Carmen Olazabal wants you to forget that she’s an unethical opportunist who put her career above the very safety and lives of Coral Gables residents.
As Olazabal, a former interim city manager, runs for a city commission seat, she wants you to forget that she doctored documents and focus on her gender and her degrees from MIT and Harvard University and her relationship with Jim and Carmen Cason and the fact that once upon a time the city declared it Carmen Olazabal Day.
That must mean something, right? Wrong. We all know those giveaway proclamations aren’t worth the paper they are printed on.
But that’s all she’s got. And of course Olazabal wants to rewrite history. We don’t blame her. Because the real version isn’t very flattering. This is a woman who, as assistant city manager, helped cover up a landscaping mistake that caused a jump in car accidents along Ponce de Leon Boulevard in 2014. The woman who wrote the lie — or, rather, cut and paste the lie — that got former City Manager Pat Salerno fired.
This is why Commissioner Vince Lago was surprised that Olazabal — who was forced to leave the city’s employ — would run for office. He told her when she asked to meet with him that he couldn’t support her.
“She was too willing to risk the public safety of our citizens to make Mr. Salerno happy and keep her job,” Lago said, adding that public safety was the commission’s No. 1 responsibility.
If readers will remember this is sort of when the whole split between the administration and Police Chief Ed Hudak started. Because Hudak told the truth and then-manager Salerno lied and obstructed the truth for whatever reason, we still don’t know to this day. Arrogance, maybe?
Read related: Gables manager Pat Salerno felled by lie to commissioner
There were Bismarck palm trees on Ponce de Leon from Salamanca to Alcazar avenues that were interfering with southbound drivers’ line of sight. Hudak produced a multi-page report with graphs and figures that indicated a 170% increase in car accidents at that corner. The commission got a one-page report with no such finding, no graphs, after a cut and paste job by Olazabal, at Salerno’s instructions.
“She showed a lack of ethics and a lack of judgement. A person who is willing to mislead the commission should not be making the laws if she is breaking the laws,” Lago said, adding that Olazabal confessed her role to him and former City Attorney Craig Leen after the Salerno resigned over the doctored document.
It was an exceptionally bad choice for her to help orchestrate the lie because Olazabal knew she’d have whistleblower protection had she told the truth, he added.
Lago, who is arguably the only real elected leader on the Gables dais, is supporting Cabrera. He, like many people, said he has no idea who this Jorge Fors guy is or where he came from and knows that Cabrera’s experience will give the Gables some historic perspective and balance.
“He’s an individual who understands the character of the city and who has a deep interest in making our city the best in Miami-Dade,” Lago said. “He believes in pushing forward on development that allows our city to progress but also keep its hometown feel.”
But, then again, Lago would support anyone against Olazabal. Because her missteps do not end with the Ponce trees lie.
There was the time she tried to give herself a 10 percent raise. Oh, she will say that she didn’t, but she did. And it was a consent item, in fact. Thank goodness that Lago pulled the resolution from the agenda in May of 2014 and discussed it. Consent items hardly get discussed and are approved en masse. Olazabal tried to fly under the radar and give herself a 10 percent raise.
By the way, she did get that raise. And then she tried to keep it after a permanent manager was hired.
Read related: Interim Coral Gables manager got a 20% raise — but ‘for now’
The resolution, which was likely written by Olazabal, said she deserved the raise because “during her four month tenure as Interim City Manager, Carmen Olazabal has worked effectively on complex projects such as: Tree Succession plan, Bike Master Plan, RFP preparation for Garage 1 and 4, Teamster Union Contract, FOP Union Contract, Trolley Building Settlement and Miracle Mile Streetscape Project.”
Wait. Is she taking credit for these projects that existed before and after her? Wasn’t she just doing her job? For which she was already being paid 4% more (a parting gift from Salerno)?
And was she even really doing her job? Or was someone else? Because she also had municipal manager extraordinaire Merrett Stierheim holding her hand. He was hired as a back-up consultant since the city commission had no confidence Olazabal could do it alone. How much of her job did Stierheim do? Well, e was approved for $50,000 worth of work. So at $150 an hour, that’s more than 333 hours, which is more than eight weeks if he was working full time.
No wonder he’s backing her.
And that’s a lot of help. Can anyone imagine if City Manager Peter Iglesias needed hand holding?
But even the almighty Stierheim couldn’t steer Olazabal away from every bad decision.
Read related: Merrett Stierheim — Coral Gables’ extra city manager for $50K
Like that time Olazabal named Maj. Theresa Molina acting chief, to everyone’s surprise, the eve before the commission was to name an interim chief. Molina, who was later caught spying on a resident and commissioners and was fired for it, was under investigation by the State Attorney’s Office at the time. Again, shows a lack of judgement if this is who Olazabal thought was better than Ed Hudak to run the department.
In fact, she also thought retired Maj. Scott Massington was better than Hudak and, after telling commissioners she would let them decide at a special meeting after the former chief resigned, she flew Massington back to Miami. Word on the street was that Salerno was pushing for Massington and Olazabal was still doing his bidding.
Of course, today as part of her history rewrite, she supports Hudak and congratulates his leadership on her website, saying he has kept crime low.
Because if there is one thing voters need to remember about Olazabal it’s she will do or say anything to keep her job — or to get one. The city commission position pays $31,585. But Ladra bets Olazabal would move for a 10% raise.

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Records indicate that Coral Gables commission candidate and attorney Jorge L. Fors has committed Homestead exemption fraud for several years.
Fors owns a condo in Little Havana, unit 205 at 1039 SW 5th Street, where he has paid taxes, claiming a Homestead exemption since at least 2010, the furthest that the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser’s office posts records online. That includes 2013, 2015 and 2017, three years in which Fors voted in the Coral Gables elections, according to records from the Miami-Dade Elections Department. He also voted with his Coral Gables address for every primary and general election since 2012.
How could he live in both places at once? He can’t. He didn’t, he admits.
“I lived there a few times,” Fors said about the 2/2 condo he bought in 2007 for $114,000. “It’s a property I originally bought with the idea of making an investment. I lived there right before law school and right after law school.”
He hasn’t lived there since at least 2011 — and he never registered to vote there — but Fors kept the exemption, which gave him a $25,000 break on property taxes every year. Even though, he admitted, he rented it out a few times.
“I was going to move back in,” Fors said. “That area has gotten nice lately, but it was a bad neighborhood when I bought it. I intended to live there. You are allowed to have a Homestead if you intend to reside at that place.”
Um, no, says Miami-Dade Property Appraiser Pedro Garcia.
“That’s illegal,” Garcia told Political Cortadito.
“He has to live in that property. If he moves to another place, he cannot keep the Homestead exemption there. I don’t care if he moved to his father’s house, he is not supposed to have a Homestead exemption,” Garcia said, adding that it doesn’t matter whether the apartment sits empty or is rented out.
“If he doesn’t live there, he doesn’t deserve a Homestead and he is committing Homestead fraud,” Garcia said, adding that his office would investigate, looking at the voting records himself.
“I always vote where I live,” Fors told Ladra.
Which means he either knew he was getting away with fraud or he is an attorney and former president of the Coral Gables Bar Association who doesn’t know the law.
Fors’ voter registration history with the Miami-Dade Elections Department shows he first registered to vote in 2003 at the age of 20 at his parents house on Country Club Prado. In 2005, he registered in another county. That’s probably because he was at the University of Florida in Gainesville getting his Bachelor’s degree in political science.
When he returned in 2008, he registered at Country Club Prado again, until last April, when he registered at his new home on Segovia Street.
Read related: Coral Gables candidate’s campaign yard sign, uninvited trespasser or mistake?
Records also show Fors — who faces former Commissioner Ralph Cabrera and onetime Interim City Manager Carmen Olazabal in the April election for the seat vacated by Commissioner Frank Quesada — bought his home on Segovia Avenue in mid March of 2018, which would be just a couple of weeks over the required year of residency needed in Coral Gables to run.
He also lived for a little more than a year in an apartment at 322 Madeira Ave., right after he was married. Neighbors told Ladra the couple often fought. The unit is owned by his parents and Fors’ mother sits on the homeowner board, the neighbors said, adding that the building was in “shambles.”
Fors was never registered to vote there either.
And his mother apparently knows better than to claim a Homestead exemption on the unit.
 
 

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Maria Cruz is a Coral Gables activist who is not afraid to speak.
She does so quite often at commission meetings, letting the mayor, commissioners and city administrators know exactly what she thinks. She has no hair on her tongue. She asks for more public records than Ladra and keeps her neighbors and friends informed on key issues.
Cruz is such a pain in the neck to her critics that the former administration had a police major spy on her at a commission meeting, possibly taking photographs of text messages that the taxpaying citizen was sending to the electeds, her employees, with whom she had a right to communicate freely.
Read related: Coral Gables spying major keeps her job, maxes pension
That spy? Former Coral Gables Police Major Theresa Molina, who had once been tapped for police chief by then interim city manager Carmen Olazabal. now a commission candidate and the only woman running in the April 9 election so far (qualifying ends Friday).
So when Olazabal’s social media accounts started buzzing with female power messages, Cruz took notice and decided it was time to speak again: In an email she sent to the 7,575 Gables residents — addresses she got from the city’s newsletter email list, a public record — she reminds voters about Olazabal’s questionable judgement, at best.
I’m writing to you today on my concerns about the current race for city commissioner. As a 43-year resident of the City Beautiful, I find myself obligated to share my experiences with one of the candidates, Carmen Olazabal, whom I believe is not the clear choice for our commission.
While Ms. Olazabal was interim city manager, she went against our elected officials and appointed an interim police chief, Major Theresa Molina (Miami Herald, September 12, 2014), without review. Major Molina violated my rights by spying on me, taking photographs, unbeknownst to me, at a city commission meeting. As a result of this abuse of authority, Major Molina was suspended and subsequently forced to retire.
As a woman, mother of three daughters, and grandmother of two young girls, I feel strongly about the importance of women representing us in all levels of government. However, this belief should not lead us to elect candidates with poor judgement and questionable track records.
Coral Gables, my home since 1976, deserves better.
Your neighbor,
Maria
Cruz was already upset that Olazabal was running and when the former manager pulled the female card and attached #WomenWhoRun to all her social media posts, it bothered her enough to pen the note.
Read related: In Coral Gables money race, unchallenged incumbent is leading
The email — which Cruz said she paid for out of her own pocket — also comes with five hyperlinks to stories about Molina and Olazabal’s time in the Gables. Ladra is kinda proud that three of them are Political Cortadito stories. Two others are stories that were published in the Miami Herald.
“My letter is not a campaign letter. My letter was to make sure people remembered,” Cruz told Ladra Tuesday, a few hours after the email went out. “Coral Gables voters have to vote for the best candidate, not the one who happens to be a woman.”
How much do you wanna bet it becomes a campaign letter?
Either Ralph Cabrera, who Cruz supports but didn’t name in the letter, or Jorge L. Fors, Jr. — the two other candidates in the race for this seat, vacated by Commissioner Frank Quesada — are going to send it in a mailer to more voters.

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Coral Gables resident and activist George Volsky got home one day last week and found a surprise in his front yard: A political sign for the campaign of Jorge L. Fors, Jr., who is running for commission.
A note on the front door explained.
“Thank you for allowing my campaign to place a sign on your lawn and for your continued support,” it starts. And then: “If the sign was placed by mistake, please feel free to remove it. Best, Jorge Fors.”
If the sign was “placed by mistake?”
Seems more like a campaign strategy. Instead of a “quita y pon” committee removing signs and putting up his, Fors has a “mejor pedir perdon que pedir permiso” committee who would rather “as forgiveness than ask permission.”
Volsky said he left his house at noon Thursday and came back at 3 p.m.
“This has never happened in Coral Gables. I have lived here 56 years and it never happened to me,” said Volsky. “I feel disrespected. I don’t feel this is proper.”
Volsky is used to having people ask to put signs at his high-traffic Alhambra Circle home. The only one he has ever put up is one for the current Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli, because he felt that the campaign had become ethnic.
Read related: Newby leads cash race in Coral Gables three-way contest for open seat
He hasn’t decided who he’ll support in this open commission race, a three way so far to fill Commissioner Frank Quesada‘s empty suit, er, seat: Fors is running against former City Commissioner Ralph Cabrera and former interim city manager Carmen Olazabal. But now it’s between the two other candidates. Fors is out. “I’m not going to support him,” Volksy said.
That’s exactly what he was afraid of, said Fors who called the episode an error, not a campaign tactic — which actually could work in some other communities where people might not care as much. He blamed an overzealous volunteer in North Gables who mixed up a thank you list — to send postcards to voters who opened their doors to canvassers — with a yard sign list.
“I know exactly who he [Volsky] is and I wouldn’t put a sign on his house without his permission,” Fors said. “I don’t have the courage to do that in Coral Gables. I would be afraid of losing a vote.”
And the note?
“Because I know some people who said they would put up a sign may have forgotten,” said Fors, who went back to Alhambra Circle and removed the other signs placed without permission as soon as he learned of the snafu.
All except one, because the homeowner decided to keep it.

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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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Laughable traffic study should be thrown out

Anti-development activists against recent upzoning in Coral Gables lost in last month’s elections when every single one of their candidates got beat in their respective races, including former Commissioner Jeannett Slesnick who lost the mayoral bid to former Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli by 187 votes.

Now, they may lose again on Tuesday, when commissioners are set to take the final vote on a controversial development near the historic Coral Gables Elementary School that wants variances to more than double the allowed density.

It will be the first real test for the new commission on the issue that defined the election. 

Read related story: Mike Mena (read: developers) win Gables race, as expected

The 33 Alhambra project will raze a number of two-story apartment buildings along Navarre and Minorca avenues, Galian Street and Alhambra Circle and replace them with a mixed-use complex with retail and residential rental units in 10 floors. It got approved 4-1 at first reading in December. Want to guess who was the sole dissenter? The answer is Slesnick, who isn’t there anymore. That might be why the lawyer for the developer asked to table the second hearing last January, after more than 60 people showed up to speak against it. Attorney Zeke Guilford asked for time to see if the developer could make some compromises to address community concerns, but it’s obvious they were just stalling until after the election. It’s not a coincidence it’s coming up at the second meeting since. Because the compromise they’ve come back with is hardly really a compromise.

Maybe it’s even a bait and switch. Maybe the plan was always for 146 units, which is still more than twice the 56 allowed under current zoning guidelines. By giving the inflated 184 originally in the plans, this may seem like a relief to some. But not to all. 

Residents have signed a petition saying it’s still too big. They are expected to show up. And that’s why the city is having this item at 5 p.m. time certain instead of during the day, to facilitate the working class families that live around there who are upset about the disingenuous “compromise” and who want to balk publicly at the traffic study that says the project will only bring 58 new car trips during the morning. Laughable.

Read related story: In Coral Gables election, only a sweep will change the course

Ladra suspects that this new commission — what? With a land use attorney on it and all — is poised to approve this project, even thought it will dwarf the two story historic elementary school and cast a shadow as well as a traffic nightmare on that whole neighborhood and even though they will hear from dozens of residents who will beg them to reconsider.

But let’s give them the benefit of the doubt. They did the right thing by moving this discussion to 5 p.m. Perhaps they will do the right thing and force the developer to downsize even further. Certainly twice the number of units normallly allowed should still be a win, no? Instead of trying to maximize their profits with efficiencies and one bedrooms, maybe they could increase the number of two-bedroom units in what is a desireable neighborhood for young families and bring the size down? 

At the very least Coral Gables Commissioners should demand a valid traffic study that might give them more gravitas when they approve this, as well as grounds for some impact fees to pay for more police officers, since there’s such a shortage.

Because taking this traffic study at face value will show us that developers really did win in last month’s elections.