Mayor Bower Leaves Miami Beach in the Lurch

8/9/2019 Mayor Bower Leaves Miami Beach in the Lurch

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Miami Beach Mayor Matti Bower

Mayor Bower leaves Miami Beach in the lurch

Miami BeachJuly 7, 2010

David Arthur Walters, a self-styled investigative reporter, wrote to Miami BeachMayor Matti Bower on June 25, 2010 and asked her to place an item on the July 6Commission agenda, to discuss whether or not an independent investigation shouldbe conducted into the contractual relationship between Green Square, Inc., themanager of the city's Flamingo Park Tennis Center and North Shore Tennis Center,

and the City of Miami Beach.

"Violations of the terms of the contract are alleged," wrote Mr. Walters, "and seriousquestions have been raised about the letting out of the contracts and the process forrenewal. Indeed, circumstances surrounding the letting out of the original contractnearly a decade ago appear suspicious. If half of the allegations are true, the Gonzalez

Administration has been, to say the least, grossly negligent in its conduct in regards tothe tennis court issue. If an investigation finds that the Administration has in factbeen negligent and/or engaged in some malfeasance, that might be indicative of

widespread mishandling of City contracts, and that of course would call for the firingof the City Manager and a shakeup of the entire Administration. I urge you to placean item on the agenda for the next City Commission meeting to at least discuss theappointment of independent investigators to inquire into the Flamingo Tennis matter,and if the investigation indicates maladministration, to conduct a widespreadinvestigation into the handling of City contracts by the Gonzalez Administration overthe last ten years of Jorge Gonzalez' tenure."


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Rebecca Wakefield, Mayor Bower's chief of staff, replied the same day as follows:"Thank you for writing. If you have specific questions that youd like answered, we

will do our best to get them answered.

To which Mr. Walters responded: "There is a mass of detail which may be organizedfor the investigators. I see from various senders' email delivery detail that MayorBower and the City Manager are aware of numerous detailed complaints aboutcontractual violations and apparently nothing was done to address them oracknowledge them. There was plenty of time to answer questions. Many people aretired of waiting for answers and want a sea change. I did not ask a question. I askedfor one thing, that discussion of an independent investigation of the entire affair atleast to put on the next agenda - so I will ask you one question here: Will that bedone? Once the investigators are empanelled, I am sure that all the material delivered

to the Mayor and City Manager before will be delivered again to the investigators, andno doubt many people will come forward in confidence to testify - some of them arefearful of retaliation. We trusted Mayor Bower to deliver on her promise to clean thistown up. This is her chance. Otherwise she will leave office with that trust broken."

Despite allegations of under-reporting of revenue, from which part of the city's rent iscalculated, there has been no city audit of the contractor's books as authorized by thecontract. In fact, the city acknowledged that the books have not been audited sincethe inception of the management contract in 2002. Certain unaudited financialstatements, budget reports and other records were reportedly not regularly supplied to

the city when due, and what the contractor did furnish was either ignored or leftvirtually unexamined. Sketchy information has emerged to the effect that the recordsnow on hand indicate irregularities, wide fluctuations in rents reported due from timeto time, and delinquent payment of rents.

Notwithstanding the apparent financial irregularities, there are longstandingcomplaints by amateur and professional tennis players, alleging grossly inadequatemaintenance of the courts by the management firm. Since Green Square's generalmanager either was not available to receive the complaints or did not respond to themeffectively, complaints were lodged with Miami Beach Parks Director Kevin Smith,

who is a good friend to one of Green Square's principals, tennis pro Jimmy Bollettieri,son to Nick Bollettieri, reputedly the best tennis coach in the world. Mr. Smithapparently oversees the city's contract with Green Square.

After a frequent tennis player alleged that the maintenance had improved significantly"since the city took it over," Mr. Walters contacted Andrew Plotkin, Park FacilityManager for the Parks and Recreation Department on June 25, 2010, and asked, "I am


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informed that Parks took over the major maintenance of the courts from GreenSquare Inc because of a number of complaints, and has done a good job of it for theplayers. Would you please confirm that info?"

"Green Square Inc.," Mr. Plotkin replied on June 28, "is responsible and provides thedaily court maintenance. Since the June 5, 2009 storm and the restoration of thecourts that summer, the Parks and Recreation Department has taken a more proactiveapproach by assisting with the development and monitoring of the daily maintenanceprocess. If I can assist you with anything else, please do not hesitate to contact me."

Mr. Plotkin did not respond to Mr. Walters' further question despite follow ups: "Doyou have any sort of estimate of the monthly cost of Park's contribution to themaintenance? Would that be charged to Green Square? I noticed that, on one of itsunaudited financials, only around $276 was expensed to maintenance, I think for an

entire year."

Another tennis player sent an email on April 12, 2010 to Mayor Bower, City ManagerJorge Gonzalez, and City Attorney Jose Smith among others including members ofthe press, detailing alleged contract violations, open drug use by a pro around bothGreen Square managed tennis centers, and asking pointed questions, such as howcould a contract be given to a firm whose general manager was arrested and charged

with felony drug distribution?

Mr. Walters made a public records request for background checks and drug screens

on June 21, 2010: "Section 8.4 of the April 15, 2007 City contract with Green SquareInc. reads: The Contractor and its employees and/or independent contractors shallundergo a comprehensive background check and drug screening in accordance withthe City's process.... Section 8.1 identifies the principals as Jim Bollettieri, Tom Mar,and Victor Weithorn. Please provide me with copies of the background checks on allthree named individuals together with the drug screening results on same. If there arenone, please indicate accordingly. I assume that any files will be in the Contractorfolder, therefore research will take less than one hour hence there will be no chargefor your good services.

City Clerk Robert Parcher responded on June 28 with copies of three internal emailbetween the city's human resource department and the parks department, dated in2002, bearing Kevin Smith's official name and address, indicating that the "contractemployees" were "clear."

Therefore, there have been neither background checks nor drug screenings since2002. Since the email did not make it clear what was being cleared, either the


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individuals' background or drug screening (one email stated "Subject: Backgrounds") afurther inquiry was made of Mr. Parcher, asking for copies of the documentsthemselves - Mr. Walters has stated that he does not trust the Gonzalez

Administration, and has expressed a suspicion that someone might clean out the filesbefore they can be examined by investigators.

At the inaugural meeting of the Civic Circle, Gonzalez publicly scoffed at the 90,000residents who think he works for them, said Mr. Walters, and he has complainedthat complainers are always complaining about one bad blade of grass in his lawn, andthat if they do not like it they should move, but there are lots of bad blades in it, andas far as I am concerned, several snakes too, and there is an alternative to moving get rid of his administration and install one that works for everyone concerned.

Mr. Parcher stated that the request for background checks and drug screens had been

forwarded to City Attorney Jose Smith to determine if it is legal to provide copies ofthe documents. It is anticipated that Mr. Smith will respond that law prohibits therelease of drug screening information, as there are laws on the books that protect drugabusers. Whether or not the city attorney will admit that there are no drug screens isanother matter, hence employees and former employees of Green Square are beingpolled.

This might just be a case of good-old-boy patronage, admitted Mr. Walters. Well,then, if some of the boys may be good, but they have grown too old in the sameoffice, rendering the office stagnant and careless, and fresh blood is needed now is a

good time for some creative-destruction, in my view.

As for the area's only major daily press, the Miami Herald has been remiss inreporting matters of great interest to Miami Beach residents, and the reports that weremade were usually biased in favor of the reporters' source of information, theGonzalez Administration, so as not to alienate that source and therefore to retainone's job at the paper. The Miami Herald's latest Miami Beach beat reporter, DavidSmiley, has been furnished with ample information about the allegations ofmisconduct and mismanagement, but has complained within earshot that he is tired of

working on the tennis court issue no matter what it means. However, he has written

only about 1,500 words on the subject, about two hours of work for a competentwriter, and has made a number of misrepresentations while doing so.

It is highly unlikely that Mayor Bower would be willing to allow the Commission todiscuss an investigation into the Gonzalez Administration on her watch, Mr. Walterssaid, as she is a very close friend of Jorge Gonzalez, who has extraordinary power dueto a weak-mayor and part-time commission constitution. In late March of early April


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of this year, she took him on a junket to Peru along with Roberto Da Torre. A fewMiami Beach taxpayers who happen to attend closely to city affairs have expressedoutrage over the frequent trips by the mayor, although it is unclear at this time as to

what extent the trips have been privately funded, funded by the city, or funded byexcess campaign funds left in so-called office accounts.

Mr. Walters said, Mayor Bower's fellows on the city commission have privatelyremarked that she is not as dumb as her detractors make her out to be, nor is she asnice as her supporters claim, that she is sharp as can be when being mean and

vindictive. However that might be - and every person has idiosyncrasies as well asfriends and enemies - she has severely disappointed a large part of the usuallyapathetic electorate, already disaffected by the arrogance of the longstandingGonzalez Administration and the continuing degradation of Miami Beach, andespecially South Beach, into another Sin City.

Mayor Bower came into office on the coattails of her mentor Mayor David Dermer,explained Mr. Walters. He had won over the electorate with promises to curb theconstruction of high rises, but developers overran his office like roaches andconstruction of high rises actually accelerated on his watch, sinking Miami Beach intoa grand canyon. And the gentrification program he advanced, often under the guise ofpromoting the arts, put the cost of a decent living on the beach even further beyondthe reach of working people who support the leisure of tourists who pay hundreds ofdollars a night for party hotel rooms around the beach. In turn, Mayor Bowerpromised to help the poor and clean up the town.

Thus has trust been broken twice over, by mentor and protg, and residents havebeen left in the lurch to fend for themselves, insisted Mr. Walters. Some of them haveformed a sort of cabal, called The Squeaky Wheel Club, he disclosed, and arediscussing a reorganization of the constitution of Miami Beach, in the spirit of thereorganization famously contemplated on the real tennis court in France in 1789,

where the Tennis Court Oath was sworn. Two current commissioners are the Clubsfavorites for a strong mayor position.

Documents

Mayor Bower Leaves Miami Beach in the Lurch