MIAMI – Former Miami-Dade School Board member Lubby Navarro had nothing to say after a court appearance on Wednesday.
It was the first time the 49-year-old, who is now walking around with an ankle monitor, has been seen in public since she was released from jail after being arrested for using public funds for private use.
Wednesday was also the first time her former colleagues at the Miami-Dade School Board met since the bombshell allegations became public.
During the meeting, we learned an audit on school board members has not been done since 2011.
The board is expected to discuss item H-2, which calls for an audit of the district-issued credit cards school board members can use.
It is proposing to do several things:
- Superintendent to support county inspector general on further audits on card expenses to include previous, present board members and years not audited
- Chief auditor must conduct audits since 2019
- Prioritize audit of purchase, travel cards for this year to include offices of school board members
- Periodically review procedures governing use of cards
School board member Roberto Alonso says the school board is there to protect taxpayers and students.
“These are very concerning allegations,” Alonso said. “Since the moment I’ve been elected, any purchase that my office has ever made or any travel which I’ve done has been questioned by this district and our finance department, so it’s actually very concerning that this occurred for over 12 months.”
School board member Luisa Santos said she thinks the district should be moving to a more automated, less paper-based system so mistakes can be caught.
“As a school board member, my expenses are scrutinized significantly,” Santos said. “I have never had to, in my day-to-day business, request an increase of spending limit on my card.”
The criminal investigation revealed Navarro had a $6,000 monthly spending limit.
In 10 out of 12 months of 2022, she requested credit line increases, which sometimes went up to $15,000.
School board member Steve Gallon said systems are in place to prevent this from happening, but added that he’s now looking for ways to strengthen them.
“We have to be forthright. We have to be open and honest,” Gallon said. “If there are some gaps within the system that could have precluded some of these things from happening, that they were not identified.”
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