With his car inundated by flash-flooding just off the William Lehman Causeway in Aventura, Basabe took to social media to criticize local leaders in South Florida, blaming them for "neglecting to invest in our infrastructure" while "the state is investing millions in resiliency."
"Hey everybody, I'm barefoot and wet," a rain-soaked Basabe vented at a little past 4 p.m. that day in a video on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. "I had to swim out of my car. Got $200 million in funding for wastewater-management grants so we can fix these problems and get these pipes under the ground working. Cities need to start working together. I'm here in Aventura. Carless. Let's talk politics. We can't afford these distractions anymore."
It turns out that even as he scolded local officials, Basabe was backchanneling with Aventura City Manager Ron Wasson, looking for help extracting his vehicle from the roadway.
Call logs and text messages obtained by New Times indicate that the "it" boy-turned-GOP-politician — who's running for re-election in House District 106 in November — requested that the city manager dispatch a tow.
At 4:46 p.m., Basabe placed a call to Wasson. At 5 p.m. on the dot, Wasson texted, "Tow is going to call you for your car." To this, Basabe responded 17 minutes later, "Thank you."ABOUT LAST NIGHT…
— Fabián Basabe (@FabianBasabeFL) June 13, 2024
The flooding we are experiencing in South Florida, and especially across Miami Beach are a direct result of local leaders neglecting to invest in our infrastructure. Thankfully, the state is investing millions in resiliency.
And to help our local businesses,… pic.twitter.com/sPK7oJ2xQq
"We have someone coming. The [police department] will call you," the city manager texted at 5:36 p.m. Basabe liked the message and sent a selfie of himself sitting on top of his car holding an umbrella.
He did, however, have one last favor. "Do you have an iPhone 15 charger?" he asked Wasson.
Reached by New Times, Wasson maintains that Basabe was treated like every other person who requested a tow truck. He says Basabe was added to a list and notes that by the time the tow truck arrived, Basabe's car had already been removed. He says the police department and tow trucks had been busy helping others with their cars.
"He was treated like everyone else," Wasson emphasizes. "I offered him to wait in the lobby of city hall. He was able to secure [his own] ride to Miami Beach. The police department and staff were very busy."
Notwithstanding Basabe's view that local leaders were neglecting stormwater management and infrastructure while elected officials were on the ball at the state level, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis cut $205 million in stormwater, wastewater, and sewer projects from the state budget on the very day Basabe's car was afloat on Country Club Drive behind the Aventura Mall. (As Basabe noted in his video, he and his fellow lawmakers had requested the wastewater funding.)
In Aventura, where Basabe filmed his video clip, the streets were passable in under 24 hours, according to the city's communications director, Evan Ross.
"Aventura's stormwater systems worked. Biscayne Boulevard and Country Club Drive were passable less than an hour after the storm passed," Ross said in a statement to New Times.
Asked for his take on the towing back-and-forth, Basabe supplied the following statement:
"I was one of the hundreds of people [who] fell victim to the horrific flooding, and I am only further committed to working with the local municipalities to use the $200 million that my colleagues and I fought so hard to get funded. In the governor's Department of Environmental Protection package to address drainage and sewer problems that affect our South Florida communities.
"I contacted the city manager to ask for the tow services they use in the area, not for preferential treatment in any way but for a recommendation. In the end, I called another company, and they luckily had a truck available after a five-hour wait.
"I am very critical of the lack of transparency and questionable spending at the local level. I believe Mayor Cava and her consultant team are self-dealing and forcing local governments into bad deals. Consider the $600,000 communications contract Aventura doles out to a vendor who never won a bid. Surely that is more newsworthy than what tow company I called."
