Former Miami City Manager Joe Arriola has filed a defamation lawsuit against one of the commission candidates in the Coral Gables election over a mailer that told voters he had been fired from the Magic City for taking bribes.
The lawsuit names Javier Baños, candidate in Group 3, and former Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff — who donated to the political action committee that paid for the negative piece — as plaintiffs.
“They said that I was fired for taking bribes and pay-to-play. And that’s an absolute lie,” Arriola told Ladra Wednesday.
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Actually, the mailer said Arriola was “forced to resign due to pay-to-play developer scandal,” which obviously plays well in the Gables, where overdevelopment has been a central theme of the election. The mailer targeted former candidate Alex Bucelo, who came in third in the first round. Baños faces longtime soccer coach Kirk Menendez in the runoff.
Negative mail and false attacks in local elections have become the norm and most people never do anything about it. They file ethics complaints that have no teeth or impact and let it go. “They say, ‘Ah, it will go away,'” Arriola said.
“But I’m 74. All I’ve got is my reputation. I’ve never taken a penny in my life. I didn’t have to, either.”
That’s because he sold his family’s printing company for $42 million two years before former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz tapped him for the city’s top job in 2003. Stories from the Miami Herald in 2006 — used as exhibits in the lawsuit filed by former State Rep. J.C. Planas, attorney to the pols — show that Arriola resigned to take a job with Mike Fernandez‘s MBF Healthcare.
There is no indication he was pressured. In fact, the search for his replacement began before he left.
Read related: Kirk Menendez vs. Javier Baños is not as easy a decision as voters may think
Sure, there were a couple of scandals in Miami during his reign. Aren’t there always? It is Miami. But they had to do with an investment property Arriola owned with Diaz and former Miami Commissioner Johnny Winton and the fire fee settlement, not any bribes.
Baños said he first saw the mailer when he got it at his home. “But I didn’t draft it,” he told Ladra.
He said he didn’t even know who Arriola was before that. “I knew Daniel Alonso. He was the city manager when I was on the civil service board.
“But from what I understand and have read, there were disputes that led to the termination,” he said.
Read related: Joe Carollo recall and lawsuit chug along, but the damage is done
It’s hard to believe that he never heard of Arriola. The former city manager was key to the failed recall effort against Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo, which he pretty much single-handedly financed. Baños, if you recall, was the treasure and CPA to Carollo’s campaign and PAC accounts and his nomination to the Bayfront Park Management Trust.
“It looks frivolous because he’s a public figure,” Baños said about the lawsuit. “As far as I’m concerned, I haven’t said anything about Joe Arriola. It was not something I put together. My campaign didn’t put it together.”
Yes, but as Ladra has reported before, the Citizens for a Better Miami-Dade Government PAC has Baños email address and phone number on it. It is chaired by Bradley Cassel, a man he interviewed in the Community Newspaper’s studio. More importantly, a man who he calls his mentor.
Said Arriola: “They lied about me and it hurts my reputation. I’ve worked very hard all my life and I’ve raised millions of dollars for United Way and other worthy causes. Now it looks like I’m a crook and a thief?
“I’m not putting up with that shit.”
Complaint against Javier Baños by Joe Arriola by Political Cortadito on Scribd
Joe Arriola sues Javier Baños and Marc Sarnoff over ‘lies’ in PAC attack mailer added by Ladra on
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