Ethics complaint: former lawmaker lobbied Gables on Wawa project but didn’t register
A group of Coral Gables residents who sued the city in opposition to a planned Wawa gas station and convenience store are complaining that a veteran lobbyist met with city officials on behalf of Wawa without registering as a lobbyist.
In a complaint filed Thursday with the Miami-Dade County Commission on Ethics and Public Trust on behalf of the Gables Accountability Project, the group alleges that lobbyist and former state Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla and lobbyist Laura Russo sent letters to the Gables city attorney and other officials regarding the removal of decades-old Oak trees at the site of the future gas station.
In a March 12 email obtained by the Miami Herald, Diaz de la Portilla sent a letter to City Attorney Miriam Ramos on behalf of Wawa’s director of Florida operations.
The letter offered payment of $17,000 to a tree mitigation fund and the planting of two new, 20-foot Oak trees in nearby parks.
Diaz de la Portilla cited the letter as evidence of Wawa’s “extraordinary commitment” to the tree fund and requested that they cancel a meeting with city officials to further discuss the issue. Three days later, Ramos canceled the meeting.
Diaz de la Portilla is not registered to lobby in Coral Gables or Miami-Dade County on behalf of Wawa, according to the city and county lobbyist database. Russo, who represents landowner Bahamian Village LLC, did not register until March 23, weeks after the correspondence with city officials.
Bahamian Village LLC is a private, for-profit joint venture made up of the historically Black neighborhood’s homeowners and real estate developer Debra Sinkle Kolsky.
“If you can’t go online and see Miguel is the lobbyist for Wawa, then you don’t know that you need to watch what Miguel does. You don’t know who is in that office,” said David Winker, a lawyer who made the complaint on behalf of the Gables Accountability Project. “He is a seasoned lobbyist and he knows the rules. The city officials know the rules, too.”
Russo did not respond to request for comment.
Diaz de la Portilla wrote in a text message that he has “always operated in a transparent manner in my relations with government and followed the rules in good faith, as I understand them.”
The city Attorney’s office does not comment on pending ethics investigations or complaints, according to city spokeswoman Martha Pantin.
Wawa issue brewed for months
The Gables Accountability Project is made up of six parents and Gables residents involved in the effort to halt construction of the Wawa on the northeast corner of Grand Avenue and U.S. 1. The group filed a civil suit against the city of Coral Gables earlier this year for allegedly rushing approval for the project on land originally designated for affordable housing and for discussing the project out of the public eye. The suit is ongoing.
In 2003, Miami-Dade County’s public housing department gave the 1.7 acres of land to the historically Black neighborhood’s nonprofit Lola B. Walker Homeowners Association for a $10 fee. At the time, both the county and homeowners association said the goal was to build a project that would benefit the community and provide affordable housing in the once-segregated area.
Seventeen years later, Kolksy, the real estate developer, paired up with the homeowners association to finish off the deal, which ended up as the Wawa gas station on the parcel, now worth $8 million.
The parents and residents who oppose the project say it poses health and safety hazards to the nearby Carver Elementary school community, and complained that the project bypassed the traditional public hearing and permitting process to get the project moving.
In February, the group sent emails to Wawa’s Florida and Pennsylvania directors, asking that they relocate the trees or build around them. The group never got a response, but Vice Mayor Vince Lago, who recently won his mayoral bid, rallied commissioners at a Feb. 23 commission meeting to agree that the trees should be relocated or saved.
Grand Avenue is a county road, so the tree removal permit was handled at the county level.
On Wednesday, one tree was removed to make room for the Wawa driveway. On Thursday, a second went down.
The county’s Division of Environmental Resources Management issued a violation Thursday to Bahamian Village LLC for being out of compliance with its tree removal permit, according to a copy of the violation provided to the Herald.
This story was originally published April 15, 2021 at 4:13 PM.