Back in January, Stephen Cody signed up to speak at a meeting of the South Miami City Commission. Steve says he wanted to discuss the recent news that the city had lost an appeal in the lawsuit between former Police Chief Orlando Martinez de Castro and the city. At that point, the case had cost the city about $1.25 million.
Cody wasn’t allowed to speak. When he stepped up the microphone, Mayor Phil Stoddard immediately pounced. After only getting his name and address out, Stoddard started questioning Cody. He accused him of being a lobbyist and of not registering as such. Ergo, our college professor mayor opined, Cody couldn’t speak.
Stoddard tried to rope City Attorney Thomas Pepe into backing him up. To his credit, Pepe first said that if it was established that Cody was a lobbyist and that he could not speak on an issue related to his lobbying.
Like a featherweight fighter working the referee, Stoddard was able to get Pepe to tacitly agree with him. A transcript of the hearing shows that Cody’s microphone was cut off. It’s impossible to say what Cody was going to talk about, but we’ll never know for sure – and the fault for that lies with Phil’s quick trigger finger.
After not being allowed to speak at two separate city hearings, Cody filed a complaint with the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and the Public Trust. Both charters of Miami-Dade County and the City of South Miami Charter state that “interested persons” have a right to speak at public hearings.
The Ethics Commission began an investigation. Stoddard was said to have told investigators that he thought Cody was at the January meeting to politically attack him, to impact his chances for reelection. Investigators interviewed other witnesses and gathered evidence, but Phil’s admission was especially damning.
On the morning of July 18, the Commission on Ethics (COE) considered whether to move the case forward on the merits of Cody’s complaint. Here’s how they described what happened in the COE press release:
… a review of the January 16, 2018, meeting showed that Cody was prevented from speaking without determining what he was about to say or whether he was speaking as a lobbyist. At the February 6, 2018, meeting, Cody was permitted to speak, but was stopped when he touched on an issue which he had used in political mailings against Mayor Stoddard. The COE had opined that any interested person may address issues of ‘community and public interest’ at a public hearing.
The Ethics Commission voted 4 to 1 in Cody’s favor and against Phil Stoddard, by ruling there was probable cause that Stoddard had violated Cody’s “right to be heard” under the county’s Citizens’ Bill of Rights.
I’m sure they’ll give Stoddard a fair hearing if the matter goes to trial – because that’s how it’s supposed to work, right?
But Stoddard seems to be fighting a losing battle. After a full investigation – with testimony and evidence presented, and a lot of time and money spent – if found guilty of violating the county charter, the mayor could face hefty fines. If he is found to have “willfully violated” the city charter, he may have to forfeit his office.
The city commission authorized Stoddard, in a 4 to 1 vote with Commissioner Liebman dissenting, to hire the private attorney Benedict Kuehne to represent him through the probable-cause hearing at bargain rate. But that’s over now, because what follows are months of motions and depositions and hearings. Unless Kuehne agrees to work pro bono, this could end up costing the City of South Miami an easy six figures.
And for what? To vindicate the mayor’s thin skin?
His refusal to let Cody speak for five minutes – just 300 seconds where Cody probably would have made Phil uncomfortable – may end up costing the city the equivalent of two or three salaried positions at a time when the budget is already tight. Who’s going to have to be laid off? Which programs are going to have to be cut?
We’re all being asked to sacrifice to soothe Stoddard’s outsized ego.
There are ways that this could be fixed. Stoddard could resign from office. The Ethics Commission probably wouldn’t have jurisdiction to pursue a case against someone who’s no longer an elected official. Or Phil could try to work out a deal with the COE by admitting his mistake and agreeing to take a reprimand. Who knows…
But what we do know is that Stoddard is already playing the blame game. During the July 18 hearing, Kuehne tried to shift blame from Stoddard to Thomas Pepe, claiming that the city attorney gave the mayor bad advice.
If the mayor wants to tilt at windmills, maybe he should have Pepe come along to either defend himself, or to cover the cost of paying outside counsel from the fees that the city pays Pepe.
If it was Pepe who caused this problem, then maybe Pepe should pay to clean it up. Otherwise, the people of South Miami will have to foot the bill and pay the price for Phil’s fit of pique.
But we say, at the end of the day, the right formula for the professor is to just cut his losses, take a slap on the wrist, and finish his term. Period.
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