If there ever was a municipality that needs an independent inspector general, it is the city of Miami.

One commissioner who was suspended after his September arrest on 11 felony charges, including bribery and money laundering, in connection with is vote to give away a public park. Another former commissioner is being investigated for promising a city job in exchange for an endorsement. The mayor is embroiled in an FBI investigation over other bribery allegations in “consulting” payments made by a developer who was seeking permits and concessions from the city at the time. And the city manager has given incomplete accounts of the hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of office furniture that the city has purchased from his wife’s family business.

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Miami City Commissioner Miguel Gabela wanted the city to stop payments to attorney Ben Kuehne in cases where he was representing former Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla in civil court. Kuehne is also Diaz de la Portilla’s attorney in his felony criminal case on money laundering, bribery and other public corruption charges.

But before he could vote on a resolution he brought to the commission last week, he got news that ADLP had already replaced Kuehne with former Miami Lakes Mayor Michael “Muscles” Pizzi, who was charged with federal bribery and extortion charges himself, caught in an FBI sting plotting to take some bogus grant money in 2013.

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Two commission meetings have come and gone since Miami City Manager Art Noriega said he would provide a report on his wife’s business dealings at the city. Y nada. And it’s odd that none of the commissioners — especially the two recently-elected, reform-minded guys — haven’t held his feet tot he fire.

Last month, WLRN exposed that Michelle Pradere-Noriega‘s family business was awarded more than $440,000 in city contracts for new office furniture and furniture assembly. The public documents obtained by the station show that $37,000 worth of furniture was purchased for his offices at City Hall and the Miami River Center over two months early last year.

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Former Miami Commissioner Sabina Covo, who ran on a platform of fighting corruption, is currently under investigation for “remuneration by candidate for services, support, etc. and bribery.”

Remuneration? Yeah, that means promises of money or jobs by a candidate for support of her candidacy and it is illegal under Florida Statute 104.071.

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There’s a growing list of people who think Miami Mayor Francis Suarez ought to resign his position in light of the exposé published this week by The Miami Herald, with details about just how much he blurs the lines between his private, for-profit life and his, ahem, “public service.”

Former Miami Police chiefs Jorge Colina and Art Acevedo — who wrote a scathing memo about corruption that is supposedly being investigated by the Broward State Attorney’s office — have joined the chorus. But the first one to publicly call for his resignation was newly-elected Commissioner Damian Pardo, who ran on a platform of rooting out corruption.

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That was fast.

It took just about 24 hours for Gov. Ron DeSantis to suspend Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, after his arrest this week on charges of money laundering, bribery, criminal conspiracy and other public corruption and campaign finance violations.

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