Jesse Scheckner
Doral Mayor Christi Fraga is asking four former City Council members who collected pensions until last year to return the money they received through the now-canceled program and drop an ongoing lawsuit.
She says the lifetime retirement plan, created in January 2021 under ex-Mayor Juan Carlos Bermudez and repealed in June 2023 after she took office, was unjustified and illegal.
At least two of the four former beneficiaries, including Bermudez, disagree and argue Fraga acted improperly by contacting them directly through her office without Council approval.
Fraga penned identical letters Wednesday to former Council members Pete Cabrera, Michael DiPietro, Sandra Ruiz and Bermudez, who now sits on the Miami-Dade County Commission. She urged each to “demonstrate true leadership” by rescinding a lawsuit they filed last year over unpaid retirement plan money, which she said was “unlawfully awarded.”
“Our residents deserve transparency, accountability, and ethical behavior from their former public officials, and it is essential that we uphold these values to maintain the trust of those we serve,” she wrote.
Fraga cited a report from attorney Glenn Thomas of the law firm Lewis Longman Walker, whom the city hired last year to review the pension plan. In the report, Thomas said there were flaws in the plan’s enacting ordinance, which the Council passed with “yes” votes from Bermudez, Cabrera and DiPietro. Ruiz was already out of office at the time. Thomas also highlighted numerous instances in which the city should have submitted an actuarial impact analysis and other state-mandated records to the Florida Division of Retirement, but didn’t.
An email Department of Management Services actuary Douglas Beckendorf sent to Doral Assistant Finance Director Solangel Perez on July, 11, 2023, roughly a month after the Fraga-led City Commission nixed the pension plan, confirmed Thomas’ assertion.
Beckendorf listed five outstanding documents, including actuarial valuations, a summary plan and paperwork for an investment policy the Council adopted, as reasons why the plan was not state-accepted.
Doral Council members officially ended the pension program last June, when Bermudez, DiPietro, Cabrera and Ruiz sued the city for not providing them with that month’s pension payments. Vice Mayor Rafael Pineyro said the program should never have been created without voter approval. He and Fraga included repealing the pension program as a priority in their successful 2022 campaigns.
Ruiz told Florida Politics the plan wasn’t dissimilar to others throughout the state, including some in Miami-Dade, and that a failure to submit paperwork in a timely fashion doesn’t make it illegitimate.
“This is basically playing politics,” Ruiz said. “From a legal perspective, we believe the (plan) should never have been terminated.”
Fraga denied the move was political. Repealing the plan, she said, was simply keeping a campaign promise to voters.
“It’s also important to note that I took this pension away from myself,” she said. “We already receive a 401K, so this was an additional benefit that elected officials granted themselves. You’re talking about the Mayor receiving $100,000 a year for the rest of his life, and if he passes away, his family gets it for 10 years, plus life insurance, plus medical benefits. It’s outrageously expensive.”
But it’s an expense the city can and should cover, Ruiz said, particularly considering how much money she, Bermudez, Cabrera and DiPietro saved the taxpayers. When Doral was incorporated in 2003, it began paying the county millions of dollars yearly under a local arrangement it had with several other municipalities to offset funding shortfalls from lost revenue due to a shrinking tax base. The city paid the county $8.6 million in 2006 alone, according to an interview Bermudez gave Miami Today the following year, when Doral successfully lobbied state lawmakers to put an end to what detractors called municipal “alimony payments.”
By comparison and in light of that savings, Ruiz said, the pension money was more than reasonable. Doral staff last year said the program would have paid out roughly $3.5 million to the four former city officials over 10 years.
“This is 0.003% of the city’s annual budget,” she said. “If the city can’t afford a pension, it just can’t afford a pension. But you’re talking about the fact that these founding members with the most impact are the only ones impacted.”
Fraga said that’s beside the point.
“It could have been 0.0001%. It’s still too much. It’s still money that should be applied to the public interest — roads, schools, parks, capital improvement, public safety — not lining the pockets of one group of former politicians,” she said. “I appreciate the service that they gave our city and I think they were well compensated for it. But public service is not your private business. Public service is just that, a service to the public.”
Bermudez, Cabrera and current Council members Oscar Puig-Corve and Dignal Cabral voted for creating the pension plan on Jan. 13, 2021. Council member Claudia Mariaca, whom Fraga defeated in the 2022 Mayor’s race, cast the sole “no” vote.
Through the program, lifetime retirement pay was available to former elected Doral officials aged 60 or older who served in office for eight or more years. Starting pensions equaled 50% of the highest wages a former official received in their last three years in office and 50% of what health insurance premiums cost them and their immediate family members. That compensation went up by 12.5% for each year of additional elected service, up to a maximum of 100%.
Ruiz said she received about $3,700 per month.
Bermudez, a lawyer in private life, told Florida Politics that while he hadn’t reviewed the pension proposal for legal sufficiency before its adoption, the ordinance and paperwork effectuating the plan underwent expert review.
He indicated he had no intention of withdrawing the lawsuit and said Fraga’s decision to unilaterally contact him, Ruiz, Cabral and DiPietro without first clearing the action with her City Hall colleagues was unconventional at best.
“This will be handled in the courtroom, in the legal system,” he said. “Repealing the plan — I’m not going to go into that. Pension law is pretty black and white. But I don’t know how she sends a letter with a city letterhead without having that approved by her Council.”
Bermudez and Ruiz said Friday that they had not yet received their letters from Fraga and instead learned about them after they were shared online. Fraga denied intentionally publicizing her letters for political purposes before they got to their intended recipients. She said she discussed and distributed copies of them at the City Council’s Wednesday meeting and, upon request, provided copies to a local reporter.
