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legally created organizations. I don’t see the problem. I don’t understand the problem. The information is out there for the public already. It’s a free speech contribution and I don’t understand what the problem is.”
Well, let me explain it to you Commissioner. The problem is that most people don’t have the time or know where to find the contributions on the state division of elections site. Then, if they do, they don’t know what to do with the information. They don’t know how to look up a business name on sunbiz.org or that they would have to google the business and Miami Beach commission to find past contracts and bids.
In other words, they don’t know how to connect the dots like Ladra is doing here (read on).
And they don’t know whether or not you called them to suggest or encourage a contribution days before a particular vote on a juicy city contract. That information is not out there for the public already.
Nobody is saying that you did anything wrong. Well, Ladra is hinting that you are selling your vote or votes on the commission. But your fellow commissioners just want people to know you called the vendors. That’s all.
Levine again on the defense attacked Tobin. “When you ran for office, did you have a PAC? Every single time you voted, did you tell the voters that you got a contribution,” he asked, accusingly.
But Tobin got tough. “I never got a contribution from vendors. 
I know you might think differently as to how you raise money, but I never called a vendor for big money, for $500,000 a couple of days before the vote,” Tobin said. “I didn’t call people on the phone while I’m an elected official and ask for huge, disgustingly gross amounts of money a month before a vote or two months before the vote.”
He threw Aguila a rope — saying he was in a “tight spot” because his ruling could disfavor a commissioner (read: Wollfson) — and asked if the county Inspector General could give her opinion.
Ladra thinks its more in line with the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics or the State Attorney’s Office.
It may not be a coincidence that the PAC is called Relentless For Progress, which means the acronym is RFP, the same term given to a “request for proposal” that municipalities send to wannabe contractors.
Or maybe it really stands for Ready For Payoff.
Because some of those wannabe contractors have given big. May has by far exceeded other months’ collections with $508,000. It only picked up $1,000 in April after the first $25,000 in March.
The largest contribution is $118,000 from South Beach Tristar,
a company owned by developer David Edelstein, who builds on the Beach, owns the W South Beach Hotel and was one of the original bidders on a new convention center project.
Three others gave $100,000 each: Lennar CEO Stuart Miller, coal marketing billionaire Wayne Roich — who built what many say is a modern eyesore after he demolished a historic home — and Saxony Beach LLC, a real estate management.
Lanzo Construction gave $25,000 in March. But one has to wonder if they added $25K to their price for the $11.3 million Venetian Islands streetscape project. Or if it will be padded into the next project they do in the city.
Also giving $25,000: Boucher Brothers, a beach and pool project management that rents the umbrellas and chairs on the city’s sandy asset and which got a no-bid contract in 2012 to rent surf and paddle boards as well, and Fort Capital Management, a condo developer that owns several properties in neighboring Surfside.
David and Pedro Martin, the owners of the coming Glass 120 Ocean Drive Condos, gave $20,000. They are also working with Terra to develop a new hotel on the site of the legendary Biltmore Terrace designed by Morris Lapidus, where demolition began in January. Terra gave $5,000 to the RFP PAC.
For months, Ladra has heard rumors that city vendors 
and wannabe vendors were being shaken down for contributions to the PAC. Three or four of my sources say they’ve heard it from city insiders and one said he heard it from a vendor himsef. It would have been nice to get them to answer that question in public on Wednesday, but how do we know they would be truthful at a commission meeting with Wolfson and the mayor staring them down?
You might ask yourself why Levine would even need a PAC, when he can self fund his race and buy the election like he did the last time. Well, to avoid the perception that he bought the election is one reason. Another might be so that he can claim distance from any negative campaigning — or absentee ballot fraud — that might come out of Relentless for Progress.
A third might be to keep his campaign consultant David “#%&*@!” Custin happy. The monster must be fed. And Custin and Wolfson have probably convinced Levine that he can’t win without them.
That’s why this is a job for some law enforcement agency or the ethics commission, which has the right to subpoena phone records. Because these people have to be questioned under oath. It can’t just be “an interview.” It would be a little harder for them to lie or deny what is found in phone records under oath because they might be less willing to commit perjury.
Well, unless the payoff is really huge.
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Miami Beach $500K+ PAC tied to vendors, city contracts added by Ladra on
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