Miami Mayor and presidential hopeful Francis Suarez’s connection to troubled developer Rishi Kapoor brought attention to other elected officials across South Florida who are either employed or have connections to the real estate industry.
The positions are often considered part-time and many — with the exception of county mayors like Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava — don’t earn enough off from salaries or stipends.
Many elected officials “start from the position of having other jobs” instead of in public service, said Andrea Heuson, a professor at the University of Miami’s Herbert Business School.
Mayors, commissioners and other elected officials are required to disclose their primary sources of income on an annual basis and, beginning in 2024, they’ll be required by the state to provide more detail, which should offer more transparency on potential conflicts of interest.
Nevertheless, public officials having a real estate side hustle can create an environment ripe for corruption and bribery, which South Florida has seen its fair share of.
Former North Miami Beach Mayor George Vallejo, who leads the brokerage Allied Florida Group, resigned in 2018 after pleading guilty to using campaign contributions to pay for personal expenses. His wife also secretly worked for the Dezer family while he voted on issues that involved their properties.
Former Plantation Mayor Vera-Lynn Stoner faces charges over illegally trying to help Invesca Development Group secure a loan for a project in the city by falsely claiming that the Invesca LLC had fixed code violations. Stoner turned herself in to authorities in May.
Heuson said there is much more opportunity for good and bad behavior in land-constrained cities like Miami and New York. And if the elected officials can influence zoning decisions, which they often can, “that’s where you end up with a problem.”
“There’s so much money involved that people are tempted to do fraudulent things,” she said. “Then it will die down, something else will happen and [the attention] will go somewhere else.”
The Real Deal looked around at South Florida to pinpoint exactly which mayors work, or have close ties, to the real estate industry:
- Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who garnered national attention with his public relations campaign to attract tech firms to the city during the pandemic, is a real estate attorney who also worked as a consultant for Kapoor’s former firm, Location Ventures. Their agreement is at the center of multiple ethics investigations.
- Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago is a commercial real estate agent and investor. Lago, who earns a $45,000 annual salary from Coral Gables, is a 40 percent owner in the company that purchased a Coral Gables retail building Location Ventures was leasing space from for $12,000 a month. Lago has also brokered at least one deal involving Moishe Mana, outside of the city limits. He hangs his license with Rosa Commercial Real Estate, a firm led by former Hialeah councilman Oscar de la Rosa and which counts his stepfather, current Hialeah Mayor Esteban “Steve” Bovo, as an agent.
- Palm Beach Mayor Danielle Moore is a real estate agent with Brown Harris Stevens, working out of the brokerage’s Worth Avenue office. Moore got her license in 1985, according to her bio.
- Dania Beach Mayor A.J. Ryan IV is the broker owner of A.J. Ryan IV Realty, a Dania-based commercial and residential real estate firm.
- Wellington Mayor Anne Gerwig leads client communications at her husband’s firm, Alan Gerwig & Associates, a civil and structural engineering firm.
- Tequesta Mayor Molly Young represents commercial real estate construction and development firms, according to the Palm Beach Post.
- Manalapan Mayor Stewart Satter leads Carnegie Hill Development, which builds oceanfront homes in Manalapan.
- Sea Ranch Lakes Mayor Jeffrey Nelson is also a real estate attorney at Stearns Weaver, focusing on construction-related issues.
- Miramar Mayor Wayne Messam is a general contractor and managing partner of Messam Construction/Asset Buildings, a Miramar-based construction firm that also operates as Asset Builders.
- North Miami Beach Mayor Anthony DiFilippo is a licensed real estate agent and property manager who has been a property manager at Vida at the Point in Aventura since 2015, according to his LinkedIn profile. DeFillipo has been a real estate agent since 2004, and hangs his license with the London Real Estate Company, according to state records. DiFilippo, a former commissioner, was charged with voter fraud in June and has been accused of violating city charter, which requires elected officials in North Miami Beach to live in the city.
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