New shady deals found at Miami Omni CRA, tied to Alex Diaz de la Portilla

After his arrest on public corruption charges in the giveaway of a public park to a private school for more than $300,000 in campaigns contributions and gifts — vacations, accommodations, food, booze — disgraced Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla was suspended from office.

Then, officials found even more graft.

As chairman of the Omni Community Redevelopment Agency, Diaz de la Portilla presided over a bunch of deals that are now being scrutinized and cancelled because they were done subverting the proper procurement and approval process — and because they are bad deals for the city.

It looks like he was using the CRA as his own, personal piggy bank.

Among the questionable deals — and sources, including District 2 Commissioner Damian Pardo, say there are many — are a two-year, no-bid contract for security guard services with Paramount Florida Security Group, owned by Pedro Mora, a security consultant and one-time Miami-Dade School Board candidate, for more than $50,000 a month. That’s $1.2 million over two years.

Though board approval is needed for anything over $50K, there was no board approval for the Paramount contract. There was no waiver taken to the board. No nada.

How much does anyone want to bet that ADLP was getting some of that queso?

Perhaps, so was former Miami Commissioner Humberto “Bert” Hernandez, ADLP’s confidante and bagman. Hernandez and Mora are friendly.

*_{Pedro Mora of Paramount Security and Bert Hernandez, of Diaz de la Portilla’s gang}*

Hernandez was also allegedly paid at least $25,000 by the Omni CRA — unknown if this was a one time fee or a monthly one — and nobody knows really for what. “Consulting,” is Ladra’s bet.

And this is reportedly just the tip of the iceberg.

Commissioner Pardo, who was elected partly on an anti-corruption platform, said the CRA had already cancelled the security contract — which amounts to $70 an hour, if the guards are there 24 hours a day — and that an audit of the books has uncovered other discrepancies under ADLP’s reign, er, tenure. He said a full audit report would become public soon. Probably at the March commission meeting.

But the scrutiny started before Pardo was elected, with Sabina Covo‘s District 2 Chief of Staff Anthony Balzebre, who has stayed on, uncovering some of the questionable contracts and expenses — and alerting authorities. The security contract was cancelled on Oct. 16.

But not before Paramount billed $611,340.

Four days later, the CRA signed a mutual separation agreement with Danielle Hernandez, who had been hired in August 2022 as director of planning and policy. A college student in her 20s, Danielle is Bert Hernandez’s daughter. Her salary was $75,000 a year. According to the separation agreement, she was paid 20 hours of accrued vacation time, or $865, and 43 hours of accrued sick time, or $1,860. “Her services are no longer needed,” it says.

In another case, Orange Barrel Media had gotten a four/fifth vote from the board to waive a bid and enter into negotiations to put a sign up on the CRA-owned Miami Entertainment Complex, also known as Miami Studios. They were supposed to come back for final approval once the contract was finalized. They didn’t. This is the same company that is lobbying for the unwanted LED billboards in downtown and that gave tens of thousands to Diaz de la Portilla’s PAC from another PAC chaired by former Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, $125,000 just since August. Of that, $25,000 came after his arrest.

The resolution approving those negotiations with Orange Barrel Media was rescinded at the last CRA meeting Feb. 8.

“I’m going through everything with a fine tooth comb,” said Interim Executive Director Isiaa Jones, the CRA’s former chief legal counsel, appointed in October to get the agency back on track. “It’s a lot of straightening up.

“I feel like I’m uncovering something new every month,” Jones told Political Cortadito.

There were projects that were reallocated for no reason, some public safety projects that were deallocated, Jones said. “For no reason.

“We have to get back to focusing on the community, on what a redevelopment agency is,” Jones said. “Right now it’s about restoring the community’s trust and getting back into compliance.”

Under ADLP’s watch, sources say, the CRA also cancelled an existing contract it had approved after an open, competitive bid process for architecture and engineering services to provide an “accurate historic rehab” on the outside and a white box interior on the historic 1925 Citizens Bank Building, designed by H. George Fink, the CRA had purchased. It then awarded a no-bid contract to another architectural firm brought in by Bert Hernandez. Again, the board was bypassed.

How much does anyone wanna bet that Diaz de la Portilla and Hernandez got a piece of that, too?

And how much did they get for agreeing to indefinitely abate the rent for a restaurant on the first floor of the CRA office building, the old Fire Station No. 2 at 1401 North Miami Ave., beginning in December of 2022? They can’t make those kinds of changes to a lease without going through the board.

A yearly audit report through September of last year, dated Jan. 9, found “Significant Deficiency in Internal Control over Financial Reporting” in both the security contract and the abatement of rent for the restaurant.

The audit also shows that the CRA has been on a spending spree.

“At the close of the current fiscal year, the agency’s governmental funds reported combined ending fund balances of $27,325,903 a decrease of $20,190,710 in comparison with the prior year,” the report states. “The significant decrease in fund balance in the Special Revenue Fund was mainly due to the significant increase in grant and project activity from the prior year.”

One of the first things Diaz de la Portilla did after winning the commission race in 2019 was wrestle the Omni CRA’s chair away from then Commissioner Ken Russell in 2020. Red flags should have been going up like fireworks. These agencies — because they are designed to move quickly to address blight, bring affordable housing and business redevelopment — have a tendency to become slush funds for elected officials and their pals.

Diaz de la Portilla then got the director at the time to hire his longtime lackey, Jenny Nillo, to be his “eyes and ears” after he discovered some “discrepancies,” he told Ladra. How ironic.

Nillo’s no-show job was exposed when authorities caught her drinking and driving in a city car and running errands for Diaz de la Portilla while getting paid $53,000 a year by taxpayers.

When she was busted and fired — don’t worry, Diaz de la Portilla hired her back at his office– his fellow commissioners stripped ADLP of the CRA chairmanship, but only temporarily. He was back as chair of the Omni CRA in 2022, grabbing it from Russell a second time. And the first thing he did was fire director Jason Walker, who had talked to authorities about and then fired Nillo — an ex-convict who pleaded guilty in 2017 to a federal charge of conspiracy to commit bank fraud.

Diaz de la Portilla was arrested in September and charged with bribery, money laundering and 10 other felonies, including unlawful compensation and official misconduct, in connection with his sponsoring and vote on the giveaway of Biscayne Park to The Centner Academy. David and Leila Centner’s lobbyist, Bill Riley, was also arrested after authorities discovered his Delaware-based company has funneled hundreds of thousands into ADLP’s PAC. Riley also paid for Diaz de la Portilla’s extended stay at the East Hotel and a watch party for baby brother Renier Diaz de la Portilla‘s judicial race.

The park property had also been part of plans the Omni CRA had to negotiate with the School Board of Miami-Dade to redevelop their 10.5 acre administrative site in the CRA’s boundaries as a potential relocation site for the Iprep Academy.

Before his arrest, Diaz de la Portilla was hellbent on expanding the CRA’s boundaries to Allapattah and Watson Island — and, very likely, his questionable, unethical and, perhaps, illegal procurement habits would have expanded as well.

Omni CRA Financial Statements 9-30-2023 by Political Cortadito on Scribd

Omni CRA – 2023 Audit Results & Required Communications by Political Cortadito on Scribd

Notice of Termination by Political Cortadito on Scribd

Hernandez Job Offer Letter by Political Cortadito on Scribd

Separation Agreement DH and Omni CRA by Political Cortadito on Scribd

Alex Diaz de la Portilla, CRAs, Damian Pardo