Tawdry allegations may emerge in criminal trial of former Florida GOP chairman Jim Greer

TALLAHASSEE --
They headed for Marsh Harbour Airport in the Bahamas, most of them on private planes owned by billionaire Harry Sargeant III, then the finance chairman of the Florida Republican Party.

The weekend trip began on Friday Jan. 11, 2008, for a select group of Floridians —maybe 20 or so — who helped raise money for a constitutional amendment that would increase homestead exemptions.

Those who attended have differing memories of how many were there or what occurred, and no one is very anxious to talk to a reporter about the gathering.

Perhaps it’s the accusation of a golf cart filled with prostitutes that scares them away.

The five-year-old gathering has gained a life of its own in the criminal case against former Florida GOP chairman Jim Greer, who has been charged with money laundering and grand theft for allegedly diverting about $200,000 in party funds to a corporation he created. The trip itself isn’t tied to Greer’s legal problems, but details of the weekend could surface in testimony at his trial, which begins with jury selection Monday in Orlando, or remain secret, depending on which lawyers win out.

The Bahamas trip included an impressive outdoor seafood dinner with then-Gov. Charlie Crist, Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas Ned Siegel, Florida GOP Chairman Jim Greer and a handful of Tallahassee lobbyists and big campaign donors.

It was organized by Greer and Sargeant for supporters of “Yes on 1-Save Our Homes Now,” a constitutional amendment campaign Crist was pushing to expand the state’s homestead exemption. Delmar Johnson, former executive director of the state Republican party and a key witness against Greer, describes it as a thank you trip for those who contributed some of the $4.4 million raised in support of the measure. Others, including Crist, say the gathering was a fundraiser. The amendment was approved by Florida voters on Jan. 29, 2008, a few weeks after the trip.

The trip was for men only. Even women who worked for the party and helped with fundraising were excluded.

Johnson told prosecutors last summer that he saw women who appeared to be prostitutes in a golf cart driven by one of Sargeant’s employees. The information surfaced late last year when a video of Johnson’s testimony was made public.

More specifics have been hard to come by.

Johnson’s testimony is included in a sealed Florida Department of Law Enforcement report prepared last summer by investigators looking at possible witness tampering in the Greer case. Prosecutors say the report — and details about the Bahamas trip — may be used as rebuttal evidence against some of those scheduled to testify on Greer’s behalf.

Lawyers for two unidentified witnesses have asked that the report remain sealed, saying it contains information that would embarrass them. Greer Circuit Judge Marc Lubet says the records must be made public if they are used in an attempt to impeach the testimony of witnesses who might be embarrassed by details of the Bahamas trip.

After reviewing the report in chambers last year, Lubet read the names of four men: Lobbyist Brian Ballard, Sargeant, Johnson and new state Rep. Dane Eagle, R-Cape Coral, asking if they would be witnesses at the trial. At the time of the trip Eagle was a travel aide for Crist. Prosecutors said all but Eagle, now a state legislator, are expected to be witnesses at the trial.

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Cashing in on state contracts becomes growth industry

TALLAHASSEE --
Even for Tallahassee standards, the scene was notable: lobbyist Brian Ballard dining with a nursing home executive, Gov. Rick Scott and a top aide at a pricey restaurant just blocks from the Capitol.

That Ballard’s clout could command a private dinner with the governor for a client speaks to the influential lobbyist’s fundraising finesse. But equally important, and less celebrated, is Ballard’s talent for helping his clients land lucrative state contracts: $938 million this year alone, according to a Herald/Times analysis of contracts in the $70 billion state budget.

“Is that all?’’ joked Ballard, who said he had never added it up. “A big part of my business is protecting contracts, and outsourcing. Outsourcing saves [the state] money.”

Ballard is not alone. The lobbying offices that line the moss-covered streets of Tallahassee have grown exponentially larger in the last two decades as governors and legislators have steered a greater share of the state’s budget to outside vendors.

No one is keeping track of the total, but Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater last year estimated the total contract spend for Florida’s 2011-12 budget cycle at $50.4 billon — 72 percent of the budget. The bulk of it, nearly $42 billion, was for health care contracts and service sector grants that often are never competitively bid.

“We probably privatize, or outsource, more than some of the Northeastern states — and we have a lot more volume,’’ said David Wilkins, a retired business executive who was tapped by the governor to review the state’s byzantine contracting process. He also is secretary of the Department of Children and Families.

Vendors — from giant computer firms and health care HMOs, to purveyors of office supplies, parking spaces and even prison services — each compete for a piece of one of the biggest spending pies in the Southeast: the state of Florida. The infusion of state cash into private and non-profit industries has spawned a cottage industry of lobbyists who help vendors manage the labyrinth of rules and build relationships with executive agency officers and staff so they can steer contracts to their clients.

There are now more people registered to lobby the governor, the Cabinet and their agencies — 4,925 — than there are registered to lobby the 160-member Legislature — 3,235.

Dozens of former legislators and their staff populate that industry, as well as former utility regulators, agency secretaries, division heads and other employees.

The most high-profile newcomer to the executive branch lobbying corps is Dean Cannon, the former speaker of the House from Orlando. Even before he retired from office in November, he had set up a lobbying shop just a block from the Capitol and started signing up clients to lobby the executive branch.

Cannon’s swift lawmaker-to-lobbyist turnaround has spawned a backlash from former colleagues. Senators are proposing that lawmakers leaving office wait two years before they can lobby the executive branch — similar to the aw that applies to former lawmakers who lobby the legislature.

“One minute you can be overseeing a budget and the next you’re lobbying a state agency,’’ said Sen. Jack Latvala, R-St. Petersburg, who is shepherding the Senate ethics bill. “That’s a revolving door and that’s wrong.”

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Feds indict 11 So. Floridians for stealing IDs, filing taxes for 2,700 dead people

A South Florida ring accused of plotting to fleece $34 million from the U.S. government by filing phony tax returns in the names of thousands of dead people was indicted this week.

The indictment charged 11 defendants with conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service by stealing the identities of nearly 7,000 people, including more than 2,700 who were dead, to file fraudulent tax returns, according to federal prosecutors.

The case marks the latest federal crackdown on the escalating crime, which costs the U.S. government billions of dollars every year. Earlier this week, the U.S. attorney’s office announced the recent prosecutions of 14 defendants in similar fraud cases.

U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer said the double-barreled crime of ID theft coupled with tax refund scams is the “new Medicare fraud” in South Florida.

According to the latest indictment, the defendants recruited “knowing participants and unknowing victims” to put businesses, bank accounts and electronic filing ID numbers in the perpetrators’ names to carry out their schemes, prosecutors said.

“To avoid having the fraud discovered, the defendants negotiated the fraudulently obtained income tax refund checks at each other’s businesses,” they said in a statement.

Prosecutors are seeking to seize $443,449 from bank accounts, a 2011 Cadillac Escalade EXT Premium Sport, a 2010 Nissan Maxima, a 2011 Infiniti M37, and a 2010 Porsche.

Charged in the indictment were: Henry Dorvil, 35, of Hollywood; Herve Wilmore Jr., 29, of Aventura; Dukens Eleazard, 33, of Pembroke Pines; Marie Eleazard, 32, of Miami; Jesse Lamar Harrell, 26, of Miramar, and Luckner St. Fleur, 32, of Miami.

Also: Ruth “Princess” Cartwright, 30, formerly of Plantation; Miguel Patterson, 35, of Miami; Brandon Johnson, 29, of Miami Gardens; John Similien, 24, of Plantation; and Marc Leroy Saint Juste, 26, of Tamarac.

On Friday, Dorvil, Harrell, Patterson, Johnson and Saint Juste made their initial appearances in federal court in Fort Lauderdale. Cartwright was arrested in Georgia and will make her initial appearance there. Wilmore, both Eleazards, St. Fleur and Similien remain at large.

On Thursday, in a separate case, three defendants were sentenced for filing false income-tax claims with the IRS using the stolen identities of foreign nationals.

Christian Andres Perin, 40, of Miami, was sentenced to more than seven years in prison. Venancio Oscar Pio, 52, of Doral, and Olga Rosana Garcia, 46, of Miami, were sentenced to about six years.

The defendants were also ordered to pay restitution of $1.15 million.

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Ramp repairs after dangling-truck wreck to begin next week at I-95, S.R. 84

Repairs will begin as early as Tuesday on a State Road 84 ramp at Interstate 95 after a fatal accident that left a bakery truck dangling over the edge for hours early Wednesday.

Florida Department of Transportation spokeswoman Barbara Kelleher said repairs were on hold until a hazardous-materials crew could dig up the soil under the spot where the truck was hanging due to diesel fuel and engine fluids that leaked from the truck.

The accident, which killed one person, happened on the westbound ramp to State Road 84 from northbound I-95.

About 10 feet of concrete barrier wall will need to be replaced on the right shoulder. “There will be intermittent closures because they are going to try and work from the outside,” Kelleher said.

Repairs are expected to take no more than a day or two, Kelleher said.

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Lauderhill seniors are the model of elegance

Gert Packman has never looked her age.

During the Great Depression, movie theaters wouldn’t let her in to see some films, because she didn’t look 16. (She was older).

After retiring and moving to Florida, she got skeptical looks when she asked for the senior citizen discount. (She qualified).

At 96, Packman showed a room full of people Wednesday that you don’t have to be young to be glamorous.

She was joined by six other resident-models, all in their 80s or 90s, in an informal fashion show at Forest Trace, a Lauderhill senior living community. The event also welcomed New York author Ari Seth Cohen, who has written “Advanced Style,” a pictorial book on elegance and aging.

The seven models decked out in fashions furnished by Sondro Boutique, sashayed across a ballroom at Forest Trace for an audience of about 75 people.

There were no shapeless shifts or housecoats here — the women wore slim-cut pencil skirts, sparkly tailored jackets and jewel-toned evening gowns. They strutted proudly, showing off their style and panache.

“It’s uplifting,” Forest Trace executive director Campbell Epes said of the show. “The attitude, the power and the strength — it makes you forget the age. You see her and say, ‘She’s gorgeous.’”

Cohen, 31, has long been fascinated with stylish older women. Growing up in San Diego, he spent long afternoons with his grandmothers, Bluma and Helen, who introduced him to the films and fashions of Old Hollywood beauties like Marlene Dietrich.

Bluma always told Cohen he should move to New York to pursue his creativity, and when she died seven years ago, he did.

On the streets of Manhattan, he found older women who reminded him of his grandmothers.

They dressed in furs and feathers, capes and caftans, with animal prints and bold colors. Cohen began photographing them, and eventually, befriending them.

“It was a way to connect with older people,” he said. “I wanted it to be a celebration of age and a celebration of style.”

When “Advanced Style” hit the shelves last spring, Cohen said he got a lot of different reactions.

Older women told him they were glad to see themselves represented in fashion, an industry that tends to forget about women over a certain age. Likewise, younger women told Cohen they weren’t afraid of growing older after seeing the women he photographed.

“I think it’s important not to give up, and I think it’s important to not feel like you have to give up,” Cohen said. “Style, for me, is a reflection of how vital [the women] are.”

On Wednesday, the senior models were a picture of vitality.

Phyllis Ellsweig, 85, donned a bright orange jacket for the fashion show. She usually opts for a more understated look — her favorite clothing shop is Talbot’s — but she said the colorful jacket from Sondro is something she would wear.

“I like to look nice,” the retired psychologist from Pennsylvania said.

Packman sported a black sequined evening jacket and stretch pants that “only Gertrude could get away with,” the announcer said as the nonagenarian sauntered past, her copper hair perfectly coiffed.

The secret to staying young, she said before the show, is mostly in the genes — but it helps to eat healthy, watch your blood pressure, and above all, maintain a sense of humor.

“I’m a free spirit,” Packman said. “My sense of humor has gotten me through. Without that I think I would fail miserably.”

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Lawmakers want major changes in fixing long voting lines

TALLAHASSEE --
Some lawmakers are considering strengthening state officials’ authority to remove county supervisors of elections after voting snafus in November led to long lines and voter anger.

Details are sketchy; supporters haven’t come forward with a specific proposal yet, and at times seemed to be thinking out loud at a Tuesday meeting of the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee.

But there were clearly at least a few Republican senators interested in putting pressure on elections supervisors — with the Legislature having come under fire for changes to the state’s voting laws pushed through by the GOP in 2011.

Supervisors in five counties — Broward, Lee, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and St. Lucie — have been singled out as having performed poorly during the November elections. Florida was the last state in which a winner was projected in the presidential race, with a final call coming long after President Barack Obama was projected to have won re-election, and voters sat in line for several hours in some places to cast their ballots.

The Florida Constitution currently allows for suspension in cases of "malfeasance, misfeasance, neglect of duty, drunkenness, incompetence, permanent inability to perform official duties, or commission of a felony."

Among those strongly promoting the idea of cracking down on supervisors is Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, who pushed the 2011 law through the Senate. Diaz de la Portilla suggested that the current standard for removing a supervisor in the constitution didn’t give the governor enough room to suspend supervisors who haven’t done their job.

"The only circumstance shouldn’t be gross negligence, well, that’s the only time they can do anything," he said.

Instead, Diaz de la Portilla said supervisors should be required to closely coordinate their elections plans with the secretary of state and then be held to them -- "to have some kind of stick, if you will, to be able to enforce that."

Lawmakers are wary of infringing on the governor’s authority to suspend supervisors, who are constitutional officers, and might instead ponder whether the secretary of state should make a recommendation to the governor.

"So I think the only question would be whether there would be some sort of mechanism to do a critical report on them in some fashion," said Ethics and Elections Chairman Jack Latvala, R-St. Petersburg, who didn’t take a position on the issue.

Latvala, who will take the lead in crafting an elections bill for the Senate, was noncommittal about whether new standards for supervisors would be part of the measure.

Even with the current system, Secretary of State Ken Detzner said, he almost did refer some cases to Gov. Rick Scott for possible suspension before ultimately deciding not to do so.

"Without pointing any fingers and without calling out names, I would say that there were situations, both in the general election and prior to that, that the administration of an election in a county came very, very, very close in my opinion to a decision to have somebody relieved of their duties," he said.

Any move to give the state more power over local elections chiefs is likely to be opposed by the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections.

"I have an issue with an elected official being kind of mandated from an appointee in Tallahassee [about] how to do my job," said Pasco County Supervisor Brian Corley, legislative chairman of the association.

He told lawmakers that would be like giving the Florida Department of Law Enforcement the power to tell local sheriffs what to do. Corley also said there was already a check on supervisors.

"I think we’re accountable to the citizens of our county," he said.

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Member of Miami-Dade marijuana growhouse ring pleads guilty

An operative in the Santiesteban family’s alleged marijuana growhouse ring pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring to kidnap a rival gang member, admitting he witnessed the man’s murder after the target stole 50 pounds of pot from the Miami-Dade clan.

Juan Felipe Castaneda’s plea agreement signaled a major development in the federal government’s crackdown on one of South Florida’s largest suspected growhouse operations. The ring is accused of running a distribution network stretching to New York.

Castaneda admitted he collaborated with alleged ringleader Derrick Santiesteban, accused shooter Norge Manduley and other members of the syndicate in June 2009, when they kidnapped Fidel Ruz Moreno after carjacking his Chevy van.

While en route to one of the Santiesteban’s grow houses in southwest Miami-Dade, Castaneda said in a court statement that he witnessed Manduley struggle with Ruz in the back of the van and then shoot him with a revolver.

After Ruz’s body was tossed out into the street, Castaneda said he saw Manduley “approach [the] prone body and repeatedly strike [Ruz] about the head with the butt of revolver that Manduley was wielding,” according to a statement filed with the plea agreement in Miami federal court.

Castaneda, a growhouse caretaker who fled the area last June when FBI agents arrested most of the 16 Santiesteban-syndicate members, is the first defendant to plead guilty to the main charge of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than 1,000 marijuana plants. He also pleaded guilty to the kidnapping conspiracy.

In April, he faces a minimum-mandatory sentence of 10 years for the drug charge and up to life in prison for the kidnapping. His cooperation with prosecutors William Athas and Pat Sullivan could help them put pressure on other defendants to cut plea deals, according to the plea agreement.

The Ruz kidnapping and slaying — along with the possibility of a second, unrelated homicide, as well as suspicions that a Miami-Dade police officer was working with the Santiesteban clan — elevated the case beyond a routine pot-trafficking investigation.

At a detention hearing, Athas and Sullivan described Derrick Santiesteban, the lead defendant in the case, as the “mastermind behind the [Ruz] kidnapping.”

Investigators are zeroing in on a Miami-Dade officer who is suspected of playing a role in the family’s alleged drug syndicate. The officer, Roderick Silva, worked patrol in the Hammocks area of West Kendall. He was suspended with pay in June 2009, records show. He is the brother of another of the Santiestebans’ accused growhouse caretakers, David Silva.

Homicide detectives are also trying to determine whether an unsolved April 2006 slaying of a teenager in West Kendall is linked to an alleged Santiesteban growhouse in the area.

After going to visit a girlfriend near Southwest 172nd Terrace and 153rd Place, Angelo Lopera, 17, was attacked and shot multiple times. Investigators believe Lopera may have been killed because he was mistakenly suspected of visiting the neighborhood to steal harvested marijuana plants from the Santiestebans’ house at 17231 SW 153rd Pl., according to sources familiar with the probe.

The Santiesteban indictment was built around a dozen cooperating witnesses, most of whom were involved in the family’s alleged drug organization and have or will be separately charged, court records show.

The case was spearheaded by Miami-Dade police homicide detective Rich Raphael and FBI agent Michael Gualtieiri, working as part of a federal drug task force. Court records show the task force cultivated the witnesses, including two who were present during the Ruz kidnapping and eventually identified Manduley as the shooter.

Last July, Manduley was sentenced to 10 years in state prison after pleading guilty to weapons charges involving a domestic dispute with his ex-girlfriend in 2010. Manduley shot a .357 revolver twice into the air while threatening the ex-girlfriend and three other people.

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Giraffe injured at Zoo Miami fleeing amorous advances

A female giraffe at Zoo Miami took a nasty tumble Sunday afternoon fleeing the unwanted advances of a suitor.

The accident played out within view of patrons watching the animals in the public feeding area.

Zoo officials said Kita, one of six giraffes at the zoo, tried to avoid the unidentified suitor and ran into a rocky area to get away, but fell down. The 29-year-old female was then unable to pick herself back up.

“She got caught up in the rocks and went down in a bad position,” said Ron Magil, Zoo Miami spokesman.

Some patrons thought Kita, who is 7-feet tall and weighs 1,500 pounds, had broken one her thin legs in the fall.

Magil said it took nearly a dozen staff members to lift the giraffe, as concerned patrons watched the rescue.

“We were able to put some straps on her to help her stand,” Magil said. No bones were broke, he said.

Veterinarians will be monitoring Kita, but say they believe she did not suffer a serious injury.

“She should be fine,” he said.

Back in June, Kita made news when she gave birth to a male calf named Titan, the 46th giraffe born at the Zoo Miami.

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Police investigating ‘suspicious’ death of elderly woman in Miami home

Police are investigating details surrounding the death of an elderly woman found inside her home near midtown Miami.

Shortly after 4 p.m. Friday, Miami Police officers went to the home of Carmen Diaz, 78, whose adult son decided to visit her after not hearing from her in a few days, according to a news release. When he arrived, he found Diaz dead inside her home of 50 years at 120 NW 34 St.

Miami Police spokeswoman Kenia Reyes said although the death appeared “somewhat suspicious,” the department isn’t releasing details until the county medical examiner determines the cause of death.

WSVN-Channel 7 reported that the adult son found Diaz’s house ransacked and her body wrapped in a blanket in her bathroom.

Police confirmed the house was in disarray, but wouldn’t say if there had been a burglary.

The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner is currently investigating the scene.

This article will be updated as more information becomes available.

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Rick Scott circa 2013: It's about teachers, not tea party

TALLAHASSEE --
For Gov. Rick Scott, it’s now about teachers, not the tea party.

Cutting spending is out. “Investing” is in.

The governor who once showed indifference to state workers now wants to give them cash bonuses, in addition to his $480 million plan to give every teacher a $2,500 raise.

Scott’s messaging is completely different, too.

When he unwrapped his first budget two years ago, he did it at a rally of flag-waving tea partiers under a stylized sign that said “Reducing Spending and Holding Government Accountable.”

His new budget is Florida’s biggest ever in sheer dollars at $74.2 billion. Scott unveiled his latest spending plan Thursday with a supporting cast of grateful educators and a sign that read “Florida Families First.”

As Scott seeks a second term, he’s embracing education as never before and seeking $4 billion more in spending — and some Republicans don’t like what they see.

“It’s perplexing,” said Henry Kelley of the Tea Party Network in Fort Walton Beach. “To say we’re going to give $480 million more to teachers from someone who ran on accountability and changing things? Three years later, and it’s ’Let’s make government bigger in Tallahassee.’”

Kelley said paying teachers more is a great idea, but it shouldn’t be dictated by Tallahassee.

At the same time, some Democrats, who say Florida schools are chronically underfunded, praise Scott’s budget for seeking $1.2 billion more for schools.

“(It) clearly responds to the unprecedented challenges facing school districts,” said Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee.

In an interview with the Herald/Times Friday, Scott insisted his pro-education philosophy is the same as when he became governor two years ago.

“It has not changed,” Scott said. “Look at my life. Any success I’ve had in my life is tied to the fact that I was able to get an education.”

What has changed, he said, is that times are better and more money is available.

“Our biggest resource is our teachers,” Scott said, a year after he reduced their salaries by 3 percent.

One of those who stood alongside Scott at his budget-unveiling event was Mary Beth Perkins, an elementary school art teacher from Orlando, who noted that a $2,500 raise only makes up for last year’s pay cut.

“But I’m glad he’s listening,” Perkins said. “We at least feel like we’re part of the solution.”

To those who accuse him of wanting to grow government, Scott says he wants to keep shrinking it. His new budget plan would eliminate another 3,600 jobs.

His messengers are pushing back against a perception that Scott is a big spender, saying that when population growth is factored in, Scott’s budget increase isn’t as large as any of Jeb Bush’s. To make such a comparison requires making Bush look like the big spender, not Scott.

The governor’s office also highlights a figure that repeated cuts to the state work force have left Florida with 5.2 state workers per 1,000 residents, lowest in state history.

In the coming weeks, Scott will hit the road for a campaign-style promotion of his budget, including highlighting money for road projects, increased services to disabled adults and performance-based incentives for state universities.

With Scott’s persistently low job-approval ratings in polls, his standing has nowhere to go but up. Some say he has never received sufficient credit for progress such as a 3 percentage point drop in the state’s jobless rate.

“He gets a really bum rap in terms of popularity,” said business lobbyist Rick McAllister of the Florida Retail Federation, citing the tough stands Scott took in his first two years, when the state was losing tax revenue.

McAllister also says Scott is still learning.

“Since he’s been governor, I think he has a broader appreciation of the role of education in Florida,” he said. “Not that he didn’t before, but I think he’s learned a lot about what the education system requires.”

Rep. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, criticizes Scott for refusing to expand Medicaid under the federal health care law to expand the number of people with health insurance.

Even though Scott has not definitively said no to Obamacare, Fasano called it a “cop-out” for Scott to delay.

Fasano said Scott’s actions reveal a governor desperate to shore up his popularity for a re-election bid.

“With his poll numbers, no other politician would even consider running for re-election,” Fasano said. “He’s doing this because his political life is hanging by a thread. This is more politics than it is policy.”

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After 25 years, Collins Center closes amid financial woes

TALLAHASSEE --
The Collins Center for Public Policy, one of the state’s most respected think tanks, announced Thursday it is closing its doors after 25 years as a non-partisan Miami-based policy center.

A roller coaster period of growth, followed by recession-induced decline over the last two years, led to a financial fall from which the organization, named after former Gov. LeRoy Collins, could not recover.

"This is a sad, somber day for the Collins Center, the causes it espoused so valiantly, the numerous people and organizations the center helped and those who’ve fought to save it from a fiscal abyss that proved too deep to overcome,’’ said Merrett R. Stierheim, the board’s most recent chairman, in a statement.

Parker Thomson, a Miami lawyer who served as the board’s long-time chairman, said the center had been "the standard bearer for the legacy of former Gov. LeRoy Collins and his vision for a better Florida."

For years, the center was called upon to craft solutions to difficult policy challenges, Thomson said. It became the "conscience of Florida" on issues as diverse as ethics and election reforms, racial and ethnic discrimination, public safety, the environment, natural disasters, education, constitutional amendments and smart growth.

In the last election cycle, the center became a go-to source of non-partisan information on the lengthy list of constitutional amendments on the November ballot.

In recent years, the center offered services in foreclosure mediation, launching a program to provide financial counseling and mediation services in six of the 18 judicial districts. During that time, the center increased its staff 62 percent to meet the need and to draw mediation revenue from Fannie Mae.

"Those changes, however, were not nearly offset by grant revenue,’’ the center said in a press release on Thursday.

Financial problems deepened, however, when Miami-Dade County canceled its foreclosure mediation contract with the center and a robo-signing scam triggered cancellation of the judicial mediation program altogether. The center’s revenues dropped from $15.4 million in 2010 to $9.5 million in 2011 and its net revenues declined from $4.3 million to a loss of $4.2 million by July 2011.

Stierheim, the former Miami Dade County manager, was recruited to serve as interim president and CEO in August 2011. After ordering deep staff reductions and other cost savings, the center appeared headed for a turn-around.

In March 2012, the board recruited and hired Ann Henderson, then-director of the Graham Center for Public Policy at the University of Florida, to replace Stierheim. But the financial woes continued. The center lost its only remaining source of revenue — its financial counseling and mediation contract with Fannie Mae — in the fall of 2012.

"Over the past several months, we have striven to generate additional revenue,’’ Henderson said in a statement. "We have eliminated most positions, closed several offices and negotiated equipment leases and other obligations, but it has not been sufficient to survive."

The board has now voted to file for administrative dissolution and immediately cease all operations. The next step is to settle its debt to its creditors, Henderson said.

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Miami cop fired for ‘unjustified’ shooting of unarmed man

A Miami police officer whose shooting of an unarmed motorist two years ago capped a string of fatal police encounters that sparked a public outcry and political upheaval was fired on Wednesday.

The reason: A review board finding that officer Reynaldo Goyos used “unjustified” deadly force when he shot and killed Travis McNeil and wounded friend Kareem Williams as they sat in car at a Little Haiti intersection.

The decision — coming seven months after the Miami-Dade state attorney’s office declined to prosecute after determining the shooting had not reached the level of criminal intent — didn’t offer much solace to the victim’s family. At the McNeil home in Overtown, the mood was subdued and somber.

“It doesn’t help my son a whole lot,” said McNeil’s mother, Sheila McNeil. “Nothing will bring Travis back.”

Across town, Fraternal Order of Police President Javier Ortiz blasted a decision that he vowed would not stick. The union intends to appeal.

Ortiz said Goyos, a seven-year veteran taking part in a multiagency undercover gang task force, had been put into harm’s way by a federal agent driving the vehicle carrying both of them. He also blamed McNeil for his own death, claiming he didn’t follow the officer’s command.

“There is no doubt that Officer Goyos will get his job back,” said Ortiz.

Chief Manuel Orosa formally announced the firing on Wednesday, nearly two months after the City of Miami Firearms Review Board concluded the shooting was unjustified.

In a short, seven-paragraph opinion released for the first time, the board found that the evidence surrounding the shooting was “inconsistent with Officer Goyos statement.” The report said McNeil had been struck in the rear left shoulder blade area, which didn’t match with Goyos description that he had approached the car from the passenger side and had seen “a black object on Mr. McNeil.’’

The review board found the shooting was in violation of the department’s deadly force policy because neither Goyos nor anyone else “was in imminent danger of death or serious physical injury’’ when the officer opened fire.

The review board also ruled that the officer “should have never approached the vehicle, but instead should have retreated and followed all training protocols regarding felony stops involving armed subjects or vehicles.”

Orosa refused comment pending the appeals process. According to union chief Ortiz, an arbitrator will review the firing and issue a binding decision.

The city’s Firearms Review Board is composed of officers and staff who review every police-involved shooting. As far as anyone could remember Wednesday, the board had never ruled an officer-involved shooting unjustified.

The shooting occurred on a Thursday night in February 2011. Goyos, joined by officers from Hialeah and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations, were targeting gang members, some who they believed spent time at a notorious Little River establishment called the Take One Cocktail Lounge on Northeast 79th Street. An hour before midnight McNeil, 28, and Williams, 32, were kicked out of the lounge for being drunk and drove off, but not before an officer in the parking lot radioed other officers that the men were leaving.

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South Miami police supplier hires chief's son

The Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics said last week that the South Miami Police Department can continue to purchase equipment from Lou’s Police Distributors, a company that recently hired the police chief’s son.

“The son has no direct or indirect financial ownership in the company and will not be involved in the local contract, or profit from it,” the commission on ethics said in a press release.

Chief Orlando Martinez de Castro had asked for the opinion.

The opinion comes at time when a majority of the commission wants Martinez de Castro out of a job. The chief has a case pending with the commission on ethics, after investigators reported finding evidence there were a few transactions involving the police department and his wife’s business. Also, Mayor Philip Stoddard has been accusing the chief of breaking state rules when he signed off on a $9,998 gun repair expense that used state forfeiture funds to pay for gun repairs at Lou’s Police Distributors.

Stoddard said that the police department broke Florida rules of use, because the purchase was an operating expense and it was not part of an “extraordinary” program.

Meanwhile, the chief’s eldest son, Christopher Martinez de Castro, is the new vice president of international sales at Lou’s Police Distributors, which has been a South Miami supplier for about two years, has contracts with many departments in Miami-Dade County and also sells weapons and tactical equipment in Central and South America.

“It’s an entirely different department. Where the city will piggyback on a bigger contract to get a better deal, I work with clients from around the world,” the chief’s son said. “I have nothing to do with sales to South Miami – absolutely nothing. It is just being brought up because they [commissioners] want to attack him.”

Stoddard and his supporters have been poring over public records related to the chief’s use of public funds. Most recently, Stoddard threatened to file a lawsuit against the city, after Maj. Ana Baixauli refused to release records related to ongoing criminal investigations, which are exempt from the state’s public records law.

Commissioners have accused the chief of abusing his position to target those who oppose him, after two commissioners’ friends were arrested — including Commissioner Bob Welsh’s friend who was a homeless Canadian undocumented migrant with a criminal record.

Commissioner Walter Harris said Martinez de Castro has continued to show a special interest in cases involving politicians’ friends and family. The chief has said that his officers have only been doing their job when the politicians’ friends and family have broken the law, because “any special treatment” would mean breaking the law.

On Jan. 5, Harris’ wife, Eda Sagi Harris, who has been active in South Miami politics for years, damaged a parked silver Honda Odyssey while backing out of a parking space at the Dadeland Station Mall garage in Southeast Miami-Dade. She was driving the commissioner’s blue Toyota Corolla and told police that she “scratched” the car but left the scene, because she didn’t “hit it.”

Several cars from Miami-Dade police and South Miami police showed up at her home, after surveillance video identified her. Miami-Dade police cited her for “leaving the scene of an accident,” which is a misdemeanor. The police reports referred to the incident as a hit-and-run and estimated the “minor” damage at $500.

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Related developers find themselves in court over tactics

His company on trial over its tactics in a controversial condo project, Jorge Perez, the celebrated developer, found himself on the witness stand Monday answering to an unexpected foe: Jorge Perez, the author.

Perez, the chairman of the Related Group, testified in the trial of a lawsuit brought against his company by The Vizcayans, a fundraising and support group for the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens. The Vizcayans have accused Perez’s company of secretly manipulating the zoning process at Miami City Hall to win approval in 2007 for a three-tower condo project next to Mercy Hospital in Coconut Grove — forcing the Vizcayans to spend more than $1 million in legal fees in its successful effort to kill the project.

The Vizcayans, who objected to the project because it would have intruded on the views from the historic property, have also accused the developers of quietly buying the approval of two local neighborhood associations by offering them $8 million in exchange for their support.

William Davis, a lawyer for the Vizcayans, questioned Perez about the arrangement by citing passages from Perez’s 2009 book, Powerhouse Principles: The Ultimate Blueprint for Real Estate Success in an Ever-Changing Market (foreword by Donald Trump). In the book, Perez discussed his efforts to build the Mercy Hospital project, and said his team decided to keep the payments to the neighborhood groups secret because “we gave them a lot of money,” and he feared other groups would ask for more if they got wind of it.

Perez sheepishly conceded that he didn’t exactly write his book — it was the work of a ghostwriter with whom he worked. “They were my thoughts interpreted by a person that was writing,” he said.

Davis also tried to hoist Perez on one of his powerhouse principles from the book: “neutralize the opposition.” He suggested that Related sued the Vizcayans seeking public records in an effort to harass them. Perez denied the allegation and said he had no recollection of that lawsuit.

Perez insisted that there was nothing sinister about the deals with the neighborhood groups; he said the payments to the groups were simply a routine practice his firm follows when it seeks community support for its projects.

“I’m doing that on probably 10 projects right now,” Perez said.

Yery Marrero, the president of the Natoma Manors homeowners’ association, told jurors that her group supported the condo project not because of the promise of money, but because they thought the condos would prevent Mercy Hospital from expanding and bringing even more traffic to their already congested neighborhood.

“Our issue in our neighborhood is traffic,” Marrero told jurors. “Per day we have so many cars going through there.”

The Vizcayans’ lawyers have portrayed the payments as part of a larger scheme to win over the Miami City Commission, which had to endorse zoning and land-use changes for the condo project. They have accused Related’s staffers, lawyers and lobbyists of working behind the scenes to essentially rig the commission vote.

In one January 2007 e-mail, a Related vice president told Perez that they had confirmed the votes of three commissioners in favor of the condo deal — days before the first public hearing on the project.

The city commission ultimately approved the project in a 3-2 vote. But following a suit from The Vizcayans, an appeals court later overturned the decision, finding that the city ran afoul of state zoning laws and that then-Mayor Manny Diaz had improper contact with Perez during the veto period after the vote. Diaz is expected to testify Tuesday.

Related’s lawyers, John Shubin and Israel Reyes, have asked Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Daryl Trawick to throw out the case, saying The Vizcayans have failed to prove that the developers set out to deliberately harm the nonprofit.

The developers’ lawyers also called Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado as a witness Monday. Regalado, who was on the commission at the time of the 2007 vote, said he never heard anything suggesting that the developers were trying to harm The Vizcayans.

Shubin said the Vizcayans are wrongly seeking to punish the developers for simply petitioning the government for a zoning change.

“This is all about petitioning activity,” Shubin said. “They can’t even cite to you a case that looks remotely like this one that has been brought.”

Perez took his day on the witness stand with good humor. “I’m glad someone is reading my book,” he said when his testimony ended.

The trial, now in its fourth week, is expected to end this week.

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Brush fire breaks out in Southwest Miami-Dade

Firefighters were battling Sunday a brush fire in Southwest Miami-Dade, with crews working to keep the flames from spreading to nearby homes.

The fire broke out at 1:07 p.m. in the area of 112th Avenue and 224th Street. As of late Sunday, no homes were being threatened, fire department officials said.

Streets in the area were blocked off while firefighters worked to contain the blaze, according to CBS4.

While the fire department did not called for mandatory evacuations of nearby homes, the Florida Department of Forestry said several homeowners were voluntarily leaving the area.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Phil Osava said around 21 fire units were on the scene to monitor the flames as they wind down.

The fire might have been caused by dry conditions, Osava said.

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The missing Miramar mom: a tale of love, jealousy, mystery

It was Feb. 24, girls’ night out. Best friends Vilet Torrez and Clarissa Garcia went out to the Cheesecake Factory, where they ordered drinks and split a slice of cheesecake.

They laughed and chatted and caught up on the things best friends talk about over drinks and desserts: their families, their children, their marriages.

And, yet again, Garcia advised her friend she had to leave her husband.

She was tired of hearing the stories of how Cid Torrez beat her and then swore every time afterward he would never do it again. She was sick of seeing Vilet with bruises.

“What’s it gonna take? Your death? A casket?” Garcia asked.

“Oh, my good friend, he wouldn’t do that,” Torrez said.

Torrez went missing five weeks later.

Friends, family and former co-workers of Torrez all believe her husband, Cid, is behind her disappearance. Miramar police and prosecutors agreed and — despite the lack of a body, or an eyewitness, or a weapon — charged the 39-year-old with murder. Such murder charges don’t always stick, as evidenced by the just-completed murder trial of Geralyn Wilson, foster mother of Rilya Wilson. It was another case of no body, no witnesses, no murder weapon. Geralyn Wilson was convicted of lesser charges.

Cid’s family expressed disbelief that he would harm, much less kill and dispose of, the mother of his three children, although they acknowledged the marriage had turned toxic.

Cid Torrez has pleaded not guilty and awaits trial in a Broward jail.

A NEW COUNTRY

Vilet’s disappearance — and presumed death — brought a sudden and nightmarish end to a life that, from the outside, looked like a South Florida variation of the American dream, the kind of success story that reaffirms the belief that anybody with enough determination can flourish in the United States.

Born Vilet Blanco, she came with her family from Nicaragua to Hialeah when she was 15. None of them spoke English. Vilet learned the language at warp speed and excelled enough at Miami Springs Senior High School to get several college scholarships.

Vilet and Cid, also from Nicaragua, started going out during her junior year of high school and never stopped, except for a brief college breakup.

From that point on, Vilet’s world was Cid.

THE MOTHER

Vilet Torrez graduated from the University of Miami in 1997, with a major in advertising, got a job and, a year later, married Cid — on Aug. 8, 1998. It was a small ceremony in Hialeah. The honeymoon was quick, since Cid was being deployed in a matter of days for a tour that would take him to Japan, Guam, Indonesia and Australia.

Weeks later, Vilet learned she was pregnant.

When Cid came back to the United States, he was sent to North Carolina, joined by his wife and their first-born, a daughter also named Vilet.

In about a year, Cid had left the Marines and they were back in South Florida, living in the Blanco family home in Hialeah.

They fought frequently, Vilet’s family recalled, and Cid sometimes ended up sleeping in the car. But Vilet had seen her parents separation when she was a child and was determined not to do the same.

“I am not going to let him go like you did with my dad,” Vilet told her mother, Gladys Blanco.

THE COWORKER

Upon the family’s return, the boyfriend of Vilet’s sister Nayiva helped Vilet get a job where he had worked. Soon he started telling Nayiva stories he was hearing from former coworkers about how Cid would show up at work, unannounced, just checking in on his wife.

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Appeals court again upholds power of Miami’s Civilian Investigative Panel

An appeals court has struck down a police officer’s challenge to the validity of Miami’s Civilian Investigative Panel — the second time the panel has withstood a legal challenge from police officers in the past five years.

Police Lt. Freddy D’Agastino and the Fraternal Order of Police filed a lawsuit arguing that the civilian panel, which reviews citizen complaints against officers and makes recommendations to the police chief, had no legal authority to investigate officers.

But in a ruling on Wednesday, the Third District Court of Appeal found that the panel neither conflicts with state or local law, nor intrudes on the police department’s power to discipline its officers. The CIP does not have the authority to discipline officers, though it does have the power to subpoena records and witnesses in its own investigations.

The appeals court also upheld the panel’s authority in 2008, when then-Police Chief John Timoney sought to prevent the panel from investigating him.

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Miami Dolphins assemble familiar faces for lobbying team, many with ties to Mayor Carlos Gimenez

The Miami Dolphins’ lobbying team looks like a reunion of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez’s campaign brain trust.

To push for a $400-million stadium renovation funded in part with tax dollars, the Dolphins have enlisted three key figures from Gimenez’s recent election races: Marcelo Llorente, Brian Goldmeier and Jesse Manzano-Plaza.

Llorente, who became a frequent presence on the campaign trail after losing his own mayoral bid, has been hired as one of the Dolphins’ Tallahassee lobbyists. Goldmeier, Gimenez’s fundraiser, and Manzano-Plaza, a former Gimenez campaign manager, have been brought on as advisers to help drum up community support for the Dolphins’ plan.

The three men’s participation could indicate a calculated effort on the Dolphins’ part to appeal to the mayor, whom Miami-Dade commissioners tasked on Wednesday with negotiating a potential deal with the football team. Gimenez was a stubborn critic of the lopsided public financing deal for the new Miami Marlins ballpark in Little Havana — a position that helped the former commissioner in his campaign for mayor.

Gimenez dismissed the suggestion that a particular lobbying or campaign team could curry favor with his office.

“If anybody knows me, you can hire whoever you want. At the end of the day, I work for the people of Miami-Dade County — that’s who pays my salary,” he said in an interview Thursday. “I’m pretty black-and-white about things like that.”

Gimenez, who said he was unaware of Llorente’s and Manzano-Plaza’s involvement with the Dolphins, said his former election workers are successful in their own right.

“They’re very good at what they do, and they’re professionals,” he said. “I would hope that’s why the Dolphins hired them. In terms of me, that makes no difference.”

Goldmeier, Llorente and Manzano-Plaza are part of a larger team, led by Dolphins CEO Mike Dee, hunting for votes among state lawmakers and county commissioners, who would have to sign off on the football team’s request to raise a Miami-Dade mainland hotel tax to 7 percent from 6 percent and to receive a $3 million annual subsidy from the state. The funds would amount to some $199 million, about half the cost of proposed upgrades to Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens.

Voting 9-4, commissioners on Wednesday endorsed state legislation that would allow the county to raise the hotel tax — an early victory for the Dolphins, who are having to stare down criticism of the Marlins deal. Commissioners directed Gimenez to negotiate with the Dolphins. The mayor said talks would begin soon, led on the county side by deputy mayors Ed Marquez and Jack Osterholt.

“If the public is going to be investing money via a bed tax — which is tourist money, but still public money — then what are we going to be getting in return? Why should we be investing public money into the enterprise?” Gimenez said. “I know we’re not going to put the general fund at risk in any way, shape or form. There’s not going to be any fancy financing.”

His administration will likely hire outside consultants with expertise in negotiating with professional sports teams, the mayor added.

“I don’t want to be at a disadvantage,” he said. “So it may be that we come to some kind of framework — and maybe we don’t.”

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Miami conclave to help map the next 50 years for Southeast Florida

On a Google map, the long stretch of Florida coastline from deep South Miami-Dade County to Sebastian Inlet appears a seamless mass of urban development jammed between a thin border of sand on one side and wetlands and farmland on the other.

But zoom in and it’s soon sliced up by lines both real and imaginary: roadways, highways, railways, waterways and the boundaries of numerous, and often overlapping, governmental jurisdictions.

Now this vast area, at once connected and disconnected, is the subject of one of the most ambitious planning efforts ever undertaken in Florida. Called Seven50, it aims to chart a coordinated, integrated future for the development of Southeast Florida’s seven counties for a couple of generations, through the year 2060.

On Thursday, the big moveable feast of thinkers, planners, economists, government officials and business leaders that is Seven50 will convene in downtown Miami for the effort’s second public summit since its launch in Delray Beach last June.

It may sound like “wonky stuff,’’ said Seven50 lead consultant Victor Dover, a Coral Gables-based planner. But he said Seven50’s scores of participants are convinced that agreeing to coordinated plans across jurisdictional lines is critical if the region is to prosper and meet a long list of common challenges. They range from transportation logjams to the prospect of rising seas and U.S. and international competitors trying to grab our share of international investment, tourism, cargo and trade.

And that competition is serious and well-organized, Dover said. In Texas, for instance, 13 counties and 100 cities between Houston and Galveston have banded together in a similar planning alliance, and so have cities and states along the Great Lakes.

The advantage Southeast Florida has, Seven50 planners say, is that old real-estate cliche: Location, location, location.

But it risks throwing its advantage away unless it better links up its airports and seaports, installs more and better-connected mass transit, and develops strategies to improve education and retain and attract the kind of skilled, educated young people considered key to economic prosperity in today’s economy.

“Planning at this scale is profoundly American, from Jefferson to the creation of Washington, D.C., and if we don’t do it, we’re going to get blown away by the competition,’’ said Andres Duany, a renown Miami-based planner who will give the keynote address at the downtown gathering. “They’re gunning for us.’’

The free, full day of sessions at Miami Dade College’s Wolfson campus is designed to gather public input and share a still-in-development snapshot of the region as planners build what they describe as a massive data warehouse covering everything from demographics to housing, economics and transportation networks. Key discussion areas will be transportation, education and the daunting implications of climate change.

Because Southeast Florida will be among the first regions to experience rising sea levels, across-the-board planning on how to adapt will be essential. That could include difficult options like steering investment for new public infrastructure away from vulnerable areas, or protecting the region’s underground water supply from saltwater intrusion by raising freshwater levels in drainage canals, which could produce more seasonal flooding in some areas.

Some 200 public agencies, advocates, business groups and academic institutions, including the region’s principal universities, have signed up for the effort. Any resulting plans are purely voluntary, and no town or agency is obligated to adopt any ideas it doesn’t like, planners stress.

Still, the process hit a roadblock in the northernmost county, Indian River. The county commission and the Vero Beach city council voted to drop out after Tea Party-linked activists raised a public ruckus over their participation. The activists contend Seven50 is part of Agenda 21, a 20-year-old, nonbinding United Nations resolution that called for environmentally sustainable urban development, which they describe as a conspiracy to evict people from their homes and force them into dense urban housing.

Seven50 planners had to post a response on their website explaining they intend no such thing. Since then, the Stuart city council voted to join Seven50. Other Indian River agencies remain as participants.

The two-year planning effort, led by a consortium established by the South Florida Regional Planning Council and the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, is funded by a $4.25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The federal agency is encouraging local governments to engage in long-range planning under the sustainability label, which covers a range of strategies to foster development of pedestrian-friendly urban zones that put jobs close to homes and save energy by providing alternatives to auto transportation.

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Recalled Mayor Carlos Alvarez wins — in bodybuilding contest

Former Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez is back, in rare form, displaying bulging muscles from his pecs to his calves, bronzed from head to toe, dressed in the skimpiest of black briefs.

After almost two years of seclusion, Alvarez reemerged in November Hulk-like, taking home first prize in the National Physique Committee’s South Florida “Over 60s” Master’s bodybuilding competition at Miami’s James L. Knight Center.

Event promoter Sergio Pacheco said Alvarez’s victory over five other men qualified him for the more prestigious Junior National Master’s competition.

Pacheco, who owns Pacheco’s Physique Gym in Hialeah, said he had heard the former mayor competed in an event a few weeks earlier in West Palm Beach, but had no idea he had entered the Knight Center contest.

“When I saw him walk in, I said, ‘Wow, I know him,’ ” Pacheco said.

The former mayor and county police director was recalled from office in March 2011 by 88 percent of the electorate, after constituents had a hard time wrestling with a series of raises he awarded his inner circle and with his backing of the new, $634 million Miami Marlins ballpark in Little Havana.

Since the recall, Alvarez, 60, has rarely been seen in public. He has been spotted spending lots of time at a tony gym at Merrick Park in Coral Gables. Deanna Clevesy, a spokeswoman for Equinox Gym Coral Gables, confirmed Tuesday that Alvarez works out there, but refused to share details on his regimen.

Spotted on the field before the Marlins’ inaugural game at the new ballpark last April, it was apparent Alvarez had been hitting the barbells — muscles ripped from his short-sleeved shirt, various media reports noted.

Peter Potter, who judged Alvarez to victory at the Knight Center, said there was no mention of Alvarez’s mayoral past in his bio, just a mention that he was the former police director. Potter initially had no idea of Alvarez’s former life.

“One of the other judges who lives in Miami pointed out to me’’ that Alvarez was the former county mayor, Potter said. Alvarez “didn’t broadcast it.”

The mayor’s bodybuilding victory was first reported Tuesday by the Miami New Times.

Michael Sansevero photographed the event. He said Alvarez forked over $75 for pictures and video.

“I was kind of surprised when I saw him,” Sansevero said. “He must always have been in good shape, but he was in real good shape.”

Alvarez, whose current employment status is unknown, could not be reached for comment.

Alvarez spent 35 years with Miami-Dade County, the first 28 in the police department, where he worked his way up to the top job.

When the former mayor left office, he was earning salary and benefits worth $325,309, county records show. His last financial disclosure put his net worth at $1.74 million.

Alvarez’s annual police pension pays him $180,216, and he received a one-time payout of $287,879 for entering an early retirement plan.

Alvarez also participated in a retirement investment plan during his seven years as mayor, during which the state matched his contributions. Numbers weren’t immediately available for that plan Tuesday.

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