All in the family: Steve Bovo’s stepson runs for Hialeah Council

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Following in his stepdad’s footsteps, Oscar de la Rosa, the actor, lawyer, children’s foundation founder and stepson of Miami-Dade Commissioner Esteban Bovo, is running for Hialeah Council.

That’s where Stevie Boy got his political start in 1998 when he was appointed to the council. After he was re-elected twice, Bovo went to the Florida House and served as a representative for 10 years before becoming a county commissioner in the recall fallout of 2011.

Maybe de la Rosa wants to follow that path. He just has a more zig zag approach.

In 2016, de la Rosa starred in and directed a short film about boxing called Lionheart. But two years later, he was in Bogota for the installation of newly elected President Ivan Duque. He is also founder of Little Steps Foundation, a non-profit that has held toy drives for needy children.

He’s kind of like a modern day Renaissance man.

In February as a law student, de la Rosa — who graduated from St. Thomas University law school in May —  was working for lobbyist Felix Lasarte, who represents Aecom, among other clients. Aecom is an international company involved in the design, build and operation of infrastructure projects — and a county vendor involved in several Miami-Dade projects, including oversight of about $2 billion in water and sewer improvements.

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Bovo sought an opinion from the Commission on Ethics and Public Trust about his stepson’s employment. De La Rosa was tasked to work on some items involving Aecom, he explained. Pero por supuesto! That’s why the boy got that job!

The Ethics Commission took the same stance as it did when Mayor Carlos Gimenez‘s lobbyist son CJ worked for Becker Poliakoff, which was that the fathers cannot vote on matters having to do with work their sons were directly involved in.

So Bovo can vote on other Lasarte law firm items, just not on Aecom items or anything that his stepson has directly been involved in. All of which is self reported.

If de la Rosa were to win his election, would Bovo have to recuse himself from all Hialeah items?

It could certainly help boost Bovo’s mayoral run in Hialeah, although Stevie is arguably those voters’ first choice anyway. But if de la Rosa loses? Could it hurt Bovo in the city that he is counting on the most? Hialeah is the second largest municipality in the county, after Miami, and Bovo’s base. He doesn’t need some snot-nosed neophyte mucking things up.

Bovo did not return calls and texts but Ladra is pretty certain de la Rosa didn’t decide to run without Papi’s permission.

Group 4 is an open seat due to term limits that hit three of the seven council members. Two other candidates are running in the seat against de la Rosa: Michael Anthony Horgan, teacher at Henry Filer Middle, and Jesús Tundidor, former assistant to termed out Sen. René García.

García is also de la Rosa’s godfather and maybe that’s why he was not listed as a host in that fundraiser. Awkward.

Horgan, coincidentally, has met with Bovo several times about reactivating a field that was used for a youth football league program who were left without a home when the city stopped leasing the property. Word was they ended the contract so the property owner could redevelop the parcel into apartments, but that’s been put on hold. The owner of the property offered to lease it back to the city or county, and Bovo reportedly considered it, Horgan said.

“He said the county’s just not interested in taking on another park,” Horgan said.

Read related: Hialeah mayor quietly moves to develop school property into housing

That’s certainly not true, as the county is constantly opening new parks, like the brand new $5.4 million aquatic park in Homestead and the linear park that had a groundbreaking in District 12 last month.

The Hialeah Youth Athletic Club, which ran the Hialeah Cougars football program, even has access to grant funds, so lot improvements would not cost the county a dime. There is no reason not to lease the property for those kids.

That was around October, said Horgan, who decided to run for office and filed paperwork in January.

Last month, and with two other open seats available, Horgan found out that Bovo’s stepson was going to run against him.

  Carlos Hernandez, Esteban Bovo, Hialeah politics, Oscar de la Rosa