Perhaps the new chairman will hire more ghost employees
Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla grabbed the Omni Community Redevelopment Agency from Commissioner Ken Russell last week — again — and immediately asked the executive director to resign.
Ladra could not reach Executive Director Jason Walker, but sources at the city say that the commissioner asked for his resignation shortly after becoming chairman of the CRA at the end of Thursday’s meeting. Within 24 hours.
What’s he gonna do? Fill the place with ghost employees?
Probably.
Remember, ADLP is still reportedly under investigation for the ghost employee caught working at the very same Omni CRA almost a year ago last March. Walker fired his longtime lackey, Jenny Nillo, and talked to investigators.
Read related: Alex Diaz de la Portilla is investigated on ghost city employee at Omni CRA
Nillo had a $53,000-a-year job there as a community liaison. But Nillo wss was never really there. In fact, the commissioner’s brother, former School Board Member Renier Diaz de la Portilla, was there more than she was when he was campaigning for Miami-Dade commission.
Her no-show position was discovered when investigators stopped Nillo in traffic in March of last year. She was reportedly driving erratically and sources say reportedly had the commissioner’s dry cleaning in the car.
Nillo is still working at the city. She’s in Diaz de la Portilla’s office now as a community liaison. Well, he needs someone to pick up his dry cleaning. Other than Julio Guillen, another ghost District 1 employee who is a longtime gopher for the DLP brothers.
Both of them must be doing well. In addition to their city salaries, they got at least $5,750 from his political action committee in the last few months. Other district employees, including the alleged passenger in the car on the Jan. 5 accident, have also been paid wages from the PAC. Is that a conflict of interest? At the very least it’s double dipping.
Will there be triple dipping if they get another no-show job at the CRA?
Meanwhile, Russell is now forming the Coconut Grove CRA so he didn’t fight too hard to keep the Omni one.
“We have ping-ponged this one before. I think switching horses midstream causes a little disruption,” he said, bringing up the deal he’s worked with the Miami-Dade School Board for four years to turn one of their downtown parking lots into affordable housing and needed parking.
And nine acres of taxable property that will then fuel other projects.
“We have a memorandum of understanding. I’m really excited to get as much done as I can while I’m still here,” said Russell, whose district includes much of the Omni CRA area. “I would like to continue that work. I serve those residents. I’m very proud of it.”
His was the only no vote to the change of chairmanship.
In a reappearance of The Three Amigos, both commissioners Joe Carollo and Manolo Reyes supported ADLP’s power grab, saying that Russell was leaving anyway, to run for Senate. But that’s not ’til next year. And maybe ADLP leaves, too. His term is up next year also.
Read related: Musical chairs in city of Miami means power grab for slush fund agencies
Reyes, sounding a lot like Miami-Dade Commissioner Javier Souto, poo-pooed the school board property concept. “That project that you’re talking about, it is, it is a project that I’ve been hearing for a long, long time, even when Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla was there.”
Yeah, it’s been in the works for four years. ADLP chaired the Omni CRA for a few months before Nillo was caught. A complaint was filed with the State Attorney’s Office but they said it wasn’t criminal and referred it to the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust.
But wasn’t she at the very least stealing?
The Omni CRA is scheduled to sunset (read: end) in 2028, but the project would require an extension. Miami-Dade has signed off on it, so long as their contribution is used in a specific way. Reyes doesn’t like that. It upsetted him. “We are the ones that is contributing the most… and if that is the case, there is no more CRA,” he said.
Both Carollo and Diaz de la Portilla said they felt the same way. Carollo asked for his “absolute commitment” not to extend the life of the CRA under the county’s new terms. The Dean said he had it 110%.
“I’d rather let it die and then we create our own entity with the monies we get from there, than to go forward in this deal,” Carollo said, saying that the county’s decision to use their part of the tax funds for the Adrienne Arsht Performing Arts Center and the museums was a “non deal” for him.
So ADLP likely only has six years, if he is reelected next November, to plunder the agency’s $68 million annual budget and use his position for his political gain. It will certainly help him raise money for his reelection next year by holding up projects until he gets a check for his political action committee. And since his day job is to help other politicos, he could shake down developers for them. How would we know if he shook someone down for a contribution to a Sarasota or a Jacksonville PAC?
Very Strangers On A Train.
If Walker is forced out, Diaz de la Portilla can name whoever he wants as the director. Perhaps even his friend and confidante, Former Miami Commissioner Humberto Hernandez, who did almost four years in prison on mortgage and voter fraud.
After all, ADLP is all about second chances. That’s what he said to the news media after Political Cortadito broke the story about Nillo, who had also served time for mortgage fraud and was on federal parole.
And then Hernandez can fire everyone — especially anyone who told investigators they never saw Nillo there — and hire a whole new staff of ghosts.
ADLP power grabs Omni CRA from Ken Russell in Miami — again added by Ladra on
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