Miami-Dade Fire Official Steered $300K in County Funds to Brother's Company

A former Miami-Dade Fire Rescue (MDFR) lieutenant steered more than $300,000 in county funds to a company he ran with his younger brother, according to a new report from the Miami-Dade County Office of the Inspector General (OIG).

A joint investigation between the OIG and the Miami-Dade County Commission on Ethics and Public Trust (COE) found that ex-lieutenant Jairo Rodriguez used his role in the department's logistics division to direct more than $332,000 in MDFR purchases to Fire-Tec, Inc., a local firefighting equipment company he founded and operated with his brother.

Fire-Tec registered as a county vendor in 2018, and nearly all of the transactions occurred after Rodriguez volunteered for an assignment in MDFR's logistics division in 2019, the probe found.

"Lt. Rodriguez used his official position to secure special privileges for himself and Fire-Tec and maintained his outside employment that impaired his independence of judgment in the performance of his public duties," the report reads.

Rodriguez was reassigned from the logistics department to MDFR's training division after the investigation launched in 2021, and later transferred again to an aerial truck unit. In January 2024, the COE filed an ethics complaint accusing Rodriguez of violating the county's ethics and conflict-of-interest rules. He pled no contest to multiple violations, according to the report; under a negotiated settlement, he accepted a formal letter of reprimand and agreed to pay $16,500 in fines and investigative costs.

He ultimately retired in November 2024.

The report recommends that MDFR debar Fire-Tec, excluding the company from contracting with the county "for a reasonable, specified period."

"While Fire-Tec has provided goods to MDFR, it certainly has not evidenced the integrity and reliability to assure good faith performance in the future," the report reads. "Fire-Tec's reputation and past performance evidence long-standing deceptive practices in violation of the County's ethical standards, which impairs its reputation and casts significant doubt on its capacity to be a responsible County contractor."

In January 2021, several high-ranking MDFR staff and members of the county’s Commission on Ethics and Public Trust received an anonymous complaint alleging that Rodriguez used his official position to procure products from Fire-Tec — "sometimes bypassing" the competitive bidding process and using a county purchasing card (P-card) for payments, according to the report.

The complaint also alleged that Rodriguez's colleagues approved the orders "with full knowledge and understanding of the relationship between Lt. Rodriguez and Fire-Tec."

MDFR did not respond to New Times' request for comment by the time of this reporting.

However, the OIG investigation found that while Rodriguez "was found to have misused his position for personal financial gain," there was no evidence that other MDFR employees "acted based on knowledge of the relationship between Lt. Rodriguez and Fire-Tec, or received any direct or indirect benefit from Lt. Rodriguez or Fire-Tec."

According to the OIG report, Rodriguez was a 25-year veteran firefighter. A LinkedIn profile that appears to belong to him shows that he initially joined MDFR in 1999.

In 2008, Rodriguez founded the Margate-based Fire-Tec, which "advertises a wide range of firefighting equipment and gear." According to the OIG report, his name was removed from publicly available incorporation records in 2016 and substituted with his brother, Leonardo Rodriguez.

"Despite this substitution, Lt. Rodriguez remained Fire-Tec's acting president, evidenced by his use of the title in his correspondence and other business transactions, including remaining as a primary account holder on Fire-Tec's bank records," the report reads.

In March 2018, Fire-Tec applied to become a county vendor. But while the county requires vendors to disclose under oath the name of any people with legal, equitable, or beneficial interest in the contract, Fire-Tec's application claimed that Leonardo Rodriguez was the sole owner and manager — a statement the OIG report says "was false."

"Lt. Rodriguez continued to use the title of President of Fire-Tec through at least September 2022, remained as a primary name on the company's bank accounts, and benefited from his continued use of Fire-Tec's credit cards to cover his personal expenses," the report reads.

In August 2019, Rodriguez placed a bid for an open position in the "Research & Development (R&D) unit" at MDFR Logistics, where he was tasked with recommending firefighter equipment and services for MDFR to purchase, from decorative stickers to safety equipment. He also served in a supervisory capacity, directing staff to buy certain brands "knowing that the specific products could only be purchased from Fire-Tec, without competition from other vendors," the report says.

While the report says there's no evidence that Rodriguez drew a salary from Fire-Tec, bank records, loan documents, credit card statements, contracts, emails, and other documentation show that he received "numerous financial benefits" from the company.

For instance, between September 2019 and March 2021, Rodriguez used Fire-Tec credit cards issued in his name to pay for personal expenses, including more than $21,000 in restaurant meals, gasoline, Uber rides, camping fees at RV parks, campaign contributions, airline tickets, and hotel rooms.

The report notes that Fire-Tec also paid $67,000 to cover a portion of the $140,000 cost for a 39-foot recreational vehicle (RV) that Rodriguez bought in March 2020.

The OIG provided its findings to MDFR and Rodriguez. While MDFR did not respond, Rodriguez and Fire-Tec's attorney, Lorenzo Palomares, submitted a letter attempting to distance Rodriguez from the company.

Palomares did not respond to a request for comment by the time of this reporting.

The letter, which argued against the OIG's suggestion of Fire-Tec's disbarment, claimed that the company was “either the lowest responsive bidder, or sold products to other vendors, not associated with Lt. Rodriguez.”

The OIG, however, rejected that defense.

"While at times, Fire-Tec may have been the lowest bidder as argued in its response to the draft report, its business with the County had for years been marred by the lack of transparency of Lt. Rodriguez and Fire-Tec's own Registered Agent," the OIG wrote in its report.