Thanks to Jorge Gonzalez, Miami Beach Is Now Dade's Most Corrupt Town

Investigate Jose Smith close friend and legal advisor to Jorge Gonzalez and Gus Lopez.

I feel sorry for Jorge Gonzales, what all he did was to follow and sometimes cover the calamities of the Commissioners or Mayor on duty, corruption in Miami Beach begins and ends with their elected officials who have always favored his friend’s in exchange political favors.

 For over 20 years I have been fighting political corruption in Miami Beach finally the law take responsibility, in no doubt the most corrupt city in Florida.

I have been living in south Florida for 2 years. Whats with the corruption here. And the people involved are Latinos. I'm Latino and I'm like wow.

It is 9:57 p.m. on Castle Hill, east Bank of the San River in Przemysl, Podkarpackie, Poland on a Sunday before my cousin Patrick's First Communion and I am in a rush to dress, but I remember SO WELL when an HONEST inspector found after Adonis Garcia was complaining about a neighbor that he HAD ILLEGALLY WITHOUT PLANS, PERMITS, or A SHRED OF LEGALITY did A FORTUNE IN WORK TO ONE or TWO APARTMENTS COMBINED INTO ONE, and "his friends" JORGE GONZALEZ and MATTI BOWER LEANED ON CODE AND BUILDINGS and the local MIAMI HERALD REPORTER to shut up about it!!!!! I WONDER HOW MANY PEOPLE WHO STAND IN LIE FOR MONTHS TO GET PERMITS ON THE BEACH REMEMBER THIS OUTRAGE BY JORGE GONZALEZ, MATTI BOWER, ADONIS GARCIA AND THE MIAMI HERALD! Oh, yes, people wondered HOW A YOUNG FIREMAN HAD ENOUGH MONEY TO DO ALL THE EXPENSIVE WORK!!!!!

Two weeks ago, Mayor Bower-Herrera confronted the protesters outside City Hall by getting into their face and poking her finger into their chests yelling "Vote us out". "Vote us out" Some citizens have decided to take her at her own words and have created an official petition form for a recall. Even though she only has a year and 5 months on her term, that's too long. Coming soon on YouTube. Look for it.   

Dear Polimb, To be absolutely clear l). I moved from Miami-Dade County in 2004, 2). during my 11 years on the Beach I NEVER MET A BLACK DRUG DEALER or CAR THIEF, the Drug Dealers were ALL HISPANIC plus one White Guy and the Car Thieves were usually sons of the State Attorney, Katherine Ferandez Rundle who is Anglo or Hispanic depending on the area she is looking for votes in. It is NOT BLACK CRIME that is the problem on Miami Beach BUT ONLY WEEKEND and SPECIAL EVENT "disorderly conduct" and auto accidents, but those are usually multi-millionaire sportsmen, who come in all races. Of course if you want to be technical PUBLIC EMPLOYEES ON MIAMI BEACH probably have a higher percentage of crimes that poor people in Liberty City or Overtown, but I can only say that because I am in  Europe, if I would say that on Miami Beach no doubt the Police would arrest me for walking too fast on the sidewalk.

no mention of his "golden parachute"how much did he get paid to quit?lived in north beach in the 60s 'cause the rent was cheaper than miami.seem to be a huge bunch of beach goings on followers here!all is corrupt ~ city hall to the white house and everything in between.we need 3 or 4 more political parties so behavior and consensus building is forcedon to government, elected and enriched employees.probably take a little anarchy first

Beach cops shot 100 rounds at a "visitor" last Memorial Day Weekend, is this freakin rag that far out of its collective mind, what an assinine thing to write.  Oh yeah, don't forget the Police were targetting blacks that weekend too.  Again you assholes, have you checked out the make up of the population on that weekend.  If your population is 95% one or the other and you arrest or have "incidents" with some of those 95%, then you aren't targetting, ass clown.  If you on the other hand have multiple "incidents" with the 5% that would be targetting.  Isn't that what all you lib idiots have always claimed when the poor minorities went to jail.  Geez, make up your minds, whats left of them, you can't have it oth ways.  Good luck and be carefully this Memorial Day Weekend, my brothers and sisters.

I thank the spirits everyday that I was able to escape the city of my birth. Believe me when I say that it used to be a great city. A Cuban Lady once said to me" We Cubans made Miami what it is today"  she was right. It is a S h   hole. Now one by one all of the last remaining remnants we loved are going, Jimbo's being the latest victim. Poor Miami, poor poor Miami.Adios... 

'City Manager' is a horrendous form of government.  They are universally overpaid, are not elected by the residents, are guaranteed a windfall retirement after their 8 or 10 or 15 years of 'work' is done and they unilaterally weild the most power in town.

Since Jorge Gonzalez resigned voluntarily he should NOT be entitled to any severance pay. But the intellectually weak City Attorney Jose Smith might screw the taxpayers and side with the corrupt Gonzalez.

Hey "T:", do weird things? Look on the internet, since 2004 I have restructed two German private banks, authored four studies of pre-Holocaust Jewish Communities in German-speaking lands and collected, classified, and donated a collection each of Roman artefacts and banking documents from the 18th century to 1938. Weird? I sit on the boards of six firms in Europe, all of which I have an interest in. "Weird", you mean I don't sit on my ass and live off a). rents from my father or grand';s properties, b). profits from extorting  money from businesses on Miami Beach, c). profits from overpriced developments created by bribing Miami Beach City officials sold to unsuspecting foreigners, d). live off a pension or salary for doing nothing like Frank Delvecchio and his band of morons? Weird? ITS WEIRD TO LIVE ON MIAMI BEACH WITH DRUGS ALL OVER, THUGS RULING THE STREETS ON WEEKENDS AND HOLIDAYS, AND A GOVERNMENT THAT RUNS ON BLACKMAIL, EXTORTION, CHARACTER ASSASINATION (you do weird things, i.e. restructure banks in Europe and collect art), LIBEL, SLANDER, and BRIBES!!!! "T: you complain like Frank Delvecchio, but you are as useless as he is to get anything done RIGHT or ON TIME or ON BUDGET!

Not only Miami dade county but all of Florida is corrupt, starting from Marco Rubio down. There all thieves

People might have known little Jorge Gonzalez had a massive pay and pension package but when did the taxpayers get to vote on it? No taxpayers would have voted to allow Gonzalez to become a multi-millionaire AT THEIR EXPENSE. Citizens are just starting to catch on how much public sector employees are overpaid.

Ah.. Dade County... you make us Natives... proud.... NOT!

There are clairvoyant housewives in Miami Beach.

What about Mansion at 1234 Washington Avenue? How come the Fire Marshall's never cite Mansion for overcrowding and unsafe conditions? All those little rooms and masses of drunk and drugged customers? A fire? A disaster waiting to happen.

There has been massive corruption in the Jorge Gonzalez administration and Jorge and his senior staff had to have known. Please, all those noise complaints against Amnesia and the Opium Group? Neighbors walls and windows shaking from the bass? All dismissed? Everyone knew bribes were being paid.

 Dear Mr, Miss, or Mrs. Mylar,

Michael Gongora is NOT BETTER than Jerry, who sold his sole for public money for his job at the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce or Matti Bower who sold his sole for her faked pensions and contracts for her daughter. Michael Gongora pushs money for unemployeables to have jobs with non profits funded by the City so that they will support him. do you think that is different from Matti, Jerry, or what Ed Tobin has done in the past, or Nancy Liebman or Susan Gottfried or Saul Gross??? I remember one meeting about a non profit contract, Jerry Libbin, before he was a Commissioner, Richard Steinberg and Jose Smith with Commissioners on the committee, and Matti Bower was chairing. I asked a question about the funding of a FOR PROFIT sponsored by a NON PROFIT to hide the fact the City was giving Claire Tomlin"s FOR PROFIT illegal city permits to close streets and have HER FOR PROFIT RENT THE PUBLIC SPACE with NO PART OF THE MONEY GOING TO THE PUBLIC, BUT T HE PUBLIC WAS PAYING FOR EXTRA ELECTRICTY AND POLICE! Libbin, then head of a non profit board, and Commissioners Steinberg and Smith, BOTH ALSO MEMBERS OF THAT NON PROFIT BOARD, looked at me as I was from out space. THE PERMITS WERE FOR Claire Tomlin and the non profit! NO SO! I showed the contracts and how the FOR PROFIT Claire tomlin ran, the The Market Company, was "cleaning up" while the non profit may" have gotten l% to 2% of the profits, the city NOTHING! There was to be a meeting about these contracts the next month, and the minutes of the meetijng published.WELL, YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED! The Minutes were NEVER PUBLISHED because Jorge Gonzalez overruled Matti Bower (according to Matti Bower), I was followed around by Claire Tomlin's employee Michael Vita with a camera everything I spoke to a Commissioner or employee about the contracts, and, yes the next month"s meeting Nancy Liebman "took over the meeting" sceaming and carrying on what a GREAT WOMAN CLAIRE WAS (her campaign scheduler by the way) and how I was TERRIBLE for bringing the subject up! Steinberg, Smith, and Bower, who voted to investigate at the meeting the month before SAT STONE FACED AND SILENT AS NANCY LIEBMAN WENT ON AND ON!!!! And that was 3 years before the infamous "trespasses"/.

Dear citizens of the little city that I loveQuit bitching about his salary and pension.  Don't pretend to be a concerned citizen now, it was all a matter of public record before.  If you cared that much you would've known already.  Still have a tough time seeing how everything is now his fault, but  at least City finances aren't screwed up.   Lucky him only has one more Memorial Day Weekend to worry about.  Register and actually vote and actually go to council meetings or somehow get involved, then I'll have an easier time listening to your headline induced complaints

Jorge Gonzalez is accused of being in on the corruption or at least doingor nothing to stop it. What is up with the "close" relationship between Mattie and the Opium Group?

Oh yes, and to the Editor and Editorial Board of the Miami Herald: About that little piece you wrote a couple of weeks ago supporting Emperor Jorge Gonzalez; are you feeling a little differently now?

The manager has himself to blame. He recently made a statement asking employees to come to him if they witnessed wrongdoing. Well I speak from first-hand experience that when I witnessed strange goings on I was told to be quiet or get fired. Why the audit department told me I would probably be fired for coming forward with my information. My superiors wrote me an email that we can't be critical of the administration. Mr. Ex-Manager is in this mess BECAUSE his door was closed and his rank-and-file employees all feared retaliation. Long ago if Mr. Gonzalez had an open door, guaranteed no retaliation and hired an Inspector General, then none of this would have happened. After the building department scandal in 2006 should have been the right time. I recall suggesting that as well. So the Ex Manager didn't want an open door. The Ex Manager didn't want an independent Inspector General, the Ex-Manager didn't want to give the Ethics Commission jurisdiction, the Ex-Manager didn't want to give employees Whistle-blower protections and the Ex-Manager didn't listen to his Assistant Manager when I wrote about shenanigans in the building and fire prevention departments . So now the Ex-Manager got Ex'd. Mr. Ex you can't say you weren't warned

Mattie Bower is either dumber than she appears or she is corrupt.

Did Jorge Gonzalez use taxpayer money to pay for all the neon green shirts worn by his supporters at the Commission meeting? Or did Jorge's corrupt buddies buy the shorts?

The Houston Astros original name was the Colt .45's.

Mayor and Libbin...what where u thinking when u voted not to accept the managers resignation? Gongora for mayor in 2013! U just lost my vote, Jerry!

Dear Mr. Elfrink, I am not a criticizing your fine article, but it leaves out that Jorge Gonzalez was not a "wonderkind" did NOT have anything to do with the growth of tourism or the new mega hotels, most of which went into bankruptcy, and you did not, as this paper did not in March and August 2005 cover my (named a Gadfly of the year by THIS PAPER) probition thru trespasses in March and August 2005 from entering Miami Beach City Hall to testify at Public Hearings and Public Meetings because Mayor David Dermer was mad I video taped his staff not being at their desks or Jorge Gonzalez"s during office hours and Dermer;s campaign manager Kent Harrison Robbins was illegally lobbying Assistant City Manager Bob Middaugh. The trespasses, and "wanted posters put up at the door of Jorge Gonzalez 's reception room" could only be fought with a 30,000 dollars in cash deposit with the civil rights lawyer and a tab of up to 73,000 dollars over three years I was told. Since my investments are in Germany, and I have a home in another part of my native florida I did nothing. But that does not change the fact that two current commissioners brought up this trespass and its illegal basis to the current commission and Mayor Bower and City Manager Gonzalez told one of the two Commissioners concerned to stop talking about it. Of course from 2005 to 2007 I, good soldier I am, continued to meet with, yes, Jorge Gonzalez's staff giving them documentation about corruption in City Hall that they and Joe Centorino sat on until the Stern Case became public knowledge 4 years LATER. I am happy collecting art in Europe and North America, it is not me who had five, 9 years of corruption and cost overruns while Jorge Gonzalez, Murray Dubbin, Don Delucca, Jose Smith, Matti Bower, robbed the place blind. I can truly say in the 6 or 7 places I have investments and spend time, there are no crooks like the ones neither the Miami Herald or this paper would go after from 2005 until now.

For someone who does not know, commenting on Rebecca's tenure at "The City" is both naive and ignorant, she is no longer there and it isn't because she went along with it, on the contrary she stood up against it all, therefore got the "Boot"

More proof public sector employees are massively overpaid. And the benefits? The huge pensions? Stupid.

Fire the creep, NOW.

I would like to place a bowl of gelatin at the feet of Ernest Borgnine. I ask for your support.

Rabbits do not wear lederhosen in Cincinnati.

This is what happens when nepotism runs rampant and its impossible to land good paying government job because Pedron and Juan are the 3rd and 4th cousins of the city manager or a LT.

A majority of the MB Commissioners need to stand up and put a Motion on the Agenda to fire Jorge. Jorge is the boss. He is responsible for the corruption. He might have been involved? He certainly is overpaid.

Fire him now.

The notion that the Commissioners, without hearing the citizens of Miami Beach, cut a 2 month deal with City Manager Jorge Gonzales, is the definition of insanity.  There must be so much scrutiny on his actions now that its pointless and further, his empowerments need to be modified to nothing, lest the Commissioners get sued for the most stupid move ever. 

Commissioners should fire Jorge Gonzalez " for cause". He deserves to be fired NOT get a $275,000 severance check and $125,000 per year in pension payments. He is 45 for chrissakes.

Mayor Mattie Bower, and Mattie's aide a former New Times writer named Rebecca Wakefield, deserve much blame for the corruption and this fiasco. Mattie is too dumb to notice the massively overpaid employees and their massive pension payouts.

The taxpayers are getting screwed.

lets not forget the miami beach city attorney jose smith,he is big part of this corruption...

While Jorge Gonzales certainly has deserved for more than 7 years to be fired for cause with zero golden parachutes, one of the things that irks me about this is the whole issue about the numb pin headed commissioners who are hiding behind Jorge, as though this was a one man corruption scheme.  I am not a Jorge fan at all, but the Commissioners are culpable and the Mayor in a big way. Mattie Bower should resign as should Ed and all of them except perhaps Johanas, who had the gumption to try to do something about this and stake his reputation on it. Lastly, I am insulted by the poor work of our fair City of Miami Beach City Attorney who clearly was party to these absurd golden parachutes and has been operating in an environment that is clearly unsavory and unlawful in so many ways. He needs to be canned or step aside. The Commission needs to start listening to the community allot more, instead of generating bogus surveys and putting out propaganda about how happy people are.  The City's Chief of Police needs to be appointed or elected in, but a new one installed.  No more dicatorships, no more police brutality on the local citizens, no more billy batting gays in the park, no more joy rides by police, and no more corruption by building and zoning and even the Parking Authority needs to be changed out.   The process by which City of MB Government works needs a strong Mayor to both cleanse it and make changes to the method of governance and structure.