Expletives hurled during forum for Miami Beach Commission candidates
The race for Miami Beach’s Group 3 Commission seat took an odd turn last week when a candidate was called a “f---ing b----” at an online candidates forum after questioning why a term-limited commissioner showed up to the event despite a judge’s order barring him from running for reelection.
The expletives seemed to be directed at first-time candidate Melissa Beattie, who is running for Commissioner Michael Góngora’s Group 3 seat and appeared along with Góngora and other other commission candidates in Group 3 and Group 1 at a video forum organized by the
Mid Beach Neighborhood Association.
Góngora attended the forum as a candidate, just days after a Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge issued an order prohibiting him from running for a third full term as commissioner due to term limits. He introduced himself as a Group 3 candidate but offered a caveat: “I may continue forward or I may continue in another seat.”
During the nearly twohour candidates forum, participants answered questions and offered voters their mission statements. It wasn’t until the very end of the meeting that Beattie took aim at Góngora, using her closing remarks to bring up his unsuccessful legal challenge of the city’s term limits. “I’d like to also say thank you to Commissioner Góngora for participating
tonight although he was deemed not eligible to run because he’s violating voters-approved term limits,” Beattie said.
That didn’t go over well with at least one person watching. As the next candidate was asked to give closing remarks, someone off-screen — likely a woman, from the sound of it — yelled, “What a f----ing b----!”
The camera immediately panned to Góngora, whose microphone was on. He smiled wide for a few moments and his eyes briefly darted away from the screen before the next candidate began his closing remarks with an awkward chuckle.
It’s unclear where the comments came from. Beattie and others said they did not hear what was said until they watched the video of the meeting.
GÓNGORA SAYS EXPLETIVES DIDN’T COME FROM HIM
Still, within 24 hours, Beattie used the incident to rally support — and ask for donations — in a campaign email that pointed the finger at a “participant” of
the forum. She said the pejorative terms are “what you get called when you want to rid city hall of corrupt, career politicians who still want to cling to power despite the voters saying ‘hell no.’” Later, in an interview, she stopped short of accusing Gongora.
“At the end of the day, whoever it was that reacted it was a strong reaction to a comment I was making that him being there that night wasn’t the right thing,” she said.
Góngora said the expletive-charged blowup didn’t come from him, and that nobody was in the room with him. He said he turned his microphone on to respond to Beattie’s closing remarks but did not end up saying anything. He said he may have breathed into his microphone to say something.
“I had turned my mic on so I was about to respond,” he said. “I was about to say something but then I decided to refrain.”
He said he didn’t condone the outburst, but also knocked Beattie for criticizing him at the candidates forum and using the incident to seek attention for her campaign.
“I don’t believe anybody deserves to be called that,” he said. “I don’t believe I deserve to be attacked by her.” He later added, “It’s a campaign trick but it is what it is.”
WHAT’S NEXT FOR GÓNGORA?
As for Góngora’s political future, he said he has not decided whether to appeal the order blocking his reelection bid or seek an alternative path, like running for mayor, which he is legally allowed to do.
The deadline to qualify for the Nov. 2 election is next Friday, Sept. 10. Góngora, who filed paperwork to run for reelection in
June, sued the city after being told he was ineligible to be on the ballot. He argued that a 2014 voter amendment establishing lifetime term limits did not apply retroactively to his first term since he left office before the new law took effect. He was later elected in 2017 to a second four-year term.
A judge last week sided with the city; Góngora said he will consider appealing the order or seek a different path in public office.
Góngora said he had stopped “actively campaigning” after Judge David Miller issued the order on Aug. 27. But when the Mid Beach Neighborhood Association invited him to join the meeting, he accepted, according to President Anamarie Ferreira de Melo.
“I love the city and in one path or another I will stay active,” he said. “So whatever happens there will be a happy ending to this story.”