Jorge Forte, one of the lobbyists arrested by the FBI last week in a sting operation that also nabbed two mayors on bribery and extortion charges, had several contracts with the city of Doral, dating as far back as 2009.
Three of Forte’s companies had contracts or agreements to do business with the small western edge city: Municipal Procurement Services, which was paid a total of $275,000 over three years, Realm Consulting, which was paid $12,000 and 7 Strategies, the company Forte founded with his silent partner (read: super silent), then-Sweetwater Mayor Manny Maroño, who was suspended from office after his arrest, which got another $13,000.
Forte’s motherload was Municipal Procurement Services, a company he formed in March of 2009 which began doing consulting on the RFQs and RFPs for Doral in December of that year. The agreement was for $75,000 a year, in which Forte was getting paid $155 an hour. Which comes out to nine or 10 hours a week worth of work.
You do the math.
Oh, wait, add to that the unanimous approval of a $50,000 increase to his contract in 2010, for a total of $125,000.
That must be why he came back to the city trough again. Twice.
In 2011, his 7 Strategies entered into an agreement with the city to provide lobbying at the state level for $13,000. Unless, of course, he came back for an increase — and only one higher than $15,000 has to go before the council to be approved. The 7 Strategies agreement was made without council involvement, signed by the city manager at the time, Yvonne Soler-McKinley, then City Attorney Jimmy Morales, who is now the city manager in Miami Beach, and City Clerk Barbara Herrera.
In March of this year, his Realm Consulting entered into an agreement with the city to provide lobbying at the state level, even creating a “project team” to tackle Doral issues. Forte was to be paid $12,000 for that — unless, of course, he came back for an increase and only one higher than $15,000 has to be approved by the council.
Funny thing, however, is that the agreement uses the exact same language as the 2011 agreement with 7 Strategies. It’s like a boilerplate agreement. But does that mean Forte was trying to cut his buddy Marono out?
Vice Mayor Bettina Rodriguez-Aguilera told Ladra today that she had gotten an email from the city administration about the contracts with Forte and she thought it was logical that the city would do a thorough review.
But she remembers Forte as someone who had “an office here at City Hall,” she told me. Forte basically worked out of a space in the old City Hall building that was for consultants.
But the main contract with Municipal Procurement Services was unanimously approved by the prior administration, including Councilwoman Sandra Ruiz, before she left in 2010 to run for state rep, losing the race to State Rep. Jeanette Nunez (R-Doral).
Ruiz told Ladra Monday that she remembered requesting more information at the meeting in which the agreed contract amount was increased by $50,000.
“I asked about the invoices because all they said was ‘services rendered.’ I asked how many RFPs he had done and I remember he said 32 or something,” Ruiz told me. “But I was like, ‘Do you have any spreadsheets to show where they went?'”
Apparently, he didn’t.
If he does, I bet the FBI has them now.
Doral worked with busted lobbyist, paid him about $300K added by Ladra on
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