Ex-School Board member Navarro accused of using $100K in district funds for travel, shopping
In November 2022, Miami-Dade School Board vice chair Lubby Navarro made a strange purchase with her school district-issued credit card: Two silicone and cotton fake pregnancy bellies from Amazon that she used to try and convince her ex-boyfriend she was carrying his baby, according to state investigators and prosecutors.
She likely knew where to find him, because earlier that year she used the same credit card to buy two Apple AirTag tracking devices that were later found attached with duct tape to the underside of her ex-boyfriend’s car, the investigators say. One was near a wheel. The other, under the front grill.
On Thursday, Navarro, 49, and a lobbyist for a large Broward County hospital system, was arrested and taken to jail for those purchases and dozens of others that investigators from the Miami-Dade Inspector General and State Attorney’s Office say she made illegally over the course of a year with her government-issued credit cards.
“She siphoned away resources meant for the good of our children,” Inspector General Felix Jimenez said during a briefing at the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office Thursday afternoon. At his side was State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle and investigators from both offices.
In all, the 98-page probable cause affidavit claims Navarro used two school district credit cards to spend just over $92,000 on items from stores like Walmart, Home Depot , Brandsmart, even GoDaddy and TJ Maxx. And, investigators said, she spent an additional $9,000 on travel, taking her mother to the Dominican Republic and staying at the Wynn Las Vegas hotel with her boyfriend.
READ MORE: From refrigerators to 56 lemon pies — here’s what Lubby Navarro bought, investigators say
Her alleged misdeeds were only discovered after Navarro resigned from the board at the end of 2022. When she didn’t file expenses for the month of December that year, a district employee did and noticed the discrepancies, Fernandez Rundle said. It’s not exactly clear why auditors who went through her expenses each month of the year didn’t see any red flags. Rundle said many were doctored, some with White Out.
School district employees, including School Board members, are issued two credit cards — one, a purchase card for day-to-day items, and another for authorized travel, the warrant states.
School Board members each have a spending limit on their purchase cards of $6,000 a month. In 2022, Navarro requested, and was granted, credit line increases for every month, according to the warrant. Most months, the limit was increased to $8,000, but, in August and September 2022, Navarro was approved for up to $15,000, and in December, her limit was increased to $13,500, investigators said.
“She knew better than to have gone down that very pathetic path,” said the state attorney.
READ MORE: 5 things to know about Lubby Navarro, the arrested ex-Miami-Dade School Board member
Review of credit card purchases raises red flags
Navarro was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center Thursday morning on one count of organized fraud of $50,000 or more, one count of organized fraud of between $20,000 and $100,000 and two counts of grand theft, according to jail records. She is being held on a total bond of $2 million.
The unauthorized expenses first raised suspicions when Navarro’s credit card purchases for December 2022 made their way to the desk of Jose Bueno, Miami-Dade Public Schools’ chief of staff, for final approval in January 2023. Bueno acts as liaison between the School Board and the superintendent. He sometimes approves credit card purchases from School Board members, according to the warrant.
Bueno was concerned at the amount Navarro spent that month — $13,432 — and that the expenses lacked documentation, including receipts and invoices, according to the warrant.
He then looked back to Navarro’s October and November expenses, which raised more red flags, investigators stated.
“He explained it was the type of stores and the frequency in which purchases were made at each of those stores that alerted him,” the investigators wrote. “He also noticed several purchases made at the same store during the same day.”
Navarro’s attorney, Benedict Kuehne, issued a statement Thursday saying his client “looks forward to her complete vindication and her resumption of working for the betterment of the community. Ms. Navarro states without equivocation that she is innocent of wrongdoing and appreciates the many expressions of support and well wishes by those who know her best.”
Kuehne told the Herald that investigators found items in her home during a search last summer and that she has been supplying them with documents ever since.
In his statement, Kuehne criticized Rundle’s office for arresting Navarro at her home and asking a judge to deny her bond release.
“The result is that Ms. Navarro, innocent of these charges, will be required to spend the night in jail before she can appear before the assigned Circuit Judge to make her case for bond release,” Kuehne said.
Allegations are ‘disturbing’, teachers union says
Navarro resigned from the board in late December 2022, a day before a new Florida law prohibiting elected officials from working as lobbyists went into effect. Navarro is a registered lobbyist for the South Broward Hospital District, which includes Memorial Healthcare System hospitals in Hollywood, Pembroke Pines, Miramar and Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood.
Navarro earned upwards of $220,000 working for the South Broward Hospital District in 2022. School Board members earn $46,773, according to the Miami-Dade Elections Department. Thursday, the hospital district released a statement saying it hoped to gather more information from the state attorney as it becomes available. Thursday night, the district said Navarro was placed on unpaid administrative leave.
“Our commitment to maintaining the highest standard of integrity remains unwavering as we determine the facts of the matter. All future actions will be taken in the best interest of the communities we serve,” the hospital district’s statement said.
United Teachers of Dade, the Miami-Dade teachers union that was often at odds with Navarro over her stances on public charter schools, school voucher programs and rights for LGBTQ students, issued the following statement on her arrest:
“The arrest and allegations surrounding Lubby Navarro are disturbing. Fraud at the expense of our children and their education is appalling.”
Vivian Santiesteban-Pardo, chief communications officer for Miami-Dade Public Schools, issued a statement that since the case “remains an active, open matter, we will not be commenting on this situation. We will fully cooperate with law enforcement agencies as necessary.”
First appointed to board by Rick Scott
Navarro was elected to vice chair of the School Board in November 2022, a month before she resigned. She was elected in a 5-4 vote, with Miami-Dade School Board Chair Mari Tere Rojas voting for her, along with Monica Colluci, Daniel Espino and Roberto Alonso. The three had either been endorsed or appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Navarro voted for herself.
Navarro was appointed to the School Board in 2015 by former Republican Gov. Rick Scott. She was later elected in 2016 and 2020, representing the board’s District 7 seat, which includes Kendall and parts of Southwest Miami-Dade.
READ MORE: Miami-Dade School Board elects new chair, vice chair aligned with DeSantis, GOP
Last January, DeSantis appointed Maria Bosque-Blaco, 48, a guidance counselor at Our Lady of Lourdes Academy, to replace her. Bosque-Blanco also sits on the Miami-Dade College board.
Navarro was one of the more conservative voices on the School Board, even before the board shifted to the right over the past few years with DeSantis appointees or elected board members endorsed by DeSantis.
In August 2021, Navarro was the only “no” vote on a student mask mandate ahead of the 2021-2022 school year as COVID-19 was surging in Miami-Dade and Florida during the delta wave. The mandate was in defiance of a DeSantis order forbidding districts from mandating masks without giving parents a choice to opt their children out.
During the discussion of the mandate, Navarro said, “My constituents of District 7 never elected me to violate state law.”
Miami Herald staff reporter Michelle Marchante contributed to this story.
