing something wrong because she has a permit expediting business that does work in The City Beautiful. But on Wednesday, the […]
County has paid for old vacant office for a year Unelected Miami-Dade Commissioner Roberto Gonzalez, appointed in November 2022 by the governor to fill the vacant seat in District 11 after Joe Martinez was arrested on public corruption charges, has two district offices — including a vacant one that taxpayers have been shelling out $4,486 […]
After voting to curtail protests in the light of recent pro-Palestine demonstrations, the city of Miami Beach could now limit free speech at commission meetings as well. Following a March meeting where several public speakers were censored and Miami Beach Commissioner David Suarez and Mayor Stephen Meiner lashed out at the police chief for what […]
In yet another effort to thwart a recall effort he likes to belittle, Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago has funded a phone bank to call voters and tell them not to sign the petition. One of those calls went to Commissioner Melissa Castro over the weekend. She was out of town, on an impromptu vacation […]
Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago may say he’s not worried about the recall effort mounted against him. He may say it’s just gadfly Maria Cruz and activist attorney David Winker with a grudge against him. But don’t believe him. He is sweating it. That’s why Lago has an anonymous, cowardly blogger trashing Cruz and Winker […]
A Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge last week denied a motion from former Miami Commissioner Humberto Hernandez to dismiss him from the civil case brought against former Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla — who is already facing bribery and money laundering charges in a separate case — for shaking down the operator of the […]
Could be up to the new sheriff to fight corruption The Florida Legislature last month passed a bill that will severely hamper ethics investigations. Just what Miami-Dade needs! This self-serving bill will not only prohibit local ethics agencies, like the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics, to initiate investigations on their own, but will also require complaints […]
Hires fired, former Doral manager as his number two It wasn’t public. And it wasn’t complete. City Manager Art Noriega produced a presentation of the history of his wife’s business with the city in a slide show sent to commissioners and that was short more than $200K from the figure reported by WLRN in January, […]
City commissioners in Miami Beach will discuss increasing their own stipends and staffing at Wednesday’s commission meeting. Right now, the mayor gets a monthly stipend of $2,000, a figure that has not been adjusted in 18 years, according to a commission memo from staff. Commissioners currently get $2,250, a figure that was adjusted five years […]
Former Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla lost his house to a foreclosure sale last November, even though he is fighting it now in court. And on Thursday, he lost the family farm. A Krome Avenue property owned by Diaz de la Portilla, who was suspended last September after he was arrested on a […]