Hialeah mayor's political homicide

The man acting as mayor in Hialeah must have forgotten that voters did not put him there. If he had remembered that he is but a temporary placemark puppet placed in power by his mentor/master Julio Robaina -- who Ladra feels somehow still pulls the strings at City Hall -- he may not have dared to think he can take 70 firefighter paramedics away from the people.

But that's exactly what Alcaldito Carlos Hernandez has proposed to do, again making the firefighters his number one target in his desperate campaign to keep his $200,000-a-year job and everything he and Robaina and the council did in the last six years under wraps.

Hernandez unveiled his plan for the 2011-2012 city budget Wednesday at a hastily called press conference by focusing on the fire department, one day after the union announces its endorsement of his opponent, former mayor Raul Martinez. He whines to reporters yet again that the fire union will not negotiate -- when it is the city that declared a premeditated impasse in July (less than two hours into negotiations) and that time and time again has been legally found to violate fair labor standards. He again used threats (read: extortion) to bring the union back to the table -- after being the one who threw them out of the room. "We will negotiate, or there will be cuts," he said to a Channel 41 reporter.

Deep cuts, actually. He proposes reducing the 282 budgeted positions for firefighter paramedics (of which 271 are filled) by 35 this December and 35 more next year. As if Hialeah -- which this week was rated among the top ten cities for worst drivers -- has a surplus of first responders. In fact, the sixth largest city in the state and the second largest in Miami-Dade, has one of the busiest fire rescue departments per capita in the region. Let's do some math: We have about 230,000 people (according to the Census) who rely on about 80 firefighter paramedics on any given 24-hour shift, which equals one first responder for every 2,875 people or so. Hernandez wants to raise that ratio further to one paramedic for every 3,700 residents. His plan calls for the dismissal of one of every four firefighter paramedics. Current service levels cannot be maintained with a 25 percent reduction in personnel. As it is, Hialeah has to call in help from other cities when it has more than one critical mass incident at a time. These cuts mean that stations could close, response times will grow longer, insurance rates will increase -- and more people will die that may have been saved. Period.

Now, most people say Hernandez was nicknamed "The Rock" when he was a city cop for his brains, not his self-agrandized brawn, and Ladra has seen first-hand his inability to see the forrest for the trees. But he can't be that stupid that he thinks this is the best idea for balancing the budget while his rubber-stamping council approves dozens of his recommended change orders to increase (never decrease) the cost of no-bid or fixed-bid contracts at each meeting and he gives a reported $15,000 raise to a unqualified crony employee who had taken a leave of absence to help Robaina with his mayoral campaign (more on that later). Can he? Or, rather, can Robaina? Because almost everything Hernandez does has the former mayor's stench on it (more on that later). But even if he is as stupid as he is making himself out to look, this targeting of the firefighters is a campaign stunt by a man who is desperate to hang on to his $190,000 job. He had the nerve to call fire union President Mario Pico, the most patient, kindest gentlemanly bear of a man I know, "a politician" when Hernandez is the one who has turned their contract negotiations into his number one platform issue and excuse for his financial failures. Why else would he distribute a news article and photograph of a famous 2003 billboard fire union members paid for to trash Martinez? What does that billboard critical of cuts that forced ladder trucks to roll with three firefighters instead of the national standard four (which increases their own safety as well as the public's), have to do with the budget?

Nothing. But the petty, pathetic move has everything to do with Hernandez's motives. He said something about how the firefighters had endorsed Martinez even though they were once enemies and suggested the former mayor would raise taxes to keep firefighter benefits. "He is implying, I suppose, that we'll sell our souls to the devil," Pico told me later. But anyone who has watched them knows that their support of Martinez has not come easy and was thought out and weighed thoroughly. In fact, if anything, that billboard story (which is a really good one and Martinez still winces about it) shows that the firefighters group is not vengeful or so narrow-minded that old wounds would stand in the way of healing and growth. Hernandez might learn from that. But no, he can't. Because he fears it. That is why he has targeted the firefighters in a race where he is absolutely no match for either of his opponents. Problem is, he ain't a match for the bomberos, either. And Santa Barbara knows he has tried.

But it's not all about Martinez, either. Hernandez (read: Robaina puppet) has been building his case against the firefighters, who dared to back Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez in the bitter race against their homeboy Julito. (Here they are riding in a caravan for Gimenez on West 49th Street before the runoff). It probably started even before some out-of-the-blue press release two months ago where he first whined about the firefighters not wanting to meet with him. In two decades covering government, Ladra has never seen a mayor or city manager tell the media that they can't get the union to sit with them. It was an obvious set up for the impasse days later, on the same day the mayor submitted a letter (didn't say write because someone else wrote it) to the editor of the Miami Herald that attacked the union president and was so full of lies and misinformation and propaganda that it probably should have had a political ad disclaimer.

He also blamed them for a nearly $8 million shortfall in this year's budget (a deficit he later claimed he never claimed and, yes, it gets that ridiculous) because, he said, the $5 million in negotiated concessions never materialized. Only that was never calculated into the 2010-2011 budget -- but nobody ever calls him on his bluffs. On Wednesday, he told the press that he firefighters had cost the city $10 million when, in fact, I am sure it is the city administration that has cost taxpayers $10 million with its illegal firing of 17 firefighters last year and its two upheld rulings of using unfair labor practices -- which the city legally exhausted all its ridiculous appeals of (read: kaching for attorneys). In fact, on Thursday, one day after the mayor's hullaballoo about the bomberos and their soooo-budget-related billboard, the city sat down with the fire union again over arbitration about how to pay the 17 firefighters that the city was forced to bring back and ordered to repay for the five months they were illegally laid off. Hernandez apparently doesn't want to do that and is looking for ways to pay them with additional vacation time and perks. But you can't pay mounting bills or loans taken out to pay mounting bills with perks. This is another example of the city wasting more money. The ruling will go with the firefighters. Because they are right again and the city is still acting illegally. And I bet Hernandez will add that to the $10 million tab he wants to unload on someone else. And Ladra wants to see a line by line accounting of these costs.

Oh, that's right. Hernandez won't show me. He won't show me anything. But he won't show this to anyone. Because then he can spew inflammatory lies and not back them up. Don't let him get away with this bluff, people. Not this one. Because this time, he is playing with life and death: If Hernandez makes good on his threat and fires one of every four firefighters, people in Hialeah will die. Punto y aparte. This moron mayor's move might be political suicide (read: one can hope). But it's definitely political homicide.

After all, Hernandez is gambling lives so he can keep the view from the mayor's office and his $16,000 monthly paycheck.

(To tell el Alcaldito that it is not nice to play with people's lives, email mayorchernandez@hialeahfl.gov or call him at 305-883-5800. And fill council chambers in City Hall at the public hearings at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 15, and Monday, Sept. 26.)