Drink lots of coffee for this next doozy of a Miami City Commission meeting

City attorney’s future, manager’s excuses on agenda

Grab a tub of popcorn. Don’t forget your extra large cortadito. The Miami City Commission this week promises to be a doozy.

Let’s hope Pastor Eric Doss of Liberty City Church of Christ gives a really good invocation.

City Manager Art Noriega is expected on Thursday to give a more plausible explanation of (read: excuse for) the city’s payments to his wife’s furniture company after his first report was quickly withdrawn when The Miami Herald pointed out that it was inaccurate and incomplete. This comes after the WLRN expose that revealed Michelle Pradere Noriega business sold more than $440,000 worth of furniture to the city of Miami since her husband became the city manager.

Photos posted recently on social media with Pradere’s parents, who are no longer involved in the day-to-day business are strategically posted to make it look like the shop isn’t Michelle’s and her sisters’.

It will probably not make the report, but Ladra hopes the commissioners also hold Noriega’s feet to the fire on the $1.6 million Noriega allegedly spent with Pradere Manufacturing or Pradere Designer Workspaces while he was director of the Miami Parking Authority before becoming city manager.

People have been impatient on this. Give Art time. It’s not that easy to cook up a good story.

And speaking of impatience. Commissioner Manolo Reyes wants to know what’s going on with the financial audits of the Bayfront Trust Park, the Downtown Development Authority and the community redevelopment agencies he asked for in January. Many others are waiting to see those, too (Me, me!), including Downtown Neighbors Alliance President James Torres, who is circulating a petition to get Commissioner Joe Carollo removed as chair of the Bayfront Trust, where he just appointed his longtime lackey Jose Suarez as executive director with a unanimous vote (some commissioners later admitted they did not know what they were voting on).

The petition on change.org, which has collected nearly 1,000 signatures since February, says there has been a pattern of abuse of power, mismanagement, and authoritarian behavior by Loco Pollo Carollo.

Reyes is also going to propose that the city start using the Miami-Dade County Inspector General to handle investigations of city electeds, officials, employees, board members and agencies until the city can set up its own Inspector General, if that’s what voters approve on a ballot amendment this August. In January, Reyes proposed dissolving the current auditor general position, which is a glorified CPA, and replacing it with a stronger inspector general — which has a wider range of powers and duties, including public corruption complaints — after the multiple scandals that have rocked the city.

The resolution authorizing the city manager to negotiate the interlocal agreement with the county only needs a regular 3/5ths majority, and there’s little doubt how the newly-elected, reform-minded Commissioners Miguel Gabela and Damian Pardo are going to vote on that one.

Pardo also wants to discuss something about campaign finance reform. Ladra can’t wait. This comes after Carollo tried to get an item passed at the last meeting that would require future commission candidates who loan or contribute money to their own campaign provide proof in the form of an “aged funds” report that would show the funds had been in the bank for a certain amount of time and not just transferred into the account by a third party.

Carollo’s very public and pathetic accusations on TV that Pardo and Gabela are puppets paid for by Bill Fuller and his partners — which led to Pardo asking for censure (he didn’t get it) — were met by the veteran financial planner with a manila envelopes of the documents Crazy Joe had requested, which would be happily exchanged for Carollo’s resignation.

“You’re not going to get it,” Carollo said. Maybe Pardo, who is working on a code of ethics for the city, will try again Thursday.

The controversial LED sign ordinance amendment (read: reversal) and 270-day moratorium on new applications will have its second reading. It already passed first reading and nothing has changed since, so that should be a breeze. But it still might draw a crowd.

Contract ratifications for the police and general employees unions, who have been working without current contracts since October, are also on the agenda. As are a pair of items that, after years of attacking the homeless with legislation and policy, would actually help the unhoused in Miami.

One would accept a $2.7 million in a grant from the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust to provide temporary and emergency housing in hotel and motel rooms for homeless families. No matching funds required, of course, otherwise the city wouldn’t even consider it. The other is a $175,000 allocation requested by Commission Chairwoman Christine King to the Sundari Founation to operate a shelter for homeless women and families.

Carollo is going to hate both of those. He’s going to call them invitations for the homeless to come to Miami for free stuff and hotel rooms.

Oh, and commissioners will also take a break from the dais for a shade session with attorneys on the redistricting lawsuit filed against the city after commissioners carved out their little fiefdoms last year.

Thursday’s meeting, in fact, will be dominated by the legal department.

Commissioner Pardo wants City Attorney Victoria Mendez to go away now, not in June, when she is fully vested, as commissioners agreed in January. His resolution would name Deputy City Attorney John Greco the interim city attorney until a selection committee can be named and start the hiring process.

Las malas lenguas say that Greco is on vacation and won’t be back in time to take the helm right away. But maybe someone else can take over for a couple of weeks. Because anybody is better than Tricky Vicky.

Instead of extending her annual contract, Mendez was given the boot at the Jan. 11 commission meeting, (the one where Commissioner Gabela went at Carollo like a ganster, fists at the ready, but was stopped). Gabela wanted to fire Mendez outright that very day, and Reyes agreed there was too much “bad blood” between the city attorney and the new commissioners, and voted not to renew her contract, but asked for the extra time.

Would Reyes change his mind and vote to let her go on Thursday?

For her part, Mendez is still working. In what could be one of her last actions as city attorney, she will present two lawsuit settlement agreements, including one with Chalks Airlines — like she’s tying up loose ends before she splits. There were three shade sessions at the March meeting.

And code compliance will bring three cases for mitigation — but none of those properties are Guardianship homes recently purchased by Tricky Vicky’s husband, so it should be okay.

Gabela also has a few items for or about the city attorney’s office, both of them had been

One would authorize the city manager to select up to five “prospective independent experts in legal auditing and review” to review any pending litigation cases in the city involving the amount of $5 million or more — and can that be a whole lot? — and provide a plan to optimize the management of those cases. Gabela wants Noriega to come back with said list April 25, but can Art turn anything around that quickly? Given his track record with something as simple as furniture purchases?

The District 1 commissioner also wants to stop all city payments to the law firm of Kuehne Davis Law or Ben Kuehne for legal services in any matters where he is defending city officials. The people on that commission for whom Keuhne has recently provided legal services for are Carollo and former and disgraced Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who was suspended after his September arrest last year on public corruption charges, including bribery and money laundering.

In a separate discussion item, Gabela wants to talk about how much the city has paid to defend or represent Diaz de la Portilla in multiple cases, including some against him. ADLP, who beat Gabela to the seat in 2019, tried to carve the longtime Allapattah resident out of the district through the redistricting process and then challenged the court’s ruling in Gabela’s favor when it was challenged.

The city, through Mendez, also challenged the ruling that basically put Gabela on the ballot, but that must have been resolved ready. Otherwise, it would be on this agenda.

Art Noriega, Damian Pardo, Manolo Reyes, Miguel Gabela, Victoria Mendez

Drink lots of coffee for this next doozy of a Miami City Commission meeting added by Ladra on April 10, 2024
View all posts by Ladra →