Miami Beach- The Miami-Dade ethics commission chastised Miami Beach officials for their handling of lawsuits filed by the owner of a South Beach strip club -- saying the city should have been more transparent when discussing suits filed against the city and the wife of a commissioner.
The strongly worded letter from the ethics commission, sent to Miami Beach officials last week, is the latest fallout stemming from allegations made by Leroy Griffith, the owner of Club Madonna on Washington Avenue.
Griffith -- who had filed a libel suit against the wife of Commissioner Saul Gross -- had accused city officials of trying to strong-arm him into paying her legal bills in exchange for reconsidering a ban on strip-club liquor licenses.
The Commission on Ethics and Public Trust dismissed Griffith's complaints against eight current and former Miami Beach officials last year. But on Jan. 29, the commission sent a letter instructing city officials on how to conduct themselves if a similar situation arises in the future.
The commission took issue with city officials discussing both the lawsuit against the city and the lawsuit filed against Jane Gross, the commissioner's wife, in a private meeting.
''If you are going to deal with all these issues, why not have it in a public meeting?'' said Robert Meyers, executive director of the ethics commission.
In 2004, Griffith failed to persuade the city to change its law banning the sale of alcohol at all-nude clubs. That same year, he fired off lawsuits against the city and Jane Gross -- a vocal community activist staunchly opposed to mixing liquor and nudity.
Also at issue: To assuage some commissioners' concerns that Griffith filed his lawsuit against Gross as a way to bully the city, the former city attorney suggested asking Griffith to pay Gross' legal fees before any settlement talks concerning the suit against the city, according the letter. The lawsuit, later withdrawn, challenged the city's alcohol ban at strip clubs.
''There is no doubt that the city believed it was justified in doing what it did,'' the commission wrote. But asking Griffith to pay Jane Gross' legal fees ``could easily be perceived by the public as inappropriate.''
Saul Gross said city commissioners were simply following legal advice.
He added that he had ''made a very clear statement that I didn't think the two lawsuits should be linked in any way'' during the closed-door sessions.
Miami Beach City Attorney Jose Smith did not want to discuss the issue, citing Griffith's recently filed federal lawsuit once again challenging the city's liquor law.
