The Miami Herald reported this story on Friday:
Posted on Fri, Jan. 17, 2014Former Miami-Dade public works manager convicted of accepting bribes
By Jay Weaver
jweaver@MiamiHerald.comA former Miami-Dade County public works supervisor who oversaw the installation of more than 24,000 street lights pleaded guilty Friday to accepting thousands of dollars worth of bribes from a lighting-product vendor.
George Brown, 50, of Hollywood, was convicted of taking $13,000 worth of household appliances as bribes, which were related to Miami-Dade government programs that received federal funds.
He is scheduled to be sentenced March 28 in Fort Lauderdale federal court. Brown, who had been the county’s roadway lighting coordinator since late 2009, was arrested last June.
An FBI affidavit said he received a bounty of household appliances, such as an air-conditioning unit, a stainless steel refrigerator and a convection oven from the vendor-turned-FBI informant. The vendor represented a Miami supplier that gave out “reward points” that could be redeemed for merchandise.
In exchange, Brown used “his influence” at public works to ensure the department purchased the supplier’s lighting products, according to the FBI affidavit.
You’re probably thinking, “Ho hum. More corruption in South Florida. Nothing to see here, move along.” That’s what I thought, too. At first.
Then I started wondering about a couple of things. Like, why was the FBI involved and not the FDLE, or even the Miami-Dade County Police Department?
I was also wryly amused at the relatively small amount of money that was involved in this crime. If you think about it, thirteen thousand dollars worth of merchandise is nothing compared to the millions and millions of tax dollars that are poured down the drain every day that the County opens for business. Government waste, much like corruption, is something we bitch about, but in the end, grudgingly accept the fact that it will never be eradicated. Especially here in South Florida.
George Brown will probably end up paying ten times as much in bail, court costs and attorney’s fees as the bribe money he was accused of accepting due to “his influence” at public works. If convicted (which is a given considering he’s already pleaded guilty), he might even do some prison time, where “his influence” won’t even score him a pack of black market cigarettes. You almost gotta feel sorry for the poor schmuck.
Before you cheer that justice has been served…
Consider this:
North Miami former Mayor Andre Pierre bilked taxpayers out of over $29,000.00 in fees by using “his influence” to commandeer the City’s soccer fields for personal games. When “convicted” by the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust (COE), he only had to shell out $7,316.42 in fines and costs, most of which was slated for the COE and not the City.
And this:
North Miami Beach EX-Mayor/Felony Defendant used “his influence” to bilk over $20,000.00 of free advertising from a City vendor. He was eventually arrested. Even though a plea was on the table last September, it now appears that his CRIMINAL attorney, Benedict P. Kuehne, has opted to go to trial, costing taxpayers even more money. Since Myron’s “influence” also extends to the fact that he’s married to CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE SARAH ZABEL (who is up for re-election this year), chances are he’ll get off with a slap on the wrist.
And this:
North Miami current Councilwoman Marie Steril cost her City over $154,000.00 in fines for not disclosing that her mother benefited from a HUD program in cooperation with the City’s Home Investment Partnership Program and its related Neighborhood Stabilization Program. There were absolutely no consequences to Madame Steril for this squandering of taxpayer money, nor were any charges filed for using “her influence.”
Obviously, “their influence” carries a lot more weight than George Brown’s does.
When you think about how much money these three former and current elected officials alone have been able to squeeze out of taxpayers and vendors with little or no restitution requirements, and especially NO JAIL TIME, you have to wonder why a Miami-Dade County employee, who is relatively low on the totem pole, deserved such negative attention from the FBI no less!
Could it be that poor George Brown is not an elected official and, as such, is of absolutely no use or benefit to our very own State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle? As reader Dario Moreno posted on one of my recent columns, “Keep in mind you are dealing with a corrupt State Attorney who will only prosecute those who have fallen on hard times and lack money or political power.”
Not being an elected official, former Miami-Dade County public works manager, George Brown obviously lacks money AND political power. Anyone wanna bet that Ben Kuehne didn’t come to his rescue?
I’m not making light of this crime, which by all means should be prosecuted. But if Mr. Brown were a politician with a base constituency that Katherine Fernandez Rundle felt was influential enough to get her re-elected, I seriously doubt he would have been on the FBI’s radar. This is a penny ante case by FBI standards. You gotta wonder who called them to even investigate this case in the first place.
Let’s face it, everyone knows there is plenty of corruption going on in Miami-Dade County. Much of it appears to be coming from the highest public offices. To me it sure looks like a diversion was needed to take the heat off those in power at the top. By getting caught with accepting a lousy $13,000.00 bribe, George Brown appears to be the perfect fall guy. (Yes, he is getting a Darwin Award Nomination for this act of sheer stupidity.)
Meanwhile, Andre Pierre got away with with paying what amounted to less than a third of the costs of his soccer games.
Myron Rosner’s arrest was only due to the sheer persistence of the investigators, who appealed to the Broward County State Attorney and the Florida Supreme Court for help. And even so, chances are Myron will suffer little or no consequences in the end.
Marie Steril’s mom got a “free” house, courtesy of North Miami taxpayers.
Yet, former Miami-Dade County public works manager George Brown will pay the price (and then some) for what he did.
He’ll also never eat lunch in this town again.
Rest assured that Miami-Dade County is getting tough on crime!
Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”
the unreported meat of this story is that he was caught because of a private contractor who turned informant.
This is the oldest trick in the book. That contractor was roped in because of organized corruption he was party to. Not just this flimsy $13k bribe, but obviously something more important which caught the FBIs attention.
What reporters and inquiring minds should be asking is, “who else did he bribe, and who arranged these relationships?”
And why is this the only charge if the contractor is now a cooperating witness? Everyone he was giving these rewards to should have their heads on the chopping black, but alas…
Prem, something else was bothering me about this, but I think you may have shed some light on it by suggesting that the vendor was being investigated and not specifically the employee. Someone advised me that the FBI has a public corruption task force here in South Florida specifically for these types of crimes, which also explains why they were involved in this case. It got me thinking, however, whether or not the FBI was involved in the $2.3 million embezzlement scheme that former NMB employee Marty King went to prison for a few years back. This is public corruption, too, right? Since I couldn’t recall any mention of the FBI from that case, I did some googling. It appears that King was investigated by the NMBPD and prosecuted by Rundle’s office. No mention of the FBI in any of the articles I dug up. Considering that’s a hell of a lot more money than George Brown was caught taking, I would think the FBI might have been interested. Just saying.
This is not the first time I’ve noticed the FBI bringing forth a case of horse manure.
While I agree with your general sentiment that the crime must be punished, it’s just always interesting that the big crimes go unpunished and often unreported.
A few years ago the FBI did a sting on a policeman and a firefighter who agreed to move cocaine for an informant.
The obvious questions that were never addressed are how and why these particular men were chosen for the sting.
Arresting public servants for getting caught up in a fabricated corrupt circumstance is well and good, but what about the corruption that doesn’t originate from the FBI? What about the cops and firemen who actually participate in drug smuggling?
That’s the problem with these FBI cases, they’re catching little fish in a sea full of big fish. Highly suspect.
On this I’ll give huge props to Al Crespo who blew the whistle on police protecting a gambling den in Miami.
It seems fairly obvious that if the police are not complicit in the rampant criminality that goes on around here, they’re at least complacent, expending a lot of their investigative resources on removing warts from a feral animal.
Sadly, I’ve come to expect politicians to be corrupt. I’m also firmly convinced that KFR is less than honest (to put it nicely). But the biggest disappointment to me is finding out that a cop is corrupt. We should be able to depend on those whose duty it is to enforce the law and protect the public from the bad guys. Police officers shouldn’t BE the bad guys. That’s just wrong on every level imaginable.
Just like I thought, the problem is that they only prosecute the small “thousand dollar” Joes. They never go after the big “million dollar” politicians.
Girls, you must do a better investigation! Follow the source starting with cronologic time, FBI Miami Press Release: what do these names have in common? Accepting bribes from “A contractor” Garfield Perry age 66, George Brown age 50, Ron Capobianco and now William Pino.
Thanks for the heads up. I’ll see what I can dig up.