Doral’s recent war between the mayor and the city manager — and it’s resulting and multiple criminal investigations — were almost a 
faint memory when another chapter of political intrigue opened in the small city on the western edge of the county.
Councilwoman Sandra Ruiz’s surprise attempt to fire City Attorney John Herin last week failed to get a second. But she did convince her colleagues (or three of them, at least) to seek proposals from firms and attorneys to possibly replace him.
Ruiz complained about a lack of timely legal reports and dedication to the city, which is in the midst of a growth spurt and more legal issues than ever. She complained that Herin was late to a couple meetings — in Doral, where nothing ever starts on time — that he doesn’t make himself available and that she gets conflicting opinions from Herin and other attorneys at his firm, who have filled in for him when he cannot attend.
But Herin, who would only say that he was representing the city “business as usual” and hoped to regain the confidence of the council in the next two months, said those were isolated cases and answered to each complaint at the meeting. Like the attorneys before him, he spends two days a week at City Hall and said he was once summoned to a meeting by Ruiz and then later dismissed after half an hour or so.
I’ll come out and say it: Ladra smells false excuses generated to justify the attorney’s ouster for some other, more pointed purpose.
It could be that Herin hasn’t tried to stop the city’s charter review committee — where there were apparently fireworks recently — from putting forth a referendum that basically changes the system of government in the 10-year-old city. It reduces the title of mayor to a rotating post from the equal five council members. It would further weaken the mostly ceremonial position. And it is something that sources tell Ladra makes both Boria and Ruiz — who suddnely looks like she is preening for the mayor’s seat one day — unhappy. But Herin, known to be absolutely apolitical, can’t just tell the board they can’t do something when they legally can.
And remember, Ruiz is also considered by many to be among the driving forces of the failed (read: bogus) recall last year against Councilwoman Bettina Rodriguez-Aguilera. Remember that old thing? Las malas lenguas back then said the recall — a scam perpetrated on hopeful political insiders by one traveling gypsy conartist named Vanessa Brito — was being financed by Al Maloof and the firm of Genovese, Joblove & Batista, because they wanted the city’s legal contract.
Mayor Luigi Boria said on the dais that former Miami Lakes Mayor Michael “Muscles” Pizzi, who knows Brito well, had told him Maloof was behind the recall and it was around the time Boria withdrew his nomination of Ruiz as vice mayor because, he said, she had pressured him to recommend Genovese, Joblove to the council to replace former City Attorney Joe Jimenez.
How much you wanna bet Genovese, Joblove is among the firms that applies for the job now?
“There will be full disclosure on who applies. I think that question is out of line,” Ruiz told Ladra this week, after I asked if this move was designed so that GJ&B could sweep in, which is the chatter at City Hall and surrounds. She added that “the mayor has apologized for the statements he made from the dais” last year accusing her of just that.
“Al Maloof has nothing to do with this. There’s nothing tied into this,” Ruiz added. “It’s a new year, and I didn’t want to wait.”
“Doral’s not on our radar,” Maloof told Ladra Thursday before he changed that to “my radar,” when I read it back to him. If that doesn’t indicate a submission from them, I don’t know what does.
“I haven’t been to Doral in a year, maybe nine months,” he said, adding that he was completely unaware the Doral city attorney’s job was on the line. “I haven’t talked to the mayor or the manager or any of the council members in quite some time,” before he hung up on Ladra so he could go read the story in today’s El Nuevo Herald. He did not return subsequent phone calls.
But GJ&B represented Juan Carlos Tovar, who owns and is developing the controversial, 12-acre Grand Floridian project– the one that Boria’s kids had an interest in before they sold their shares to Tovar so Boria could vote on the project (he still couldn’t, but the intent is clear) — when associate attorney Jesus Suarez appeared as co-counsel with Felix Lasarte at the second reading in September.
The next day, Suarez also sent the city a letter noticing them that Tovar was considering suing the city after his confrontation (the one he greatly exaggerated about) with City Manager Joe Carollo and demanding that the city clerk preserve video and other evidence of Carollo’s alleged assault (the video that eventually showed Tovar lied to police).
And Maloof used to hang out sometimes in Ruiz’s City Hall office. After all, they may have been coworkers at one point. Ruiz also used to work at Genovese, Joblove — 16 or 17 years ago, she said. “Before it became the firm it is today,” she told Ladra.
Still, not so long ago that her bosses forgot her. The partners, their families and some attorneys, have contributed to her campaigns — $2,000 when she ran for Florida House in 2010 against State Rep. Jeanette Nunez and at least $4,500 for the council race in 2012.
Mayor Boria has 60 days to review bios and proposals and come up with a recommended replacement to represent the city, which has an annual legal budget of $500,000. Or he could, technically, opt to keep Herin.
The charter calls for the mayor to appoint and the council to approve. But Ruiz, who expressed concerns over the process last time (presumably since her preferred firm was not chosen), wants to be in on the selection process.
“My hope is that, whoever applies, the entire council can review the applicants and we can meet with the attorneys and ask questions before the mayor makes a recommendation,” she said.
Hmmmmmmm.
What’s really driving threatened ouster of Doral city attorney? added by Ladra on
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