In Opa-Locka: Steve Shiver is in; Michael Pizzi is out

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The city of Opa-Locka apparently is not big enough for two political crooks.

Last month, former Homestead Mayor and Miami-Dade County Manager Steve Shiver — who has been accused of squandering millions in CRA funds for Homestead redevelopment after Hurricane Andrew, some of it going to clients he represented after he left the city — started his new job as Opa-Locka’s city manager.

Last week, Miami Lakes Mayor Michael Pizzi — who last year beat corruption charges after he was accused of taking $6,000 in bribes for a bogus federal grant scheme — resigned as Opa-Locka’s deputy city attorney.

Coincidence? Sources told Ladra that the two couldn’t work together.

Shiver’s 30-month contract for $150,000 a year was approved earlier this month in a 3-2 vote, led by City Commissioner Terence Pinder, who called Shiver’s hiring “a no brainer.” To his credit, Shiver has already been praised for his assessment of code enforcement and finding deficiencies in the city’s $14 million budget.

But Shiver, who referred calls to the city attorney, wasn’t always so popular.

Homestead’s mayor from 1997 to 2001, Shiver left the office mid-term when he was tapped by then Mayor Alex Penelas as county manager. He was blasted in 2010 after a county audit found he misused county and city funds in a series of bad business deals connected to the city’s political insiders.  The monies were from a community redevelopment agency that the city and the county created to develop new jobs, rebuild homes and redevelop the blighted areas after Hurricane Andrew. It generated revenues of more than $2 million a year and eventually pulled in more than $30 million through 2008.

Read related story: Homestead’s Steve Shiver strikes out on bowling alley

The county audit blamed the misspending and “exaggerated achievements” on Shiver, who played an active role in multiple ill-fated ventures. After he left the county manager’s post, he formed his own government affairs consulting firm and became a representative for a developer who got $1.9 million for 4.2 acres of depressed real estate known as the “shotgun property” after the narrow homes there. It was above the market value. The houses were destroyed but the property was never developed.

More recently, he wanted to buy the closed and vacant bowling alley property, worth $2.6 million, and offered $500,000 for it. His proposal was shot down.

Pinder was also behind the firing of the city’s last attorney and the hiring of Pizzi, whose salary was unknown. He is contracted by Vincent Brown, who gets paid $260,000-a-year as the city attorney.

Ladra hears that Pizzi was forced out after Brown learned that his deputy was doing work behind his back for Mayor Myra Taylor. But Brown would not confirm that. He said Pizzi left of his own accord. Really? Six months after getting what we can only imagine is a pretty lucrative gig?

“He said he had some personal things he wanted to take care of,” Brown told Ladra Thursday. “He came to me and said he wanted to resign and focus on the town of Miami Lakes.”

Oooooh. Lucky Miami Lakes!

Or maybe Pizzi needs time to focus on his lawsuit against Miami Lakes to recoup $3.2 million in legal fees (of which Ladra is sure Pizzi gets a kick-back share). The town council recently had an executive session with the town attorney on the matter. Residents and some town council members have said that Medley, where Pizzi served as city attorney during the arrest, should pay for at least some of the legal fees.

Remember, Pizzi was working in Medley, which became part of the scam when he was arrested on bribery charges in 2013. And the affidavit that accompanied the charges said he had used his position there to secure approval for a federal grant that he allegedly knew was bogus but for which he was getting kickbacks from Detroit businessmen who were actually FBI agents in disguise.

Read related story: New claims about Michael Pizzi tip of the iceberg

“I got it passed unanimously on my own,” he told them, according to the arrest records, after the undercover agents did not show up at the Medley meeting where their item was approved.

“It passed unanimously because I forced them to do it. I did more than my part,” Pizzi is quoted as saying in the arrest affidavit. “I got it on the agenda, I got the votes and then I had to make your presentation for you.”

Yeah, I know… hard to believe he was acquitted. But it’s even harder to believe another municipality would hire him to represent them knowing that.

Ladra can’t help but wonder if Medley sent a letter of recommendation.

But that’s not all of Pizzi’s baggage. He’s been accused of setting his office on fire to hide the theft of $200,000 from a client and conspiring to plant cocaine on former Miami Lakes councilman Richard Pulido. Or mess with his car’s brakes.

Commissioner Pinder has cause to have great confidence in Pizzi as an attorney, however. After all, Pizzi — who Ladra was also unable to reach — represented him in a case he won against the federal government, which had barred Pinder from voting on certain funding items because of an earlier arrest in a corruption case.

Pinder, 42. was arrested in 2006 and charged with grand theft, racketeering and unlawful compensation when it was alleged he and another commissioner took somewhere around $60,000 in bribes from a lobbyist for a construction company whose owner pleaded guilty to money laundering. Pinder arranged for a plea deal in which most of those charges were dropped and he did two years probation.

The other two who voted for Pizzi to become the deputy city attorney were:

• Mayor Taylor, who apparently has a longtime relationship with Pizzi, was fined by the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust in 2011 after she got the city to give her $5,000 for an event with the promise that proceeds would go to help pay for daycare for needy parents. The event provided $1,500 for three day care scholarships and paid $2,250 to her daughter’s entertainment company. Her husband and children were also arrested in 2012 on public corruption charges for funneling illegal contributions into Taylor’s campaign account.
• Timothy Holmes was the other commissioner who allegedly received $60,000 from the lobbyist in 2006. But he was never charged. The 20-year veteran was re-elected last year, despite the fact that voters also approved retroactive term limits with 73% of the vote.

So maybe what Ladra meant at the beginning of this story is that Opa-Locka doesn’t have room for two more, new political crooks.

  Michael Pizzi, Steve Shiver