Roots of Evil in Miami Beach Sunset Harbour

8/20/2019 Roots of Evil in Miami Beach Sunset Harbour

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MIAMI MIRROR – TRUE REFLECTIONS

Page 1 of 7

Sunset Harbour

Towers

and

Mayor

Levine’s

Shopping

Center

THE ROOTS OF EVIL IN SUNSET HARBOUR

BY

DAVID ARTHUR WALTERS

30 September 2015

When City of Miami Beach Commissioner Ed Tobin was running for the city commission in 2007,

his firm prepared an option agreement whereby Scott Robins, his client, would purchase a Bay

Road lot from the owner of Tremont Towing in the Sunset Harbour neighborhood, wherein

Sunset Harbour Towers condominium Tobin himself owned an interest in three units and

several parking spaces. Tobin, apparently violating local law, accepted campaign contributions




Page 2 of 7

from Scott Robins’ group of companies even though he knew that Scott Robins was seeking a

re‐zoning of the property and would need to come before the City Commission.

Sec. 2‐489 of the Ordinances of the City of Miami Beach provides that, “No real estate

developer shall give a campaign contribution directly or indirectly to a candidate, or to the

campaign committee of a candidate, for the offices of mayor or commissioner.”

The Miami‐Dade County Commission on Ethics and Public Trust and its prosecuting advocate,

Michael Murawski, almost always lenient on political shenanigans on the beach, ignored that

apparent violation, and the COE dismissed several counts against Tobin and issued a letter of

instruction. Another complaint brought against him would be similarly disposed of in 2013.

Fines when imposed are picayune given the power and wealth of the persons involved, yet a

conviction may have political consequences due to adverse publicity, which is rare given the

market needs of the only major daily newspaper and its television affiliate. Substantial

politicians may go to considerable expense to hire lawyers to represent them, or simply

badmouth the ethics commission as incompetent and irrelevant.

Tobin himself has publicly scoffed at the ineptitude of the ethics commission, which has been

dubbed “The Unethical Commission of Public Distrust” in urban lore. The commission

frequently requires that complainants themselves conduct the investigations that it is supposed

to conduct with the legal tools it has; it often takes the word of officials for granted without

asking for rebuttals; it is overly lenient towards certain officials; it appears to violate its own

ethical standards with impunity; ‐‐and then it has the gall to offer to teach ethics to

municipalities for

a fee.

Scott Robins,

Philip

Levine,

Jonah

Wolfson,

Jimmy

Morales

Scott Robins and his partner Philip Levine would ultimately assemble properties and sell $20

million of air rights to the city, resulting in the shopping center and parking garage across the

street from Sunset Harbour Towers. Commissioner Tobin, by the way, would be instrumental in

the ouster of City Manager Jorge Gonzalez, who on behalf of the City Commission arranged the




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“partnership” or condominium agreement between the city and Robins/Levine although he

objected to what he believed was an exorbitant sum, $20 million, paid for the air rights.

Jorge Gonzalez

Forced to resign with a handsome severance package in the wake of a scandal over the arrest of

an handful of code enforcement officers, Gonzalez claimed that there would always be some

corruption in the lower ranks of governments, and that here the highest level of government

had been corrupted as well. That would be his boss, the city commission, whose commissioners

he said had been fixing code compliance cases in return for campaign contributions. So he

maintained that he was ousted because he bucked the will of corrupt commissioners.

The mayor’s Sunset Harbour area given priority for stormwater protection

Furthermore, he claimed that the roots of evil extended into Sunset Harbour, where today we

see the roads being raised around the mayor’s shopping center to protect the area from

stormwater, with considerable work being done by Lanzo Construction, a donor to the

scandalized PAC featuring the mayor’s alleged accomplishments. The flood control project,




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initiated prior to his advent by the previous regime, is the main accomplishment advertised by

the PAC and the mayor, a professional propagandist, via his personal vanity mayor website.

Indeed, he seems to have taken his cue from Mussolini’s popular swamp recovery program,

which

ultimately

failed,

not

to

mention

taking

control

of

committees

and

suppressing

dissent.

At the beginning of what has been a severe drought, he claimed that the streets were bone dry

after a slight rain although nearly five square blocks were ankle deep in water. A more

substantial rain occurring later on the full super‐ or red‐moon resulted in the closing of several

roads for flooding, but the ones protected by the pumps were dry.

Lanzo Construction

contributed

funds

to

the

“stinking”

PAC

Gonzalez concluded that corruption was given full sway with the faux reform regime led by

Clinton pal Philip Levine. He characterized the mayor’s henchman, city manager Jimmy Morales,

a political insider shoed into the job despite the recommendation of several outsiders by a

professional recruiting firm, as “spineless.”




Page 5 of 7

On June 2, 2013, before Gonzalez was shown the door, I made the following recommendation

in a town forum email exchange:

“We should not be deceived into thinking that changing city managers is going to change a

longstanding culture, much of it informal. Whosoever takes the office will have to adjust to the

status quo unless a radical is brought in and given temporary dictatorial powers except over the

budget (as in Rome). The salient features of his background should be courage, honesty, and

intelligence. Formal education and whether or not s/he inhaled or not should be at the end of

the list. Jorge should have remained in his position for another year in order to take advantage

of the impetus for reform i.e. a real crackdown, and save some face to boot. Obviously, certain

reformers did not want that crackdown, and have interests rooted in the very corruption they

pretend to root out. All the current commissioners should be replaced as soon as possible with

a slate of clean candidates. Perhaps Jorge should considering running for mayor on a strong‐

mayor charter‐reform plank.”

Commissioner Tobin responded: “Can i buy some pot from you” (sic)

So Jimmy Morales, a sophisticated Harvard Law grad, former city attorney for the scandalized

City of Doral, good old Miami Beach home boy, was wheeled in as city manager, crying when he

was appointed.

Morales is well known locally as a nice guy with an open door as long as he is gone along with,

and as a vindictive bureaucratic thug behind closed doors when resisted, but not nearly as

vindictive as the de facto strong mayor he depends on—weak city managers come and go with

strong mayors.

He

is

praised

by

some

as

a moral

man

while

others

warn

that

his

last

name

should not be confused with morality and that morality should not be confused with the Good

of ethics. Ironically, the city might be better off if he were the political mayor and Philip Levine

managed the city business under the city’s weak mayor, strong city manager, fascistic charter.

Tobin was allied with the faux reform majority purchased and led by Philip Levine as mayor.

Commissioner Jonah Wolfson was also instrumental in the capture of the city commission by

the so‐called reformers. He was scandalized by contributions from the towing duopoly based in

Sunset Harbour, and from a beach concession monopoly, Boucher Brothers, to his wife

Andrea’s

judicial

campaign

while

he

deviously

advanced

a

radical

increase

in

towing

fees

and

a

no‐bid renewal of the concession contract. Tobin, by the way, has often been at acrimonious

odds with him.

Wolfson’s wife, incidentally, was an assistant state attorney and has lectured on ethics for the

county ethics commission, whose director, Joe Centorino, was her former colleague at the state



attorney

had look

The

City

had bee

while sit

faction,

officer c

consider

Now M

Commis

develop

now

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Commissio a state pr

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herefore

ndidate. H

ations, deci

yor Levine

ioner Dee

rs. Mayor

rs

to

Tobin’

espected” p

I MI

e ethics co

ontribution

Commiss

recently

wsecutor in

commissio

he mayor

reportedly

ed not to b

and Comm

e Weithor

evine, who

s

failure

to

litical televis

ROR

P

mission di

s as possibl

ioner Tobin

aived

its

oBroward Co

. He was

nd commi

failed the

ecome a po

issioner W

for solicit

had waxe

ass

the

eth

ion reporter

– TRU

age 6 of 7

not respo

e violations

raduated fro

n

ethics

reunty, to ap

pparently

sion highly

olice depa

lice officer.

lfson have

ing politica

eloquent

ics

test,

imp

Michael Putn

REF

d to repeat

of local ca

m police aca

uirements

ly for a job

ecoming d

recommen

tment’s et

been take

l contributi

n Tobin’s

lying

that

h

ey raised hel

ECTI

ed requests

paign finan

demy

and

allowe with the p

isgruntled

ded him as

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to task b

ons from c

esire to be

is

an

unet

l about the s

NS

as to whet

e reform la

Mr.

Tobin,lice depart

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the ideal

, citing per

Mr. Tobin

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a police o

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man.

tinking PAC

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Page 7 of 7

Levine and Wolfson’s excuse is that, unlike Scott Robins’ previous contributions to Tobin, the

donations were intended for a political action committee chaired by Commissioner Wolfson,

and that the funds received were not specifically earmarked for Levine’s re‐election even

though most of the advertising expenditures lauded Levine’s alleged accomplishments. If

extortion or

bribery

were

at

play,

the

malefactors

could

be

subject

to

criminal

prosecution,

and

F.B.I. agents have been seen making the rounds again.

The stench over the stinking PAC ordure has provoked the lazy county ethics commission to

open an investigation. Absent proof of a quid pro quo, the contributions probably did not

violate the ethics code because the code does not mention political action committees,

although the motivation for the donations just may be unethical in a higher sense, Wolfson says

he will shut down the PAC and make proportionate refunds of any remaining money. That may

provoke possibly disgruntled donors to tell all given a promise of immunity.

All the

above

leaves

the

question

as

to

why

the

same

commission,

when

examining

the

previous complaint against a commissioner, namely Ed Tobin, did not find probable cause when

there was not political action committee at play, although the ethics commission advocate’s

discussion of the case practically mirrored the city’s campaign finance reform prohibition. We

may have one big ball of wax in this county regardless of political subdivisions.

# #

Read the specifics about the failure of the county ethics commission to respond to questions as

to why it apparently ignored the contributions of Scott Robins to Ed Tobin as Sunset Harbour

was being

put

together

for

him

and

his

friend

Philip

Levine,

the

future

mayor

of

Miami

Beach.

THE BLACK EYE OF THE MIAMI DADE ETHICS COMMISSION

http://miamimirror.com/2015/09/the‐black‐eye‐of ‐miami‐dade‐ethics.html

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Roots of Evil in Miami Beach Sunset Harbour