The second employee to resign from the Town of Miami Lakes in recent weeks because they’d rather be unemployed than work for Mayor Michael Pizzi is his handpicked assistant, the daughter of a longtime Pizzi supporter.
Lissette Molina resigned from her position as Pizzi’s assistant just before 10 a.m. Friday.
“Due to the unfortunate work environment I will no longer be able to continue my services to the Town of Miami Lakes as assistant to the Mayor,” wrote Mollina in an email, adding that the resignation is effective Aug. 12.
The departure comes on the heels of another resignation: Town Clerk Marjorie Tejeda resigned last week after the mayor made threats to sue both her and Town Manager Alex Rey if two items passed on July 21 were going to be implemented. Both took power away from the mayor.
One made the clerk the only person allowed to call speakers to the podium — likely coming about after the circus that Pizzi put on during the meeting weeks where he heckled residents who came to speak against him and praised those who spoke against an investigation into his hit and run accident last in May. The other ordinance — sponsored by Councilmen Tony Lama and Nelson Rodriguez — would forbid any business or entity, including the mayor, to use the Miami Lakes logo for any non Town-sponsored event.
Obviously, Pizzi does not like the tone in the city. Folks are trying to reign him in.
So, is Rey next to go?
No, he says. “I’m built tough,” Rey told Ladra Friday afternoon. But it also helps that he doesn’t have to be around Pizzi that much.
“They are individuals who have a lot more contact with the mayor,” he said of the two women who resigned. “The work environment for everybody except for the people who have to deal with the mayor is perfectly fine.”
Wait a minute. Ahem. Did he just say what I think he said? That the environment for those working with the mayor is hell?
Rey would not comment further on the matter, but a lot of people in Miami Lakes tell Ladra that the mayor is being a more of a bully than usual in his attempt to regain power on a council that is entirely tilted against him.
Man, things were a lot calmer in Miami Lakes when Pizzi was out of the picture for more almost two years. He was suspended by Gov. Rick Scott in August 2013 after his arrest by FBI agents on federal bribery charges. But he was acquitted last August and immediately sought to return to his post.
After a lengthy legal battle with the town and the administration of former Mayor Wayne Slaton, who said that Slaton was elected in a special election, o get his seat back. He was out for more than a year after he was suspended in August 2013 post his arrest by FBI agents on federal bribery charges. Pizzi was acquitted in August of last year and immediately sought to return to his post.
It didn’t take long for him to get in the news again — after he hit a tree while driving home from a bar, er, I mean City Hall (wink, nod) one day WHEN. Despite clearly running from the scene of an accident, Pizzi was not charged with anything after he came back about an hour or so later.
The Village Council voted recenty to investigate the true circumstances of the accident, after Pizzi himself gave contradicting statements about what he was doing before he smashed head on into the tree. No word on whether the administration has followed up on that.
But investigators might want to add Lissette Molina to the list of people to talk to.
Michael Pizzi scares off second town employee, his assistant added by Ladra on
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