Dec 19, 2007 11:52 pm US/Eastern
Memo Details Alleged Miami Commissioner Payoff
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
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CBS4 News
Alarming new details have been released from a memo alleging that Miami Commissioner Michel Spence-Jones was paid off to approve projects in the city.
The 3rd District Court of Appeals ordered the release of the internal memo to our news partner
The Miami Herald. It was written by Commissioner Marc Sarnoff to himself and presented to the State Attorney's Office—documents he didn't want revealed until their investigation was over. The memo describes what allegedly transpired in a lunch between condo developer The Related Group and key players in the City of Miami.
Former City Manager Joe Arriola told Sarnoff about the April 30th lunch meeting attended by Arriola himself at Garcia's Seafood restaurant in Downtown Miami. Alicia Cuervo Schreiber, a Related Group employee and former assistant city manager, attended the lunch where she spilled the beans on a payoff for Michelle Spence-Jones to approve a condo project in Coconut Grove by the company.
In attendance at that meeting was Stephanie Grindell, current director of public works for the city, and Mary Conway, director of capital improvement projects. Conway was fired by the City but won a $200,000 settlement after she claimed the city terminated her for being a whistle blower on "The Firm", a group of employees accused of using city time and equipment for their own profit.
According to the document, Spence-Jones wouldn't approve the controversial Coconut Grove project unless $150,000 were paid to her associates: Barbara Hardeman, a political strategist, and former Miami commissioner Barbara Carey-Schuler, who was a political mentor to Spence-Jones.
Hardeman was to receive $50,000 and Carey-Schuler $50,000. A third undisclosed person was supposed to receive the remaining $50,000.
CBS4's David Sutta asked Sarnoff if he thought the allegations to be true.
"We know some of it is true," he said. "We know $100 thousand of it is true."
The Related Group did confirm the payments took place, but says it is money used for publicity. The project had many opponents and the company hoped that by hiring Carey-Schuler and Hardeman, they would gather support for it.
Spence-Jones is out of town, and is likely to now know about the contents of the memo yet.
The Related Group originally sued Sarnoff for the release of the letter, not knowing about its contents. However, when someone leaked them a copy of what was in the memo, the Related Group dropped the suit.
"The reason I didn't want to see this out was that he was performing an investigation, and I didn't want to disrupt his investigation," said Sarnoff.
Because of the suit filed by The Related Group,
The Miami Herald found out that the document existed and filed their own suit for the copy. The 3rd district ruled in their favor Wednesday.
Other allegations include that Spence-Jones's vote on the Crosswinds project was bought as well.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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