ADLP gave $175K in Miami anti-poverty funds to political pal in Doral

Did the money go to help the needy in District 1?

About six months before Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla was arrested in September on public corruption charges — for giving away a public park in exchange for more than $245,000 in campaign contributions and thousands more in gifts, meals, drinks and accommodations — the then-District 1 commissioner allocated $175,000 in funds from his share of the city’s Anti-Poverty Initiative monies to a relatively new non-profit in Doral whose director once chaired his political action committee.

The same organization, Legal Foundation, Inc., also got an appropriations request this year for $300,000 from the state of Florida budget thanks to Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez and State Rep. Alina Garcia, who is now running for Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections.

Legal Foundation was founded by Yesenia Collazo, who is the former chairwoman of ADLP’s Proven Leadership for Miami-Dade PAC, according to records with the state Division of Elections. She gave $1,000 to Renier’s judicial campaign in 2022, according to campaign finance records. She also owns Research Associates of Miami, which was paid $7,500 by judicial candidate Robert Watson, who Renier was reportedly helping before he decided to run for his own bench.

Both the non-profit and the consulting firm were founded in 2020 at the same address, an office on Northwest 25th Street that las malas lenguas say Baby DLP sometimes worked out of.

In March of last year, Legal Foundation was awarded the grant to “locate, educate, consult and represent disadvantaged City of Miami residents with their legal needs.” An estimated 80 residents of District 1 would be served, according to the request for the funds. Results would be measured by the number of clients served and documented by “intake forms, logs, files and case management software.”

But, citing attorney-client privilege, none of that has been provided.

Earlier this month, the city’s Office of Grants Administration requested that Collazo provide a breakdown of the services provided by Legal Foundation from March 9 2023, to March 9 of this year, as well as a detailed cost and expenditure report detailing the usage of the funds and “information confirming the residents reside in District 1.”

What they got was a list of 65 initials with zip codes and descriptions of the cases for reported District 1 residents: traffic, criminal, family, civil. They reported surrogate documents prepared. Wills. Powers of attorney. Homeowner association issues.

There’s a little bit of everything there. But there’s no real confirmation.

“For each resident serviced, we have included the corresponding zip code. As discussed, to protect attorney-client privilege, providing the zip codes alone will suffice,” Collazo wrote in a letter June 5. “Please note that all listed zip codes fall within District 1.”

The itemized costs included the following:

Accounting: $812
Advertising and promotion: $2,798
Bank services: $30
Filing fees: $678
Insurance: $4,498
Postage: $676
Professional fees: $67,290
Rent: $20,000
Repairs and maintenance: $396
Corporate taxes: $3,513
Utilities: $4,946

The total comes out to just over $108,000. But that was on June 3. An itemized list created June 5 extends the services through May 9, even though the contracted ended in March. It comes out to a total of $132,692. A second itemized list on June 5 extends the costs through May 17 and totals $133,529.

What went up? Rent, by $4,000. Insurance, by $3,300 (in two months). Utilities, by about $700. Office supplies by $45. And professional services by about $8,330. There was also a new column: “uncategorized” expenses, at $8,737.

Advertising? Insurance? Utilities? Rent? Did they open a satellite office? Who knows? Legal Foundation doesn’t have a website or online presence.

It’s also interesting that they spent $75,623 on professional services, mostly lawyers one would assume, and only $678 on filing fees.

According to the city, administrative and indirect expenses cannot exceed 10% of the budgeted allocation and Legal Foundation has to return the unused funds. Maybe that’s why’s the costs kept going up?

Ladra could make an argument for them to return the whole $175K. There is nothing to prove that these initials are real and that the cases exist. Collazo did not not return several calls and emails from Political Cortadito.

If this turns out to be some scam — like, oh, say, a phony non-profit formed by politically connected conspirators to apply for and receive government grants for non existing programs and services they have no intention of providing — then it may be time to have a closer look at all appropriations at the state, county and city level.

And it also means that ADLP literally stole from poor people to line his own dirty pockets.

*_{Alex Diaz de la Portilla talks to reporters after he bonds out of jail in September}*

Diaz de la Portilla — who awaits a criminal trial on 12 unrelated felony charges including bribery and money laundering — refused to talk to Political Cortadito about it. “Hold your breath,” he texted back. “Why in the world would you think that I would talk to someone like you?”

When told that Ladra was writing about the API allocation, he went on.

“You are full of shit as always and the lawsuit I am preparing against you is awesome,” The Dean wrote. “Twelve years of defamation. I have compiled all the lying blogs. Living in your parents’ basement won’t pay the legal fees.”

There are no basements in Miami. Apparently, Ladra lives in ADLP’s head rent free.

According to the city of Miami’s website, the Anti-Poverty Initiative was established by resolution in 2014 to address the needs of the city’s poorest residents focusing on support towards self-sufficiency. Funding allocation of the API’s $2.6 million is based on poverty rates in each commission district. Projects and programs must directly benefit disadvantaged city residents in at least one of the following areas:

Educational Programs for children, youth and adults
Crime Prevention
Elderly meals, transportation, recreational and health/wellness related activities
At-risk youth or youth summer job programs
Transportation services and programs
Job development, retention and training programs
Homeless Services

API funds have gone to “college scholarships, work and life skills training, business and finance training, senior citizen programs, college campus tours for high school students, and much more,” the website says. Sounds like a slush fund. But there are some allocations that look legitimate on their face.

Last year, there were 25 grants from the API totaling $1,520,750. So far this year, the city has allocated more than $1.6 million to help 6,121 residents, according to a status report provided by the city’s communications department, which indicates that Commissioners Miguel Gabela and Damian Pardo have not yet allocated any of their district anti-poverty monies.

Among this year’s disbursements are $373,750 to Sunshine For All, which provides home-delivered meals to the elderly and disabled, from Commissioner Manolo Reyes. That is the only allocation he has made for 2023-24. Commissioner Joe Carollo gave Little Haiti FC, Inc, $25,000 for a soccer program and Centro Mater Child Care Services $70K for education programs. Mayor Suarez has allocated $650,638 in 27 grants this year. The largest was $55,000 for the B. Wright Leadership Academy for educational programs. Commissioner Christine King allocated $220,600 to the Foundation of Community Assistance and Leadership for educational programs at Moore Park and $300,000 to the Martin Luther King Economic Development Corporation — of which she is the president and CEO.

That last one should have raised eyebrows.

The $175,000 given to Legal Foundation was supposed to focus on helping the homeless with legal issues and serve 80 residents, according to the funding request. “Legal Foundation will provide free consultation, guidance and representation to low income and underserved individuals and their families, providing them the same legal recourse and accessibility to our justice system as any other Floridian,” the request reads.

A close-out report provided by Legal Foundation indicates that they served 86 individuals from March 9 of last year to March 9 of this year. Of those, 65 are District 1 residents. There was no information provided for the other 21 residents, presumably of other city districts.

They must be doing a lot of work at Legal Foundation. Because the state request for $300,000 from Florida taxpayers is supposed to fund salaries, office space, supplies, contract attorneys and court costs to help between 200 and 400 people, according to the appropriations request with the state.

It also says that the organization plans to request between $1 and $3 million more over the next five years.

“I think they do something with helping the elderly put their affairs in order,” Rep. Garcia told Political Cortadito when reached Thursday. She also added that the state has oversight and directed Ladra to the grants administration department. Political Cortadito will follow up.

Collazo, who has served in the Puerto Rican Bar Association — and, in 2018, filed a wrongful death lawsuit for the families two men killed in the collapse of the Florida International University pedestrian bridge on Tamiami Trail — wasn’t very grateful, giving Garcia only $500 for her campaign, according to the campaign finance reports.

She gave Renier more.

According to ProPublica, an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism on abuses of power and betrayals of public trust, Collazo was also involved in another non-profit, the Legal Services Clinic of the Puerto Rican Community in Orlando, where she was paid $63,000 as the Miami office director, reportedly to help victims of Hurricane Maria.

Diaz de la Portilla was on the payroll, too. Getting $97,500 as statewide coordinator.

How come we never saw that on any of his campaign materials?

Alex Diaz de la Portilla, Alina Garcia, Christine King

ADLP gave $175K in Miami anti-poverty funds to political pal in Doral added by Ladra on June 22, 2024
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