Rep. Fabián Basabe is escalating his battle with the city of Miami Beach over what he describes as a “structural lack of accountability” that burdens taxpayers and undermines public trust.
In a new letter to Sen. Jason Brodeur and Rep. Chase Tramont, two fellow Republicans who chair the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee, Basabe requested that Auditor General Sherill Norman conduct an audit into Miami Beach’s finances and governance.
If approved, the audit would mark one of the most sweeping state reviews of a South Florida municipality in recent memory.
“Constituents have repeatedly raised concerns about financial mismanagement, procurement irregularities, and a lack of transparency,” Basabe wrote, invoking Rule 4.5(2) of the Legislature’s Joint Rules.
He accused Miami Beach’s leaders of a pattern of dubious fiscal practices, including “inflated contracts, diversion of funds, and questionable budget allocations.” Favoritism frequently informs how the city leases its real estate and awards contracts, he said. Basabe added that the issue, combined with bungled tax and bond management, leads to “basic projects” taking decades to finish.
As an example, he pointed to Bayshore Park, which he said “took thirty years” to be built. Contemporary reporting suggests the timeline for the project was closer to 10 years. The same goes for the Miami Beach boardwalk, which he said took 20 years to finish.
In his letter, Basabe questioned the influence “outside consultants and lobbyists” have on procurement and governance decisions. He also highlighted Miami Beach’s homelessness ordinance, which he threatened officials over in August.
He said Miami Beach’s rules for handling unhoused people don’t align with a 2024 state law and that the city’s policy of arresting and re-arresting them “appears to protect and leverage private contracts tied to the new Leifman Center at the county level.”
“The connection between municipal ordinances, repeated arrests, and contracted services should be closely reviewed as part of any audit,” he wrote. “Oversight is urgently needed to protect taxpayers, ensure compliance, and restore trust.”
Commissioner Alex Fernandez, who sponsored the city’s 2023 homelessness ordinance, defended its efficacy in August. He told Florida Politics that arrests for public camping and right-of-way obstruction rose sharply after the measure’s passage, as had efforts to offer services to unhoused people.
A memo at the time by City Manager Eric Carpenter showed Miami Beach registered 1,543 homelessness-related arrests in 2023, accounting for 31% of the city’s total arrests that year, and 2,179 (42%) last year.
Basabe, in his letter noted that those arrests involve “the same 200 individuals being arrested more than 2,000 times,” amounting to more of a cycle than a solution.
Fernandez told Florida Politics previously that prior to the ordinance, Miami Beach’s homeless population exceeded 230 people. Since then, he said, it’s dropped by about 54% to 106 people.
Basabe’s call for an audit of Miami Beach comes as the Florida Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) audits or moves to audit numerous localities across the state under Gov. Ron DeSantis and CFO Blaise Ingoglia, including Miami-Dade County, which contains Miami Beach.
Notably, DeSantis spoke positively about Miami Beach’s homelessness ordinance and its handling of the issue when he chose the city as the site to sign the state law last year. Commissioner Joseph Magazaine — who, like Meiner, has no party affiliation — previously told Florida Politics that he had confirmed with City Attorney Ricardo Dopico that Miami Beach’s ordinance is actually stricter than the state law.
The Auditor General’s probe, if authorized, would not be duplicative because it targets a local government not currently under DOGE’s crosshairs, Basabe said. He added that he would withdraw his request if that changes and Miami Beach does draw DeSantis and Ingoglia’s attention.
Since the end of the 2025 Session, Basabe — an attention-seeking lawmaker with no shortage of personal controversy, including an ongoing defamation lawsuit brought by two former staffers — has ramped up attacks on local officials.
In August, he successfully pushed for Bay Harbor Islands to fire its Town Attorney, Democratic Miami-Dade School Board member Joe Geller. The action, effectuated by a 6-1 Town Council vote, prompted one of Geller’s law firm partners to opine that the number of municipalities with which Basabe has scrutinized “probably correlates to the number of political enemies he has.”
He then accused Miami Beach Commissioner Laura Dominguez, a Democrat, of engaging in backroom “grift,” sharing a video clip that omitted important context. Basabe also complained to the Florida Election Commission about “false, malicious” texts sent by the campaign of Lucia Báez-Geller, his 2026 Democratic challenger for House District 106 (no relation to Joe Geller), and downplayed outrage over the removal of a rainbow crosswalk in Miami Beach as “performative politics.”
Florida Politics contacted Meiner, Dominguez, Fernandez, Magazine and Commissioners Tanya Bhatt, Kristen Rosen Gonzalez and David Suarez — two Democrats and a member of the Independent Party, respectively — but received no response by press time.
Rosen Gonzalez is challenging Meiner for Mayor in the city’s Nov. 4 election, when Dominguez and Fernandez each face one challenger for their City Commission seats. Six candidates are also vying for the seat Rosen Gonzalez is vacating.
