Miami-Dade Schools

Schoolyard Scuffle

Shawn Beightol claims he’s the target of dirty politics

By Jordan Melnick

A School Board candidate impugned in a damaging report issued by the Miami-Dade County Inspector General Monday is crying foul.

Shawn Beightol misused affordable housing funds provided by the Housing Finance Authority of Miami-Dade County in June of 2006, alleges a report issued Aug. 11 by Inspector General Christopher Mazzella. Beightol, a science teacher at Dr. Michael Krop Senior High, is running for the Miami-Dade County School Board in District 3.

“This is a county program that is intended to provide benefits to people who qualify,” Mazzella said. “We certainly focused in on whether Mr. Beightol fulfilled the merits of that program and, in our conclusion, as you can see, we don’t think that he did.”

The funding was to help financially strapped families buy a home, according to Mazzella. “The buyers were required to live in the homes rather than rent them to tenants,” the report states.

The report alleges that Beightol used $186,000 of HFA money to buy a condo at 1860 Venice Park Drive in North Miami. Rather than move in, “[he] rented out the house and has collected $9,000 per year in rental payments from a tenant,” the report states.

Mazzella’s conclusion: Beightol should return the HFA funding.

Beightol dismissed Mazzella’s findings.

“The report is cooked,” he said. “It’s fraught with errors.”

Beightol denied receiving any funding directly from the HFA.

“I went to Chase Manhattan for a mortgage to buy a condo,” he said. “They put this together for me.”

Mazzella’s report states that Beightol had to move into the condo to qualify for the loan. Beightol said he only had to have the “original intent” of moving into the condo. Beightol claimed he had planned to live there when he applied for the loan, but financial setbacks impeded him. So he rented the condo to Melissa Yerecici, with the understanding, Beightol said, that he would be moving in shortly.

A report issued from the State Attorney’s Office last month corroborated Beightol’s claim.

“[Yerecici] confirmed what Beightol stated as to her arrangements with him for only a three-month lease as he had wanted to move into the condo,” the state attorney’s report stated.

But according to Mazzella’s report, Yerecici’s story changed when she spoke to his special agents.

“Mrs. Yerecici acknowledged that Mr. Beightol ... has never spoken to her about the possibility of him moving into the house,” the inspector general’s report stated.

“That’s an outright lie,” Beightol said. “Every time I picked up my rent from her the understanding was, ‘Well, I can’t make it this month. Maybe next month I’ll have my stuff together and I’ll be through this slump.’”

Asked about the disparity between the reports, Mazzella said, “I don’t think it’s a discrepancy. She was interviewed. The statements she made to our agents are what she made.”

Yerecici could not be reached for comment.

Mazzella’s report comes two weeks before the Aug. 26 election. It’s the latest in a series of blows against Beightol’s reputation. The others he proved to be false.

Karp tried to have Beightol disqualified as a candidate last month, accusing him of living outside of the district. The charge was disproved by the state attorney’s public corruption unit.

(Beightol lives on a sailboat docked near 7910 West Drive in North Bay Village, well within District 3 boundaries.)

And last month Karp also accused Beightol of violating the qualifying rules for homestead exemption by filing for an exemption on his North Miami condo.

“It is illegal to rent your homestead,” Karp said. “That’s just the bottom line.”

The public corruption unit also cleared Beightol of that charge.

Now, Beightol has accused Karp of initiating the inspector general’s investigation. Karp denied any involvement.

“Whatever is being handled as to improprieties is out of my league,” Karp said. “That’s their job. I’m going to focus on education topics and the voters.”

Mazzella also denied that Karp had anything to do with his investigation.

“My recollection is that it was the State Attorney’s Office that brought this matter to our attention,” he said. “They asked us to look into the matter.”

But Beightol says the special agents who first approached him claimed school jurisdiction.

“The IG’s investigators dropped Dade Schools business cards, which I now possess,” Beightol said. “When we started questioning the propriety of them using the Dade Schools IG, they canceled the interview immediately. The next thing you know, the report comes out of their main office.”

Mazzella denied the investigation was political.

“I don’t know what his hang-up is,” Mazzella said. “I don’t understand why he thinks this is a Dade Schools’ investigation. It is not. It has nothing to do with the School Board. I don’t care about his running for election or anything of that nature. It doesn’t matter to me.”

Published originally on Jordan Melnick’s blog at www.TeachDade.com.