The first time an elected official has sued Ladra, it’s Miami’s Miguel Gabela

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Well.

After more than 30 years of covering South Florida politics, countless investigations, thousands of stories, angry phone calls, screaming matches, threats, dozens of cease-and-desist letters and promises that “you’ll be hearing from my lawyer,” it finally happened.

An elected official sued me.

Miami Commissioner Miguel Gabela has filed a defamation lawsuit over one Political Cortadito story questioning spending at the Bayfront Park Management Trust, an agency that controls millions of dollars in public money and that he now effectively oversees through the management team he installed. The lawsuit was filed in June about a May 24 story titled “Bayfront Park’s new management looks a lot like the old management in Miami.”

And it takes issue to my use of certain words — protected opinion and hyperbole — and the comparison of Gabela to former Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who was suspended after his arrest on bribery charges, and former Commissioner Joe Carollo, who chaired the Bayfront Trust perviously and was accused of misspending its taxpayer dollars for his own gain. By Gabela even.

Read related: Bayfront Park’s new management looks a lot like the old management in Miami

Ladra hasn’t even been served yet. Don’t know why. I’m not hard to find. If it saves the taxpayers a few dollars, I’ll happily meet the process server at any public location of his or her choosing. Pick the time. Pick the place.

Ladra will be there.

Because unlike some public officials, I actually answer my phone.

Gabela doesn’t even have to set up a fake interview like former Carollo did so that Coral Gables Vince Lago could serve me with a witness subpoena in his retaliatory defamation case against Actualidad. Though that was sorta fun. (Ladra never had to testify because the case was settled out of court).

But this isn’t really about me. At least, it shouldn’t be. This is about whether journalists — and, frankly, taxpayers — can ask uncomfortable questions about how public money is spent without ending up in court.

The article at the center of the lawsuit wasn’t about Miguel Gabela’s personal life. It wasn’t about his family. It wasn’t about his private business. It wasn’t about rumors. It wasn’t about anonymous gossip.

It was about invoices. Public invoices. Paid with public money.

The reporting examined tens of thousands of dollars paid to vendors with limited public footprints, asked what taxpayers received for that money, questioned whether procurement practices were appropriate, and documented repeated attempts to obtain answers from Commissioner Gabela, members of his staff, Bayfront Park officials and the vendors themselves.

Nobody answered.

Instead, I got a lawsuit.

Let me be perfectly clear. I stand behind my reporting. One hundred percent.

The invoices exist. The vendors exist. The payments exist. The unanswered questions exist. And perhaps most importantly, the silence exists.

I believed then — and I believe now — that taxpayers deserve answers whenever government spends lots of public money on consultants, communications firms, branding contracts and public relations services while refusing to explain what those expenditures actually produced.

That’s not personal. That’s journalism.

And public officials don’t get to choose which questions reporters ask.

Read related: From reformer to operator? Miguel Gabela starts to look like the old boss

One thing I’ve learned after decades covering Miami politics is that public officials love transparency — right up until somebody asks to see the receipts.

Commissioner Gabela campaigned as an outsider. He promised accountability. He promised to expose questionable spending. He promised to clean house. Longtime readers of Political Cortadito might remember Ladra being supportive of his campaign.

But when Political Cortadito asked questions about spending under his own watch, the response wasn’t a press conference. It wasn’t an interview. It wasn’t an explanation.

It was litigation. Filed by the one time lobbyist to the Bayfront Park Trust, Hilton Napoleon II, who was paid a $5,000 retainer by Gabela’s political action committee, Advance Miami.

Readers can decide for themselves whether that’s the response of someone eager to demonstrate transparency.

This story has never been mine alone. Political Cortadito is hardly the only outlet asking questions about Bayfront Park Trust or Commissioner Gabela’s administration. Other journalists have examined aspects of these issues. The lawsuit itself has already attracted attention outside this little corner of the internet, mentioned in a recent WLRN article and an Instagram post by local political influencer Billy Corben.

That’s because questions about government spending don’t belong to one reporter. They belong to the public.

I have also have a number of attorneys who want to represent me. For free. Because the know that Gabela has no case. And I do. Some have mentioned filing an anti-SLAPP lawsuit in response. The statute is intended to prevent lawsuits that are filed primarily because someone exercised their constitutional right to speak about public issues.

I’m not terribly surprised I was sued. Honestly, I’m surprised it took this long. I’ve been threatened with lawsuits more times than I can count. Thirty years of reporting on South Florida politics will do that.

But this is the first time an elected official has actually followed through. There is a difference. Threats are meant to make you hesitate before publishing. An actual lawsuit is meant to make you think twice before publishing the next story.

Well, that’s not gonna happen. I’ve already written several more stories about Gabela’s staff and Bayfront’s questionable spending.

Read related: Miguel Gabela’s pricey Cuba rally raises familiar questions about public money

Want to know why nobody, even Lago, never bothered to take the threats all the way and sue me? Because discovery works both ways.

Civil litigation comes with something journalists know well because we use it every day. It’s called asking questions.

Depositions. Document requests. Sworn testimony. That’s part of the civil justice system.

I’m prepared to participate fully in that process, just as I have participated fully in the reporting process. I already have a list of all the District 1 employees and Bayfront Park Trust stakeholders and others that I will want to depose.

Because the facts matter. Documents matter. Testimony matters.

That’s true whether you’re a journalist or a public official.

What this won’t do is change what Political Cortadito covers: Government spending. Political patronage. Development. Campaign money. Public records. The same things we’ve covered for years.

If anything, this experience has reminded me why independent journalism matters. Power never enjoys scrutiny. It certainly doesn’t like invoices becoming front-page stories.

One last thing. I have tremendous respect for the courts. This lawsuit will proceed through the judicial system, and I’ll respond there as the process requires. That’s where legal arguments belong.

However, any defamation lawsuit has to prove three things: (1) that I knowingly published false statements — which I did not and I posted all the invoices; (2) that I acted with reckless disregard for the truth — which I also did not, making many attempts to contact them (3) that I caused damage to Miguel Gabela’s reputation, which is laughable.

The lawsuit also states that I purposely avoided facts that would have disproved what it calls the “defamatory narrative.” What facts? The fact is that Gabela and his staff and the Bayfront Park Trust Executive Director Raul Miró purposely avoided phone calls and text messages where they could have easily presented alternative “facts” to provide context to the narrative. They chose not to.

Political Cortadito, meanwhile, will continue doing what it has always done: Following the money. Reading the invoices. Asking the questions. Publishing the documents.

And reminding public officials that the money they’re spending isn’t theirs. It’s ours.

So… Woof.

Ladra isn’t going anywhere.

This kind of independent, government watchdog reporting is crucial to transparency and democracy. And more so every day. Help shine a light on the darker corners of our community with a contribution to Political Cortadito. Click here. Ladra thanks you for your support.