Things Fall Apart

A recent Miami Herald story on George Kane's settlement with Miami-Dade County Commission on Ethics and Public Trust regarding a charge that he violated a conflict of interest ordinance can be found by clicking here.

The story does not detail the specific charges or the implications. So I got and posted below the documents from the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust. There are three complaints.

Count 1: On March 10, 2009, George Kane introduced a motion directing the city manager to consider other locations for the new city hall. Kane represented as a real estate agent the owners of several of the properties being considered by the city.

Count 2: In May of 2009, Kane served as the representative in the lease negotiations for the planned move to the Lexi. This entitled Kane to a $25,000 commission.

Count 3: Between February and May of 2009, Kane acquired interests in properties that would directly benefit by the actions of the city government.

Resolution: George Kane pleaded No Contest on the second count, accepting a commission for the city hall move to the Lexi and agreed to deposit that commission in the General Fund in exchange for the country dropping Counts 1 & 3.

My opinion: This is pretty bad. Our Vice Mayor admits to setting up a personally profitable deal, directs the city manager to explore other personally profitable opportunities and when caught out, does not contest the charge.

Two things need to happen now:

1.) Kane should do the honorable thing and resign.

2.) The Commission should vacate the plans to move city hall unless and until the deal is absolutely clean.

Here are the two documents detailing the charges and resolution.

Compilation of Complaint Against George Kane
Resolution of Complaint Against George Kane

Kevin Vericker