Hialeah council's criminal cuts

Just when you thought the election season in Hialeah could not get more surreal, the Seguro Que Yes council passed su alcaldito Carlos Hernandez's bogus 2011-2012 city budget Wednesday night calling for the illogical and unnecessary termination of 105 of 271 firefighter paramedic positions despite a packed house of protestors and a barrage of honest, researched, logical and impassioned pleas from residents, employees, firefighters, police officers and children -- and without asking a single real, legitimate question. That practiced-in-front-of-the-mirror peppering by Councilwoman Vivian Casals-Muñoz does not count. All she did when she asked smirky questions she knew the answers to already was present a premeditated and written justification of her eventual Oui nod-and-bob to help her at the ballot. Watch for some of that dramatic "challenging" to come out in her literature or campaign speeches.

The rest of the council was as criminally negligent to their community as she was when they sat silent and did not give anyone in the audience the courtesy of answering one question. How would this affect response times? Silence. How would this affect services? Silence. Has this 40 percent cut in fire rescue personnel been analyzed to predict or forecast potential ramifications? Silence. How many firefighters are needed, mimimum, to keep the city safe? Silence. Where are the operational plan and the reorganizational chart that go with these cuts, both public records that were requested Monday? Silence. In fact, Council President Isis "Gavelgirl" Garica-Martinez spoke more when she was ejecting four or five of the objectors (including yours truly) from the council chambers or from the building as she and her colleagues ignored laws, constitutional rights, Robert's Rules of Order and legal processes to make strategic campaign platform speeches about a month from Election Day. And alcaldito Hernandez left the dais again in the middle of a public budget hearing, in the middle of someone's comments, snubbing residents and employees he shows no respect for, so he could give TV interviews (read: campaign for votes). Really? Ladra has a question (well, another one): Is this the way elected officials should act?

Just another day in the Hialeah races.

Wednesday's bogus budget hearing has been called a circus, a joke, a train wreck, a show. But Ladra's favorite was a crime. Because what this council did when they rubberstamped the budget they know is false and full of holes just has to be criminal. It's fraud. It's robbery. It's abuse of power. It's all of that and it's blackmail and extortion, too. Because the firefighters who went armed with truth and the support of the community were told they could make the layoffs, at least the immediate ones, go away. Disappear. Just like that. If, of course, they agreed to an offer from the city that was made in writing on Monday, more than two months after the administration prematurely declared another impasse during a bargaining session, which is the appropriate setting for a new contract offer, and at which this offer was never made.
It's not that the firefighters would not consider giving up holiday pay. Union President Mario Pico -- speaking to reporters outside the chambers after he, too, was thrown out when he challenged the criminal lies at the hearing -- has repeatedly said that the firefighters -- many of whom have been serving Hialeah longer than some council members -- are willing to make sacrifices to help the residents preserve their quality of life. They simply want transparency and the comfort of knowing they didn't sell everything they had to earn to keep giving funds away to questionable quid pro quos and that they won't have to do it again next year because there is a solid recovery plan. Hernandez and his herd should applaud them for that. Everyone who has watched this 2 1/2 year process -- in which the city has been found guilty twice of unfair labor practices, declared impasse three times and illegally fired 17 firefighters to try to affect the contract vote (a decision that cost the taxpayers $800,000 in overtime plus the backpay they are now ordered to provide for the 16 firefighters they were ordered to hire back) -- knows it wouldn't be that easy, though, and that the city only made that phony offer because they know it can't be accepted without going back to the table, where they intend to add a few more demands, of course, but don't want to have to show nada to justify it. All that offer is, in truth, is an illegal and improper 11th hour Hail Mary pass made publicly to save el alcaldito and the incumbent candidates from the critical backlash and career-ending fallout their dubious and dumfounding decision has already had. This phony profer, which would have saved only $1.3 million when the city last week was demanding cuts to "balance the budget" that totaled more than $7 million, is a bait and switch con job and Ladra would not be surprised if it was not planned all along. It is not the only thing the council will need, but if the firefighters had conceded, they would have claimed victory and use the contrived "compromise" to promote their questionable candidacies.

Councilman Luis Gonzalez -- who probably drew the short straw because he is not on the Nov. 1 ballot -- actually took the opportunistic liberty to ask about the offer (read: campaign stunt) in a question to the mayor that was obviously staged for the benefit of the TV cameras. It was such a set-up for su alcaldito to start proliferating on how he was willing to negotiate and trying to protect the residents with this offer, that Ladra could not control her bark and was tossed from the council chambers -- and the building -- again for speaking out of turn. I take whole responsibility. Something the Seguro Que Yes mess could learn to do. I know I wasn't supposed to object, but I found the scene ridiculously abusive. And someone had to stop that charade. "Excuse me, the councilman can't make an offer here at a budget hearing. Or in that letter you sent," I interjected. "That is why there is a bargaining process." Council President Isis "Gavelgirl" Garcia-Martinez warned me to stop talking. But Gonzalez -- after regañando me with a whiny "I don't even know who has the floor" -- went on with his pre-scripted, made-for-TV effort to give el alcaldito his two-cent soundbite. There was no way this watchdog was going to let that happen. "I'm sorry but he simply cannot make an offer like that from the dais," I said again, asking deputy city attorney Lorena Bravo, who sat in for William "Go-Between" Grodnick on his paid Jewish holiday, to advise them that a contract offer in this venue (read: political campaign stunt) would be illegitimate. She did, actually, eventually. And I applauded -- as I was led out of the chambers by a police officer on order by Police Chief Mark Overton, who later trespassed me from the building -- even before I received the public records I requested about Ladra's first-ever trespass warning at the Hernandez et al campaign office opening Sept. 10. This time, they didn't give me a case number but maybe it was because Overton (who las malas lenguas say is looking to get a job in Broward county) realized he stepped in it and sent a sergeant to tell me once I was outside the building -- yes, escorted outside the building by three police officers -- that I could return to the lobby only and only if I behaved. Yeah, this is the thanks I get for basically helping them out by pointing out a mistake they were about to make.

But while it is fun to watch former Mayor and current mayoral candidate Raul Martinez consistently show all the council members up on budget issues with trick questions they fail every time and it's entertaining to watch former councilman and current candidate Alex Morales teach them a lesson or two at every meeting, you don't have to be a professor or a successful administrator for a quarter of a century to know more about the council membrane's jobs and roles than they do. Even a watchdog and one pissed off, redneck firefighter and a whistleblower cop and a single mom and a pre-teen child -- who got a standing ovation when he told them that if they were in school, "you would get an F in budget" -- know more than these bobble heads.

Pathetic. Sad. Unacceptable (read: rejectable come November). And it has to be criminal. It just has to be abuse of power when the city administration suddenly finds $3.5 million in cost reductions from one budget hearing to the next in order to make this hollow campaign season offer. That just has to be a crime. They are holding the citizens and the people who work in Hialeah hostage for their personal and political gain. That just has to be a crime. They make up positions and programs to pad the budget in other areas so they can dip into these funds later on down the year. That just has to be a crime. They give away fist over fist of taxpayer funds by awarding millions of dollars in no-bid contracts and change order increases for campaign contributors. That just has to be a crime. They hide monies and change the story every other day from surplus to deficit to surplus to shortfall. That just has to be a crime. They intentionally turn their heads to the poor math skills, gaping holes and padded pillows all over the budget presented as a "budget in stages" -- a new term nobody has ever heard of that was invented for convenience. Let's call it a pretend budget instead. That just has to be a crime. And they commit all these crimes against the residents and their own employees while risking the lives and property of the taxpayers who pay their $44,000-a-year salaries and the salaries of their assistants and their multiple lackies and botella friends. That just has to be a crime.

Ladra felt uncomfortably and uncharacteristically numb for several hours after she left the scene of the crime Wednesday night and took a walk for a cortadito, dark, like the night. It is almost time to get ready for the next day and I still can't believe sometimes that it wasn't all a nightmare. Because how could anyone get away with so much? Where's the cavalry? And just where were our other electeds that should be representing Hialeah's people against the criminals? Miami-Dade District 13 Commissioner Esteban Bovo, State Sen. Rene Garcia (R, District 40) and State Rep. Eddy Gonzalez (R, District 102) did not return my calls and were absent at both the first and second readings (read: accessories before, during and after the fact). So was former State Sen. Rudy Garcia (R, District 40), who is running for the mayor's seat also but has been criticized for not having attended one meeting or voiced one concern over the aforementioned crimes. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez has been a busy bureaucrat with his own budget, but has anyone at the county given a thought to or looked at how Miami-Dade taxpayers could be impacted when the Hialeah council starts stealing their service providers to cover for a fire rescue department that was decimated for political retribution motives. That just has to be a crime.

After all, somebody -- or some body --  has to be held responsible if even one person dies as a result of longer response times or decreased services caused by these unnecessary cuts. Because that really has to be a crime.

Ladra calls it political homicide.

Alcaldito plays with fire, again

We saw this coming. We told everyone that this alarmist threat to fire 105 of 271 firefighter paramedics in Hialeah was blackmail, or extortion (you pick your term), and that the very politicians who proposed it would come in at the 11th hour with a salvation plan or last-minute Holy Mary pass.

But I didn't imagine the scare tactic would be so obviously revealed. Or is it me? You be the judge, dear readers.

On Monday, a day after El Nuevo Herald reporter Enrique Flor published a story based on a source's [conveniently-placed] tip about the city's offer to renew negotiations with the firefighters union, union representatives actually got a letter expressing this offer from City Attorney Bill "Go-Between" Grodnick, who as a legal representative of the city knows that neither the letter nor the deal uttered at a public budget hearing are legitimate or proper offers in the labor bargaining process that has been halted by a declaration of impasse on the city's behalf. Nah. This is obvious campaign strategy. So the city attorney is playing politics now at the behest of su alcaldito Carlos Hernandez while accusing others of doing it (Can he be disbarred for any of this? Where do we complain?). The letter comes two days before the final public hearing where the Seguro Que Yes council is poised to pass a bogus budget that cuts 40 percent of the fire rescue staff and -- again, this is odd for a city official -- whines about not getting calls returned. It's even odder from the city official who prematurely declared impasse less than two hours into the last negotiation session in July. This is becoming a broken record. Union President Mario Pico told Hernandez at the budget hearing that he would meet with him at his earliest convenience. "We can go get a cafecito right now after the meeting," Pico said. "I don't want coffee, Mr. Pico," the mayor said, adding that he preferred to meet the next day. But he never made good on that because by then the TV cameras were gone. So, on Saturday, someone in the administration leaks the story to El Nuevo. On Monday, Grodnick sends the letter with the new offer, which is basically that in exchange for giving up holiday pay for 11 days, they can keep not only the 14 firefighters who would have been fired Oct. 1 but also the nine recruits at the academy that the city has already invested in.

But is it legitimate? Or is it a bait-and-switch hat trick (read: campaign stunt)? Because how can this be a possible solution if the holiday paycut will only save about $1.3 million and the budget, to be balanced, calls for more than $7 million cut from the fire department. Where did the city all of a sudden find another $5.5 million? "I can't give you the details because I was not involved in it. But significant operational and costs savings were made," Grodnick told me on the telephone, in a very proud tone. "We made substantial inroads in savings. Of the $7.5 million, half was saved through cost reductions in other changes." Really? Someone found $5 million worth of "cost reductions" that were not apparent two weeks ago, when su alcaldito threatened to fire 105 firefighters. Or is this offer just for that first phase of the "budget in stages"? Are there still going to be 35 layoffs Dec. 1 and 35 more next year? That was the original plan and it would also serve to delay the overwhelming negative reaction su alcaldito has been getting, even from his supporters, until after Election Day? It would also delay the mandatory return of $1.8 million in federal homeland security grants for minimum staffing until after Election Day. Yes, Grodnick said. Those terminations are still on the table. "We hope to cut the other $3.5 million during the year through concessions in the fire department or further workforce reductions. But we hope and sincerely expect to come to an agreement once we get through the political season," Grodnick told me. Really? I thought this was going on for two and a half years?

This is the longest shell game Ladra has ever watched and this dog is getting dizzy

After I asked for details on these "significant operational savings" (one would think Grodnick could recite one or two if they were so significant), Grodnick told me to call Fire Chief Marco de la Rosa. "I can't talk to you about that. That was done through the fire chief and the OMB [Office of Management and Budget] Director." But the fire chief didn't seem to know about his own amazing "significant cost reductions" that saved his department's positions (at least for now). "I have to see what operational plan he is speaking to," de la Rosa said, buying some time and seemingly satisfied with the city offer (Ladra can't help but wonder if he was the tipster). "It's the same offer made at the council meeting, which was stated publicly." And when asked why savings of $1.3 million are suddenly enough, de la Rosa said "at least the partial costs are deferred through the holidays." He then said he had to get permission from su alcaldito before he could speak with me anymore about the "significant costs savings" in his department's operational plan and the re-organizational structure plan. But he is not, apparently, go-between material like Grodnick: When I called him back about a half an hour later, he told me he had been told not to provide me with any information. "As per direction of the mayor, all budgetary questions are referred to his office," de la Rosa said. I had already left two messages with someone at the mayor's office Monday, as I have done nearly every day in the last two weeks. But I likely will not get a call back. And I may ask him in person when I see him at City Hall, but he will likely ignore me again. So Hernandez won't answer questions and won't allow de la Rosa, Budget Director Alex Vega, Finance Director Vivian Parks or Water and Sewer Director Armando Vidal to clarify questions about the budget. That means that nobody gets to know what we are dealing with. And that's exactly what the fire union is facing and has been facing for two and a half years. No answers to real questions of substance. No checks or balances. (We have filed a public records request, but history has shown us not to hold our breath).

Hernandez does have the time and werewithal, however, to record misleading robocalls paid for by his mayoral campaign account and leave messages for residents sullying Pico's good Winnie-the-Pooh name. He has time to make up outright lies, saying the firefighters want to raise taxes "to protect their juicy benefits." His emphasis, not Ladra's. But the strong mayor (yeah, I did a double-take, too) won't negotiate with them himself. He won't meet cara a cara, at the table with rolled sleeves, ready to do what is necessary. The firefighters, many of whom live in the city and others who have served residents for decades, do not want anyone to raise taxes. In fact, they believe the city does not have to. They just want to stop frivolous spending and corruption. And they know that if the city loses its Class 1 rating, insurance rates could go up and Hernandez can claim no accountability yet again. Su alcaldito is desperate, meanwhile, to keep his $190,000-a-year job ($244,000 if you count his pension, since he is making a campaign issue of it) and has resorted to campaigning against the firefighters because its trendy and he has to rail against someone. He's lost both the TV and radio debates with co-candidates: former State Sen. Rudy Garcia, (R, District 40) and former Mayor Raul Martinez. And he likely fears the planned live radio debate with Pico Wednesday morning on Actualidad Radio (1020 AM) because Pico (who is not a candidate but will still beat su actor alcaldito) brings documents and asks specific questions Hernandez won't or can't answer. Truth is on Mario Pico's side.

But while Hernandez will pontificate perfidiously in public, el alcaldito sends the go-betweens to negotiate his will so he can later claim ignorance when they botch things up -- as they have so many times. Shall we count the ways? The most recent finding of sufficient cause from state regulators came last week and the fire union can file a complaint about what is clearly a premature impasse (the third in this process, which has clearly been prolonged by the city). How can you say it wasn't premature when even you are still willing to negotiate, Bill? Or was that also blackmail and extortion to get the firefighters at the table in a disadvantaged position? Was it extortion when former mayor Julio Robaina tells the union reps (who have it on video) that if they just shut up and bend over, the city will rehire the 16 firefighters that were illegally fired to influence a union vote (the same firefighters that have not been made whole yet even though the city was legally ordered to backpay them for those five months they sat at home and were covered with other staff on overtime)? Because every time su alcaldito and Go-Between Grodnick say it's been two and a half years of negotiations, they forget to say the part about how the city is the one that has thwarted any real dialogue with hostility and heavy-handed tactics. They also forget to add that during that time, they have been found to violate fair labor practices not once, but twice. It's been two and a half years because of them, not because of the firefighters who simply asked to see the books that show the city needs them to sacrifice so that political pals can keep getting juicy no-bid contracts (that emphasis is mine) and cronies who crank it out for their campaigns keep getting "salary adjustments." It's been two and a half years because there is no transparency about the numbers and the figures that are presented change from day to day. It's been two and a half years because city administrators have dug in their heels and won't show their real financials or even present a recovery plan so the community is not faced with this again in 12 and 24 and 36 months.

Thank goodness we have the firefighters answering a different kind of emergency in the city. They are performing a different kind of triage. The victim is the community at large and the sickness is the corruption, lack of transparency and conflicts of interest that spread like cancer at City Hall. Rather than take their medicine to cover up the symptoms, the firefighters want to treat the disease -- perhaps even remove the tumor -- so that the patient can live and thrive again for many more years. They have sacrificed their own time to educate the public and the union leaders have sacrificed their personal lives to defend not just their own, but the entire city, and fight for what's right.

And for this, they are heroes once more.

They are certainly not the politicians that bargain-rate politico pretenders try pathetically to paint them as.

Police lives in danger with layoffs

Ladra has provided this space to republish a blog post by Hialeah Police Officer Antonio "Sergeant" Luis about alcaldito Carlos Hernandez's proposal to fire 105 of 271 firefighters -- which puts patrol officers at risk.

The whole thing can be found at http://forums.leoaffairs.com/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=121125, but here are a couple of the best graphs:

"Afternoon shift two major traffic accidents occur 15 minutes apart, one in sector 5, the other in sector 1. Just about that time a small kitchen fire happens in sector 3. While all that is going on, an officer gets into a shooting. How long will it take a fire department with 40% less manpower take to get to that officer? Wait a second all the fire units in the city are tied up.

"Do not be fooled for one second OUR LIVES are in danger if the city goes through with this. This cannot be allowed to occur."

The date and time of the final budget hearing at the end has been changed from Sept. 26 to Sept. 28, but the rest of the post from this 13-year veteran -- who has been put through hell for denouncing political favoritism and is fighting injustice in his own department -- is right on target.

Mayor's lies must be challenged

Let's add another tall tale to the long list of lies Hialeah's alcaldito Carlos Hernandez wants to feed his constituents: The firefighters threatened with mass firings want to raise taxes and won't make a deal.

What a crock from the man they call "the Rock." But get used to it. He is truth challenged. The firefighters fight this emergency with the truth and have been handing out flyers telling residents and business leaders about the mayor's dangerous plan of political retaliation. Alcaldito only has lies to give the hundreds of citizens who have called to demand that he keep the firefighter staff as is.

The mayor's office is actually telling these hundreds of callers to call the fire union instead. "Call Mario Pico," one woman told me when I called, "and ask him why the union does not want to come to an agreement with the city." Other callers are told to call the fire union president, and the mayor's staff provides the phone number, because the firefighters want to raise taxes to preserve their benefits. 

Let's be clear: The firefighters, like Ladra, know that there does not have to be any tax increase because the council is squandering funds elsewhere. Like with no-bid contracts (about $1 million in the last meeting alone), some of which go to companies or people who make campaign contributions. Like the created positions for cronies and lackies, some of which just got "salary adjustments" -- including one mayor's aide that went from $1,776 a month to $2,884 a month. Would the mayor need to raise taxes for these things? The firefighters, like Ladra, know that there do not have to be any new taxes in order to maintain staffing levels where they are, which are already insufficient to cover a city of 220,000 residents that swells to a population of 500,000 during the weekday. This "tax increase" argument is a scare tactic used to bully and smear the firefighters even more.

But su alcaldito has to say that. He has no defense, no excuse for his threat to cut 40 percent of the firefighter paramedic personnel. It is threat and it is extortion because both he and the council president, Isis "Guttermouth Girl" Garcia-Martinez have publicly said that if the union were to make concessions -- not negotiate, but just take the concessions the city wants to force on them -- there would not be anybody fired. Really? Is that even legal? Let's rewind to July 20, when it was the city that declared impasse on the union not even two hours into negotiations. And they had planned it. The impasse document was prepared beforehand and brought into the meeting -- which shows a total lack of good faith. The city went into those negotiations clearly intending to declare impasse (and they will lose again when this is legally brought to the state board that oversees public employee relations).

This is just political payback because the union backed his opponent, former mayor Raul Martinez, in this November election and his mentor/master Julio Robaina's  opponent, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez. Otherwise why would Hernandez distribute an old newspaper article about past hostilities between the firefighters and Martinez at his press conference about the budget? What does that have to do with the 2011-2012 allocation of funds?

By the way, Mayor Gimenez, why are you so silent on this? Won't this affect county services, too? Aren't you representing Hialeah citizens also, Mr. "Mayor for All"? Wasn't this a group that backed you and helped you get elected?

For that matter, where are the other elected leaders that represent and speak for this community? I contacted Miami-Dade Commissioner Esteban Bovo, State Sen. Rene Garcia (R, District 40) and State Rep. Eddy Gonzalez (R, District 102) -- all of them former Hialeah council members who are quite easy to find in the City of Progress during election season -- before the first budget hearing last week and asked if they were going to go. I have yet to hear back from any of them. I guess election season for them is too far off.

So let's call their offices, too, to see what they think.

• Gimenez can be reached at 305-375-5071 or mayor@miamidade.gov
• Garcia can be reached at 305-824-5058 or at 305-364-3100 and his district office is at 3814 W. 12th Ave, just above the campaign office for su alcaldito and the incumbents minus one
• Gonzalez can be reached in Tallahassee at 850-488-1683 or his district office in Hialeah Gardens, 10001 NW 87th Ave., 305-364-3066.
  

Ladra wonders if they will redirect calls to the firefighters or the Hialeah mayor's office, where the blame really lies.

Poll: Hialeah incumbents weak

A poll of 300 Hialeah residents paid for by the city's firefighters union puts former mayor Raul Martinez in the pole position for the mayoral race this November with a double-digit lead over incumbent mayor, Carlos Hernandez. But while former State Sen. Rudy Garcia has been in the number three position before, he is now double-digits behind Hernandez -- who has used the bully pulpit to promote his candidacy through a bunch of obvious campaign initiatives -- according to the poll by the same Freddy Balsera who was paid more than $200,000 for work on the county mayoral campaign of former Hialeah mayor Julio Robaina.

Balsera reportedly only charged $5,000 for the poll for the fire union, who fiercely fought Robaina's mayoral bid and is likely not going to endorse his puppet alcaldito. The union leadership, which released only a one-page summary of the poll and not the questions or the numbers themselves (and, yes, I've asked for more and will press for full disclosure) chose Balsera's firm to give the poll credibility and commissioned it because, contrary to popular belief, not all the union members are as supportive of Martinez as the leadership may seem to be. The fire union screening is next week and the poll was commissioned by the leadership to help with the decision. But Martinez certainly has a few things on his side: He supported Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez -- and the firefighters built a rapport working with him on the same side of that -- and his slate has a few fire union friendly candidates, also from Hialeah Team Gimenez, that the anti-incumbent and increasingly influential fire union leadership will likely support. That includes former councilman and housing authority director (until he was fired by Robaina) Alex Morales, who also showed "a commanding lead" in the open seat in this poll after getting high recognition ratings in the poll commissioned last month by Frank Lago, a council candidate and chief of staff to Sweetwater Mayor Manny Marono. This poll says Lago is tied or within the margin of error with incumbent Paul Hernandez, whose seat he is seeking. In fact, all the incumbents are vulnerable and Cindy Miel and Julio Martinez are also tied or within the margin with Council President Isis "Gavelgirl" Garcia-Martinez and Jose Caragol, who they are challenging, respectively. Miel is currently in the seat against Vivian Casals-Munoz with housing authority employee and son of the former chief Danny Bolanos. But Ladra is certain she will switch to rematch Gavelgirl -- and the fact that this poll pit her there instead of with Vivian shows that the fire union or Balsera may have had that inside knowledge.

The glaring omission in the summary is any mention about Bolanos against Casals-Munoz, who was cited as the least favorable incumbent in the Lago poll (which we still want to know how it was paid for). And the reason for that is because Danny Boy, who gets some negative points from past accusations when he was a police officer and his brother's bank robbery conviction, doesn't do too well in this poll. According to people who have seen the numbers, Bolanos has about a 14 percent approval rating or voter support, Ladra is not sure which -- but neither is good. And this is one place Ladra thinks the poll is flawed. And not just because Freddy didn't take Ladra into account, and my anti-incumbent bent is giving Danny his due. But, rather, mostly because we bet the 195 women and 105 men -- 86 percent of which were 56 years old or older -- were not told that Casals-Munoz may have "her fingerprints on everything" that federal investigators are looking at in the Ponzi scheme investigation and the inquiry into Robaina's allegedly questionable loans and business dealings. Even if Vivian-- whose highlights and new hairdo get a thumbs up -- is not eventually implicated officially, some of her role has already been documented. The Miami Herald lists her in an April story about shadow banking allegations against Robaina as one of the creditors who loaned $25,000 to a man that also borrowed more than $1 million from Robaina's partners, Mercy and Rolando and Robertico Blanco. And she is apparently the notary public for most of the Blancos' and Robaina's loans, as well. Ladra is not too sure, but we think that the pending resolution of that federal inquiry will come before November and change that race just a tad. One way or another.

What likely won't change between now and then is the way voters feel about the state of their government. According to the summary released, 65% of those surveyed said the financial condition of the city is either average or poor and 26% cited waste and corruption in government was the top issue followed by property taxes and crime & safety.

Being commissioned by the fire union, there were naturally questions to gauge voters moods toward city employees, who are being blamed for the financial emergency and having contract issues with the administration. "Quality city services" was rated as the fourth most important issue to voters, but the poll doesn't say fourth out of how many. Not surprisingly, 86% of those questioned said the Hialeah firefighters -- who have taken a more visible role in political matters lately after contract negotiations with the former administration basically dissolved -- are doing a a good or excellent job. They are, after all, firefighters. Hello. It's like puppies. Who doesn't love puppies? But, again, what the poll summary does not say is whether those polled were asked if the firefighters were doing a good job saving lives or a good job educating voters and exposing concerns with the current administration's policies and management. Or both.

One thing Ladra would add: They are doing a good or excellent job staying politically relevant. But if they don't show the rest of the poll, it's going to be questioned and misconstrued by their enemies, whose approval rating is not 86 percent. Not even close.

Hialeah mayor hides behind lies

The plot thickens like un tamal en cazuela on As Hialeah Churns.

When last we left our City of Retrogress, city officials and acting alcaldito Carlos Hernandez -- appointed by the lying, thieving former mayor, a political powerhouse that basically imploded in a battle of good versus evil when he tried to seek a higher office -- had conspired to tarnish the city's brave firefighters in an orchestrated smear campaign worthy of Machiavellian comparisons.

Well, maybe not that last part. Because, really, it's very mediocre, not Machiavellian. It is quite obvious to anyone who can string together the recent spate of strange and peculiar events and official statements that this cannot be a series of coincidences but rather a concerted effort to discredit the firefighters that have repeatedly asked for -- and have repeatedly been denied -- transparency and full financial disclosure from the city before they can relinquish $5 million in arbitrary cuts to benefits they have earned. They must be on to something. And Ladra bets that the mayor did not think we'd be on to him and his step-by-step, color-by-numbers, defamation-for-dummies effort. Oh, but we are, Carlos, we are.

The latest on his discount campaign "to do" list was a letter to the editor in Miami Herald that, at first, really riled me up and made me what I now call "Slick pissed", after one of my favorite handlers whose irate flare-ups are legendary. Because what Hernandez did -- or someone else, since, c'mon, everybody knows he is incapable of writing that letter himself -- was string a bunch of lies and half-truths taken out of context for political gain during an election year and target a 23-year veteran city firefighter whose honesty is unquestionable, whose demeanor is sort of like Winnie the Pooh and who is doing his best -- diplomatically, patiently, fairly -- to represent Hialeah's firefighters/paramedics under the most difficult circumstances.

But then I realized: Fire local union president Mario Pico must be making an impact.

And then I smiled: The interim mayor -- who won't return my calls or see me in his office and who shut down the press conference about the city's finances after I asked (still no answer) how much of the $6 million in the bank was in unencumbered funds not earmarked for specific expenditures and available to the general fund -- has given me yet another opportunity to publicly call his bluff.

Hernandez -- who complains about firefighter salaries while he makes $190,000 a year to waltz in late, take 90-minute lunches, go on the radio two or three times a week and campaign for re-election -- has to make the fire union a target and his short term scapegoat because he cannot engage with the other two candidates in the race, which are both political giants that will crush him. This gives him some busy work to avoid them while he pays "opposition researchers" -- including a former city cop -- to dig dirt on former mayor Raul Martinez and former State Sen. Rudy Garcia and plan his smear campaign against them. At the same time, he can try to deflect responsibility for the financial fiasco. And I say short term because his story -- if he even sticks to it because he flip flops more than his mentor, former mayor and county mayoral loser Julio Robaina -- won't wash for long when the administration is either forced to show its financial cards or replaced, whichever comes first.

Still, make no mistake that this letter -- which has media consultant spin written all over it, such as the use of certain repeated terms to subliminally embed the message -- is an orchestrated campaign to, well, boost the campaign since every poll has Hernandez in a far third position. And he needs all the free advertising he can get since his treasure chest may not be as big as before Robaina's big bust. That's also why he is using the bully pulpit and issuing press releases and media alerts about a redeveloped home for a senior citizen and an evaluation of take-home cars and cutting his salary and having a town hall meeting about cutting his salary (really? is anybody buying this?).

Since the Herald gave him this free advertising space for his campaign (that letter really should have had the paid for by disclaimer), the Hialeah reporters should follow up with Hernandez and take advantage of this chance to show what a hypocritical opportunist he is by askin him to back up the statements in this letter -- which, by the way was sent to the Herald the same day the administration entered into negotiations with the union fully intending to call an impasse, which the union president denounced. (The spin doctor working for him likely had it ready already, to try to pre-empt any complaint Mario would maketo the media). That is not negotiating in good faith, which is no big suprise since the city has lost three or four labor disputes in the past year or two at a cost of millions and millions. In fact, Ladra is quite sure they had already prepared the impasse document before going into the meeting (I think the city attorney brought it into the room with him) and had set the firefighters up a week earlier with a media alert -- a media alert!! -- from the mayor complaining that he had tried five times to get a date for negotiations with the union and had not gotten a response. Not only was this simply not true -- which Mario Pico was able to document, no wonder he's drawn such attention -- but it was also an obvious set up. It is not a common thing -- in fact, I would say it is quite rare, counterproductive and highly suspicious (hellooo?) -- for the mayor to issue an official "media alert" to whine that he could not get the union to talk to him. The union has been trying to talk to him since before he was named interim mayor and, in fact, has had several conversations with him. One of these was in front of TV reporter Jim DeFede and was recorded on video. The firefighters have been wanting to talk for months and were willing to keep talking last week when the city called impasse. Indeed, they are willing to make concessions if they need to preserve the quality of life for the residents they work for and save every day, which is something that the mayor fails to mention. They just don't want to make them in the dark. They have no confidence in the city's numbers. And with good reason. Last year, they were given two different versions of the budget. The official bounded budget. After Robaina illegally fired 17 firefighters, an arbitrator ruled the city had to rehire them and give them backpay because their figures did not support the savings they claimed to make and in fact the action seemed to cause economic hardship. Even a Robaina-for-mayor supporter and forensic auditor said that the books had many discrepancies and errors. And last month, Hernandez flip-flopped on the figures, saying at a press conference that there was a $7.8 million shorfall (blaming the lion's share on firefighters with yet another lie) and then he told reporters days later that there was no deficit (read: the spin doc read him the riot act after the first press conference because every time he says deficit, Martinez climbs).

As for the "such firefighter pay raises" line -- yeah, that's the one -- most of the firefighters have not had a raise since the 3% in 2008 that was the last of a three year increase agreed to in 2006 -- the same year the council members gave themselves a 10 percent increase all at one time. The mayor forgets to mention that, too. The merit increases are given only to the newest employees because it allows the department to offer a lower starting pay and it is in the contract. It could be discussed and negotiated -- negotiated, not just deleted -- at the table if the city had any intention of having any real give and take and not really be looking to just take, take, take. Because the impasse now allows the administration to impose cuts. They did it last year with the employees union. That's what Hernandez means by "absorbed" decreases in his letter. It was also one of the cases in which PERC ruled against the city, which had cut the general employees pay by 27 percent and then made that decrease 17 percent after the PERC ruling. The case is still pending and the city is about to be it with another grievance from the firefighters, if he imposes cuts like I am sure he will. And the city will lose that dispute eventually, as well. But, hey, maybe it's long enough to make payroll and keep the city operating until November.

It's pathetic that Hernandez is allowed this futile attempt to discredit a true public servant who has not once stooped so low during the protracted negotiations the city had no intention of honoring. Let's hope that it backfires on him and costs him votes. Ladra is working on it. Unfortunately, it will also cost the city more in legal feels for lost labor disputes, which is already adding up to millions and millions the mayor simply does not have in the bank.

His letter, however, won't cost Mario Pico one ounce of credibility. If anything, it raises his profile and makes him more relevant in the community.

I'll have to remind Mario to thank the acting mayor next time he sees him.

Impasse part of campaign game

An anticlimactic impasse declared by Hialeah city officials on the fire union explains some seemingly out-of-nowhere machinations by intern mayor and opportunist bully pulpit candidate Carlos Hernandez, who falsely fingered the firefighters Friday at a staged press conference that should have had a paid political advertisement disclaimer.

The city declared impasse about two hours after labor negotiations began with the fire union -- which has been successfully battling attempts for the last few years to cut firefighters' benefits without showing cause and which had brought a proposal to save $600,000 a year to the table. That's good faith. But the meeting would have probably ended even sooner if not for the reporter or reporters that attended, to the surprise of the city's attorneys who now had to make it look real. Because it was really just more theatrics in another episode of As Hialeah Churns.

That impasse was premeditated, and not just moments before the bargaining session, although Ladra suspects that if someone made a public records request (read: done) for Grodnick's computer history from Wednesday morning, one will find the impasse document created or at least tinkered with before the meeting. But, it's actually been part of the plan since intern mayor Carlos Hernandez and the Three Blind Mice -- Finance Director Vivian Parks, Budget Director Alex Vega and Water and Sewer Director Armando Vidal -- realized just how bad the city's financial crisis is (read: you ain't seen nothin' yet, folks) and decided, more importantly, they had to find someone to blame in the eyes of the voting public in what promises to be a particularly pissy election year.

Enter the increasingly influential firefighters' union. They've been a stubborn thorn in the side of the administration for years, arguably costing one-time county mayoral front-runner Julio Robaina the election, forcing the city to hire back 16 firefighters that were illegally fired by Robaina for political motivations and generally annoying the hell out of city officials with pointed public records requests and demands for financial transparency. So they're perfect scapegoats. Imagine this "mayor's conference room powwow" episode on As Hialeah Churns:

• Hernandez: "The *&^%$#@ firefighters are perfect! Hell, we can turn the other employees against them because they are the only ones who haven't made any &^%$#@ sacrifices." (Whispered: "*&^%$#@ celebrated a^%$#les think they're better than cops.")




• Parks: "Well, sir, actually, and as we have explained to you five or six times each, the firefighters are the only ones we haven't been able to take concessions from."




• Vega: "Yet. But maybe there is a way we might make it happen before the November elections. Maybe." (Inner voice, without his lips moving: "And we can all keep our jobs a little longer.")




• Hernandez (watching a couple lizards go at it on a tree outside the window): "I'm listening."




• Vidal: "Can I have the rest of that sandwich?" (Takes half of Vega's sandwich without waiting for a response).




• Hernandez: "Well, Alex?"




• Vega:"Sure, he can have it."




• Hernandez: "No, your idea to save our jobs."




• Vega: "It's actually Vivian's idea."




• Parks (shakes her head): "Armando told me." (Everyone looks at Vidal, gnawing at the sandwich in oblivion, and then back at Parks with a 'yeah, right' face). "Okay, Bill told me.




• City Attorney William Grodnick, who has been sitting at the end of the table unnoticed: "It's rather easy and genius, if I do say so myself. We declare impasse, no matter what, just declare impasse and then we impose on them whatever cuts we want. To make it more credible, Carlos (and the actor playing Grodnick slows his speech) you will issue a media alert a week or two earlier, next Monday in fact, denouncing the fire union's refusal to respond to our five requests for a meeting to discuss their contract. It's classic media crisis management: We force them to defend themselves. We are the alpha dog."




• Hernandez: "But we did meet. Then I told them to hold off until after the county election."




• 'Grodnick: "Who cares? Who knows that for a fact? They will still be in a defensive mode. And some people will believe it. You are the mayor. Put it out on an official media alert. It's official. The media is lazy and stupid anyway."




• Hernandez: "But the ^&%$#@ bomberos did respond, didn't they? Hey, wait, didn't we even meet with them once?"




• Grodnick: (Sigh) "That's not the point. We put it out with our spin, the TV soundbites and radio briefs will eat it up. People are sick of public employees with fat paychecks." (Under his breath) "As long as it's not public lawyers with fat six-figure paychecks." (Back to his normal voice) "They'll buy this."




• Hernandez: "We're selling something else to make up the budget gap? Great idea!"




• Parks shakes her head.




• Vega slumps his shoulders.




• Vidal freezes in motion momentarily, then pops the last bite of sandwich into his mouth.




• Grodnick: "No, Carlos. Just trust me. Issue the media alert. Then we can agree to a forensic audit, because it will never happen before we declare impasse. Then have a press conference to discuss the city's financial situation, but make sure you blame the firefighters for the bulk of the shortfall. Yeah, that should do it. First, the media alert that puts them on defensive. Second, agree to their demands for transparency, which makes you the good guy. Third, blame them for the shortfall, which makes them the target."

Okay, maybe that's too much creative license. There is no way to know, for sure, if there was a sandwich in the room. But one thing I do know: The firefighters were set up and the impasse was always the city's intention. The media alert sent 10 days earlier to complain about a lack of response smelled fishy from the onset, and Ladra questioned it's motives even then. Especially, since it was easily proven false. Fire Union President Mario Pico, taken by surprise when the media showed him the press release, was able to show emails where he had, indeed, communicated within the dates of the supposed lack of cooperation. And in my two decades of government journalism, I have never seen a city issue an official "media alert" on the labor union's alleged lack of response. Sure, it could happen. I haven't seen it. Is that intended to get a better response? Hardly. It is intended to get media coverage and spin it one way. Because it looks real. But, like the mayor agreeing at last week's council meeting to a forensic audit he never intended to allow, and like the false accusation that $5 million of the $7.8 million shortfall is due to a lack of concessions from the fire union (false because the 2010-2011 budget clearly states that the $5 million in demanded cuts was never factored into the numbers), what we have here is scenery. The backdrop, if you will, for the impasse episode. Not the grand finale, however. That comes next.

Remember at the beginning of the conference room scene, someone said action must be taken before November? That's because of the elections in which Hernandez could lose his $190,000 job. Impasse could allow the mayor to flex his muscles in front of voters by imposing pay cuts on the firefighters, like the 17 percent cuts illegally imposed on the general employees (which was ruled by PERC an unfair labor practice -- surprise, surprise -- and will end up costing the city millions it does not have). That, my dear handlers and fans, is the end game. Why would the city want to do that again? If it's going to be ruled illegal anyway and they'll have to pay more in the end? Maybe 'cause that end could come post election. It only has to look real for a few months.

But the press and the public appear to be on to the city's plans -- especially after Hernandez refused to answer questions about the city's finances at a press conference he announced Thursday for Friday so he could repeat practiced soundbites (read: campaign opportunity) about no tax increases and vague plans to fix city finances -- and have already started to ask more questions.

Let's hope they demand answers and transparency that aren't staged to simply look real.

Fight! Raul, Carlos spar at meeting

Hialeah voters got a look at how nasty the city's mayoral election may get Tuesday when former Mayor Raul Martinez -- still called Mr. Mayor by almost everybody, even Interim Mayor Carlos Hernandez -- challenged the acting boss and fellow candidate to tell him what the city's financial standing was.

The question remains unanswered. Not because Hernandez does not know, but because he wants to wait until later this week to let us know, promising figures Thursday or Friday, he said.

"We will have all those numbers in the next couple of days," Hernandez said, but Ladra is unsure if he is talking about the budget for 2011-2012 or the current state of the city, which is what has been asked over and over again. By me, by employees and by other journalists. If there's nothing wrong with the books, why can't anybody take a look? Hernandez has the huevos to say nobody's asking to. "All these people you are talking about, I don't see them," he told Martinez, even though I was sitting right there, two rows behind fire union President Mario Pico and the general employees' union President Barbara Hernandez. Close by were newspaper and television reporters who I'm sure asked for the same figures. But what Hernandez was doing was taking a shot at the front running candidate for the job he wants to keep.

"I only see people who are politically motivated," he said.

Martinez, being the savvy administrator and campaign king he is, reminded him that "the budget has nothing to do with the cash flow. Are the employees going to get paid? Because they are coming to me and they are worried."

Hernandez seemed to wince: "I'm glad they go to you now." Ouch.

"They come to me because they trust me," Martinez said, citing Hernandez's promotional "salary cut" (annual pay was $40,000 two months ago and is now $190,000) as an opportunistic campaign ploy, which is exactly what it is when you hear the acting mayor talk about him being a public servant and the people tiring of bloated salaries -- which he forgets to say he approved.

"Now you're throwing Julio Robaina under the bus," Martinez said, referring to the former mayor and defeated county mayoral candidate whose political future the council tied their trailers to.

Hernandez leaned on the dais and began to complain but I have no idea what he said because either it was incoherent or because I was still writing down the bus comment or because Isis Garcia-Martinez interrupted the two men and almost chided Martinez in a flirty mommy tone. "Yes, I know how good you are," she told him and Ladra would almost swear she saw a wink. Or did she just roll her eyes again? "In the past, when you wanted something done some way, it was done that way. You need to respect Mayor Carlos Hernandez," she told Martinez -- and she should have winked then but she said that with a straight face.

Hernandez punched back, raising the raises that Martinez gave himself as mayor from 2001 to 2005. And Martinez started to speak again, likely to raise the issue about how he lobbied for the city and worked full-time while the city now pays lobbyists and the mayor works out. Except that Garcia-Martinez, a kill joy who likes that little gavel that comes with council presidency, stopped both of them from talking over each other. "This is going to be a political match? Why don't we leave it to November," she said. Que aguafiestas.

But Martinez will not be shut up that easily. "The city council approved every single one of those raises and when I left the city, the city had $35 million in reserves. Where are the reserves now? You don't want to answer how much money you have in the bank?"

"I gave you my answer," Hernandez said, calm again, apparently referring to the tell-ya-later response.

"You're in trouble," Martinez said, head tilted, tiny sarcastic smile on his face. Then he left the podium as Hernandez said "no we're not."

"He sounds like Hugo Chavez," Martinez yelled as he went out the council chambers door.

Really, it may sound like I am but I am not making this stuff up.

So, en resumen, Hernandez's answer is that he will provide an answer later in the week. Look for it on Friday and late in the day, around 4 p.m. Because Hialeah politics is turning into a top-rated telenovela and you know they always wait to air the crazy plot twists and dramatic cliffhangers at the last minute of the last day of the week. Why? So they can promote it all week long, of course. And Hernandez -- who has a scant $1,000 in his campaign account from himself, and on June 10th (nothing else at all) -- is getting a good amount of free ink and free air time (read: campaign promotion) in the meantime so he can spin-say, over and over again, how and why he cut his salary, when he's really looking at a nearly 400% raise (which is how he spun it with TV reporters Tuesday). I am sure the employees who were forced to take an illegal 27 percent cut that was later changed to 17 percent after the city lost a PERC ruling, would love a "cut" like that instead.

But while Friday is drumbeat day, Tuesday's council meeting was still a great episode. After Martinez, Pico spoke about his lack of trust in the city's numbers. I'd be suspicious too after so many varying reports from an administration that has (1) once provided two different budgets to the union and (2) been dead wrong on budgetary justifications, such as in the case of the 16 fired firefighters -- swept out (coincidentally?) right before a union vote on concessions -- that the city had to rehire after an arbitrator said the city's financial reasoning was bogus.

"There have been errors and omissions in the past, and the concerns are still there," Pico said, adding that the fire union would pay for the audit. "All we need is that you openly participate with us. We pay. Let's both choose the auditor. I think at the end of the day, this is going to tell us how big a problem we have." Now there's a solution. But Hernandez can't see that. At first, Hernandez declined, and he took the opportunity to malign the union because they have not been able to impose cuts and because they had to rehire the firefighters and it cost the city more than $1 million between the overtime already paid and the $687,000 in backpay ordered by a binding arbitrator. (But Ladra thinks that the city is broke and has no intention of paying the firefighters for the five months they were illegally unpaid). "The firefighters union has not given up anything yet. Let's get to a table and we look at the numbers. Bring whoever you want," he said, knowing full well that is not what Pico meant by a forensic audit, where auditors sit in the city's finance office poring over numbers, looking for discrepancies you just know they will find. Again, Hernandez turned it into a campaign speech and said that Pico was playing politics. "I'm not going to spend for an audit," he ended. But he should take the wax out of his ears. Did he not hear the union say they were footing the bill?

Pico was undeterred and turned the interim mayor's argument against him. "The CAFRS [comprehensive annual financial reports] were delayed quite a bit this year and politically there were elections going on and I'm not playing politics. We are ready to absorb the costs," Pico repeated and stressed. "We just want it to be something the council participates in," he said, adding again that lingering financial questions cause concern about the requested $3.2 million in concessions. "We have heard and seen a lot of weird things. We have no confidence in the numbers right now. We don't want to make our sacrifices in the dark," Pico said, adding that firefighters are willing to take measures to increase savings -- but if the city is not squandering funds elsewhere and has a solid recovery plan. "I'm not going to be part and parcel to the political games and ineptitude of this administration," Pico said. That's right, he went there.

"I don't have a hidden agenda," Hernandez said. "I will tell the citizens of Hialeah where we are at."

The city attorney then rose to the interim mayor's defense. "Today we got a very nasty letter from Mr. Pico saying we are waiting for the mayor to sit down. We've been negotiating in excess of 27 months and the fire union has received two merit steps while other unions have sacrificed."
But those negotiations have not been made in good faith when time and again the city loses PERC rulings and arbitrations on illegal firings. And the letter, of which Ladra has a copy, was not nasty. It was, in fact, a response to a media alert issued by Hernandez announcing that five attempts to meet with the union have been ignored. Not only is that untrue, because they had a meeting attended by two reporters, in June. It's also just simply weird. Why would Hernandez issue that kind of press release unless he knew that the forensic audit was going to be suggested and he wanted to cast doubt on the firefighters intentions? It makes no sense at all. Especially since Pico can show that they met in June and said that Hernandez himself called after that meeting and asked to postpone any negotiations until after the county mayoral elections.

"Does the city attorney speak for you, sir," Pico asked the mayor, who answered something to the tune of that he did speak for him at that moment (hope he puts that on campaign literature). When the attorney continued to ask Pico to provide a date, the union president said he would do so in an email. "There has to be some very serious questions about those numbers that better be answered."

Garcia-Martinez tried being peacemaker again, saying "I think there's good faith here now." And maybe that was just the right amount of pressure, because Hernandez suddenly grasped that it would not cost the city a thing and agreed to the forensic audit. With a Catch 22, that is. "Within a time limit, sure, do it," Hernandez said. But he demanded negotiations begin next week and how likely is it that a forensic audit will be done before that?

But Ladra sure hopes we don't have to wait that long before the public can hear how much the city has in the bank, how much it owes and how much it expects to come in for this current year's cycle -- which, again, are numbers that the mayor or his gagged financial department heads should have at their fingertips but are refusing to provide for whatever reason they have. C'mon, just a ball park figure. Give or take a couple hundred thou.

My guess: It isn't good news. Because if they could just show we have this much and this coming in and it's enough to pay these expenses, it would be in the interim mayor's best interest -- and the best interest of his already struggling campaign -- to do just that.

Is Hialeah broke? Nobody's talking

Voters in Hialeah already see signs of the upcoming city election and will soon get barraged with junk mail and/or phone calls -- both robotic and humanly monotonous -- from between 10 or so and possibly up to 15 candidates. One issue is already becoming a hot topic: money, of course.

The city's financial state is somewhat of a question mark and, while more and more people have been asking, answers are elusive. Mayor Carlos Hernandez, Finance Director Vivian Parks and Budget Director Alex Vega (why two separate people? Beats me, but Ladra sees an opportunity for savings right there) have each refused to talk about the city's finances and rumors of a possible shortfall that will need to be overcome before even considering next year's budget.

In fact, the city may not be able to make payroll after two more checks, maybe three. But nobody wants to talk about this. Not publicly, anyway.

Privately, there is evidence of scrambling: The city offers 38 eligible employees -- including seven from solid waste and six from water and sewers -- a "window" (expires Aug. 15) to retire and cash out their "timebank" (earned sick and vacation time) at pre-salary cut hourly rates. Some of these are the longtime, highest paid workers the city intends to replace with part-timers or lower-level employees. Watch the flies DROP, ladies and gentlemen. It might be a good time to bail.

The mayor, also privately -- publicly he satys the union leadership will not meet with him -- threatens the same leadership with layoffs if they don't get $3.2 million in concessions. Is that how they plan to make payroll? Because it worked so well for them last time the city illegally fired firefighters and were ordered to hire them back and make them "whole" to the tune of $687,000 (which the city still had not done as of the last paycheck) and made them 115% overbudget in overtime in the fire department as of last month.

Hialeah Finance Director Vivian Parks told me last week, on Wednesday -- before the mayor shut her up -- that the city had $12 million in the bank, enough for four payrolls, or two months. (Yeah, I know: bad sign when the finance director can't multiply $3.5 million by 4 which is $2 million more than what they had last week... unless she knows something the other employees don't know). I say two paychecks because there are other bills to pay (or not pay, as it were, since we also hear that some vendors have been unpaid for months. But we can't get an answer on this, either). Parks said the city has other income, franchise fees and the like. But will that be enough? She said it would be. Ladra caught up with her at her home to ask about the shortfall and the payroll, about a supposed surplus of more than $10 million that seemed to have been paid to the city according to the monthly accounts receivables in which one month has $10.7 million and the next has $44,000. Someone would logically think that the city was paid and it's a legitimate question to ask where the money went. But Parks said she would answer specific questions the next day when she was in the office. After she did not return two calls the next day, Ladra went to her Miami Springs home again. "I cannot speak to you," she said, adding that administrators had gotten an email from the mayor directing them not to talk to any members of the press and refer all inquiries to the city clerk's office. She then swiftly slammed the door in my face. (Yeah, not the first time, lady).

Budget Director Alex Vega was reached at his office Monday morning and also said he could not answer any questions and that everything had to go through the mayor's office and a public records request. But Mayor Carlos Hernandez has not been too accessible and apparently takes his media [cross]training from former mayor and defeated county mayoral candidate Julio Robaina. I only got to talk to Hernandez for, like, 90 seconds and that was only because I did not leave a message when he did not answer his cell phone and he called me back not knowing whose missed call that was. When I introduced myself, I asked the softball about his cutting back his salary, you know, something he wants to talk about. (Should have gone for the big guns). He said he would do it immediately, not as of the November election as I had written, and that the council did not have to approve it. "I already did it," he said. And kudos to Hernandez for, again, cutting the mayor's salary that he had voted to increase (and it is still about a 400 % raise from his own salary two months ago and the salary on which his pension will be based. More on that later.). He calls this leadership. But leaders do not hang up on people as they ask the follow-up question. He said he had to go and I was trying to ask him to call me after his "meeting" or tell me when I could call him again. It would have taken the same amount of time as his "I'm sorry. I have to go. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." But, alas, I did not get the chance to tell him that either. And he has not returned one call. He may have saved my number on his phone by now so he would know when I am calling.

So, because I imagine some email or memo that says all queries must be made through the mayor's office or a public records request, and since Ladra loves public records and has found City Clerk David Concepcion to be far less evasive and much more polite and professional, we will file one today. And we will share it here with the public, too. Perhaps these questions can be answered at Tuesday's public council meeting.

• If the city collected the nearly $11 million in accounts receivables, where did those funds go or get transferred to? Please provide specific department and line items.


• Or, alternatively, did those $11 million never really exist and were they put on the books purely for cosmetic reasons?


• How much does the city have in the bank(s) right now? This includes all accounts, reserve and capital improvement or storm water if separate.


• How much is the city expecting in revenue for the total month of July, of August and of September?


• Which private companies donated, and how much did they give to the city in order fore the public parks to be reopened in the mornings? Also, when and how was this funding initiative and avenue developed and by whom?


• If there is at least $11 or $12 million in the bank now, why has the city still not "made whole," as ruled by an independent arbitrator in April, the 16 firefighters wrongly fired last December and illegally unpaid for five months?


• What are the accounts payables for last month and for July, August and September?


• What vendors have not been paid in the last 60 days and have accounts payables outstandings (please provide amounts as well)?

These are questions that should easily be answered and since there is some advance notice here, I suggest city staff be prepared to give answers at Tuesday's council meeting.

In fact, the first ones who should be asking are the council members-- especially those up for re-election -- and the candidates who want to replace them.

Hialeah catches recall fever

Hialeah may be in a money mess in the wake of former mayor and county mayoral candidate Julio Robaina's mad dash to County Hall. There are some rumors of fiscal mismanagement that have left the city with a budget shortfall. Robaina certainly seemed to be less focused on his job and more on the campaign in recent months and may have made costly mistakes (the firing of those firefighters that had to be rehired and paid retroactively comes to mind) that would be discovered after he was long gone.

Yes, most of the buzz might be coming from people who support former commissioner Carlos Gimenez in the June 28 runoff, which is becoming a closer call every day. Or people who are just against Robaina, who seems to be less confident these days, figuratively and literally sweating it more, (more on that later). They are fueled, however, by a financial report that says the city started the fiscal year in September with a $19 million surplus some believe has been squandered -- or stolen. And that has led to some talk about recalling council members who were either complicit in the cash drain or turned a blind eye to help an ally.

"It seems JULIO ROBAINA has left Hialeah in a state of "FINANCIAL EMERGENCY" (BANKRUPTCY)," wrote Eric Johnson, vice president of the firefighters union (his caps, not mine), on his facebook page, right after the union's first getting-to-know-you meeting with interim Mayor Carlos Hernandez.

"If this is true, and the council was lied to, so be it," Johnson wrote on his page, which has quickly become one of the No-To-Robaina go-to sites on the social network. "If the Hialeah Council knew the city was being diminished for Julio's political gain then I will be pushing for a recall of every Council seat in this city."

Johnson, who lives in the Redland, is not an accountant, though he is pretty good at and seems to have an akin to what Ladra likes to call government math. He is more of a rabid anti-Robaina Energizer Bunny, one the candidate's biggest and loudest critics -- and one of several people that told Ladra they are being followed (more on that later) -- who is publicly obsessed with removing the smoke and mirrors and abuses of power and process he sees rampant in this campaign. While Ladra knows he's got a vested interest, his zest for public records, his quickness to connect those records to people and money and government, and his facility with flowcharts makes her tail wag. But, like I said, he is not an accountant. All he does is pore over the numbers for hours and days with other firefighters who are not accountants to come up with more questions than answers. Really good questions, though. And not the expected "Why would the city, with a $19 million surplus, want to cut employee pay by 30 percent and demand $4 million in concessions from firefighters?"

No, not just that. More general questions like, "How come a city that began its fiscal year in September with a surplus around $19 million has to close police stations at 5 p.m.?" Like, "If there is around $19 million in surplus funds, why are park hours cut by more than half in some cases and swimming programs in a city that was once a beacon for swimmers offered at only four or five of the 30 pools?" Questions like, "Where is that money?"

While interim Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez said that only a little more than $8 million is accessible right now (the rest are monies due but not in hand), former mayor and current Hialeah mayoral candidate Raul Martinez went to the last council meeting and said he was concerned about the financial state of the city. He mentioned that the comprehensive audit of finances made available to the council last week should have been released earlier and that council members should, in fact, get quarterly reports to review. He pointed at each of the council members and said they would be held responsible for any shortfall. But he may not have been campaigning so much against Robaina as for himself.

And let's be fair, gentlemen. The city's financial people are not too good at adding and subtracting and that kind of thing, according to a forensic auditor and an arbitrator that have looked over the budgets for the fire union in their cases against the city (both won by the union). Miami Beach Commissioner Deede Weithorn, a forensic auditor hired by the fire union in their PERC unfair labor practices victory (which the city apparently has the funds to appeal), said she was surprised at how many mistakes she found in the the budget and their supporting data. "We found some errors on the financial picture painted by the city," Weithorn told Ladra a few weeks ago. "They were claiming a fiscal crisis, and upon further analysis, it wasn't. And there were some glaring errors." The arbitrator who looked over the financial reasons for firing 17 veteran firefighters last December in the days leading to a vote on a new contract said that the city's justification over economic reasons were basically bogus. "From the limited available numbers provided in this record, it can be reasonably concluded that hardly any savings, if at all, results from this decision to terminate the grievants," wrote Robert Hoffman, out of Tampa.

Leaders at the fire union, which has been battling with the administration for years and is actively supporting Gimenez, said they asked Hernandez last week if he would ask a forensic auditor to look at the numbers. Hernandez didn't say no, but indicated that he was confident in the current analysis, said union President Mario Pico. Or maybe he could be embarrassed (and recalled) by what they find. Pico told Ladra the board might ask Weithorn to take another look. Ladra thinks it's a great idea. In fact, maybe Weithorn can recruit other community leaders who are financial experts/forensic accountants to take a group look at Hialeah's books for all of us before June 28.

The firefighters -- who started going out Saturday on their own time to talk to absentee voters about fraud and how to prevent their vote from being stolen (more on that later) -- can't be the only heroes among us. Ladra calls on the financial experts of the 305 to stand up and give the financial wizards of Hialeah a hand.

Then maybe we can find out who knew about what and when and see if there is anyone on that dais who truly deserves a recall effort.

Robaina gets scorcher of a ruling

Ouch! Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina -- now running for the county mayor's post -- might have felt a little burn Friday when the city was ordered to rehire 16 veteran firefighters he summarily dismissed right before a union vote expected to reject $4.4 million in concessions. And right before Christmas.

I bet there's smoke coming out of his ears.

"Since you are receiving a pension of 75% of your final average compensation, I recognize that you are in such better position to sustain your livelihood than an employee who would be terminated without any pension income,” Robaina wrote to them in the December termination letters quoted in the ruling. (At least he has a taste for sarcasm.).

The senior firefighters (read: big salaries) were all in the DROP plan, which means they postponed retirement for up to five years, and some within the union suggest they were targeted to sway the vote. They filed grievances on the grounds that economic reasons are not cause for termination and the firings were actually layoffs in disguise without cause or notice as required.

Fort Myers arbitrator Robert Hoffman agreed. “The city failed to have just cause, cause and good cause,” which is a nice way of saying they had absolutely no cause at all, Hoffman said, adding that the firefighters “shall be immediately reinstated to their former positions and made whole.” That means paid retroactively to December. Add to that whatever it cost the city to defend this action.

All this to be a bully?

There is a right way to negotiate and a gangster’s way to do it. Ladra is not necessarily happy about the paid five-month vacations for these dedicated and hardworking first responders, no matter how wonderful they are. Even though it does provide the voting public with a nice warning at the right time. But since they all contend that they were “willing to make some concessions in the first place, including retirement” for some DROP staff, and it was “Robaina who acted in bad faith ,” they can compromise now and come out of it true Hialeah heroes. And make him look like the heavy again. Which is really easy, actually.

In the ruling, even the arbitrator – who probably knows nothing about Robaina’s alleged freelance loan sharking, gaming industry appeal, zest for no-bid vendors at the city and real estate development ties – made some observations worth pointing out to voters.

1) The action was taken without a formal cost analysis, which is “especially significant here, given that this is not the usual cost-cutting measure, whereby the most expensive employees are cut back, laid off or terminated to save the total cost of their salaries and benefits.”

2) The city would have to hire replacements for the high-ranking officers – which include three district chiefs, three captains and eight lieutenants – and they could not be entry level, so savings were not immediately evidently significant, Hoffman said (read: It was payback from the mayor).

3) The city failed to terminate other employees, including senior non-drop fire officials that would have meant a greater savings to the city because it would be a 24 percent decrease in pension costs.

4) There are “questions about the legitimacy of the reasons to terminate” the firefighters because of the timing right before the union vote.

He stopped short of saying that Robaina fired the firefighters so they would not be able to vote against the contract ratification. But that’s what Ladra is growling about. Is this the kind of leadership we want at the county?

I hope the "dropped 16" as they have been called in the firehouse start back at work Monday.