Doral seems to be spiraling downward with a constant barrage of blows in the wake of scandalous accusations and an escalating 
feud between the mayor and the city manager.
In the past few weeks, Mayor Luigi Boria has lost two assistants, the city has come under investigation for ethics and possible criminal violations, a group of citizens has asked Florida Gov. Rick Scott to get involved and the city lost any hope to host the 2014 Miss USA Pageant.
For Doral, where many Venezuelans live, that’s like losing the Super Bowl.
Donald Trump, who owns the Doral Hotel and Country Club, had a representative call each of the councilwomen last week to tell them that the recent scandals in the city caused him to reconsider bringing the event to Doral, which some estimate would have generated $50 million in local transactions.
Oh, and it didn’t help that the mayor sorta dissed the debutante competition.
“The mayor was very clear that he spoke against it and voted against it,” Trump spokesman Ed Russo told media outlets. “And we want to avoid awkward situations.”
“No, I support the pageant,” Boria told Ladra Wednesday, adding that it wasn’t completely off the table.
“We haven’t lost it. I spoke with Trump,” Boria said, adding that the celebrity billionaire was reconsidering. “He just wants everything to be 100 percent finished with construction.
“It doesn’t make sense to me; 87th Avenue, right now, is a mess,” Boria said, referring to ongoing construction meant to ease traffic but which does just the opposite. The mayor said he would rather wait and have the pageant in the city after construction on Downtown Doral is finished.
“We talked about 2015,” Boria said of his chat with The Donald. “Maybe even 2014. He could change his mind.”
While Boria says the pageant pulled out due to infrastructure issues, several sources and the Trump people themselves say the political infighting is to blame.
The sudden tumult in this once-quiet, manicured municipality – incorporated by active citizens 10 years ago – began last month, abut the time when City Manager Joe Carollo had a confrontation with developer Juan Carlos Tovar, Boria’s business associate and pal.
One says the other is a thug in business with the Venezuelan government and narco-Chavistas. The other says he was bullied and insulted, which he may have been, but also that he was assaulted, which he was not, according to cameras at City Hall. Tovar was charged with filing a false police report after Doral Police examined the footage from City Hall video and determined he had lied about being pushed by Carollo. That is still under investigation and who knows if it will go anywhere.
It really never mattered. Boria, whose children had been in business with Tovar on a piece of property that was before the city for development, was already peeved. He tried to have Carollo fired. But the mayor – who a few months ago had at least two councilwomen to count on for a majority – could not muster the votes.
And Carollo struck back.
In a public meeting that went on for more than three hours, the city manager accused Boria of everything under the sun. Carollo says the mayor conspired with his children and Tovar to have the property rezoned for more profit. He says the mayor gave Tovar money to buy the property back from his children so that he could vote on it (not knowing that would not solve the problem). He says the mayor tried to get the arrest of a Tovar associate suppressed.
And Carollo says there’s more.
Even though the city manager has said he has spoken to the FBI about some of the questionable situations – and Ladra has it on good authority that county investigators are also looking into some of the allegations — a group of citizens has written Gov. Scott to ask for state intervention.
Jesse Jones, of the Doral Community Coalition, told Ladra Wednesday that he had not heard back from the governor’s office, although he knew the letter had been hand delivered to Scott when he was in Miami and received in his Tallahassee office. Jones has lived in Doral for more than two decades and was one of the activists involved in the incorporation. Other founding fathers, Morgan Levy and founding Mayor J.C. Bermudez are also coalition members (more on that later).
This week, Jones is going to follow up with some of the investigative agencies he copied the letter to – the FBI, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, the Attorney General – to press for an independent investigation into the outlandish accusations.
“The diatribe between them is one thing,” Jones said. “But when they start making these type of charges and saying there is proof of wrongdoing, someone has to look into that,” Jones said.
Ya think?
“Doral has never been faced with these types of problems. We created the city because we wanted to protect our community, attract business,” said Jones.
“Now we’ve become the laughing joke of Miami-Dade County.”
“These allegations need to be looked at. If they are true, then do something about it. If they are not true, then we need to know so we can move on,” Jones said, and Ladra is thinking, where have you been all my life?
“If not, it’s just a continuing soap opera and we’re going to live with this stigma forever,” Jones said.
The mayor was just elected last year and, so, the city has to live with him for three more years in his term. That’s why there are murmurs about a recall to force him out.
Some voters in the city got a call Tuesday night (more on that later). It was a push poll. Among the questions: Would you support a recall if you knew how much it would cost the city? Another asked what voters thought of “Crazy Joe Carollo.”
Boria almost admits to being behind the poll, which talked about infrastructure and the same issues he brought up with Ladra. Well kinda, sorta. Well, not really, but we know he is.
“I have a good idea who did it,” he said, declining to give details, and you could almost hear him smiling.
“I would tell you if you were an ally,” he told Ladra, adding that his wife received one of the calls.
“Obviously, it is someone who likes me.”
Obviously.
Doral dominos continue to fall after scandal, no Miss USA added by Ladra on
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