THE CULTURE OF RETALIATION IN SOUTH BEACH
Espanola Way Landlord sides with the Bullies
15 March 2014
By David Arthur Walters
MIAMI MIRROR
Miami Beach—Espanola Way Associates, on behalf of SRC Properties, has threatened to retaliate against Espanola Way tenant Antonio Halabi, dba Flame Caffe & Grill, for complaining to the Code Compliance Division of the City of Miami Building Department that it was not enforcing the sidewalk café laws on the enormously popular, two-block stretch of dining establishments.
When code enforcement officers visited Halabi’s neighbors, the violators complained to the landlord that Halabi was harassing them into compliance with laws that are not ordinarily enforced unless someone complains. Wherefore the landlord is apparently interested in condoning the unlawful behavior by putting pressure on Halabi to cease and desist from complaining about it. Halabi, who is considering suing the city, said he will have his lawyer address the landlord’s concerns.
The pretext for the landlord’s written threat to stop harassing fellow tenants is that Halabi has violated a lease term that requires him to open at 1pm. He opens at 6pm instead because there is no business at all until that hour, and his area at the end of the block is used as an unloading zone for trucks carrying supplies to all the restaurants on the block.
Halabi’s main complaint is that Code Compliance officers have either intentionally or negligently allowed restaurants at the Washington Avenue mouth of Espanola Way to set out dozens of unpermitted seats to capture the influx of tourists before they venture further down the street. As a result, the Flame has suffered an estimated $250,000 loss of revenue since it opened.
The negligence of Code Compliance officers and his mounting financial losses led Halabi, who has a construction company in Venezuela, and who is by education a medical doctor, to conduct extensive research into the sidewalk permits of neighboring restaurants. He brought several glaring permitting discrepancies to the attention of officials. A well liked sidewalk café coordinator who had influence over permitting was terminated.
Halabi filed an anonymous complaint about the over-seating situation. A city commissioner and the Compliance director were aware that he was the complainant. His identity was leaked to the violators by compliance officers. He was bullied by an owner of one of the violators, who accosted him at his restaurant, accused him of making trouble on the Way and not contributing anything to its cause.
And Code Compliance officers retaliated against him with a trumped up violation. He had moved his fans from their designated places on his sidewalk café to another place within his permitted area, under the awning, for two hours to protect them from the rain. That action is not expressly prohibited by the sidewalk café ordinance, yet local code magistrate, Special Master Abe Laeser, insisted on imposing a $250 fine, and refused to rehear the case.
Halabi decided not to appeal Laeser’s decision to the Circuit Court because that would have required him to provide a $5,000 retainer to an outside lawyer, whose fees could run well over $15,000 to handle the case. A local lawyer might have obtained a dismissal from the city by filing a faux or scarecrow appeal, i.e. file a notice of appeal with the magistrate and city attorney instead of actually filing an appeal with the Circuit Court as required, but that would have cost at least $2,000.
In any case, Halabi does not trust the local lawyers who handle code enforcement related cases because they are widely considered to be in cahoots with an extortionate system.
City Manager Jimmy Morales, who has become rather famous for being the nice guy who meets with everyone, in contrast to the previous city manager, who preferred to meet with members of the power elite, especially developers, has refused to meet with Halabi.
However, Hernan Cardeno, a sworn police officer who was put in charge of directing Code Compliance while its director, Robert Santos-Alborna, was being investigated by the FBI, has met with him, and Halabi said he believes Cardeno is making sincere efforts to rid the city of the cultivation of noncompliance. Still, Halabi said, he does not trust anyone in city government given past history.
The noncompliance culture is so widespread in the City of Miami Beach that code enforcement has been dubbed “mañana enforcement” by a local pundit. My investigation of the most obvious albeit superficial violation, i.e. the complete neglect of signage permitting law by the Code Compliance Division, indicated that around half of the signs around South Beach were not permitted. Signage code simply is not enforced unless someone risks retaliation from the construction and real estate industry, and files a complaint.
Therefore I was not surprised to hear from a member of the local hotel and restaurant association that he had received a list from the city revealing that roughly half of sidewalk café permits had not been renewed since the renewal deadline six months ago. 24-hour notices were sent out to the violators. Permits had to be obtained by 6pm on 14 March, or else the sidewalk café’s would have to be removed.
I recalled from my own research that Tapas restaurant on Espanola Way had renewal issues, as well as the Italian restaurant, Hosteria Romana, so I ventured over there at 7pm on 14 March. Hosteria Romana was doing a booming business, its sidewalk café jammed with chairs chock full of customers. However, at the locally popular Tapas Restaurant, tables, chairs, and potted plants were being removed from the sidewalk as two Compliance officers in black stood by.
How did Hosteria get its permit so fast? I wondered if. Was Code Compliance again picking on people at the end of the food chain, ignoring the violations at the mouth of the system?
I dropped by the Flame. The staff was frightened. The word on the Way was that Halabi was interfering with people’s livelihoods, that he was a rat, that there would be hell to pay, that he had better go back to where he came from.
Halabi said he regretted the situation had to come to such a sad state. His beef is not with his neighbors but with Code Compliance, and particularly with its director, for not enforcing the code, and virtually ruining his business in the process.
After all, businesses are supposed to pay their taxes and fees or cease doing business. That is what he does, and if others choose not to obey the law, they have a problem through no fault of his.
“I am a pilot,” he said. “There is a point of no return when you are taking off, and I have reached that point. I must take this to the end.”
I hope he lands well. I am experiencing a similar situation because I am just suspected of complaining. I am accused of wronging people when I am the one wronged by them. Two neighbors polluted my living space with noise and smoke several hours nearly every day for months. My neighbor voiced several complaints about the pollution, and has a perfect right and even a duty to do so. I was not the complainant yet Compliance officers fingered me, “the Americano.” Officers came to my door and ordered me to get along with my neighbors. And then the landlord threatened me. I am proud to be an American, and I may go back to my country soon.
Such is the culture of retaliation in their beautiful city by the beach, where paradise can be hell for those who want a fair and equitable system of government.
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