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NUMBER 49 - MARCH 26, 2019

FRANCIS SUAREZ CLAIMS THAT THE ANNUAL FINANCIAL REPORTS HE'S REQUIRED TO FILE ARE EXTREMELY STRICT. NOT REALLY. IN FACT, A LOOK AT HIS FORM 1, AND THE FORM 1'S OF SEVERAL COMMISSIONERS WILL REVEAL THAT LIKE SO MANY OTHER CLAIMS, THIS IS A ROPE-A-DOPE GAME WITH A HOLE BIG ENOUGH TO HIDE A SEMI-TRUCK FULL OF HUNDRED DOLLAR BILLS, AND NO CONSEQUENCES FOR THOSE WHO REFUSE TO PROVIDE INFORMATION.

This morning, Francis Suarez was on Actualidad 1040 with Roberto Tejera, and responded to a question about his activities as a private attorney by stating - and I'm paraphrasing - that he always acted ethically, and that this was supported by the annual financial reports he was required to file that he claimed were, "very strict."

Below are Suarez's 2017 annual financial reports, which were the last one's he filed.

He, and all the other elected officials in Miami are required to file these reports every July.  One is called a FORM 1 that covers his income, and the other is a city form entitled, Public Disclosure Of Financial Interests.

Contrary to Suarez's claim about the strictness of these reports, if you look at the FORM !, you will see that while an elected official is required to identify where his sources of income come from, they purposely DO NOT require any kind of dollar amount, not even a range, such as say $10.000 to $49,999.

So, while he lists the two law firms he was "of counsel" to in 2017, there is no way to know how much he was paid by either firm, and this is a problem, because he lists them as his primary source of income.  You'll notice that he doesn't list his salary as Commissioner as income.

The Public Disclosure Of Financial Interests is a little better, but it doesn't require any sort of breakdown of what the obligations to creditors represents.

This failure to disclose amounts of income are not just a problem in Suarez's case, but also a problem when it comes to other members of the commission as well.

Take Joe Carollo, who lists income from several sources on his FORM 1, both as a consultant, and as an investor.

When politicians are the one who are entrusted to come up with the rules for their financial disclosure, as well as the requirements for ethical behavior, never underestimate how bad a job they will do, and how much they will claim afterwards about how tough they were on themselves.

It's all bullshit in, It's Miami, Bitches!

Even worse is Keon Hardemon, who although he maintains a law practice, yet failed - or refused - to even mention it on his FORM 1, as a source of income.