I-Team

MIAMI BEACH (CBS4) ― A CBS4 I-TEAM investigation into sex, money and politics has now resulted in a ruling from Miami-Dade Ethics Commission.

The Ethics Commission reopened its probe into the actions of some of Miami Beach's city commissioners after CBS4 uncovered details of the backroom, closed door sessions last July.

The investigation revolved around deals some city commissioners tried to strike with a Miami Beach strip club owner before they would discuss public business with him. The owner calls it extortion. City commissioners say they did nothing wrong.

But one Ethics Commissioner said it was very wrong and more should be done. 

I-Team investigator Stephen Stock broke this story after four months of digging and Wednesday he obtained, for the first time, transcripts of the closed door executive session held by Miami Beach City commissioners and city attorneys where they discuss this quid pro quo proposal. But even with this evidence, the Ethics Commission deadlocked on whether to take further action, essentially ending the case.

"You discussed it in executive session," Investigator Stephen Stock asked Miami Beach City Commissioner Saul Gross last June. "Don't you think that's a violation?"

Gross replied "I'm not going to discuss it with you."

For more than 18 months Miami Beach city commissioner Saul Gross has avoided public questions about his role in a backroom deal involving a possible pay off of private attorney fees in exchange for him hearing public, city business.

Wednesday Commissioner Gross faced the Miami Dade Ethics commission.

The commission hearing Wednesday with Gross follows a CBS4 I-Team investigation earlier this year that revealed details of the backroom deal Gross and others were involved in creating.

According to transcripts of the conversations, it was a deal involving the owner of strip establishment Club Madonna, and the private legal fees of Gross and his wife.

The discussions involved some, but not all, Miami Beach city commissioners at the time.

The details can be found in several Ethics Reports and the minutes from closed door executive sessions of city commissioners obtained by the I-Team.

The documents show several city commissioners including Saul Gross, Richard Steinberg, and former commissioners Simon Cruz and Jose Smith (who is now Miami Beach's city attorney) meeting with then city attorney Murray Dubbin and deputy city attorneys Don Papy and Gary Held. The minutes show some of the commissioners discussing that they would not hear public business involving an ordinance prohibiting alcohol at nude clubs unless Club Madonna's owner Leroy Griffith FIRST dropped a private lawsuit AND paid off the legal fees of Saul Gross' wife, Jane. That came to about $30,000.

Even with this evidence, the Ethics Commission stalemated.
After two and a half hours of arguing behind closed doors Wednesday, the Miami-Dade Ethics Commission reconvened in public.

First, the Ethics Commission refused to vote to dismiss the charges against Saul Gross and former city councilmen Simon Cruz and Jose Smith.

But then the Ethics Board voted 2 to 2 to find probable cause to take further action.

By rule that effectively ended the matter because it was a tie.

The Commission did vote unanimously to send a letter of instruction to Miami Beach city commission explaining the law and admonishing them not to make these kinds of deals again.

"The Ethics Commission found no probable cause," Saul Gross told CBS4 after the meeting.

"But what about the linkage (of legal fees discussed in the executive sessions)?" asked I-Team Investigator Stephen Stock.

"There is no linkage," Commissioner Gross repeated.
"The quid pro quo?" Stock asked.

"There is no linkage," Gross insisted despite his use of those very words in the minutes of the city commissioner's executive session.

"He (Mr. Griffith) does not have to pay those fees. He has not paid those fees," Gross said. "And he can bring anything he wants."

"But it was discussed in session?" Stock asked.

"The Ethics Commission has made their decision," Gross replied.

So the I-Team sought out Robert Meyers, the executive director of the Miami-Dade Ethics Commission for clarification.

"No probable cause was found," Robert Meyers said.

"Does that mean that you're cleared, you've been completely exonerated?" Meyers continued. "I think if you issue a letter of instruction, it shows that there is some culpability."

"You seem unhappy," Stephen Stock asked Ethics Commissioner Magda Abdo-Gomez after the meeting.

"Oh, I'm not happy at all," Commissioner Abdo-Gomez said.

Clearly upset with the inaction of Ethic's board, Abdo-Gomez told the I-Team the commission's deadlock did ANYTHING but clear Saul Gross.

"Whether we find his (Leroy Griffith's) club (Madonna) distasteful or not is not the issue," Ethics Commission Board member Magda Abdo-Gomez said. "The issue is whether their actions were in violation of ethics rules. And I believe that they were. And that's why I voted that way."

While Ethics Commission officials say that the stalemate does not actually "clear" the Miami Beach City Commissioners involved in these proceedings, it does bring an end to this chapter in the Ethics Probe.

As for Leroy Griffith and Club Madonna, Griffith says he's now discussing with an attorney whether to file another lawsuit against the city claiming that his civil rights were violated when this attempt to get him to pay Jane Gross's legal fees were made part of a deal to allow him to be heard on the alcohol ordinance.

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