Commission will consider a review of pending litigation
Lawsuits and outside attorneys have cost city of Miami taxpayers millions in public dollars. Miami City Commissioner Miguel Gabela wants to stop the spigot.
Gabela has several items on the agenda for Thursday’s meeting about the City Attorney’s office. One would hire an auditing expert to review all pending litigation involving the city and provide recommendations for “optimizing the management” of these cases.
And there are many. In fact, at the same meeting Thursday, there will be three shade sessions with City Attorney Victoria Mendez to discuss the redistricting lawsuit and two lawsuits filed by the Little Havana businessmen that won a jury award of $63.5 million in their lawsuit against Commissioner Joe Carollo.
Yeah, they’re a busy bunch.
The second would stop all payments to the law office of Benedict Kuehne, asserting there is a conflict of interest because he is, on one hand, retained by the city to represent several commissioners (read: Joe Carollo) with taxpayer dollars and, on the other, suing the city and Gabela himself on behalf of Commissoner Alex Diaz de la Portilla.
Read related: New commissioner moves fast to fire Miami City attorney Victoria Mendez
Kuehne has sued the city, the city’s canvassing board, City Clerk Todd Hannon, and Gabela after the auto parts dealer beat the former state senator in November’s elections. The argument is that he Gabela doesn’t live in the district — because his house was drawn out intentionally. But Gabela moved into another property in the same district and a judge said he qualified.
In another matter, Miami retained the law firm of Kuehne Davis, PA and Benedict H. Kuehne to represent certain City of Miami officials in several matters
It’s obvious that Gabela, who did not return a call and text from Ladra, doesn’t have a lot of love for the city attorney’s office. He was successful in getting Mendez basically fired by not renewing her contract this year. And he may have reason to hold a grudge: The city sued him to try to keep him off the ballot last November.
Gabela ultimately won in court and in the election against former and disgraced Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who had been suspended after a September arrest on public corruption charges, including money laundering and bribery.
Read related: Miami city attorneys to appeal order to qualify D1 candidate Miguel Gabela
But that didn’t stop the city from continuing with its appeal of the judge’s ruling to allow him on the ballot — when he was already the commissioner elected by District 1 voters.
So, Gabela might have an axe to grind but he has a point. The city attorney’s office is out of control.
Commissioner Damian Pardo said he would support the measure.
“It’s always good to see where we are at,” Pardo told Ladra. “In fact, the city should do a year to year comparison. Maybe we need to hire more attorneys and lower the cost of outside counsel. I don’t know what kind of analysis we have done.”
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Miami Commissioner Miguel Gabela wants to slow the city’s legal spending added by Ladra on
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