Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine has been pushing for the Ocean Drive ban on alcohol sales past 2 a.m. since Memorial Day weekend, saying that this is the only way to curb the crime in that area.
But the cops seem to disagree. Last week, the Miami Beach Police union joined other groups and business leaders by endorsing a no vote against a referendum on Tuesday’s ballot that would end alcohol sales at outdoor bars on Ocean Drive at 2 a.m. instead of 5 a.m. They know these are not the problem hours for their officers. They know this change will not curb crime in a 15-block area that has become an envied icon in the travel and tourism industry. They know the mayor has no study to show otherwise.
So why is Levine really doing it? What’s his real motivation? It ain’t public safety. So could it be the oldest answer in the book? Could it be money?
Close to $1 million has been raised by his political action committee, including $200K from the business partner of Hollywood filmmaker Harvey Weinstein —  an ultrawealthy oligarch with business ties to a Russian tycoon involved in the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation — since Levine got the alcohol sales ban on the November ballot.
Read related story: Miami Beach is late with study on impact of alcohol ban referendum
Yeah, yeah. We know the mayor is a millionaire who pretty much self-funded his first run for office in 2013. We know that he’s already given at least $2.5 million to his political action committee, All About Florida. But he’s running for governor now — and insiders expect an announcement soon, maybe this week — so that’s a much more expensive race. He’s going to need outside money.
And Levine has experience walking the fine line in legal fundraising and dark money. Remember the Relentless for Progress political action committee? He and then Commissioner Jonah Wolfson were forced to shut the shady PAC down after people joked that the initials stood for “requests for proposals” because they solicited funds from developers and vendors doing or wanting to do business in the city. So he’s not shy about making the asks.
This new shady PAC, All About Florida, only raised $4,000 from March to May. Then Levine secured the vote on June 7 from the city commission to put the alcohol sales ban on the ballot. And the money started pouring in — with $125,000 coming that very day from auto mogul Alan Potamkin, Royal Caribbean Cruises CEO Richard Fain and retired real estae developer Gerald Robbins, who is related to Levine’s business partner, Scott Robins, who himself gave another $100,000.
Since June 7, the PAC has received about $882,000 in donations from property owners and business interests that could arguably benefit from this 2 a.m. Ocean Drive liquor sales ban. These donors either own properties and venues that get to stay open until 5 a.m. in other parts of the city and in Wynwood — which has become another nightlife hub competing with South Beach — or they may want property values in the area to suffer, as indicated by an economic impact study commissioned by a business group, so they can swoop in and scoop them up cheap.
Read related story: Miami Beach — Levine and Wolfson on defense for shady PAC
That’s the same amount given by Russian billionaire Leonard Blavatnik, who is heavily invested in the Faena district in Mid-Beach. Blavatnik, whose company Access Industries, who normally donates to GOP capaigns and is involved in everything from chemicals to music management and the film industry. Blavatnik has partnered with Harvey Weinstein, who has been disgraced recently as a serial sexual assailant, and Oleg Deripaska, a close ally of Vladimir Putin currently tied to the investigation of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.
Brother Alex Blavatnik, who has his own project in North Beach, gave $25,000. Alex Blavatnik helped Levine’s mayoral campaign — and got some pretty useful zoning variances the year after.
Many other real estate investors and developers gave him $25,000 or $10,000 checks.
So is he doing it for them?
Or is he doing it for his own business interests? Levine himself owns 29 properties that could benefit from this, like his Sunset Harbor property benefited from the first pump stations, sitting high and dry while the rest of South Beach flooded. Eleven of those are purchases he made recently in Wynwood, which has been increasingly competing with South Beach for nightlife clientele, and where people can drink until 5 a.m.
One thing is pretty certain: He ain’t doing it for the safety of Miami Beach residents.
 

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Voters in Miami Beach could change the character of the city’s most famous and celebrated street with a ban on outdoor alcohol sales after 2 a.m. if a referendum on the Nov. 7 ballot is passed.

But they have no information from the city about the impact of such a measure because a promised economic study has not materialized. A “preliminary report” is expected at Wednesday’s commission meeting with a final study due a week before the election is over — and after thousands of people have voted via absentee ballots and early voting.

Opponents, however, already have a counter study that says the ban would hurt the city financially, cost jobs and lower property values.

Championed to the point of obsession by Mayor Philip Levine — and one has to wonder why he is so hell bent on making this happen so fast (did someone shoot him down at The Clevelader once?) — the measure, which would change the last call only at outdoor bars from 5 a.m. to 2 a.m., is promoted as a tool for public safety in response to a shooting over a parking space on Memorial Day weekend.

But when commissioners voted unanimously in June to put this question on the ballot, they were basically promised an economic study on the impact by Sept. 1. And guess what? That didn’t happen.

There is no data to show the ban — which seems directly targeted at only three businesses in a 15-block strip — will curb violence. The city’s own statistics show that 911 calls for police and fire rescue in the Ocean Drive area peak between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. Those calls drop by about a third between 2 and 5 a.m.

The Memorial Day weekend shooting that set this vote in motion happened at 10:35 p.m., by the way. Also, there have since been shootings on Lincoln Road, Collins Avenue and Española Way, where the mayor owns property.

So a 2 to 5 a.m. ban on just Ocean Drive seems selective and may have zero or at most a very minimal effect crime.

What’s worse is that, if passed, the measure could actually hurt the city financially, according to a study commissioned by the Florida Retail and Lodging Association, which represents businesses along Ocean Drive.

The 27-page report from Fishkind and Associates said that the three-hour change won’t help reduce crime but will have a “dramatic, negative impact on the economy of Miami Beach and significant consequences for the city’s budget.”  It also puts the economy of Ocean Drive, where other businesses thrive off the popularity of the people-watching outdoor bars, “at risk to serious economic harm” not just to the three bars that would be affected, but to nearby restaurants and hotels that were surveyed and said the nightlife and hours on Ocean Drive are critical to the choice their guests make to stay here.

The city presented some faulty figures of their own — apparently pulled from thin air and presented in haste before any real, professional study could be done — that only look at Ocean Drive alcohol sales between 2 and 5 a.m. and not what the ban would do to other businesses or the perimeter zones.

“This ordinance will severely alter a formula that has proven successful and allowed hotels and restaurants to flourish,” said Carol Dover, president and CEO of the FRLA. “If this destructive measure passes, jobs will be lost and taxpayers in the City of Miami Beach will be responsible for footing the bill for the millions of dollars in lost tax revenue.”

The numbers? More than $340 million a year in lost sales (bars + restaurants + hotels). Close to a $2 billion drop in property values. An estimated $20 million hit to the annual sales tax revenue. And 5,500 jobs lost.

City officials don’t have any real numbers to counter because it’s economic study just got started two weeks ago. Even though Levine told commissioners in June that he would get the study done by Sept. 1 so voters could be educated, the contract with Florida International University’s Office of Research and Economic Development wasn’t signed until almost a month after that on Sept. 29. And it gives the school 60 days to complete it.

It won’t take that long, said Amy Mehu, the city’s redevelopment specialist. “They are being expedient in data collection,” Mehu told Ladra Tuesday, adding that the city had trouble finding a firm to do the study. “Many firms stated conflicts of interests because they had done work for the hotel industry or businesses on Ocean Drive.”

Commissioners will get a preliminary report at Wednesday’s meeting and a final report will be available Oct. 31, Mehu said.

That means there’s a whole week for voters to get information before Election Day.

Well, again, except for the thousands of voters who will have already cast their ballots by mail — absentee ballots were mailed out Monday — and in early voting, which begins next week.

“Talk about putting the cart before the horse,” said Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez.

She, too, is concerned with a rise in violent crime and the environment on Ocean Drive on a typical Friday night. But she says that the way to deal with that is with more police presence and community policing.

“This is not logical. If this was about logic, we would have commissioned a study before the vote,” Rosen Gonzalez said, adding that she will be voting no and telling her friends and supporters to do the same.

Former Miami Beach City Commissioner Michael Góngora will confirm weeks of speculation and file Monday for the commission race in Group 3.

Góngora was a commissioner from 2009 to 2013 in that seat before he ran for mayor in 2013 against Philip Levine. He also lost a race for Florida senate last year, but only because his name did not resonate outside the city. ven though there were five other candidates, he won almost 60% of the vote in Miami Beach and led in every precinct in the city.

“It shows me Miami Beach residents want me back in office,” Góngora told Ladra Sunday night as he left an Equality Florida event. “Now that my former Commission seat is vacant, I have a responsibility to return to office and help work on the issues Miami Beach is facing, which include transportation, development, flooding and mass transit.”

Read reated story: Michael Gongora, Jason Pizzo rack up endorsements for Senate

Gongora said that things haven’t really gotten better since he left office and that perhaps they have gotten worse.

“It’s time to get back to basics,” Góngora said. “Miami Beach has been focused on trying to e a player in the national arena,” Gongora said, referring to the offer of a Cuan embassy, the minimum wage ordinance and Levine’s attention on sea level rise and climate change.

“What we need are clean streets that are not flooded, a safer city, more transparency and financial oversight,” Góngora said, referring to the recent discovery that $3.6 million has been stolen from a city account and wasn’t even noticed missing for six months.

“That’s a huge issue,” he said adding that former Commissioner Deede Weithorn had warned about oversight in the finance department. “Nobody wants to own up to the problem. We’re spending money to study how to tighten up when we know what we need are more people and more oversight.”

Weithorn, former Mayor Matti Bower and current Vice Mayor Kristen Rosen Gonzalez — who has got to be hungry for an ally — are going to host the kick-off event for Góngora’s campaign on March 29, he said.

Read related story: Mike Grieco first to run for open Miami Beach mayor’s seat

The former commissioner is running for the seat now occupied by Commissioner Joy Malakoff, a pocket vote for Mayor Levine who has said she will not seek relection because theres nothing there for her when he’s gone.

Two other candidates have filed paperwork indicating they will run. Adrian Gonzalez has raised almost $7,500 and Cindy Mattson, who hadn’t raised anything as of the last report available, through February.

Góngora definitely enters the race as the frontrunner due to his leadership and likely support from a number of community organizations that he has been involved with for a long time, from before being elected in 2009 until the present. Last year, he was elected president of the Miami Beach Bar Association.

“I am confident the voters will choose my proven leadership and trusted experience to move Miami Beach forward,” Góngora said in a statement.

“I look forward to an energetic and positive campaign, communicating with voters about my vision for our City’s future, improving our traffic and infrastructure, and bringing back residents into government decisions by listening to the people about what their city government must focus on to improve their quality of life.”

Why not run for mayor?

“My personal and professional commitments don’t allow me the increased time and expense to run for mayor again right now,” Góngora said.

“I also believe that once a new mayor is elected this November the de facto strong mayor position will also be a thing of the past and we will go back to a system where the mayor and commissioners have nearly equal authority with regard to governance as one more vote on the commission,” he said in a not so sideways stab at Levine’s style.

“I will be more effective as commissioner as the senior member of the commission with the most years of experience,” Góngora added.

“And Miami Beach needs my leadership now.”

Commissioner Michael Grieco was the first to file paperwork last week to run for the top dog seat after Mayor Philip Levine said he would not be seeking re-election. But you can bet he won’t be the last now that there’s no millionaire incumbent.

Already there have been reports that former State Rep. and Senator Dan Gelber, who ran for Attorney General and lost to Trumpette Pam Bondi in 2010, may be interested in the job. Gelber, who is the son of two-time mayor Seymore Gelber, has gotten a bunch of calls urging him to consider it and he is doing just that, said his political consultant Chrisitan Ulvert, who also happens to be Levine’s political consultant.

Does this mean that Gelber is Levine’s hand-picked successor instead of Commissioner Ricky Arriola?

Many on the’s beach have speculated that Levine would run and fund an Arriola bid for mayor. And Arriola was reportedly pit against Grieco in a telephone poll done weeks ago in which voters were asked who they would choose in a head to head if the election were today.

Read related story: Philip Levine ‘parks’ his train after poll — but only for now

This is the same poll in which they were asked multiple questions about the train to nowhere — Levine’s “loopy loop” innercity light rail — which was suspended shortly after, most likely because it bombed.

Did Arriola bomb too?

Sure, there’s plenty of time to think about it. Qualifying isn’t until the first week of September. And Arriola can work on his profile between now and then. But he will likely stay put. Because this being an open seat now opens it up to a lot of more truly viable candidates, including former commissioners Michael Gongora, who lost to Levine in 2013, and Deede Weithorn, who didn’t dare run against him and his money but lost a bid for state rep last year. And Ladra is sure there is a political consultant or campaign guru looking for a young Latina or hombre to run. Because that’s all Arriola has got going for him. 

Grieco has reportedly been considering this mayoral run since last year, when Levine invited Raul and Fidel Castro to open a Cuban governmnt consular office in Miami Beach. Grieco was aghast and blasted Levine for it. He has also been openly against the train. And he believes he can do more to guide the city as mayor.

Levine had sold him out even earlier, when he lashed out at Grieco for voting against an 84% increase in storm water fees in 2014.

Read related story: Miami Beach break-up — Philip Levine and Michael Grieco

He has been fundraising as a commission candidate, for his re-election, and has almost all his $234,000 that he’ll be able to transfer to a mayoral account because we’re sure his donors won’t mind. Grieco also has at least two more fundraisers in the near future. Jay Parker, Steve Temes, Jordan Levy, Stephen Worth, Evan and Rustin Kluge, Brian Sidman and Keith Marks are hosting what Ladra believes is his first fundraiser for the mayor’s run this Thursday at South Pointe Tavern. There will be another fundraiser Jan. 28 at the home of Eduardo Hepp and Randy Bullard.

Candidate Grieco will also have a press breakfast and resident Q&A next Tuesday, Jan. 24, at Cafe Avanti on 41st Street.

Miami Beach Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez wasn’t getting her phone messages. She wasn’t getting invitations sent to her for events. She missed meetings that she wasn’t told about. She wasn’t getting her message out to the senior citizen centers where she campaigned among the seniors who elected her.

And that’s because her aide may have been working against her.

David Zaret was hired by Mayor Philip Levine, who has been bullying Rosen Gonzalez since before she won her seat a little more than a year ago against one of Levine’s plantidates. He tweets more about Commission John Aleman than he does about his boss, who Aleman went after with her since-abandoned kiss-and-tell ordinance.

Read related story: Miami Beach commissioner wants electeds to kiss and tell

David Zaret

“I felt like I had a Benedict Arnold in my office,” Rosen Gonzalez told Ladra. She couldn’t fire him. So she did the next best thing: “I changed my locks and moved that double agent into the mayor’s office.”

Rosen Gonzalez was the only commissioner who was not allowed to hire her own aide. Her choices were vetoed by the mayor, who gets to approve any hires the commissioners make. She has a problem with that. And on Wednesday she will try to convince her colleagues to put a referendum before the voters that would allow them to hire and fire their own staff.

Zaret has ignored her directives, she said. “I tried to fire him six months ago. I told the chief of staff he wasn’t doing anything that I asked him to do,” she said. “She refused.”

Zaret also ignored calls and emails from Ladra. The first email came back with this message: “Your email has reached the office of David Zaret, however, he is no longer the aide for Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez. If you are attempting to reach the Commissioner, you may do so by emailing her directly.”

He also does not speak Spanish, which Rosen Gonzalez says is important to be able to communicate with her constituents and represent them properly.

“When I get calls from Spanish speakers, my aide can’t help and bounces it over to the mayor’s aide,” she said. She doesn’t get the information or gets it late. “My constituency has suffered and I’ve had to work twice as hard.”

Recently, the commissioner was invited to a cocktail party. The host hand-delivered the invite in a gold box with a purple ribbon. You think she’d remember such a thing. But she never got it. Or sent regrets. Or knew about it — until she ran into the host who said she was missed.

“I was embarrassed,” she said. “I don’t care about not going to the event, but I want to be able to say ‘thank you’ to the person who hand delivered the invitation. And I just happened to run into this person. Who knows how many other things I’ve not gotten that I don’t know about?”

One would think that Zaret would be fired from his job. Anyone who so blatantly fails to perform would be. We will know he’s a spy when he gets rewarded with a new job, instead. Maybe he will be reassigned to Aleman’s office. He’s such a fan, after all.

Read related story: A tale of two aides — Fired and Hired

Ladra bets that Aleman votes against Rosen Gonzalez’s initiative. But the other commissioners really ought to take it seriously. In order for commissioners to be truly independent, they need the freedom to hire and fire their own staff — and to be able to trust that their staff isn’t really working for and taking care of someone else. 

Don’t forget the word fire. Because the mayor can also fire an aide out of spite or revenge. Anyone remember Alex Fernandez? He was former Commissioner Deede Weithorn‘s aide until Mayor Ego fired him for supporting former Commissioner Michael Gongora in the 2013 mayoral race. Fernandez is better off now, working for a county commissioner.

And last week, the spy may have been in Rosen Gonzalez’s office. But tomorrow it could be in yours, Commissioner Michael Grieco. Or in yours, Commissioner Micky Steinberg. 

If Rosen’s item fails — as is likely since Commissioners Joy Malakoff and Ricky Arriola have proven before to be in the mayor’s pocket, as well as Aleman — then she should take the matter to a petition and get it on the ballot despite them. Don’t get comfy just because you got rid of one spy.

There can always be another.

We’ve had enough egg nog and holiday cheer to last us til next December. Now it’s time to get back to work.

After a two week hiatus — because really there are not a lot of events or meetings during period from just before Christmas to El Dia de los Reyes Mago — the Political Cortadito calendar is back.

Pay attention. You want to start the year right.

And please keep the information coming on the meetings, campaign rallies, powwows and other events. Just send to edevalle@gmail.com.

MONDAY — Jan. 9

6:30 p.m. — The Village of Palmetto Bay has a lot on the agenda for the first meeting of the year Monday, including a couple of items about new restroom facilities and the cafe operation at Coral Reef Park, legal fees the Village may pay for Councilwoman Karyn Cunninghman and traffic studies of the “maximum vehicular traffic which would be produced by full residential build-out of the Village mixed use district”  at 17777 and 17901 Old Cutler Road.  Apparently, the district was upzoned last year. Also on table tonight: a $50,000 grant for improvements to the dog park, a contract for $26,000 to William Paving for traffic calming devices, ordinances that try to limit the influence of campaign donors and lobbyists (more on that later) and establishing that the runoff date for any election cannot be the Tuesday before Thanksgiving (turnout must have been abysmal Nov. 22).  There is also an ordinance restricting the number of apartments and townhomes in the downtown urban district to 1,000, an ordinance on the process for site plan reviews and an ordinance requiring a minumum of two bidders for contracts worth $5,000 or more and three for contracts worth $15,000 or more. Add to that discussions on the fire station and medical marijuana. Oh, and another ordinance saying that meetings must end at 11 p.m. Which, judging by the look of this agenda, is more difficult than it sounds. Good luck with that. How much you want to bet the lights are on at Village Hall Chambers, 9705 E. Hibiscus St., past midnight?

TUESDAY — Jan.  10

8:30 a.m. — The year’s first Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club meeting features Miami Beach Assistant City Manager Kathy Brooks, who will be disussing the various projects under way by the city… “including what’s next for the recently canceled Light Rail project.” Yes, you read that right. Because even though the Mayor Philip Levine has pretended to put the brakes on for now, that train to nowhere idea is still mulling around. There is no charge for the meeting, but you’re buying if you want breakfast at Manolo’s Restaurant, 685 Washington Ave.

9 a.m. — Coral Gables Commissioners have their first meeting of the year. Among the items on the agenda are a $1 million contract for red light cameras and several zoning and development plan changes, including a mixed used site plan proposed for the 33 Alhambra development. Commission chambers are on the second floor at City Hall, 405 Biltmore Way.

WEDNESDAY — Jan. 11

8:30 a.m. — Miami Beach Commission meets for the first time in 2017 at City Hall, 1700 Convention Center Drive. Will they talk yet again about the light rail train project that has been “cancelled?” Look again on Political Cortadito later today for a story about an item on that agenda.

10 a.m. — The city of Doral has its first meeting of the new year, with a bunch of contract reviews and negotiations up for discussion. There are also several items that seem to indicate a lot of future improvement of the police department, which we know was a big issue during the last election (people like to say that former Mayor Luigi Boria told the cops to stop enforcing traffic laws). Council chambers are upstairs at City Hall, 8401 NW 53rd Ter.

THURSDAY — Jan. 12

1 p.m. — A master plan discussion for the future of Lincoln Road begins at 1 p.m. at the CIP conference room, 1701 Meridian Ave.

7 p.m. — A group of environmental activists and concerned neighbors have been trying for the past couple of years to save a tiny spit of native Pine rocklands near MetroZoo from becoming a strip mall, high-density housing and/or an amusement park. They want to step up efforts this year because there are whispers that Miami-Dade is getting closer to a deal with a developer to create that Miami Wilds animal-themed theme park in what basically amounts to the last 1.5% of an endangered habitat. The meeting will bring newbies up to speed and members of the group will share more information about an upcoming field tip to the South Dade Pine Rocklands, which are normally closed to the public. The meeting at the Tropical Audobon Society, 5530 Sunset Dr., should be over by 9 p.m.

FRIDAY — Jan. 13

7 a.m. — Every year, the Homestead and Florida City communities come together to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with a free community breakfast. This year’s keynote speaker is Miami-Dade School Superintendent Alberto Carvalho and this year’s theme is “Renewing the Dream and Recommitting to Peace,” which is a nod to the headlines of the past year that “highlighted the struggle for equality in the face of rising tensions.” But you won’t be able to count the electeds with both hands as the entire Homestead and Florida City commissions are expected to be there, as well as Congressman Carlos Curbelo and Miami-Dade Commissioners Daniella Levine Cava and Dennis Moss. Maybe even Mayor Carlos Gimenez will stop by, though without a re-election in sight he has no reason to. And Ladra dares Sen. Frank Artiles to show up. The event will honor some local heroes, too. It’s expected to last a couple of hours (but always goes over) at the Phichol Williams Community Center, 951 SW 4th St, Homestead.