MIAMI MIRROR TRUE REFLECTIONS

Mayor Philip Levine and Police Chief Daniel Oates advertising Customer Service for private contractor

AUDIT OF MIAMI BEACH TENNIS MANAGEMENT REPORT 2015

BY
DAVID ARTHUR WALTERS
27 May 2016
The 2015 Annual Report of Miami Beach Tennis Management LLC (MBTM) was
presented to City of Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine and his city commissioners
on 22 September 2015 at the behest of the mayors right-hand commissioner,
Michael Grieco. The wildly popular mayor is a real estate developer and media
relations mogul, and enjoys a close friendship with the Clintons.

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MBTM was awarded the contract for management of the citys two tennis
facilities, one at Flamingo Park, the other at North Shore, in April 2014 after
several years of grueling controversy over the quality of management provided by
the previous contractor, Greensquare, Inc. (GSI) for over a decade.
The Report was based on a Power Point Presentation submitted via a 28 August
email to the commission by David Custin, who is registered with the city as a
lobbyist for MBTM. Mr. Custin leveraged his experience as a lowly paid
gerrymandering clerk with the state legislature into local prominence as a lobbyist.
He handled the wealthy mayors 2013 campaign as well the mayors slate of
sponsored commissioners, resulting in the mayor becoming a de facto strong
mayor in a city with a weak mayor charter.

Howie Orlin (left) to Bruce Turkel: "Bruce is my partner."

Mr. Custin did not appear at the commission meeting to present his handiwork.
Instead, he appointed Bruce Turkel, a so-called branding expert, to lobby on his
behalf as lead presenter, with MBTM director Howie Orlin standing by in a
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secondary capacity to provide support, technical information, and answer any
questions you may have. Mr. Orlin had very little to say except to identify Mr.
Turkel as his partner.
Mr. Turkel is the CEO of Turkel Brands. He offers to consult or consults with the
city on tourism and branding issues. For example, at a 2014 meeting of the
mayors blue ribbon panel on the development of North Beach, Mr. Turkel was
present to propose what his firm could do for the city. Although the tennis center
presentation was ostensibly made to favorably influence the commission in its
future consideration of renewing the tennis center management contract, the city
clerk has stated that he is not registered as a lobbyist with the city.
The previous tennis center contractor did not present annual reports to the city
commission. In fact, the city was remiss in auditing its operations until a
vociferous clamor was raised by an independent community tennis association, the
Miami Beach Tennis Association Inc, formed in July 2009 by Rebecca Boyce, its
president, and Gayle Durham, its secretary and director.
The main complaint was not against the tennis professionals led by the famous
Nick Bollettieris son, Jimmy Bollettieri, but against Victor Weithorn, the
operations manager, who happened to be a sitting commissioners brother-and-law,
for failure to properly maintain the courts. That complaint led to ancillary issues
including uncorroborated allegations of embezzlement, drug use and favorable
exemption from drug testing, employment of undocumented professionals, failure
to collect employment taxes, bathroom misconduct, rudeness to customers, and
whatever else could be thought of to get rid of the management team. The city
agreed to rebuild the entire center, and the dissident players argued against the
managements insistence that some courts should be hard courts. The new center
has 17 new clay courts.
The tennis impasse was resolved when Mayor Levine and his friends took over the
city. After some agonizing wrangling including a lawsuit, the contract was handed
on a golden platter with a brand new Flamingo Center to Howie Orlins MBTM.
Mr. Orlin had previously managed the citys tennis centers, and had himself been
ousted over lousy maintenance. The big difference back then, over a decade ago,
was that the centers were publicly managed, so Mr. Orlin was just the manager,
an employee of the city. Reliable sources present at that time, who do not wish to
be identified, say that there was little he could do about the maintenance because
city officials refused to provide sufficient resources, and that was the reason he
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was relieved of his job and the management contracted out to GSI. But private
management was no fix, because GSI was allegedly losing money in one way or
another and had insufficient funds for maintenance.

Howie Orlin and Hillary

Wherefore the partnership approach between the contractor and the city realized
by this particular mayor has its merits inasmuch as the maintenance is now
described by many players as perfect, while the management quality is ranked by

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the officers of the former tennis association, which was disbanded when its
objective was accomplished, as 8.5 out of 10 instead of a minus 1.
Maintenance is the main thing, and if that is done well, recreational players do not
seem to care about anything else as long as they can get a court to play on. Indeed,
now that the maintenance is perfect, any questions about anything else are
perceived as harassment. For instance, the response I received to my question
about the promise made to the commission that a community tennis association
would be formed was greeted with, Stop harassing Howie!
In retrospect it is obvious that the purpose of the Annual Report was not really to
examine tennis center operations, but was devised by the mayors men to give him
a well deserved public pat on the back during his campaign for reelection. Special
care was taken at the commission meeting to tell the mayor and his commissioners
that the center was improved by Mayor Get It Done Philip Levine, referring to
the mayors controversial fast-track programs that have, according to opponents,
run roughshod over residents and businesses.

The mayor, returning the compliments, said he had heard nothing but praise for
Mr. Orlin, and that Howie had done what he had promised the city to do, ten times
over. As if the mayor had taken his cue from Donald Trumps repetitive rhetorical
technique, he emphasized of Howies passions, and said, You done an amazing
job. Weve heard from everybody in the community, youve done an amazing job.

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Commissioner Jonah Wolfson, who had formed a scandalized political action

committee, Relentless for Progress, to publicly laud the mayor, told Mr. Orlin,
Ive been very impressed by what youve done.
So, given an alleged absence of complaints about the centers, and the total lack of
interest among constituents who are not tennis players, the reason for the first
Annual Report ever was to promote the mayor.
The public is well advised, however, to keep a wary eye on government no matter
how good it seems to be doing so that history does not repeat itself. This mayor,
who rose from being a deckhand hawking tours on cruise ships to founding and
heading Royal Media Partners, is a professional public relations man. He has been
ridiculed for becoming exceedingly concerned with his own public image since he
became a politician. Hardly anyone had heard of him before he ran for office.
Turning to the Annual Report, we notice that it is long on pictures and short on
words. The 24-page document has fewer than 600 words, and 17 numbers. Most of
the words make up lists of programs that any tennis center should be doing to serve
tennis players. CUSTOMER SERVICE is a bold heading on the report.
CUSTOMER SERVICE was the motto plugged by campaigning Mayor Levine,
and plastered on City Hall when he was elected, as if the words themselves prove
that customers have been well served.
David Custin, the architect of this Annual Report and mayors strategic consultant,
threatened to sue a journalist for libel for what he suspected she might write before
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Mr. Levine was elected the first time. The mayor closed his offices Complaint
Window after he took his seat, and reigned in an intimidating manner. After he was
re-elected, he referred to the opposition as screamers and yellers, promising they
would not be heard again until the next election. The editors of the only daily
newspaper, the Miami Herald, attacked him at the outset, but then climbed on
board.
Of the numbers on the Annual Report, only 8 are financial, and only 4 of them are
original numbers appertaining to the income statement, cherry-picked to lead one
to the conclusion that the center under new management is doing wildly well in
comparison to how it did under the previous management that insisted it was losing
money hand over fist, but it loved tennis so much it wanted to lose even more
money from unknown sources. Mr. Orlins company offered a lot more rent, much
to the perhaps feigned astonishment of certain sitting commissioners.

The city resisted auditing the old company, and when it finally did conduct an
audit, as a result of the clamor raised with no help from the mainstream press,
whose beat reporter, David Smiley, deemed the controversy boring, the audit was
damning but still inadequate, lacking a balance sheet approach to financial
analysis.
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Given the new numbers, from which one has to work back algebraically and then
make a guess as to the gross revenue, perhaps there is indeed probable cause to
suspect, as was suspected all along, that the old team may have absconded with
several millions over their long tenure. That money if taken would have involved
city facility membership fees, and would have reduced percentage rent to the city.
The figures on the Annual Report were unsupported by any details. Did the
mayors slate of commissioners even bother to ask to see the financial statements?
Did they ask the city auditor to examine and compare the financials of both
companies to ascertain if there was reasonable suspicion that public funds were
stolen; and, if so, to inform the F.B.I. and Internal Revenue Service?
Apparently not, for what the commissioners were told they were looking at in these
superficial, cherry-picked numbers, was another motto of their mayor, printed
boldly on the Annual Report: TRANSPARENCY. The management of the center
has been done in absolute transparency, said the Power Point lobbyist.
So where is the support for the numbered items, the financial statements, the
reports breaking down the revenue into categories? Oh, they are tossed into boxes.
If someone is interested in them, they can advance the clerk $50 to look into the
boxes, pull out the bundles, take them apart, copy certain things wanted, like the
income statement and balance sheet. Otherwise why look? More rent has been
paid, the courts are well maintained. Who cares about the particulars? What we see
at the presentation of the Annual Report is smiling politicians and lobbyists and the
boldly printed phrase TRANSPARENCY, now orally claimed to be absolute,
and this after a lot of bragging about the new managements automatic computer
reporting system.
The community was told about that wonderful system during the bidding process
because, back then, when rent was less but in arrears, and money was allegedly
slipping away, good accounting was deemed crucial. We assumed the reporting
system would be paperless, and we were told that the public would have online
access to the reports.
But no, the officials, when asked to put the information online, said no written
promise to do that was on record. So it is business as usual. Anyone interested
must pay for the public information or go over and dig through the material as we
had to do before, a virtual Stone Age process that impedes transparency; the
politicians who obviously could care less about the detailed reports know that. Yes,
we have an advanced public record law, but they would make it unlikely that
anyone will ask for records, and, if they do, make sure there are impediments that
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only a well funded, controlled media outlet could overcome. After all, only
legitimate editors and publishers should decide what is newsworthy.

I dropped by the Flamingo Park tennis center, and I asked Mr. Orlin, whose
presence there is in part due to my coverage of the situation over the years, to see
at least the financial statements, which would be perhaps two or three pages
without notes. After all, the information is public record, so would he mind giving
me a copy?
I dont have them, he said. The city has them.
Mr. Orlin has in fact been doing a bang-up job managing the new center. It is most
wonderful that after all these years he is finally back on the job and has the support
of city officials. The situation, however, just so happens to be fortuitous at this
time. We have no way of knowing how long that will last. The subject we are
concerned with here is good government, and we want that to outlast this manager
and his public partners. We want good government forever, and for that we must
keep our eye on it and make sure it is rendered as transparent and honest as
possible. Why even bother to require the submission of detailed reports and not
even look at them?
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That being said, lets take a peekand that is all we will get unless we want to
drive to South Beach and rummage through some boxesat other figures on the
Annual Report.

We see the phrase out of pocket applied to a stated $30,000 for after school
programs, and $39,000 for the summer program. We have pictures of Howie with
the kids, we may have seen him with kids, and we admire him for his passionate
contributions to introduce kids to tennis without charge, which, by the way,
happens to be in his contract.
How much money was actually spent? We cannot tell if cash was expended for
those programs without the income and expense report that nobody is interested in
looking at. Did MBTM pay instructors to teach the kids, and does that total
$69,000? We know the IRS would frown on a deduction taken simply for helping
kids play games.
We see from a Jan. 27, 2015, report by Channel 7's Lynn Martinez, that someone
else, namely Mr. Orlins Miami Beach Tennis Foundation, has taken credit for an
afterschool program at the tennis center. Would that be the same program? She
reported that John Eagleton, an All-American Miami Hurricane tennis player
originally from South America, and Howie Orlin, who played tennis as a little boy
on Miami Beach and then for Clemson University in South Carolina, created a free
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after school program funded by Orlin's foundation to teach tennis to hundreds of
kids who learn how to win and lose, be responsible, and follow orders.
We see another $50,600 listed as MBTM OOP. That is not an oops! it means
out of pocket. It is reportedly for courts, umbrellas, shop, common areas.
David Custin, who apparently produced this Power Point presentation, has little
knowledge of accounting categories, or has cherry-picked some details from the
financials that nobody else is expected to see.
The bottom line is that MBTM had some income and some expenses, meaning that
the company is doing business. A few items are mentioned for good measure.
Promises to do things are said to be kept. Never mind the details. Most
importantly, the courts are well maintained. Players come and go. The kids are
taken care of. The city gets its pound of flesh. Nothing else really matters.

One fascinating statement given past history is that MBTM rebuilt 9 clay courts.
That is over half the 17 clay courts at Flamingo. Rebuilding a court is not simply
resurfacing it. Rebuilding means the court is demolished and rebuilt. A court
may have to be rebuilt twice over its entire life.
Howie Orlin is deservedly congratulated for bring the North Shore tennis center up
to par from its deplorable state under the previous management. But he inherited a
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brand spanking new Flamingo Park center, thanks to the previous city
administration. So why did he have to rebuild 9 Flamingo courts?
Well, a contractor who wishes to remain anonymous because the city would
retaliate against him if he were identified told me that Jimmy Bollettieri said
several of the brand new courts turned over to him after the center was rebuilt were
defective. His critics insinuated that his company damaged them.
I asked John Rebar, Director of the Parks Department, to look into the matter and
let me know how much the rebuilding of the courts cost and whether the
contractors who built them should be pursued for recovery of the rebuilding costs.
He said he would do some research. He was unaware of the costs because he
apparently has not seen the financials turned over to his department.
It could very well be that the term rebuilt used in the report was an exaggeration
devised to impress politicians and the public.
Mr. Rebar said he had researched my question, and, after looking at the numbers,
which indicated the work involved "clay, lines, etc., everything needed to
resurface" he as "absolutely sure it was not rebuilding." He said his staff "reviews
the reports for compliance," that he works closely with Howie, and, if something is
not right Howie would have informed him and demanded that the city take care of
it. The false statement on the Annual Report to Mayor Levine and his
commissioners could not be attributed to officials because the Report "was
intended as an update and not intended as any official document."
In fact, the tennis center's 2015 Annual Report is patently false or misleading in
several respects. It is obvious from Mr. Rebar's statement that Mr. Orlin is not very
independent, that he is just a manager subject to official controls. Furthermore, that
the highly esteemed David Custin would concoct such a report as a registered
lobbyist to unnecessarily exaggerate the virtues of a client indicates that all his
work should be regarded with suspicion and carefully examined to ascertain if his
statements are true. A public relations source I consulted said the Report is
downright amateurish. Perhaps not: it had the affect intended if the purpose was to
pat the mayor on the back indirectly by extolling the virtues of the contractor he
and his slate of commissioners awarded the contract to. In any case, the fact that
the city commission took the specious statements on the unsubstantiated report
for granted without inquiry demonstrates its utter negligence and subservience to
Mayor Philip Levine, who is, according to the city's charter, supposed to have no
more power than a chairman with one vote.
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One of the most important statements made in the Annual Report is that a USTA
Community Tennis Association (CTA) would be created in the future, and that
there would be 9 USTA tournaments held.
Mr. Orlin seemed unaware of the CTA commitment when I visited the center. He
said he was handling the functions of a local association. A player at the center
also mentioned Mr. Orlins foundation.
The reason Mr. Orlins MBTM has the current management contract is because
Rebecca Boyce and Gayle Durham formed the Miami Beach Tennis Association
Inc. to organize players to resolve the maintenance issues. Ultimately, that meant
ridding the center of its GSI management team, which itself organized an in-house
association, unregistered with the state, to oppose the reform effort. Once that
purposed was realized, the independent association was abandoned, and the state
has dissolved it for lack of an annual report.
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The USTA defines a CTA as an organized group of dedicated volunteers and
professionals who come together to support community tennis programs. As an
association, the group works to coordinate and maintain programs and services,
guaranteeing they are open and accessible to all. These tennis enthusiasts may act
as advocates, program administrators, promoters, or fund-raisers. Fueled by local
volunteers, these not-for-profit associations exist to promote and develop the game
of tennis in the community.
Would not a local community tennis association be a good thing to have? CTAs
are essential in the organization of leagues, and USTA members are qualified to
play in sanctioned tournaments. Some Florida CTAs are independent, and some are
not. Some actually manage tennis center as nonprofits. That way, fees should be
lower, and the management would ideally be in the hands of the local players
instead of being political tools. Of course they would like any organization have
internal political issues.
I contacted David Custin, the lobbyist who authored the CTA promise, for an
explanation. He did not respond. I contact Mr. Orlin again on the subject via email.
He did not respond. Mr. Custin normally only responds to reporters he recognizes
as legitimate; i.e. who are employed by press organizations over which he feels he
has some control.
I contacted Ms. Boyce and Ms. Durham, asked them for their opinion on
maintenance and management, and pointed out that the city commission was told a
CTA would be formed, which would be advantageous for forming leagues.
Are you going to force someone to create that organization? asked Ms. Durham.
Anyone can form any organization. They don't need Howie or you to tell them to
organize it. I just don't understand what you are trying to accomplish.
As for USTA leagues, she said, I don't think the USTA has a league playing out
of Flamingo, but they have had leagues there recently. Right now the league at
Flamingo is SFWTDL (South Florida Womens Tennis Doubles League) not
USTA, The SFWTDL is a 50-year-old organization. Any tennis player can form a
team and have that team join any league, like the USTA or SFWTDL. The USTA
doesn't create teams, the players have to take the initiative and do that. I spoke to
Howie, and he said he feels his newly formed foundation takes the place of a CTA
because it creates a junior tennis program, specialized clinics, as a charity. And it
the future will create tennis teams.

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Ms. Boyce said organizing and managing a tennis association is a huge
unforgiving job.
Tennis players not only come and go, drop dead, and so on, but most do not have
facility management experience. Nor do they necessarily want the job. As a rule,
tennis players just want to play and leave. With Miami Beach Tennis Association
(MBTA) we could barely scrounge up a good size group to attend a few
commission meetings.
The concept of a non-profit community tennis association as the manager of local
tennis facilities is attractive providing that the players themselves elect the
management team and decide on the rules. On the other hand, democracy may lead
to undesirable consequences. The MBTA managed to get the ear of the politicians
who were vying to oust the current regime. If the players themselves had voted on
the management contract, it would probably have gone to the incumbents.
I contacted the Florida USTA for information and was run around in circles for
some time, leaving me wondering how such an organization so disorganized in its
media relations could manage to organize players in communities.
Florida USTA advertises as follows: We help people play tennis, and weve been
doing it for 65 years. From Youth to College to Adult, we make tennis fun for all.
We work with public and private facilities and organizations across the state to
create more opportunities for you to play. Thats our mission and were pretty
proud of it. When you join USTA Florida, you are helping to (re)build courts,
putting racquets in kids hands, and getting programs up and running in your local
park or facility. Were a non-for-profit, volunteer-led organization that works each
and every day of the year to serve our more than 40,000 individual and nearly
1,000 organization members.
The websites look great, with many benefits from long experience advertised, but
its representatives did not have the resources to do a simple database search and
provide me with the number of USTA members living in the City of Miami Beach
for the last three years.
Sandy Marshall, Section League Coordinator for USTA Florida in Daytona, did
confirm there had been little USTA league activity in Miami Beach lately.
There have been few USTA Florida local league teams out of the Flamingo Park
Tennis Center and the North Shore Park Tennis Center since the USTA League
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Age Division restructuring was instituted in 2013. Players are encouraged to form
teams in their appropriate age division to provide good fair, competitive matches.
If they can appoint a captain, form a team at their given NTRP level and Age
Division, and reach out to the Local League Coordinator in the Area, we can
provide a USTA Florida local league experience. We realize USTA league tennis
is not for everybody given the National rules/regulations, and the structure
governing the program, which is why USTA Florida strives to accomplish their
mission to promote and develop Tennis for all, whether it be USTA league tennis
or local recreational league play. I would recommend you reach out to the tennis
players at those two facilities to get factual information as to whether their needs
are being met. They obviously have a lot of great options available.
I had indeed reached out to a few tennis players who had been around Miami
Beach for a long time. All scoffed at the idea of a CTA. People will run the other
way when dues are mentioned, said one. USTA is good for the magazine, and
thats about it, said another, adding, You may get a T-shirt.
Nationwide, we find complaints on the Web that USTA area coordinators do a
lousy job in coordinating and promoting events, and that they do not respond to
new members who reach out to them. The organization says it promotes tennis, but
is not welcoming to new members. There is no real support from anywhere. You
may not get your subscription, and the T-shirt may be the wrong size. Tournament
fees, say $40 for one match, are too high for some people, especially students.
Even after you join, it is difficult to find someone to play with. Most of the players
who join the USTA just play for fun. There are other leagues and events to play in
that you don't need to be a card carrying USTA member. If you can find others to
play with, USTA is not worth it. Leagues fall through and no refunds are
forthcoming from organizers, so players are left with cheap T-shirts.
On the other hand, there are worse ways to spend money. The magazine alone is
worth the dues. You may get a U.S. Open T-Shirt. Money goes to training and
developing young talent, and supports the U.S. Open. You can join leagues, play
team tennis, or play in tournaments, and you find the best players in USTA
leagues. Some coordinators do a good job. Your money does not go into rich
peoples pockets. Hobbies cost money, and USTA is relatively cheap. Golf and
even bowling can cost more than tennis. If you are a chronic complainer no
organization is good enough for you.
The bottom line is that the USTA is what it is from the grass roots up. Local
players can make the most of it or nothing of it.
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Team-sport leaders do seem more enthusiastic than tennis leaders when it comes to
supporting the future of their sports. Maybe we need more basketball stars helping
with tennis. They will probably find it an unforgiving and thankless task.
If local politics is your game, the history of tennis in the City of Miami Beach is
emblematic of the character of its government. No matter what your sport may be,
it is advisable to keep your eye on the ball.

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