Folks line up to fill Miami commission District 2 seat after Ken Russell is out

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New ‘Grove’ political action committee with $47K could be related

Whether or not the December meeting stays cancelled, Miami Commissioner Ken Russell, who resigned to run for the congressional primary that he lost to Sen. Annette Taddeo in August, will have to leave by Jan. 3. The commission will likely appoint someone to serve out the rest of Russell’s term, which would have ended next year.

Some say that Russell himself could be appointed to serve out his own term. Well, perhaps he should be appointed. That would be respectful to the voters in that district. Commissioner Joe Carollo suggested the possibility at Thursday’s meeting, but everyone knows he was being facetious. That’s not gonna happen.

The name that keeps coming up, of course, is former Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, who served from 2005 to 2015, when Russell — who campaigned to clean up a contaminated park — beat his wife and proxy. But is that just lazy? Because he’s the easy go-to? Or is it real?

Read related: Miami Commission cuts Ken Russell’s last meeting; he threatens to quit early

There are several reasons why Sarnoff would not be appointed. One is that he is making too much money as a lobbyist and doesn’t want to have to wait another two years before lobbying the city again after next November. In that scenario, Sarnoff would be the one to reject the offer.

The other reason is that Carollo and Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla are sorta scared of him. Sure, Marky boy raises a ton of money for them. He’s been a friend and ally and co-conspirator. But they also know that he is a powerful political force who could take over the Omni CRA, the Bayside Park Trust, the Downtown Development Authority and everything else that moves money.

Other names that have been mentioned are Frankie Ruiz, founder of the Miami Marathon and the Chief Wellness Officer for the city, and former Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court Judge Martin Zilber, who resigned last year after a Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission found he had taken unauthorized absences and berated his bailiff and judicial assistant, telling her that the timing of her pregnancy was inconvenient for him.

Zilber, who got a job at a the law firm Krinzman Huss Lubetsky Feldman & Hotte, which specializes in commercial real estate, reportedly had court staffers run errands for him on public time — which makes him a perfect fit for the city of Miami.

Commissioners only need three of the five votes to appoint someone of their choice. But who would want to join the dumpster fire that is the city of Miami?

Read related: Mr. and Mrs. Sarnoff give up seat to Ken Russell sans runoff

Turns out, at least nine people do. City Clerk Todd Hannon told Ladra Wednesday that the city had already received qualifying documents and/or resumes from the following nine individuals: Michael Castro, Sabina Covo, Marcelo O. Fernandes, Michael J. Goggins, Javier Gonzalez, Lior Halabi, Kathy Jane Parks Suarez, June Ellen Savage, and James Torres.

What is wrong with these people?

Note that none of the names political junkies have talked about are on the list.

But somebody opened a new political action committee called Beautify Grove Miami, which sounds like it could be related to the D2 vacancy. It formed in September for “candidate and ballot issues for Miami-Dade County and municipal elections.”

The PAC collected $47,000 in October, including $25,000 from Jorge Mas, one of the InterMiami owners who wants to develop Miami Freedom Park. Another $10,000 came from Housing Trust Group, developer of multifamily residential communities, owned by Matthew Rieger of Aviation Avenue.

  Ken Russell, Marc Sarnoff, Miami politics