Mr. Coral Gables has a lot of debt on three Crafts Section homes
The commission race in Coral Gables Group 3 is strictly a matter of the less bad choice and some voters may want to hold their noses when they cast their ballots.
On the one hand, we have a Joe Carollo ally who is connected to multiple political action committees and loaned himself at least $60,000, of which $40K mysteriously turned up after it disappeared from Carollo’s PAC.
On the other hand, we have a soccer dad and real estate agent who fought hard for the controversial upzoning of the Crafts Section where he owns not two, but three houses. Well, two and a quarter. Menendez told Ladra he only owns 26% of MBP Malaga Holdings LLC, which is registered at his home address and owns the house next door.
Now we find out that Kirk Menendez has two of those homes mortgaged to the max. In fact, he has taken out three mortgages over the last 18 months on both homes totalling $900,000.
No wonder he wants to upzone and triple the value of his properties. He owes a lot of money.
Read related: Two Coral Gables commission races head to runoffs
There are only two homes on his financial disclosure statement filed with the city: His late mother’s home, where he grew up, at 346 Malaga Avenue and a house he owns with a close family friend through an LLC at 323 Malaga. He doesn’t have to disclose his own home at 325 Malaga because it’s homesteaded and he doesn’t derive income from it.
But he sure stands to gain from the upzoning since these three properties will skyrocket in value. Not once. Not twice. But three times he’ll cash in.
Menendez has told everyone he has no plans to sell. But c’mon! Nobody fights that hard for a change of zoning so they can live next to a dentist’s office.
A lawyer who has let his Florida Bar license lapse (no, he was not disbarred), Menendez told Ladra that he mortgaged the homes so he could stay home with his mother, who had gotten Alzheimers. “I walked away from my career for the last two years so I could take care of her,” he said.
“I was going to make sure that, in her final years, she wasn’t going to be alone. Thank God, she died peacefully in her house.”
But Lydia Menendez died at 92 in 2019. And the mortgages are all taken the next year on January 2020, for $510,400 (for a house with a market value of $10K less than that), in March of 2020 for $350,000 and in October of 2020 for $40,000. People who know more about these things told Ladra that they are private lender loans.
Menendez said he was refinancing.
Read related: In snobby Coral Gables, ‘not one of us’ plagues some candidates at elections
“Families have mortgages. It’s what families do to take care of each other,” he said, adding that a cousin and her two children are living rent-free in his mother’s house at a time of need.”
But it looks like he’s been doing this for years. According to the mortgage and deed records at the Miami-Dade Clerk of Courts, Menendez has been refinancing his home — which has steadily increased in value — since 2000.
There is also a lawsuit pending, filed in February of this year, for anywhere between $35,000 and $50,000 by Portfolio Recovery Associates, which purchases non performing loans and is one of the largest debt buyers in the U.S. It’s probably credit card debt.
That’s something he did not disclose under liabilities in his financial disclosure form, because — according to City Clerk Billy Urquia — it’s for financial information through Dec. 31, 2020. The lawsuit was filed Feb. 10 of this year. The financial disclosure was filed on Feb. 24.
Menendez said there’s no reason to think he can’t manage the city’s budget.
“I’m handling my finances. My wife and I have taken care of our financing, our children, my mom. We’re fine,” he told Ladra, adding that Coral Gables residents won’t care about that.
“They need someone who cares and I’ve proven myself to be someone who cares for others,” said the longtime soccer coach at the War Memorial Youth Center. “I’ve given 40 years of service to our community.”
Coral Gables voters might care that Kirk is also represented by the same campaign consultant, Steve Marin, who has put two other commissioners on the Gables dais: Jorge Fors, Jr., and Mike Mena. If Menendez wins, does that mean Marin has three votes in the Gables?
Ladra doesn’t like Javier Baños, the other candidate in this race with the ties to Crazy Joe. He lied to me about the PAC that attacked his opponents and that just rubs me wrong. Political Cortadito endorsed Menendez in the first round. He is, after all, Mr. Coral Gables.
But Mr. Coral Gables is deep in debt — and I’m glad I don’t vote there. Other voters are telling Ladra that they, too, are having a hard time deciding.
40k Mortgage Kirk by Political Cortadito on Scribd
350k Mortgage by Political Cortadito on Scribd
510 k Mortgage by Political Cortadito on Scribd
Kirk Menendez vs Javier Baños is not as easy a decision as voters may think added by Ladra on
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So complex.
It is a shame that people judge other people based on assumptions of their own little world. Mr. Menendez like other people I know had to deal with debt that resulted of his mom in need of daily care. So many families will eventually experience a parent that either has alzeimers or dementia. If the guy were delinquent in his loans, shame. But apparently he is not delinquent in his loans. For the ignorant dudes out there, you like to talk but apparently you dont know my friend Kirk. I dont want a Carollo dude in my City!!!!
[…] about whom they couldn’t wait to share what they termed breaking news, but was actually a three-day-old blog post on Political Cortadito. It accused Menendez of profiteering (the crafts homes rezoning), being sued for allegedly being […]
Speaking of City of Miami rejects… from the Miami Herald.
Head of Miami’s Omni CRA on the outs as Commissioner Ken Russell shakes things up
@NewsbySmiley
Ken Russell, Miami’s newly elected District 2 commissioner, is shaking things up after two months in office.
On Wednesday, Russell informed Pieter Bockweg, the executive director of the Omni Community Redevelopment Agency, that he intends to fire him, the Miami Herald has learned. Russell is the chairman of the agency, which is tasked with using property taxes to eliminate slum and blight in the Omni district north of the I-395.
Bockweg, who is also the head of Miami’s Midtown CRA, did not return a phone call Wednesday evening. A vote by Miami commissioners, who sit on the Omni CRA board, would be needed to actually terminate his contract.
Bockweg learned about Russell’s intentions in a face-to-face meeting just days after Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez suggested the agency contribute money to help subsidize the operations of the suddenly cash-strapped Frost Museum of Science, a proposal Russell opposes.
Russell, who campaigned on CRA reform, did not immediately return a text message. An office staffer said Russell would release a statement Thursday about recent personnel decisions.
Updated: On Friday morning, Russel’s interim chief of staff, Eleazar Meléndez, sent an email stating that Russell did not tell Bockweg he intended to fire him. Rather, Meléndez says Bockweg offered to resign.
“The commissioner did have a face-to-face conversation with Mr. Bockweg this week where he shared with Mr. Bockweg his view of what a CRA should and should not focus on,” Meléndez wrote. “During the meeting, Mr. Bockweg offered to resign. Please be aware that the only people at the meeting were myself, Mr. Bockweg and Commissioner Russell. If anyone other than those three people is telling you they witnessed the meeting, they are lying to you.”
Meléndez requested a retraction and provided the following statement from Russell: “Replacing the executive director of the CRA is not the chairman’s privilege, but a matter that needs to be considered by that board.”
Russell’s move to fire Bockweg comes shortly after he parted ways with his chief of staff, Kirk Menendez.
Menendez, a City Hall veteran who has been hired and fired from several other positions, said he left Russell’s office a few days ago. He wouldn’t say whether he was fired or resigned, and declined to discuss the circumstances around his termination.
“We had a talk,” Menendez said Thursday. “I just really need to move on. I’m a dad and that comes first.”
Posted by David Smiley on Friday, Feb. 5, 2016 at 12:52 PM
Crazy Joe= a vote to Mr. Bathroom let’s flush the toilet on this one.
Keep the City of Miami out of Coral Gables. It really is as simple as that. There is a City of Miami reject as head of Historical Resources and Cultural Arts, which will turn out to be a big mistake. Let’s stop making those mistakes.
I am afraid that we are missing “the big elephant inn the center of the room.” Whether he Menendez can handle his financial affairs wouldn’t be an issue if he were not running for office, but frankly that is not the big issue. The BIG issue as I see it is the fact that he spoke to Commissioners, to Planning and Zoning officials and to who know who else, perhaps the City Manager, etc. to get his area of the Craft section up zoned, and always spoke about his home and his mother’s that he had inherited. Nobody seems to remember that he mentioned a third property. If he had nothing to hide, why did he not disclose it? Did he mention that he was a licensed real estate agent? Some may be surprised to hear it! Did he worry about the neighbors on the other area of the Craft section that will now be impacted by the traffic from the up zoned area? Did he really want us to believe that he is not interested in selling? If that is the case, why did he push so hard to get it changed? Is he perhaps going to be the real estate agent for the sellers? How much commission is he going to make out of this? Remember that he has also written on his mailers that he will protect the residential neighborhoods from development. Did he mean, the other residential neighborhoods after he gets the mega money from selling out his area? Wow!! No one can deny that Menendez is very gutsy, like calling himself a community activist for going to the Youth Center as a kid and coaching as an adult, or by promoting the up zone of his area to be able to make lots of $$$$$$$.
Please… the choice is clear: anyone but Carollo!!! Oops… I meant Baños!!!
I see you are back on the payroll for the run off, Ladra. Good for you. Make that money.
#paytoplay
Just wondering how Ladra picked this clown over Mitchell.
Going to hold my nose and hope this guy doesn’t turn out to be a lackey front man.
Bad Choices so how does that make Menendez any better since he went out of his way to actually HIRE such lobbyist?
It sounds like Menendez knows how to handle money. He is leveraging his properties legally for his own personal gain, and there is nothing wrong with that. Now that the properties will increase in value, he can cover the mortgages by selling and someone else will be able to use the properties to their fullest potential.
But, he really needs to come clean and just be honest with the voters. No one is going to hold it against him for supporting upzoning when it was in his interests. Anyone else in his shoes would have done the same thing, so it is disingenuous to criticize him for acting as he did. But he still needs to be honest about it.
If this is the only knock against him, then he is still the better of the two candidates. From what I’ve read and seen in mailers, this blog and elsewhere, Banos has a terrible temperament and deep ties to unsavory outsiders (Carollo). Also, he does not have even 1/4 of Menendez’s civic resume. Ties to the community and a record of service matter a great deal.
But in the end, none of this really matters if voters (1) aren’t going to take the election seriously, (2) allow 25% of the electorate to make these important decisions and (3) not pay attention after election day. All office holders need to be watched and scrutinized while they hold office under the public trust. If not, they will use and abuse, which hurts all of Coral Gables regardless of race, ethnicity, sex, or duration of residency. Just look at how our current mayor and Commissioner Keon have treated voters for years. We let them get away with it because we can’t bother to be outraged. No wonder Coral Gables is not what it once was.
Steve Marin is a lobbyist. Steve Marin always pulled the strings of Marc Sarnoff, the disgraced ex-commissioner in Miami. Sarnoff is a huge Joe Carollo supporter. Javier Banos is also tied to Crazy Joe.
Ladra, I like that you are writing about false and liar “Mr Coral Gables”, Kirk Menendez!
Actually, Menendez has been supporting anti- democratically for a group of losers commissioner candidate and commissioner elected against the interests of the Coral Gables constituents and of course Mr Javier Baños, the only Candidate, qualified, Accountant and Attorney, lover husband and father of two with own office at the City, with experience and courage to fighting for the city’s finance and administration, for a traditional Coral Gables on behalf of the taxpayers.
Mr Baños is NPA as required for the position and He is not tail to any politicians that Ladra had been saying. Nope!
Mr Baños is a successful brilliant professional hard worker and a lot of public person are his clients. That It is the only relationship with them. Please, Ladra, no more rhetorical and confusing with the issue!
I invite to vote for Mr Javier Baños candidate Coral Gables group III.
Who cares about Menendez’s personal finances? Baños is the one lying about his attack pieces and ties to PACs and Joe Carrollo. This is an easy decision. Keep Carrollo politics out of Coral Gables! Say no to Baños.