Looks like it's Julio Robaina's fault - lack of any Miami-Dade mayoral debates in northeast M-D to bring their area's unique issues to light

Heading south on U.S.-1 from Hallandale Beach you enter Miami-Dade County and the City of Aventura, with Aventura Hospital on your right. November 16, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Looks like that blog post of mine that's been on hold for a bit about the lack of any Miami-Dade mayoral debates in northeast Miami-Dade, to bring their their area's myriad issues to light, looks to be getting closer to print as a result of this afternoon's interesting response from Comm. Sally Heyman's office to earlier missives of mine.

As originally conceived in my head a few weeks ago, my future post was going to blast the putative civic and community leaders in Aventura and North Miami Beach and environs for their community's unwillingness or inability to offer up a suitable venue -with some photos I recently snapped of some prospective locations where the event could've taken place- but clearly, you can't have a debate if someone is actively avoiding you.

Now, we know that is in fact the case with former Hialeah mayor Julio Robaina.

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: District4 <District4@miamidade.gov>
Date: Wed, Jun 15, 2011 at 2:18 PM
Subject: RE: Miami--Dade mayoral debates/forums in District Four

Sent on behalf of Commissioner Sally Heyman:

3 events were scheduled in Northeast Dade and Robania declined to come to all.

Office of Commissioner Sally Heyman

1100 N.E. 163rd Street, Suite 303

North Miami Beach, FL 33162

(305) 787-5999

(305) 787-5998 fax

"Delivering Excellence Every Day"

Miami-Dade County is a public entity subject to Chapter 119 of the Florida Statutes concerning public records. E-mail messages are covered under such laws and thus subject to disclosure. All E-mail sent and received is captured by our servers and kept as a public record.

Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2011 9:53 AM
To: District4
Subject: Miami--Dade mayoral debates/forums in District Four

May 26th, 2011

Dear Comm. Heyman:

I would greatly appreciate it if your staff could share with me any information they have first-hand knowledge of regarding any public Miami--Dade mayoral debates/forums that have taken place anywhere in District Four since the recall went into effect in March, or of any prospective debates scheduled before the June 28th runoff, with date, time and location.

My research into this matter thus far has shown that there have been approximately ZERO debates in the past and ZERO debates planned for the next four weeks, despite an abundance of facilities within your District that would be more than adequate for the purposes of hosting a debate/forum where NE Dade citizens, could share their unique concerns and issues with the candidates.

Now that there will be a run-off election between Mayor Robaina and Comm. Gimenez, I should think that it would be more important than ever that some, city or non-profit in District Four seize the opportunity to make sure that voters in NE Dade get the very same opportunities to see and hear the candidates, in-person as those in parts of the county south and west of downtown Miami already have -multiple times.

Thanks in advance for your assistance in this matter

BP oil spill remediation funds: Birds gotta fly, fish gotta swim, little towns gotta spend money like crazy like... well, little towns. And South FL?

Entering Miami-Dade County sign on south-bound U.S.-1/Biscayne Blvd., Aventura, coming out of Hallandale Beach. Aventura Hospital on the right. November 16, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier.


Birds gotta fly, fish gotta swim, little towns gotta spend money like crazy like... well, little towns...
Like many of you out there reading this post today, I'm really looking forward to finding out where the BP remediation funds sent to Miami-Dade and Broward Counties -that saw no oil- actually wind-up being spent.


Given the long and well-chronicled tradition in South Florida of our elected officials and municipal/county leaders' outside-the-box thinking when it comes to ways of treating themselves (and their pals) like kings and queens, with money that's supposed to be spent in very specific ways -for instance, money for environmental code enforcement getting squandered by cocky and patronizing Miami-Dade cops on TVs, see below- I wait with baited breath to see which local print or TV reporters are first to expose how the money was spent down here in ways that only raise more questions about the character and caliber of the people making those decisions.

-----
St. Petersburg Times
BP buys Gulf Coast millions in gear
By Michael Kunzelman, Mike Schneider and Melinda Deslatte
Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Tasers. Brand-new SUVs. A top-of-the-line iPad. A fully loaded laptop. In the year since the Gulf oil spill, officials along the coast have gone on a spending spree with BP money, dropping tens of millions of dollars on gadgets and other gear - much of which had little to do with the cleanup, an Associated Press investigation shows.

The oil giant opened its checkbook while the crisis was still unfolding last spring and poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Gulf Coast communities with few strings attached.

Read the rest of the article at:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GULF_OIL_SPILL_SPENDING_SPREE?SITE=FLPET&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

-----

Orlando Sentinel
Central Florida Politcal Pulse blog
BP gives NW Fla $30 M
Posted by khaughney on April, 11 2011 11:54 AM
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2011/04/bp-gives-nw-fla-30-m.html

-----
Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/13/2015129/miami-dade-police-wont-repay-misspent.html

Miami-Dade police won't repay misspent environmental funds

By Matthew Haggman

January 13, 2011

The Miami-Dade Police Department is acknowledging it misspent funds meant to fight environmental crime on flat-screen TVs, SUVs and firearms.

"Clearly inappropriate,'' Police Director James Loftus says.

But putting the money back into the green funds, as the county's inspector general has requested? Not so fast.

"No, we are not,'' county police spokeswoman Nancy Perez said.

Miami-Dade Inspector General Christopher Mazzella said in a recent memo to Mayor Carlos Alvarez that the police have adopted many of his recommended fixes, following a scathing IG audit that found the police used two environmental trust funds as a kitty for pricey purchases with little connection to environmental crime-fighting.

But the police department is flatly rebuffing two IG recommendations: that it stop using green-fund money to pay expenses such as monthly cellphone and aircard bills, and that it repay the misused public dollars.

"We continue to stand by our original recommendations that the Trust Funds be reimbursed,'' Mazzella said in a Dec. 21 memo to Alvarez.

The police department isn't obligated to follow the IG's recommendations, unless the mayor or the county commission act. And there's little push coming from the county executive's office.

Mayoral spokeswoman Victoria Mallette would only say in a statement that "administrative procedures have been strengthened.'' When pressed whether the mayor thinks county police should pay up, she referred questions to Loftus and hung up.

The standoff is the latest chapter in a scandal that erupted last year over county stewardship of funds that were meant to combat polluters. Instead, amid "overall chaotic administration,'' the funds were steered to "excessive, unreasonable, or unnecessary'' purchases, the IG audit found.

The IG's inquiry, following a Miami Herald series last year that detailed dubious spending, focused on nearly $6 million spent from 2000 to 2009 from two funds: the South Florida Environmental Task Force Trust Fund and Florida Environmental Task Force Trust Fund.

More than $1.1 million was spent on vehicle-related expenses, including the purchase of 23 SUVs and trucks that went to top brass rather than environmental investigators working in remote areas. Another $1.1 million went for cellphones used, in many cases, by officials in non-environmental departments.

Three Sharp 52-inch flat screen TVs were snapped up for about $6,000. Nearly $35,000 was spent on 30 Smith & Wesson M&P-15 rifles and holographic sights. Police justified the firearms on the grounds that an environmental investigator might encounter "a wildlife poacher armed with a high-powered rifle.''

Three Segways were bought for $25,000. One was used periodically to patrol MDPD's suburban headquarters, and two were found "sitting unused in a warehouse,'' auditors found.

The episode served as an embarrassment for embattled Mayor Alvarez, who is facing a recall vote on March 15.

Division Chief Frank Vecin, a close ally and supporter of Mayor Alvarez, was in charge of fund spending. At one point, Alvarez was ferried around in a Chevy Tahoe purchased with green-fund money. The county mayor later returned the automobile, saying he didn't know it was bought with funds meant to fight polluters.

The revelations of fund mismanagement prompted the retirement of Vecin.

"The IG believes the funds were managed improperly,'' said C. Michael Cornely, Vecin's attorney. "It was their opinion. To me, the IG justifies its existence by looking for things and making issues out of things that are not really an issue.''

The two environmental funds, created in 2000 by the county commission and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, were established to help fight polluters in South Florida, which the county has called a "drum dump capital.'' Funding sources included fines and court judgments.

Police director Loftus -- named to the top job in February, after spending questions were already being raised -- now says new money will not be accepted into the two funds. The remaining balance in the accounts is $1.5 million.

In defending his position that the police department need not repay the misspent dollars, Loftus contends that over the life of the trust funds, the department paid some $27 million out of its general fund for the salaries and benefits of officers and directors working environmental investigations -- that, in sum, the contribution of personnel costs far offset the questioned expenses.

Mazzella responded that the trust fund money was "to augment, not replace'' general funds.

If they police were to repay for misspending, the precise amount isn't clear, though the August audit provides a road map.

"We left it to the police to determine what was justified, and repay what was not,'' said Mazzella.

Miami Herald staff writer Martha Brannigan contributed to this report.

In case you live outside of South Florida and are reading this and wondering if the sort of inappropriate behavior by law enforcement officials -described above in such great detail by Matthew Haggman- is common, and whether the cumulative effect of such moral and intellectual laxness was a factor in the successful recall from office of former M-D mayor Carlos Alvarez last month, the answer to both questions is YES.

-----
Not that you asked but the BP station in Aventura on Biscayne Blvd. & N.E. 211th Street, across from Aventura Hospital and near the Venezuelan Target, is my favorite service station in the area to use, as I've probably only used a different operator maybe five times in the past year. They are always clean, efficient and extremely well-lit at night, which is more than I can say for many other service stations in SE Broward/NE Miami-Dade.

Plus, they usually have copies of the NY Times available when other places are already out.

Why are there so many incompetent police officials & pols in South Florida? Miami-Dade police won't repay 'misspent' environmental funds used on flat-screen TVs. Yet another spot-on story by Matthew Haggman that reveals the true depths of the problem in Miami and environs: lack of #ethics & #competency

To those of you reading the spot-on Matthew Haggman story below outside of South Florida, the Miami-Dade County mayor Carlos Alvarez referenced in this article is the very same Carlos Alvarez that was formerly the Miami-Dade County Police Director.

He is also the same Carlos Alvarez that I believe WILL be successfully recalled from office on March 15th, owing to his lethargic, myopic leadership style, and his rather curious predilection for outright duplicity in dealing not only with his colleagues on the publicly-unpopular County Commission -in far too many instances to cite here- but also in his dealings with the general public.
The people who voted for him in the first place.

Alvarez is part of the harmful mass of middling-mediocrities of elected officials that I have long contended have held South Florida hostage for decades with their short-sighted ego and ethnically-driven brand of public policy that resembles nothing so much as a dog forever chasing its tail.
Somewhat humorous to observe from the outside, perhaps, but not so funny closer to the action, where it's just maddening beyond belief..

Consider what has happened politically to former City of Miami and Miami-Dade County mayors: NOTHING!

Hardly anyone ever talks about it, not even Channel 10's Michael Putney, but the fact is that in one of the largest cities in Florida -and the largest county in the fourth largest state of the country- is the exact opposite of a political launching pad: it's where political ambitions crash-and-burn.
In other states, those people would become governors or U.S. Senators, but here, they just disappear completely.
That's one of the reasons this area is so backward and why the I-4 corridor is considered by many objective observers to be both more important politically and home to more pols who can be elected statewide.
Soon, that black hole he's created in the universe thru his negative karma will swallow Alvarez whole, and he will disappear from sight entirely, recalled from office by an embarrassing margin.
(FYI: My father is a retired Miami-Dade police officer who was on the job for 25 years.)

Sadly for its citizen taxpayers who by now are long used to being the money pinata that is regularly bashed for loose change for purposes unknown -Miami-Dade Commissioners' discretionary funds- this terrific Matthew Haggman story shows what passes for governance in South Florida in the year 2011.
Cops intentionally and brazenly mis-using funds for purposes that have nothing to do with its original intent and nearly everyone involved is making excuses for it, led by the incompetent police officials and gutless Miami-Dade politicians who are the embodiment of the sick political culture, led by Carlos Alvarez, who will be pushed from the political stage with a vengeance in exactly two months for crimes of omission: lack of leadership.

And not that I'm the first person to say it among my circle of friends and acquaintances, but where the hell exactly has Miami-Dade Commissioner Sally Heyman been hiding?
The Northeast Dade district, that includes Miami Beach, is full of lots of smart and well-educated good-government types who have high expectations that whoever represents the district will be someone who's adept at keeping an eye peeled for exactly the sort of dubious behavior this article highlights: lack of effective internal controls and a complete absence of real punishment for people who abuse their authority.

For someone like Heyman, who has such a very high opinion of herself and her record in office, especially about what she thinks is her fiscal and ethical probity and sense of accountability, tell me, other than her vote against the Marlins Stadium in Little Havana, how can you not say that she's been slumping noticeably, almost sleep-walking since it was revealed in 2009 how much taxpayer money she doles out thru her Commissioner's discretionary fund.
Your taxes, her discretionary fund...

excerpts from I-Team: You Pay, Miami-Dade Commission SpendsJanuary 13, 2009 10:25 AM 
 

As the slumping economy drives most people to cut costs, the CBS 4 I-Team learned lawmakers aren’t doing the same with your tax dollars.

Here’s what the CBS4 I-Team Investigator Stephen Stock found after pulling the Miami-Dade county budget for the past three years.

Read the rest of the story at:
http://miami.cbslocal.com/2009/01/13/i-team-you-pay-miami-dade-commission-spends/

-----
excerpt from I-Team: M-D Commission “Carrying Over” Controversy
March 3, 2009 3:41 PM

District 4 Commissioner Sally Heyman agreed.

“I like opportunity to have it when we need it,” Heyman told the I-Team.

“This is not my money. It is an office fund, it is the people’s money,” Heyman said.

The people’s money that builds up into a financial kitty to be used any way a commissioner wants with little oversight, debate or public input.

Here’s how it works.

Any money budgeted for commissioners’ district offices NOT spent in one fiscal year carries over. It accrues in future years.

Commissioner Sally Heyman says her preliminary records show she has $1,006,000 in carry-over.

Add up all 13 Miami-Dade Commissioners’ carry-over for fiscal year 2007-2008 unaudited and you are talking about almost 4 million dollars in their carry-over kitty. That’s $3,816,000 of your tax dollars that has accrued in carry-over budgets over the years with little oversight, process or debate.

Read the rest of the story at: http://miami.cbslocal.com/2009/03/03/i-team-m-d-commission-carrying-over-controversy/

-----
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/13/2015129/miami-dade-police-wont-repay-misspent.html

Miami Herald
Miami-Dade police won't repay misspent environmental funds
By Matthew Haggman
January 13, 2011

The Miami-Dade Police Department is acknowledging it misspent funds meant to fight environmental crime on flat-screen TVs, SUVs and firearms.

"Clearly inappropriate,'' Police Director James Loftus says.

But putting the money back into the green funds, as the county's inspector general has requested? Not so fast.

"No, we are not,'' county police spokeswoman Nancy Perez said.

Miami-Dade Inspector General Christopher Mazzella said in a recent memo to Mayor Carlos Alvarez that the police have adopted many of his recommended fixes, following a scathing IG audit that found the police used two environmental trust funds as a kitty for pricey purchases with little connection to environmental crime-fighting.

But the police department is flatly rebuffing two IG recommendations: that it stop using green-fund money to pay expenses such as monthly cellphone and aircard bills, and that it repay the misused public dollars.

"We continue to stand by our original recommendations that the Trust Funds be reimbursed,'' Mazzella said in a Dec. 21 memo to Alvarez.

The police department isn't obligated to follow the IG's recommendations, unless the mayor or the county commission act. And there's little push coming from the county executive's office.

Mayoral spokeswoman Victoria Mallette would only say in a statement that "administrative procedures have been strengthened.'' When pressed whether the mayor thinks county police should pay up, she referred questions to Loftus and hung up.

The standoff is the latest chapter in a scandal that erupted last year over county stewardship of funds that were meant to combat polluters. Instead, amid "overall chaotic administration,'' the funds were steered to "excessive, unreasonable, or unnecessary'' purchases, the IG audit found.

The IG's inquiry, following a Miami Herald series last year that detailed dubious spending, focused on nearly $6 million spent from 2000 to 2009 from two funds: the South Florida Environmental Task Force Trust Fund and Florida Environmental Task Force Trust Fund.

More than $1.1 million was spent on vehicle-related expenses, including the purchase of 23 SUVs and trucks that went to top brass rather than environmental investigators working in remote areas. Another $1.1 million went for cellphones used, in many cases, by officials in non-environmental departments.

Three Sharp 52-inch flat screen TVs were snapped up for about $6,000. Nearly $35,000 was spent on 30 Smith & Wesson M&P-15 rifles and holographic sights. Police justified the firearms on the grounds that an environmental investigator might encounter "a wildlife poacher armed with a high-powered rifle.''

Three Segways were bought for $25,000. One was used periodically to patrol MDPD's suburban headquarters, and two were found "sitting unused in a warehouse,'' auditors found.

The episode served as an embarrassment for embattled Mayor Alvarez, who is facing a recall vote on March 15.

Division Chief Frank Vecin, a close ally and supporter of Mayor Alvarez, was in charge of fund spending. At one point, Alvarez was ferried around in a Chevy Tahoe purchased with green-fund money. The county mayor later returned the automobile, saying he didn't know it was bought with funds meant to fight polluters.

The revelations of fund mismanagement prompted the retirement of Vecin.

"The IG believes the funds were managed improperly,'' said C. Michael Cornely, Vecin's attorney. "It was their opinion. To me, the IG justifies its existence by looking for things and making issues out of things that are not really an issue.''

The two environmental funds, created in 2000 by the county commission and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, were established to help fight polluters in South Florida, which the county has called a "drum dump capital.'' Funding sources included fines and court judgments.

Police director Loftus -- named to the top job in February, after spending questions were already being raised -- now says new money will not be accepted into the two funds. The remaining balance in the accounts is $1.5 million.

In defending his position that the police department need not repay the misspent dollars, Loftus contends that over the life of the trust funds, the department paid some $27 million out of its general fund for the salaries and benefits of officers and directors working environmental investigations -- that, in sum, the contribution of personnel costs far offset the questioned expenses.

Mazzella responded that the trust fund money was "to augment, not replace'' general funds.

If they police were to repay for misspending, the precise amount isn't clear, though the August audit provides a road map.

"We left it to the police to determine what was justified, and repay what was not,'' said Mazzella.

Miami Herald staff writer Martha Brannigan contributed to this report. 

-----  
In case you were wondering, yes, the Frank Vecin mentioned above, the Carlos Alvarez supporter who was in charge of those environmental funds, is the same Miami-Dade police commander who, in the words of Channel 4 News' I-Team , had:

"allegedly been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by developers to expedite their request for permits and provide access to top county administrators, has agreed to retire..."

http://miami.cbslocal.com/2010/06/23/i-team-police-commander-steps-down/

At the same time Vecin was assisting various developers as CEO and as President of Oak Tree Development, he was also in charge of the police department’s Intergovernmental Bureau, which is responsible for investigating illegal contractors and criminal violations of the county’s building code.
In other words, he was being paid by the very same developers and builders his police unit might be called upon to investigate. Instead it was the developers who found themselves with a valuable friend in the police department.

Here's the link for that I-Team story which also reveals how much Vecin was getting for his handiwork from The Terra Group:
http://miami.cbslocal.com/2010/06/20/i-team-frank-vecin-beyond-the-badge/

Not that things are any better in the City of Miami.. cops paid overtime for work they didn't do.
That's how it's done down here!
 
http://miami.cbslocal.com/2008/12/10/i-team-money-for-nothing/

Bullet-proof newspapers, the Good Cop/Bad Cop/Young Cop Conundrum;Third World Transit

FYI: Once again today, Blogger's editing software is screwing-up my blog and creating all sorts of headaches for me, leading to a jagged and uneven presentation in drafts as well as the final edits below.

Sometimes, it's almost as if someone else is editing my blog, as from moment to moment, the size and fonts on my screen seem to change from what I want to something else entirely.

So far, the only way I've found to minimize the problem is to make everything BOLD, which I usually hate in other blogs, but which for some reason, mitigates the problem slightly. 

________________

Per the attached bits of flotsam and jetsam, first the slightly amusing then onto the more-than-bewildering.  

First, per the story below, which the Chicago Tribune's headline says it all:

14-year-old boy impersonates cop, police say, Teen goes on traffic patrol wearing real police uniform, but is unarmed, authorities say.

The troubling aspect of this story is that this 14-year old kid in Chicago shows more depth of understanding, energy and moxie than Hallandale Beach's current Police Chief Thomas Magill,

who, in my opinion, based on all the known facts, at bottom, ought to be in prison now for what court juries have already found to be true about him: he used city funds and resources to attempt to

frame, prosecute and imprison innocent people, who just happened to be HB cops.

(Yet Magill's past tenure and future have never been publicly addressed by the Hallandale Beach City Commission since this was published a year ago.  In other parts of the U.S., that dogged refusal to deal forthrightly with consequences, with no punishment for Magill, would be news, but not here, apparently.)

Perhaps we can arrange to have James L. Harris, that guy who last year wanted to be a Miami-Dade bus driver so badly that he actually took a county bus, receiving compliments along South Beach for his courtesy while driving, before he was finally caught and arrested, and have him assigned as this 14-year old Kid Cop's personal chauffeur.

Part of a youth movement to get rid of all the 'dead wood' in Hallandale Beach, of which there is so much. 

TIMBER!!!!

Failing that, can we at least borrow the kid from Chicago and have him patrol the beach area in Hallandale Beach, since for years, Magill's Police Dept. has consistently shown ZERO interest in actually patrolling the public beach once in a while,

even on busy weekends, as is pretty customary in most water-side cities, to put beach-goers minds at ease.

Maybe give him a police radio, a clipboard, and a whistle on weekends so the beleaguered contractor lifeguards don't have to continue to do everything, esp. when the beach is really crowded?

As you might imagine, the reader comments on this story from Chicagoland are enthusiastic and supportive -of the kid!

That sound you just heard was the sound of the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid losing even more air...

http://www.chicago2016.org/

So, onto the more serious matter at hand.

See if you can readily connect the following in your head like I did yesterday:

a.) Mayor Carlos Alvarez defending the Miami Mega-Plan in general and the Port Tunnel element in particular, over two broadcast segments yesterday with Michael Putney on TWISF, This Week in South Florida;

b.) the painfully naive and formulaic Herald Letter to the Editor on page 3L yesterday titled Public-works plan worth the money, written by an FIU prof named Alex Lichtenstein, which sounded like it was really straight from the PR desk of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce.

http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/letters/story/870240.html

c.) The Herald's own Action Line column of yesterday on page 5B, complete with photo,

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/action-line/story/869684.html titled After two years of promises, escalator still not running, on the sad case of the Park West Metromover, which seems to be a typical Miami combination of Twilight Zone and Banana Republic.

I can only imagine how many times that the letter writer, Matthew Gissen, must've thought about that letter of his in his mind, as he passed it, week-after-week, month-after-month.

Apparently, in the rather oblivious world of Prof. Lichtenstein, basic repairs and upkeep are neither sexy nor necessary.

Sounds to me like he actually needs to get out-and-about and see what's really going on around here, perhaps even have a "scared straight" intervention, so he can get his bearings and see that unlike Chicago, Miami is not exactly the city of "Big Shoulders." 

To me, the most devastating thing of all was this passage in the Action Line response: "...work on the escalator has been completed and that the safety inspection should be finished by the end of February."

Should be? Really? After being broken for two years, does it really take a month to "inspect" something that's supposedly been fixed?

And if it does, or it's not actually fixed, finally, how many other projects are those particular engineers or contractors "fixing" elsewhere?

The official response here only raises more troubling questions.

Now maybe I'm wrong, since I was only coming back down here from Washington at the holidays when the William 

Lehman Causeway was being built in North Miami Beach/Aventura -just down the road from me now- but did it even take two whole years to build the bridge over the Intercoastal, linking A1A to Biscayne Boulevard?

And yet it's taking that long to "fix" a transit escalator? 

Those are the folks that Mayor Alvarez wants us to have faith in?

The ones that yesterday, on the air with Michael, he kept claiming 'really weren't government' when Michael earnestly but continually reminded him of the decidedly notorious track record of South Florida government construction projects,

Mega or otherwise?

As I mentioned in an email about two weeks ago, the small square in front of the entrance to The National Archives that I entered and walked past hundreds of times during the 15 years I lived and worked up there, already has our future written there.

It has a variation of Shakespeare's line from The Tempest, "The past is prologue."

If I were making a documentary film on the possible consequences of the so-called Miami Mega-Plan, feeling as I do now, I'd call it "The Curious Case of Caveat Emptor."

Sadly, the past will continue to be prologue in South Florida as long as we have the same general cast of characters, who continually fight transparency, accountability and common sense, of which the case of the broken escalator is but a small window into that upside-down world.

_________________

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-teen-cop-26-jan26,0,6467334.story

Chicago Tribune

14-year-old boy impersonates cop, police say

Teen goes on traffic patrol wearing real police uniform, but is unarmed, authorities say

By Angela Rozas, Jeremy Gorner and Azam Ahmed

Tribune reporters

January 26, 2009

Chicago police arrested a 14-year-old boy for allegedly impersonating one of their own Saturday.

The boy, who has been charged as a juvenile for impersonating an officer, walked into the Grand Crossing District station, 7040 S. Cottage Grove Ave., dressed in a Chicago police uniform, police spokeswoman Monique Bond said. The boy, who reported for duty about 1:30 p.m., partnered with another police officer for about five hours.

The boy identified himself as an officer from another district but was detailed for the day to Grand Crossing and also was savvy enough to sign out a police radio and a ticket book, according to a source. The source also said the boy went on traffic stops with the officer he went on the street with.

Bond said the boy "did not write tickets" and said there was "no information to indicate that he [was] ever behind the wheel."

At an afternoon news conference, police said the boy had no interaction with the public.

After his tour was over, a ranking officer became suspicious of the boy. Police said the officer discovered the teen was not a real police officer when he couldn't produce any credentials. The boy was wearing police-issued pants, shirt, vest, sweater and skull cap, police said. 

He was missing his police star, but that was not discovered until after he returned from traffic patrol. Police said the 14-year-old's partner on the traffic assignment did not recognize the boy was underage.

The source said the boy had an empty holster and a newspaper in place of a ballistic vest in his vest carrier.

Police described the boy as a former "police explorer," which means he was part of a community program run through the Police Department's Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy (CAPS) that allows youths to interact with Chicago police officers. He was part of the explorer program in 2008 in the Englewood District.

"The boy was not armed, and the matter is under investigation with Internal Affairs," Bond said.

Bond also said that how the boy acquired the police uniform was under investigation. Police officers need to present identification while acquiring their uniforms, police said.

The boy "has identified an egregious breach in security," Deputy Supt. of Patrol Dan Dugan said.

The boy, whom authorities did not identify since he's a juvenile, is scheduled to appear in Juvenile Court at 10 a.m. Monday.

Reader comments at: http://www.topix.net/forum/source/chicago-tribune/TFMSRHVJVSIGH7BOC

-----------------------------------------

Tomorrow the 27th will mark one year since John Holland wrote this compelling Sun-Sentinel piece, which is still THE only media this story has received.

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Hallandale Beach to pay to settle one of two former police officers' lawsuits

By John Holland

January 27, 2008

 

Hallandale Beach commissioners have agreed to pay more than $100,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging Police Chief Thomas Magill falsified evidence, a city board held an illegal meeting and detectives persuaded a felon to lie under oath about a fellow officer.

 

Mayor Joe Cooper and attorney Alberto Milian, who represents former Hallandale Beach Police Officer Talous Cirilo, confirmed the city's settlement with Cirilo but would not comment further, citing a confidentiality agreement. However, Cooper said the payment was more than $100,000, including attorney fees.

 

'I'd love to talk about this and tell people what happened, but unfortunately I can't,' Cooper said.

 

Magill referred questions to City Attorney David Jove, who could not be reached for comment.

 

The settlement comes less than two months after Cirilo filed two lawsuits against the city, alleging wrongdoing in the department and City Hall. Hallandale officials fired Cirilo, alleging excessive use of force, even though a jury acquitted him on battery charges.

 

Cooper said the secrecy is warranted because a separate lawsuit, filed in federal court by former acting Police Sgt. Mary Hagopian, has not been settled. She promised to speak about the settlement at a later date 'if I'm allowed to.'

 

Magill and City Manager Mike Good fired the officers two years ago after prosecutors charged them with misdemeanor battery on prisoner Michael Brack. Early on April 1, 2005, Brack beat his brother as they fought in a moving car, then attacked officers who tried to intervene, according to arrest records and police reports.

 

Months after the arrest, a civilian employee said Cirilo choked and used a Taser device excessively on Brack.

 

More than a year later, the State Attorney's Office charged Cirilo with three misdemeanor battery counts. Hagopian was charged with a misdemeanor for using the stun gun on Brack as he struggled with officers in a jail holding area.

 

Defense lawyers said Magill orchestrated the charges as part of a vendetta against Hagopian and to show his bosses at City Hall he was a disciplinarian. Testimony at trial showed police employees mishandled two key pieces of evidence - a video surveillance tape and software from the Taser - distorting the confrontation between the officers and Brack, defense lawyers argued.

 

Prosecutors tried the officers separately, but jurors reached the same conclusion, acquitting them after about 15 minutes of deliberation.

 

After the acquittals, the officers tried to get their jobs back, but Magill and city officials refused.

 

In one of the lawsuits, Milian accused the city civil service board of holding an illegal meeting outside City Hall on Oct. 9, 2007, one week before a scheduled hearing on the reinstatement.

Florida law mandates that all meetings be advertised and prohibits public officials from meeting out of the public eye or discussing cases with each other. At least six board members met and discussed the meeting in a 'knowing violation' of the law, according to the lawsuit.

 

Good, the city manager, could not be reached for comment.

 

Hagopian, a 15-year veteran, and Cirilo, on the force for five years, hired different lawyers and filed in different jurisdictions but made the same argument: Magill pressured his internal affairs officers and detectives to manipulate evidence and coerce false statements out of Brack so he could fire the officers and enhance his image as a reformer.

 

Magill used public money to have officers track down Brack on a Louisiana oil barge, where he ended up after leaving Broward County and forfeiting his bail, both lawsuits assert.

The State Attorney's office dropped all the assault charges against Brack, including the attack on his brother, then used him to testify against the officers.

 

The chief temporarily assigned several officers to internal affairs without any training, for the sole purpose of building a false case against the officers, Hagopian's lawyer Rhea Grossman said in court papers.

 

Magill sparked criminal charges against Hagopian 'by preparing directly or at his direction police reports containing false or misleading information,' Grossman wrote. Both lawsuits contend Magill elicited false testimony and compiled misleading evidence that he took directly to prosecutors.

 

U.S. District Judge William J. Zloch tossed out four counts last month, saying they belong in state court. He refused to dismiss two others, including one alleging Magill presented false information to prosecutors so Hagopian would be arrested. Zloch also let stand a charge that the city had a policy of not training internal affairs officers that, Hagopian argued, 'encourages fabricated evidence for the sole purpose of allowing the whims of its police chief to terminate employees.'

 

Milian said last week that the jury's quick acquittals proved the charges were bogus.

"This case was an abomination from the very beginning, and good officers were hurt," Milian said. "It could ultimately have a chilling effect on officers who want to protect themselves and their colleagues but are afraid because they could get in the same type of situation." 

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As you read the article below, tell me this isn't proof that the past is, indeed, prologue!

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

FALSE ARREST VICTIM ON GUARD BUT SAYS HE BEARS NO GRUDGES

May 1, 2000

By Tanya Weinberg Staff Writer

Henry Perez won't go anywhere without his identification. 

Not because he thinks he might get a ticket. Not because he thinks he might not be allowed into a bar. 

Because he knows that without identification, police could throw him in jail for another person's crime. He knows he could lose his job and a week of his life before his captors figure out they have the wrong man. 

The odd thing is, when Perez suffered those consequences four years ago, he did have his identification. Hallandale Beach Police arrested the then-17-year-old on his way to school because he had the same name as a teenager wanted for grand theft in Miami-Dade County. 

His driver's license showed he was two years older than Henry Perez the suspect. He kept telling the officer he had the wrong man, to check and he would see. 

"He didn't want to listen," said a soft-spoken Perez on a recent evening before starting his workout at Contenders Boxing Gym in Hollywood. 

For one week of fear and frustration, it seemed nobody would listen. Not the police, not the jail guards, not counselors who asked Perez to fill out surveys on drug use but offered little guidance. Not even a judge. He ordered Perez sent to Miami-Dade County without letting him speak. 

When Perez's lawyer convinced another judge they had the wrong Henry Perez, it took the jail another day and a half to release him. 

The state last year settled Perez's lawsuit against the juvenile justice system for $75,000. But for four years, the city of Hallandale Beach did not apologize, did not acknowledge the mistake, did not make amends. But now it will. 

The city attorney told commissioners two weeks ago that they should stop the appeals process and settle Perez's civil lawsuit for the $100,000 a jury awarded last year. This after Perez's lawyer offered to settle for $19,000. 

"They told us to go fly a kite," said Miami attorney Scott Jay Feder. 

Perez said he plans to save the settlement money. 

"I'm just happy to be done with it," said Perez, who focuses on his budding professional career as a lightweight boxer with a 5-0 record and works days as a customer service representative at Ramada Plaza Resorts in Fort Lauderdale. 

He is surprised his case prevailed. 

"I thought because I was going against the police station there was no way," he said as he wound yellow hand wraps around his knuckles. "I thought because I was young, they wouldn't take my word for it." 

And the judge and jury might not have, Feder said, if the evidence hadn't shown that the arresting officer lied at trial. 

Arrested before 9 a.m., Perez said he was not allowed to call his mother until he was taken to jail late that night. Officer Timothy Donahue testified that in the morning he contacted Perez's mother, Gloria Frances, and told her to bring her son's identification. 

According to Donahue's testimony, Frances said she noticed that Perez had left his wallet at home but she could not bring it in, so officers detained Perez. But the official log of Perez's belongings at the time police booked him showed that he had his identification with him. 

Donahue resigned as a Hallandale Beach officer in October 1998 and currently is a Davie police officer. 

Perez's case is not the only high-profile blunder the Hallandale Beach Police Department has made recently. 

A police SWAT team a year ago surprised a couple by bursting into their apartment and searching them for drugs and guns. The couple, New York horse trainers who say they now avoid South Florida, are suing Hallandale Beach after police admitted to raiding the wrong home. 

Perez and his family just moved from Hollywood to North Miami, and although he is 21, he always tries to call to let his mother know where he is and whether he'll be late to spare her the feeling of panic in his absence. 

Perez said he doesn't focus on the past, on how his pleas to check his fingerprints went unheeded, or about the days and nights in jail when he avoided the frequent fights or slept shivering after someone stole his pillow and blanket. 

Other things Perez doesn't dwell on: that he had to stand up his girlfriend the day of his arrest -- Valentine's Day -- that the nursing home where he worked wouldn't take him back although he explained the arrest was a mistake, that he wouldn't leave the house for several weeks after, afraid of another false arrest, and that he had to make up the time in summer school. 

Perez said he has no grudges against police officers. He does try to stay out of Hallandale Beach, though. 

"When I see a Hallandale officer, I might get a little worried," he said with a shy smile. Then, patting at his thighs, he added: "I just check and see if I have my ID."