On Jan. 11, ex-Miami-Dade County school board member and South Broward Hospital District lobbyist Lubby Navarro was arrested and taken to Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center for a series of illegal purchases made with her government-issued credit cards in 2022.

The probable cause affidavit stated that Navarro spent over $92,000 with her school district credit cards at stores like Walmart, Home Depot and TJ Maxx. In addition, she spent $9,000 on travel expenses for herself, her mother and her boyfriend.

First appointed to the school board in 2015 by former Republican Florida governor Rick Scott, Navarro was one of the group’s more conservative voices. In 2016 and 2020, she was elected to represent the board District 7 seat, whose jurisdiction includes Kendall and parts of Southwest Miami-Dade. Navarro’s crimes stayed hidden until she resigned from the school board in 2022, soon after Florida passed a law prohibiting elected officials from being lobbyists.

After not filing expenses for December of 2022, this raised some red flags for the district. School district employees are granted two credit cards: one for daily purchases and another for authorized travel. Each purchase card has a limit of $6,000 per month. Navarro consistently requested her credit line to increase and was approved for multiple changes until eventually her limit reached $15,000.

M-DCPS’s chief of staff Jose Bueno raised concern about Navarro’s many district card purchases — most of which lacked documentation such as invoices and receipts. She was taken into custody for one count of organized fraud of $50,000+, one count of organized fraud of between $20,000 and $100,000 and two counts of grand theft. Her bond is currently held at $2 million.