Cindy Lerner steered a no-bid Pinecrest deal to family. Now she wants control of county funds

Image via Cindy Lerner.

As Mayor of Pinecrest, Cindy Lerner steered a no-bid government contract to a family member that allowed him to use village facilities for an event rent-free while keeping a huge chunk of the proceeds.

Her actions led to a year-long investigation by the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust (COE) that ultimately led to less than a warning. But the details of the case may give voters pause when they decide at the ballot box whether to entrust her or incumbent Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado with the county’s multimillion-dollar budget.

COE investigators began looking into then-Mayor Lerner on Aug. 5, 2009, after the county’s Office of Inspector General received an anonymous complaint alleging that she was engaging in nepotism and exploiting her office.

The complaint accused Lerner of using her influence to secure a deal for her first cousin, Steven Steele, to use the Hibiscus Room at the village-owned Pinecrest Gardens free of charge for a ticketed art expo and sales event.

That event, “Garden Pop,” happened Nov. 7, 2009. Tickets sold for $100 apiece, and earnings from the door and art sales were split between Steele and the village, with Steele keeping an 80% share. It was the first of several such events, according to a website for the Community Foundation of Pinecrest.

Florida law generally prohibits public officials from using their positions to “secure special privileges or exemptions” for themselves or others.

COE investigators found Lerner helped to arrange multiple meetings between Steele and village officials to not only give Steele free use of the Hibiscus Room but to spend thousands of taxpayer dollars on updating the facility so it would better suit his event’s needs.

A timeline by COE investigators shows that Steele hosted an RSVP-only “Garden Pop” planning meeting at his home on May 2, 2009. Lerner, then-Pinecrest Manager Peter Lombardi, and then-Council members Nancy Harter and Bob Ross attended the meeting, where someone suggested using the Hibiscus Room for Steele’s art event.

Lerner later told COE investigators that two members of the Pinecrest Gardens Advisory Committee (PGAC), Karen Mashburn and Paul Sasso, went to Steele’s house for the meeting too. But she denied violating Florida’s Sunshine Law by discussing matters that would later have to go before the Village Council in a forum not open to the public.

Lombardi, Ross and Harter all contradicted Lerner’s story in subsequent interviews. Each told investigators there was indeed discussion of things that would have to receive Council approval, including costly improvements to the Hibiscus Room.

They also disagreed about whether Mashburn and Sasso were there. Both told investigators they were invited, but didn’t go.

Lombardi, who was questioned three times during the COE’s August 2009-2010 probe, said that Lerner never publicly disclosed to the Pinecrest Village Council that she and Steele were first cousins and that he only found out when Steele told him. He said all Council members had been advised of and received training on Sunshine Law restrictions.

Steele later provided evidence to investigators that he had publicly announced the meeting by posting invitation flyers at Pinecrest Park and several other locations in the village and that anyone interested in attending was welcome, provided they RSVP’d.

A month after the meeting, Lerner called on Steele to present to the PGAC about using the Hibiscus Room in the Fall. Harter, who chaired the panel, noted that the event needed to be endorsed by a local nonprofit before it could be used free of charge.

Investigators noted that the Village Council had previously waived rent for the Hibiscus Room when nonprofit organizations sponsored events there, but that “Garden Pop” was different because Steele stood to receive an 80% cut of its proceeds.

The following week, on June 9, 2009, On June 9, the Village Council — which Lerner led —directed Lombardi to take “all steps necessary” to upgrade the Hibiscus Room according to the PGAC’s recommendations, including using Pinecrest’s operating and capital budget funds.

Lombardi told investigators the cost was estimated to be between $15,000 and $20,000.

The COE closed the case on Aug. 6, 2010, at the direction of Joe Centorino, then the Chief of a Public Corruption Unit within State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle’s Office. But he also ordered that Lerner, Harter and Ross be warned in writing to “exercise caution” when attending similar meetings at similar locales in the future.

Lerner is again competing with Regalado for the Miami-Dade Commission seat representing District 7, which covers Pinecrest, Key Biscayne, portions of Coral Gables, South Miami and Miami, and the unincorporated Kendall and Sunset neighborhoods.

When she announced her candidacy in October, Lerner released an campaign ad lumping Regalado in with several South Florida politicians accused of misusing their office, including Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who is under investigation for alleged pay-to-play schemes; former Miami Commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla, who faces numerous felony corruption charges; and Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo, who lost a $63.5 million lawsuit last year over his harassment of business owners in his district.

Regalado has been the subject of two COE queries. But she initiated both by requesting guidance from the agency to ensure she would not run afoul of state and county ethics rules.

Lerner said in the ad that as Mayor, she “made sure residents had an outsized voice in their local government … instead of leaving all the decisions to politicians.”

She said she’s running for the County Commission because she’s “fed up” with “influence peddling (and) self-dealing.”

Lerner told Florida Politics on Thursday that Pinecrest has long maintained a policy of granting local creatives free use of the Hibiscus Room and that the improvements made to it have served many others who used the facility since.

She also suggested her opponent was behind the renewed attention to the 15-year-old COE inquiry.

“Starting during my time as Mayor of Pinecrest — and continuing to this day — we would offer the Hibiscus Room of Pinecrest Gardens, at no charge, to local artists who wanted a space to exhibit their work. Pinecrest made improvements to the space to serve that purpose. Dozens of local artists have had the same opportunity with no bidding and no contract,” she said. “Raquel Regalado is distorting the facts to turn an accomplishment I’m proud of into an attack because in four years on the Commission she’s got nothing to be proud of.”

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Editor’s note: This report was updated to include a comment from Lerner.