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.

The Senate seat in District 40 isn’t the only special election seat on the summer ballot. Voters in House District 116 will also pick a replacement for State Rep. Jose Felix “Pepi” Diaz, who resigned last seek to run for Senate to replace Frank Artiles, his BFF and roommate, who resigned last month after a racist and sexist tirade about and with colleagues.

On the Republican side, Jose Mallea and Daniel Anthony Perez both started raising money in March. Perez has a respectable $49,790. Mallea, a onetime Marco Rubio campaign worker, raised more than that in the first month and $89,560 so far. And it looks like he has already hit the street, sharing photos of last Saturday’s canvassing on Facebook.

But don’t think it’s a given Republican district, because it’s not. It’s certainly a little more red than the Senate Distict, but the blue team could still gain a seat. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton won the district in November with just over 51 percent of the vote. What’s more, Donald Trump only got 45 percent. And there’s no Gary Johnson in this race. Not yet anyway.

On Monday, Ross Hancock electronically filed to run for the Democrat spot in the race. “There being no sign that the Dems can scramble anyone for it, I want to stand up for it,” he told Ladra, who hopes he uses the same signs with the Everglades in it.

But he might not be the only one. This has to be an attractive seat for the Dems, who might want to back someone in the special election now that their pick for Senate 40, State Rep. Daisy Baez, bowed out last week after getting caught living outside her district. Ladra can’t imagine that they wouldn’t find someone — or back Hancock.

Speaking of residency, Hancock ran in District 115 last August and in 114 twice. So has he moved?

There is still time. The governor set the election for the same date as the senate race, July 26. But Secretary of State Ken Detzner hasn’t set the qualifying dates for 116 yet. The deadline for the senate race is Tuesday, so it might be by the end of next week.

But it’s not like the Democrats have a fat bench. Not here anyway. The Dems can’t go west of Miami. Notice how many they have waiting in the wings to run to replace Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who is retiring next year, and they have nobody yet to run against Congressman Carlos Curbelo.

Unless Annette Taddeo tries again after losing the Senate 40 primary to Ana Rivas Logan. And that’s like having nobody.

An $800 mil bid protest plays out on social media

The two highest ranking firms competing for an $800 million contract to improve traffic flow and design and build a new I-395 signature bridge have taken their fight to social media in an effort to put public pressure on the Florida Department of Transportation.

This might be the first time a bid protest plays out on Facebook.

When the politically-connected second place bidder started using the bogus argument that there was not enough public input — and getting electeds like Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and Commissioner Sally Heyman to act on their behalf — the first place firm started a Facebook page called Connect Miami to provide information about the design that was chosen, which includes a double decker expressway and a 55-acre urban park and heritage trail that pays homage to Overtown and our black and Carribean communities (more on that later).

Read related story: I-395 signature bridge standoff is political palanca at its best

Then, a counter Facebook page was created a few days ago titled “Our Bridge Our Choice” with posts are mostly skewered accounts of the FDOT’s recommendation to award the project to Archer Western/De Moya that say there was not enough public input. This, after more than four years, dozens of public meetings and an aesthetic review board with local officials — including Miami-Dade Commissioner Audrey Edomonson — that not only shortlisted the bridges from 18 to 7, but then ranked the five bidders who submitted them. They won an award for public input. Posts include an editorial written by former Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, who was one of the plaintiffs that in 2013 demanded more public input in the process and then agreed to the settlement with FDOT on the aesthetics review committee’s structure and role. He is complaining now as a private lobbyists and we do not know if he is working for someone because these bidders do not have to report their “campaign expenses.” Though this is exactly what these pages are and some of the opposition is: Paid.

And then on Wednesday, Sen. Rene Garcia weighed in, posting a letter he wrote to FDOT Rachel Cone a day earlier pn his Facebook page supporting the recommendation and saying that he has full confidence that the state agency process had sufficient transparency and more than the required feedback from the public to move forward.

“It is important to get the transformative 836/395 bridge project started for the commuters of Miami Dade County and more importantly to bring Overtown together again,” he wrote before posting the letter.

Garcia is responding to pressure from the second bidder, Fleur/Munilla, on members of the Miami-Dade Delegation of state legislators, urging them to pressure th FDOT. With a bid protest in the work and pressure from the mayor and the county’s Transportation Planning Organization also beating the Munilla’s drum, the Facebook campaigns are about getting the buzz and public opinion influenced early on. I half expect the pages to post the phone numbers for FDOT to be posted urging people to call them about the bridge.

There’s already a bunch of engagement. But Ladra is suspicious as to how Our Bridge Our Choice got four times as many “likes” in only a few days and wonders if they have a robot or are using one of those paid friend or follow generators. Connecting Miami, which started on or about May 12, has 1,243 friends. Our Bridge was created May 19. Its first post was on May 22. And it already has 4,974 likes? Seems unlikely to be organic.

Also, it is the only one of the two pages to have sponsored ads, which means someone is paying Facebook to get their message out. Probably a lot of money, judging by the number of likes.

Make no mistake. Neither page is an authentic community page. But the One Bridge page is more propaganda than the Connecting page, which has a lot of information and drawings about the winning bridge design and what makes it different and special. Cutting traffic down by 80 percent, for example, is a main feature that the other page doesn’t talk about. And it doesn’t pretend to be a grass roots page like the other one. It is straight up the winning bidder providing information.

Ladra is not sure what this does except get us all worked up in a frenzy and make some opportunistic social media “experts” a little money. Because the FDOT is not about to change its mind and say, “Whooooops. Oh, lookie here. We gave this $800 million job to the wrong people. We meant to give it to the mayor’s in-law. Here you go.” Can you imagine the precedent that would set?

Epecially not just because somebody said something on Facebook, where the FDOT South-Miami Area page — which has existed for months, years maybe (I’m not going to keep scrolling down. You do it.) — has only 368 likes. Which is weird because they post alerts on meetings about plans for expanding Kendall Drive and Krome Avenue and Ladra would have expected more people to be interested.

Maybe they should hire someone and spend a little money sponsoring posts. Then they can post the truth.

The city of Coral Gables wants to silence a North Gables activist who asks too many questions, so it sent him a threatening “cease and desist” letter from an attorney who used to be a county judge.

Oh, and it cost taxpayers $5,000.

Ariel Fernandez, a vocal North Gables resident who ran for office two years ago, got a letter from former Miami-Dade Judge Israel Reyes — who is outside counsel for the city an on behalf of Assistant City Manager Frank Fernandez — that wasn’t necessarily an official cease and desist letter, perse, but obviously had the same function and intent. And that is to shut him up and shut him down.

“This correspondence is intended as an intervention tool to deescalate the hostilities toward Director Fernandez, while at the same time ensuring that your absolut First Amendment Constitutional right to petition your government so as not to deprive you of any access to city officials,” the letter states.

Read related story: Don’t ask, don’t tell! Coral Gables policy is golden silence

“The city welcomes and encourages your participation in the governance of the city of Coral Gables, as it does to all its residents. However, as you are aware, the First Amendment does not protect potentially libelous statements when made with reckless disregard as to the falsity of the statements or with knowledge that said statements are false.

“It is the city’s sincerest desire that you refrain from this type of conduct in the future,” Reyes said in the letter offering to set up a meeting with the assistant city manager to discuss the issues in person.

Ariel Fernandez is adamant about getting the answers in writing. “I’ve been at this for a year and a half and some of the questios have been answered but he always says ‘Let’s sit down and talk.’ He refuses to put the rest of the answers on paper. I don’t want to talk. I want written answers.”

Answers he still has not gotten.

Because rather than answer them, City Attorney Craig Leen says City Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark asked him to look into stopping the email barrage. Leen turned to Reyes, a respected attorney who has done a lot of work for the city as outside counsel. “I thought it was best to get someone independent,” Leen told Ladra, adding that the letter is not a violation of Fernandez’s first amendment rights.

“The constitution does not protect libelous speech,” Leen said, adding that “factually incorrect and damaging” remarks in emails the email, citing the words Reyes used “potentially libelous.”

Read related story: Coral Gables picks Cathy Swanson as top administrator

And therein is the keyword, ladies and gents: Potentially. Which means not really. Which means that this little $5,175 exercise in futility was, in fact, something other than a legitimate legal maneuver. Like maybe a third-world strongman tactic to gag and intimidate an active and vocal citizen who has the electeds’ ears.

What’s more, it could be interpreted as witness tampering, seeing as how Ariel Fernandez was there at City Hall and took a picture of Gables Police Maj. Theresa Molina taking a picture of a resident’s cellphone while she was texting (more on the progress of that investigation later). It would be easy for a logical mind to connect these threats with that case and hear the words “shake down” whispered in your head.

“I feel intimidated,” Ariel Fernandez said. “They want me to stop raising the issue.”

The issue is the shortage in police officers, which at last count was at 22 or 23 or something — the highest number of vacancies the department has ever had. Frank Fernandez, director of public safety and the defacto police chief, has hired security guards and championed closed caption television and his idea of police recruiting is putting a old-timey sign on U.S. 1 saying “Police Officers Wanted.” He was brought to Coral Gables from the city of Hollywood by Swanson-Rivenark soon after she came back to the City Beautiful as top administrator in 2014 and has been a controversial figure since the beginning. Ariel Fernandez is certainly not the only one “trash talking” him.

In fact, nothing in those emails seems that far-fetched. Not that Frank Fernandez is undermining Police Chief Ed Hudak — especially since he originally tried to make him co-chief with someone else until the city attorney stopped him because the charter won’t allow it. Not that he’s trash-talked Hudak and urged others to trash-talk him. Not that he’s spying on residents like in Castro’s Cuba — not when we still don’t know what exactly happened with that police major who took a photo of the residents phone at City Hall (more on that later).

Not even the assumption that the city managers are colluding to keep information from the public. Know why? Because it’s happened before. We’re still traumatized by the ghost of Pat Salerno, the former city manager who resigned abruptly only after he was caught lying to commissioners about safety on Ponce de Leon Boulevard. Last week, several commissioners were shocked to learn that a former city employee had stolen $85.000 from false alarm fees without anybody noticing. So maybe Ariel’s statments — the ones that aren’t just a matter of opinion — aren’t that false, after all?

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

“Everything in there can be corroborated,” Ariel told Ladra about his emails. Even the one about Frank Fernandez telling a citizen to trash-talk the chief. He said he can name that citizen “if push comes to shove” and can prove every other allgation that he has made.

Sure, Ariel Fernandez can be pesky pain in the ass. His demanding emails may seem overwhelming all at once, but here’s the rub: his first email was rather friendly, telling Frank Fernandez that he was taking advantage of his “open door” policy and invitation to ask questions. And the second one was after he got no response — three weeks later. He got increasingly upset as he got ignored in what amounts to a political runaround. Y se puso un poco fresco. Ladra would have growled a little, too.

But here’s the most  important part, he’s a resident. Ariel Fernandez is a taxpaying property owner. He is a voter. He has been the direct victim of crime in his neighborhood. He has every right and pre-requisite, if there were any, to ask questions of the city managers or any employee — and he deserves to have these very questions answered.

So do we.

Ariel Fernandez’s original 25 questions for Assistant City Manager Frank Fernandez:

1. How many vacancies do we currently have for uniformed Police officers?
2. Data-wise, what direct effect does each vacancy have on the number of committed crimes?
3. How many vacancies do we have for first responders in the Fire Department?
4. How many vacancies do we have for support personnel in the Police Department?
5. How many vacancies do we have for support personnel in the Fire Department?
6. To what factor or factors do you attribute these vacancies?
7. How many recruits do we have in the Police Academy?
8. When initiatives do you currently have in place in order to fill these vacancies?
9. By what date do you expect for all vacancies to be filled?
10. What steps will you take to increase interest and applicants for these vacancies?
11. In how many crimes have your Public Safety Aides intervened?
12. Are the Public Safety Aides properly trained to intervene in the event of a crime in progress?
13. Are the Public Safety Aides properly equipped to intervene in the event of a crime in progress?
14. What is your relationship with the representatives of the company providing CCTV for the City?
15. Do you/or have you ever had a personal relationship with any City vendor who is currently under contract for services to the Police or Fire Department? If so, who and what is the relationship?
16. The condition of the Public Safety building continues deteriorating. When we first met you told me this was your top priority. What is the status of the replacement of the Public Safety building?
17. Why was the company that was asked to prepare the RFP for the City also allowed to submit a bid? Isn’t this a conflict of interest?
18. We all know the immediate action taken by Chief Hudak following the incident at City Hall where Major Molina was spying on a resident. What actions have YOU taken to ensure the privacy of residents is not violated by Majors who directly answer to you and not Chief Hudak?
19. This incident has left a very bad impression of your ability to serve in your post. What assurances do you give residents who believe you are not fit to do your job?
20. How many private security guards are still patrolling our streets?
21. When can we expect actual certified Police officers to replace them?
22. How much (exactly) is this program costing the City?
23. Where is the funding coming from?
24. Who authorized for this funding to be used for this reason?
25. Due to the high amount, didn’t this requ.ire Commission approval?

It is important to note that the answers that did come, came from the city attorney’s office. The ones in bold are still unanswered.

But Ladra is working on it now.