When a code enforcement inspector showed up at an illegal after hours club without a liquor license in Allapattah after midnight one recent Sunday, she didn’t expect to find a city commissioner there.
Let alone get into a physical altercation with him.
But, according to multiple sources and public records available on the city’s NextRequest website database, Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla was not only at the illegal party at 772 NW 22nd Street, but he allegedly poked and shoved the code compliance supervisor, Suzann Nicholson.
She’s already been transferred to the building department to cover it all up and may be seeking workman’s compensation for a hip injury she said she received in the scuffle, according to an email she sent her boss March 8.
The illegal club bust was on Feb, 21. According to a police incident report, a gun was discharged.
A photo of Diaz de la Portilla among some scantily-clad women inside the club — the kind that pole dance or serve $20 beers at those illegal cafeterias on Flagler — was posted on the city’s website after a public records request. Las malas lenguas say it was a kind of strip club.
“Not a strip club, mentirosa,” Diaz de la Portilla texted Ladra when she asked him about it. “An establishment in my district that is creating jobs and helping revitalize our economy.”
An illegal establishment, that is.
“I don’t check licenses when I visit an establishment. That’s not my job. That is what code enforcement does,” he actually wrote. “My job is to help people who are struggling find jobs.”
Um, no, that’s not his job either.
The incident occurred just after midnight on Feb. 21 — waaaay after Alex’s bedtime, and more importantly, after curfew. Nicholson arrived as part of a routine joint inspection with police officers. She had a list of places to go to where there were complaints of illegal dumping, illegal drinking and a pop-up strip club in Wynwood. On her list was 772 NW 22nd Street, operating as a venue called Museum Miami.
“Museum Miami was being used as a partially closed nightclub with a minimum occupancy load of 100,” Nicholson wrote in a 3:45 a.m. email to her boss, Assistant Code Compliance Director Eric Nemons.
“At the time of inspection, I observed one way in and out, no sprinkler system seen, alcohol was being served, cover charge at the door, no certificate of use, no business tax receipt, no Alcohol and Tobacco license, 85% of the attendees were not wearing facial masks. Joint inspection conducted after 12 a.m. curfew,” Nicholson wrote.
Read related: Alex Diaz de la Portilla is investigated on ghost employee at Omni CRA
“Upon request for license/special even permit/temporary use permit, the security officer introduced Miami-Dade County Commissioner Alex De La Portilla. I asked Commissioner Portilla if he was representing the event, and he responded NO.”
The email makes no mention of pushing or shoving. But a separate email to Nemons and Assistant City Manager Natasha Colebrook-Williams, sent on March 8, Nicholson states: “I attempted to speak with you regarding the incident with the commissioner on February 21, during the unpermitted special event inspection. During the poking and pushing I lost my footing and although I didn’t fall, assumed I was okay. since then, I have been having issues with my left hip and would like the incident documented.”
Nicholson, who was just doing her job, is known as a hard-working, dedicated, by-the-book inspector. She raises her grandchildren. She’s been through a lot. She was “promoted” to building department shortly after that email. It’s a transfer she requested long ago. But the timing is suspicious.
Efforts to reach Nicholson, Assistant Code Compliance Director Eric Nemons and City Manager Art Noriega have been fruitless. Noriega did not respond to several voice mail messages and texts. Again. He certainly knows about this. But Ladra hears he is very afraid that he could lose his job now that there are four votes against his handler (more on that later).
Ladra has also asked for the police reports and the body cam footage from the two officers who were there with Nicholson.
Read related: Omni CRA ghost employee fired, could be rehired by Commissioner ADLP
Diaz de la Portilla — who is being investigated for multiple shenanigans, including hiring a ghost employee at the Omni CRA — may be facing a lawsuit. A very reliable source told Ladra that Nicholson has retained an attorney. He is still mad about Political Cortadito breaking the story about Jenny Nillo, his longtime confidant with a no-show $53K-a-year job at the CRA who was really spending her time helping his brother, Renier Diaz de la Portilla, during the county commission campaign last year. He was stripped of the CRA by the other four commissioners last week.
He’s been losing control of the commission for weeks, however. It’s almost expected for Diaz de la Portilla — who has allegedly fallen off the wagon — to be at a bar after midnight. Just not an illegal one. And abusing his power to threaten or berate a code compliance inspector.
According to the Miami-Dade property search, the 22nd Street warehouse is owned by MJ Property Investments, which has Mark Brooks listed as the only principal on Florida corporate records. It is about eight blocks from the mattress factory that ADLP owns (read: stole from his parents), so he might have slept there instead of going all the way home — to Brickell.
Alex Diaz de la Portilla got caught at an illegal bar, confronted code officer added by Ladra on
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