The first concrete example that convinced me that Ken Russell was going to turn out to be just another lying weasel dick, like his predecessor Marx Sarnoff, was his refusal to turn over the list of all of the Christmas gifts he received  the month after he was elected.

I knew about the list because I was the one who told him to start one after he called me up in the middle of December of 29015v all giddy over all the swag that was being dropped off at his office by folks who all of a sudden wanted to be his best friend.

He claimed that his secretary had "misplaced" the list, and I filed at ethics complaint with the unethical ethics commission.

They determined that he had indeed violated the law, but in their usual way od looking for any excuse not to inflict any serious punishment, they found "Probable Cause," and then dismissed my complaint and sent him a letter of instruction.

Well, here we are 4 years later, and this time Russell is refusing to turn over all of the complaints that his staff has been recording from people who have either been hit bu these electric scooters, or almost hit, or otherwise have become alarmed enough about what they've witnessed on the streets of Miami to call Russell's office or sent him an email.

On November 15th, I sent Russell a request for copes of these complaints, and he has flat out ignored my request.

On Monday morning I sent him the following email:

Copyrighted:  2011,2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019

Not only has Russell ignored this email, but I would point out that in addition to refusing to provide me with the information on the electric scooters, he's also refused to provide me with the information about the leeching of the pollution at Melreese Golf Course that he claimed he had been provided as part a the November pre-commission meeting briefing.

I don't expect to agree with much that this commission is going to do now that Alez Diaz "de la pinga" Portilla has shown up, but I will watch with a certain amount of schadenfreude when they bend Russell over and screw him till he squeals like a pig.

NUMBER 2: THE LA PLACITA RESTURANT IS BACK BEFORE THE COMMISSION FOR THE 2ND TIME, ONLY THIS TIME THE HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMITTEE WAS UNANAMOUS IN THEIR VOTE FOR THE OWNERS OF THE RESTAURANT TO PAINT OVER THEIR ILLEGAL FLAG ON THE WALL OF THE BUILDING

On July 22nd I wrote a pretty detailed story about the efforts of the owners of this restaurant and the rope-a-dope arguments that had been made as to why they should be allowed to get a waiver allowing them to keep the illegally painted Puerto Rican flag on the building where they had opened a restaurant.

The arguments used to justify the flag being painted, and the issuance of a waiver were pretty much bullshit from one end to the other.

The owners of this restaurant were guys who figured that they had the mayor in their pocket, as well they should because Suarez had shown up with Sneakers The Bodyguard to protect him against the irate residents, and stood around watching the flag get painted on the building.

When he was informed by some of the residents that the owners didn't have a permit  to paint the flag on the building - they were using a Special Events permit issued by the police department to control traffic - he allegedly told them that he didn't have any control over the activities of Code Enforcement.

That's bullshit too, because Francis Suarez, as you all will learn in the weeks to come has absolutely no compunction in ignoring Section 4 of the City Charter and involving himself in telling city employees what to do when it suits his purposes.

When the issue went before the commission the first time, the decision was made that the owners of the restaurant should go back to the Historic Preservation Board and try to resolve the problem by removing the flag and coming up with a new design that would comply with the historic preservation guidelines.

That too was bullshit, because when Joey Cancel, the spokesman for the ownership group showed up at the Historic Preservation meeting he didn't waste much time before telling everyone that he and his partners had priced out the cost of replacing the flag with a neon version, and it would cost over $100,000.

Somehow, no one ever raised the issue of the neon sign that these guys had had made during the summer, and which they put up on the building one Sunday night to see how it would look.

I missed it on the wall, but I did get photos of it on the trailer after they took it down.

Because sometimes the only way to appreciate the degree of "fuck you," that occurs at some of these public meetings, is to actually see it happen, here is portion of the video of Historic Preservation Board meeting where the members - whom I don't always agree with, came down with a unanimous vote for the flag to get painted over, and different signage that complies with the law to be installed.

Neil Shiver is a long time resident of the West Grove, as were his parents before him.  Last month he showed up before the PZAB Board as the spokesman for a development group that includes himself, Edwardo Pantin Jr., and Alex Kurkin, to pitch PZAB on the notion that he had nothing but the purest of interests in seeing this collection of properties they they owned developed into a housing project that would include affordable housing units.

He was so moved by his presentation that at one point he actually broke into tears.

I hope he doesn't break into tears when he finds out that I notified the unethical ethics commission that as a principal and spokesman for this development group he was required to register as a lobbyist, but hasn't.

But then again, neither the folks required to register, or the city officials responsible for making sure that they do seems to give a fuck anymore about process, because as the city slides into a morass of corruption that's even started alarming some of the heretofore practitioners of the dark arts, registering to lobby is the least of the problems that most people think anyone needs to worry about.

None the less, here's the proof that he hasn't registered. I screen grabbed this this morning.

NUMBER 3: NEIL SHIVER, THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE SEOPW CRA IS LOOKING FOR A WAIVER. KEEP AN EYE ON THIS ONE BECAUSE IT'S A HOCUS-POCUS DEAL, AND TO TOP IT OFF, SHIVER IS NOW CLAIMING TO BE A MEMBER OF THE FLORIDA BAR WHEN HE ISN'T  

The deal here, isn't the deal.  

The problem is not that Shiver wants to make money from the house that he's owned all these years.  It's his house, and his property and he can do with it what he wants.

The problem is that inserted the this proposal to change the Zoning on the properties from T3-O Sub Urban Transect Zone-Open, to T4-0 General Urban Transect Zone-Open, there's a magic bullet that would grant a waiver of Time Limit to rezone the property one more time.

That's a bit of hocus-pocus that would allow the property to go from T4-0 to T5-0, only this rezoning wouldn't have to go back before PZAB or the city commission. It would be handled administratively by the city's Planning and Zoning Department.

Another wrinkle that was not discussed at PZAB, but which clearly has significant impact on any future rezoning and use of the property is that the parcel listed at 3040 Carter Street (the RED Box with the X,) is but a part of the larger parcels that are in highlighted the GREEN Blocks, and that are referenced in the portion of the proposed ordinance below that I have highlighted in GREEN.

PZAB by a vote of 7-2 voted to allow this time waiver.

I think that this waiver will come back and bite the city in the ass, in part because if Neil Shriver is either too lazy, or too arrogant to bother registering as a lobbyist, like he absolutely knows that he should have, then this action has to be seen as an example of the past as prologue.

If Neil Shriver thinks he can screw the pig over something so simple, then who's to say that he won't try to screw the pig over bigger and more important parts of this deal, because it seems Neil has a problem with the truth.

I was not going to mention in this story that Shiver was a disbarred attorney, because I didn't think it had any relevance, but in doing my due diligence I discovered this morning that he claims on his profile page of the SEOPW CRA website to be a member of the Florida Bar

The only problem with that claims is that as of 7:30 AM, on the morning of December 10th, the Florida Bar says that he still remains suspended, and is not allowed to practice law in Florida.

The only problem with that claims is that as of 7:30 AM, on the morning of December 10th, the Florida Bar says that he still remains suspended, and is not allowed to practice law in Florida.

And just so there is no misunderstanding, here is the Florida Supreme Court Order issued when he tried to get reinstated to the Bar, that explains why he still can't practice law in Florida.

You can't make these things up.

When the elected officials aren't behaving like batshit crazy, weasel dicks, the appointed officials are lying about their resumes or failing to do their job, and all of them are conniving and scheming to screw the taxpayers, or each other.

It's now gotten so bad that lawyers and lobbyists who appear before the city commission on a regular basis are admitting that in the last two years that Francis Suarez has been mayor they've seen a decline in the rationale operation and management of the city that even alarms them.

Crespodamas predicted that this would all come to pass, because that's why...

It's Miami, Bitches!