#BecauseMiami: A Miracle Has Happened

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Former Miami City Commissioner wants to be the city's mayor. About an hour ago, Ken Russell filed the paperwork at Miami City Hall, setting the stage for him to run for mayor in November 2025.
Current Mayor Francis Suarez is termed out. Russell won a seat on the city commission in 2015 and left city hall in 2022.
Corruption in Miami government, he insists, has to be rooted out. Ken Russell is what the Miami Hald is calling the first prominent candidate to formally enter the 2025 city of miami mayoral race also there's a first time for everything he's here with us live in studio i'm shocked also a last time for everything roy i would not be shocked to be fair he might be he might very well be the first of the prominent mayoral candidates to join us on this program but he was the commissioner of district two which we are in right now presently district two generates over 70 percent of the revenue for the entire city of miami which is then of course spread out to all of the other four districts.
That's socialism, Roy. That's what that is.
Nonetheless, this has often been the most significant, obviously powerful, obviously wealthiest district. It consists of Coconut Grove, of Brickell, of downtown, I think parts of Edgewater.
It's been redistrict, but it's basically up the coast, which is where the money is. And Ken Russell and I, like a lot of elected officials in this town, have had a longstanding adversarial relationship.
Yeah, Roy is doing sign language. Is that a diplomatic way of putting it? And I'll say this, that we don't hang out a lot but since going back to 2018 two out of the last three times we had met publicly kind of one-on-one-ish or like getting together ended in shouting matches as alcohol in between as i recall i yell sober too but i get very passionate and worked up about about issues and i think the origin of my beef with you would have to be the Mel Reese inter-Miami Beckham boondoggle where you were the swing vote the deciding vote both in 2018 to put the item on the ballot for referendum and then again in 2022 to give a 99 year no bid lease on the city's largest contiguous piece of property its largest what was then a green space then a the only public golf course in the city of miami and what was the basically the largest real estate deal in the history of the city and we've kind of come full circle in a way because Mel Reese appears to be, and that deal with Jorge Mas and David Beckham and Inter-Miami, appears to be why you're running in the first place.
Is that accurate? Well, first of all, thanks for having me here. You're welcome.
I can't imagine there's a lot of politicians that come rolling through, and I don't know why. But when I heard that you wanted me on to endorse my mayoral campaign live on the show, I couldn't resist.
And so I'm here, and I really appreciate that. So thank you for this time.
To be honest, he thought this would also be the last day of his campaign, potentially. And to be fair, he was good enough sport to risk that.
It's been one week.

Come on.

It's been one week.

So it put me out of my misery.

But I, no, but my beef was,

I thought this was a bad deal.

And I always say with these,

what they call public private partnerships,

that a contract is only as good

as the willingness of the parties

to enforce that contract.

We can have the same conversation we had back in 2018.

But the truth is, is that everything I told you then was true then it is true now but you seem to be coming around to the fact that the deal that you were the deciding vote on yes your argument is it was a boondoggle but you're the guy that made it happen so like what exactly and how fair enough and how has that influenced your

inspiration to return to the possibility of public or elected life it's not the reason but it's definitely one of the straws that's breaking the back of of me deciding to come back to the city of my mean because i was very happy having left uh and enjoying private life but i would say our relationship was super solid up until that vote.

And we had a drink right around then in 2018, and you said over that drink

that if I voted for that,

our relationship would be over, basically.

And because you were very passionate about this.

Sounds like something I'd say.

I don't think you were trying to leverage me

for the sake of, please, let me keep this friendship.

No, I didn't think you gave a shit. friendship um but you did you did keep to your word i'm a man of my word so in my first term in office uh let's say i had some naivete that wanted to believe that we could make a good deal out of a bad deal and and that if the right contractual terms were put in place and the right public benefits were there, this could be a good deal.
And I was torn because a lot of the folks that supported me, a lot of the activist crowd, a lot of the green space environmental crowd, they weren't crazy about this. And so I struggled a lot leading up to 2018, but I thought I'd solved it.
And the reason I'm here with you today is to really, boy, this is really hard. I'm not willing to say that you were right.
I can't do it. I can't say Billy Corbin was right.
Well, Billy could do it for you. He says it every day, but he always says, wait a few years.
I always say that I always say that. When it comes to politics, if you think I'm wrong, just wait two years.
Sometimes you only have to wait two days or two weeks, but in this case, I'm almost spot on. And I'm not trying to be funny.
You were right because I put all of the legal teeth into a vote that would hold the public benefits that kept this from being a bad deal, in my opinion. You may still disagree with even what I was able to extract, being the swing vote and having that leverage, but it was everything from living wages for every single person that worked there, from the ticket takers to the person at McDonald's.
It was full cost for remediation of all the contamination, and this is a very contaminated site. And the big part, a big part for you was that since it was a no bid deal, that there was no competition in the pricing.
Correct. So they gave us a contravention with the with the the city charter, which which requires an RFP would competitive bidding process, which is what went to referendum.
Right. Amending the charter to say these guys could get right Right.
No way. When it came down to the lease, I was able to use my leverage to take the highest possible assessment of that land, valuing it not on the contaminated value, but after they cleaned it and paid for it, what was the true value of that land? And people could argue whether or not the three appraisals were impartial or correct, but we took the highest of the highest one.

But the big thing for me was about the green space that was going to be lost there, even though this is an artifact. It's a golf course, really.
And the pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers that are put right there on the Miami River aren't great. The actual landfill that's under it was never properly remediated, and that's not great.
But I was okay with this deal if it made sense financially, and then any green space lost there, we'd make it up in new green space around the city. You're hearing yourself right now.
Yes, I'm taking you back to that time. Right, but do you hear how ludicrous that sounds, and how you had to take the word of people like Francis Suarez, and Joe Carollo, and Alex Diaz-La la portia and tricky vicky mendez and the and the city manager uh art noriega like the idea that that there were any good faith people

who were on when i say your side of the table i mean the taxpayer side of the table the public

side of the table when they were clearly all in the bag the mayor was effectively an unregistered

lobbyist it was clear at the time he was in jorge mas's pocket he was his mouthpiece both publicly

I'm comfortable with saying lobbying the city manager, the city attorney, all of the commissioners. Absolutely.
And there was nobody representing us. When you watched Jorge Mas go to the Miami Herald editorial board to make the case for this project, the editorial board was on one side of the table.
And on the opposite side of the table, do you remember who was sitting there? No. Jorge Mas, and shoulder to shoulder, touching, was Francis Suarez.
Oh, of course. With a legal pad scribbling there.
But who was he? He was literally on Jorge Mas' side of the table. I remember us sitting at Gramps, still the best bar in Wynwood, Gramps on 24th Street.
In 2018, October, it might have been like October 5th, I might even remember the date. And, you know, us yelling at each other.
It was a whiskey summit, to be fair. Oh, my kind of summit.
I'm a tequila summit guy these days. I've seen you on both.
It's the same. It's the same me.
You had said to me, do you think I'm corrupt? Do you think I'm corrupt? And I said to you, I said, there's a line in the movie Casino when De Niro says to Joe Bob Briggs after those people hit like multiple jackpots on the slot machines and he didn't pull the machine. He said, either you're in on it or you're too stupid to know that the fix was in.
And either way, you're out of here. So I just thought that with all due respect, a yo-yo salesman negotiating the biggest real estate deal in the history of Miami, you were either in on it or you were out of your depth.
And to be perfectly candid with you, I didn't believe you were in on it. So I did not believe you were corrupt.
I believed you were out of your depth. Thank you for that benefit of the doubt.
But even in hindsight, I don't look at my intention as ludicrous. And I believe if we're scared of corruption, we'll never do anything big and we'll never get anything done.
Good. But wouldn't that save the taxpayers a whole lot of money and heartache? I really believe that if they had held to the public benefit tenants that I was able to negotiate and they were honoring those today, and we'll get to that because you haven't gotten there yet, what's happening now to it, that it would have been a good deal.
And I could leave that vote sleeping well at night and watching it come to fruition. But it never happens.
There was no evidence to believe that anyone was going to act in good faith. There was no track record to indicate that the taxpayers ever get anything but the short end of the stick in these deals.
You might remember David Sampson and I. This is a bit of a spoiler.
Everybody listening to the show will recognize his voice. But people at the time that we released this back in 2022 didn't recognize his voice.
Miami, you are about to get f***ed. These five commissioners are voting on the biggest real estate deal in the history of Miami.
And if you thought the Marlins Park deal was s***y, wait until you get a load of this. The city wants to give billionaire Jorge Mas, David Beckham, and their Inter-Miami soccer team a 99-year no-bid lease below market value on 131 acres of parkland at Melrese.
That's Miami's single largest piece of public property. They want you to think this is about a soccer stadium, but it's just another real estate hustle to pave paradise and build a hotel, office park, and shopping mall.
Miami is one of the poorest cities in the country. We need help.
Instead, we get welfare for billionaires. This is a billion-dollar heist happening in broad daylight.
Don't bend over for Beckham. Take it from me, someone who actually negotiated with your politicians and almost single-handedly ended stadium public financing.
Almost. I'm David Sampson, and I approved this message.
So at the end of- I thought I'd be the final guy who f***ed you. it turns out I'm not.
Count was too close to his face. At the end there, there is a phone number on the screen to call City Hall.
Of course, as you may recall, that was your direct line in the District 2 office of City Hall because you were the swing vote. What did you think I was up to? I'm curious.
Am I just like, I'm just the guy who was against everything. I wanted to kill the deal.
Like, did you think I was trying to steer you wrong? Did you think I was being paid that I was doing something self-serving here that I was wrongheaded? Was Francis in your ear telling you, bro, don't listen to that guy, bro. He's just a hater, bro.
No, I thought you were very passionate on your position that Miami shouldn't get involved in stadium deals and that this was another Marlins Park deal. But I believed it wasn't Marlins Park.
And in its current in its form, as it was heading to ballot and then heading to lease, it wasn't what it should be. But I knew I had the leverage to demand not promises or handshakes or bro slaps, but actual amendments to legislation that would result in a better deal through public benefits.

And I was able to get it.

And so even for this last two years, and this is where we're going to come to the present.

Able to get it?

You weren't able to get it.

You swandered your leverage.

You didn't.

No, no, no. Remember, I was not trying to destroy this deal.

I was trying, like death and taxes, sports welfare is inevitable.

I was trying to get a better deal for the taxpayers. By the way, I don't think it's unfair for you to say that you were trying to do the same.
The problem was, and what I said to you, is how do you enforce that? You can't actually guarantee that. You can't actually paper it in such a way, because later on, some other, I said this to you in 2018.
Some other elected could come up. Some other commission, some other city manager, some other city attorney.
You guys will all be long gone by the time they're totally f***ing us with this deal. It'll be well past anything you could even do about it, let alone what you thought you could do about it in the moment.
I want to show this clip from that meeting. What, for a fleeting moment there, was a pretty exciting moment for those of us who thought we had somebody representing us on that dais in this boondock.
Well, you weren't reading the moment right. I'm going to walk you through it.
All in favor? It's going to be a no. I'm sorry, what? How clear do I have to be? It's going to be a 3-2.
Hold on a second. Then I move to reconsider the Baywalk thing that we passed last commission meeting.
Okay. If I may...
Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. I've been trying to be heard for the last hour, and I continually get cut off and denied.
And I'd like to speak. The mayor said everything that Commissioner Russell asked for is not in here.
If you think I'm going to let this whole project go just because I'm getting $5 million for a Baywalk, I can find other ways to get $5 million for a Baywalk. Of course.
You spoke earlier about congeniality on this dais. There is no congeniality on this dais.
You spoke about trust on this dais. There is no trust on this dais.
There is transaction. There's power.
There's ego. I believe this project has a chance to be good for the city, but I won't let it go until I believe it is correct.
I'm to assume that the no net loss parks will get funded, but we have no guarantee here today that the no net loss parks will get funded. That was part of what we put in the motion, that the four parks that were identified for the no net loss have to get funded.
And I have his word. Well, it's part of the motion that we're making.
They have to be funded. Commissioner Diaz de la Portia, if I had a nickel for every time I trusted your word, I could fund this Baywalk myself.
Oh, Lord Almighty. Oh, Lord Almighty.
Guys, guys. You're the same guy.
Guys, guys, guys. Guys.
My opponent's campaign when I was running. Because I can't turn the mics off.
I can't turn the mics off. You play it as long as you want to play it.
Hold on. Commissioner.
You're a worker. Commissioner.
Commissioner. You got what you want.
Commissioner. You're breaking your word to everybody else out there.
I can't turn the mics off. You're breaking your word to everybody.
We're going to take a break. You already gave your word.
Yes. Hold on.
Let's take a break. Let's take a break.
Let's take a break. Thank you for bringing me back to that, Tremont.
They called for a 15-minute break that turned into a 50-5- zero minute break during which the Miami Herald captured a now kind of infamous image of you sitting at your chair on the dais and the mayor giving you this like like WTF, bro. Like, how can I help? You know, like kind of moment where he's shrugging his shoulders, standing over you, and you're looking up at him and going, God, those eyebrows, they're on fleek.

Or I don't mean to put, you know, thoughts or inner monologue in your head, but so sometime in that 50 minutes, you come out after that break and you acquiesce, you wave the white flag, you bend over for Beckham. And that's kind of the end of it.
No, that is a complete opposite version from the experience that I had up there.

And let me walk you through it.

Okay.

Because I had a sheet of paper in front of me

with all of my demands.

And for those who are thinking

during that moment where I'm saying I'm a no vote,

they're like, aha, we've convinced Ken to be against this.

That was my moment of leverage to say,

I will be a no, and they had to believe it unless this entire list of things gets done it was theater but but that was your leverage you squandered your political capital no but but then they they thought they really thought that they were going to go through the vote and i would just go along for whatever reason and i don't know why they thought i was going to vote yes in that moment because they were going to lie to you but i haven't but they hadn't even agreed at that point to anything list. Okay, they hadn't lied to you yet.
Yeah, they hadn't lied to you yet. So when they decided to break, I sat there because I didn't want the perception of what ended up happening that everyone goes back to their offices and deals are cut and everything.
What I wanted and what I believe happened is once they realized that i'm a hard no and i

don't give a shit that that i can walk away from this as it is that they need to give me every one of those things and i believe the mayor went around to each office and whipped them and said these votes have to happen for these amendments that russell wants i understand dlp likes to get whipped i i can't speak to that but i could tell you his breath was whipping me on that when he was yelling at me.

But the only moment I stepped off the dais

was when Francis kept saying, bro, talk to me for a second. I need to talk to you.
And I hadn't talked to him in that moment since the time I was at his house and he kicked me out of it. And did you tell him, Mr.
Mayor, you're brilliant. You were super smart.
Well, let me ask you about that. Did you have any contact with the Inter-Miami MLS group outside of a public meeting, any of the Moss brothers, partners or lobbyists? So for at that point, what was it, four years that they had been working on this thing? No, I would only meet with them in my office with my staff.
And we had long, hard meetings on in terms of the negotiation, but I never went out for drinks, no cigars, no coffees, no breakfast. And it was important to me.
So when the mayor said to me one day, hey, this is just a few days before the vote, meet me in my house. I never expected I would see the Moss brothers sitting in his living room.
And that really pissed me off. And how many of those demands get met on that list that you had? So theoretically, all of them are getting met until I find out this last month they are voting to undo them at the city commission through an illegal vote.
And that's what brought me back to City Hall. The anvil that broke the camel's back.
But there was this secret meeting. I call it a secret meeting because none of us knew about it at the time.
It was out of the sunshine. So it was a secret meeting.
Yeah it was with whom and where and when. So we have a thing called government in the sunshine that says no two people that vote on anything together can meet and discuss those votes outside of the public light, right? The sunshine.
The mayor is not subject to that because he doesn't have a vote. So when he invited me over to his house that weekend, which doesn't happen, I'd been to his house one time before.
I said, okay. I pretty much knew what it was about because it was the weekend before the vote.
But when I got there and the Moss brothers are there and they started leaning on me hard about the public benefits I was trying to require. The mayor had not told you that the Moss brothers were there? No.
Okay. That was a surprise.
And I wouldn't have gone because that's what I was able to say up to that point. You were sandbagged.
I have not met with them outside my office without my staff present and all of that.

But when I got there, it wasn't even.

So this was on purpose.

The mayor obviously invited you there.

And they were doing the rounds.

And I believe I was the last stop because I, from what Alex had said on the day as he had had private meetings in living rooms with the Mosses and with the mayor.

And during which he was promised certain things. And then they wanted to see that I would agree to those things.
That's a sunshine violation. To be clear, by the way, this required, there's five commissioners, voting commissioners on the days.
This needed a super majority because of the size and scope of this project. No, because of the no-bid portion.
Yeah, and the charter issue, this required four out of five commissioners. So you were the last stop, because you were the swing vote.
So what you're saying is the sunshine violation there came when effectively the mayor was negotiating between you and DLP and kind of, or on behalf of what was. He's allowed to whip votes.
He's allowed to call up a commissioner and say, vote this way if, you know, this is what I really care about. He's allowed to do that.
But he's not allowed to say Alex is going to vote this way and you need to vote this way, too. And what they said to me was, well, this has already been promised to Alex.
The full 20 million dollar public benefit for green space has already been given to that commissioner. So you can't demand that it be taken away.
The votes aren't there for it. And they thought Alex wouldn't budge.
And so I already knew at that point, I'm on a collision course with the public benefits I'm demanding and what Alex wanted with that money. But I already knew where I stood.
So when he said at that point, get the fuck out of my house because I wouldn't agree. Who said that? Francis did.
I happily got up and the Moss's faces went white because they knew they needed my vote.

Francis couldn't control his anger because he was losing grip on it.

They had really said, Francis, I need you to help go around and whip these votes.

And when they got to me, I wasn't agreeing.

And so he kicks me out of his house.

But in my inside, I was I was happy because now I realize he had given me the ability to send a message to him that I don't care. I will walk out of your house.
I'll walk out of this vote and I'll vote no on the dais. And I thought that that was enough for them to then realize that I need to get these benefits for the public or I'm a no vote.
But you didn't get the benefit. But I did get the vote.
I got the vote. I got the vote.
And here's where we get to the reality where you're right and I'm wrong. Because I really stood my ground.
And what happens after that tape is not Ken waves the white flag. It's that Ken got every single one to a letter of that list of public benefits.
And Francis stops the meeting because they were about to vote. He says, I want to know that the mover and the seconder, Joe Carroyo and Alex Diaz-Aboria, agree with Russell's amendments.
I want it captured on the record. He said it twice.
They did it. We voted.
And so those things must happen, and they're not. Here's where you are right.
And then what happened was is that the city attorney, Tricky Vicky Mendez, memorialized what was supposed to have memorialized in writing, what was said in the meeting and what is reflected in the commission. Yes, the mayor signs the legislation after we make it.
But they took out... Those amendments.
Like, the next day, though. Like, this wasn't even a matter of what they're undoing now, years later.
They undid what you claim to have accomplished within 24, 48 hours or so now. Right.
But it doesn't matter because the vote happened and it's memorialized in the minutes. And that is what prevails over whatever he signed.
Because if I mean, that was a bad document. The city and I filed a bar complaint against the city attorney and him.
You were the swing vote on a deal that you now admit is a giant boondoggle and you follow up two and a half years later with a strongly worded letter that went nowhere. It was dismissed as fast as you as you filed.
Well, they didn't literally violate it until this last month. They were keeping, as far as I know, with the spirit of those public benefits until this month when they, for some reason, brought legislation to undo what I had forced them to promise.
So if you were so ineffective, though, at this as a city commissioner representing a single district, what is it you think you can accomplish as a mayor? Let's not go there yet, because I was effective in my role and job in getting those amendments passed. It's not my job then to see that the attorney doesn't write illegal legislation, that the mayor doesn't sign illegal legislation, that the your first act, Your first act as commissioner in 2016 was to try to get Tricky Vicky Mendez, the city attorney, terminated.
You didn't have the votes. You couldn't whip the votes.
But you knew what you were getting into with her. Yes.
So you knew you couldn't trust her. And so here we are, flash forward, seven years later, basically.
Right. And you're entrusting her and the mayor who you knew was working as a lobbyist and whose law firm in fact represents mls and i mean has every conflict of interest under the under the in the sunshine outside of the sunshine and you thought you could trust these people because if we can rely on our system of justice they should not be able to undo the votes of a commission.
But that's preposterous. So is that not a concern for people? They are violating.
Right now, they are in violation. They're putting the entire lease itself in jeopardy.
If you want to really have your fun, you can say, anyone can bring a lawsuit right now to say that the lease that is being enacted right now, what they are doing right now, and the votes that the commission are doing are completely in violation of the ballot that brought that lease, of the vote of the commission. And they are.
So they're putting themselves in jeopardy. The question is who's willing to enforce it beyond.
I did my job as a commissioner to get the votes where they should be and get the public benefits where they should be. But at some point we should be able to trust that the legal process happens correctly, that the administrative process happens correctly.

Otherwise, we do nothing.

Isn't this quintessential?

Like, I can't believe the leopards ate my face.

Like, they didn't go rogue.

They did.

Francis went Francis.

Vicky went Vicky.

They did exactly what you should have expected them to do.

So that's my question is how.

This is so blatant. Even I never expected them simply to violate the vote of the commission.
It wasn't a promise. It wasn't a handshake.
It was a vote of the commission. So it's not something they can just undo, but they are.
And it's illegal. When we come back, more with Miami mayoral candidate Ken Russell.
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See guaranteed details at TurboTax.com slash guarantees. You showed up at the commission meeting last month, made a very good point, which was they raised taxes by $10 million.
At this very lectern seven years ago, David Beckham stood and made the promise to us and the city. He said, I am doing this for your children and your children's children.
And his development partners made the promise to us, which resulted in legislation, which was our promise to the city. And the mayor signed that legislation, which created a lease.
And part of that promise is for the land that was going to be taken up, the green space that would disappear for the stadium, we would find, rezone and fund new parks throughout the city. We identified those four parks and they are in districts throughout.
and we rezone those parks and we funded it with half of the $20 million contribution. This is an additional $10 million to the Moss family and their development group, because this actually defunds one of the new parks that would be going into district one.
And the money that they are going to use to build up that park is already meant to be spent by them. Miami has a history of recalling mayors who make bad decisions on sporting deals.
Mayor Suarez has been a friend of mine for over 10 years, but if the promise of this deal is broken, I will be the first signature on any recall effort for any elected official who tries to break the promises of this deal,

because it is my integrity, it is your integrity, because you carry the promises of commissions passed. That was a bit theatrical.
Francis Suarez is term limited in eight months. There's no, nobody's going to.
He shouldn't be there for 10 more minutes. I, well, you don't have to convince me to sign that petition, but as, as Joe will tell you, I don't even live in the city, But you are correct in that that was a bait and switch.

That is more welfare for a billionaire, which is what I told you many years ago. That's all this was to begin with.
But you would not announce that you were running at that point. I hadn't decided myself at that point.
But was that it? So, no. I mean, I'm looking at what are the possible remedies for this issue? A recall won't fix the issue, but it'll try to hold punitive those who are voting for it that day.
And four out of five of them voted for it that day based on the lies Francis told them and the money that he handed out. He literally handed out taxpayer money to them to get them to vote for this issue, which now violates the ballot language as well, because this project of those new parks are part of this project are now being taxpayer funded.

Well, the mayor argued that the ballot language was deliberately vague in order to be.

It was vague.

No, but that part of the ballot language was very specific.

And those were words I put in there to make sure the new green space would get funded.

And so, listen, we can go back and forth all day.

Basically, they are lying now to undo the benefits that were gained back then because it's making it more expensive for the Moss family.

And that's the that's the disservice being done. That's not the only reason I'm running for office as mayor.
That's that's literally what pissed me off enough to put on a jacket and walk back to City Hall where I hadn't been for two years to say the corruption level has gotten so low. The other things they're undoing or even other ordinancesances that I passed, having to do with protections of trees, and they're undoing recycling in the city of Miami.
They're trying to write themselves lifetime pensions. These are all things that need to be addressed in a systemic way.
It's not about putting one person in to replace the other. It's about breaking the entire wheel of what's going on right now there.
We could talk about that in just a moment, the record and the frustrations that people have with the city and with you have a track record at the city that people have frustrations with. But I want to first hear this from David Sampson.
And politicians should know that when they support these deals, they think they're doing the right thing for themselves and their community. but they're also looking out for their own political futures.
And any politician who has any notion of any other political office other than where they are, generally, when you support public financing of stadiums, you've pretty much hit your ceiling. Oh my God.
Look at that hair. You look ridiculous, Billy.
Was that COVID? I look like that was COVID. Yes, that is my COVID Bee Gees.
Your barber died of COVID? Jufro. My barber died.
Oh, no. You like this better now? Oh, it's much better than what was.
It's a little Kim Jong-un, if you ask me. This pompadour.
They keep zooming in on it.

What David Sampson is talking about is what has become known as the Marlins curse.

Oh, I wasn't listening because of the hair.

I'm sorry.

You were just, was my hair too loud in that clip?

Yes, my hair was louder than Sampson.

It was just.

Your hair was louder than you.

It was just Bee Gees.

Bee Gees falsetto.

Bee Gees.

Bee Gees.

Bee Gees.

Bee Gees. Bee Gees.
Bee Gees. Bee Gees.
Bee Gees. Bee Gees.
Bee Gees. Bee Gees.
Bee Gees. So the Marlins curse, which goes that all of the elected officials at both Miami-Dade County and the city of Miami who voted in favor of the Marlins Park boondoggle, then the worst sports welfare deal in history until you guys managed to outdo it, and incidentally, has been outdone all over the country.
Vegas, Buffalo, et cetera. None of those elected officials were ever elected to any higher office.
Buffalo doesn't have a roof, by the way. Some of them were so stupid.
So stupid. And Marlins Park has a roof.
They never know when to put it on or take it off. But none of them who voted in favor of it were ever elected to higher office.
Some of them were, in fact, reelected to their present office at the time, but never elected to higher office. And the people who voted against it at the city, Tomas Regalado, parlayed that into the mayorship in the city of Miami.
Carlos Jimenez, who was then a county commissioner, voted against it, parlayed that into becoming not only the mayor of Miami-Dade County, which is a significant position, like the CEO of a multi-billion dollar corporation with 40,000 employees. But now, of course, he's a sitting congressman from from Miami.
So I told you in 2018 about the Marlins curse and said, I've no doubt there will be a Mel Reese curse. It has certainly affected the mayor of the city of Miami, as you've witnessed in his various pathetic attempts to achieve higher office.
You not once but twice basically left your position, including less than one year after you were first elected to your very first local public position to pretend to run for Congress or unsuccessfully run for Congress. Pretend.
I mean, the first time was make-believe. I explored it and I didn't run.
I actually did not resign to run and I didn't file at the end. So, no, I didn't.
And the second time I think was a Republican scheme to sweet talk you into the Melrese deal, help support your primary effort to really divide and conquer the Democrats in that race. That's a whole other very sophisticated kind of operation.
No, you need a tinfoil hat for that. That's a...
Well, okay. That's a search.
Oh, wait a minute. Did he forget to foul just like Uncle Luke? No, he didn't forget.
He deliberately... Because you have to resign to run.
So he made the decision not to file so that he didn't have to resign to run and a lot your constituents were furious about that you know as i you know said i don't even live in the city and so i reached out to you know some of your former uh constituents um to to see what some of their questions and concerns are this would be a real trip down memory uh lane that i'm sure you're not looking forward to no it was it was it was a lot of constituents um and i'm not I'm certainly not going to bring up all of the issues or ask you all the questions. But I did want to say sort of what makes you think you can overcome the Marlins-Melreis curse here and get elected to mayor when really, truth be told, had you voted against it, I would have said, holy shit, he's going to be the next mayor of Miami.
I have no idea. You're clearly a single issue.
And Manolo Reyes, by the way, who did vote against it, was going to ride that. I mean, you know, he's not well and so may not wind up running for mayor this year.
But like he very well could have been the next mayor of Miami. Manolo Reyes now voted in favor of defunding these parks, the public benefit parks.
He voted for Mel Reese this last year. Because his district got money that it didn't, that they deliberately punished him because he was voting against Mel Reese.
They were like, f*** you, your district, your taxpayers who are helping to pay for all this aren't going to get any of this money. He at least had something to gain.
Gabella made a very bad vote. No, he didn't have nothing to gain.
He has no idea what he voted for last month. Well, that's probably true.
He really believes that he voted for, he said, we never even voted on those public benefits benefits we just talked about it oh that's bullshit that's that's we voted hard and so he he just took an extra two and a half million dollars for his district which a commissioner can assign themselves anyway that's not for the mayor to dole out so he gained nothing but he actually solidified the bad decision of mel reese now in the end after 10 years of voting against it i voted for it after getting the concessions that I needed in 2018. I was reelected overwhelmingly in 2019.
No runoff, multiple candidates, double digit win. My first race- Promised you wouldn't run for higher office and then ran for higher office.
And so in the last 10 months of my second term after eight years in office, yeah, I decided to run for Congress. Seven years.
I. No, I, yeah, out of the full eight years, I left, I left in the, in the last 10 months.
So, you know, yes, I did run for Congress. I, I, if that's, if that's a sin for someone to, to go for higher office, then, then I'm guilty.
But as far as the Mel Reese curse, that has yet to be written yet. We're going to see how voters feel about that because whether you believe they understood it or not, voters wanted soccer to come.
There's a stadium that's halfway built now. Messi's in town.
Beckham's here. There is an excitement about that.
Messi will never play in that stadium. Probably right.
But it's supposed to be done by next year. And they're not allowed to get their CO until they finish those new parks.
Over 100 acres of new parks are supposed to build. Do you think that's going to happen? First of all, they're slapping this thing up.
If I have anything to do with your world. They're slapping this thing up like I don't even know.

I don't even know what the permitting process is like over there.

I'm certain they don't have to go through the same rigmarole that some poor bastard has to go through

when they want to build a fence at their house that takes three years.

These guys are smacking this thing up like it's a Lego set.

And there's no reason to believe that the county and the city,

I mean, you have a sports welfare queen in Daniela Levine Cava at the county that can't give away taxpayer money fast enough and cut county services in order to give this welfare to billionaires. And you think they're going to do the right thing? No, I think voters will decide.
No, not about the administration or the right thing, but I think voters will decide how important this is to them. I think it should be very important if they cheat on the deal.
But as far as the original deal goes that was struck and memorialized, that's for the voters to decide whether that was correct or not. And personally, I didn't give a shit that a government subsidized country club golf course was going to disappear and something better come of it.
And I don't, you know, you may love golf, but the kids that played there weren't even allowed to sit down. It was so contaminated.
The only thing I care less about than soccer is golf. I did not have a dog in the fight.
This to me, that to me is just a total like... Well, that was one of the big arguments of why I shouldn't vote for this because we love a golf course.
This wasn't golf versus soccer. This was how to make...
I wanted it to be a fair deal. The voters had to approve it.
They did overwhelmingly. And then I had to make sure the deal had teeth.
They are violating those teeth. The voters didn't approve the deal.
They approved a 70 word, whatever the limitations of the referendum language was. And then the lease came and nobody even read the lease.
It's hundreds of pages long. It was constantly in flux.
And the people who were drafting it, you didn't even trust. You tried to fire them.
And now the lease is in violation of the vote we took. And if they still follow it in practice, great, but they're not.
And they're undoing it, and they should be held liable for that. They should be held accountable for that, and those 100 acres of new park should still be built and finished.
That I can agree on, but you should also be held accountable for your contribution to the madness. Speaking of which, you were there at the city for seven years that were a pretty horrible seven years, probably one of the most corrupt stretches.
This is not necessarily a reflection on you, but you were there while some craziness was happening. That includes the international embarrassment that was the Art Acevedo police chief spectacle, which after six months on the job and him calling out three of your colleagues on the dais for participating in corruption and charter violations by interfering in the police department and targeting private businesses such as ball and chain for political retribution, you voted to fire him.
I voted to fire him because he wanted to leave. I was against what was done to him.
And I'm not part of the lawsuit he's brought. He's brought the lawsuit against three commissioners in the city and in fact I expect to be subpoenaed very soon on that case that's ongoing.
I was with that chief but when I realized he no longer wanted to be here, the manager didn't want him to be here, the mayor didn't want to be here and of course the commissioners that were trying to oust him, he wants to leave, I'll vote for him to leave. But I didn't agree and I stated very clearly at that time I did not agree with what was done to him.
And ball and chain, you were here while that was happening. And the city attorney, Tricky Vicky Mendez, admitted to you effectively in a private meeting.
I know that because you testified. I testified against the city and Vicky and Joe Carolla.
But where were you at the time? You were there while this crutch. Voting against every single thing that was being done to violate their First Amendment rights and to create this fictitious crackdown on code that was happening all over the city just to whitewash what they were doing to ball and chain.
Did you go to the FBI? Did you go to the state attorney's office, public corruption unit? Did you tell anybody contemporaneously about what was happening inside City Hall and what they were doing to violate the constitutional rights of these business owners? Well, that's what I've been doing. I've literally been testifying.
I've literally been subpoenaed. I've literally been in depositions.
When you subpoena, you testify. But that was years later, after all the damage had been done.
I'm not the state attorney. I did talk with the state attorney's office on public corruption.
And what they interestingly say is a lot of what the city of Miami does is illegal until they vote on it. And once they vote, that makes it legal.

And that's a shame. But they won't go after elected officials unless there's some smoking gun in their hand.
So my duty was to vote against bad things, vote for good things, try to make things better. And I'm very proud over eight years of the legislation I was able to pass.
Most of the environmental legislation we have in Miami now is legislation that I wrote around everything from emissions to water quality to development standards and seawalls and everything. Creating the Miami Forever Bond, $400 million to help us with storm surge and sea level rise.
I had to play the game with these guys to get these things done. I don't have to play that game anymore.
I don't have to be there. It's not my goal to be a career politician in the city of Miami.

I was gone.

If I'm coming back as mayor, it's with bombs.

I am sick of watching what they're doing, and I don't need to pass minor legislation and horse trade with these commissioners anymore.

I can come in on a complete mission to revamp the system.

The charter needs to be changed.

We need more commissioners.

We need even your voting. We need so many things that can make the system better and attract better people to run for office.
I don't recall you ever making an effort to introduce charter amendments that might have effectuated any of those things. I did, 100%.
I brought it two times when we came to the redistricting portion of increasing the district and the votes weren't there. There was nobody there willing to support that motion.
And so I started working together with groups like Engage Miami and others to see if there's a petition that could be brought to change the charter, to increase. And that's the main way that needs to be done unless it can be done through the body.
Right now they're trying to bring in real term limits. Lifetime, Joe was there when I was seven years old.
He's still there now after I'm gone. We don't have real term limits.
And there's a commissioner now, Damian Pardo, who's trying to bring that. If he's got the votes for it, which I doubt, the commission will pass it.
It'll go on the ballot and the voters can choose. I think he's got the votes.
I hope he does because it's the right thing. You know, Knockwood, Manolo returns.
It's the right thing for Miami as well as all of these amendments. And so if we can blow up the city, and not in the literal way that you would like to, but literally break the...
I would not like to blow up the city. No, if we could break the wheel that keeps turning and these same families over and over keep getting elected, we can make a system that's attractive to better candidates, to better people who would otherwise never want to be a part of this corrupt system, who would rather be entrepreneurs or artists or whatever they want to do successful in their life that doesn't involve politics.

It's not meant to be a lifetime career.

Come in, do your service, make the city better, and go back to what you're doing.

When we come back, more with the first prominent candidate to formally enter the 2025 Miami mayoral race. Hey friends, it's Jer Bear here, and I'm here to tell you all about Boost Mobile, which is now a legit nationwide 5G network.
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A couple things before we go. First, which is something that came up when I was talking to some of your former constituents, that is the out of control development in this community.
We need development. We need affordable housing.
We need workforce housing. We even need arguably additional luxury housing potentially.
But what happened during your tenure in the West Grove, the King of Coconut Grove scandal that has since erupted, the kissing, we're looking right now at what they call the kissing houses that were built between like six and 12 inches apart from each other. Can't get to the backyard.
Imagine if, dude, you could reach out of your window and touch a person sitting in the toilet next door. Illegal setback violation.
Illegal setback violation. That the city approved.
But all of this this happened right under your nose to undo it and actually won that vote we were willing to actually force them to tear down those new buildings that they have finished constructing you didn't have the votes for that i did i passed down yes then they undid it the next meeting right so you didn't have the no it actually passed and then and then whoever got to them and under are youid it. Are you saying it passed before it didn't pass? They rescind motion.
This is the frustration I think that a lot of people had, is that they felt your successor here has gotten more done in 15 months than you got done in seven years. People do feel that way.
People do have those frustrations. That will be what remains to be seen at the ballot box, because I don't believe

that. And that's not what I'm hearing from constituents.
And you pick these few things that make you a single issue voter that you that you really care about that you disagree with me on. You want to talk about the 20 million dollar settlement at at at Watson Island at that there was there was a there was some grim shit, dude.
I mean, you dread. Again, I don't think you were wrong about the issue at Watson Island, but you were wrong on the law and it was extremely costly.
I wasn't wrong on the law. Absolutely not.
100%. You wind up in a billion dollar case that settled for $20 million in taxpayer money.
Because Vicky Mendez gave the city administration a separate set of lawyers to represent them and work against the commission. We got sandbagged.
I actually got the commission together and we voted unanimously to knock out that Watson Island developer because they were in violation. But then when all of the administration who was worried about their own jobs, they would realize they'd have to admit that they were complicit in allowing these permits to go beyond.
They all got their own lawyers. So this was another tricky Vicky.
Yes, it was you it was are a vile little man the person who you wound up trusting to paper and memorialize this is i mean okay what you keep saying over and over again is wow you were right on that thing that you did but then they undid it or then they violate it and then that's probably but that is that is not a measure what would you rather have you do just come in? Because what do you expect someone to do if they're not, if you're working with an untrustworthy bunch of people, you try to be on the right side of your votes, you push to get the votes you need, and then you try to hold them accountable. But there's only so much you can do as a commissioner.
I'm not the state attorney. And if the state attorney is not willing to enforce the law, there's nothing I can but I did my job as a commissioner I voted my conscience on everything I created new laws that improve the city but you're on these issues I'm glad I brought that lawsuit against Watson Island because they should have been kicked out and we've got to be able to stand up to developers when they're breaking the law if they're not following the words of the referendum 15 years ago and they hadn't put a in the ground.
They needed to lose that lease. And so, you know, there's only so much you can do.
But if you're on the side of right and for the right reasons, and you can learn the lessons of the past, I know what's needed now, which is a total disruption. It's not about coming in and I'll do more of what I did back then, just being a good guy trying to pass good legislation.
I'm here to actually break the system.

And if that can't be done, I'm not here to do it.

I wouldn't do it.

This really has to happen to where we get more commissioners and more engagement from the public, more accountability and better candidates.

The ones that are in there have to go.

And if I'm successful in what I'm working on doing, every single one of them will be out by 2026.

So, Billy, your endorsement, are you giving it away? But you understand that politics is more than just voting conscience. Politics is, I'm not understanding, but we'll talk about the state of the race, but politics is about addition, not subtraction.
It is about ensuring that you can whip the votes and what you pass sticks.

There is a follow.

It's not just enough to connect with the ball.

You have to follow through.

Sports reference.

Let me ask you about that.

I know I have a—

Thank you.

Thank you, Roy.

I knew I had a card.

Roy!

That's not it.

State of the race.

You are, as the Herald said, the first prominent candidate in the race. Spoiler alert, Joe Carollo is running for mayor.
He's got over $2 million. He's got to run.
He's got to pay his legal bills and the city's doing it. We, as taxpayers, have paid tens of millions of dollars already in Joe's legal fees and his settlements.
Yes, and he's got to stay there. Otherwise, he's going to have to start paying.
Otherwise, he doesn't have anyone to pay. Eileen Higgins, the word on the calle, is the county commissioner is going to enter the race.
La Gringa, as she was known, 40% of her county commission district is in the city of Miami. We have the possibility of Emilio Gonzalez, the former city manager, entering the race.
The possibility of Manolo entering the race, but it seems unlikely due to his health this year. We have Alex Diaz-Laportilla.
Alex Diaz-Laportilla. The Vendetta Tour.
Well, he was exonerated, man. He was exonerated.
He was innocent, man. Nothing to see there.
Not guilty. So all charges dropped.
The man is a civil rights icon. Martyr, what does this race look like for you?

What is your path to victory here?

Got it.

So we haven't had a non-Hispanic mayor since I was in high school in the 90s.

But I don't believe it's because—

Do you speak Spanish?

Yes.

Okay.

Endearingly, I would say.

Not fluently, perhaps.

But no, I was the president of my Spanish club in high school. That doesn't qualify you.
What high school? Martin County High School. And I sold you.
It was in Venezuela. Did you vote in that election? In the 90s? No, for being the president of the Spanish.
I ask because I understand the first time you ever voted in any election was when your name was on the ballot. Untrue.
Is that not true? No, it's not true. But no, I didn't vote for myself for president of the Spanish Club.
But no, yes, I do speak Spanish. I speak Portuguese.
I speak Japanese. I am half Japanese.
But I don't believe that we've only had Hispanic mayors by choice of the electorate. They haven't had choices.
We haven't had a competitive race here in decades. And this one is going to be a competitive race with or without me in it.

Because you will have several people running who will have the means and name recognition.

But it's going to be a whole list of the dynasties of Miami.

The legacy names who are either brothers, fathers, sons, or themselves been in office before.

And everyone's going to decide whether they want someone there that's for tomorrow or from yesterday.

There's a Diaz-Balart in there, isn't there? There's a Diaz de la Portilla. Diaz de la Portilla, Diaz de la Portilla, Jimenez, Suarez, Corroyo, Hijo de Puta.
It's on and on and on. Right.
And so, you know, I was on Radio Actualidad for 30 minutes in Spanish. And literally, when I left the studio, workers were coming out from their coffee break talking about, yes, this is our fault

for voting for the people over and over again

and they stay and we need something different.

They haven't been presented with something different.

It's a solid accent.

That was definitely high school Spanish club president.

Presidente quality accent there.

Two years of Spanish.

I was very impressed.

I've got to work on my Cuban accent.

Let me ask you this.

Your campaign slogan, break the wheel. I'm not going to stop the wheel.
I'm going to break the wheel. It says right there, is Miami ready to break the wheel? Ken Russell, what is it? It's a reference to Game of Thrones, everything except the last season.
But Ken, that's a quote from a Game of Thrones character who is a genocidal maniac that literally goes insane and burns down a city with everyone in it. That's one way to look at it.
I mean, if you think that's a bad thing, that's one way to look at it. I look at it as someone who's looking to break the wheel of the families that keep rolling over their citizens.
It's a metaphor, you see. Whether it's the Targaryens or whether it's the Suarez's, you know, we need to break the wheel.
We need to really, there's no working with the system. You need to break the system in order to fix what's wrong with Miami.
So you break the wheel, do you build a new wheel? Yes. And that's done by voter referendum of a change of the charter.
But this one's going to be a square. A triangle.
This one's going to... And now it's time for top five mean tweets that I wrote about Ken Russell as read by Ken Russell.
Number five. Let's see.
Miami District 2 voters complained for seven years about Commissioner Ken Russell's rotten representation. Then elect Ken Russell 2.0.
As my late great friend Al Crespo said, don't ever help people in Coconut Grove. You can't help those who can't help themselves.
Vote everybody out of office. Oh, God, I miss Al.
He would have loved all of this.

I mean, just everything that happened, that has happened in the last couple of years, this would have just been his Super Bowl, man. I mean, we'll do a show about Al Crespo sometime.
He's looking at us from somewhere. He is definitely, he's looking up on us right now with a big old warm smile on his face.
Number four. Billy Corbin tweeted, breaking before Ken for Florida's congressional campaign kickoff party got rained out tonight.
It was crashed by chickens undermining con man Ken, cuck, and a mariachi band reminding the crowd what a corrupt clown he is and how he sold out his constituents. That was one of your classier moments, Billy.
That was first class. Which part? The cuck part? All of it.
All of it? The mariachi bands? All right. Number three is actually a thread.
So it's a three-parter. Number three, part one.
Hey, Ken for Florida. Did University of Miami endorse you? The logo on your campaign flyer certainly implies that.
Using it without permission is trademark infringement and a campaign violation. But only a con man, grifter, would do a thing like that because...
Number three, part two. Con man Ken for Florida just posted another draft sans logo.
I wonder if he got a cease and desist letter from University of Miami. This narcissist who can't whip two votes on the city commission thinks he should be in Congress.
That's a narcissist clown, by the way. I forgot how much we love each other, Billy.
That's a clown emoji, by the way. Let me say this.
This is the one tweak that we're doing to the Jimmy Kimmel bit, is that the person who wrote the mean tweets that the person is reading about themselves is in the same room sitting here and i will say i i'm not particularly proud of it i'm i have to own this in a weird way that i didn't i didn't know that you were an angry vile little man i didn't know i didn't know how i would would would feel about all this but now i'm thinking i cannot buffoonery. Like my own buffoonery.
Here is number three, part three. Part three is actually a tweet from Ken Russell.
I had forgotten this. Yeah, because I retweeted it or quote tweeted it with end of thread.
Right. Here we go.
Point Billy Corbin. I received this cease and desist letter from the University of Miami.
The logo has been blurred to avoid any further action. Which I will say was a was a incredible bit of sportsmanship.
Both the fact that that he acknowledged the point, but also that you had blurred the logo, which I thought was kind of was obviously unnecessary, but but funny. now, numero dos.
Billy Corbin tweeted, If selfies equals good governance, Ken Russell Miami would be the greatest commissioner in the history of Miami. I didn't take that selfie.
Now, there's a backhanded compliment, at least. Commissioner Selfie, isn't that what Crespo called you? He did.
After I went to the Democratic National Convention and took about 100 selfies with balloons.

So you earned it.

Electeds.

Oh, yes.

No, no, no.

That's called networking, Ken. God, I miss him.
It's called narcissism. God, I miss him.
I do, too. Number one.
Billy tweeted. God, I love you, Billy.
Ken Russell is a con man who would sell out any community white, black, LGBTQIA+,

if it meant a nickel in his pocket and or the promise of more power.

Hashtag because Miami.

So two things I want to say about this.

The first thing is that you had said a moment earlier, you referenced the narcissism. And this is something you've actually talked about when running for office.
First of all, I thought this would illustrate what a good sport you are for coming here. But I think this is an interesting point that people don't understand.
And I said this to you early on when we were on better terms in your first term as city commissioner, that you don't change the system, the system changes you. And I've seen so many people go into these toxic places like City Hall or Government Center and get just chewed up and spit out and betraying what it is that they stood for, their own ideology, stabbing their constituents in the back, et cetera, et cetera.
I obviously have a very different, more evolved perspective now on your experience and your tenure, but also you've been, you have, like Jimmy Carter, you've been a better, he was famously a better like- Post-president. Post-president and you've been a better post-commissioner, I would say, because I think you've been honest about the experience and honest about your perspective on that experience.
When you're surrounded by people who are always saying yes, who are always telling you how smart and handsome and funny and clever you are, that doesn't seem to me like a healthy environment. And that's where our politicians seem to live.
They live in another world from where we live. The best thing is to actually leave, and it should be mandatory for anyone who's in office to not stay in office continuously, because when you leave, people stop answering your calls, stop laughing at your jokes, stop telling you you're right, and it's healthy.
Like, my wife get me grounded this entire time, but you do. Everyone around you needs something from you, and so they're willing to show you how great you are in order to keep your ego built up.
And that's not a healthy place. But everyone who does get in office or runs for office has an element of susceptibility to that.
Otherwise, they would just stay as an activist in the background, for example. If you don't mind being on camera and giving those speeches, and that gets addictive because you feel like, oh, they like me.
They like what I'm doing. And I pass legislation that's good.
And I remember because I was a parks activist to start. It was a contaminated park in front of my house.
I fought City Hall. I was successful at that effort.
And then I said, what do I do now? There's five other contaminated parks. I called Bruce Matheson for advice.
And he said, whatever you do, don't run for office. And then I went.
i went and because yeah his name's on the park you should listen to him right and and so and because he remained as a parks activist ready at the push of a button to bring a lawsuit against bad behavior both a man and a hammock and i've sat with him in a park since this last few this last month actually since uh watching the commission do what they're doing to see if there's room for a lawsuit at this point. And of course, I'm not listening to him again, because I am running for office.
And so, yes, I'm guilty of a lot of those things. But it's certainly not trying to do the wrong thing.
And it's certainly not coming in for the wrong reasons. Was I naive in what happened with this Mel Reese deal? I'll say yes, because I really believed in my vote and everything I fought for.
And now I have to look back on it and regret that vote. And I'm not saying that now, because I want to gain everyone's sympathy after being wrong on that vote as I try to run for a new office.
It's literally contrition and realization that they need to be held accountable. I still believe they can be held accountable,

but I have no idea what else they're violating in that lease,

and I'd love to get into that.

So once on the inside, again, I'm ready to blow up the system,

hold them to account on everything that was intended in that lease,

and move forward from there on trying to make Miami better.

What's the website?

KenRussellForMayor.com. Come on, get your website.
So many races I can't even remember. Back to my original question.
Ken for Florida, but also for Miami and Miami again. KenRussellForMayor.com.
Back to my original question. Billy, are you endorsing Ken in this campaign? There's only one man in this studio that has my endorsement.
Roy! Thank you. Cocaines.
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