By Dan Christensen, FloridaBulldog.org
What happens when a lobbying firm that boasts how it “helps clients build relationships, earn government contracts and achieve business objectives” takes control, or near control, of a Broward city? We may find out.
Pembroke Pines is Broward’s second largest city. LSN Partners LLC is a Miami-based “government relations” company with a strong Broward presence.
Pines Mayor Angelo Castillo’s wife, Lisa Castillo, is LSN’s chief of staff in Fort Lauderdale. Michael Hernandez, listed on LSN’s website and his own LinkedIn page as “a Partner with LSN Communications,” is the newest member of the city’s five-seat commission. He’s been with LSN since March 2021.
Mayor Castillo, elected mayor in March, voted repeatedly in May to install Hernandez, his wife’s colleague at LSN, to the post of interim city commissioner for District 4 over four other applicants. Castillo represented District 4 before he quit to run for mayor.
Because Castillo had more than 180 days left in his term when he submitted his resignation letter in December in order to run for mayor, the city commission acted as a hiring manager by taking applications, evaluating candidates and conducting a ranked or progressive series of votes on May 15 to choose an interim commissioner to serve until next month’s election.
Castillo said he voted for Hernandez because he’s known him for more than a decade and that he’s the best person for the job. He said no conflict exists because “It’s my understanding that he’s a contractor [with LSN], a private consultant. He has many clients including numerous law firms.”
Hernandez, a 16-year resident of Pembroke Pines, said that’s correct despite what LSN’s website says about him. “I’m not a partner. They pay me a monthly retainer to be a communications consultant.”
A CONFLICT OR NOT?
Did Castillo have a conflict that required him not to vote on a matter that could benefit his wife and the lobbying firm that employs her?
Here’s what Florida law says about voting conflicts: “No appointed public officer shall participate in any matter which would inure to the officer’s special private gain or loss; which the officer knows would inure to the special private gain or loss of any principal by whom he or she is retained or to the parent organization or subsidiary of a corporate principal by which he or she is retained; or which he or she knows would inure to the special private gain or loss of a relative or business associate of the public officer, without first disclosing the nature of his or her interest in the matter.”
Castillo disclosed no conflict. Nor did he seek ethics advice from City Attorney Sam Goren before casting his votes, Goren said. Yet while those votes are odoriferous, Florida’s notoriously flaccid ethics laws don’t seem to require disclosure because they don’t clearly outlaw what he may have done wrong.
How? LSN is a private business that does not disclose its finances. So there’s no way for the public to know if Lisa Castillo benefitted from her husband’s vote with a bonus or salary bump. Similarly, any future economic benefit to LSN from having a “partner” as a voting member of the city commission is incalculable. Besides, LSN isn’t currently registered to lobby in Pembroke Pines.
But LSN has represented clients before the Pembroke Pines city commission in the past. For example, several years ago, George Platt successfully lobbied on behalf of Jacobs Engineering’s bid to run the city’s privatized water and sewer operations.
Hernandez is best known locally for his role as an advisor and spokesman for Carlos Gimenez when the Republican congressman was Miami-Dade’s mayor. Besides working for LSN’s communications arm, Hernandez runs his own firm, Panther Consulting, and is an adjunct professor of international and public affairs at Florida International University.
A partner in a limited liability company like LSN is an owner of the business, not an employee. He or she shares in the company’s gains and losses and may also have certain guaranteed payments for services rendered.
Hernandez declined to disclose how much LSN pays him every month and observed LSN could just as easily have used “senior advisor” to describe him. Still, “partner” is the word both LSN and Hernandez on his LinkedIn profile use to publicly describe him.
Curiously, Hernandez’s financial disclosure form does not mention that he receives any income from LSN. The form, completed under penalty of perjury, was filed with the city clerk on March 7, 2024.
Hernandez does list $280,000 in annual income from Panther Consulting, which he told Florida Bulldog was where he handles clients that don’t involve LSN. “I’m routinely hired by sports franchises, law firms. Most of my work is in crisis communications or chief executive communications,” he said.
LSN’S CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS
Mayor Castillo’s relationship with LSN extends beyond his wife’s employment there. City election records show that during his campaign for mayor he collected a total of $6,000 from LSN’s principals.
The breakdown: $1,000 apiece from company co-founders and apparent owners, Alexander and Tiffany Zientz Heckler; $1,000 from LSN Partners; $1,000 from LSN Law; $1,000 from the Heckler’s Miami Beach firm Heckler Corporate and Public Affairs; and $1,000 from Platt Wetlands, the for-profit firm of LSN’s Broward Managing Partner and former Broward County commissioner George Platt.
Castillo used every penny to win. His campaign termination report filed in June shows he raised a total of $121,157.92, much of it from various corporate interests like towing and garbage disposal companies and spent all of it. LSN’s principals alone accounted for 5 percent of Castillo’s fundraising.
Still, the mayor called it “preposterous” that anyone might think his votes regarding Hernandez could be an ethical violation.
“My involvement in the vote on Mike Hernandez, from top to bottom and every way in between, was thoroughly wholesome, legal and appropriate and any suggestion to the contrary could only be more election day drama,” Castillo said Friday.
LSN Partners also contributed $1,000 to the campaign of Commissioner Maria Rodriguez, who was also a staunch Hernandez supporter.
Today, as District 4’s incumbent, Mike Hernandez is running for election to finish out the remaining two years in the current term. Election Day is Nov. 5. Through June, the latest record available, Hernandez has raised more than $60,000. That includes a $1,000 check from LSN attorney and partner Michael Llorente and $250 more from LSN partner Jose Fuentes.
The other District 4 candidates are Ali Bhojani, Elizabeth Burns and Andrew Perry Reitz. Bhojani and Burns were two of the other applicants for appointment to the district seat in May. Bhojani has raised $16,000 and Burns and Reitz each have raised less than $2,000 through June 30, records show.
THE VOTE FOR HERNANDEZ
Should Hernandez be elected next month he may have divided loyalties. He’ll take an oath to support the city. But he’ll also be obliged by what LSN says on its website: “Always dedicated to our clients, we create custom and innovative government affairs strategies to assist our clients with government procurements, legislative and regulatory reforms, lobbying and strategic planning.”
Who will Hernandez represent if and when LSN trots out clients seeking lucrative contracts with the city? Even if he discloses and refrains from voting or participating, that could set up other potential problems for the city, like 2-2 commission deadlocks and the delays they cause.
The Pembroke Pines commission’s May 15 vote to select Hernandez wasn’t simple, lasting seven rounds.
There were five applicants. Mayor Castillo and Commissioner Maria Rodriguez ranked Hernandez first in every round, and Commissioner Jay Schwartz ranked Ali Bhojani first every round. Vice Mayor Mike Good ranked retired telecommunications consultant Robert G. Wood, who pledged to be a placeholder who would not run for election in November, first until the fifth round after Wood was eliminated.
After deadlocks in rounds five and six, with commissioners Schwartz and Good voting for Bhojani and Mayor Castillo and Commissioner Rodriguez voting for Hernandez, Castillo proposed a coin toss as a tie breaker. When no one agreed, Good asked for a five-minute break.
City Attorney Goren said Good asked him about a compromise Good had thought about. Goren saw no problems with it. So when the commission reconvened for round seven, Good made a motion to appoint whoever finished second to the city’s planning and zoning board. The motion passed 3-1, with Schwartz saying no.
Good then switched his vote to back Hernandez, making Hernandez the winner. Bhojani was quickly added to the p&z board to complete the deal.
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