After three tough and tumble years at the City Beautiful, Coral Gables Assistant City Manager Frank Fernandez is finally on his way out — four months from now.
Fernandez will keep getting his $188,000 annual salary and keep reaping his benefits through April, getting paid to basically sit at home and look for a new job. It amounts to a 20-week severance.
Just in time for the election. Ladra smells a campaign issue.
A “cooperation and transition agreement” signed Monday says he is no longer in charge of anything or anyone but must remain available by phone or email through April 19 should City Manager Peter Iglesias need him for something or other.
Read related: Frank Fernandez and Peter Iglesias stay in Coral Gables — for now
It ends sooner if Fernandez (right) finds a job before that. But c’mon, who wouldn’t make their start date April 20 under these circumstances?
Another good question: What mutual “best interest” is there on this good, green Earth for the city — and this means you, dear taxpayers — to pay Frank Fernandez six figures to stay home and look for a new job?
Iglesias would not return several calls and an email asking to explain why he would ever need Fernandez, who has been a thorn in the side of the police and fire supervisors since he was hired in June of 2015. Iglesias won’t talk to me at all unless, apparently, it is through city spokeswoman Maria Rosa Higgins Fallon.
But Ladra knows that he took police and fire away from Fernandez as soon as he was made interim manager in September. He had both the police chief and fire chief report to him since and he returned the emergency management department to the fire chief’s purview.
Former City Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark — who at least had the guts to speak for herself — brought Fernandez with her from Hollywood and made him public safety director, causing an already strained relationship between herself and the police chief to become toxic and eventually force her resignation in September. Some insiders say it was the Fernandez factor and her stalwart refusal to let him go that led to Swanson-Rivenbark’s abrupt separation from the city. She took a bullet for him, in other words. Sources also say that Fernandez begged to keep his position and that this was the compromise.
Read related: Coral Gables City Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark quits job in battle with chief
But if Iglesias can’t do the job without having Fernandez at home at his beck and call, then commissioners need to reconsider having him in that position permanently.
Because it does not take a talented genius to realize that it is not at all in the mutual “best interest” for Fernandez to keep accruing sick time and personal and vacation time and keep getting benefits through these next four months.
Ladra asked how the exit packages compare, and because he hasn’t worked for the city five years yet, Fernandez is not vested, Higgins Fallon said. Still, he can accrue more annual and sick leave — some top officials get up to 15 or 20 hours a month — and the city will continue to contribute to his 401K plan, according to the agreement.
Read related: Coral Gables cover up on police ‘spy’ protects managers
Ladra was not able to immediately get those exact figures to compare his payout in April to a payout this week, but there is no reason to believe it wouldn’t be significantly higher.
And still he felt the need to stiff one of his underlings with the $174 bill for the going away party he threw for himself and 14 of his closest friends at the police station Friday.
Fernandez will have to turn over his city vehicle, his city-issued weapon(s), his taser gun and any other city-owned equipment by 5 p.m. this Friday.
Except his ipad. He gets to keep the city-issued ipad and a city email through April 19.
What is it that Frank Fernandez has over the city that the city can’t seem to get over him?

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It’s been two weeks since Cathy Swanson Rivenbark, officially and reluctantly resigned as city manager in Coral Gables in the light of major commission resistance to her battle with the police chief and insistence that her No. 2 keep his status as the highest ranking cop in the city.
In an ironic twist, Assistant City Manager Frank Fernandez — who many believe is the cause of all the anguish with his sworn status and public safety domain — seems to be sticking around. Fernandez is still a top city administrator, though he is no longer overseeing public safety. The police and fire chiefs report directly to interim City Manager Peter Iglesias, who has made it very clear that Chief Ed Hudak is the top sworn officer in the city.
Everything is happening quietly and quickly, so as to not get any more negative attention that the city leaders hate so much. But, although it is not on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting, some of the details of the new administrative structure — and hints about the future — may come up anyway. An ENews blast sent Sept. 19 said “The City Commission will discuss the process for hiring a new City Manager at the next Commission Meeting scheduled for September 25.”
Read related: Coral Gables Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark quits job in battle with chief
Ladra’s sources said they expect the mayor to bring it up in his comments. And word is Iglesias will be made acting manager for the foreseeable future, perhaps forever.
Neither Mayor Raul Valdes Fauli nor Commissioner Mike Mena, who have re-election bids six months from now, want to have the whole city manager mess in the public eye with a national search at campaign time. Las malas lenguas say they want to put it off ’til after the April election because they don’t want it to become a campaign issue.
Ladra says too late!
But further than that, there are rampant rumors that Iglesias already has the job permanently. Even while residents and business leaders demand a true national search that is not a total joke like the last one.
Commissioner Vince Lago told Ladra in a text message that he was in no hurry to make another change.
“I am interested in giving Peter a few months to acclimate and show his ability,” Lago wrote. “The issues with Frank are still being ironed out. They are reviewing his job responsibilities and seeing how he can continue to serve in a limited capacity in regards to public safety.”
Ladra heard Fernandez doesn’t even have an office at the police station anymore. Nobody saw him there Monday.
But is he still going to wear a uniform? Is he still gonna carry a gun?
Read related: Coral Gables leaders to discuss police structure; or will it be more theater?
And there is still the issue of human resources, which he also oversaw. If he can still hire and fire police personnel and force Hudak to work with people that he would have passed on, it’s still a problem. That’s something that maybe should be discussed. Is the new Internal Affairs major who was hired despite Hudak wanting someone else going to stay on as well?
And if Fernandez is not overseeing public safety, which — as he and Swanson-Rivenbark liked to stress — is his wheelhouse, then what the hell is he going to be doing? Historic preservation? Parks and Rec?
Iglesias, photographed here taking his seat on the first day of his new job Sept. 11, was hired away from the city of Miami in 2016 by Swanson-Rivenbark to oversee Public Works, Development Services, Parking, Historical Resources and Cultural Arts, Economic Development, and Community Recreation. Some think he’s part of a Bermuda triangle with Fernandez and Cathy but he’s made it clear to commissioners he’s his own man.
Sources say he’s a very capable and straightforward guy and, according to the city, he still makes $179,263.34 a year. No raise. Not yet anyway.
But he’s an engineer, a scientist, a geek of sorts. He’s not a generalist or a deal maker. And some are gonna say he’s not typical city manager material.
Maybe that’s a good thing.
According to the separation agreement signed with the city, Swanson gets a severance of 20 weeks at $3,942 a week for $78,840 and maybe another week if she can sell her accrued sick time. She also gets a 401K valued at $196,458 after the city contributed $51,250 a year for almost four years. But she must give up her car, her medical insurance and her life insurance.
It seems like the bronze version of Pat Salerno‘s golden parachute.
Read related: Pat Salerno upped his retirement benefit before he left
Swanson-Rivenbark wasn’t at the Sept. 11 meeting where her resignation was accepted unanimously. She wanted to be. Sources say an 11th hour effort to list her laurels and make a case for herself was thwarted. So Swanson-Rivenbark put it on paper, in a three page resignation letter with a five page addendum of her proclaimed achievements. To no avail.
Like Ladra said, the decision was unanimous. Even Commissioner Pat Keon, her most stalwart defender, had given up by then. Mounting missteps in the manager’s personal vendetta battle against the popular police chief had already disillusioned the other four at varying degrees. The key was Commissioner Mena, who woke up from a coma just in time to maybe ward off a legit challenge to his seat next year, which is why he wants, shhh… be quiet.
Who? What?
Exactly.
Move along now. Nothing has happened here.

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DEVELOPING STORY: After a series of major missteps, a protracted and seemingly personal battle with the popular police and several threats, both public and private, to quit her job, Coral Gables City Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark resigned Monday after almost four years at the helm of the City Beautiful.
Police Chief Ed Hudak wins.
The big question on everyone’s lips is: Does Cathy take Assistant City Manager Frank Fernandez with her?
Probably. You can’t be the city manager and the top sworn police officer in the city, which Fernandez is — the crux of a lot of the city’s problems. Las malas lenguas say that Assistant City Manager Peter Iglesias — who may or may not have resigned previously — will be named interim until a replacement is found.
The resignation comes one day before the next commission meeting and two weeks after the last one, in which Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli basically called Swanson Rivenbark a liar.
The discussion item was Commissioner Mike Mena‘s, who was reporting on the ongoing “talks between the city manager and the police chief,” which is better described as mandatory crisis counseling with commissioners. It’s come up in several commission meetings and was likely to come up again on Tuesday.
But Commissioner Vince Lago told Ladra Monday that he would not let it become a drawn out swan song. “It is time to move forward and concentrate on Coral Gables businesses and its residents,” Lago said. “The separation agreement hasn’t been signed. But we expect to name an interim city manager at tomorrow’s meeting.”
As Ladra writes this on Monday afternoon, the ink is not even dry on Swanson-Rivenbark’s resignation and exit package, which may not be finalized until Monday evening. More details to come as story develops.
Swanson came back to Coral Gables in 2015 after Pat Salerno resigned abruptly, rather than face questioning about lies he told the commission. She immediately started to make changes, hiring her  people from Hollywood, including Fernandez, who she put in charge of public safety.
 
 

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Coral Gables City Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark is not totally in the clear, yet.
Swanson has dodged a series of professional bullets as her administration has waged an unpopular war with the police chief, lied to commissioners, got caught spying on at least one citizen activist and more. But if Swanson thought she was going to be able to move on, she was kidding herself. The can is open. The worms are multiplying.
Now, Commissioner Vince Lago wants to talk about the way Swanson tried to manipulate the investigation on her handpicked lacky, Frank Fernandez, who was subsequently hired as assistant city manager and public safety director. Lago sent the mayor and other commissioners a memo Friday, urging discussion on an email from Swanson to an outside investigative agency that Ladra exposed on Political Cortadito last month.
Read related: Coral Gables needs outside agency to investigate ‘anonymous’ complaint
In the 2015 email that causes Lago concern, Swanson-Rivernbark basically says her mantra. “Look away, look away. Nothing to see here.” But she says it in instructions to an independent investigator paid by the city to do background investigations on people who are being hired for an assistant manager position.  Ladra would think this independent background investigation would become particularly important and necessary if the person being considered was the city manager’s lacky back in Hollywood, where she was accused of misspending $1 million and where an investigation by the Inspector General of Broward found she intentionally and repeatedly lied to and manipulated that city commission and to have violated several city rules.
Lago’s full memo sent at 4 p.m. Friday and copied to Swanson and City Attorney Miriam Ramos lays out what happened:
“I have recently been made aware of some information that heavily concerns me. In May 2015, City Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark initiated the hiring process to employ the Assistant City Manager/Director of Public Safety, Frank Fernandez. Standard protocol requires all individuals seeking employment with the City of Coral Gables to undergo a background investigation.
In an email dated May 2, 2015 (enclosed) the City Manager requested the International Association of Chiefs of Police’s background investigator contracted by the City to: “neither seek nor include any information for Broward PBA or Jeff Marano individually as it will hold no credibility nor value in my decision making”. The Assistant Director of Training and Professional Services for the International Association of Chiefs of Police responded to our then Human Resource Director, Elsa Jaramillo with the following statement: “We will not comply with Ms. Swanson-Rivenbark’s request in any way. For the background investigation to have merit, we will not restrict the investigation in any way or limit access to sources”.
As government officials it is our duty and obligation to be transparent and accountable. Interfering in hiring protocols such as background investigations can jeopardize our city’s image and in a worst case scenario, allow an individual with an unpleasant background to work in our community. We are thankful and fortunate this is not the case in this instance.
Regardless of the character of the person or entity the City Manager was requesting to exclude as part of the investigation, the process was interfered with nonetheless. We must never tolerate this kind of behavior especially when our City is known to uphold the highest standards when hiring police officers and personnel. According to the International City/County Manager Association’s (ICMA) Code of Ethics, City Managers demonstrate by word and action the highest standards of ethical conduct and integrity in all public, professional, and personal relationships in order to merit the trust and respect of the elected and appointed officials, employees, and the public. To interfere in hiring processes breaches the public trust and makes citizens doubt our City’s governing practices which city officials should always remain cautious about.
If you would like to discuss this incident in more detail, I invite you to do so at the upcoming Commission meeting on June 12, 2018.
Let’s go over part of that, shall we?
“Interfering in hiring protocols such as background investigations can jeopardize our city’s image and in a worst case scenario, allow an individual with an unpleasant background to work in our community. We are thankful and fortunate this is not the case in this instance,” Lago wrote.
But how does he know that. How can we really trust the final report? Did it come from the city manager’s office?
Ladra reached out to Jeff Marano, who was credible enough to be elected as president of the Broward PBA by the men and women of that police force, and asked him if he was ever called by the IACP investigator regarding Frank Fernandez. Guess what: He wasn’t.
“They were never going to call me. That investigator is Frank’s buddy,” Marano said this weekend.
Frank Fernandez
What would he have wanted commissioners to know? “He’s looking for the chief’s job. He got run out of the city of Miami and run out of the city of Hollywood, where everybody called him ‘Mama’s Boy,’” Marano said, and we don’t have to guess too hard who “mama” is.
“He’s anti-cop. He’s hated in Miami. He is not well liked in Hollywood. He wants to wear Ed Hudak‘s uniform. He will not stop until he gets rid of Ed Hudak. He is not a good guy,” Marano said, adding that Fernandez was suspected in a bunch of anonymous complaints when he was deputy city manager in Hollywood, including the one that got the Broward city’s chief fired.
Hmmmmm. What a coincidence.
Again, from Lago’s memo: “To interfere in hiring processes breaches the public trust and makes citizens doubt our City’s governing practices.”
My point exactly.
Read related: Coral Gables manager’s petty reprimand on chief backfires on her
And what do you mean by “we must never tolerate this kind of behavior,” Vince? That Swanson-Rivenbark should be fired? Because Ladra really can’t see any other way through this. That public trust you talk about is already broken. This latest breach is not the first crack. And Ladra is just not sure how Swanson-Rivenbark is ever going to be able to regain that.
Or even if she’ll try.
She hasn’t been remorseful. She has never apologized. She only rescinded the vicious and vendetta reprimand against the chief “for the good of the city” not because she knew she was wrong. She didn’t even reach out to the women police officers whose pool party was turned into a political hatchet job against their will and who have been vilified and bullied online. She dragged her feet and only allowed the investigation of those anonymous insults recently and reluctantly.
And how can we ever trust any investigation that she signs off on again? She tried to mess with the investigation into Fernandez. She stretched the needless and retaliatory investigation into Hudak so she could smear him in an unwarranted reprimand that she later had to take back. And she forced the police chief to accept a head of Internal Affairs that was handpicked by the lackey she handpicked and didn’t want investigated.
¿Que que? ¿Que arroz con mango es este?
What more do we need Swanson-Rivenbark to do before commissioners can agree that the trust here is irrevocably broken? Gone forever? Dead?
Does she need to go ahead and without commission approval, suspended a study they instructed her to do of development on the U.S. 1 corridor, incurring a $50,000 penalty for interrupting it? Oh, wait. She already did that.
Read related: Coral Gables cover-up on police ‘spy’ protects city managers
Does she need to suspend a suspected spy with pay so that the spy can get her full pension and keep her secrets? Oh, wait. She did that, too.
Does she need to waste city resources, time and credibility on her personal vendetta against the police chief, causing morale problems and concerns among residents? Check that off the list also.
Seems to me that June 12 can’t come soon enough and that every commissioner (except you Pat Keon… we know Cathy owns you for whatever reason) should put this discussion item on the agenda. Nobody elected you to let the city manager do whatever she wants. When you have a city manager that is asking for another cheek in an investigation — something she seemingly got — you don’t know what else she’s done or is capable of doing.
Swanson’s days seem inevitably numbered. It’s just a matter of how long she can draw it out.
Ladra asked Marano if he would grace us with his presence June 12. He said he’d put it on his calendar. Maybe he can finally tell commissioners what it was that Swanson-Rivenbark wanted so desperately to keep from them.

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The showdown that some people thought was gonna happen two weeks ago in Coral Gables City Hall over the city manager’s handling of the police chief may come Tuesday when commissioners finally talk about the strange structure that has an assistant city manager act as the de facto head of the police department.
Well, wait a minute. Nevermind. It might not happen at all.
Seems that the original item to discuss the administrative structure — which has been fueling if not directly responsible for serious issues from vacancies to morale — has been changed at the last minute. Now the mayor wants to discuss “constructive talks underway between the city Manager’s Office and Police Chief.”
Oh, really? You don’t say.
Maybe Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli is satisfied that the Fraternal Order of Police is now going to choose the investigative agency or investigator who looks into the “anonymous complaint” (read: trash job) against Chief Ed Hudak for dropping by, after being invited, to a pool party thrown for female officers. But this consolation prize is not enough.
The Coral Gables FOP is only getting this opportunity to find a truly independent investigator — and they’re going to suggest three options they are okay with — only after it was revealed right here on Political Cortadito that City Manager Cathy Swanson Rivenbark had tried to manipulate an investigation by the same agency once before. Emails obtained by Ladra show that Swanson tried to whitewash a background investigation that was done before the hiring of Assistant City Manager Frank Fernandez, who s also the “director of public safety.” She asked the investigator to ignore and not seek any information from the Broward PBA because it would shed some negative light on Fernandez, who she apparently had already decided she was going to hire no matter what. What it means is that she wanted the information that she already knew existed off the reports that commissioners would get.
Wait a minute. Again? Isn’t this the kind of thing that did former City Manager Pat Salerno in? And how can anyone know when the city manager is telling the truth? Ladra would suggest you can’t. Swanson cannot be trusted. This is not the only reason why.
She already orchestrated a massive cover up when she put Maj. Teresa Molina on paid leave until she retired after the police officer was caught spying on citizens and electeds during a commission meeting, taking cellphone pics of text messages over Maria Cruz‘s shoulder. Everybody knows that Molina was doing this for someone, not for her own health and pleasure, but there was never an investigation into that and, instead, the major was given what amounts to a paid vacation for her silence.
She then paid a $50,000 penalty fee to suspend a study in progress that the city commission had requested on the impact of recent and proposed development on the U.S.1 corridor, She did this on her own without seeking the commission’s approval.
She’s hired a number of cronies, some with six figure salaries for positions that didn’t exist before she got to the City Beautiful (more on that later).
And Ladra will bet that she knows more than she lets on about the “anonymous complaint,” which was really a planted precursor meant to trigger an unnecessary investigation meant to provide the city manager with fodder to fire the chief. When that didn’t pan out, after her independent inquiry cleared Hudak of any wrongdoing, the city manager stretched and misconstrued the investigator’s words to issue an obviously gratuitous and retaliatory reprimand — more than 10 years in the making — which she was forced to rescind two weeks later.
If not then why go to such extents to keep the investigation into the “anonymous complaint” from happening?
Swanson is a good actress and she is also a good producer. At the last meeting, a citizen who spoke seemingly spontaneously and of his own accord about not needing an independent investigation into the “anonymous complaint” — and, indeed, trying to discourage the city from pursuing it — seems to have done so at her request.
Emails obtained by Cruz show that attorney Terence Connor — who also, by the way, gave Commissioner Pat Keon $100 in her last election — may have gotten a call from someone in the city administration inviting him to come to the meeting.
The attorney had previously written an email to Keon in November saying that it would be inappropriate to end the investigation that was started by the “anonymous complaint” midstream. That email was apparently forwarded to Swanson, who then forwarded it to Raquel Elejabarrieta with one line from her. “You should drop him a note.” The email was sent at 10:18 p.m. the night of April 24 — after residents showed up at City Hall to support Hudak and, in many cases, trash her.
Hmmm. You should drop him a note.
Valdes-Fauli and other commissioners — and Ladra mean Vince Lago, because we know Mike Mena is a useless empty suit who won’t do anything — should ask Swanson what did she mean by that?
They should also instruct her to go back to the administrative structure that existed before she came to the city, where the police chief is the police chief and reports to the city manager and police officers don’t feel like they have two different bosses. Hudak needs to be able to be chief and control the department and be listed as the head of the agency at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, especially Internal Affairs, where Fernandez hired someone against the chief’s will.
And Fernandez should go with Swanson — they seem to be a package deal — and the city should look for a new city manager they can trust.
And maybe they need to add the Terence Connor emails to the scope of the investigation of the “anonymous complaint.” Ladra would seek his phone records.

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Nothing to see here, people. Move along now.
This is what Coral Gabes City Manager Cathy Swanson Rivenbark was saying in her head at the last commission meeting when she rescinded her reprimand of the veteran, beloved police chief who was cleared of any wrongdoing when he stopped by an all female officer pool party last summer.
Most likely to thwart the justified criticism for a documented spanking that was misguided and unnecessary at best, intentionally toxic at worst, Swanson announced, just as the meeting began, that she had rescinded the reprimand issued to Police Chief Ed Hudak two weeks earlier.
I take it back. There. No harm done.
Except harm has been done. Not only has the reprimand already been distributed widely to the press — even the New York Post had a story — but it has become fodder for cocktail parties and a potential professional albatross for Hudak and, more importantly, the 14 female officers at that party, whose photo has been widely distributed and whose careers could be tied to this news story for the rest of their lives. (Ladra smells lawsuits.)
Swanson wouldn’t know that. Because she hasn’t talked to any of the officers. Maybe she is too embarrassed because she knows deep down inside that she caused this. At best she allowed a ludicrous complaint that should have been investigated from day 1 to smear a city employee with whom she has a difficult relationship. At worst she made it up herself.
Suuuuure, it was an “anonymous complaint” that came to City Hall, which by the way has been swimming in “anonymous commplaints” since Swanson came back to the city in 2014.
Evidence shows, however, that either Swanson or Fernandez knew about the photo and the party days before the “anonymous complaint” arrived. That’s because someone at a City Hall office accessed the LEOAffairs law enforcement blog site with posts about the cameo appearance at the party three days before they allegedly got the “anonymous complaint.” The dated print out was part of the materials delivered to the investigator. The time stamp of the printout shows someone at City Hall accessed LEOAffairs four hours after the comments about the party were posted.
Read related: Coral Gables: Manager’s petty reprimand on chief backfires on her
It’s almost like someone (read Assistant City Manager Frank Fernandez) was flagged to it. Unless he posted it himself. No, wait, that’s not fair; he could have tripped over it while searching something else on the gossipy forum or posting something else on the site.
Either way, this “anonymous complaint” must be investigated so that one of those scenarios can be ruled out. You would think that an investigation was started immediately. Especially since none of the 14 women corroborated the original complaint — meaning that someone else made up the fake outrage — and that some of the officers demanded an investigation. But it’s not. At least it wasn’t part of the Internal Affairs investigation that was limited, for whatever reason, to the Instagram post and LEOAffairs forum posts about the party.
Ladra was told that the “anonymous complaint” is now being looked into. Like an afterthought? By who?
This investigation should be handled by an outside investigator or, better yet, an outside agency like the FDLE or the FBI. That is the only way we will know for sure that it is a thorough investigation that went wherever it had to go, including City Hall if need be. The new head of IA is Bobby Navarro, who was hired by Fernandez after Hudak indicated he wanted someone else. This is not who should be heading up this investigation that could, possibly, implicate Fernandez.
Read related: Coral Gables cover-up on police ‘spy’ protects managers
Especially since Swanson has interfered with an investigation before. Or, rather, tried to manipulate it to get the results she wants.
In May of 2015, six months after she was hired to replace former manager Pat Salerno, Swanson wrote to the International Association of Chiefs of Police asking them to completely ignore any information from the Broward PBA or its onetime president Jeff Marano when they were vetting her yes boy Fernandez for his job as public safety director — even though the documented friction between Fernandez and the top police administration in Hollywood, where Swanson also got into a bit of trouble, certainly seems relevant.
In an email, obtained by Ladra, with the subject line “Gables City Manager instructing no interview with Broward PBA,” she wrote:
“I am the city manager for the City of Coral Gables who has contracted with IACP to conduct a background check for Frank G. Fernandez. I have the ultimate decision making authority on hiring decisions. As the client and the sole decision making authority for hiring, I am specifically instructing you and IACP to neither seek nor include any information from Broward PBA or Jeff Marano individually as it will hold no credibility nor value in my decision making. I have included Sun Sentinel Editorial Board’s recent editorial on the significant and Herculean accomplishments of Chief Fernandez despite the disruptive and unethical tactics used by Jeff Marano to thwart and derail positive changes in Hollywood.”
A copy of the email was also sent to Elsa Jaramillo-Velez, who was the Gables’ HR director back then. Later that same day, Kim Kohlhepp of IACP wrote back to Elsa:
“I just received a copy of the email below from our investigator. I also understand that Ms. Swanson-Rivenbark called our investigator directly.
First, in all matters concerning the conduct of this investigation, please contact me, not our investigator.
Second, we will not comply with Ms. Swanson-Rivenbark’s request in any way. For the background investigation to have merit, we will not restrict the investigation in any way or limit access to sources.
If this is not acceptable, please let me know immediately and we will terminate the investigation ad bill you for work conducted up to this point.”
Two days later, Jaramillo-Velez told them to go ahead with the investigation anyway. But one has to wonder how many other times Swanson-Rivenbark has done this. It kind of kills her credibility, right?
And if she is bold enough to tell an outside investigator where not to go looking, why wouldn’t she do this with someone who works directly for her? Or directly for her through Fernandez?
I am specifically instructing you to neither seek nor include any information that leads you to the City Manager’s office.
Please tell me that the electeds on the Coral Gables commission — at least three of them (and yes, Ladra is talking to you Mike Mena) — can hear the little voice inside Cathy’s head as clearly as the rest of us can. And please let them call for an outside investigation to finally clear everything up.
There may be nothing to see here. But maybe there is. And Gables residents deserve a real good look before moving along.

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