State lawmakers don’t ordinarily involve themselves in the employment practices of the localities they serve, but Republican Rep. Fabián Basabe isn’t your ordinary state lawmaker.
The Miami Beach Republican wants Bay Harbor Islands Town Manager Lindsley Noel to fire Town Attorney Joe Geller by ending its contract with Geller’s firm, Greenspoon Marder, arguing Geller is frequently late to meetings and has allowed a backlog of legal matters to pile up.
Basabe sent Noel a letter last week requesting that items be placed on the Town Council’s Wednesday agenda to effectuate Geller’s and his firm’s replacement.
No such measures are on the agenda. But both Basabe and his district counterpart in the Legislature’s upper chamber, Miami Gardens Democratic Sen. Shevrin Jones, are scheduled to speak.
Basabe confirmed that Geller’s employment will be his focus and shared his prepared remarks with Florida Politics.
Among other things, Basabe says Geller, a former state lawmaker who in November won a seat on the Miami-Dade County School Board, doesn’t appear to take his job seriously and “leaves behind work for others to complete.”
Basabe takes exception with a $1,500 monthly raise the Town Council recently approved unanimously for Greenspoon Marder. He cites a “long list of pending items” he says Geller either purposely disregarded or was unable to handle that compelled the town to hire additional lawyers.
Basabe notes a years-long problem with air conditioners at a local K-8 school that he contends Geller ignored and he is addressing. He calls Geller an “establishment” politician whose dual roles as a Town Attorney and School Board member create a “clear conflict of interest.”
As evidence of what he characterizes as a lackadaisical work ethic, Basabe points to Geller’s absence from Wednesday’s Town Council meeting and the School Board during the first week of the new school year.
Geller, speaking by phone while on vacation in Italy, called Basabe’s accusations thinly veiled political attacks.
“I don’t think it’s a secret that Mr. Basabe and I aren’t friends,” he said. “I endorsed former (Bay Harbor Islands) Mayor Jordan Leonard to succeed me in the seat. Surprisingly, in a big Republican year, Mr. Basabe won by a couple hundred votes. I endorsed Joe Saunders against Mr. Basabe in the last cycle. And I’m now endorsing my good friend Lucia Báez-Geller, who was my predecessor (on the School Board and is now running against Basabe). I guess this is his political response.”
Geller said the pay increase his firm received is far from an alarming sum, all things considered. “But we appreciate the opportunity to serve the town,” he said, “and we think we do a good job at it.”
He said pending legal items aren’t abnormal in municipal operations and that the additional lawyers Bay Harbor Islands recently tapped came at the Town Council’s recommendation and are assisting with a large public-private partnership to develop a new Town Hall.
“It’s arguably something (My firm) might have been charging separately for anyway, since it’s a special project,” he said. “We weren’t. And we continue to be involved, but it was a request from the Council and had nothing to do with our ability to get it done.”
Geller said that while Basabe’s letter complains of overlapping interests between the town and School Board, it includes no specific examples “because there aren’t any.”
“What’s the conflict? That we all want to see the kids get a good education?” he said.
As for the air conditioning issue, Geller said he’s been a School Board member for less than a year, while Basabe has represented the district since late 2022, and that Basabe is only now bringing it up because it’s political expedient. But for the record, Geller said, the school’s principal singled him out, not Basabe, as being a “consistent voice” in working to fix the issue in a recent communication to parents and guardians.
“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. This is a guy that’s not beloved even by his own party. He’s a guy with a checkered past. He’s been subject to multiple concerning allegations, and I’m not just talking about personal allegations. I’m talking about political things too,” he said.
“I held Basabe’s job for eight years and didn’t cause the problems he has. I certainly never went to the town or anyone else and said, ‘Put this on your agenda or else,’ which is the implicit statement he’s making here.”
Florida Politics contacted Noel and Deputy Town Manager Evelyn Herbello for comment, but neither responded immediately.
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