This article, without additions from Monday’s meeting, was first published by Ciudad Doral.
In the past year, the city of Doral has been whipped by scandal after scandal after scandal, turning it into the laughing stock of the 305. Not an easy feat in a year of three mayors’ arrests and multiple federal investigations elsewhere.
But Doral has it’s own class of drama:
- Public outbursts between the mayor and city manager, who accused the former of illegal activity, unethical conduct and cozying up to narco-Chavistas.
- Multiple ethics and criminal investigations into the 2012 mayoral campaign, Sunshine Law violations, abuse of power to obtain beneficial zoning upgrades — even assault charges and allegations of filing a false police report.
- The failed recall of a councilwoman, perhaps at the hands of another councilwoman.
- The failed firing of the city manager.
- The firing just recently of the city attorney, who was replaced with two other lawyers who have registered to lobby at the city in the past three months.
Whew. Nearby Univision should consider starting a new telenovela: La Ciudad.
“The public problems have given the city a black eye,” said founding Mayor J.C. Bermudez, who is “not only concerned as a resident but I’m disappointed as the former mayor that the city, in my opinion, its reputation has suffered tremendously.”
Some citizens, including those who sit on the city’s Charter Review Commission, say enough is enough.
“The people in Doral are tired of this kind of craziness, this kind of government where if you don’t agree with someone you fire them,” said Commission Chairman Jesse Jones.
That is why they, after months of deliberations, the commission unveiled on Monday a series of charter amendments that could change the way the mayor and council are elected in this 10-year-old city, strip the mayor of certain powers and shift more accountability to the council as a whole.
Of course, if all change is difficult, those particular changes are not going to be welcomed with open arms at City Hall.
Mayor Luigi Boria did not return several calls and texts to respond to this story, but he apparently doesn’t like the way the ballot questions are shaping up and the proposals have already caused a little tug of war between the commission and the city council.
That’s because the changes — which must be approved by a majority of voters and could be presented as early as June — could also effectively end the local political careers for both Boria and Councilwoman Sandra Ruiz. One of the proposed amendments would tweak term limits — either a single six-year term or two four-year terms; that has not been decided yet — so that even just one day served in any elected position at any time in any elected’s life equals a term. Ruiz, who was a founding council member who served from 2003 to 2010 before she resigned to run for state office (and lost), and Boria, who served two years of his council term before he resigned to run for mayor in 2012, could not run for re-election if that amendment passes.
Unless they get a legal opinion that they can add the words “not retroactive” or “grandfathered in.”
Another would eliminate the mayor’s position altogether, making it a rotating seat among five council members.
But while many may think that the proposed changes are a direct result of Boria’s continuous embarrassing antics — logical, right? — Jones assured Ladra that this was about more than just one mayor, one person.
“We’re not stripping power from anybody. We are balancing it out and spreading it among the council members. This is about common sense,” Jones said.
“This is about bringing stability to the city. They’re trying to make it political, but we can’t be electing four out of five people every time an election comes,” he added, referring to the last election in which the mayor and three new council members were elected. He believes term limits would end the musical chairs scenario.
Further eroding the mayor’s power, another amendment would give council members more input on the selection of the charter positions — the city clerk, city manager and city attorney, the latter two of whom have been a revolving door. Today, the positions are appointed by the mayor with the council’s approval after the fact.
“Nobody on the council has a chance to see who’s in the running or review the resumes,” Jones said. “So the city council is forced to vote yes, not knowing anything about the selection process.”
The proposed change would create a search committee that would send the top three or four applicants to all the council members.
“The process right now doesn’t make sense,” Jones said. “There’s no vetting of candidates, there’s not professionalism. If you’re running a small, dynamic city of 40,000 people like Doral, one of the most balanced tax bases in the county, you need to have professional people running things.
“If they did a better job of vetting the candidates, we’d have someone who lasted more than eight months. Can you imagine any company in the world operating like this? He’s already tried to fire Joe Carollo five times,” Jones said, referring to the mayor.
Of course, he’s talking about the city attorney. The city clerk has been there since, well, forever (almost 10 years). City Manager Joe Carollo has managed to hold on to his job — probably through threats, or he has something on Boria — but he is the fourth city manager in Doral in three years. And Ladra is pretty sure that Boria has only tried to fire him two or three times, Mr. Jones.
But City Attorney John Herin was there for 10 months, almost eight, before he was fired in a surprise move when the mayor added the impromptu item at a council meeting earlier this month.
That was a shot in this charter battle. Because Herin had told the mayor and the council that their role in the charter review process was minimal and “ministerial,” and that they could not change, adjust or deny the proposed changes voted upon and brought to them by the independent charter review board. The mayor didn’t want to hear that. So he concocted some excuse — just as Ruiz was trying to do weeks ago — and fired him. He then recommended two new attorneys from a different firm and the council could do nothing more than vote it up or down, like Jones said.
And voila! In the first meeting after they were hired last week, new City Attorneys Gil Pastoriza and Dan Espino were asked to provide a written opinion that reflected their verbal opinion that yes, indeed, the council had power over the proposed charter amendments that will be turned in to them on April 1. I know. Great timing, right?
The council then has 120 days to put it on the ballot and Ruiz, who has expressed her concerns to the commission, says she has seen no indication that there is any intention to delay it.
“At the end of the day, the process needs to be respected and put out to vote,” Ruiz said, adding that the council has the right to propose their own changes to the charter or to write language to clarify the reform proposed by the commission.
“It’s wise. We are the elected body,” Ruiz said. “We are the one experiencing what works and what doesn’t work.”
Her objections are to the term limits adjustment — she says “the current standards are fine” — and the rotating mayor’s post, which she says voters will want to decide.
“It’s their privilege to actually elect the mayor,” Ruiz said.
Apparently, some citizens agree with her. They handed out stickers at the meeting Wedneday that screamed “Respect Democracy, No to 2014-01.” And they spoke against the change. Some say the audience was packed with Boria’s friends and churchmates, many of whom asked the commission Monday not to take away their right to elect a mayor.
“Taking it to where it’s a decision that’s between five people sort of politicizes it,” Ruiz told Ladra, adding that it is already difficult enough to name a vice mayor.
No kidding, said Bermudez, who said that he isn’t sure about the rotating mayor but really hopes the commission considers rotating the vice mayor’s seat: “You know how many headaches that would have saved me?”
Bermudez, who insists there is no truth to the rumors that he is interested in coming back to City Hall, said he still had to study what the commission releases this week. But, he added, “some changes are necessary.”
“I’m not happy with what I’ve been seeing. I’ve been pretty quiet. But I’m disappointed that our government has gone from one of the most respected in the county to one today that I don’t think anybody is looking at the same way.”
And, he said, he really likes the amendment that would create a charter enforcement official.
Yeah, wouldn’t that be a busy job?
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