![]() ![]() Is it too late to send this village back to the bottom of the bay? Now the former chief has sued, claiming he was axed for blowing the whistle on corruption, while the mayor claims the chief let a bunch of cops get drunk on duty during a hurricane. They were cleared, but not before cleaning out the police force. Last year, a commissioner revealed he was being blackmailed over an old cocaine charge, and investigators looked at the mayor and her allies as suspects. In '86, three local cops pleaded guilty after offering to protect drug shipments for an undercover FBI agent. In the early '80s, the feds warned that a made man named "Joe Scootch" was running a giant Quaalude ring in town, and a few years later, the village's police force got in on the action. In the '60s, Frank Sinatra hung out at the Place for Steak until a guy named "Big Tony" walked in and put a bullet through the head of Thomas "the Enforcer" Altamura. Ever since, the town has been a cesspool of graft, drugs, and mobsters. ![]() But then the two small islands along the 79th Street Causeway were dredged up from the muck. Until 1941, North Bay Village lay at the murky bottom of Biscayne Bay. Is your head spinning yet? Just imagine living in NMB. Oh yeah, and during the mayor's investigation, he casually admitted his wife was getting paid off by the Dezer family, the most powerful developers in town. In April 2018, Vallejo took his own plea deal after admitting he bankrolled his personal life with campaign funds. Then the city sold off its water plant, a once-thriving utility that serves 200,000 people, even though the FBI had briefly looked into the deal. Then, in October 2017, former North Miami Beach Mayor Myron Rosner was arrested on securities fraud charges. In 2016, then-Mayor George Vallejo posted a hostage-style Twitter video in which he announced he was facing a public-corruption probe. North Miami Beach is a town where all the politicians hate one another and there's always the risk that any lawmaker, at any time, could get busted by the feds. Well, there's one obvious answer: Put the entire Opa-locka government directly in the trash can. He said he left with "more questions than answers" about how the city became such a miserable failure. Merrett Stierheim, the former county manager brought in to "clean up" the place, quit in March 2017 and said it was the "worst case" he'd seen in his long career. How did the Moorish-themed town get here? Here's the tl dr version: a federal graft probe starting as early as 2013 a city government that decided not to keep any real spending records officials who thought taxpayer money could be spent on lavish birthday parties and huge holiday bonuses elected officials convicted of using their employees to extort local businesses a city commissioner who killed himself while facing bribery charges and a morning FBI raid on city hall in 2016. "The city revenues are tapped out, there's no leadership, and in this case, you can't even file bankruptcy to restructure your assets, because there's nothing for you to restructure." "Once you're tapped out, you're tapped out," said Willis Howard, one of the locals who mounted the charge. Last August, a few local activists were so tired of fighting graft that they actually started a petition to dissolve the town. Opa-locka is so crooked its own residents tried to wipe it off the map. Here's our definitive ranking of Miami-Dade's most corrupt cities. Which can claim the cocaine-dusted crown as the capital of graft in South Florida? Everyone knows our swampy metropolis is the kind of place where business is done via cash-stuffed envelopes swapped in bathroom stalls, and cops and drug lords are often one and the same.īut Dade County is also a collection of 34 incorporated cities, each with its own particular brand of scummy officials and scammy businesses. South Florida has had some iconic pairs over the years, but none tops our OG local couple: Dade County and corruption. (2022), "Local government officials’ susceptibility to corrupt behavior: some Indonesian evidence", Journal of Financial Crime, Vol. Pretisila Kartika Putri acknowledges financial support from the Institute of Research and Community Research, Universitas Jenderal Soedirman. ![]() The authors also gratefully acknowledge the cooperation and tremendous help from district officials, village heads, and youth communities across Central Java province, Indonesia, where they distribute the questionnaires. The authors thank Editor and anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions. The present study provides empirical evidence on the determinants of local government officials’ corrupt behavior from Indonesia’s perspective, which is currently limited. ![]()
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