We Don't Need No Stinkin' Courts

From the Herald:  

"A mayoral candidate found guilty of spreading malicious untruths says she won’t stop"

The mayoral candidate referred to is Laura Cattabriga.  Cattabriga agreed in writing to not lie during her campaign and be bound by the rulings of Commission on Ethics.

Timeline: 

Tuesday, October 23 - CATTABRIGA FOUND GUILTY OF MALICIOUS LIES. 

Judge Victor Tobin in a Commission on Ethics hearing found two significant things:

1. Latham lives in North Bay Village and Cattabriga claiming he doesn't is a malicious untruth.  A lie, as most people say.
2. Cattabriga needed to disavow the lie and not keep spreading it.  

Wednesday, October 24 - CATTABRIGA CONTINUES TO SPREAD THE LIE. 

Cattabriga ups the lie by sending out unsourced copies of Latham's water bill which showed that he had a large credit balance starting on January 1 and that he and his family were away for 3  months over summer.  (Latham was working at the World Cup which was not held in North Bay Village. His family was mostly with him.)  Cattabriga did not include the December bill which shows the overpayment that the credit balance was based on.  Cattabriga states that this is PROOF that Latham is lying about where he lives. 

It's not.  It's a carefully constructed lie.  

Thursday, October 25 - CATTABRIGA DEFIES THE JUDGE'S AUTHORITY

The Herald article comes out and in spite of Cattabriga's promise in her signed Voluntary Fair Campaign Practices Pledge, agreeing not to spread malicious untruths and further agreeing to be bound by the ruling of the judge, Cattabriga through her lawyer, JC Planas, defies the ruling and the finding by saying the judge has no jurisdiction over her, further stating "...she’s definitely going to continue this line of attack because we feel it is completely and utterly relevant to this campaign. Eligibility to serve is a legitimate issue,” (Cattabriga's lawyer, Miami Herald October 24, 2018)

This behavior is perfectly consistent with Laura Cattabriga's history of disregarding promises to get what she wants, up to and including a failed lawsuit to vacate the seat she wanted on the dais, her enthusiastic support for hiring legal counsel without an RFP when that counsel found a novel and unprecedented way to remove Hornsby, not using the Charter or court rulings.

This has resulted in an expensive lawsuit but Cattabriga got what she wants - the commission seat.  No matter that the way she got it, through an unprecedented end run around the courts and the Charter.  No matter that she enthusiastically supported an unprecedented $204,000 for our legal services.   Cattabriga gets what Cattabriga wants.  

Vice Mayor Andreana Jackson Caught on Videotape Removing Latham's Campaign Material

And here's the other one - Andreana Jackson was caught on video sloping around the lobby of the Island Place.  When Jackson saw a pile of Latham's literature announcing his upcoming event at the same, and she took it.  All of it.  In the same article from the Herald (seriously you should have read it by now), she says, 

“All I did was grab some fliers to take back to the campaign to see what was going on,” Jackson said. “I didn’t realize that I took a whole stack of them.” 

She said she did not intend to prevent the building’s residents from receiving information about the event. 

“I’m offended that anyone would accuse me of doing anything malicious with campaign fliers,” Jackson said. “I almost resigned over it.”

 Jackson "almost resigned over it."  A decent person would.  Jackson won't.  

Why?

Why would Laura Cattabriga put in ~$16,000 of her own money to get a job that pays about $10k per year?  

Why would every developer in town contribute to her campaign?

Why would she solicit and accept money from village contractors who are direct beneficiaries of her disdain for the RFP process?  

Why is her only campaign strategy to lie about her opponent's residency?

The answer as always here is $$$.   Oh, maybe not for Cattabriga.  (Although I wonder about her way over the top self financing.)  

But developers make money from Cattabriga.  Village Contractors make money from Cattabriga.  Jobs are handed out by Cattabriga.  Cattabriga becomes very important in their view and since she has such a bad record on the dais and personally, she and they will use every trick in the book including outright lies to keep her in place.  

All of this is a distraction from the very real issues facing North Bay Village and all of it is carefully crafted to ensure that the money flows from the residents to the private interests.  

Kevin Vericker

October 25, 2018