Law firm for Surfside accuses resident of defaming town attorney over LGBTQ flag advice
Ever since Surfside officials chose not to fly the LGBTQ Pride flag at Town Hall in June, resident Gerardo Vildostegui has been one of the town’s most outspoken critics.
At public meetings and in a letter to the town’s law firm, he blasted Town Attorney Lillian Arango for what he says was a “completely inaccurate” interpretation of a relevant Supreme Court case and for “anti-LGBTQ politicking” and called on her to resign.
Vildostegui, a former constitutional law professor, says he didn’t expect what came next. The town’s law firm, Weiss Serota Helfman Cole & Bierman, sent him a letter demanding that he stop making “defamatory” statements about Arango.
“[W]e caution against continued efforts to damage Ms. Arango’s and the Firm’s reputation,” states the July 25 letter from Mitchell Burnstein, a partner at the firm. “Please refrain from such attacks and from any further defamatory actions immediately.”
Vildostegui, who is gay, told the Miami Herald he felt “bullied” when he received the letter. He is active in town politics, he said, and when the town flew the Pride flag last year, it made him feel “validated” after moving back to his hometown in 2020.
“I feel like I’m doing a service to the town when I speak,” he said. “I would think the attorney and the manager and the commission would be grateful for my input. You saw what I got instead. I was told to shut up.”
Weiss Serota’s letter also suggests his actions have hurt the town of Surfside.
“[I]t is your narrative and continued misinterpretation of all that has transpired that is divisive and harmful to the Town,” the letter says.
At a meeting last month, Surfside officials voted to recognize June as Pride month in the future but could not reach a consensus on a flag policy. The matter is on the commission agenda again for a meeting on Tuesday.
A representative for the law firm, which represents municipal governments across South Florida, said it was highly unusual for the firm to send a letter like the one to Vildostegui. This situation was unique, the firm said, in part because Vildostegui expressed his concerns in writing to the firm and requested a response.
“Residents rarely, if ever, write to the managing director of our firm asking that a lawyer sitting as the attorney for the municipality be removed and demanding a response to accusations,” Weiss Serota partner Edward Guedes said in a written response to questions from the Herald.
Guedes said the firm is not currently planning to sue Vildostegui.
In a response to the letter, Vildostegui’s attorney, Sam Thypin-Bermeo, told the law firm that Vildostegui was merely expressing his opinions. The law firm’s claim of defamation, he said, “raises serious First Amendment concerns.”
“If this threat becomes an informal censorship campaign, Mr. Vildostegui may have no other choice than to protect his First Amendment rights with legal action,” Thypin-Bermeo wrote.
How it started
Controversy over the Pride flag in Surfside began May 3, when Arango forwarded a news article to Mayor Shlomo Danzinger and other town officials about a recent Supreme Court ruling that said the city of Boston had unconstitutionally barred a Christian group from flying its flag at City Hall.
In her email, Arango said the town had “opened the door to have to allow other flags” when it raised the Pride flag at Town Hall last year.
The Supreme Court ruling provided a distinction between government speech and private speech, saying cities can in some cases choose which flags they want to fly without opening themselves up to requests from outside groups. The court found that Boston’s policy, which invited private groups to request to display their flags, did not constitute government speech and therefore the city could not reject certain applications and pick others.
Unlike in Boston, Surfside raised the Pride flag last June after then-Vice Mayor Tina Paul requested it and town commissioners agreed.
Vildostegui says Arango failed to explain this nuance to town officials. While Arango did not issue a formal opinion on the matter, Danzinger has said he opposes flying the Pride flag because Arango advised him that doing so could force the town to accept requests to fly swastikas or Satanic flags.
The mayor has also said he doesn’t believe the Pride flag is a high-priority issue for residents. About 40 protesters gathered outside Town Hall in late June to call on Surfside to fly the flag.
Danzinger could not be reached for comment on the letter from Weiss Serota to Vildostegui.
Weiss Serota maintains Arango did her job properly by advising the town to formalize a policy on flag flying, saying the lack of such a policy could expose the town to lawsuits.
“It has never been the intention of the firm or Ms. Arango to oppose the flying of the Pride flag in the Town or to inject any anti-LGBTQ animus into the flagpole policy debate,” Guedes said. “That alleged animus simply does not exist.”
This story was originally published August 8, 2022 at 2:00 PM.
