In response to our recent blog, as well as Miami Herald reporter Sarah Blaskey’s scathing article about El Portal’s attempt to hide public records from the public, Mayor Claudia Cubillos thought it was a good idea to engage in some damage control.

On January 9, 2019, Mayor Cubillos sent an email blast to residents in her defense …

By attacking the media …

For daring to report the facts.

Queen Claudia wrote:

Dear El Portal Village Residents:

First, Happy New Year! I hope you and your families all had a great holiday and I look forward to seeing many of you at our upcoming meetings in 2019.

Unfortunately, 2019 has started on a frictional note as in the last few weeks there have been a number of unflattering Miami Herald articles and “so called” blog posts that have been clearly designed to imply or accuse the Village Administration and Elected Officials of improper or illicit activities.

Yesterday’s Miami Herald article concerning our Village’s response to numerous public records request for public documents that are currently in the custody of the Village’s Disaster Program Operations (DPO) Consultant is another example of their biased, incomplete, and factually-incorrect reporting prompted by an anonymous person.

In addition, yesterday’s Miami Herald article failed to inform its readers that the Village Administration had already sat down with Miami Dade County Ethics (MDCE) back in October of 2018 (when MDCE received an anonymous letter), and after a lengthy sit down to review our Hurricane Irma documents, they closed the case with no findings of any wrongdoing. However, it seems the anonymous person was unhappy with this conclusion, so now they have gone to the Miami Herald and local bloggers

If you were not aware, the Village has responded to public records requests, including smaller requests for information concerning Hurricane Irma and our FEMA reimbursement requests, which have been made by Village residents, and reporters. In addition, the Village conducted an after-action-review at a TownHall in May of 2018, and step by step details of the Village’s Post Irma Response were also covered at (both) of the Mayor’s State of the Village Address in August of 2018, where PowerPoints, documents, and video has since been posted on the homepage of our Village website. elportalvillage.com

The Miami Herald reporter also failed to mention, that Norman Powell advised them that he would be working with DPO about the initial and (yes) unreasonable estimate provided, and Miami-Dade County Ethics Department to ensure we comply as efficiently and at a low cost to all public records request.

Instead, the article simply refers to the estimate the Village’s consultant provided when they were first presented with an unreasonable records request for voluminous documents that would require hours of consultant-time and reproduction to comply with, and our Village is just not resourced to provide this amount of information as a larger municipality might be, at a quicker and more cost effective manner.

Just like the unreasonable estimate we received, so is the volume of public records request the Village administration has received since December 2018. Nevertheless, we agree the initial estimate is inordinate, and we have a fiduciary responsibility to the public to mitigate these fees – and we will this week.

Simply put, our Administration and Council remains committed to produce the necessary materials in a manner sufficient to and under the direction of the Miami-Dade Ethics Commission—as we have absolutely nothing to hide and we will always provide whatever public records are lawfully requested of the Village.

These stories (not news) have lacked objectivity and have been long on innuendo and short on the facts.

Thank you for your time – as a reminder, our Committees meet this month, and our Council Meeting is on Tuesday, January 29th at 7pm.

Respectfully,

Mayor Claudia Cubillos
elportalvillage.com
305 778-4199

It seems that the pearl clutching Mayor was oh-so offended by “unflattering Miami Herald articles and ‘so called’ blog posts” which dared to shine a spotlight on the dirty dealings of her little village.

Too bad, so sad.

For one thing, obviously Florida Sunshine Laws don’t apply to this .42 square mile strip of terrain, encompassing approximately 30 blocks of real estate.

It also appears that the Mayor of El Portal likes to invent her own reality.

When backed into a corner with the truth, Mayor Cubillos shot back with accusations of “biased, incomplete, and factually-incorrect reporting,” and then quickly went into spin doctor mode.

For example, she refers to “an after-action-review at a TownHall in May of 2018,” the video of which “has since been posted on the homepage of our Village website. elportalvillage.com”

The truth is, that TownHall took place over a year and a half ago in May of 2018, yet the video, which El Portal residents have been asking for since then, was posted only two days ago on January 8, 2019.

At minute 7:48 of the video, Mayor Cubillos emphatically stated that “we had police officers serving as monitors” of the post-Irma debris hauling.

Except that appears to be a lie, too.

When then-acting Police Chief Ronnie Hufnagel suggested that “there was no police oversight,” according to Miami Herald reporter Sarah Blaskey’s article, she was eventually demoted, her police dog was fired, and then she was abruptly fired two weeks before Christmas … all in retaliation for blowing the whistle.

But, keep digging that hole, Madam Mayor.  Keep digging.

In the meantime, since Queen Claudia takes issue with “so called” blog posts, we’re gonna humor her a bit more.

We’ll start with the Mayor’s “so called” Federal Tax Liens.

Before she became a politician, Claudia Cubillos was the owner and operator of a preschool called Ms. Claudia’s Village Academy.

In 2007, Claudia Cubillos formed Start Young Finish Strong, LLC, a Florida limited liability company, legally doing business as Ms. Claudia’s Village Academy.  When she failed to file the required Annual Reports for the years 2009, 2010 and 2011, the company had to be reinstated.

In 2011, Claudia’s company, Start Young Finish Strong, was fined $2,791.80 by the Internal Revenue Service under 26 U.S. Code § 6721 – Failure to file correct information returns.

It got worse from there.

For the next three years, Ms. Claudia failed to submit Form 941 payroll taxes for eleven reporting periods.

In response, on February 2, 2016 the IRS gifted the Mayor with her first Federal Tax Lien totaling $63,870.50.

In 2015, Ms. Claudia was fined once again for non-payment of Form 941 payroll taxes for three reporting periods, and on October 4, 2016 she was slapped with another Federal Tax Lien totaling $13,133.24.

And finally, on April 26, 2018, a third Federal Tax Lien was filed against Ms. Claudia’s company for the non-filing of Form 1065, U.S. Return of Partnership Income for the years 2013, 2014 and 2015.  This latest lien was for $14,040.00.

Last fall Ms. Claudia was able to pay off two of her Federal Tax Liens.  On August 29, 2018, the IRS issued a Release of Federal Tax Lien for her debt of $63,870.50, and another Release of Federal Tax Lien for her debt of $14,040.00.

Interestingly, these two liens were paid off less than one month after the Village of El Portal took out a $1.2 million dollar loan, but we’re sure it’s just a coincidence.

So far, her debt of $13,133.24 to the IRS is still pending.

But wait, there’s more!

It seems that the scofflaw Mayor of El Portal is no stranger to the court system.

If owing a grand total of $91,043.74 to the IRS wasn’t bad enough, let’s take a look at some other “so called” stuff we uncovered in our journey through the public records of the Miami-Dade County Clerk’s Office.

In 2000, Claudia Cubillos was sued by Norma Jean Abraham, who won a settlement of $29,480.00 plus attorneys’ fees and court costs for a total of $30,676.00.

In 2004, Claudia sued Commercial Carrier Corp., which case was dismissed after an undisclosed settlement amount in which she was ordered to pay “all liens and subrogated interests.”

In 2005, Claudia Cubillos was sued by Intercoastal Yacht Club, LLC, which lawsuit was dismissed due to lack of prosecution.

In 2007, Erin Capital Management, LLC won a Default Final Judgment against Claudia Cubillos in the amount of $2,022.76, plus attorneys’ fees, court costs, and interest totaling $2,845.92.

In 2008, Start Young Finish Strong, LLC and Claudia Cubillos were sued by Kelley S. Rourke in an eviction proceeding.  During the five month-long case, which resulted in an undisclosed settlement amount, Cubillos was evicted and ordered to vacate the premises, which Final Judgment was then set aside and the sum of $14,900.00 held in escrow was disbursed to the landlord.

But, according to Ms. Claudia, “These stories (not news) have lacked objectivity and have been long on innuendo and short on the facts.”

We beg to differ.

Unfortunately for Madam Mayor, we here at VotersOpinion deal strictly with facts based on the very same public records that El Portal village officials are desperately trying to hide.

Trust us, they will lose that battle.

Fortunately for Mayor Cubillos, however, VotersOpinion is not in the innuendo business.  This is not the National Enquirer.

If that were the case, we’d be dishing some of the gossip we heard, such as who’s sleeping with whom, and who stole a piano from the village.

Ya know, stuff like that.

But, that’s none of our business.

We are purely objective.

We deal in facts.

Nothing “so called” about it.

Just the facts, Ma’am. Just the facts.

Stephanie