Local political drama in the village of Palmetto Bay is costing residents thousands of dollars in legal fees — and there's still no clear final act.
Palmetto Bay Council Member Steve Cody has sued the village and 25-year-old Vice Mayor Mark Merwitzer over the latter’s qualifications as an elected official.
The village must pay for its own legal representation as well as Merwitzer’s defense, while the village's public records show Cody has worked with a lobbyist the city fired last year.
Tanglewood
The battle started the way many conflicts unfold in South Florida: A dispute over vacant land.
Miami-Dade County last year wanted to sell a tract of green space near Palmetto Bay, just south of SW 140th Street. The land has FPL power lines running through it, and no county department had a use for the vacant property, so Miami-Dade wanted to offload it.
Some homeowners who live next to the land wanted to buy it for themselves, but so did the Village of Palmetto Bay — where the administration wanted to make a linear park they referred to as “Tanglewood park.”
The Village hired government affairs attorney Jorge Luis Lopez last April to lobby the county on their behalf for the Tanglewood project. Things were moving along — until a new member joined the council after the November election.
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“After I get elected, I put on the agenda an item to rescind that contract and I secured the votes to get rid of that contract altogether for this issue,” said Merwitzer.
Merwitzer joined the council late last year and undid the town’s application for the Tanglewood land as one of his first actions in office.
Merwitzer took issue with the fact that the village was paying Lopez up to $45,000 a month in taxpayer funds while no public vote was taken to hire him. Additionally, Merwitzer supported the neighboring residents who wanted to buy the property themselves.
“To me, this is one of those issues where it's about government versus the people and about how we bypassed every single proper procedure and process meant to protect our own residents,” he told WLRN.
Over a period of 10 months, Palmetto Bay paid Lopez about $200,000 for a combination of legal and lobbying activities. Village Attorney John Dellagloria said Lopez performed only a “modicum” of legal services, and the majority of his work for the village involved lobbying.
Village of Palmetto Bay: A timeline
February 2023: Village applies to buy county-owned green space, "Tanglewood."
April 2024: Village hires attorney Jorge Luis Lopez to lobby on Tanglewood.
November 2024: Mark Merwitzer elected to village council.
January 13, 2025: Village council votes to rescind Tanglewood application and end Lopez' contract.
January 13, 2025: Steve Cody objects to meeting minutes, claims Merwitzer wasn't sworn in correctly.
February 2025: Cody texting and emailing Lopez, sends emails to residents discrediting Merwitzer.
April 7, 2025: Cody pushes item to reapply for Tanglewood land, council votes yes.
April 9, 2025: Cody sues Merwitzer and Village of Palmetto Bay.
Swearing-in
After that contract was rescinded, council member Cody began an effort to discredit the vice mayor by questioning whether he’s really a council member at all thanks to a wrinkle with his swearing-in.
Merwitzer was sworn into office by Miami-Dade County Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins. Because Cohen Higgins is not a notary, clerk or officer of the court, Merwitzer’s oath of office did not meet the statutory requirements to be legitimate. Merwitzer later retook the oath in front of the Palmetto Bay Clerk and then signed the oath on a separate day.
Because of that gap between recitation and signing, Cody argues Merwitzer’s swearing-in did not count and he is not an actual member of the town council.
“We had our meeting in January and I objected to the minutes because it reflected that he was the vice mayor at our December meeting and he hadn't been properly sworn in. So we got in a bit of a tussle,” Cody told WLRN.
Cody contends the issue comes down to legal liability if someone sues the village over Merwitzer’s votes.
“If we pass the budget three to two and he is on the winning side, and it turns out that I'm right, then we didn't pass a budget because nothing passes on a two to two tie. That can impose great liability upon everybody on the council,” Cody said.
The village council hired an outside law firm to investigate Cody’s claim to the tune of about $6,000. The firm concluded Merwitzer was properly sworn in. Dellagloria, Palmetto Bay’s own village attorney, also insists that Merwitzer’s swearing in was legitimate. That has not, however, stopped Cody from maintaining his argument online and in the courts.
He has sent email blasts to village residents and made Facebook posts about Merwitzer that include cartoon depictions of the vice mayor that Cody creates himself.
“If only we had a Vice Mayor … But, since Mark Merwitzer, who won the election in November as Vice Mayor, refuses to take the oath of office legally, we don't. (He's as stubborn as he is young and inexperienced.) Or maybe, his mommy wouldn't give him a ride to any of these events!” Cody wrote on Facebook on March 23.
Behind the scenes, Cody has been sending his draft email blasts and legal strategies to the very same lobbyist whose contract Merwitzer rescinded: Jorge Luis Lopez.
The lobbyist
Public records from the Village of Palmetto Bay show emails and texts going back and forth between Cody and Lopez after Lopez’s contract was rescinded in December.
Cody texted Lopez a video he created with a cartoon image of Merwitzer, saying: “This is going out with the video. What do you think?”
Lopez replied to the February 21 text that he was reviewing the video.
Also in February, Cody emailed Lopez about a possible legal action.
“It looks like an action under Chapter 86 is the only avenue,” Cody wrote.
Two months later, on April 10th, Cody sued Merwitzer and the Village of Palmetto Bay under Florida Statutes Chapter 86 — which asks a judge to define the legal relationship between two parties in a declaratory judgment.
“That costs the taxpayer money and now we're paying two separate attorneys at once to address something that has already been addressed multiple times,” Merwitzer told WLRN.
Cody would not answer questions about his texts and emails with Lopez about Tanglewood or Merwitzer. He said Lopez is handling a legal matter for him, but would not explain the nature of that work.
Lopez's law firm donated $1,000 to Cody's 2024 village council campaign, though Cody said he refunded the money to fall in line with the village's rules against council members doing business with vendors who have made political contributions to them.
Lopez did not respond to requests for comment from WLRN via phone call, text and email.
Cody’s lawsuit against the village is pending in Miami-Dade County Court. The Village of Palmetto Bay, after passing a resolution sponsored by Cody, is re-upping its application to buy the Tanglewood property from Miami-Dade County.
