Miami-Dade School Board to re-examine park plan at center of Alex Diaz de la Portilla case

MIAMI – During a meeting on Wednesday, Miami-Dade County School Board members unanimously sponsored an item that formally supports re-engaging with the city of Miami on the plan to expand the public school iPrep on public land on the city’s Biscayne Park in Edgewater.

The property and plans to redevelop it underpin the criminal money laundering and bribery case against former Miami City Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla.

“I think anytime the school district has the opportunity to explore the enhancement, the expansion of facility opportunities, we have to do that,” said School Board Member Steve Gallon.

A Florida Department of Law Enforcement special agent previously said Diaz de la Portilla sidelined the iPrep plan after he began accepting tens of thousands of dollars in private school cash from David and Leila Centner, owners of Centner Academy, who want to build an indoor athletic complex for their students on the public land, located at 150 NE 19th St.

Diaz de la Portilla is facing several criminal corruption charges, including money laundering and bribery after prosecutors allege he failed to disclose the money he was receiving from the Centers and failed to refrain from voting on the matter.

The Centners’ lobbyist and lawyer, attorney William Riley, is also facing charges in the case.

Investigators said Diaz de la Portilla was an advocate for the Centner plan.

The school board item states that had the original, years-long redevelopment plan been implemented, “the plan would have doubled the number of students served and enhanced the educational experience of current iPrep students and families with a new facility and access to outdoor recreational space.”

Main sponsor Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall explained that it’s an area brimming with new, higher-density housing projects, which in turn is creating a greater need for public school seats.

“It is very rare for the board to take a stand on another governing body, but we stand together for what is best for our children, families, residents of district 2 and the community as a whole,” she said. “We want to make sure no matter what the property looks like now, we can make it a place for children.”

The Centners have denied any wrongdoing and have not been charged in the case.

David Centner has been on the record saying when his private school students are not using the facility, he would consider letting the public use it on public land for free or “for a small fee.”

Read the warrant:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended Diaz de la Portilla following his arrest on several criminal corruption charges. He then lost his bid for re-election when voters chose Miguel Gabela instead.

“Miami-Dade County Public Schools were cut out.” Miami Commisioner Damian Pardo weighing in on the “X” platform ahead of tomorrow’s City Commission meeting.

Local 10 News has reached out to each commissioner for comment on the issue and how the Centner plan intersects with emoluments language in city’s charter.

Per the City Charter: “The mayor, city commissioners, and other officers and employees shall not be interested in the profits or emoluments of any contract, job, work or service for the municipality….and any such contract in which any member is or may become interested may be declared void by the city commission.”

In the meantime, iPrep parents, many who said they enrolled their children at the public school under the understanding that the campus would be expanded at Biscayne Park and felt blindsided by the revelations in Diaz de la Portilla’s arrest warrant, have mobilized to bring back the former plan.

Public school parents showing up to city hall last month to advocate for the original Biscayne Park redevelopment plan, but the private school supporters argued a deal is a deal, also showing to be heard.

“Knowing that there was a discussion of this land being used potentially for a public school in the past, it is unfortunate to see a decision was made a few years ago to change that,” said Benji Power, a parent of two students at iPrep. “That decision was made by somebody who is being charged, so we think it is really important to restart the process, listen to the public school system and think about the future of those neighborhoods, a public school asset in that neighborhood is going to be key.”

That day, David Centner said, “at its core, this is a donation from our hearts.”

iPrep parents arrived in pink shirts that read “public land for public schools” while supporters for the Centners wore green “support Biscayne Park” shirts.

Both sides learned the related resolution they came to address was deferred until Thursday’s meeting and both saying a deferment is not a deterrent and that they would be back in March.

The parcel of publicly-owned land in Biscayne Park was described in Diaz de la Portilla’s arrest warrant as “one of the largest remaining undeveloped tracts of land in Miami’s urban core.”

Is at the nexus of criminal corruption charges Diaz de la Portilla is facing are 11 felonies to include bribery and money laundering.

Before he came to office in 2019, there was a plan for the land that included helping provide expanded educational space and green space to public school students and affordable housing for teachers, according to the arrest form, which stated Biscayne Park was viewed as a “key component” of a redevelopment plan, in partnership with Miami-Dade County Public Schools, and the Omni CRA (community redevelopment agency), to re-locate the public school iPrep.

“Half of it would stay as green space, for the public for the school, and the other half would be for affordable housing and the expansion of iPrep,” said former Miami Commissioner Ken Russell back in September. “Redevelop nine acres of school board owned land and master plan it for education, teachers housing, affordable housing, technology. But in order to make that plan come to fruition, they needed to move iPrep, the public school that is on those acres right now, so this piece of land was the target area where we would expand iPrep to give more local seats for downtown residents and unencumbered that school board property.”

According to a MOU - memorandum of understanding – it would also develop affordable and/or work force housing opportunities for local community members and district employees.

“Once ADLP becomes a commissioner he took over the chairmanship of that Omni CRA and from that moment this plan never saw the light of day again,” said Russell. “Those initiatives seemed to disappear.”

Investigators said what Russell and others didn’t know at the time is that Diaz de la Portilla was receiving - but not disclosing - tens of thousands of dollars from the Centners.

In September, Miami-Dade School Board member Lucia Baez-Geller told Local 10′S Christina Vazquez that she’s seeking a report from the district’s staff and inspector general.

“Our residents from Brickell and Downtown would have been able to enroll in this expanded iPrep,” she explained. “Unfortunately there was a deadline to our conversations, a deadline we were not able to meet because of unfortunately maybe some undue influence.”