Challengers seek to disrupt District 2 Miami Commissioner Sabina Covo’s reelection bid

The race to represent Miami’s coastal neighborhoods on the Miami City Commission is largely a rematch of a special election in February, when Sabina Covo won a whirlwind 9-month stint in office.

Ahead of the Nov. 7 election, she’s trying to convince District 2 voters that they made the right choice, and should give her a full four-year term.

Covo, 44, is a public relations consultant holding public office for the first time as she represents Coconut Grove, Brickell, downtown, Edgewater and Morningside. She faces seven challengers, including several who have remained on the campaign trail after running in the February special election, when Covo won the right to complete former Commissioner Ken Russell’s term after he resigned to run for Congress.

The commissioner said she’s tackled several neighborhood issues during her short time at City Hall, but she’s just getting started and wants to keep going.

Covo urged the city to develop a short-term plan to address drainage after an April storm inundated neighborhoods across South Florida. She’s sponsored a long-stalled renovation of Morningside Park, and helped secure millions in funding for affordable housing in Coconut Grove, carrying on an initiative started by Russell.

A former Spanish-language television reporter who lives in Coconut Grove, she recently told the Miami Herald one of her accomplishments was to set up “mobile office” sessions where connects residents with high-level city administrators.

“So now what we do is, twice a month, we take the administration, meaning the directors of each of the departments, to the different neighborhoods within the district,” she said. “So for example, if you have an issue with code compliance or if you have an issue with parks and recreation, you can actually talk to the director.”

Challengers

Beyond Covo, the race features seven challengers who hope to convince voters that 9 months is all she should get as the District 2 commissioner. She faces criticism for some of her stances, political fundraising and private work.

Among those opponents is Eddy Leal, an attorney who served as Mayor Francis Suarez’s general counsel from 2019 until April. A Brickell resident, he took leave earlier in the year to run in the special election, where he came in second place behind Covo by about 500 votes.

Leal, 38, has criticized a legal settlement sponsored by Covo that ended nearly a decade of litigation over the private use of city-owned Allen Morris Park, one of the rare green spaces in Brickell. The park, deeded to the city decades ago under the condition it remain a park, could now be up-zoned to allow a 48-story skyscraper under the settlement that was approved in July.

“What makes it worse is that we, the taxpayers, are actually going to be paying for the rezoning,” Leal said in public comments at a recent Miami Commission meeting.

Covo emphasized that the deal allowed the park to be reopened now, and said the city’s past decision to allow the adjacent Perricone’s Marketplace to take over the park for outdoor seating put the city in a legal bind.

Another opponent, downtown resident James Torres, is taking aim at Covo’s fundraising from developers and entities with business before the city. Torres, president of the Downtown Neighbors Alliance, has called Covo a “pay-to-play” commissioner after Becker Boards, a company pushing a proposal to allow LED billboards in downtown, made a $15,000 contribution to a pro-Covo political committee.

The commission, including Covo, unanimously rejected the proposal on Sept. 28. Covo told the Herald she opposed the billboard ordinance after seeing the strong opposition in the community, and she pushed back on the idea that any political donation can influence her vote.

“I don’t care who donates,” she said. “I’m going to do what’s right for my constituents.”

Still, under pressure from Torres and other activists, Covo said she would ask the political committee, Dream Miami PC, to return the $15,000 to Becker. A representative of the committee showed a Herald reporter a picture of the signed check dated Oct. 5 from the committee to Becker.

Covo said she plans to introduce campaign finance reform in the city that would restrict who can contribute to campaigns.

Torres, a former Miami Herald advertising executive who works as a business development director for a communications company, brings his own baggage to the campaign. The political committee supporting Covo is airing TV ads that attack Torres over past criminal charges that resurfaced during the special election in February, when he placed third.

Between 1995 and 2010, Torres faced criminal charges at least four times while living in Arizona, including accusations during divorce proceedings and a traffic-related violation. Most were dismissed.

Torres, 52, has said in 1995 he was charged with interference with judicial proceedings after being one hour and 45 minutes late in returning his children to his ex-wife, violating a court order and prompting the judge to put him on probation. In 2010, he said he received a traffic citation over illegally tinted car windows that included a “false swearing” charge because he lacked the state-mandated permit for the tint.

Read more: Miami City Commission candidate answers questions about his past legal problems

Because Arizona law allows public records to be destroyed after a certain amount of time, there are no available documents that detail Torres’ legal history in Arizona, according to searches of public records databases. His ex-wife did not return multiple requests for comment.

“I’ve been, again, transparent and honest,” Torres told the Herald.

Covo has also been criticized for her work for a Miami developer.

Sabina Covo Communications produces ads, social media and other communications for the Melo Group, a developer active in the district, near downtown Miami. Covo said her company works primarily on Melo projects in Latin America, but in order to avoid any conflict, she recused herself in May from a vote on a land-use item that benefited Melo.

“Currently my team does LatAm-specific content production, so writing mainly,” Covo said of her work for Melo Group. “I resigned on anything U.S.-specific before I decided to run for office.”

According to Covo, her company’s other clients are:

▪ Domus: A hotel developer with plans to build a condo/hotel in Brickell. Covo said her firm does work for Domus in Peru, Colombia and Mexico.

▪ A40Grados: A tennis clothing retailer in Spain

▪ Vertiblinds: a blinds and curtains company based in Colombia

▪ Newgard, Latin America

▪ Addison House, a furniture store with outlets in Aventura and Doral

▪ Onda Residences, a condo complex in Bay Harbor Islands

▪ S Natural, a skincare company in Miami

▪ The Elser Hotel, a Miami condo/hotel that occasionally employes Covo’s company for media buys in Colombia

Covo filed for bankruptcy in January 2010 after falling more than $50,000 into medical debt, a financial difficulty she disclosed in an interview where she blamed a “totally broken” healthcare system. Public records show that after Covo took a personal financial management course, her debts were forgiven and her case was closed within four months.

Newcomer

A political newcomer from a different corner of District 2 could alter the dynamics of the race.

Damian Pardo, 60, is a certified financial planner who lives in Morningside. He said he’s emphasizing the need for affordable housing and delivering basic city services, from fixing potholes and sidewalks to streamlining the city’s permitting process.

“I would like to see our services decentralized, if at all possible,” he said. “I’d like to see us think about our [Neighborhood Enhancement Team] offices again in a different way.”

Pardo is known for being a founder of LGBTQ advocacy group Safeguarding American Values for Everyone, widely known as SAVE. He has also served on the board of Care Resource, an AIDS service organization.

Pardo has made a significant personal investment in his City Hall bid — he loaned himself $60,370 in June for the campaign. By June 30, he’d raised about $120,700, the most of all District 2 candidates in direct contributions to his campaign. The campaign cash has drawn scrutiny from the political committee supporting Covo.

“Funded by insiders and lobbyists who control our government,” reads a description of Pardo in a television ad by Dream Miami PC.

Pardo told the Herald he is not accepting any funds from lobbyists or city vendors. Many of Pardo’s contributions are small-dollar donations from people who do not have business before the city, but his latest campaign finance reports show he’s received at least a combined $1,500 from two land-use attorneys who lobby in City Hall.

In a text message Thursday, Pardo told the Herald he was not initially aware that Alejandro Uribe, a land-use lawyer at Weiss Serota who contributed $500 on Aug. 26, was registered as a lobbyist, because his occupation was listed as “attorney.” Pardo returned the $500 donation on Thursday after a Herald reporter informed Pardo of the donation. The Herald reviewed a receipt confirming the return.

As for the $1,000 he received from Akerman attorney Neisen Kasdin, Pardo acknowledged the donation and said the two go back.

“Neisen and I are old friends and were on the front lines together of fighting for equality when we were passing the Human Rights Ordinance and he was Mayor of Miami Beach,” Pardo said.

Other candidates

Four other candidates are running to unseat Covo.

▪ Christi Tasker, 47, is a marketing professional who is campaigning again after running in the February special election. A major part of her message is to “clean house of the Miami corruption.” Tasker founded Wynwood Lab, an online art gallery. She filed for bankruptcy in 2012 when she was living in Nevada, which she said was due to her daughters’ medical bills.

▪ Michael Castro, 41, a home restoration professional, is a first-time candidate who says reducing crime is a top priority, as well as planting more native trees. He says he is not accepting campaign contributions.

▪ Alicia Kossick, 52, is a Grove business owner who works on preservation of historic homes and sustainable design. She has run a community compost station and community fridges through nonprofit Buddy System Miami. She says she wants to bring “project management” skills to City Hall.

▪ Gabriela Chirinos, 29, is a field agent for the U.S. Department of Commerce. She lists public safety, family values and sustainability as her priorities.