Impact On Police Department?

Posted on Tuesday, 10.14.08 Recommend (0)share email print comment reprint
Coral Gables manager David Brown retires following corruption probe
BY ELAINE DE VALLE
edevalle@MiamiHerald.com
Coral Gables City Manager David Brown announced his early retirement Tuesday under pressure after a police investigation report released last week said he committed two crimes when he tried to cover up spending on his city-issued credit card.

Without making reference to the report, written by the Miami-Dade Police's public corruption bureau, Brown said he would step down on Jan. 31.

''Together we have met many challenges and overcome some very difficult obstacles,'' he told the commission that appointed him in 2001. ``It has not been easy. But few things worthwhile ever are.

``Today, we can say without equivocation, that Coral Gables is a better place to live, a better place to work, and a better place to play than it was when we began seven short years ago.''

Brown was expected to make the announcement after he met with Commissioner Ralph Cabrera last week on the heels of the report's release, which said there was evidence to charge the manager with felony official misconduct and falsification of records, a misdemeanor.

Police investigated Brown after an employee told them he stalled the release of his credit card receipts until he could insert two back-dated receipts that showed he partially reimbursed the city for two of the meals with wine.

Prosecutors, however, said that because Brown did not have to reimburse the money, the act did not rise to the level of a crime. He was charged with a civil violation of state public records laws and paid a $2,300 fine.

Cabrera, who had put an item on the agenda for Tuesday's meeting and was expected to move to fire the manager, took the item off after Brown agreed to retire.

Mayor Don Slesnick said the press coverage on Brown's investigation had hurt the city's image.

''I know it's been tough on you and tough on the city and I appreciate the fact that you have chosen to move in a direction of a positive nature,'' the mayor said.

Brown, who made close to $185,000 a year, will leave with a retirement equal to 75 percent of the average of his highest three years salary.

He also gets a lump sum payment of more than $315,000 from his Deferred Retirement Option Plan.

???

If this guy was revealed as being a thief why are the comissioners allowing him to remain in his position until January. Has he made a promise not to steal anymore? Can we at least get him to sign an agreement that he won't use his position to steal. If he is coaught stealing again he has to leave by December. What's wrong with this picture?

Meet Fidel Odinga


Yes, his complete name is Fidel Castro Odinga. He is the eldest son of Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga and a first cousin to Barack Hussein Obama. The late Obama Sr. was the prime minister's maternal uncle. Although Obama Sr. was educated at Harvard and Odinga in East Germany, uncle and nephew were friends and political allies.

Today it is Barack Obama and Raila Odinga who have formed a transcontinental political alliance. In fact, Senator Obama, in an unprecedented breech of protocal, went to Kenya in 2006 to campaign on his cousin's behalf in that country's presidential election.

Raila lost the election when a secret pact was revealed with Kenya's Muslim Brotherhood to institute sharia law in all the country's courts in exchange for their support of his candidacy. This is all the more remarkable because it is Christianity (66%), not Islam (10%), which is the largest religion in Kenya, and English common law, not the Koran, which is the basis for its legal system. Or, perhaps, it is not so remarkable, after all, since both the Odingas and Obamas belong to the 10 percent.

Although not an observant Muslim, Odinga does represent Moammar Qaffafy's oil interests in southern Africa, which may better explain his willingness to tranform his non-Muslim country into a Muslim state as Idi Amin did in Uganda when he was the recipient of the colonel's largesse 30 years ago.

Odinga's connection to Barack Obama, however, has proved more useful in his political career than Qadaffy's billions. It was in the expectation of Obama's election as president, and to ingratiate himself to him, that Odinga's political rival offered him the premiership as a consolation prize.

When Prime Minister Odinga named his son "Fidel Castro," he broke with Kenyan tradition as he should have named him for the boy's grandfather Oginga Odinga (the Kenyan "Fidel Castro"), a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary who led an unsuccessful coup to topple the government of Kenya on behalf of the Soviets.

It is not known whether Oginga Odinga's brother-in-law, Obama Sr., was involved in the coup, though given the tribal character of politics in Kenya it would be difficult to imagine that he wasn't at least aware of it or wouldn't have profited by it even if he didn't contribute to it. Indeed, that may have been the reason for Obama Sr.'s failed political career in Kenya.

It is certainly ironic that Obama Sr.'s star eclipsed because of his relationship to Oginga Odinga, whereas his son Raila's rose because of his connection to Obama Jr.

We wonder how things might have turned out if Obama Sr., the Harvard-trained economist, had followed his cousin's example and named his American-born son "John Maynard Keynes Obama."Guest

I couldn't agree wiht you more. Brown needs to be fired IMMEDIATELY. Good point 165.

I actually Like Dan Benedict in Purchasing for what he did. David was a loser :devil: