Ethics Commission looks into Miami Beach shakedown PAC

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Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine and Commissioner Jonah “Pottymouth” Wolfson tried hard to quash a motion by Commissioner Deede Weithorn to have the Ethics Commission look into their brazen shakedown of vendors and developers who want to do business, or continue doing business, with the city.

And they may have won at the dais, after the motion — which eventually was heard despite Levine’s attempts at squashing democracy — didn’t get the votes.

Read related story: Miami Beach $500K+PAC tied to city vendors, contractors

But guess what? The Ethics Commission — which can initiate inquiries on its own, no complaint needed — is going to look into it anyway.

Nya nya nya nya nyaaaaa nya.

And hallelujah!

Ethics Commission Director Joe Centorino would not comment on this case specifically because there is, indeed, an investigation into the $1 million PAC donations that Levine and Wolfson openly admit they solicited from vendors and contractors. But Centorino said that, in general, it’s a bad idea to go after funding from people who come before you for official municipal business.

“We have certainly discouraged elected officials from directly targeting municipal contractors in connection with any kind of fundraiser,” Centorino told Ladra. “It’s not a wise thing to do because of the potential impression some people may get that it would affect their relationship with the county, city or whatever.”

Ladra hopes the investigation goes deeper than Weithorn’s question of whether or not these solicitations — which Levine and Wolfson do not deny making — constitute a violation of the beach’s own rule against lobbyist or contractors giving to candidate campaigns.

They may not technically. That is how people got away with funding candidates in the last election — through PACs — and who knows how many elections before that.

But the problem with the technicality is that everybody knows exactly who the funds are going to benefit. In the case of Relentless for Progress, it is Mayor Levine and Commissioner Wolfson, who, respectively, star in the TV ad and the mailer (more on that later) produced so far. Levine faces no challenger to his re-election bid this November and Wolfson is termed out. But they have both said they will help other candidates.

Read related story: Open Miami Beach seats become mayoral power playground

“Here in Miami Beach, we have a new saying, ‘Just get it done,'” says Levine in the 30-second spot with salsa music in the background that has aired on local TV (Ladra saw it last during This Week in South Florida on WPLG Local 10). He boasts about getting street flooding under control, fixing roads, improvements in North Beach and the new police chief, as salsa music plays in the background.

“This is what a city looks like when it believes in itself. Welcome to the new Miami Beach.”

Relentless for Progress — the political action committee whose acronym also, coincidentally (wink, wink), stands for Request for Proposals — spent $157,000 out of state to produce and air the video: The Victory Group in Baltimore (a favorite with lots of Florida candidates, including former Gov. Charlie Crist and Attorney General Pam Bondi) got $30,000 to produce the video and Mentzer Media out of Towson, Maryland, got $127,000 for the TV airtime buy.

RFP also spent $80,000 in a transfer to another PAC called — I kid you not — Citizens for Ethical and Effective Leadership, which is basically a personal, private piggy bank for Levine and Wolfson’s political hitman, consultant David Custin. Custin, who is also likely to manage the RFP funds, is representing Levine’s slate of candidates in the three open seats up for grabs this November as well as a developer who wants to build a skyrise on Ocean Terrace in North Beach.

But the PAC still has a lot of cash on hand after reportedly reaching nearly $1 million in donations last month. The June checks include $100,000 gifts from

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  Deede Weithorn, Jonah Wolfson, Miami Beach politics, PACs, Philip Levine