Meet Mr. Arza

Although his legislative district doesn't include Doral, Arza has kept his hand in the local politics. He affiliated himself with (some say created) a group called One Doral, a rival to the West Dade Federation that formed in 2001 to give Hispanics more voice in Doral affairs. In this small pond, Arza was a big fish, and convincingly established himself as a kingmaker. Felipe Madrigal, a stocky Costa Rican who owns a first-aid supply company in Doral, was a member of the group and says Arza became the undisputed, if behind-the-scenes, padrón. "Ralph is a powerhouse," he advises. "Ralph can get you money. He will obligate you to him. He's very politically astute. In a way, I admire the guy because he's a brilliant strategist."

One Doral ran a slate of candidates for the community council in 2002. They won, a victory that marked the near complete domination of Hispanic political power in the area. Madrigal remembers the group celebrating at Tony Roma's on election night, when Arza suddenly picked up his cell phone and dialed. "He called the people who lost and we played that song: 'Nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah nah, hey hey hey goodbye!' Man, he's intense."

In 2002 Arza also worked heavily on the successful school board campaign of his brother-in-law Agustin Barrera, a campaign that drew the support of Joe Arriola, who had decided to put his considerable influence behind his vociferous complaints about the school board. During the heat of the battle, Arza's intense personality made headlines when he got into a brief shoving match with Carlos Manrique, then a school district lobbyist campaigning for incumbent Manty Morse.

"Part of my personality is, I will go out of my way to pick a fight," Arza acknowledges. "That is wrong and I struggle with it. Sometimes I don't know when to quit. Sometimes I'm like a walking contradiction -- I pray and then I go out and want to tear somebody's head off."

Arza is also not above using his position to benefit developers rather than students. Last year he attempted to stop the school district from taking land from a developer by eminent domain in order to build schools in congested Hialeah Gardens. The city council had earlier approved a large development project over the objections of neighbors, citing an offer by the developer, Maurice Cayon, to build a charter school to ease crowding. The council also approved doubling the density of the land, which greatly increased its value.

But for years the school district had been trying to buy some of the land to build three schools, finally resorting to the expensive eminent-domain process after Cayon refused to sell. According to the Miami Herald, in June 2003 Arza met with Hialeah Gardens Mayor Yioset De La Cruz, Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez, school board member Agustin Barrera, and district staff at Hialeah City Hall. The politicians, all of whom have received campaign donations from Cayon, wanted the district to look elsewhere for school land.

At the district, Barrera tried to persuade the school board to reconsider its decision to force Cayon to sell, even though the land is not in his jurisdiction. Arza offered to change a state law preventing the construction of schools under flight paths near airports, which would open up more land for possible school sites. He filed a bill to that effect last month. That bill, if passed, could benefit another Arza campaign contributor, Fernando Zulueta, charter-school executive. Zulueta has filed an application to build a charter school in Doral, inside the "no-school zone" around Miami International Airport. County zoning staff and the aviation department see this as a potential public-safety problem because the school would be built only about a mile and a half from a busy runway. But they may have little say in the matter. The county's Developmental Impact Committee, which would normally approve or reject such a proposal, has granted its powers on this issue to the Doral City Council. If Doral approves it, and it's a good bet the city will, then it will go to the school board for a final approval.

In Tallahassee Arza has repeatedly introduced legislation that aggressively chips away at the school district's jurisdiction. Last year, for instance, he filed an unsuccessful bill allowing certain cities to convert public schools within their borders to charter schools and take control of them. This session he has filed a charter-school bill that would make it much easier for postsecondary institutions to sponsor their own charter schools, and also a bill that would require the Miami-Dade district to create a committee to examine its governance structure. Arza says he has in mind questions such as whether the district should be divided, whether there should be an elected superintendent, and whether some board members and a board chair should be elected at-large.