‘A ruse’: Councilwoman used ex-NFL star’s charity to give away gifts before election
One Medley resident got a La-Z-Boy recliner worth over $1,000. Another got a microwave. Others got a coffee maker, a vacuum cleaner, a toaster, a boom box, chairs and a bicycle.
In all, as many as 100 residents got giveaways through a series of “raffles” organized by Medley Councilwoman Lily Stefano last year. The items had been donated to the Santana Moss Foundation, the Medley-based charity created by the former NFL star and Miami native.
Stefano runs the foundation — and was running for mayor at the time.
A Miami-Dade ethics commission investigation has now determined that Stefano’s gifting spree was a blatant and unethical attempt to sway voters in the tiny industrial town in Northwest Miami-Dade County. “The raffle, in reality, was a ruse to promote Stefano’s mayoral campaign,” according to a newly released finding by the commission’s advocate.
Stefano — who lost the mayor’s election in November — faces a $500 fine and a public reprimand from the Miami-Dade County Commission on Ethics and Public Trust. The commission referred the case to the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office; a spokesman for the prosecutors’ office would “neither confirm nor deny” an investigation into Stefano.
In an interview, Stefano, 57, told the Miami Herald it was all “a simple mistake of confusion during an election year.” Currying favor with voters wasn’t the goal, she said.
“My real mission, at the end of the day, is not to be that politician,” Stefano said. “It’s to be able to help people.”
Stefano lost to Mayor Roberto Martell in November with 41% of the vote in an election with 581 ballots cast after she resigned her council seat to run for mayor. She won back her council position in March in a special election after a recently elected member, Yesenia Martinez, suddenly resigned.
Stefano had a lot to gain if she won the mayor’s seat: Medley’s mayor is the town’s top executive and makes an annual salary of more than $187,000, the highest of any municipal mayor in Miami-Dade County, according to a 2018 report by the ethics commission. Council members are paid about $40,000 per year.
For years, Stefano’s prominent role in the town has been interwoven with the foundation, which began a food distribution program in Medley in 2014, Moss’ last year in the National Football League.
Moss, 41, attended Miami Carol City Senior High School and then the University of Miami before a successful 14-year career as a wide receiver in the NFL. He founded the Santana Moss Foundation with Stefano’s help in 2002 with an address in Carol City and a stated intention of running a “community fair,” a sports clinic and other community programs.
But today, he isn’t involved in the foundation financially or otherwise, Stefano said. About two years ago, she said, Moss gave her permission to keep using his name for the organization while he focused on other charity work in Washington, D.C., where he now lives and runs a different foundation, 89 Ways to Give.
“I know you’re not gonna tarnish my name,” Stefano said Moss told her.
Moss did not respond to a phone call and text message seeking comment Thursday.
‘A big mistake’
Stefano didn’t do much to separate the charity from her campaign.
When she held a raffle last year, prizes were delivered to residents from the back of her campaign vehicle, a golf cart adorned with “Lily for Medley” plus her slogan — “The change we need” — and her website URL. She also posted photos on Facebook with raffle winners in which she and others who worked on her campaign wore Stefano’s campaign T-shirts.
She told the Herald she realized at the time that it may have been improper to pose for the photos while wearing campaign gear, though she posted them on social media.
“I jumped in the pictures. Then I said, ‘Oops, I can’t be taking pictures with you guys, I have to go,’ ” she said.
In several instances, Stefano picked the prize winners via Facebook based on who could first identify her “favorite number.” Each time, the correct answer was 126, Stefano’s punch number on the Nov. 3 ballot.
To pick the winners of other prizes, Stefano told ethics investigators she distributed pink raffle tickets to the residents of multiple mobile home communities, which are common in the town of about 1,000 residents.
Stefano also distributed fliers that featured the town seal and touted the raffle as an initiative by her council office, “with the intention of bringing hope, entertainment, and some fun” to residents during the COVID-19 pandemic. But using her government position to promote the event was improper, ethics officials said.
“Although this flyer purported to be a ‘town’ event to help Medley residents get through the trying times of the COVID pandemic, it was, in actuality, a campaign event promoting Lily Stefano,” the county ethics advocate wrote.
The flier highlighted a La-Z-Boy recliner “valued at over $1,000” and said the event was being done “in conjunction with the Santana Moss Foundation and the Lily Stefano Foundation,” the latter of which is a fictitious name for the Moss Foundation that Stefano registered in 2019.
The items Stefano gave away, she told investigators, had been donated to the Moss Foundation by Walmart and La-Z-Boy. They were not included in her campaign finance reports. Stefano said companies regularly donate items to the foundation that were either returned or are no longer being sold.
The decision to commingle her campaign with the raffle was “a big mistake,” Stefano told ethics investigators in April after Martell, the mayor, referred the matter to them in October before the election.
It is a felony in Florida to give away something of value with the intention “to buy that person’s or another’s vote or to corruptly influence that person or another in casting his or her vote.” Joe Geller, a state representative and attorney who specializes in election law, said after reviewing the ethics case that he finds it “troublesome” and “very out of the ordinary.”
“I find this, on multiple grounds, to be not only improper but disturbing,” Geller said. “I’m glad the matter has been pursued, but I think it may be worthy of further investigation.”
Ethics officials also dinged Stefano for another flier her office distributed in September using the town seal, which purported to educate residents about the election with a sample ballot but used bold lettering exclusively for the names of Stefano and three other candidates she was supporting.
This, too, constituted exploitation of Stefano’s official position as a councilwoman, the ethics advocate said.
On April 27, Stefano signed an agreement admitting “probable cause” to support the allegations that she violated county ethics rules, though she didn’t formally admit guilt. The ethics commission’s board unanimously approved the settlement, including the $500 fine, on May 21.
Other ethical questions
Stefano’s involvement with the Santana Moss Foundation, and the organization’s regular presence in Medley performing food giveaways, has long been a source of political tension, adding fuel to a rivalry between Martell and Stefano and raising ethical concerns.
Initially, Stefano said, the charity did work across Miami-Dade County with a particular focus on Carol City, where its programming included donations of school supplies to students. That shifted in 2014, when Stefano launched the foundation’s free-grocery program in Medley. The program has been the foundation’s primary focus ever since.
When Stefano challenged Martell for mayor in 2016, the grocery program was a sticking point during the campaign. The foundation was handing out weekly bags of food under a contract with the town, but Martell complained that Stefano had only started the program to further her political aspirations and ultimately canceled the contract.
The battle over who gets credit for helping feed the town’s residents — many of whom live in mobile homes and whose median household income is around $28,000 — continues today. Stefano said the two main programs that provide free food to residents are the Moss Foundation’s monthly or biweekly distributions, plus a town-run initiative that delivers hot meals to seniors every weekday.
On Thursday, Jose Guasch, the town’s code enforcement director, filed a new complaint with the ethics commission alleging that Stefano improperly sponsored and voted on a council item earlier this month to grant the Moss Foundation “permanent” entry to the town’s Lakeside Retirement Park to distribute food. Lakeside is a low-income mobile home park that is owned by the town.
Stefano claimed that Martell and the vice mayor, Ivan Pacheco, had been trying to prevent her foundation from entering the community, and said she was seeking permission to start distributing food there again. The proposal passed, 4-1, with Pacheco voting against it.
Before presenting the item, Stefano said there was “no conflict” because she is no longer the Moss Foundation’s executive director. That title, she said, now belongs to Fanny Martinez, who was also Stefano’s campaign treasurer last year.
But Stefano told the Herald she’s still involved with overseeing the organization, and state records still name her as its director. Martinez’s name is not listed.
“By blatantly sponsoring and voting on an agenda item designed to solely benefit her own organization, Councilwoman Stefano violated the Miami Dade Ethics Code provisions regarding voting conflicts and abuse of power,” Guasch wrote in his complaint.
Stefano says she has no financial interest in the foundation. She told the Herald she doesn’t make any money from it and never has, and that she has actually invested her own money to help it stay afloat.
Stefano’s name first appeared on company filings in 2010, when she was listed as treasurer. In 2016, the nonprofit’s official address moved to Medley, where it has stayed since. Stefano’s mother, Nancy Stefano, was listed as vice president in state filings starting in 2018.
Today, the foundation operates exclusively in Medley — a decision Stefano insists is about charity alone.
“When we got to Medley, it was a rude awakening: Wow, we have an incredible amount of poverty. That, to me, is heartbreaking,” Stefano said. “If we don’t do what we do, a lot of these people don’t get to eat.”
Stefano did not list the foundation among her sources of income on a financial disclosure form filed with the county elections department in 2019, the most recent year in which she filed a form. But in 2018, she named the foundation as a secondary income source while listing her town council role as her primary income source.
In a 2015 financial disclosure form, Stefano listed the foundation as her primary source of income. Nonetheless, in tax forms filed with the federal government in 2014, 2015 and 2016, the Moss Foundation reported that Stefano didn’t receive any compensation.
The foundation has since lost its tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) status after failing to file “990” disclosure forms for three consecutive years, according to the IRS. That means its more recent finances can’t be reviewed by the public.
Stefano told the Herald she listed the foundation on her financial disclosure forms because it was a source of employment, even though she didn’t make any money. As for the charity’s nonprofit status, she told the Herald the tax forms were sent to the IRS but that the government claimed it didn’t receive them. She said she’s working to address the issue now.
“We’re clearing it up, hopefully in the next 30 days,” she said.
This story was originally published May 28, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
