Ethics board: Ex-Surfside mayor, now seeking county seat, improperly campaigned from dais
Surfside commission meetings have been notorious for going off the rails in recent years: Officials flipping the middle finger. Mayors seeking to have residents removed. Ad hominem attacks against political opponents.
But Shlomo Danzinger, the town’s ex-mayor who is now running for mayor of Miami-Dade County, took it too far last August when he presented a slideshow during a town commission meeting that amounted to campaigning, the Miami-Dade County Commission on Ethics and Public Trust found at a May 15 meeting.
Danzinger, who was still the Surfside mayor at the time and had filed to seek reelection, made a presentation during the commission meeting on Aug. 8, 2023, titled “Decorum,” in which he blasted political enemies, displayed an image from his campaign website and touted his record as mayor.
A slide titled “Shlomo Danzinger 2022 Campaign Website” featured the platform from Danzinger’s first campaign and highlighted a section called “Restoring Civility and Dignity to the Office.”
“My platform slogan was, and still is, in every email I send out, ‘Dedicated to a Better Surfside,’” Danzinger said during the presentation. “Over the last year, I have delivered on that promise. Our efforts have reshaped this town into an inviting place that places emphasis on initiatives which foster community and family values.”
At one point during the presentation, Commissioner Nelly Velasquez cut in to object, telling Danzinger it “seems like you’re campaigning.” In response, Danzinger said Velasquez could “file an ethics complaint, but please let me finish this camp— this presentation.” The slip-up, in which Danzinger seemingly began to say the word “campaign” before correcting himself, drew laughter from members of the audience.
Velasquez filed an ethics complaint in November, making a host of allegations against Danzinger. While the Ethics Commission found no probable cause for claims of impropriety Velasquez made regarding an earlier commission presentation by Danzinger and an email he sent to voters, it did find probable cause that he had exploited his position by using public resources for campaign purposes during the August 2023 presentation.
His speech “strayed from its stated public purpose of decorum, as he indicated that he has delivered on his campaign promise and touted his other success in office which had nothing to do with decorum,” Ethics Commission Advocate Radia Turay wrote in a probable cause memo.
In a statement Friday on the Ethics Commission’s finding, Danzinger said the report was “rife with inaccurate and false information” and that he has requested a hearing to challenge the decision.
Former Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett — a subject of scorn in Danzinger’s August presentation — defeated Danzinger to regain his mayoral seat in March amid a wave of political change in the small beach town.
Weeks later, Danzinger, 44, filed to run for mayor of Miami-Dade County.
Danzinger, who is one of several Republicans seeking to unseat Democratic Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, also invoked Thursday’s guilty verdict against former President Donald Trump in his statement to the Miami Herald.
“The American people have just witnessed the weaponization of the justice system against President Trump,” Danzinger said. “As a vocal conservative and Republican running for mayor of Miami-Dade County, I anticipated a tough battle. It’s unsurprising to see the entrenched Democratic political establishment resorting to extreme measures to suppress opposition.”
Danzinger became mayor in March 2022 by defeating Burkett, less than a year after the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condo building in Surfside that left 98 people dead.
During his two-year tenure, Danzinger was a polarizing figure, sparring with fellow elected officials and residents. He made waves by declining to support the flying of an LGBTQ Pride flag and by traveling to Dubai to meet with the developer of the former Champlain Towers South property, a trip first reported by the Herald.
