There are eight referendum questions on the Miami Beach ballot, including two that are carefully camouflaged giveaways to rich millionaire developer friends of Mayor Dan Gelber.

Even former Mayor Philip Levine — who was caught in a secret meeting with Gelber and developers trying to form a political action committee to turn South Beach into another Brickell — could get a piece of the action.

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Leaked audio of a September Zoom call organized by former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine shows that current Mayor Dan Gelber offered developers and real estate investors an inside track to get their projects built — in exchange for contributions to a political action committee.

You scratch my back, I’ll get your mixed-use mega complex approved.

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Business owners, politicians, community leaders, hospitality workers, waitresses, bartenders, drag queens, seniors and the families of hundreds of service workers have come out against a Miami Beach ballot question that could rollback the last call for alcohol sales from 5 a.m. to 2 a.m.

Opponents say there is no indication crime is worse in those three wee hours. In fact, crime rose during the pandemic when the city imposed a midnight curfew because customers moved from the venues at Ocean Drive and Lincoln Road to private parties at AirBnB rentals in residential neighborhoods. And that tragic murder of a young father at a South Beach sidewalk caf´é happened in broad daylight at 6:30 p.m.

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Miami Beach voters have a familiar straw ballot question to answer before Nov. 2: Do they want to ban alcohol sales in South Beach after 2 AM?

It’s the same question voters solidly rejected in 2017, by a very comfortable 65% of the vote. Sort of a mandate. So why’s it coming back? That’s a much better question.

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For the past three years, select electeds in Miami Beach have used a city non-profit to “provide assistance to worthy and qualified community needs and projects.”
But it looks like a slush fund of special interest money to dole out for political favors and even votes.
One Miami Beach, Inc., a 501c3 formed by resolution in 2014 at former Mayor Philip Levine‘s request, has raised almost half a million dollars through last year — much of it from vendors and contractors and lobbyists with business before the city — and it has used the funds to buy computers at Nautilus Middle School, team uniforms at Miami Beach High, movie tickets and art classes and paella parties for seniors and more than 1,500 frozen turkeys for the holidays.
Many of these bribes, er, gifts to the community were right before the elections in 2015 and 2017. What a coincidence!
It’s not like Levine hasn’t done this kind of thing before. The Democratic gubernatorial candidate was caught red-handed, while in office in 2014, directing funds from city vendors and contractors to a shady political action committee. Relentless for Progress was even mocked for its initials, RFP, the same initials used in procurement to solicit “requests for proposals” on government projects. Levine had to hastily distance himself from and eventually dissolve the PAC.
Then, when nobody was watching, he turned around and formed this slush fund, er, non-profit — giving donors another outlet.
The resolution says the mayor is the chairman and appoints two other commissioners as members. Levine appointed former Commissioners Joy Malakoff and Jonah Wolfson, who was his partner on the shady Relentless PAC (photographed right). When Wolfson’s term was up, Levine replaced him with his new BFF, Commissioner Ricky Arriola.
After newly-elected Mayor Dan Gelber was sworn in, he became the chairman and he appointed Commisssioner Micky Steinberg to replace Malakoff, who did not seek re-election but was offered a $50,000 “community outreach” contract with the city last week that she turned down days later after it raised a bunch of eyebrows. Gelber also wants the funds to be used primarily for “educational enhancements” and not “willy nilly.”
Related: Ex Miami Beach Commissioner Joy Malakoff gets, then drops juicy $50K city job
But we wouldn’t even know about this shady non profit if it weren’t for Commissioner Michael Góngora, who had asked about it at last week’s meeting. He said that since the non-profit was operating as a fundraising arm of the city’s, that expenditures ought to be brought to the commission for approval.
“Only three of the seven members ever control the use of those funds. I’m concerned about raising money as a commission but I never have a say in how those monies are dispersed,” Góngora said. “If it’s going to be the official 501c3 for Miami Beach, we should at least know what the organization is doing.”
Gelber, who doesn’t seem the most transparent anymore, tried to shut him down. “It’s not quite public money… it’s not any public money at all,” he said.
Commissioner John Elizabeth Aleman said she agreed with Góngora. “I don’t question the expenditures. They were noble and worthwhile. But it was not transparent to me,” she said. And then she basically admits that the whole idea was to shake down city bidders and vendors.
“We thought there were city of Miami Beach procurement contracts that could have an element, a good will in them, to benefit the community, the schools,” Aleman said, adding that, sure, alumni and others could also donate. “But we were looking for something more consistent that could be counted on at a certain level each year.”
Oh really?
Arriola got defensive, which made him look guilty right away.
“I just take exception because I know what’s going on here. There’s a hint of something nefarious. Phil, Ricky, Joy using this… all the money came from Philip and I,” Arriola said.  “I’m not stupid. There’s a nefarious inference when comments have been made in the past about One Miami Beach and Mayor Levine and I just take exception when it’s us donating our salaries to it. Pretty much 100 percent of the funds came from us, even though it’s your pet projects that we’re donating our salaries to.”
But Ricky is either really bad at math or a liar. Because while he may have felt generous in 2016, giving his $34,750 salary and benefits package to One Miami Beach, Inc., that was not where all the non-profit’s money came from. And he didn’t do it any other year. It appears that Levine did give two years worth of salary and benefits for a total of $97,275.
Arriola lied to everybody at that commission meeting Feb. 14 and everybody watching it on TV or online. That’s a violation of a county ethics ordinance.
Related: Levine and Wolfson on defense for shady PAC
But the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust ought to look into more than just that. Because the reason Arriola lied was the donations that are there from many contractors and vendors who are prohibited from giving campaign contributions precisely because they have dealings with the city. Was this a legal loophole around that? This sure looks like another pay-for-play scheme, just like the shady PAC.
Among the contributors:

$40,000 from four development companies at One Fisher Island
$17.500 from David Mancini and Sons, real estate developers and pipeline specialists
$10,000 from Terranova Corporation
$10,000 from Lanzo Construction
$6,300 from Boucher Brothers, who run most if not all the city’s beach concessions
$5,000 from Beach Towing
$5,000 from Treemont Towing
$5,000 from Laz Parking
$5,000 from lobbyist and Levine pal Alex Heckler

There are some questionable disbursements, too. Who got the 100 tickets for the Florida Grand Opera? More than $6,000 of computer equipment for we-don’t-know-who and one hell of a TV for $1,000 for North Beach Elementary, both at Best Buy. A $5,000 donation (?) to the Miami Beach Housing Authority, it says for “housing,” and $106 worth of racing gloves, purportedly, for a turkey giveaway.
Then there is the thousands that went to different animal hospitals, from Doral to South Miami, for “animal welfare,” Levine’s latest fetish, including $10,000 to the Alton Road Animal Clinic for “kitten medical treatment.” Is that one really sick kitten or many kittens?
But maybe the most glaring issue is at least seven different paella and centennial parties at senior centers that are absentee ballot hubs conveniently right before the elections in 2015.
Investigators can start by talking to Gloria Campos, who was paid or reimbursed at least a couple of thousands from One Miami Beach and apparently helped with the paella parties.

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Former Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas — who lives pretty much secluded from politics, commenting now and then on Univision 23 but from afar — has come out of relative political obscurity to promote former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine‘s gubernatorial run.
It is his first endorsement since Penelas left office in 2004.
“Friends, On Monday, my friend Philip Levine ended his four-year tenure as Mayor of Miami Beach. I couldn’t be more proud of what he has accomplished in such a brief time,” starts the campaign email blast that arrived Wednesday morning.
But the list of “accomplishments” has more holes in it than a Dunkin Donuts. Let’s take it paragraph by paragraph, shall we?
Read related story: Philip Levine’s PAC started flooding after he got a liquor ban on the ballot
“In a city threatened by sea level rise, Philip campaigned back in 2013 to start solving the problem. And just four years later, under his leadership, state-of-the-art flood pumps have been installed that are keeping streets dry and protecting the homes and businesses of thousands of people.”

Well, Mr. Mayor, everybody started to address the sea level rise problem in 2013. It was like a virus. Climate change were the political buzzwords of the year.  Actually, the city started addressing the problem before he was elected. And those flood pumps? Guess where the first one went. In Sunset Harbor, where Levine owns property. His land was high and dry while the rest of South Beach was flooded, like in the photograph courtesy of Bill Cooke of the Random Pixels blog.
“While many of those people are blessed to live in a prosperous city, thousands of workers across the beach can’t even afford to live near the community they serve,” the former mayor writes. “So Philip took action and successfully passed the first living wage ordinance in Florida, setting an example for cities across our state.”
The minimum wage increase, which was from $8.10 to $10.31 and would take effect in January, is really window dressing for the gubernatorial race. It gives him talking points for the campaign trail. The legislatioin was struck down by a judge because a 2004 Florida constitutional amendmentment only allows the state to increase the minimum wage, not municipalities. Miami Beach attorneys are appealing that because they say that the voters’ intent was to let local leaders decide. Whatever. It was a feelgood measure that Levine pushed strategically as he was building his Democratic voice statewide. It’s like a box he checked under “preparations to run for Governor as a Democrat.”
“But that wasn’t the only example Miami Beach has set under Philip’s leadership,” Penelas continues. “During his tenure, the Human Rights Campaign -a leading LGBTQ advocacy group- has given the city a PERFECT SCORE on its annual Municipal Equality Index, a measurement of how inclusive municipal laws, policies, and services are for the LGBTQ people who live and work there.”
Read related story: Philip Levine fails to disclose properties, LLCs
The city got a perfect score in 2017. And in 2016. And every year since they started self submitting in 2013. But Ladra is pretty certain that Philip Levine has absolutely nothing to do with that. He always takes the credit, which belongs to the hardworking members of the city’s LGBTQ Advisory Committee, formed by former Mayor Matti Bower — 10 years ago. The Beach, which was the first city to pass domestic partnership benefits legislation, has been the best place for gays to live and work in Miami-Dade, like Wilton Manors is in Broward, for years. For Levine to take credit should offend a lot in the community who have actually done the work. He just happened to be mayor at the time. The mayor before him supported LGBTQ friendly legislation and the mayor after him will, too.
“These accomplishments are just a small piece of what Philip’s ‘just get it done’ attitude has brought to Miami Beach, and they’re the reason why I’m supporting him for Governor,” Peneas gooes on. “Now more than ever, we need less talk and more action. We need leadership that has a proven track record of getting things done and making positive change in our communities. We need Philip Levine, and I hope you’ll join me in making that happen. Together, we can bring a real change-maker to Tallahassee.”
Less talk and more action? Levine is nothing but talk, talk, talk. Even his proposed alcohol ban past 2 a.m. on Ocean Drive failed miserably.
Maybe Penelas doesn’t know how Levine blocks critics from his social media and actually had an independent blogger (yours truly) thrown out of public campaign events. Maybe he forgot about the train to nowhere or the shady Relentless for Progress PAC that Levine collected $1 million for from beach interests. Maybe he doesn’t care that Levine used his influence and money to smear or blackmail others and get puppets elected so he could set his agenda.
And Penelas is going to endorse someone who traveled to Cuba and wanted to bring the Cuban consulate here?
Read related story: Now challenged, Philip Levine also sheds shady PAC
Or is this because Penelas, 55, wants to be relevant again? Some sources say that Penelas — who served as Miami-Dade mayor from 1996 to 2004 and then ran unsuccessfully for senate and was People’s “sexiest politician alive” in 1999 — may want to return to his old seat at County Hall. He briefly toyed with the idea in 2011 after Carlos Alvarez was recalled. Democrats have been trying to make the non-partisan seat more partisan for a couple of elections now and have been looking at him and former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz (pictured here at an MTV event when they were both in office) as candidates. They like Commissioner Jean Monestime, too, but the common thought is that a non Hispanic can’t win a countywide seat, which is why Levine isn’t running, by the way.
Maybe Florida Dems have forgotten that Penelas cost Al Gore the presidency. Penelas was persona non grata among Dems first when he said that local authorities would not help the feds seize Elian Gonzalez and later after he took a vacation to Spain during the final months of the 2000 presidential election, when Gore — who lost Florida by some 537 votes — needed him most.
The former VP even called Penelas “the single most treacherous and dishonest person I dealt with” in the 2000 election. It is probably one of the reasons he lost the 2004 Senate primary so badly, with only 10% of the vote.
Penelas told Ladra that he had no designs on public office. Not now, anyway. He wants to be there for his young daughter, who is 6, like he wasn’t for his two boys, who are 23 and 20. “I missed a lot of years with them and I’ve been blessed with another child,” he said.
But like everyone else always says, he won’t rule it out. “You can never say never, but I don’t think it’s likely. I don’t want to say no definitively,” Penelas told Ladra, adding that he still loves public policy stuff, like transit and housing, but hates how disgusting politics have gotten.
“Es un azco,” he said.
But not so much that he won’t go out on a limb for Levine, who he said has been a friend for 25 years, since Penelas was a county commissioner for District 13.
“I think he’s an honest and decent guy, a hard worker,” said Penelas, who consults part time and owns property on Miami Beach. “I like Philip a lot. He is a straight shooter.”
Told about some of the holes in the email he said was written by the campaign and edited by him, Penelas said it “doesn’t take away my enthusiasm and my friendship with him.”
And, also, at least Phil’s doing something.
“The mere fact that he’s willing to recognize sea level rise as a problem is better than other politicians who don’t believe it exists,” Penelas said.
But now he’s talking about Republicans.

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