Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez has announced that he will discuss the city's much-questioned financial situation at a press conference at 3 p.m. Friday. Ladra was off by an hour.
"Government should be transparent. For this reason, I will be discussing the city's finances," Hernandez said in a media release sent a few minutes ago.
But I guess transparency has a timetable because he has not wanted to disclose the city's financial figures for weeks. That's really the right word, mayor: Disclose, not discuss. He was asked simple questions like what the city's current cashflow was at Tuesday's meeting and would not answer then. Has he just learned in the last two days? Or was he playing politics since the one posing the question is going to trounce him in the November mayoral elections? I hope former Mayor Raul Martinez -- who does pay taxes on his Hialeah property unlike former mayor and Hernandez mentor Julio Robaina, who was defeated in the county mayoral race -- goes to the press conference. Ladra likes fireworks.
I also hope the public records I've asked for -- trial balances for the past few months, projected revenues for the rest of this fiscal year, the list of vendors whose payments have been held or are outstanding for more than 30 days (with amounts and how long they have been due, and we have to be specific because, if not, we will just get a list of names), a list of the companies that provided funds to open the parks and how much they provided -- will be available. There has to be some documentation of what the mayor wants to "discuss" in order for it to have any weight.
Today, I will add travel and expense reports for all council members and top administrators as well as any and all new hires and promotions since May 1 -- names, salaries and positions. And I will copy the city attorney because Ladra was told he might not be very happy about the delay in getting public records requests filled. And if Hernandez believes so much in government transparency -- words that make Ladra's tail wag -- then these documents should be copied and stapled together and handed out to all the media that attends the press conference.
Ladra hopes the other journalists there ask the right follow-up questions. Maybe they should get a "cliff notes cheat-sheet" handed to them as they enter the mayor's crence room...
Okay. Gotta go. Ladra has homework for tomorrow's press conference.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
4 comments:
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OH, the mayor's conference room...I thought perhaps this wasn't a typo, that it was a parapraxis; that Ladra was intimating that Hernandez was going to hold a seance, in the Mayor's seance room, for he hasn't been able to come up with the requested numbers after repeated, serious requests; perhaps he is just gonna pull the numbers of out thin air. So everybody hold hands...hands, Ladra, not glands...as we ask the spirits to bring forth the answers we desire.
ReplyDeleteAnd Ladra was not off by one hour. The idiot prince ( I will explain) doesn't even know how to obfuscate properly, how to dodge the 6 PM news cycle by starting the press conference at 4 PM or later (Cuban time) and dragging it out long enough to avoid 6 PM air time. Then it will be a long weekend before anyone cares that the City is broke.
Now there once was a very bad King, who reigned over a dangerous land. He had a very wise and benevolent son, and an idiot son. He knew that if he appointed his wise son as the heir apparent; then his life might be in jeopardy, because his son might be thought to be a better choice to rule. Instead he appointed his idiot son, so no one would be tempted to kill the King. So it was, in the Kingdom of Hialeah, when King Robaina did reign.
The interesting question will be did the city obtain or has the city requested a line of credit? If the answer is yes, then, without a doubt, the ship is sinking.
ReplyDeleteHernandez said on television this evening that all public records are available within 3 days. If this is true and you requested the above mentioned records then they should be provided by Monday or Tuesday at the latest. Let's see the reason why they cut services for parks, libraries and police stations and not departments that are not providing direct services to the public.
ReplyDeleteLadra, past practice shows that Carlito will probably not take any questions, or only those that have been approved by the puppet squad...ie, conception,vega....etc.
ReplyDelete