North Bay Village commissioner used staff for a private event. She’s now pleaded guilty

A North Bay Village commissioner resigned Wednesday after she was charged — and immediately pleaded guilty — to misdemeanors stemming from her using village staff members to plan a private educational event.

Andreana Jackson, a real-estate agent, must also perform 100 hours of community service and pay back the nearly $3,000 she was quietly paid as a “consultant” for hosting the education fair at Treasure Island Elementary School in November 2017.

Prosecutors charged her with two misdemeanors: extortion by officers of the state, and exploitation of an official position. Under the terms of the plea deal, which was worked out in advance before charges were filed, Jackson agreed to resign.

“It is always sad when an elected official is charged with a crime involving her office,” Ethics Commission Director Jose Arrojo said in a statement released on Wednesday. “However, in this case, the elected official was charged with using the prestige of office for personal gain which goes to the core of what constitutes unethical conduct.”

The plea deal unfolded Wednesday morning in a virtual court hearing before Miami-Dade County Judge Jacqueline Woodward.

Jackson’s attorney, Ben Kuhene, said his client is “deeply remorseful for failing to observe the line between personal and public service.”

“She never intended to do anything except serve the public’s interest.”

Jackson, 43, was appointed to the commission in December 2015. She had made promoting education a signature part of her efforts as public official. In November 2016, Jackson hosted her first “Treasure Island Art Meets Technology Fair,” which features a host of “kid-friendly workshops” that exposed them to careers in science and the arts.

North Bay Village is a small island community of over 8,000 residents wedged between Miami and Miami Beach. It has a long and colorful political history — and a history of elected officials getting arrested. The commission has 30 days to decide whether to appoint a new commissioner to fill Jackson’s seat, or to call a special election within 90 days.

The investigation into Jackson was done by the Miami-Dade County Commission on Ethics and Public Trust, and the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Public Corruption Task Force.

The probe started when Jackson herself called Arrojo, asking whether a “yoga event” she was sponsoring might pose an “ethics problem,” according to a commission report. During the call, Jackson asked whether it would be OK for the village to pay an events planner named Melissa Frantz.

The ensuing probe revealed that Jackson and Frantz had worked together to put on six community events in North Bay Village. The focus soon turned to Jackson’s fundraising efforts for the Nov. 4, 2017, fair held at Treasure Island Elementary.

In the months before the event, Jackson “solicited” local businesses for money for the fair, according to prosecutors, raising $13,500. The Knight Foundation also kicked in a grant of $10,000.

“Throughout the five months that Jackson was raising money for the event, she represented to donors and potential donors that she was doing so in her official capacity as a North Bay Village Commissioner,” ethics investigator Susannah Nesmith wrote in her report.

Jackson and Frantz portrayed the event as being officially sponsored by North Bay Village — the village’s logo was even used to advertise the event.

Financial records showed that $11,000 of the donations went to Dibia Dreams, a non-profit group that organizes science events for children. The group’s founder told Nesmith and prosecutor Isis Perez that he had no idea Jackson was getting payments from Frantz.

Records show that $12,500 of the donations went to Frantz, who turned around and paid Jackson $2,950 in three checks. Jackson earns $600 a month as a village commissioner.

Emails showed that Jackson directed village staffers to help do everything from arrange a “walk-through” of the campus, to setting up meetings with school district officials.

Jackson even had an employee call the school’s principal “to find out if she could bring donuts for the teachers and pass out flyers for the event,” the report said.

The case was but the latest in a long history of political scandals and resignations that, in 2018, led the city of Miami Beach to consider the idea of annexing the village.

On Wednesday, North Bay Village Mayor Brent Latham — whose election in November 2018 along with another commissioner marked a new chapter for the village — accused Jackson and others of tarnishing the town’s reputation.

“Commissioner Jackson made it very difficult for me to move North Bay Village forward from day one, openly fighting reform and transparency,” Latham told the Miami Herald. “Today, I can only say that justice was served.”

Three of the village’s five commission seats, including Jackson’s and Latham’s, were slated for the November ballot. Jackson was already facing a challenger in Rachel Streitfeld, a land use lawyer and a member of the village’s “sustainability task force.”

“This November, [residents] were gonna have a chance to right that wrong,” Latham said of the village’s history of political scandals. Jackson’s guilty plea Wednesday, he said, “is just accelerating the process at this point.”

Before she resigned, Jackson has not yet filed paperwork to run for reelection.

This story was originally published July 22, 2020 at 11:09 AM.