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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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The Miami Lakes council caved Tuesday to the strong arm tactics of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and ignored the recommendation of a citizen selection committee, hiring Gimenez pal Ed Pidermann as the new town manager instead.
The committee, which met more than a dozen times over nine months to review 60 applicants, had recommended former North Miami Beach city manager Ana Garcia, principally because she has the experience they wanted and which, many believe, the charter explicitly calls for (though anyone can interpret it differently). Vice Mayor Nelson Rodriguez nominated her, but then withdrew the nomination when it became clear he didn’t have the votes — only Councilwoman Marilyn Ruano backed Garcia — and he wanted the new manager to start with unanimous support from the dais.
“I can count,” Rodriguez said. “Our manager, whoever that is, needs to have the full support of the council. and although it breaks my heart, because I know we are losing a superstar with super experience, I have no doubt that Mr. Pidermann will do a good job.”
Mayor Manny Cid said his vote was with Pidermann because the veteran firefighter is a resident of Miami Lakes and the other candidates hinted they were not eager to sell their longtime homes and move into the Northwest Dade town.
Read related: Carlos Gimenez pushes pal in Miami Lakes manager selection
But that can’t really be it, can it? Could Cid have completely alienated his citizens’ committee and shit on a painstaking transparent and public process just because of residency? “It’s a deal breaker,” he kept saying, me thinks protesting too much.
The process was intentionally and painstakingly public and transparent precisely to avoid political shenanigans or any perception thereof. To completely abandon it in light of the county mayor’s pressure seems to have also abandoned any attempt to keep the appointment politically clean.
Some observers think that maybe Cid made a deal with Gimenez and the residency issue gave him political cover. The city does need another fire truck. Is it possible that was dangled like a carrot? Or will Gimenez support Cid’s future bid for higher office? Gimenez holds the purse strings and the controls on so much of the planning around the American Dream megamall that will affect Miami Lakes residents probably more than anybody else, which could also be why it’s important to him to have someone close (read: controllable) at the top in the town.
The vote came after several firefighters — including the vice mayor’s brother — and the new Deputy Miami-Dade Mayor Maurice Kemp, another former Miami Fire Chief (photo, right), spoke on behalf of Pidermann. One firefighter suggested Nelson Rodriguez, who is a firefighter in Coral Gables, was betraying his own by backing Garcia.
Several residents spoke on behalf of preserving the process, including Maria Kramer, a longtime activist who was on the citizen review committee.
“Your fiduciary responsibility is to us, not the firefighters,” Kramer told the council. “Our number one recommendation on every vote we took was Ana Garcia (photo, right). No one had the kind of experience that she did. I remember Frank Bocanegra when we made that fatal mistake of going with the police chief because he had the knowledge. And it almost destroyed Miami Lakes.”
She is referring to the former police major turned town manager who has been accused of abusing his office in cahoots with former Mayor Michael Pizzi.
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“Hiring a Miami Lakes resident has its pros and cons. You’re going to have a conflict of interest: ‘Am I going to do what’s right for my neighborhood or what’s right for everyone,’” Kramer stated.
“You have to choose who is most qualified. Mr. Pidermann is charming. he is committed to this town. But he has not even been an assistant manager. We need someone who can hit the ground running.
“Another Frank Bocanegra would be a disaster for this town.”
The surprise upset is a small political victory for new Councilman Josh Dieguez (photo, left), a Gimenez lackey who silently slid into the seat of former councilman Frank Mingo and had tried to stop the process to include more candidates (maybe Gimenez had a plan B).
“It’s about rounding out the list,” Dieguez said, because he wanted a shortlist of seven candidates, for whatever reason.
Then he started crying about some “gossip website” that called him a Gimenez minion — oh, wait, was he talking about little ol’ Ladra?
“It was just to give an option. It was not about distorting the will of the charter to even have this committee in the first place,” he said, although it is exactly what he was doing: Unhappy with the outcome of the process, he wanted to tweak it.
He eventually withdrew his motion, knowing it would have no support. But he spent several minutes showing his thin skin, talking about a public record being “leaked” — obviously he wanted to keep the Gimenez email secret — and how Ladra “attacked” him. Someone please ask the young councilman to explain how it is an attack to state the truth. And please explain that at no time did Ladra suggest that he “manipulated the mayor into writing this letter,” which is, indeed, absurd.
Dieguez is the mayor’s minion not the other way around. And that is why, after his big song and dance, Little Minion Dieguez nominated Pidermann.
Reading from an admitted script, Dieguez recalled a “stellar career in public service. Nt just that he was a firefighter. It’s that he has a service heart. He is someone who has managed a budget of over 100 million and hundreds of employees. M. pidermann was not my initial choice. additionally he comes highly recommended by members of this community.”
Dieguez said he met with Pidermann again just shortly before the council meeting Tuesday. “He assured me that he has a plan in place to ensure that the knowledge we will be losing when Mr. Ray leaves us. He ensured me he has a strong team to keep that institutional knowledge in town. That gives me great comfort.”
Well, I’m sure the members of the selection committee are comforted by that as well.
Councilman Jeffrey Rodriguez said he was “confident in his ability to work with people and I’m confident in his ability to work with this council,” especially after getting calls from residents, not the county mayor, he said.
And Councilman Carlos Alvarez first said he had a “duty to honor the time spent by the committee” and then did just the opposite by voting for Pidermann.
Mayor Manny Cid
Cid seemed somewhat ticked off that he didn’t get the same opportunity as his predecessors to name the next town manager. “That opportunity wasn’t afforded to me because of prior sins,” he said, adding that he would have suggested Tony Lopez, who never threw his hat into consideration.
“The process itself has been good. I think the committee did a great job. There are some bad parts of the process… the intrigue and discussions. I really dislike that I think it should be clear cut… but I didn’t get that opportunity.”
That’s when he said residency was a priority for him.
“We are a $40 million organization. I truly believe that the CEO of our town, whoever the next CEO of our town is,m should own stock,” Cid said. “I can envision all four of them doing the job. They all have their strengths. They all have their weaknesses. I come back to that question I asked.”
He wanted someone with “the same motivation to retire here, to raise their kids here. I really want to see that skin in the game.”
Nelson said the manager, whoever it was, could be fired within 72 hours at any time and that it was “unreasonable” to force candidates to move from longtime homes.
“But again I can count,” Rodriguez said. “The committee did their job. They recommended the number one person. I wish all these letters of recommendation would have materialized in their file in March.
Pidermann was visibly pleased. “I prayed to God and I think he produced the right result,” he said, thanking the council and offering that he was ready to start Jan. 1.
And Gimenezville seemingly expands.

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