Neil Sedaka plays Gongora in the movie.

from www.miamiherald.com – Leroy Griffith, the owner of South Beach’s lone strip club, has furthered a history of allegations against the city of Miami Beach by filing complaints with the Florida Bar and the Florida Elections Commission against Commissioner Michael Góngora [pictured] .

Griffith says Góngora, a community association attorney, left $3,000 in campaign contributions off his 2009 campaign finance reports. Griffith also alleges the commissioner later tried to force him to hire Góngora’s campaign manager as a lobbyist in exchange for the commissioner’s support to sell alcohol at Griffith’s Club Madonna.

Góngora, who at least twice last year asked commissioners if they would consider changing the city’s laws barring alcohol sales at strip clubs, said the extortion allegations are disappointing but not surprising.

“There’s no truth to any of this,” he said. “Leroy has been threatening me for quite some time.”

Góngora wouldn’t comment specifically on either complaint, saying he hadn’t seen them, but also denied purposefully leaving campaign contributions off his financial records while campaigning to become commissioner.

According to Griffith, his issues with Góngora began in October 2009, when Griffith says he wrote four $500 checks from his various companies to Góngora’s campaign. Griffith says he wrote two additional $500 checks during Góngora’s run-off election campaign.

In his complaint, Griffith included six cancelled checks purportedly cashed by Góngora. None of the checks is listed on Góngora’s campaign treasurer reports.

“How could it be a mistake twice and with the same checks?” Griffith said. “That’s too many coincidences for him to have just forgot.”

A spokeswoman with the Florida Elections Commission declined to say if a complaint had been filed, citing commission policy.

However, a Florida Bar spokeswoman confirmed that Griffith’s complaint against Góngora had been received.

In Griffith’s complaint to the bar, he says Góngora tried last July to force the strip club owner into hiring his campaign manager, Randy Hilliard, as a lobbyist in order for Góngora to place a vote for alcohol sales at Club Madonna on a commission agenda. In the previous two months, Góngora had raised the issue for discussion at a commission retreat and during a commission meeting, but no votes were taken.

Griffith says Góngora told him he wanted Griffith to hire Hilliard because “he needed to find out where other commissioners stood on the issue.” The alleged request was made during a heated July 12 meeting that included Hilliard and Griffith’s public relations manager, Carl Zablotny.

Griffith said Góngora made it clear he wouldn’t raise the issue again unless Griffith hired Hilliard.

Two days later, Zablotny went public with the accusation at a commission meeting. When Griffith placed the issue before the commission in November for a vote, Góngora — like most the other commissioners — was silent.

“His silence gives evidence of his unsuccessful extortion attempt,” Griffith wrote to the Florida Bar. “He kept his word.”

Hilliard said Monday that he and Góngora did meet with Griffith, but Góngora didn’t tell Griffith to hire him, and neither did Hilliard. Hilliard said he suggested Griffith be willing to concede some things about his business to the city, such as cleaning up the facade of his Washington Avenue property, in order to get more support from other commissioners.

“We had the meeting,” Hilliard said. “But beyond that, the rest of it is a complete lie.”

Griffith has been fighting with the city in court and filing complaints with various authorities since 2004, when he nearly persuaded commissioners to allow alcohol at strip clubs but failed during a final hearing.

Recently, Griffith filed Florida Bar complaints against several attorneys who currently or formerly worked with the city, including a former mayor. The complaints hinge on old allegations that the city tried to force Griffith to pay for legal fees incurred by the wife of a commissioner whom he had sued for libel in order to settle another Griffith suit against the city and have his request for alcohol sales at Club Madonna heard by commissioners.

Those complaints are currently being investigated and reviewed by a Florida Bar committee in Miami.

Góngora on Monday said that he has talked to Griffith about the campaign checks and asked for copies. He said it’s possible a mistake was made.

“My mother does my finance reports and it’s possible we overlooked something,” he said.

As for the allegations of extortion, Góngora said he is confused because he has supported Griffith.

“That’s the part I find bizarre about Leroy,” he said. “You try to do something helpful and this is how he reacts.”