Doral inquiry — a political pre-emptive strike vs JC Bermdez?

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A questionable $2 million city of Doral contract that is already being investigated by the FBI has been trotted out in public almost four years later in what could be a pre-emptive strike against former Mayor JC Bermudez, who is seriously considering a comeback.

The city of Doral spent about $1.8 million in 2011 on a license plate reader camera surveillance system at that has never really operated. The public learned earlier this month that only 2% of the cameras that were to be installed at strategic intersections near schools to flag police to wanted or predator vehicles are working.

I think that translates to one camera. And that is a real problem.

The city could have to repay $1.4 million in federal grant monies for the project, but the feds have given Doral until December to fix the problem and the council voted April 7 to spend another $400,000 with a new company to get the system up and running.

But that wasn’t enough. Councilman Pete Cabrera and Mayor Luigi Boria , who share the sinister campaign consultant Sasha Tirador, have seized a political opportunity to try to smear the former administration as what Ladra calls a pre-emptive strike against Bermudez, who has not yet decided if he is going to run for his old seat.

Read related story: Doral Councilman succeeds in ousting clerk — now what?

Cabrera — who must be bored now that he got rid of former City Clerk Barbara Herrera — called for a separate investigation, by an outside agency like the FDLE, into the former contract with Aware Digital, a Miramar-based company that has closed and filed for bankruptcy. I guess he has no confidence in the FBI, which was tipped off more than a year ago by former City Manager Joe Carollo — one of the many potential corruption cases he farmed out to county, state and federal law enforcement agencies when his relationship with the mayor soured as he was fired.

This is likely more about a rumored poll that has Bermudez blowing every other candidate out of the water. His popularity, four years out of office, is through the roof and of course he’s considering another run, since it seems like he’d be a shoo-in. So both Cabrera and Boria have cast aspersion on the former administration.

Boria did not return several calls from Ladra. His assistant Gonzalo Bello texted me to ask what I wanted, but when I replied, there was no more response.

At the April 7 meeting, Boria said he had supported the projects based on its merits.

“But the fact is that it never happened and someone stole the money from the city… it looks like they did something dark and we have to investigate,” Boria said, adding that it would focus on who knew what when at the city.

Cabrera says that is where the inquiry should go.

“The fact is that the city and the mayor’s office approved payments for work that was never done and there are invoices, there are records that prove that,” Cabrera said. “I want a full investigation into what was done here to see if there was any corruption.

“It’s a lot of money. There are a lot of questions. Why was it paid if the work wasn’t being done? Who supervised this?”

Read related story: Ex Doral Manager Joe Carollo keeps talking post firing

Those are good questions. But his motivations seem more political. He told the Diario Las Americas that this was being made public now because “they don’t have the capacity to control information like they had it in the past.”

They, again, is code for Bermudez and his allies. Cabrera doesn’t have to say his name.

“He’s very smart. He’s not using my name. But he’s implying,” said Bermudez, who went on Roberto Rodriguez Tejera‘s show to defend himself.

“Pete and Boria, when he was a councilman, voted for it, too,” Bermudez said. “And now both are insinuating that something was done wrong by the prior administration.”

It’s like they are obsessed with Bermudez, the city’s first mayor who was termed out in 2012.

First they had his name stripped last month from the park on 87th Avenue, though we all still call it Bermudez Park and some of us always will. Doral Central Park? Really? Please.

Ladra can’t help but hope that Bermudez runs again.

Sure, he said he had to get his wife’s blessing, but people are begging him to run for mayor and it’s a certain win. Ladra can’t believe his wife wouldn’t want him to slap down the people who are trying to malign him.

So observers like Ladra see this as a pre-emptive strike against Bermudez, who has been strongly encouraged to and is very seriously considering a run for mayor again.

“I haven’t made the decision, but it’s definitely the perception out there that it’s a possibility,” he said.

And he welcomes an investigation.

“If they feel there was something done wrong and people should be investigated, everybody should be investigated by an impartial party, including Boria and Cabrera,”  Bermudez said.

  JC Bermudez, Luigi Boria, Pete Cabrera