Timing is suspect; alleged violation was six months ago
Last week, someone filed an ethics complaint against longtime Coral Gables activist Maria Cruz, alleging that she exploited her official position as a volunteer member of the city’s code enforcement board.
The complainant: Rainmaker Brian Goldmeier, a fundraising consultant for many politicians — including Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago.
The date: March 26, less than two weeks after Cruz formed a political action committee to recall Lago — but more than six months after the alleged ethics violation happened.
That’s just too much of a coincidence to be anything but political retaliation and abuse of power by the mayor. Because there’s no way Goldmeier is doing this without Lago’s explicit permission. Or, more likely, instruction.
Read related: Coral Gables activist forms PAC to recall former friend, Mayor Vince Lago
In his non-sworn “statement of facts,” Goldmeier says that he was visited by a code enforcement officer at his home on Aledo Avenue in September “for what I was told was a complaint by a resident named Maria Cruz about orchids in a tree in front of my house.”
Apparently one or more of the orchids was attached with a nail or something that could damage the tree. Goldmeier was given a warning and told to fix the issue within 30 days. He says he addressed it in just a few days.
Then, Goldmeier made a public records request for “conversations between the city of Coral Gables and Ms. Cruz.” That’s two weeks after the visit to his house on Sept. 24. The very next day, he got another visit from code enforcement. And that was Oct. 10, even though he says the city sent him a letter saying the re-inspection would take place Oct. 24.
“When I asked the officer why she was there, she said that she was called that morning by someone to come out and re-inspect the issue,” Goldmeier wrote in his complaint. “I was alarmed by the timing of the early re-inspection because it came shortly after my public records request for the complaint made by Maria Cruz.
“Because it is known that I am a consultant for many elected officials in Miami-Dade County, some of whom Ms. Cruz does not support, I was concerned about her involvement in the complaint,” wrote Goldmeier, who did not return calls and texts to his phone Thursday and Friday.
Lago, as usual, did not return a call and texts either.
Read related: Vince Lago recall canvassers stopped, harassed by Coral Gables Police
Cruz says it’s BS and that she didn’t know it was Goldmeier’s house when she made the complaint.
“It’s very significant that I did something wrong, according to him, and he waited until six months later to report it,” Cruz told Ladra. “If I had not started the recall, maybe he would not be upset with me.”
She said she was told by a friend about the orchid “nailed to a tree” last Fall because she is on the code enforcement board. Code enforcement handles violations two ways, with a citation or with a ticket. She said a citation would cost the homeowner hundreds of dollars a day in fines. A ticket is $250 and gives the homeowner time to appeal and fix the issue, she told Ladra.
“I just wanted someone to go there and tell him ‘This is not how we do it,’ and show him how.”
But she was very persistent series of emails that Goldmeier sent the Ethics Commission, that doesn’t present the story in the same way.
“This morning I contacted code enforcement and spoke with the officer that was working,” Cruz wrote to a bunch of city officials on a Sunday, including Deputy City Manager Alberto Parjus, Assistant Public Works Director Deena Bell-Llewellyn, Code Enforcement Manager Antoine Loar and Assistant Director of Development Douglas Ramirez.
“I let him know that yesterday while driving around the city with a friend and looking for an address we came up with beautiful orchids on city trees in front of 722 Aledo. We were impressed and looked closer and saw that the flowers were affixed with nails to the trees. He told me he was on his way,” she wrote.
“Later on, he called me back and told me he had spoken to the owner and gave him a warning instead of a ticket because he was told that Public Works told the owner that it was okay to do so because those trees were dying anyway,” Cruz wrote in the Sept. 24 email. “I’m very confused. If the trees ‘are dying anyway’ why have they not been removed. Are the trees dying anyway because of the nails?
Read related: Letter from Gables Mayor Vince Lago means desperation about recall effort
“Why a warning and not a ticket? Are we believing everything we are told,” she asked. “Something looks very strange! Please don’t let the trees die.”
Then, three days later, she sends another email: “Today, Wednesday, Sept. 27, I drove by the property and saw the orchids still on the tree. Please advise as to what is going on. If a ticket has finally been issued for the tree abuse, please send me a copy.”
On Oct. 2, she asked for all the tickets for nail use on trees and told the same city officials that she did not think they were taking the case seriously enough by giving the homeowner a notice of violation, or warning, rather than a ticket. In the emails, staff explained that it was because the city has recently changed the tree abuse rules and they want to give residents a chance to correct issues.
“I really have serious concerns as to why NO penalty whatsoever was imposed for nailing stuff to the tree, and not requiring immediately removal,” Cruz wrote back. “Why was this case dealt differently? Did anyone ask for the documents that authorized the nailing because the tree was dying anyway?”
The matter was eventually put on the agenda for the code enforcement board in November. Cruz recused herself from the discussion, but first she felt the need to explain to the other board members how she became involved. She said she drove by to take a look herself after she was told about the nail.
An attorney representing Goldmeier mentioned the emails and questioned whether Cruz’s actions were correct. While some board members said they wanted an arborist report to see if the tree had been damaged, one board member was more concerned that “25 people” were mobilized for a nail in a tree.
“This is absurd,” someone said.
Goldmeier told the board that he was targeted because of his political alliance with Lago.
“It’s widely known that I am on the mayor’s campaign team,” he said. “She sits on this board targeting a resident a new resident that gives back to the community.”
The violation was dismissed, but Goldmeier said that he had spent $400 on an arborist, which was requested by some board members at the meeting, and hired an attorney.
“This was a relatively minor issue that I was willing to correct (I had relied on an orchid professional to hang them on the tree), and should have not escalated to me having to appear before the code enforcement board,” Goldmeier wrote in his complaint statement to the Ethics Commission, in which he says he has video footage of the Cruz drive-by.
“It was Ms. Cruz’s exploitation of her position that led to the escalation and resulted in increased loss of time and money for me,” he wrote.
Read related: Frank Quesada lends $3.5 mil to three Coral Gables political pals in one year
Goldmeier — who has been paid more than $153,000 just by Lago (both his campaign account and PAC since 2020, according to the campaign finance reports — said he was just trying to be a good citizen after becoming a new Coral Gables resident.
Political Cortadito had written about his 2022 purchase of the 3-bedroom, 2-bath house for $2.2 million because he got a mortgage from former Coral Gables Commissioner Frank Quesada for $1.9 million and paid it off less than 100 days later — exactly two weeks after the Nov. 8, 2022 election.
It was one of three mortgages Quesada made at once — including one to Lago for $616,300.
That story was posted in Political Cortadito in April of 2023, five months before the Cruz drive-by on Aledo Avenue. And she really didn’t know that Goldmeier lived there?
Ladra is hurt. I thought she was a fan. But I’m not outraged or upset. Goldmeier is fair game. Especially since he nailed an orchid to a tree.
And especially since Lago himself drives around and reports code enforcement violations all the time (more on that later). Could any of those be politically motivated? Las malas lenguas say he has a list of people whose homes he drives by occasionally.
One resident posted a comment on the previous post that said he had been targeted.
“I placed his political opponents’ signs in my yard last election cycle and since then have been receiving more violations in this last year than in the past 20 years,” Gables Citizen said.
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