Doral city councilwoman charged with abuse of power · The Floridian

DORAL, FL—Doral Mayor Christi Fraga and her aide, unusually accused of being a Venezuelan spy, accuse City Councilwoman Maureen Porras of using taxpayer money to turn City Hall into “his own law firm”.

Fraga's chief of staff, Marion Troitino, filed an ethics complaint against Porras on May 6. She alleged that the city councilor — who also works as an immigration attorney — worked with her personal clients through the city's computer, violating three separate codes of county and city statutes.

“This is clearly an abuse of power: She was running her own little law firm out of City Hall,” Fraga said. The Floridian. “It is illegal for her to use the city council's public resources (paid for by taxpayers) for private legal work, whether pro bono or paid work. But she will soon have to admit to her illegal actions. “

Maria Rodriguez, Porras' former assistant, was also implicated, as Troitino and Fraga claimed she viewed, worked on, and altered Porras' immigration records.

Rodriguez said The Floridian everything was true.

“She would force me to do immigration work from her town computer for residents so she could get 'votes,' sometimes it was for her family and friends,” Rodriguez wrote in a text message. “I had to do the work as if it were her”

“Ms. Porras is not an ethical person at all, which is why I had to terminate my employment with the City of Doral, and she hates Mayor Fraga and his chief of staff,” Rodriguez continued, alleging that Porras would tell him to “meet in his office and that no one sees or hears me.”

“I want to speak out because the last few months of working with her have been hell for me. She has been so humiliating and mean to me that I want people to know who Maureen Porras really is,” she concluded.

Porras, for her part, said she was “shocked” by Rodriguez's “false” comments, recounting The Floridian she was a good employee who never gave the slightest impression of feeling that way. She argued that “the allegations are not true,” but “even if they were, there is nothing in the ethics code that would indicate this is a violation.”

Although she declined to comment on other aspects of the ethics investigation, fearing she would “unwittingly give up her confidentiality,” she revealed that as an immigration lawyer working for a nonprofit organization non-profit, it does not support individual cases, but provides information. and services to various clients.

This is just the latest headline featuring Doral politicians.

Last week, Fraga, a Republican, was criticized by Porras, a Democrat, for sponsoring a unanimously approved Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire resolution. When Fraga overruled it and attempted to introduce a pro-Israel statement instead, Porras joined three other council members in voting against it.

“Since she couldn't read two pages of a municipal resolution, I guess she doesn't read Florida law either,” Fraga said, pointing to Porras who initially voted for the ceasefire before to condemn him a few days later.

“She is not your legal aid!” »: Security 'breach' kicks off

The discovery of Porras' alleged wrongdoing arose from a computer glitch in late January, when the IT department discovered that staff could access files belonging to Porras and another member. Usually, members should electronically authorize others to access their records.

The problem was resolved within 48 hours.

Porras, however, is concerned about what she calls a “security breach,” although the IT department stressed in a January memo that it was not a breach, but a processing error. .

“When the breach was discovered, I called a special meeting because I learned that files had been hacked,” Porras said. The Floridianexplaining that she wanted an audit examining who clicked on which folders during the alleged breach.

When she received the audit report, she noticed that “Marion Troitino had accessed 59 of my files in almost an hour…breaking confidentiality,” Porras claimed. She then filed an ethics complaint against Troitino in April, alleging a violation of Florida's privacy laws.

Troitino denied this, pointing to memos documenting that IT staff, to check whether the server problem was resolved, clicked on Porras' files from various staff members' computers, including Troitino's.

Troitino then filed a complaint against Porras.

“These defamatory allegations against me are baseless and completely false,” Troitino wrote. “I I address them FAKE accusations made against Me because they form the backdrop to what I discovered in defending my professional and personal reputation.

“Based on my review…it appears that (Porras's) documents…relate to his practice of law as an immigration attorney and not to official duties with the City of Doral ” continued Troitino, emphasizing the illegality of maintaining dozens of documents. files not related to the city.

Troitino turned to Porras' assistant Rodriguez, explaining that the audit report showed Rodriguez viewed, worked on and altered Porras' immigration records.

“She and her assistant were working on all these immigration files – naturalization forms, etc. – thousands of files that they were working on at City Hall,” Fraga said. “Porras filed a complaint against Troitino, claiming she accessed his files, but why is your assistant accessing these files? She is not your legal assistant!”

Venezuelan agents and… blackmail?

This is not the first time Troitino has faced alleged “defamatory” statements. On Thursday evening, Telemundo reported that Troitino was linked to tyrant Fidel Castro, Venezuela's authoritarian government, its dictator Nicolas Maduro and its former dictator Hugo Chavez.

For what? Because his father, Mario Villarroel, was president of the International Red Cross in the 1990s in Venezuela, which led him to travel around the world and be photographed with world leaders like U.S. President Bill Clinton, Israeli President Shimon Peres, Princess Diana of Wales, Spanish royalty, and yes, Castro.

“My assistant and her family have no ties to the Venezuelan government,” Fraga said, defending Troitino. “The photos that have been circulating of Mario Villarroel depict his role as international president of the Red Cross, where he has photos with leaders from around the world.”

“It's interesting how they decided not to use these other photos,” she added, referring to Telemundo. exclusively pushing a photo of Villaroel with Castro.

Fraga moved on to the next topic: allegations of blackmail and retaliation.

“These are just baseless smear campaigns and tactics,” Fraga continued. “I would also like to point out that the same people who are making these claims are the same people who are suing the city and are clearly personally angry with me for taking away their lifetime pension!”

Last year, Fraga spearheaded the campaign to repeal a 2021 ordinance retroactively granting between $25,000 and $114,000 in retirement benefits to city officials. That, she said, angered the former leaders who passed the measure, prompting them to sue the city.

She believes this group – JC Bermudez, Pete Cabrera, Michael DiPietro and Sandra Ruiz – along with current Vice Mayor Oscar Puig-Corve, are behind the “baseless” attacks on her chief of staff. She also wonders if they discovered Porras' allegedly illegal files and blackmailed her into convicting Fraga – her former ally – and his associates.

“I was keeping this a secret because I value Doral’s reputation and my goal is not to create a circus,” Fraga said. “But now that they are making these baseless claims and creating the circus and scandals themselves, I now have to show proof of why they are doing this,” he added.

“It's because they're the scandals, they're the corrupt ones, and they don't want me here because I'm going to denounce everything they do and I won't allow this government center to be used as their private matter and their checkbook open,” she continued.

She turned on Porras, saying that when Puig-Corve and other “corrupt” board members “discovered” Porras' immigration records, “I think they may have threatened her or told her they could protect her. Were they blackmailing her? I don't know. There's no other reason why she would have turned around like that. »

Fraga pointed out that she and Porras ran together on the same “slate,” which is when a group of candidates run on a common platform.

When The Floridian asked Porras if she had been blackmailed, she laughed incredulously as she replied:

“On the contrary, it’s something Fraga would do,” she said. “In my experience with her, she is the one who would try to do something that she thinks might hurt me and would threaten to use it against me,”

“It’s more his behavior than anyone else’s.”