Titanic deck chairs

Longtime city hall influence-peddler Richard Ledford has been retained by Orange Barrel Media, a client seeking to “obtain a contract to provide way-finding kiosks in the City of San Diego.” The Columbus, Ohio-based company, famous for its oversized advertising installations, became enmeshed in a Miami, Florida, controversy last June when it kicked in $3500 to a secretive political action committee, called People for Better Leaders, backing the mayoral candidacy of Miami Beach commissioner Michael Grieco.

“If Grieco or someone acting on his behalf raised money from city vendors and lobbyists to support his campaign, that could violate Beach rules passed in January 2016,” noted the Miami Herald in June. “A recent Miami-Dade County ordinance also requires candidates to register when they raise cash for political action committees.” Grieco dropped out of the race in October amid an ongoing state investigation into his relationship with the committee, the Herald reported.