The Downtown Neighbors Association will have a public safety town hall Wednesday with Miami Police Chief Manny Morales to discuss some “recent high profile incidents” in the urban core, talk about the homeless crisis and look at the 2025 downtown public safety action plan.
DNA President James Torres has been very vocal recently about what he says are a series of failures by the city to provide services to the downtown. He has also been critical of the Miami Downtown Development Authority, which has a $13.5 million annual budget — through a special levy on properties within its district boundaries in downtown, Brickell and Edgewater — and recently gifted $100,000 to the UFC for its events at the Kaseya Center. The UFC is worth about $12 billion, according to Forbes.
Read related: Effort to dissolve Miami DDA cites ‘bloated’ salaries, redundancy, UFC gift
“We’ve seen the videos. We’ve felt the concern in our community. It’s time to come together and talk about what really matters: feeling safe where we live,” Torres posted on social media Monday. “That recent assault in Brickell wasn’t just a headline — it was a wake-up call. Let’s make sure our voices are heard!”
Torres, who has called for a ballot question on the dissolution of the DDA, was referring to a video posted by Only In Dade of a woman who said she was physically assaulted on a walk to Brickell Key. “Bring pepper spray with you at all times no matter if it’s sunny, daylight, in the middle of the week,” the woman says in the video, calling it a public service announcement. “I was literally chased down the street and there was a ton of people around and I was screaming for help.
Since her first video was posted, she recorded a second one about “an outrageous amount of people come forward who have experienced the exact same thing, with the exact same guy.”
The same day the DDA granted the UFC that $100K, the 15-member board also voted to allocate $550,000 for additional police services in the Central Business District and Brickell areas. According to their social media statement, the board plans to fund expanded, additional police patrol services to Edgewater and has committed $1.2 million to this effort.
The town hall from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at 50 Biscayne Boulevard will also be shared on Zoom.

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The deadline was noon Monday for those who want to be considered for a potential appointment to the Miami-Dade Commission in District 6, where Kevin Marino Cabrera sat until he resigned last week to be the new U.S. Ambassador to Panama.
But everyone says the fix is in.
West Miami Vice Mayor Natalie Milian Orbis is the favorite for the post, which could be a two-year-plus appointment and will give whoever gets it ample advantage in the next election, which will be in 2026 if a special election is not called. Milian Orbis is the wife of Cabrera’s chief of staff, Manuel Orbis, who would likely have to get a different position at the county.
Read related: Miami-Dade’s Kevin Cabrera leaves for Panama, county gets set to appoint
Other rumored wannabes included State Sen. Bryan Avila, West Miami Mayor Eric Diaz-Padron and an unknown named Francisco Petrirena, who is the director of the city of Miami’s government relations department.
But Milian Orbis — in a photo with Cabrera here during Dade Days in Tallahassee earlier this month — is the only one who has made her intentions public.
Last week, shortly after Cabrera’s resignation was effective, Commission Chairman Anthony Rodriguez had the commission auditor establish a process for District 6 residents to apply for consideration. Even before he did that, on the same day (April 14), Milian Orbis filed paperwork about opening a campaign account for the commission seat race.
According to her bio on the city’s website, Milian Orbis began her public service career 20 years ago as an executive administrator at the Cuban-American Association of Civil Engineers before she went to the county where she worked at a number of commission offices through roles such as commission aide, legislative assistant, and legislative director with former commissioners Joe Martinez, Rebeca Sosa and Juan C. Zapata.
If Milian Orbis — or anyone, for that matter — wanted to be considered for an appointment, the individual had to fill out an application that basically consists of an oath and proof of residency. That’s it. They could have also submitted a resume and a video or audio file — two minutes max. But it wasn’t required.
Ladra thinks there should also be a financial disclosure form like there is for regular candidates.
The application period closed at noon Monday. Submissions will be reviewed and considered at the Tuesday, May 6 county commission meeting. So why such a short window? Less than a week.
Read related: Kevin Cabrera tapped as Panama ambassador; so who will replace him?
This could be a second chance for former Coral Gables Commissioner Jorge Fors, who got 39% of the vote in 2022. Ladra doesn’t even know if he wants it. But he is a no-brainer, seeing as how 20,319 people in the district did vote for him. That is something that the commission could argue legitimately. They would not be choosing the appointment. The people did.
Of course, it would be even better to have a special election. But it looks like Rodriguez may want to appoint someone in the meantime, anyway.
“District 6 deserves representation in the most expeditious manner possible,” the chairman said in a statement. “There are too many critical conversations, decisions, and votes that need to be made in the coming weeks and months for the Commission to create a process that will leave our body – and the people of District 6 – without a voice and advocate.”
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Former Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla — arrested in 2023 on charges of public corruption and suspended from office — is in a fierce divorce battle with his wife, after a seven months marriage, for the attorneys’ fees and splitting of assets. Now, he wants to depose a former city staffer who was a witness for the state in the criminal case against him that was dropped by the Broward County State Attorney’s Office last Fall and who he has already previously harassed.
What does former Chief of Staff Karla Fortuny have to do with the couple’s financial holdings? Nada.
The subpoena for her deposition “clearly appears to be solely calculated to harass and oppress Fortuny and to exact revenge upon her,” wrote attorney William Brady Jr. in an objection to the subpoena for her deposition and a motion for a protective order filed last week.
It’s not the first time that Fortuny feels intimidated by Diaz de la Portilla. Last year, she filed a petition for injunction for protection against stalking. Stalking! ADLP “engaged in an oppressive campaign to harass and intimidate Fortuny by texting her incessantly,” while she was a listed witness in the criminal case against him. “This conduct is extremely intimidating,” she said in that motion. “He stalks me via text and now has used a ‘burner phone’ to text my supervisor at my current job.”
Read related: Miami’s Alex Diaz de la Portilla arrested on corruption, pay-for-play park deal
That was when Fortuny was at Florida International University, where she went after she left her city job to go work as director of local government and community affairs. She moved last month to Capital City Consulting’s Miami office with Managing Partner Brian May while she goes to law school at night. Let Diaz de la Portilla try texting him.
“In my opinion, he has obsessive compulsive personality disorder and is an alcoholic,” Fortuny said in the 2024 motion. “He frightens me. I believe him to be a relentless and dangerous individual.”
After bonding out of the Turner Guilford Knight detention center in September, 2023 ADLP talks to reporters.
Relentless? Clearly. But maybe not so dangerous. She was not granted the stalking order. It seems most, if not all, the messages were about getting her in for a deposition.
The judge in the criminal case did, however, instruct Diaz de la Portilla, who was investigated for witness tampering, to have no further contact with Fortuny, who was hired by Diaz de la Portilla in 2020 as a communications aide and rose the ranks quickly, becoming deputy chief of staff in early 2021, then chief of staff in May of that same year. His office has a lot of turnover.
In last week’s motion, Brady cited the criminal case intimidation and added that ADLP’s attorney “subjected Fortuny to a lengthy deposition which Fortuny contends was largely calculated to harass, bother and intimidate Fortuny.” Furthermore, a review of that deposition — which was “exceedingly long and unnecessary” — would show that she doesn’t know squat about ADLP’s assets, debts or income.
“Fortuny has no doubt that [ADLP] seeks to subject Fortuny to deposition for the purposes of harassment, embarrassment, intimidation, control of Fortuny and to seek revenge against upon her and contends the the deposition is not calculated to lead to credible and admissible evidence,” in the divorce proceedings.
Read related: Alex Diaz de la Portilla’s wife sues for divorce after arrest, foreclosure
Other interesting parties that have been subpoenaed include Diaz de la Portilla’s famous absentee or ghost employee, Jenny Nillo — who was caught drinking and driving on the job in a city car while running ADLP’s personal errands and alcohol shopping — served in January and developer Lewis Swezy, who was served in February. Why not William “Bill” Riley, Jr., the lobbyist that was arrested with him in 2023 who spent a weekend in Boston with Diaz de la Portilla and his wife.
Diaz de la Portilla — who has told everyone that he is running for Miami mayor this year — did not, as usual, return a phone call and voice mail message. In a cryptic text where he deflects, like always, he wrote: “She may be covering up for the felony she committed… as you have already seen, the truth always prevails at the end of the day.”
No, that is not what Ladra has seen at all.
“If she doesn’t perjure herself she should be fine,” he wrote later. “She hacked my computer.
“All this is handled by the lawyers. We should let them do their work,” Diaz de la Portilla texted, adding that there were four more subpoenas being delivered in the next couple of weeks.
Fortuny declined to comment on her new court motion.
This divorce has lasted longer than the marriage.
Vanessa Garcia Azzam filed for divorce in January of 2024, which was less than four months after Diaz de la Portilla bonded out of jail on his multiple felony charges — including bribery and money laundering. In June, ADLP filed an answer to her motion to dissolve the marriage, and a counter motion for dissolution, asking the judge to award him all attorney’s fees, court costs and to divide their belongings.
“There are marital assets subject to equitable distribution including, but not limited to: jewelry, designer clothing, shoes and accessories, electronics, household goods and furnishings, bank accounts, and retirement accounts,” the motion says.
Shoes? He wants her shoes? And her retirement? Que poco hombre eres, Alejandro.
Read related: Alex Diaz de la Portilla wants estranged wife to pay divorce attorney, trial fees
Hopefully, the judge will find that Garcia Azzam has been punished enough. Seven months, people! More than half of that was spent next to him defend himself against the pubic corruption charges. There’s only so much torture one can take.
Also, let’s see if Fortuny is compelled to testify about his marital finances.
Diaz de la Portilla is apparently getting off on harassing women. He is unnecessarily making the divorce harder for his wife of a whole seven months. And he is retaliating against his former chief of staff with a subpoena about matters she knows absolutely nothing about.
There’s a case management conference on May 5 in family court on the divorce. Garcia Azzam has asked the judge to compel her husband to turn on the camera for the Zoom appearances, including but not limited to hearings.
Naturally, ADLP doesn’t want to show his face.
Karla Fortuny Motion for Protective Order April 2025 by Political Cortadito on Scribd

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In a span of eight days after the Coral Gables election earlier this month and before the runoff in Commission Group 3 Tuesday, attorney candidate Richard Lara — who hasn’t voted in the city since 1999 — raised more than $102,800. Eight days!
That is a huge injection into his campaign account, which totals almost $272,000 as of April 17, according to the latest campaign finance reports, and further impacts this already lopsided race. It’s the largest amount in one single report since he began fundraising last year. The second largest is his first report of $45,000 — but that was over the course of three months.
It’s not only because Lara came in with pole position in the first round — getting 47% to attorney Tom Wells‘ 39% — but also because he has the support of both Mayor Vince Lago and Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson, who won his re-election handily. Many of the contributions between April 9 and April 17 are real estate or development related, from lobbyists (Lago’s brother Carlos Lago gave $1,000) or Lago loyalists, like former commissioners Frank Quesada and Wayne “Chip” Withers, as well as attorney and University of Miami booster John Ruiz, whose LifeWallet company was under a Department of Justice investigation last year for fraud.
Included in the contributions were $5,000 from developer Armando Codina, $5,000 from developer Tom Cabrerizo and $3,000 from three of the late Sergio Pino‘s companies that now belong to his estranged wife, Tatiana Pino.
Read related: Coral Gables mayor’s power hinges on runoff — Richard Lara vs Tom Wells
And Lara is spending it faster than he gets it, with $145,000 going just in one April 17 check to consultant Alex Miranda for advertising. That’s more than half the $245,250 Lara has spent in total. It may include the cost of several mailers he has sent out to voters, including one with an endorsement from his wife and a couple that attack Wells on the same exact arguments that Lago used to attack Commissioner Kirk Menendez, who lost his mayoral challenge with 55% of the vote April 8.

Lara also spent $3,000 to rent the Coral Gables museum for his watch party event and reimbursed himself $95.88 for an email expense.
That’s just from Lara’s campaign account. Mayor Lago is also using his political action committee, Coral Gables First, to benefit his handpicked yes vote, paying for mailers and text messages. Lago has a lot riding on this runoff.
Wells is the only thing standing between Vince Lago and anything he wants. He is the last defense against a new mayoral majority that will revisit the annexation of Little Gables, roll back the salary increases for commissioners, try to move the election to November and lower taxes for their developer friends, who will feel empowered with the Lago slate. Wells is independent, in the sense that he has gone against both the mayor and the other faction on the dais, favoring a national search for a new city manager rather than an on-the-spot appointment. He is not beholder to anybody.
Read related: Coral Gables election choice is a Vince Lago yes vote or an independent voice
While he has the endorsement of The Miami Herald and Coral Gables United, the political branch of the Coral Gables Neighbors Association, Wells is woefully underfunded in comparison, paying for everything out of his own pocket to the tune of $19,000, so far.
He’s that committed to the City Beautiful. He’s willing to put his own skin in the game.
Richard Lara hasn’t even voted in the city since 1999. He is simply a puppet for the mayor to get his majority back and move his agenda along without any checks and balances.

Turnout has been lower for the runoff, with almost 13.5% of the registered 34,017 voters in the Gables. The turnout for the first round was almost 30%. Of the 4,580 votes cast as of Sunday the end of early voting Sunday night, more than half, or 2,789, are absentee or vote-by-mail ballots. On Saturday, 1,155 people voted early. On Sunday, it was 636.
But that was Easter Sunday so it’s not as bad as it could have been.
Voters have one more day — Election Day on Tuesday. There are 14 polling locations open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
And then we will either have two years of Vince Lago running roughshod over everyone and doing whatever he wants, or two years of a more balanced and civilized commission where no one person has all the power.
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The Coral Gables election is almost over with early voting this weekend for the runoff coming Tuesday. The choice is between two attorneys: Richard Lara, general counsel for Spanish Broadcasting Systems, and the handpicked candidate, groomed by Mayor Vince Lago — who was just solidly re-elected — and Tom Wells, a member of the city’s charter advisory board who has spoken at the commission meeting 14 times in the last several months and is likely to be more independent.
Much more independent.
In fact, many of the mailers for Lara that Gables voters are getting in their mailbox almost every day come from Lago’s political action committee, Coral Gables First. Lago needs Lara desperately if he is going to move his agenda — which would include annexing Little Gables and building a multi-million dollar mobility hub — forward. That’s all Lara is there for — to give the mayor back the majority he lost shortly after Commissioners Melissa Castro and Ariel Fernandez beat his candidates in 2023.
Lara won’t be independent. He can’t be. Lago will have put him there for a purpose. His will have to be loyal and complicit.
Read related: Coral Gables mayor’s power hinges on runoff — Richard Lara vs Tom Wells
Wells was a de facto member of the losing slate in the first round this election, but only because the same people who supported him supported Commissioner Kirk Menendez for mayor and architect Felix Pardo for commission against Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson. He is the anti-Lago candidate inasmuch as he is not Lara, the decidedly pro-Lago candidate. But he has spoken against measures taken by the other faction: Menendez, Castro and Fernandez.
So he is nobody’s go-to pocket vote, like Lara would be. In fact, he would be a much needed swing vote on that dais, able to go whichever way the wind blows best for residents.
Wells sent an email Friday, hours after getting The Miami Herald endorsement, explaining how his campaign had started about restoring civility and now it’s about stopping voting blocks.
“Our five-person commission needs five independent decision makers to address the needs and issues of all neighborhoods,” Wells wrote. “I am independent, and as your next commissioner, will vote independently on each issue in the best interest of you, the residents.”
That independence is also reflected in the fact that he is self-financing his campaign. He is not taking any special interest money. In the end, and ironically, that could be what ends him. No money to counter the messages that the other side — including Lago’s PAC — is hammering voters with.
At last count, through April 3, Lara raised more than $169,000, according to the most recent campaign finance report, and still had about $75K in the bank. Wells has spent less than half of that, or more than $36,000 of his own money, according to his reports. At some point, that’s going to hurt. Especially if it doesn’t make a difference.
Lara’s messaging has stayed pretty consistent with Lago’s platform. Even though it’s harder to attack Wells on them because he is not an elected already, like Menendez, they still have. Wells won’t immediately rescind the salary increases for the mayor and commissioners that Mayor Lago promised to roll back. Lara promises to roll them back also. Not a coincidence.
He also wants to change the election to November from April. And agrees with a tiny cut that would save the average homeowner less than $100 but the big property owners and developments tens of thousands in taxes, and possibly cut services.

Lara sounds like a parrot. Lara the loro. And, if he wins, people better get used to it. Lago is going to be getting an echo from both his left and his right side on the dais. Speaking of which, Anderson, who also won pretty handily April 8, also endorsed El Loro.
Several of the mailers sent out for Lara notes that he is endorsed by “trusted local publications,” citing the Community News and Coral Gables Magazine. Trusted must be a subjective term. At that time, Wells did not have the Herald endorsement, like he has now. The Herald said both candidates were good, but that Wells was simply better prepared. Lara, they suggested, should try joining a city board, if he wants to be involved.
That’s a good one. Because Lara obviously doesn’t want to be involved. He doesn’t even vote. This was all Vinnie’s idea.
Read related: Coral Gables candidate Richard Lara has not voted in the city since 1999
Lara — who, remember, hasn’t voted in a city election in Coral Gables since 1999 — also got the endorsement, as predicted by Political Cortadito, from transit lobbyist Claudia Miro, who lost the first round with only 13.5% of the vote against Lara’s 47% and Wells’ 39%. Many people expected Miro, who shares Lago contributors like former Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff — who she used to work for — to endorse Lara. In fact, some of them think she was planted all along to thwart the race. There will be far fewer turnout this Tuesday, April 22, than there was last week. It’s Easter weekend. People are out of town. That could affect the outcome.
It could work in Wells’ favor, if the people who come out to vote are the engaged residents who are already involved and know the truth from the propaganda they’re getting in the mail and on their phones. Lago is not on the ballot, so some people will just forgo the runoff and let whatever happens, happen.
Wells got the Herald endorsement, as noted. But wouldn’t anybody who is swayed by that already be voting for him? And, again, he really doesn’t have the money to get that message out, anyway.
Meanwhile, there is money being spent on smear campaigns that have gotten their way to another blog, citing two sources that say they saw Wells at the Master’s golf tournament last weekend in Augusta, Ga. Even though Wells said he hadn’t gone — though he usually gets tickets comped by one of his clients — and been to Charleston to visit his mother in the hospital, instead.
“Just like anybody else might feel in that position, I did not want to end up having any regrets because I didn’t go,” Wells told Political Cortadito. He flew in the day after the election and flew back two days later, on Friday, to campaign.

Ladra bets the two “sources” that allegedly saw him in Georgia were Lara himself and Lago lackey Nicholas Cabrera, the self-described “prince of Coral Gables” who is serving as Lara’s body man on the campaign (because, surely, Jesse Manzano is running that show).
Other smear campaigns include that he has promised to make Menendez city manager in exchange for his endorsement. First, Menendez hasn’t endorsed Wells and, secondly, he would not really be the best choice from a national search, which is what Wells advocated for when the commission fired former manager Peter Iglesias. He still would go that route if the current city manager were to resign. Wells spoke at a city meeting against the position held by Castro, Fernandez and Menendez on that one — and no, the other two candidates have not endorsed him, either. And, no, Fernandez is not running his campaign.
This all smells like desperation on the part of Lago, er, we mean Lara. Aren’t they super confident they’ll come in ahead?
Wells’ only endorsement has been from Gables Neighbors United, an affiliate of Coral Gables Neighbors Association — an active group of residents focused on fighting overdevelopment — and, now, The Miami Herald. And the only people working on his campaign are his wife, Diane, and some friends. And gratis.
“I think it is wrong to get any elected official to endorse a candidate,” Wells says. “This is up to the residents to choose. Why would an elected official intervene in an election? I know that is what Mayor Lago and Vice-Mayor Anderson have done for Mr. Lara because they are running a slate — and I think it is wrong.
“I am independent. I would appreciate the vote of Commissioners Fernandez and Castro — as well as any other resident — but not their endorsement.”
Read related: Vince Lago, Rhonda Anderson handily coast to re-election in Coral Gables
Sue Kawalerski, the president of Coral Gables Neighbors Association, said that the residents deserve checks and balances on the dais.
“He wants a one-side commission,” Kawalerski said about Lago. “We need a balance of power and the only independent candidate is Tom Wells. He won’t be on one side or another, she said. “He will be on our side.”
Wells has also committed to stop any efforts on the city’s behalf to annex Little Gables, because city voters overwhelmingly rejected the idea on a ballot question last August with 63% of the vote. Gables voters don’t want to absorb the $23 million cost that it would take just over the first five years to bring Little Gables into the City Beautiful fold. Lago, who has been obsessed with this annexation and whose brother used to lobby for the largest property owner in Little Gables, has not made the commitment to let it go. He voted against dropping it last year after the vote, because he said there was low turnout. So he will try again.
Wells also commits to keeping the zoning code intact and not grant exceptions and variances to developers for larger and denser projects that increase traffic and burden other city services.
Ladra and some Gables observers and critics of Lago’s are worried that if Lara wins, that means that there will be no checks and balances on the commission, the mayor will have the power he needs to run over the wishes of residents or business owners he doesn’t like and the temperature on the dais will get even hotter. But developers will be happy.
And so will Lago, who will have free reign for the next two years and be even more insoportable than he is already.
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