Doral Mayor Luigi Boria’s assistant quits amid probe

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An assistant of Doral Mayor Luigi Boria‘s, who had worked on his campaign last year, resigned Monday amid allegations that there were campaign finance law violations related to the rental of the campaign office.

Gonzalo Bello, who pretty much ran the day-to-day operations at the shopping strip campaign office and later became the mayor’s administrative aide, quit because he just didn’t feel comfortable anymore with his position, for which he hinted that the job description had deviated.

“I assure you, sir, that this is not a decision I have taken lightly,” Bello wrote in his memo to the city manager. “I made my decision due to events beyond my control or my creation, that have placed me in a position which I believe make my duties quite difficult and at times uncomfortable.”

I know! Inquiring minds want to know how! What duties were uncomfortable?

“I have complete confidence in myself and my ability to manage the Office of the Mayor as per the job description, but at this time I believe it is in my best interest to move on and pursue my academic goals,” he wrote, finishing by thanking Carollo, the mayor and everyone else at the city for the experience.

Reached late Monday, Boria told Ladra that the resignation was not unexpected. “He wants to study. He wants to go to law school,” Boria said, answering that the discomfort may be because of the hostile atmosphere that he says is created by Carollo.

“I believe he felt a little bit concerned from the recent news and everything happening in the city,” Boria told me. “He’s a young man and he did a great job for me. I told him I still want him to be in contact with me.”

Suuuuuure, you do.

Because we can pretty much bet that if Bello wasn’t already a person of interest in some investigations about Boria’s campaign spending, he is now. Ladra believes that he was already going to be questioned in the campaign office rental case exposed by City Manager Joe Carollo‘s rant against Boria last week, which is now being looked into by the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust.

Investigators are looking into whether Boria — who got a $3,000-plus break on the rent of his shopping strip campaign office, paying just $250 a month — violated laws that limit in-kind contributions to $500. His campaign consultant, Absentee Ballot Queen Sasha Tirador, told El Nuevo Herald last week that she rented the office so it doesn’t count — but Boria’s campaign reports show his campaign paid her company, G&R Strategies, $1,000 for the space.

“Getting cheap rent is not a crime,” Tirador was quoted as saying. “When a campaign gets a contract directly, it has to be at market rate… but I was renting the office like a private corporation, and that is legal.”

Uh, I don’t think so. Not if you are fronting for the campaign, sort of like a money launderer does.

And Tirador can get very creative with campaign funds. Just look at the complaint filed against her by attorney JC Planas for co-mingling funds last year and robbing candidate Peter to pay the bills for candidate Paul (more on that later).

The point is that is why this rental scheme scenario is being investigated. She has a knack for this sort of thing and it sounds plausible.

Plus there’s this little tidbit: The owner of the shopping strip came back to Boria months later, in April of this year, to talk to him about building a medical center. You think Calogero Alaimo reminded Boria about the break he got on his campaign rent then?

And Bello’s testimony could be key to all that — and who knows what else? — and, it appears, he will be a willing witness. That is if his letter of resignation is any indication.

Ladra called Bello late Monday after obtaining his phone number but was unable to reach him.

For some city officials, Bello’s memo Monday was one more crack in the stability of the city, which has been on a downward spiral for a few weeks, since the public outburst between Carollo and Juan Carlos Tovar, one of the mayor’s business partners who had purchased land from Boria’s children (but with Boria’s money) and wanted rezoning to maximize his profits. That argument — after which Tovar filed a false police report against Carollo — was the final straw in the already crumbling LuiJoe bromance.

“Gonzalo is a very correct and very professional young man. He invested a lot of time into having the mayor elected,” said Vice Mayor Bettina Aguilera-Rodriguez. “He saw and heard a lot of things that made him somewhat uneasy, as he said in his letter. And he thought that it would be better for him to continue with his studies.”

According to City Hall sources, Bello went into the office early in the morning, pulled his diplomas and plaques from the wall, and left quickly.

Boria has asked that the position of administrative aide for the mayor be put on the agenda for Wednesday’s “emergency” meeting (which Ladra hears the mayor was trying to have on Sunday).

  Joe Carollo, Luigi Boria, Sasha Tirador