Doral Council boots school board member from City Hall office after firing his wife

Two weeks after firing the city’s top administrator, the Doral City Council on Wednesday voted to evict her husband — Miami-Dade School Board Member Danny Espino — from his satellite office at City Hall, saying his presence presented a conflict.

Espino, the school board’s District 5 representative, has 30 days to leave the building, where he’d kept a regional office since last year.

The 3 to 2 vote to kick Espino out of City Hall followed a similarly narrow vote on Jan. 31 to fire his wife, Barbara Hernandez, as Doral’s city manager — a vote precipitated by allegations that Hernandez had abused city resources to benefit her husband.

“It’s a sad day in Doral when a few politicians put politics over our families,” Espino told the Miami Herald. “...Political vendettas will not interfere with the responsibilities of my office to serve the parents and children of our community.”

The effort to remove Espino from the office space was brought on by Council Member Digna Cabral, who pushed last month to fire Hernandez, saying in a memo to the mayor that Hernandez had made “several questionable decisions” and that Hernandez’s marriage to Espino “has proved to be problematic.”

Cabral said Hernandez had used the city’s public affairs department to record, produce and promote videos for Espino, used city police officers to support his political events and distributed drinks from a brewery he owns at a city-sponsored comedy event.

Among the areas of concern was the office space in City Hall. Cabral argued Wednesday that barring Espino and other elected officials from using the space would minimize future conflicts of interest.

“There are many ways for him to be reached,” Cabral said during the meeting. “He doesn’t only represent the City of Doral. He represents many other cities too.”

Council Member Maureen Porras said it was a mistake to bring any outside elected officials to set up shop in City Hall.

“Anyone that’s not an elected official of the city should not have had that space here because of the obvious conflicts and fights that have come up from this,” she said.

Rafael Pineyro was the only council member who joined Mayor Christi Fraga in voting against Cabral’s resolution. He said the effort would force local parents to have to drive to downtown Miami to meet with their school board member.

“Why [are] we denying the access to these families to come to a place where they can meet with their school board member, regardless of who the school board member is?”

Espino is well-known in Doral, where he previously worked as city attorney through law firm Weiss Serota Helfman Cole + Bierman, and his placement on the school board was linked to politics in the city.

In November 2022, Espino was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to fill the vacancy left by Christi Fraga, who had stepped down from the School Board to run for mayor of Doral, a role to which she was elected. Fraga suggested Wednesday that her Doral office would remain open for him to use, should he want.

Espino told the Herald that the council had approved his use of the city hall office months ago, just as they did for former school board members.

“Suddenly, as things have devolved in Doral, things have changed,” he said.

At the meeting in January, Hernandez said the spare office had been used by former School Board Member Susie Castillo and former State Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez. Hernandez said that instead of firing her, the council could “advocate for more safeguards” or revoke the agreement for Espino’s office space.

“I just want to clear my name,” Hernandez told reporters after the meeting. “I have done nothing wrong.”