That stench in the air? It’s coming from the mess at Miami City Hall | Opinion
And then there were three.
With the arrest of City Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla on Thursday, that makes three of Miami’s elected officials who have faced investigations, criminal charges or the verdict of a civil-court jury this year. And we’re not even in the fourth quarter.
And it’s part of the reason why the Editorial Board has named its series on the city’s government “Miami Dysfunction.”
Diaz de la Portilla faces a number of corruption charges, including money laundering and bribery. This is the latest and most serious turn in his trail of dubious and controversial actions while an elected official during the past two decades.
The commissioner was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center along with attorney and lobbyist William “Bill” Riley Jr. According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, they are accused of conspiring to launder $245,000 in political contributions in exchange for the commissioner’s support for a plan to build a sports complex in Miami, a venue unnamed as of Thursday.
Up for re-election
This could throw a wrench into his campaign for re-election, even though he made sure, through the city’s redistricting process, that he would have little, if any, competition. It remains to be seen if he now draws a credible opponent.
The charges against Diaz de la Portilla are appalling, but, unfortunately, not the only appalling news from City Hall.
Mayor Francis Suarez is under investigation for his relationship with developer Rishi Kapoor, who paid the mayor $170,000, in $10,000 monthly installments, at a time when he needed the city to green-light his project in Coconut Grove. Suarez said he was being paid to introduce the developer to investors and that he never met with Kapoor to discuss the real-estate development. Documents sussed out by the Miami Herald say otherwise, including an internal communication from Kapoor’s company advising that Suarez would “assist in pushing” the stalled Coconut Grove project along. And the project, indeed, got unstuck.
Several probes
The FBI is looking into that one, as are county ethics officials, working in tandem with the Miami-Dade County State Attorney’s Office. Most recently, the Florida Commission on Ethics is reviewing a complaint about Suarez’s attendance at high-priced sporting events, including the Miami Formula One race in May. The question is, who paid for his VIP access?
And despite all of these embarrassments, the only thing that slowed Suarez’s roll to the White House was a lack of national interest in his campaign. He couldn’t meet the donor threshold for the first Republican debate and, coming to his senses, dropped out of the race.
And, of course, a jury found Commissioner Joe Carollo culpable for abusing his power and city resources to harass two Little Havana businessmen whom he intensely loathed and slammed him with a $63.5 million verdict, He has vowed that the verdict will be overturned.
All told, besides the stench emanating from City Hall, what ties these sorry cases together is that there are three public servants who seemingly are willing to use their privileged perches to serve themselves.
This story was originally published September 14, 2023 at 9:15 PM.