UPDATED: Miami Lakes former Mayor Michael “Muscles” Pizzi, who has been rebuffed twice now by Gov. Rick Scott‘s refusal to lift last year’s suspension, has basically told Gov. Rick Scott tha
t he needs to read the actual Florida law, not what he wants the Florida law to be and revoke the suspension that followed his 2013 arrest on federal public corruption charges.
Pizzi was suspended in August of 2013 after he was charged with bribery in an FBI sting that also netted, separately, former Sweetwater Mayor Manny “Maraña” Maroño. While Maroño agreed to a plea deal and is serving his 3 1/2 year sentence, Pizzi was acquitted by a jury last month. When Scott didn’t immediately lift Pizzi’s suspension, the attorney’s lawyers filed a motion to compel, which was granted.
But, predictably, they don’t think that Scott’s reason is good enough.
Scott said there’s basically no suspension to lift. A response Tuesday by Scott’s attorney, Thomas Winokur, to the court’s request to “show cause why the petition should not be granted” states that Pizzi’s term was up and he no longer had a seat to be returned to.
Read related story: Rick Scott must explain snub on suspended Michael Pizzi
“The statutory requirement to revoke the suspension order does nothing but permit reinstatement of the suspended official. Petitioner is entitled to revocation of the suspension order only if he is entitled to reinstatement,” the response reads. “Under the Town Charter, Petitioner is not entitled to 
reinstatement because his term, and therefore his suspension, have expired. Because his suspension has expired, the Governor can no longer revoke it.”
But Pizzi’s response to Scott’s response is that the suspension and the reinstatement are two separate things and that one has nothing to do with another.
For one thing, his attorneys — and Pizzi’s response was signed by no less than six of ’em — argue that Pizzi is entitled to back pay and benefits for a suspension that was wrongfully issued, as deemed by the acquittal. If nothing else, Pizzi could have a legal claim to the salary he lost during the period that he was suspended.
Furthermore — and also predictably — the attorneys refuse to recognize that Pizzi’s term is up and that he cannot be reinstated because he had just been elected to a four-year term. But that should not be part of the guv’s consideration, they said.
“However, as he has repeatedly acknowledged, that is an issue that will be resolved at a different time, and in a different forum,” states the motion filed Wednesday in response to the governor’s response, which the attorneys characterize as political and bring up the case of Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones, whose suspension was lifted even though her seat had been taken by a replacement in her absence. It states:
“The Governor’s argument is little more than a recent contrivance designed to apply only to Mr. Pizzi’s situation in a manner that departs from the entirety of the long history of gubernatorial revocations of suspensions when public officials are acquitted,” it states. “In the identical case of City of Miami Commissioner Spence-Jones, Governor Scott forthwith issued Executive Order No. 11-186 upon her acquittal and the dismissal of all criminal charges, thus immediately revoking her suspension even though a replacement election required by the municipal charter had already occurred and a new commissioner was already sworn into office (App. 101-103). Thus, in 2011, without any change in the Florida Constitution or amendment of the applicable statute, the Governor followed the clear requirement of the law and did not contend the swearing in of a successor meant the official’s term had ended and the Governor had no authority or duty to revoke the suspension order. Then as now, the law is the same: the Governor is legally obligated to forthwith revoke the Executive Order of suspension following Mr. Pizzi’s acquittal of all charges.”
Benedict Kuehne, the lead of six attorneys that also include Ed Shohat and David Reiner, had issued a statement Tuesday basically calling the guv a liar and a scofflaw.
“Miami Lakes Mayor Pizzi is disappointed by the continued reckless and lawless behavior of Governor Scott in denying the mandatory requirements of Florida’s Constitution and laws,” Kuehne wrote in an email to the press in which he characterizes Scott’s reasoning as a campaign ploy.
“Apparently, as his re-election battle becomes a uphill struggle for survival, Governor Scott is playing the role of a typical politician willing to do anything and everything, including resorting to breaking the law, in order to advance some unseen political strategy. Not only is this sad saga an outrage to Mayor Pizzi and the good citizens of Miami Lakes, but it is an affront to the Rule of Law everywhere,” Kuehne wrote.
“For a Governor whose first responsibility is to execute the laws, not to create new laws to suit his own personal agenda, his continued refusal to enforce his clear and mandatory legal obligation is reprehensible, demanding an investigation into his failure to act,” he added. “The Governor’s response filed today is nothing more than a rehash of his tired and false talking points that have already been shown to be unwise, unsound, and unconstitutional.”
Michael Pizzi to Rick Scott: ‘Read the law and unsuspend me’ added by Ladra on
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