In shakedown city, a ‘culture of corruption’ prompts calls for competence and reform

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Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is facing calls to quit after a year of scandal and embarrassment has voters seemingly in revolt.

A just-published Miami Herald series called “Shakedown City” explored the mayor’s extensive international travel, his secrecy about the identity of his legal clients and more than a dozen side jobs, and his potentially illegal work on behalf of the governing regime in Saudi Arabia. He was already facing a federal investigation after the Herald exposed $170,000 in payments he received from a developer needing a zoning break from the city.

The Herald series followed a year of ugly headlines involving not just Suarez, but a commissioner arrested on charges of bribery and another facing a $63.5 million legal judgment. They were the three most influential elected officials in the city.

A man once hailed as the dean of local government administrators nationwide says the behavior of Miami’s elected officials has inevitably led residents to lose trust in City Hall, now minus one after a commissioner was arrested and rejected by voters.

“It pains me to see what is going on in the city of Miami,” said Merrett Stierheim, retired government administrator with decades of experience in Miami-Dade County.

“Today, it is the city’s political leadership, once again, that has fallen into unethical behavior, criminal investigations and dealmaking that are not in the best interest of the public,” said Stierheim, who stepped in and steered the city through bankruptcy and scandal in the late 1990s.

“Today, it is the city’s political leadership, once again, that has fallen into unethical behavior, criminal investigations and dealmaking that are not in the best interest of the public.”

What galls many of those interviewed is that the corruption coincides with what they see as a breakdown in municipal services and an inability to focus on the actual on-the-ground needs and interests of residents.

City resident Patrick Gajardo said he spent hours trying to get in touch with someone in the city’s solid waste department because the recycling on his street had not been picked up.

Inattention to basic services is a common refrain among residents.

From her home a few blocks from the Allapattah Branch Library, Lourdes Albelo has seen politicians come and go for 50 years.

“I don’t have faith,” she said.

She admits voting for Alex Díaz de la Portilla, the now ex-commissioner facing criminal charges, in 2019 only to be disappointed when she would call his office to get the city to deal with the trash strewn about her street and the garbage that floats by when rains turn the road into a river. Nothing happened.

“I got tired of calling, so I stopped,” said Albelo.

This fall, Albelo voted for someone else.

“Why aren’t they focused on planning? They need to fix the streets. They don’t care.”

Both Suarez, under investigation for his financial ties to an embattled developer, and Díaz de la Portilla, awaiting trial following his ouster by the voters, deny wrongdoing. So, too, does Commissioner Joe Carollo, despite a jury ordering him to pay $63.5 million to the Little Havana businessmen he tried to put out of business through a campaign of harassment. The trial cost taxpayers millions in legal fees.

Regardless of their denials, interviews by the Herald reveal rising disenchantment, with some Miami residents saying too much power is invested in too few people — just a mayor and five commissioners in a major American city. Some offer structural solutions, but aren’t particularly confident that the City Commission would ever pursue them if it meant in any way diluting their own power.

Following the publication of “Shakedown City,” Damian Pardo, one of two newly elected commissioners, urged Suarez to resign. He was quickly joined by former Police Chief Art Acevedo. Another former chief, Jorge Colina, said of Suarez: “His interests lie elsewhere. His interests are in making a lot of money.”

A second new commissioner, Miguel Gabela, said Suarez needs to publicly address the details of the reporting.

Suarez’s office labeled the articles “comical” and ignored the call to resign.

“Servicing the public or the residents of the city of Miami should be the first things on their minds, and not self-fulfillment,” said Milton Vickers, who is among several department directors to have left in recent years.

“Servicing the public or the residents of the city of Miami should be the first things on their minds, and not self-fulfillment.”

Grace Solares, a longtime civic activist, used to frequently attend commission meetings but stopped when she felt that elected officials didn’t seem to listen or care about what the public had to say. She said this year’s controversies are confirmation of that.

“How can you have any confidence with all the things that are happening?” Solares said.

“There is no confidence anymore, I don’t think. How can you have any confidence with all the things that are happening?”

Brickell resident Nicolas Aguirre said he believes the atmosphere of scandal leads to the “destruction of faith in the government” and a fraction of the population deciding who represents hundreds of thousands of residents.

“It is a shame that most of the politicos are just working for their own benefits, scaring away the average person from the voting booth,” he said. “This is why we see people elected with so few votes.”

“This is why we see people elected with so few votes.”

Suspicion and disgust with the status quo seemed to motivate voters in the election for Miami’s District 2 last month, when voters rejected incumbent Sabina Covo despite a relatively blemish-free nine-month term.

In the days leading up to the runoff, the camp supporting opponent Pardo went on the radio claiming that Covo had made a quid-pro-quo offer to the third- and fourth-place finishers, allegedly dangling City Hall jobs in exchange for endorsements. Covo denied the claims.

Ernesto Cuesta, president of the Brickell Homeowners Association, which endorsed Covo, said her opponents unfairly conflated her actions with those of her colleagues accused of serious transgressions. He called the attacks “totally low class.”

But Miami’s history of corruption — including a parade of perp-walked public officials, an election overturned by fraud and a former police chief-turned-city manager jailed for stealing from a kids’ charity called “Do the Right Thing” — breeds cynicism.

“Our democracy actually is at risk right now,” Cuesta said.

“This is what we’re seeing over and over and over and over. It’s not the past year. It’s throughout history. There’s no ethics, no discipline here.”

In the fall election, some candidates ran on a platform of targeting corruption.

“People were absolutely livid,” said Solares, who voted for Pardo. “I spoke to my neighbors about it.”

Ironically, that anger didn’t cause people to flood the polls. Just 12.6% of registered voters cast ballots in the general election, and 10.3% in the runoff — a slight decrease from the past two elections. In 2021, the last mayoral election, turnout was 14%.

But those who did show up were in a mood for change.

Díaz de la Portilla’s ouster in the District 1 race was anything but certain given past outcomes. Twice before, Miami voters re-elected commissioners while those officials faced criminal charges: Humberto “Bert” Hernandez in 1997 and Michelle Spence-Jones in 2010. Hernandez later lost his seat when he was convicted of vote fraud and went to prison. Spence-Jones was not convicted.

Even as Gabela made his campaign about corruption he had to fight efforts by the incumbent Díaz de la Portilla and the City Attorney’s Office to boot him from the ballot over a residency issue created when the commission voted to reshape districts, seemingly in a manner aimed at protecting the incumbent.

Gajardo, who’s lived in District 1’s Allapattah neighborhood for more than 45 years, said he voted for Gabela in the runoff because he is not a “career politician.” He called corruption scandals “embarrassing”and a “turnoff.”

Gajardo said many in his Allapattah neighborhood are immigrants from countries where corruption is institutionalized.

“For people to come here and have that be reaffirmed is disheartening,” he said.

“I know in the community there is skepticism, but there is hope.”

Anthony Alfieri, founding director of the Center for Ethics and Public Service at the University of Miami School of Law, said: “A culture of corruption, real or perceived, encourages public and private actors to pursue their own personal self-interest, rather than to advance the public interest.”

Living around the corner from disheartened voter Lourdes Albelo in Allapattah, Leonzo Tejada, feels even more let down by the city. The 25-year resident has seen the news on TV about City Hall scandals but is more concerned about what he sees outside his window: litter on the swale and uneven sidewalks that cause seniors to trip.

When elections come around, he prefers to stay home.

“They want us to come out and vote,” said Tejada. “But why? We don’t get help.”

Cuesta, the homeowner association president, said the reason candidates like Díaz de la Portilla and Carollo can win is that the city is carved into five districts, which he likened to “kingdoms” where candidates can more easily target a core group of voters.

But cities often created district elections for a reason: to reduce the cost of running a campaign, which gave underfunded candidates, often minorities, a better chance to win.

Cuesta called for the city to expand its five-person commission to at least seven at-large seats so a rogue member has less ability to do damage.

Comparable cities have bigger governing bodies. Atlanta, for example, has 12 council districts plus three at-large seats. Closer to home, Miami Beach and Homestead both have more elected officials and fewer residents.

For now, each Miami commissioner needs at least two additional votes to get anything accomplished. The mayor doesn’t vote, but he can act as a quasi-lobbyist, seeking to assemble a majority — often through behind-the-scenes dealmaking.

Under the current system, even with newcomers Gabela and Pardo sworn in, Cuesta remains skeptical that anything will change.

“If you don’t have three votes in the city of Miami,” Cuesta said, “you’re dead.”

Gajardo said with new faces on the commission there is more optimism than before.

“With Díaz de la Portilla, unfortunately, he had his run and it was terrible,” he said. “It was everything we didn’t need or want, so I think there’s hope now. I know in the community there is skepticism, but there is hope.”

Notes

Herald photojournalist Carl Juste photographed Lourdes Albelo. All other portraits were submitted to the Herald or pulled from the Herald’s archive.

Credits

Joey Flechas | City of Miami Reporter

Tess Riski | Municipal Government Reporter

Rachel Handley | Illustrator

Susan Merriam | Graphics / Developer

Gabriela Hanna | Developer

Dana Banker | Senior Managing Editor

Casey Frank | Senior Investigations Editor