Ralph Rosado’s new Miami D4 staff looks like a who’s who of what the f*ck

Newly elected Miami Commissioner Ralph Rosado has a whole new staff at his District 4 office that are not new to politics. Heck, some of them are not new to Miami.
Rosado’s director of constituent services is Lazaro Quintero, the former director of constituent affairs for Mayor Francis Suarez and the guy who was the go-between for the mayor and developer Rishi Kapoor — who was paying the mayor a $10,000 a month “consulting” fee, an arrangement that is under investigation by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office.
Quintero was the one who made a call to the zoning department on behalf of Kapoor that paved the way for a zoning waiver and, ultimately, a building permit in late 2022.
Quintero also happens to be the cousin of Gloria Fonts Suarez, the mayor’s wife.
Quintero is clearly Suarez’s man in the D4 office and may be why he in invested $1 million from his political action committee to get Rosado elected. But is he also there to help Rosado achieve the level of success (read: side gigs) that Suarez has reached.
Read related: Francis Suarez, Joe Carollo spend $1.6 million to elect Ralph Rosado in D4
Rosado’s new chief of staff is his old chief of staff from when Rosado was the city manager at North Bay Village. This is a reward for Leo Cosio‘s stalwart campaigning during the election June 3.
“The last month has been a wild ride and I’m grateful for every minute,” he wrote last month on LinkedIn. “From being named a finalist for City Manager of Biscayne Park, to knocking doors for my dear friend and one of the most qualified candidates (now elected official) I’ve ever known, and ultimately deciding to join his team, I am not the same person today that I was just a few weeks ago. This is Leo 4.0!”
Leo 4.0 is paid $159,800 a year. He is the highest paid new D4 staffer. Quintero is next with a salary of $145,631 a year.
Meet the rest of the new staff:

Christian Molina, the deputy chief of staff at $116,400 a year, is also a refugee from North Bay Village, where he was a legislative aid to the manager for 10 months and a chief of staff for the mayor and commission for 11 months. After that, he worked the last eight months as an legislative assistant to Miami-Dade County Public School Board Member Joe Geller.
Jennifer Torna is the commissioners new director of communications. She was the communications manager at the city of North Miami for a year before that and worked at WDNA as a development assistant and membership director for more than five years.
Director of Community Affairs and Special Projects is Alex Duran was the parks and recreation director in the city of Sweetwater for two years and worked as a staff assistant for Marco Rubio for six months when the secretary was a senator. He also served as an executive committeeman for the Miami-Dade Republican Party. He makes $94,500 a year.
Ihosvany Romero, who just got his Bachelor’s degree from Florida International University with a major in political science and government, is the D4 legislative coordinator at $62,300.
Joaquin Bierman gets $59,500 as another legislative coordinator in the D4 office.
Special Projects Coordinator Yovani Pinero was a property management supervisor for three years before he was hired June 10 at a salary of $58,500 a year. He was also on city of Sweetwater’s Neighborhood Improvement Advisory Board.
Milagros Loyal is a known boletera who is now the senior affairs liaison and is paid $55,700 a year. This is likely a reward for her work on the special election, where she collected ballots at the Smathers building. Loyal has worked for the city before — and was fired by Commissioner Miguel Gabela for misusing a city vehicle. But hey, she can get votes.

Notice how there is not one but two legislative coordinators. Does that mean we’re going to see a lot of proposed legislation coming out of Rosado’s office?
Read related: Bromance break-up at Miami City Hall as Joe Carollo and Ralph Rosado split
Rosado, who replaced the late Manolo Reyes, kept five district aides as well as District Director Anna Fernandez and Office Manager Christina Casanova, who las malas lenguas say got a pretty big raise (she makes $87,500 a year now) from Rosado and eyebrows are raised about maybe her having helped the campaign from inside.
Taken together, the District 4 staff is costing the city almost $1.2 million — just in salaries. That does not include benefits and expenses.
Hopefully, it will be worth it to residents.

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