The city of Doral needs about $3.8 million in state funds to finance or complete several different projects that are already approved and address some of the city’s biggest issues: traffic and flooding.

These include storm water improvements to mitigate persistant problem flooding, the stabilization of canal banks, the widening of 87th Avenue, a pedestrian/cyclist bridge over 41st Street by the Turnpike and the installation of air monitoring devices near the Medley landfill and Covanta Waste to Energy facilities.

City Council members will get an update Tuesday at a legislative priorities workshop from lobbyists Ron Book and Jose Diaz on efforts and pathways to secure state funding or grants for these projects.

“These have been identified by staff as the most important projects right now,” said Mayor J.C. Bermudez. “We have a lot of infrastructure problems.”

Some of the projects are already in different stages of development:

• The stormwater improvement monies are for two sub basin projects already in the pipeline — one along Northwest 29th and 31st streets between 79 and 82nd avenues and another along Northwest 82nd and 84th avenues between 56th and 58th streets. Both projects include installation of new manholes, new inlets, exfiltration trench, solid pipe, and asphalt restoration. The first one, which is pending payment to the county to acquire the permit) is estimated to cost $700,000 and the city of Doral wants the state to appropriate $350,000. Construction is scheduled to begin already for the second project, which is estimated to cost $1,076,270. The city is requesting half, $538,135, from the state.
• The stabilization of approximately 1.3 miles of canal bank at the Northline Canal along Northwest 25 Street between 87th and 97th avenues and at the Dressels Canal adjacent to Northwest 52nd Street between 97th and 102nd avenues is in the design stage. The project, which includes a pedestrian/bike path along 25th Street, is projected to cost $1.5 million and the city is requesting $750,000 through budget appropriations.
• The design is about 60 percent complete for the widening of Northwest 87th Avenue between 27th and 33rd streets from three to five lanes. The project includes drainage improvements, curb and gutters, sidewalks, street lighting, and modifications to the signalized intersection at 82nd and 33rd. This project will be the continuation of the widening of NW 82 Avenue and will match the five-lane typical section of the portion of NW 82 Avenue (NW 33 St. – NW 36 St.) that is currently under construction by the adjacent development (CityPlace). Funding for that project will come out of next fiscal year’s budget and is estimated to cost $1.9 million, of which the city will seek $1.15 million in FastLanes grants from the Department of Transportation.
• A pedestrian/bicycle bridge over Northwest 41st Street near 117th Avenue to “help improve safety by avoiding the need to cross six lanes of traffic” is still in the preliminary planning stage after being approved in September. The city is waiting until after the Northwest 117th Avenue bridge over 41st Street is completed by the Florida Turnpike Enterprise. The estimated cost for the pedestrian bridge is $3.8 million but the city must apply now for Transportation Alternatives Program funding in 2021 or 2022.

Other items might make it into the discussion with lobbyists Tuesday afternoon.

Among those is the possiblity of getting federal or state environmental protection grants for the purchase of ambient air monitoring devices (estimated cost is $80,000 each) to install in the communities adjacent to the Medley Landfill and Covanta Waste to Energy Facilities. Data from these devices will “help make odor detection less subjective and will help identify the presence of noxious gases.”

Bermudez said he may also ask lobbyists for an update on any bills or legal recourses to recoup some lost hotel taxes from AirBnB, as is happening in other municipalities, and also on legislative efforts at condo association reform after the abuses of some boards were exposed by both El Nuevo Herald and Univision 23 last year.

“I’m getting a lot of complaints from homeowner association members on some of these issues.”

The legislative priorities workshop begins at 2 p.m. at Doral City Hall, 8401 NW 53rd Ter.

The Coradito Calendar is getting fatter already, just in its third week. And it is thanks to many of you readers who emailed me and messaged me with events that you think should be included. So they are.

Please keep ’em coming. Government meetings are easier to find and politicians promoting themselves at holiday basket giveaways are a dime a dozen but not what I had in mind.

However, if you have a homeowners association meeting and invited your county district commissioner to address traffic and infrastructure issues, I want to know. If your school board member is visiting your PTA, please tell me. If even your neighbors are getting together for coffee to talk about government inaction, like Palm Springs North residents discussing quarry blasting and the effects on their homes and quality of life (more on that later), please tell Ladra.

Because other people should know about these happenings. There is more strength in numbers.

So, again, the email to send any events you think should be featured here is edevalle@gmail.com.

And thank you for the great response.

MONDAY — Dec. 19

9:30 a.m. — A talk about the haves and have-nots: Miami-Dade Commission Chairman Jean Monestime‘s Council for Prosperity Initiatives will meet to discuss “racial wealth divide in Miami” and  the “summary review of the Council for Prosperity Initiatives.”

TUESDAY — Dec. 20

8:30 a.m. — The $600 million renovation of the convention center will be the topic at this week’s Miami Beach Breakfast Club meeting. The city Project Manager Maria Hernandez, on behalf of City Manager Jimmy Morales, will bring the audience up to speed on the progress of improvements. The helical parking ramp and grand ballroom are well underway on the north end of the property. And Hernandez is expected to announce an end soon to any bookings for a period of several months. This image to the right is a rendering of what it should look like when it’s done. There is no charge for the meeting, but you’re buying if you want breakfast at Manolo’s Restaurant, 685 Washington Ave.

9:30 a.m. — Miami-Dade Commissioners have their last meeting of the year. New Chairman Steve Bovo is expected to lay out his committees and committee members — or, at the very least, will get recommendations from the old chairman, Commissioner Jean Monestime. Mayor Carlos Gimenez will present his final report on the “assessment of available tools to create a resilient transit system” — which could mean that they found expanding MetroRail and MetroMover is going to be less expensive than starting several new independent light rail lines. Among the other topics of discussion: criteria for appointments to the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority, a $1.65 million renovation of the Dade County Auditorium, the creation of a workforce housing program and a $9.7 million gift (financial incentive bond funds) to a company that wants to build a custom boat manufacturer on the Miami River. Also: Commissioner Joe Martinez begins to undo everything that former Commissioner Juan Zapata had done in the last couple of years.

6 p.m. — Newly-elected Doral Mayor J.C. Bermudez and Councilwomen Christy Fraga and Claudia Mariaca will be sworn in at Doral City Hall, 8401 NW 53rd Terrace. Fraga, the only incumbent, was re-elected Nov. 8. Bermudez and Mariaca won their races in runoffs on Tuesday.

7:30 p.m. — Local Democrats will meet for some convoluted meeting in which they will choose the next chair of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party. The race is between developer and mega fundraiser Stephen Bittel and former Sen. Dwight Bullard. It should be kind of interesting since there has been major lobbying going on both sides — but mostly for Bittel. More on that later.

WEDNESDAY — Dec. 21

9 a.m. — The first Doral Council meeting for founding and back again Mayor J.C. Bermudez and newby Councilwoman Claudia Mariaca begins at City Hall, 8401 NW 53rd Terrace.

Tuesday night’s loss in Doral was double whammy for political consultant Sasha Tirador, who worked for both incumbent Mayor Luigi Boria and council candidate Adriana Moyano, who both lost their runoff elections.

The victories by their opponents — JC Bermudez and Claudia Mariaca, respectively — was pretty solid, and that includes very comfy leads in absentee ballots.

Is the Absentee Ballot Queen losing her touch? Might she be dethroned? Or does her magic only work in Hialeah?

No, wait. There’s always Sweetwater, where she helped elect Mayor Orlando Lopez in 2015 after she left or was fired from the campaign of immediate past Mayor Jose M. Diaz.

Read related story: Voters replace Luigi Boria with first mayor, JC Bermudez

Boria was forced into a runoff Tuesday after he failed to get 50 percent plus one in the Nov. 8 election. He lost in every category — ABs, early voting and election day. In both rounds Nov. 8 and Tuesday. Although Boria was within 200 votes on Election Day this go-around, he was almost 1,000 short in early voting and exactly 1,100 under founding mayor J.C. Bermudez in absentees. 

Bermudez won Tuesday with a whopping 67% after he got 1,181 more ABs than Boria. Moyano lost in ABs by a smaller margin of 343 votes, smaller even than the margin of 529 she lost in the ABs on Nov. 8.

But these are just the latest two in a string of losses for Tirador.

Let’s remember that Tirador also worked on the Raquel Regalado campaign. And, much to Ladra’s dismay, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez got way more ABs in their runoff last month than the former Miami-Dade School Board Member who could have and should have been our first female county mayor —  — 147,885 to 118,754.

Even earlier this year, it looks like la reina lost every judicial race she worked on except one.

• Rosy Aponte lost in all three races — absentee, early voting and Election Day. But it’s worth noting that even after paying Tirador $16,000, according to campaign finance reports, for “consulting” and “community outreach,” she had fewer absentee ballot votes than the other two candidates in the first round. Her total ABs were 27,667. The guy who came in No. 2, Oscar Rodriguez-Fonts had almost 10,000 more and went on to win the runoff.
• Yoly Roberson, la enfermera, also lost all three races, but the margin was much closer in early voting and Election Day. Roberson, who paid Tirador more than $15,000 for consulting and “communication,” had 46,399 mail-in votes but was beaten by Robert Luck, whose AB count came in at 56,903.
• But her worse performance this year must be with Renee Gordon, who actually won early voting and Election Day tallies but lost so big in absentee ballots that she came in third and didn’t even make the runoff. We usually see this happen the other way around. Gordon got 19,863 absentee votes while the candidate with the next lowest got 25,842 and the eventually, Mark Blumstein, got 32,173 in round one. But maybe that’s because she only paid Sasha $6,400 for consulting and “grassroots.”

To be fair, each of these judicial race winners — Rodriguez-Fonts, Luck and Blumstein — hired election royalty of their own: Al Lorenzo, who was caught in the 2012 absentee ballot fraud investigation into the Carlos Gimenez campaign and has been working quietly behind the scenes since.

Maybe we should call him Al “Absentee Ballot King” Lorenzo?

Curiously, and notably, other members of the Gimenez 2012 team, Jesse Manzano and Dario Moreno, were spotted early Tuesday evening celebrating “the best team’s” win (pictured, left, in the bottom left corner of this picture posted on twitter). Could Lorenzo be part of that best team? After all, Lorenzo consulted for Frank Bolanos, who ran against Boria in 2012 and was endorsed by Bermudez. He’s not on Bermudez’s campaign reports. But that may not mean anything, because neither is Manzano, who was wearing a yellow Bermudez campaign t-shirt on Tuesday. Of course, as of this early Wednesday, Ladra does not know if Bermudez had a political action committee (but if Jesse is involved, he probably did).

And, hey, maybe they volunteered, ok?

Doral’s founding mayor, who served from 2003 until he was termed out in 2012, was sent back to City Hall Tuesday by voters who connected to his getting Doral “back on track” message — and who tossed out an incumbent that had waged a particularly nasty campaign.

J.C. Bermudez won with a whopping 67 percent, a total of 4,680 votes — almost twice as many as incumbent Mayor Luigi Boria, with 2,347. That amounted to only 33 percent, despite several last minute attempts to sway voters, including a false and frivolous complaint filed with the Florida Elections Commission and a ridiculous request for an investigation by the State Attorney’s Office that will be good for a laugh.

Read related story: Ladra responds to Luigi Boria and his silly press conference

It’s the same percentage he got in the first round when there were three candidates, with former Councilwoman Sandra Ruiz coming in third. That means Boria reached his ceiling Nov. 8.

And this despite the fact that Boria outspent Bermudez by more than 2 to 1, judging by the documented campaign reports. Between them, the two men spent almost $1.2 million to become mayor of Doral — which Ladra is sure will be a record for the young city. Boria spent the bulk of that, with almost $800,000 between his campaign and his Doral United political action committee. But what he raised was little more than half a million — because he loaned $265,000 to himself.

While he waged a nasty campaign, the incumbent was (sorta) gracious in his concession speech.

“I never considered myself a politician… For me, the people were always first, before the politics,” Boria said to a group of supporters before he addressed the links his brother-in-law has to an office where eight voters were registered illegally (the subject of a Political Cortadito post that he claims was paid, el pobre).

“I never deviated from the laws. I never did anything inappropriate. They painted this whole picture, but I consider myself an honest person, a tolerant person, a person with integrity and a person with values,” he said.

Read related story: Possible voter fraud in Doral may have ties to Luigi Boria

“I know my vision is different from that of J.C. Bermudez, but I know he has a vision for the city. I congratulate him and recognize that he worked hard… God knows what he is doing. If I win God, has someting good for me. If I lose, God has something good for us.”

In a television interview, Boria even said that Bermudez had been a hard worker and “great servant to this city.”

Former Councilwoman Sandra Ruiz, right, threw her support behind JC Bermudez after the first round.

What a difference a day makes, huh?

But Bermudez might not be in the same collegial mood. He can’t be. Sandra Ruiz will not let him be. Bermudez was elected by people unhappy with Boria and the scandals marked by his tenure and the instability he brought to the administration and the lack of transparency in Doral government. Bermudez is going to have to go into City Hall and start opening drawers and looking behind the shelves to see shat kind of mess Boria left that we don’t know about.

“The people clearly sent a message that they wanted change,” Bermudez said in a TV interview Tuesday night. Ladra was unable to reach him and he did not return calls.

“They want to bring Doral back to the values it once had,” he was quoted as saying in the Miami Herald. “It’s a great message from the community that it’s about decency not money, honesty and not dirty campaigning.”

Read related story: Nasty Doral mayoral race tops $1 million approaching runoff

His message throughout the campaign was to get Doral “back on track” as far as the master plan for development and the transparency and accountability in government that the city was founded for in the first place.

In the council race that also was forced into a runoff Tuesday, longtime activist Claudia Mariaca, a council meeting regular who celebrated with the Bermudez campaign Tuesday night and spoke at his podium (pictured, right) — and who might be the first Argentine elected in Miami-Dade (or the U.S.?) — beat Adriana Moyano, who had the same consultant as Boria, 56 to 44 percent.

Ladra is not sure when the swearing in is. But the next council meeting, according to the city website, is the next day.

Good thing both Bermudez and Mariaca can hit the ground running.

It’s becoming a broken record: Politicians lie or cheat or steal or hide something or otherwise fail us and when Ladra exposes it — or simply points out something curious that they don’t want anyone to notice — they shout “witch” to redirect the attention from themselves.

This has happened to Ladra over and over again since I started Political Cortadito in 2010. First it was former Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina in the 2011 recall mayoral race claiming that Carlos Gimenez was paying me. Then it was his successor, Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez, claiming that former Mayor Raul Martinez had paid me off in his comeback attempt. Then it was Carlos Gimenez, in a strange twist, whose family told people that the PBA was paying me to write critical posts about Not So Golden Boy. Then it was then congressional candidate Carlos Curbelo, telling reporters that the only reason I wrote about him putting his company in his wife’s name to intentionally hide his client list from the public — a story that broke on Political Cortadito — was because he didn’t advertise here. After that, it was Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine who called me a “paid political assasin.”

There have been a few, less memorable others. The latest clown to make these spurious accusations is Doral Mayor Luigi Boria.

First, in a video he emailed to supporters on Saturday, where he called me Ileana del Valle — getting my name wrong three times — and said that he had “received information” that I was a paid operative on the campaign. Then, again, in a hastily called press conference at his personal office Monday morning, he said “numerous sources” had told him that former Mayor J.C. Bermudez and former Counciwoman Sandra Ruiz — who came in third place in the first round and has since endorsed Bermudez — paid me to write a post that exposes the link his family has to an election fraud investigation. He announced that he had filed a complaint against me with the Florida Division of Elections and the State Attorney’s Office. He provided the news media at the press conference with copies of the complaint with the Elections Commission and the request for an investigation with the SAO. 

Read related story: Nasty Doral race tops $1 mil approaching runoff

First off, there would have to be a crime for the SAO to investigate. I called a source to ask if they had received the request. He laughed. “I don’t like the price of eggs but we can’t open an investigation into it. We deal with crimes here.” He assured me that even if I had been paid by the Bermudez campaign, it would not be a crime. As far as the Elections Commission is concerned, the complaint is against Bermudez. The claim is that he did not report my alleged fee in his campaign report.

But, dear readers, it is not in the report because no payment was made. Boria admitted to the press at his little dog and pony show that he has no evidence (because there is none). You know when I am paid by somebody. Because I tell you. Because it is only unethical if I don’t tell you. And I tell you at some risk and expense. Because you complain. Loudly. You don’t like it. And I don’t blame you. I don’t like it either. I’ve only done it a few times, and only because I felt that my contributions would truly help the right candidate or, at the very least, help get rid of the wrong candidate. It’s always been with the best intentions.

But in those few cases, anyone whose campaign I contribute to knows very well that the blog is off limits to them. There is a firewall — like the one that exists between advertising and editorial at The Miami Herald and at WPLG Local 10 — and Political Cortadito will never be used to smear someone’s opponent with lies or exaggerations or the wrong context or to bring up old and irrelevant arrest records on people who help or support their opponent. Have the suggestions (read: requests) been made? Perhaps. And I’ve loudly refused and made it known that under no circumstances would the blog be used as a campaign tool. It may not have always gone over well. Oh, well.

And the few times I have written about races in which I have been involved (during the Raquel Regalado and Ralph Cabrera campaigns) it has only been because the mainstream media has missed important stories, angles, details or connections — or the inside baseball shenanigans that are the very reason Political Cortadito exists. Trust me, when I am wearing my media consultant’s hat, I would much rather get the Miami Herald or Michael Putney or Erika Carrillo to cover some issue or conflict of interest for my candidate. But when they miss, and they sometimes do because everybody is cutting back on local coverage, it’s Ladra’s fair bone to pick.

Why should my carefully chosen candidates be deprived of something others get for free?

There’s more. Please press this “continue reading” button to “turn the page.”

The mayoral race in Doral between incumbent Mayor Luigi Boria and former founding Mayor J.C. Bermudez has only gotten more heated now in the weeks and days before the runoff Dec. 13.

And Boria — whose 33 percent Nov. 8 was dwarfed Bermudez’s 46 percent vote — has been the one on full attack in what seem like a desperate attempt to keep his seat.

Boria, who bought his last election, loaned himself $260,000 for the campaign within the last two months — $35,000 on Nov. 2 and then $200,000 on Nov. 15 and $25,000 on Dec. 5 (that’s after Bermudez beat him up with a 13-point lead in the first round). It makes up almost  half of his campaign account total of $530,000. He had earlier given $20,000 to his political action committee, Doral United, which has raised and spent about $230,000.

Yes, by Tuesday night, Ladra fully expects Boria to have spent at least $1 million – on paper. Who knows how much money is being spent under the table? But, hey, it is expensive to attack your opponent.

There have been video ads about “shady deals” and mailers calling Bermudez corrupt, phone calls promoting ethnic division, fake social media profiles and fake news sites with stories about yard signs getting stolen.

A 30-second video spot with a movie trailer-like voiceover says “This November, a storm named JC Bermudez threatens Doral. Bermudez wants to take Doral back to the past of shady deals, where his friends would benefit from our taxpayer dollars… shady deals for his shady developer friends.”

The whole tack is pretty laughable — if Doral’s future wasn’t in the balance. It’s also pure projection. Guess Boria is hoping people forgot about the zoning changes requested for high density residential for his children and their business partner right after he was elected the first time — a shady deal Ladra believes is still being investigated. Maybe he is mentally blocking all the memories about Joe Carollo and the many allegations that he was in bed with the Venezuelan government.

But there’s more.

Stealing the script from the national campaigns, Boria — or, more likely, his political guru, Absentee Ballot Queen Sasha Tirador — has also fashioned a fake news website called Real Doral News, complete with a tagline that reads “Real Doral News is a web Newspaper specialize in Braking News About City of Doral Fl.” I kid you not. It really does say “specialize” in “braking” news. Maybe Boria, whose English is obviously limited, did write it himself.

A recent post on the website claims that someone with the Bermudez campaign stole a Boria yard sign. The post comes complete with multiple time lapse photos of a blond woman taking a Boria sign into a gray van. But there’s no way to know that Boria (or Sasha) didn’t make that happen, too. There is no way to know that blond woman isn’t with Boria’s campaign. It’s easy to tell someone to steal your own sign so you can capture it with blurry phone pics.

Most recently, Bermudez accused Boria of creating fake social media accounts with the former mayor’s name. “And posting lies about me,”  Bermudez told supporters in an email blast last week.

“These dirty tactics do not reflect the values on which we founded our city. We ask Mr. Boria’s campaign to please respect our community and not offend the intelligence of our residents,” Bermudez wrote, urging residents to “focus on the issues that are really important to our community.”

And that can be summed up in three things: Development, traffic caused by development and government accountability and transparency.

While he has blasted Boria on these issues in a couple of email blasts, Bermudez has basically centered his campaign around putting Doral “back on track.” It is basically a referendum on the incumbent — without naming him. Bermudez characterizes it as a rescue.

In his video commercial, he tells us himself that he decided to run after many people told him “things are not like it used to be.”

“People asked me to run,” Bermudez told Ladra recently. “They don’t like what they are seeing, the direction that the city is going in. It is not what we thought of when we incorporated Doral.”

As expected with a message like that, Bermudez has gotten the support of Doral’s founding father, Morgan Levy and founding former Councilwoman Sandra Ruiz — who came in third on Nov. 8. Their message is that Bermudez can better represent the ideals and quiet, residential community goals on which Doral was founded.

Less expected is the endorsement from several leaders in the Venezuelan community, like Jose Colina and the members of VEPPEX,  Venezolanos Perseguidos Politicos en el Exilio.

Bermudez says getting Doral “back on track” means going back to the city’s master plan and advocating for smart and planned develoment. He claims that Boria has granted 29 zoning variations during his years in office. Boria’s campaign, on the other hand, claims that Bermudez approved 89% of the projects that came before him. But wouldn’t that make sense in Doral’s infancy? And what’s important is the upzoning changes, no?

Bermudez is also concerned about what he says is an effort by Boria to silence dissent by putting limits on public speaking and having emergency meetings during the day. There’s also the high turnover and the multiple stains on the young city’s image during Boria’s tenure. The firing of city attorneys and multiple city managers.

Boria, who is Venezuelan, has been telling people that getting Doral “back on track” means getting rid of the Venezuelans and putting it back into the hands of Cubans. Boy, did that backfire.