City Council approves to hire Special Counsel for Pension Analysis

DORAL, FL – The City of Doral Council approved a motion on Feb. 8, 2023, on an unanimous vote to hire special counsel services for pension benefits ordinance analysis.

This is the first step towards repelling the decision made in early 2021 to grant a pension for former elected officials of the City of Doral during their lifespan and 10 years after they die for their family members, including medical health benefits and life insurance. 

“After speaking to our interim city attorney and our manager, I ask to bring in a special counsel to inquire on the options and legal aspects of what we can do moving forward to revisit the elected officials pensions,” said Mayor Christi Fraga, who asked for this item to be placed on the agenda.

During the presentation, the City of Doral Manager, Barbara Hernandez, explained the purpose of hiring special counsel is for him to review and analyse the elected officials pensions to then come back with some recommendations of what the City can and can’t do to revoke the decision made in 2021, without spending more than $20,000 for his services.

“This is a small amount of money to ask for and I think at the end it’s worth what we can potentially save,” stated Mayor Fraga.

About this, Vice Mayor Rafael Pineyro said to be glad this item was included in the agenda. “I would say the opinion of the majority of the residents is that this from the beginning shouldn’t have happened .”

Council member Maureen Porras, on her part, expressed “this is a wrong that needs to be made right”. “This money is better invested back into our community that should have been consulted on this matter.”

The special counsel will have initially 30 days to review and analyse the pension benefits ordinance in order to provide his final legal recommendations.