Ex-school board member in Miami-Dade district charged with theft, fraud
A former member of the Miami-Dade school board has been accused of using a district-issued credit card in 2022 to charge at least $100,000 in personal expenses.
The Miami Herald reports that Lubby Navarro, 49, who resigned from the board at the end of 2022, faces grand theft and fraud charges for allegedly making the purchases over the course of a year.
“She siphoned away resources meant for the good of our children,” Miami-Dade Inspector General Felix Jimenez said.
A 98-page probable cause affidavit alleges that Navarro used two school district credit cards to spend just over $92,000 on items from stores like Walmart, Home Depot , Brandsmart, GoDaddy and TJ Maxx. And, investigators said, she spent an additional $9,000 on travel, taking her mother to the Dominican Republic and traveling to the Wynn Las Vegas hotel with her boyfriend.
Her alleged misdeeds were not discovered until after Navarro resigned from the board. When she didn’t file expenses for December 2022, a district employee did and noticed the discrepancies.
School Board members have a spending limit on their credit cards of $6,000 a month. In 2022, Navarro requested, and was granted, credit line increases for every month, according to the warrant. Most months, the limit was increased to $8,000, but, in August and September 2022, Navarro was approved for up to $15,000, and in December, her limit was increased to $13,500.
