Former Miami Lakes Mayor Michael “Muscles” Pizzi — who was arrested on federal public corruption charges in 2013 and acqu
itted last year — has one more notch on his victory belt.
After getting his acquittal on the bribery charges and the court to force Gov. Rick Scott to rescind his suspension from office and another court to rule in favor of his motion to return to Town Hall, Pizzi won again this week when the Third District Court of Appeals upheld that decision.
The town and Mayor Wayne Slaton — who lost to Pizzi in 2012 but was elected in a special election a couple of months after he was arrested — have five days to respond, 
and he may appeal again.
“I thank the Appellant Court for their expedited consideration of this case. My attorneys will be reviewing the court’s ruling and we will be deciding the most appropriate manner in which to proceed,” Slaton said in a written statement.
But, as far as Vice Mayor Manny Cid is concerned, it’s over.
“I have always believed that every city has the right to effectively and efficiently represent their residents’ wishes via their respective municipal charters,” Cid wrote on Facebook.
“Although I preferred a different outcome, I respect and will abide by the court’s decision, and Miami Lakes can rest assured that I will continue to represent the people’s interests on the Council and do all I can to move our Town forward,” Cid said.
Read related story: Miami Lakes’ Michael Pizzi thisclose to being mayor again
The comments were all anti-Pizzi. One man said democracy had died. One woman thanked Cid for his words, “but it’s hard to fathom the idea of this man being back,” she wrote next to an emoji of a pile of poop.
Sorry, lady, it seems all but certain that Pizzi will back, even if it has to go to the highest judicial level.
And God help the people of Miami Lakes.
Because if Muscles was a blowhard before — a cocky jerk whose nauseating self-agrandizing power trips were legendary — he’s going to be a freaking unbearable nightmare now.
The judges might not know it, but the court is creating a monster.
“I won the appeal, baby! This is it! There’s no stopping me now,” Pizzi excitedly exclaimed to the Miami Herald when they called him about Friday’s decision. And you can almost envision him pumping his fists into the air, as he likes to do when he feels empowered.
“The Florida Court of Appeals today afffirmed what we have been saying for years, which is that Micheal Pizzi is the one and only mayor of Miami Lakes,” Pizzi said at a press conference Friday afternoon in front of Town Hall. 
“I was immediately entitled to resume my duties the minute I was acquitted.
“I am the mayor of Miami Lakes once and for always,” he said.
Always? Really? Always? Is this Cuba?
It gives you a preview of what it’s going to take to get him out of that seat once he gets back in.
Read related story: Michael Pizzi swings again to get Miami Lakes seat back
While Ladra couldn’t reach him Friday, we’ve talked a few times throughout the battle to get his seat back, and it’s almost like he feels increasingly invincible. Every little vindicating step seems to feed that ego and overgrown sense of righteousness that is hard to swallow.
I mean, nobody except a majority of those jurors believes Pizzi didn’t take those $3,000 from a bagman lobbyist in his Town Hall closet for greasing the wheels on federal grant monies that were never coming. He got out because he was able to cast enough doubt on whether he knew the grant monies were never coming. He was able to cast himself as a dope caught unaware.
So, while the court has had to comply with the letter of the law in returning him back to the same office that most of us know he abused, regardless of the verdict, it’s been hard to watch Pizzi parade around like he’s the protagonist in this show instead of the villain.
In a written statement distributed earlier, Pizzi’s lead attorney Benedict Kuehne praised the quickness and directness of the ruling.
“As District Judge Salter so carefully explained in urging Wayne Slaton to discontinue their efforts to obstruct the resumption of official duties by Mayor Pizzi, the Town’s citizens ‘deserve expeditious closure on these issues,'” Kuehne said.
Read related story: Michael Pizzi and his legal dream team — at what cost to who?
“Mayor Pizzi implores the Town administration to join with him in a symbol of Unity by immediately inviting his resumption of office.”
Pizzi was quoted in the statement: “The Town of Miami Lakes and its citizens and businesses are empowered by this positive affirmation of the rule of law and the democratic vote of the people. When we stand together, the Town’s strength and its ability to make progress to better the lives of all its residents is magnified. I will work energetically to return the Town to a model of municipal efficiency and governance.”
Last week, Pizzi’s attorneys had filed his brief urging the DCA to quickly return Pizzi to serve the remainder of his term, which ends in 2016.
Said Pizzi then: “In our system of justice, we look to the courts to protect the democratic process.”
And who can we look toward to protect us — or, rather, any resident or town employee who is on the other side — from the ever more powerful Pizzi? Preparense. Because I will bet that Pizzi has been keeping score.
“What the court of appeals has said is 
that for the last year or so, the people who have not let me in that buillding have been violating the Florida Constitution. The people who have prevented me from going into that building have violated the Florida constitution and violated the rights of all the citizens of Miami Lakes,” Pizzi said at his press conference Friday.
Ladra doesn’t know who those people are but I wouldn’t want to be one off them when Pizzi gets back to his desk.
Asked what his message was to Slaton, Pizzi changed course: “I actually extend an olive branch to my colleagues on the council, to my staff,” he said, and yes, using the possessive, though Ladra doesn’t believe him for a second.
“It’s time to end this amicably. We’ve wasted enough tax money on this.”
Because you know what’s coming next, right. Multiply whatever the town has spent defending Slaton’s seat by 20 and you might get what they will have to pay out to the seven-attorney legal dream team representing Pizzi.
The town will also have to pay Pizzi all his backpay for the past 20 months.
So he won’t just be cockier than usual. He’ll be flush with cash.
Like I said, heaven help the people of Miami Lakes.
If you thought the old Michael Pizzi was bad…cuidado! added by Ladra on
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