Audio By Carbonatix
Reader support matters more than ever
We're in the final stretch of our summer campaign. Our goal is to raise $10,000 by August 9 to support the journalism our community relies on. Reader support is helping shape the future of local news.
Kevin Burns won’t be having a Merry Christmas this year. In this week’s print edition of Miami New Times (which is available online later today), we chronicle how the former North Miami mayor’s 34-year-old business selling Christmas trees is no ho-ho-ho fun.
Banana Republican interviewed several people familiar with Burns’ operation, including his chief rival, a former tree supplier, and three ex-employees. All of them had naughty things to say about Burns, primarily that he skips out on his debts.
Craig Steinhart is co-owner of a company that provided Burns with a lot of trees in the Nineties. He won a $72,000 civil judgment from Burns in 1997, yet hasn’t seen a cent. When he tried to collect, “[Burns] pretended we didn’t even exist,” Steinhart grouses. “He didn’t seem to care that he screwed us over. There are a lot of decent people who are not like Kevin Burns.”
It’s just the type of Christmas story that you want to share with children around the fireplace with cups of hot cocoa.
