MPVA Miami Police Veterans Association

Two years after being forced from his high-level job for lacking control over a critical department, Ola Aluko has been picked by Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones to monitor the expenditure of millions of dollars — in the very same department.

Aluko was forced to resign as director of the Capital Improvements Program in April 2010, not long after telling then-City Manager Carlos Migoya of capital improvement employees he claimed were inflating the price of projects.

Migoya said he had been told of the problem by two commissioners well before Aluko came forward, and that Aluko was trying to cover up his failure to control his staff. Aluko was earning $196,631 a year.

 
Now, as one of 15 members of the city’s Homeland Defense/Neighborhood Improvement Bond Oversight Board, Aluko will recommend to the commission how remaining bond dollars from a 2001 bond issue should be spent, and whether already-allocated portions of the $255 million bond have been disbursed properly. A majority of the money is earmarked for capital improvements.

Aluko’s firing came at a time of major turmoil in Miami, as U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigators had begun looking into hundreds of millions in bond sales only four months earlier. The investigation was prompted by Miami Herald articles that showed the questionable transfer of $26.4 million from capital projects to the city’s general fund to balance the books in 2007 and 2008.

 
Aluko said he informed the administration of the problems in his department just before a blundered press conference in which Mayor Tomas Regalado and then-Police Chief Miguel Exposito announced a number of high-profile public corruption arrests of city employees. Near the end of that press conference, Regalado announced the forced resignation of Aluko.

 
Aluko, who said he was questioned by two FBI agents about the still-ongoing SEC investigation, filed a whistleblower grievance against the city and demanded five years of lost pay and wages.

 
He settled with the city in July for $20,000, City Manager Johnny Martinez said.

Aluko, now president of a private project management company, says he’s a good fit for the position.

“I bring experience and understanding of the bond program. That’s key,” he said.

 
In a written statement to The Herald, Spence-Jones called Aluko “a true professional” who will “serve the city well.”

As for the past, let’s leave it there, said Aluko.

 
“If there were ever any issues whatsoever, we’ve put those issues behind us and are moving forward,” he said.