Miami Beach deserves a fresh start, sans David Custin

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We have just a week to go for the Miami Beach elections that should usher in a brand new, strings-free majority that would not be beholden to any one person and would bring individual and independent thought and experience to a commission that really needs it.

Lucky for all democracy loving people, the election is turning out to be a referendum on the mayor and, further than that, on his lobbyist consultant, David Custin, who also happens to run the campaigns of all three of the candidates the mayor supports.

Polls and anecdotal evidence show that support for Mayor Philip Levine is weaning. Fast. He’s dropping like a brick in the storm water. And he’s taking his slate mates with him. Or maybe it’s the other way around. No matter: It’s what should happen. Four independent voices on the commission would join Commissioners Mickey Steinberg, who could flourish with a more, um, collegial environment, and Michael Grieco, who could be great once he is freed from Levine’s shadow.

It is for them, as well as for the people of Miami Beach, that Ladra makes the following recommendations, which should come as no surprise.

For Mayor: David Wieder.

Shocker, right? But it’s not that I have anything against King Ego Levine, personally. I’m sure he’s fun to hang out with on his yacht or in his mansion or on his private jet or whatever. But the millionaire who bought his seat in 2013 has kinda sucked as a public servant.

First, upon being elected, he retaliated against anyone that was against him. Then he restructured committees and stacked them with his people and put himself as chairman and king of everything under the sun. Then he worked with Commissioner Jonah Wolfson, calling and shaking down city vendors and developers for donations to the shady PAC. He hires a $90,000 driver/bodyguard and a “branding manager” to help elevate his profile — since he has larger political ambitions and is using Miami Beach as a stepping stone — and has the nerve to use the dais to bully the other commissioners.

Meanwhile, his campaign consultant, a city lobbyist, more than quadruples his client list and bills more than $400,000 in fees for work in Miami Beach in the past two years, including a $10,000 a month retainer to work on the redevelopment of Miami Beach Marina and Rebecca Towers that stinks of an secret insider deal that everyone is now denying ever existed.

Read related story: Lobbyist/consultant David Custin cashes in on Miami Beach

Wieder, on the other hand, seems almost painfully honest and real. He’s got gravitas as the longtime member and current chairman of the city’s historic preservation board. And he’s not in it for himself or anybody close to him. He practically had to be prodded to run because everybody else is too scared of Levine and Custin. Wieder is in it to, basically, take it away from the big, bad, arrogant incumbent and his corrupt machinery.

In Group VI: Mark Samuelian

Even if John Elizabeth Aleman wasn’t in bed with Levine and Custin, even if she made a good candidate because of her work with the PTA and whatever, the fact that she has repeatedly and exclusively gone negative would have turned me off to her.

There is nothing wrong with attack ads. Ladra can appreciate the well-placed attack ad, when the dirt you have is true, anyway. But it is another thing entirely to base your entire campaign on lies about your opponent. Aleman’s attacks have backfired on her so badly that she had to delete a post she put on Facebook that got more than a dozen negative comments.

Samuelian, in his own right, seems like a really good option. It will be nice to have an engineer by profession on the commission. He is a business civic leader and was the first candidate to distance himself from the shady RFP PAC. He’s been out knocking on doors the longest, it seems, and has a ton of support to show for it. Every time Ladra writes about his race she gets a ton of comments about what a great guy he is and what a good candidate he makes.

I predict he wins with the largest margin.

In Group V: Mark Weithorn

Sure, he’s an imperfect candidate. Who isn’t? And sure he’s the husband of Commissioner Deede Weithorn, who will be termed out in November and is running for State Rep in 2016. But that’s no reason to vote against him. If Steinberg can be on the dais (she is wife of former Commissioner and disgraced State Rep. Richard “Sext Me” Steinberg), so can he. Besides, the number one thing going for Mark Weithorn is — drumroll, please — he’s not Ricky Arriola.

Arriola is a nice enough guy. He seems like someone to have a lot of fun with because he does a lot of cool things like go-cart racing and boxing with friends and travelling to big Democratic shindigs in Washington D.C. The one thing he doesn’t do is campaign. I mean, sure, you see him and his gang out at early voting, waving signs, but he hasn’t knocked on a lot of doors.

He never wanted to campaign anyway. He expected to get handed the position when Commissioner Ed Tobin applied for a police officer’s job (a quest he soon abandoned in light of an ethics exam). Then he let the shady Relentless for Progress political action committee do the dirty work for him, sending an attack piece out on his opponent.

Read related story: Shady Miami Beach PAC attacks candidate Mark Weithorn

Besides, you’re really doing Arriola a favor by voting for Weithorn. At least then, he doesn’t have to end his million dollar contract with the city.

In Group IV: Kristen Rosen Gonzalez

This is the only race in which the choice didn’t come to the one without Custin as consultant because it’s a clusterbunch with six candidates. Betsy Perez, the Custin-driven Levine drone, is not even going to come in second, as everybody who hears her speak knows she has no idea what she is doing. The Miami Herald put it nicely: “Brings a bracing optimism to the table, but not a lot of depth on the issues.”

Ladra likes Michael DeFilipi, too, because he was the first to bring up pollutants that were being pumped into the bay with the storm water.

But Kristen Rosen Gonzalez has been more bold and outspoken against the Levine slate and the Custin connection. She is not afraid to call him what he is despite the fact that he threatened to unleash everything in his power against her. That’s the kind of courage we need in office.

Besides, she coined the term Dis-Custin, which was brilliant.

Read related story: Miami Beach Poll: Hispanic voters reject mayor and pals

Miami Beach voters have a rare opportunity to really usher in a new, fresh and independent majority. An opportunity not only to start with new government leadership but to rid themselves of a parasite named David Custin that is only going to dig deeper into the city’s flesh in the next two years if his slate wins or the mayor keeps his seat.

This kind of chance doesn’t come very often and can’t be wasted. Voters can restore the public trust at Miami Beach City Hall.

Ladra almost feels sorry for Commissioner Joy Malakoff, who could soon be the odd girl out. And Custin’s only ace in the hole.

  Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, Mark Samuelian, Mark Weithorn, Philip Levine