Former city commissioner goes from convict to confidante
This could be one of the greatest comeback political stories of the 305.
Former Miami Commissioner Humberto “Bert” Hernandez was removed from office twice amid accusations of federal bank fraud and mortgage fraud and absentee ballot fraud. He spent four years in jail, was disbarred by the Florida Supreme Court, and his wife ran off with his criminal defense attorney in one of Miami’s more sordid political tales.
He lost his freedom, his career and his love.
Today, Hernandez is one of the closest confidantes of Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, a former state senate leader from a political dynasty with two brothers who have held public office. He’s been building back his profile for a few years now. He’s a social butterfly looking good at black tie affairs, with a new, younger wife out of his league, and a respected insurance claims adjuster who gives advice on the radio and online.
Read related: CJ Gimenez slaps ADLP at Morton’s in Coral Gables; gets arrested, jailed
Bert is back in the news this week because he sat at the table at Morton’s Steakhouse in Coral Gables with Diaz de la Portilla when the commissioner was bitch-slapped by CJ Gimenez on an afternoon stroll. They were having a late lunch with lobbyist Carlos Lago, the brother of Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago, who has several items on development approvals and zoning or land use changes before the city of Miami (more on that later).
Hernandez was there because las malas lenguas say he is ADLP’s bagman.
Inquiring minds want to know: What was that lunch about? Who paid for it? Did anyone order the steak and lobster? How many drinks were served?
Everyone knows that ADLP hates to pay for anything himself, unless it’s with political action committee money. So it’s either expensed to the city, or someone else ponied up. Ladra’s money is on Lago, who wants something from the commissioner. Among the items he is lobbying before the city, according to the lobbying registration database, are:
- Zoning entitlements for A+ Mini Storage at the airport
- A contract for Ric-Man Construction for Brickell Avenue improvements
- Development approvals for a property at 3898 Shipping Ave.
- Rezoning and comprehensive land use amendments for Charles and Williams avenues
- The request for proposals for outdoor kiosks along Biscayne Boulevard
- Potential lease of city-owned properties by Home Depot
- Land use and zoning changes for 1750 NW 15th St. Rd., a vacant parcel in District 1 which is owned by Best Living Allapattah LLC, formed in 2019
- Land use and zoning change approvals for 1000, 1008, 1010, 1040, 1050, 1060, 1070 and 1080 Spring Garden Road and 1180, 1150 NW 8 Street Road.
That last one sounds like a big project, maybe a Special Area Plan development, if the accumulated properties amount to at least nine acres.
Diaz de la Portilla would have to list last Wednesday’s lunch as a gift, right? Wonder how many other ritzy lunches he’s enjoyed with his Miami Police detective bodyguard, who is like an armed, taxpayer-paid, private security detail with arrest powers. Wonder how many times Hernandez has been with them.
Read related: Bank forecloses on ADLP, who ‘moves’ to run for Willy Gort seat in Miami
Hernandez is also the contact listed on the documents about ADLP’s code violations for an unpermitted addition at his old family home on 19th Street while it was in foreclosure proceedings. He went before the city’s code enforcement board in 2018 and played Diaz de la Portilla’s attorney. Or “consultant,” rather.
The power of attorney he got from ADLP for the house he stole from his parents lists Hernandez as an “attorney of fact” or “agent” for all matters regarding the code enforcement violations.
So there’s confianza.
Diaz de la Portilla had just left Bert’s mother’s funeral on Jan. 5 in a city car with his sergeant-at-arms driving — the same one who took down Gimenez Wednesday — when they got into that car accident the commissioner apparently wanted covered up. We’re still waiting for the reports, body cam videos and other documents from the accident more than a month later.
Hernandez did not return several calls and text messages from Ladra to find out not just what the lunch chat was about last week but what he’s been up to lately, and how it feels to be swimming in political waters again.
But the Belen boy and son of a Bay of Pigs veteran was made for it.
Before he ran for Miami city commission, Hernandez was plucked from the public defenders’ office to work as an assistant city attorney from 1989 to 1994. The next year, he lost his first race, missing the runoff by 50 votes. Joe Carollo eventually beat incumbent Victor de Yurre. In 1996, Hernandez ran again in a special election when Carollo ran for mayor, and he lost again to former Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado in his first run for office.
But that didn’t discourage him.
Read related: More questions on that car crash with Miami commissioner ADLP in the car
The very next year, the Rev. Richard Dunn was appointed to fill the seat vacated by Miller Dawkins, who was indicted (it’s a tradition), until the next election. Hernandez ran against him and won, taking away the only “black seat” on the commission after 31 years of representation. This was when commissioners were elected at large, before the city had districts.
The next year he was suspended by then Gov. Lawton Chiles after Hernandez was indicted for money laundering and bank fraud.
But that didn’t discourage him, either.
In 1998, Hernandez ran again for a commissioner, claiming he was innocent of the federal charges. He won with 65% of the vote. But a few months later, Chiles suspended him again, this time because he was arrested for election fraud.
Ladra knows someone very close to him who said Hernandez had drawers full of absentee ballots at his desk in his campaign office. But Bert was acquitted of a felony count of fabricating evidence and a misdemeanor count of conspiracy to fabricate evidence. He was convicted of being an accessory after the fact. He was sentenced to 364 days for the voter fraud and almost three years on the federal charges. Hernandez tried to appeal with a new attorney, claiming his old one was more interested in sleeping with his wife than defending him. But he didn’t get one.
A simple google search will show that Bert’s come a long way, dressing up for galas — like the Miami Children’s Health Foundation’s Diamond Ball and the Liga Contra El Cancer’s Snow Ball — and promoting his insurance adjustment firm, National Claims Consultants, which has offices in the same building as attorney Robert Rodriguez. Las malas lenguas say Rodriguez is the real attorney who signs off on any legal work that Hernandez does. He’s Bert’s “face.” Like in the Diaz de la Portilla foreclosure case.
Hernandez has his own public persona, however. He has a regular insurance adjustment show on Radio Mambi and, last year, he was a guest on the Andrew Korge show produced by Miami’s Community News and viewable on YouTube.
“I always wanted to be a city of Miami commissioner. I didn’t want to be a state representative or senator,” Hernandez says on the show, naming old politicos like J.L. Plummer, Demetrio Perez, and Armando Lacasa as his role models. “I grew up in that world.”
He said it was Carollo who recruited and supported Regalado against him. “Joe and I had a falling out after I endorsed him,” he told Korge, who was not surprised.
Hernandez also said that he was wrong to run again and should have taken the advice of former Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez and former Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre who told him to “‘sit back, defend yourself. You have a political future, but don’t run again now.'”
Hernandez didn’t listen. “This is when the stupidity part comes in, the ego comes in, and probably the proud side of me,” he said. He ran. He won. He was made commission chairman. And then he was arrested for ballot fraud.
“I should have lay low and probably, honestly, not have run.”
But then he wouldn’t be where he is today.
Humberto Hernandez back in business of Miami politics post dubious past added by Ladra on
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