Doral Mayor Calls Another Special Meeting
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – The Doral City Council met meeting Tuesday for the third time in as many weeks.
The small city has become known for big drama after some very public spats between Mayor Luigi Boria and City Manager Joe Carollo. Boria wants Carollo out, but a majority council supports him.
Boria said he called the special meeting Tuesday, the third in as many weeks, to know why Carollo didn't prevent last weekend's disruption of trolley service.
"I decided to call for a special meeting to know more details on what happened with the trolley," said Boria.
Carollo said every time a cockroach dies in Doral, the mayor will call a special meeting to blame him for stepping on it.
Last Thursday, county inspectors found that some of the trolleys had expired passenger motor carrier licenses. According to the city's public works department, the contractor who operates the trolleys is responsible for keeping them up to date.
On Friday, the contractor had restored partial service. By Tuesday, two of three routes were running normally again and one route was on schedule with the use of two trolleys instead of one.
At the start of Wednesday's meeting, Boria questioned whether Carollo had the right to speak at the special meeting.
"The only ones that have, by charter, be able to speak to other government agencies is the mayor," said Boria.
"Mister mayor, you are not correct in that," retorted Carollo.
Before it could go any further Councilwoman Sandra Ruiz stepped in.
"Just move forward because I do not want to be here for another six hours," said Ruiz.
The last few weeks of the slugfest between Carollo and Boria led to arrests of local businessmen who were charged with filing false police reports. Carollo has also aired allegations of corruption against Boria which the mayor has denied.
Carollo's latest allegation is that Boria's administrative aide, Gonzalo Bello, resigned on Monday because in September he was instructed by the mayor to report all of the city's dealings on a weekly basis to Boria's political consultant, former state Rep. Ralph Arza.
"He then went on to tell me he had to report to Mr. Arza every Monday morning," Carollo told CBS4's Natalia Zea.
In Bello's resignation letter, he wrote in part "I made my decision due to events beyond my control or creation that have placed me in a position which I believe make my duties quite difficult and, at times, uncomfortable."
Boria said he never ordered Bello to report to Arza and he resigned because of all of the political fireworks over the last few weeks.
"He's no prepared for this kind of pressure he's feeling from the press and all these political things that are happening in the city," said Boria.
