In the first council meeting for a new council member, without any real public notice, the Miami Lakes Council narrowly voted Tuesday to offer former Mayor Michael Pizzi, who was arrested in 2013 on federal bribery charges in an FBI sting, a $1.7 million settlement for legal fees incurred during the criminal trial.
Las malas lenguas had told Ladra weeks ago after the runoff election that this would happen.
Newly-elected Councilman Bryan Morera, who had been sworn in moments earlier, voted with Councilmembers Josh Dieguez, Marilyn Ruano and Luis Collazo — all three of whom had endorsed Morera in last month’s special election — to give Muscles Pizzi the money. Mayor Manny Cid, Vice Mayor Tony Fernandez and Councilman Ray Garcia voted against it.
Garcia had harsh words about rewarding bad behavior.
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Pizzi was caught in 2013 conspiring with FBI agents posing as grant facilitators willing to steal U.S. funds meant for economic development. In a separate but equal sting, Sweetwater Mayor Manny Maroño, was also arrested on the same charges. Maroño pled guilty and was sentenced to three and a half years. Pizzi, who took a $3,000 cash payment from a lobbyist in the closet of his office and another envelope in the bathroom of a pool hall, was acquitted after his team of eight of the county’s most prominent attorneys was able to sell the jury on the slightest shadow of a doubt.
In 2015, he sought his seat back in a civil lawsuit and then sued the city for both the civil and criminal legal fees. The city settled on the civil legal fees. And on Tuesday, the council voted 4-3 to settle on the criminal legal fees.
Morera, who was elected in a special election to replace Carlos Alvarez — who resigned in November — was the swing vote.
But the item was not noticed on the meeting’s agenda as a settlement payment to Pizzi. It was an update report from the city attorney.
That’s one of the reasons Mayor Cid voted against it. “Our residents didn’t have a chance to chime in,” he told Ladra. The other is that he wanted to use the money to beef up the police department, he said. “My plan was to use that money to hire three new police officers and move police shifts to 4 days, 10 hours.”
Some might say that the first thing Morera did when he got into office was make the move to give Pizzi $1.7 million. But he doesn’t see it that way.
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“The first thing I did was put to bed what’s been a nightmare for our residents,” Morera told Ladra Wednesday. “We are currently at a point where we are about to say goodbye to our current mayor after two terms, and we’re still talking about the mayor before that.
“We’ve spent $1.9 million in attorneys fees on all the cases around him,” Morera said about Pizzi. “As a litigator myself, I understand the issues of litigation and there is a very realistic chance that we spend another $500,000 to $700,000 if we take it trial, appeal the verdict.” And they could still lose, he said.
Residents are not shut out of the process, Morera added, because the item has to come back for council approval. “All we did was give our attorney the instruction to go and negotiate that settlement.”
It’s likely, however, that that’s the relatively random number already agreed upon by Pizzi and his attorneys. So it’s bound to come back as is.
Miami Lakes votes to pay Michael Pizzi $1.7 million in legal fees in bribery case added by Ladra on
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