When fire department officials and police brass in Coral Gables first raised concerns about the new public safety building the city had designed without their input, they were told it was too late to make any significant changes.
But there have been some minor interior adjustments made just recently after the forced resignation of embattled Assistant City Manager Frank Fernandez, who was also the public safety director and who helped design the original building with office space for himself and a staff of at least two people.
Read related: Coral Gables’ Frank Fernandez is out — but still getting paid 
Fernandez resigned last month, effective in April, and is not going to be immediately replaced. So what happens to that space? It has been reworked, said City Manager Peter Iglesias.
Since Iglesias said he does not plan to put public safety back in the hands of an assistant city manager — and, in fact, already put emergency management back in the rightful hands of the fire department — that space for a wannabe police chief is no longer needed (not that it ever was).
“It’s not a big deal,” Iglesias told Ladra about the “minor tweaks” and said that there were no exterior changes made to the footprint of the 5-story, 118,000-square-foot complex going up at 2151 Salzedo Street, about six blocks north of the current and decrepit police and fire department headquarters.
Also, he said, the last minute changes were done with input from the fire department and police department brass.
“They’re interior changes and we worked with everyone. I can tell you I worked with everyone,” Iglesias said.
Read related: New proposed Coral Gables police and fire HQ raises concerns, ‘propaganda’
That italics is his because even the city manager admits that the fire department and police department leaders were not brought into the loop during the initial design phase, which led to concerns about the allocation of space to firefighter housing and equipment wells — and maybe for staff that wasn’t needed.
The $52.2 million complex was designed with the future in mind and is expected to meet the city’s needs for the next 75 years, Iglesias told Ladra. It will replace the old and crumbling police and fire department headquarters at 2801 Salzedo Street (pictured here).
Site work began about a month ago some piles have been installed, the manager said, adding that the target completion is in September, 2020, which seems very optimistic. But the official ground breaking with all the ladeeda city hullaballo is at 11 a.m. Friday.
Expect it to be well attended by the candidates in April’s election.
 

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UPDATED: The city has put a time certain of 11 a.m. on this discussion — not 5 p.m., as requested so more people could attend. Think that’s not by design?  
Coral Gables administrators are falling all over themselves now to ensure their residents that the new proposed public safety building the city has been discussing for several years will meet the needs of both the police and fire department — despite concerns from both unions that they were not consulted in the planning and that the design will cause both space and operational problems.
The city manager will bring commissioners up to speed at Tuesday’s meeting, but a number of concerned residents say that they will also attend to see if concerns raised weeks ago by the police and fire unions, who say they were left out of the planning process and that could result in problems longterm.
Last May, city commissioners approved a land swap with Codina Development, giving them the 2801 Salzedo Street site where the leaking, dilapidated police and fire headquarters building sits now in exchange for property on Minorca adjacent to the city-owned parking Lot 6 just a couple blocks north. The new $34-million facility will also include a parking garage for at least 160 vehicles — and that’s one of the concerns some people have: Why is a public parking garage as part of a police and fire facility a smart idea in a post 911 world?
One other issue is size. While the city says that the building is bigger — 116,000 square feet compared to 88,000 currently — the way the space is appropriated could result in smaller spaces for everyone. There’s a large space, perhaps a whole floor, devoted to a training center, for example. Like the city is going to go into the law enforcement training business? The biggest impact is to the fire department, which can have up to 15 firefighter paramedics sleeping at the station at one time and will have about a third of the space. There’s talk that all the trucks won’t fit in the bays. Even so, the exit and entry will cause traffic problems on Minorca, said Gables Professional Firefighters Association President Mike Chickillo, a driver engineer.
There will be delays in response times, he says.
Read related story: Coral Gables residents get mail questioning their safety
Chickillo also said that while the design firm has done dozens of other public safety buildings before, he only found one fire station. And he feels like his department is an afterthought. “It’s like they are building a public safety building and putting a fire station in it,” he told Ladra Friday. One example is the lack of any outdoor bays, which could cause health problems for the employees unless there is a state-of-the-art exhaust system.
At a time when the city is considering annexations of Little Gables and High Pines, Chickillo and Coral Gables Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 President John Baublitz wondered if the new building has been planned for growth.
Both union presidents said Friday that, while there were still several concerns, the administation had reached out and met with them since a Miami Herald story by Linda Robertson exposed the lack of communication. “They’re assuring us there’s enough room for everybody,” Baublitz told Ladra, sounding way less than convinced.
Said Chickillo: “They are being more inclusive, but it would have been better if they had included us from Day One.”
Gables spokeswoman Maria Higgins-Fallon told Ladra Friday that the issues had been resolved. “Some of it was misinformation,” she said, adding that there have been multiple public meetings about the building. “City leaders have met with a number of people from the community and both the police and fire department,” Higgins-Fallon said. “Some of the issues were clarified.”
She also said that the city had published information on its website to keep folks up to date and had even paid for a full page ad in Sunday’s neighbors section (photographed here) to assure residents that “public safety is our top priority” and that the building would be perfect for the city’s needs.
That’s because, by now, residents are involved. The Riviera Neighbors and Ponce Homeowners associations have encouraged members to go to the meeting Tuesday. North Gables resident activist Maria Cruz — the resident that a police major spied on during a commission meeting — started a petition on change.org asking Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli and the commissioners to ask the administration some questions at Tuesday’s meeting and to make it time certain at 5 p.m. so more residents can attend.
At least 500 people had signed the pettion as of early Monday morning (today).
“We believe it is essential for those who will be using the building to be part of the process. Their success and well being ultimately will translate in saving lives,” the petition states before asking a series of questions that reveal issues go far deeper than the building and could be tied to the resentment people have that Assistant City Manager and wannabe police chief Frank Fernandez is, as director of public safety, overseeing the police and fire chiefs.
“Why was everything kept so secret that even those severely impacted were kept from seeing the plans?”
Read related story: Coral Gables cover-up on police ‘spy’ protects managers
Fernandez, at a Crime Watch committee meeting earlier this month, said the petition was “propaganda” akin to “Fidel Castro’s Cuba.” Ladra was not there but spoke to three people who were and who told the story the same way: He had allowed Baublitz to answer questions — you know, to make it seem like all is harmonious in their world. But when someone asked about the petition, Fernandez — who we all know is the one that, ironically, put the spy on Cruz — interrupted and said he would be the one to answer that question, calling it propaganda.
Cruz, who is Cuban, is offended. “I take great issue with that because propaganda is what they are doing,” she said.
“People are just asking questions,” said one of the residents who is concerned and was at the meeting. “That comment was completely out of place.”
Chickillo, who was not at the Crime Watch meeting, said he also heard about the comment. “If anyone is doing Cuba-style propaganda, it’s them.”
And it does seem that the city is going out of its way to sell the proposed building as is. They even took out that full page Neighbors ad Sunday.
The one that curiously leaves out the fact that the building will be discussed at Tuesday’s meeting at City Hall.
 

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Coral Gables Commissioners sided with the city manager instead of the police chief on Tuesday when they supported a “separation agreement” that allows a police major who spied on a resident at a public meeting last year to retire from the department with her full pension in November rather than be fired outright.

And, in the process, they swept something under the rug that could have implicated the city manager’s office in more widespread spying on activist residents, selected employees and maybe even commissioners.

Because Maj. Theresa Molina –caught taking cellphone pictures of a resident’s text messages during a city commission meeting in September — wasn’t taking those pictures for herself. Let there be no mistake about that. Yet the investigation and Tuesday’s discussion did not go in the direction that it should have — which is up and into the city manager’s office.

That is why Molina has been, basically, protected from any real punishent this whole time, rewarded with the maximum pension benefits and, literally, paid — to keep her mouth shut. To keep the inquiry from moving up.

Read related story: Coral Gables cover up on police ‘spy’ protects managers

Molina has been suspended with pay since, earning her six figure salary the whole time she is, supposedly, sitting at home catching up on the Food Network shows (more than $90,000 on suspension). The decision by the commission Tuesday to support the city manager’s recommendation means Molina gets to stay on through November to reach the minimum threshhold necessary to apply the rule of 70 that allows her to retire with $500 more a month.

So, basically, rather than discipline her for spying on Maria Cruz (photographed left), who, by the way, was texting commissioners Vince Lago and Frank Quesada so she could be recognized and speak about the police shortages, City Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark has rewarded Molina. Make no mistake about that. Molina was rewarded for her work, being a good spy — which is precisely what she was doing on September 28 last year and what should have been, what should still be, investigated.

It wasn’t a mistake. Molina didn’t suspect a Sunshine Law violation. It was a public meeting. Maria Cruz is not an elected official. She’s an active old lady resident with a legitimiate gripe about police shortages. Which is precisely why Molina was spying on her. Part of the investigation that did not get discussed Tuesday was the testimony from Maj. Raul Pedroso and Molina herself, which seem to contradict everything Swanson-Rivenbark said on the dais.

Pedroso, for example, indicates that there had been prior conversations between Molina, himself and Assistant City Manager Frank Fernandez, the director of public safety, about suspicious conversations and texting taking place in secret between some commissioners and some residents or employees of the police department. Apparently, from Pedroso’s testimony to the Internal Affairs investigator, these three sore losers have been talking about this “conspiracy” since Police Chief Ed Hudak was named interim chief instead of one of them.

“Maj. Molina, she was witness [to] what, what we have suspected,” Pedroso said in his sworn statement. “Which that these are the types of communications that are happening, that don’t appear to be the way that’s intended to in an open government.”

So, basically, they suspected that Maria Cruz was communicating with commissioners and Molina was getting proof for them.

Read related story: Gables Police major suspended for spying on resident

Ladra finds it curious that the mayor and certain commissioners had the time to bring up the sins of policemen past — which Swanson wisely listed on her report so she could change the narrative (it is a classic crisis management tactic and it worked somewhat) and justify her slap on Molina’s wrist — but they didn’t talk about the testimony that seems to indicate that what happened September 28 was not an isolated incident of rudeness but, rather, officially sanctioned government spying.

Molina didn’t take one photograph. She took six. Maybe as many as eight, because two were erased. Too blurry, she said in her sworn statement. She took the photographs from behind Maria Cruz’s shoulder, without her knowledge, in a sneaky and undercover fashion. She admits to going into investigative mode. She had to zoom in on them to see what was being said. She said she could read the messages were for Lago and she knew it was about the police shortages and about Maria Cruz wanting to speak but said she thought the resident was circumventing the rules. Maria Cruz was actually alerted by another witness in the commission chambers who thought the major was acting suspiciously. Molina, in her testimony, said she was just gathering evidence to report something she believed was a violation of the Sunshine Law.

But Molina didn’t then go and tell the police chief that a Sunshine Law had been violated. She didn’t take it to the city attorney who was right there. No, instead, Molina immediately showed the photos to Fernandez. Did he tell her to erase them because she had violated someone’s rights? No, he told her to show them to the city manager. And Swanson-Rivenbark says she told the major right away that what she had done was wrong.  “When she spoke to me as we went to the ribbon cutting for the NSA vehicles… I immediately said to her ‘It’s her right to text the commissioners.’”

And yet, Molina says in her own testimony that she didn’t realize she had done anything wrong until City Attorney Craig Leen told her once the commission meeting resumed after the NSA photo opp that residents could text commissioners any time they wanted. Wait, didn’t Cathy tell her just five minutes earlier or not? Probably not.

And Molina didn’t know it was wrong to photograph the communication of someone who is not under investigation? Are you kidding me? It’s unlikely the city would accept that as a legitimate excuse from a 23 veteran who once was considered for police chief — if it weren’t also convenient. Because this allows the city manager and her right hand man to move past this ugly little chapter without anyone having to know how involved they were in the spying.

Read related story: City uses legal muscle to gag Coral Gables activist

And also so they can keep it up. In recent days, Ladra has heard of other possible incidents in which Fernandez and his cronies have been reportedly reading other people’s emails and eavesdropping on conversations. He allegedly asked staff in Information Technology if they can find out who got blind copied on a critical email sent by Maria Cruz, who said Tuesday that she felt like she was in Castro’s Cuba again.

“Fidel Castro took over Cuba when I was 12 years old. Twelve. And I saw many injustices. Ms. Molina’s actions toward me took me back 60 years,” Cruz told commissioners when she begged them to terminate the major.

“Please, please send a clear message to anyone that in Coral Gables, no police offcer is above the law.”

The problem in this situation, however, is that those above the police officer are complicit.

Why would Coral Gables administrators go against their own police chief’s recommendation to terminate a major who spied on a resident during a commission meeting — taking a picture of the woman’s text messages and then arguing with her — and try to sweep the whole thing under the rug and let the officer retire instead?

The only reason is that they’re complicit.

That’s why Coral Gables Police Maj. Theresa Molina, who took a cellphone picture or pictures of a resident as she texted a commissioner last September, has been suspended with pay since, collecting more than $80,000 sitting at home doing nothing while the city has conducted, basically, a sham of an internal affairs investigation.

That’s why the city’s cover up, er, I mean investigation has been so, um, lackluster, failing to interview Commissioner Vince Lago, who was the elected that Maria Cruz was texting, other witnesses who were there or even City Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark or Assistant City Manager Frank Fernandez, who Molina immediately reported her actions to and for whom we all suspect Molina was spying in the first place.

That’s why Swanson-Rivenbark’s recommendation to the city commissioners is for Molina to be allowed to retire –not today, not tomorrow, not retroactive to September, but in November so as to maximize her pension benefits. She doesn’t have to actually come in and work because she can use accrued sick and vacation time.

Are you kidding me?

So this is why Swanson-Rivenbark — who did not return several calls and emails while on vacation last week — has been dragging her feet in the first place, presenting a recommendation that is 88 pages, with attachments, on a Thursday before Memorial Day weekend. And only because Lago put a discussion item on the agenda about it. Otherwise, Ladra suspects we’d still be waiting for the city manager’s word. See? By waiting, they get closer to the November retirement date that allows Molina to use the rule of 70, which means she can get her pension right away — and at 75% of the average of her highest paid three years (which by the way, includes this year). But if she were fired today, she would have to wait until she was 62 and only collect 60 percent.

So, basically, Molina is rewarded for what she did. They might as well have given her a medal.

Read related story: Gables Police major suspended for spying on resident

Let’s quickly recap what she did for those who forgot or were too busy with the crazy presidential race to pay attention last year:

During a September commission meeting, Molina — a 23-year veteran who was acting chief for a short stint in 2014 — took cellphone photos of text messages that resident Maria Cruz, in the audience with concerns about police shortages, was sending to Commissioner Lago. She was asking him to recognize her and let her speak. After Cruz spoke about the 30-some police vacancies and her issue with the city’s fix — a program where civilian employees and security guards patrol North Gables in fancy golf carts as “eyes and ears” of real police officers — she told Molina to stop watching her.

“Stop texting the commissioners,” Molina actually had the audacity to retort.

Cruz felt like she was back in Castro’s Cuba. Lago was outraged that any resident would be discouraged from texting him. City Attorney Craig Leen even chimed in, telling Cruz she had every right to text anyone she wanted. For more details about what happened that day, go to the related story.

Molina was suspended with pay while IA investigated. Chief Ed Hudak recommended May 1 that she be fired. It took this long because the major who was suspended with pay and was supposed to be home during that time was too busy to be interviewed. Seriously. The final word is Swanson’s, according to the city charter, although really the final word is the city commission’s. Many people expected her to go against Hudak’s recommendation since the city manager’s office has done nothing but undermine the chief since Frank Fernandez was brought onboard (go ahead and send Ladra a cease and desist letter). Hudak did not return several calls from Ladra either.

Read related story: City uses legal muscle to gag Coral Gables activist

Molina’s attorneys have claimed varying defenses. Early on, even before she was interviewed and before the chief’s recommendation, they said he would retaliate against her for five internal affairs investigations she opened on him during the tenure of the three former chiefs. Later, they switched gears and said that this 23-year veteran who was once the top cop for a short while and also headed internal affairs for a bit didn’t know what she was doing was wrong.

Which brings us back to what she was she doing. Or, more specifically, for whom?

Because, c’mon, you don’t think Molina was taking a picture of the resident’s text messages for her own jollies, do you? For her photo gallery? What? She needed new wallpaper? No, of course not. She took the picture for her bosses. For some reason. It was a police-related item she wanted to talk about. She immediately went to show Fernandez, the director of public safety, who instructed her to show Swanson-Rivenbark the photo. Even her attorneys admit this in their first letter.

Is this why neither the city manager nor her right hand man were interviewed for the investigation? Is this why Frank Fernandez provided a written memo, not even a sworn statement? Since when do internal affairs investigators allow a witness to say how he will provide testimony or be interviewed? Since it’s the investigator’s boss, the man he reports to who is saying how he’ll provide testimony? 

Because Ladra believes the city were the ones spying — Molina is just a peon — and that’s why the investigation was so shabby and that’s why Swanson-Rivenbark doesn’t want to fire her. That’s why she’s helping her retire with the maximum pension benefits.

Read related story: Gables city attorney: There can only be one police chief

Lago isn’t going to let it go without some heated reprimands. He is not happy with the investigation or the city manager’s memo, which he said was “embarassing” because it relied on irrelevent justifications by comparing this incident to past sins that Swanson said were worse — trolling for prostitutes, beating your pregnant wife — and on Molina’s 23 years of service, which have not been spotless. 

“We need to break the cycle of the poor examples of the past, which are no excuse,” Lago said. “This behavior is wrong, it is unacceptable, and we need to set a positive example and ensure that the residents are represented. We are here to serve them and we will not compromise on the substance of any wrong, inappropriate behavior.”

More than one source has said that another outside law enforcement agency — the FBI? The SAO? — is looking into the matter. And that is good because this one is really laughable. There are still so many unanswered questions, the main one being what, or who, was Molina spying for? Without an independent investigation, how do we know that the city managers were not involved? And how do we know that this is the only time a city employee has spied on residents — or, dare I say, commissioners — for top administrators? That should have been what Swanson-Rivenbark did from the start if she truly wanted us to believe that it would be objective and transparent.

That would certainly satisfy Maria Cruz, the resident who was spied on who is outraged with this ending.

“This investigation is a farce,” Cruz, in a screenshot here from WPLG-Local 10, told Ladra Friday. “From the beginning I objected to Frank Fernandez having anything to do with the investigation, both he and Cathy. Shouldn’t part of that investigation be why did she [Molina] go to him? Shouldn’t part of the investigation be why did he tell her to go to Cathy Swanson? What did they tell her?

“Their fingerprints are all over this whole thing,” she added. 

Here’s a suggestion for Gables commissioners. Make a deal with Molina. Accept her retirement terms. But only if she spills the beans on what the others knew and when. 

Oh, and maybe make her return the $80,000 she’s gotten paid to be on vacation.

Controversial use of security guards under fire

The election is over, but Coral Gables residents still got a scary, campaign-style flyer in their mailboxes this week that questions the city’s decision to hire security guards to fill the gap of police shortages in the City Beautiful.

“Public safety alert! Your families safety is at stake,” is says on one side, over a photo of three heavilly-armed SWAT-like police officers in front of the Village of Merrick Park, where a gunman killed two people and then himself last month.

“With a rise in crime, we can’t afford any mistakes,” it says, adding that $610,000 “of our tax dollars are being wasted on security guards. Instead of hiring certified police officers to fill the highest vacancy level that our police force has ever seen.”

It then tells residents to call the mayor and commissioners “and tell them to protect our families,” listing their numbers at City Hall.

Read related story: City uses legal muscle to gag Coral Gables activist 

Coral Gables has 22 or 23 official vacancies, but because of officers who are on military duty or on injured leave or special details, the city is really short more than 30 patrol officers. And this drain has been going on for years. Many people in the city and in the department blame Assistant City Manager Frank Fernandez, the director of public safety, who acts como si fuera el police chief and who changed the qualifications for hiring at the city, making it much harder for candidates. Nobody who wants to be a Coral Gables Police officer must be 21, have a bachelor’s degree and can have no more than five traffic tickets in a lifetime, for example. No more than three in the past five years.

The city has repeatedly defended itself by saying that the Gables is holding out for a better caliber officer. But that’s what they also said last year around this time, when there were 17 vacancies and 11 new hires on the horizon. A year later there are at least five more vacancies.

They’ve got to change tactics before they’re down to zero.

The mailers that began to arrive Thursday were paid for by a political action committee called Citizens for a Safe Coral Gables, which is curiously not listed in state or city records. It’s address is a suite (P.O. Box?) across from City Hall.

Oh, and Ladra is pretty sure the three police officers in the picture are city of Miami or county cops who also responded to the Village of Merrick Park scene.

Beause there aren’t enough police officers in Coral Gables.