Sunday, August 18, 2013

Under Gov. Rick Scott, Public Corruption in Florida flourishes ... by gimleteye

The arrest of Sweetwater Mayor Manny Marono pulls the lid off the corruption and insider-dealing that characterizes political life in an area of the county that is prone to over-development and arm-twisting by developers and their political proxies. County commissioner Jose "Pepe" Diaz, according to today's report in the Miami Herald, was Marono's political godfather.

Eye On Miami (search our archive under "Diaz") has looked at Diaz' history on the dais as a strong proponent of moving the Urban Development Boundary during a time when he was under federal investigation for accepting favors from another fallen Miami lobbyist and developer, Sergio Pino. No charges were filed.

It would take a political neophyte to fail to understand how political corruption "works" in Florida. (Search our archive under "ethics grand jury") That is exactly the description that applies to candidate Rick Scott, who relied on Mayor Marono to secure voters support in Florida's most populous county at a time when mainstream Republicans shunned him. Gov. Scott gave Marono his blessing.

Gov. Scott could have followed recommendations of the Grand Jury investigation on ethics and corruption in Florida's political life, delivered to his desk nearly as soon as he took office in 2011. Instead, Scott ignored the report and has done little to nothing, since.

When Scott's health care company and key business executives were successfully prosecuted for the largest civil fraud in US history, Scott claimed his did not know what his underlings were doing. Scott narrowly dodged prosecution himself. Now that he is the state's elected chief executive officer, he can plausibly claim that he knew nothing of the man he appointed to be president of the Florida League of Cities, or, what Marono was doing as an unregistered lobbyist in Tallahassee on the Sweetwater taxpayers' dime.

Marono may well go to jail but Scott just has got to go. 

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am wondering since Mrs. Bell's daughter is a Sweetwater Police Officer was she the one that assisted in unfolding this corruption? If she did I commend her. We have to weed out this bad behavior among our elected officials.

Anonymous said...

Bell's daughter was the one who "lost" a trained search dog in Homestead. If she helped, she didn't know it. I have no clue how she even passed the exam to become an Officer in the 1st place. I believe Bell's daughter go the job because of "Pepe". Too bad he hasn't done the perp walk, at least not yet. Then again, I think it's criminal to pave over wetlands then complain about the flooding in Sweetwater.

However, this is about corruption from the top down. It's going to be interesting in 2014 because our Tea Party legislators still think absentee ballot fraud should be a misdemeanor. I say it should be a felony. Stealing elections should put in Jail! KFR cannot even prosecute those AB Fraud cases right now with the clock ticking on the statute of limitations. Oh, wait. I hear Rivera in the background! LOL

Anonymous said...

Sweetwater has the sweet smell of rotting corpses. Pepe Diaz? Corruption. The last Mayor handcuffed in his own office?

Miami Lakes Resident said...

What about little Mikey Pizzi? Sinners in the Dark Ages could purchase indulgences from the Catholic Church guaranteeing that the time that they spent in Purgatory would be shortened by an epoch or two. I know that EOM is grateful to Pizzi for helping Vanessa Brito in the recall of Natacha Seijas, but that did not earn him any indulgences on Earth. The charges against him allege that he is just as corrupt as the Sweetwater Mayor. Both are going to do serious time in a Club Fed.

Anonymous said...

As always throwing around accusations without offering real proof on Pepe. so pathetic

Anonymous said...

These people have "basterdized" the trust of fellow citizens and tax payers of miami...kudos to the FBI for getting rid of polictical parasites from our state of florida.