Schmear Campaign? Aventura Commissioner's Bagel Shop at Center of Ethics Dispute

For years, the City of Aventura has contracted with neighborhood deli Mo's Bagels & Deli to cater various meetings and events.

That business relationship got a little more complicated in 2022, after Mo's co-owner Paul Kruss was elected to the North Miami-Dade County municipality's city commission, presenting a potential conflict of interest should the city continue ordering bagels and schmears from a city official's eatery without initiating a formal competitive bidding process.

Kruss' campaign materials prominently referenced his ties to Mo's, identifying him as "co-owner of Mo's Bagels & Deli" and featuring an illustration of an everything bagel.

Three months after Kruss (whose name is pronounced like the word cruise) took the oath of office in November 2022, Aventura City Attorney Robert Meyers, a former executive director of the Miami-Dade County Ethics Commission, raised a red flag during a workshop attended by commission members and then-City Manager Ron Wasson.

"The county has a rule in its ethics code that elected officials and other public officials can't do business with their own city," Meyers said during the workshop, according to an audio recording of the session. "A transaction like buying food from a city commissioner who owns a restaurant is considered part of that rule, so therefore Mo's cannot continue to cater city events unless we go through a couple of steps... some kind of competitive process," Meyers added, going on to describe how formal competitive bidding processes work.
However, the city continued ordering food from Mo's without initiating the competitive bidding process.

Wasson, who recently retired from his post as city manager, insists Aventura did complete a competitive bidding process. Wasson tells New Times the city solicited estimates from four businesses — Mo's Bagels, Publix, Panera Bread, and Bagel Cove — and rotated through them for various events.

In response to a public records request that specified any and all bids or waivers involving Mo's, the sole document provided was an informal quote for ten to 12 people for breakfast food services in August 2023.

The city turned over no records indicating a competitive bidding process.

Records obtained by New Times reveal that, to date, the city has spent nearly $6,000 on catering from Mo's since Aventura voters gave Kruss the nod in August 2022. During that same period, the city spent $1,800 on catering from another popular bagel shop in Aventura, Bagel Cove Restaurant & Deli.

Most recently, in August of 2024, the city forked out $1,600 for bagels, a cream cheese platter, tuna and egg salads, pastries, French toast strips, fruit, and a coffee station from Mo's for its quarterly property managers' breakfast. The catering order specified 45 to 50 people, according to a receipt from the bagel shop.

A review of city catering records, including Panera Bread, Bagel Cove, and Mo's, shows that Mo's is getting the bulk of the bagel business. The most expensive order from Bagel Cove was for $350 in May 2023; Panera was paid $245 in July of that year. Meanwhile, Mo's has received multiple orders exceeding $1,000. The priciest orders were placed after the city attorney issued his warning.
According to the city attorney's instructions and Section 2-11.1 of the Miami-Dade County Conflict of Interest and Code of Ethics Ordinance, Aventura should have opened a competitive bidding process. Moreover, the code requires that owing to Kruss' conflict of interest, he would have had to "(1) announce publicly at the meeting the nature of the conflict before the matter is heard; (2) absent himself or herself from the Commission chambers during that portion of the meeting when the matter is considered; and (3) file a written disclosure of the nature of the conflict with the Clerk of the Board within 15 days after the vote."

If commissioners had then judged Mo's to be the lowest and best bid, the city could have granted a waiver and continued its relationship with the shop despite Kruss' presence on the dais.

"This is something conscious that we have to do, I mean, especially all the years I spent enforcing the ethics rules and defending all of you," Meyers had warned during the workshop. "It is a minor thing, and it seems ridiculous that something like a small amount that the city is paying for catering can come under the rule. But under state law, there is a $500 cap, if you will, or threshold. The county has no such cap, so if it's one dollar that's expended by the city, it would be problematic unless you go through these two steps."

Reached for comment, Aventura Mayor Howard Weinberg confirmed that the city attorney advised officials about the potential conflict.

"I recall this being discussed at a workshop and the city attorney providing the commissioner and the city administration with specific instructions about how they must proceed in order to comply ethically and legally," the mayor tells New Times. "I'd be shocked if the city attorney's directives were not followed. If true, it would absolutely be unacceptable. I find these allegations hard to believe, and I will certainly not jump to any conclusions, but I will seek answers from our administration immediately."

Reached by phone, Kruss characterized the controversy as "a smear campaign" and "nonsense," pointing to other municipalities that he says are dealing with "real corruption" and emphasizing that the City of Aventura has been run "extremely well."

"To write a story like this is beneath anyone," Kruss tells New Times.