01-10-2011, 02:52 AM
Miami police saga has city manager Crapp in `mango' mess
BY MYRIAM MARQUEZ
MMARQUEZ@MIAMIHERALD.COM
The public servant is trying to deliver turkeys during the holidays but a mysterious SUV with dark tinted windows keeps popping up.
Or so this story of not-so-good cheer goes. I don't know if the cops are following Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado, his office's turkey-hauling outreach coordinator or Commissioner Richard P. Dunn II, as they all fear.
It's no secret, though, that the mayor and all five city commissioners who voted for a new, trimmed salary and pension structure for city workers have been hit with tough criticism by police and other public-sector unions.
At some city events like ribbon-cuttings, there have been union members protesting so loudly they have drowned out the mayor's speech, as happened last year at one event by the Miami River.
Such are the times.
THE REAL WORLD
Taxpayers are ticked off that property taxes are rising even as their home values have fallen. To the mayor's and the commission's credit, they did not raise the property tax rate like Miami-Dade has. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez and other county commissioners who backed his budget proposal are facing the voters' wrath.
But in the City of Miami, it's the workers who are upset. Welcome to the real world, voters respond. We've had salary cuts, furloughs and investment losses in our 401(k)s. So what's your problem?
It's ugly out there. Unemployment remains high -- 13.3 percent in Miami-Dade, almost four full points higher than the national rate. And Miami's rate is even higher. Expecting taxpayers to continue doling out perks for public employees in this sluggish economy is a fool's dream.
But in Miami, the mysterious SUV and the suspect car Regalado says he has caught outside his home -- the driver putting the pedal to the metal when the mayor has walked out to ask why -- well, that's a whole other novela.
The mayor and Dunn's tiff with Miami Police Chief Miguel Exposito over a spate of police shootings and botched corruption arrests -- and the chief's recent accusation that Regalado tried to interfere with police raids involving illegal gambling machines disguised as arcades -- is, well, what Cubans call un arroz con mango.
And believe me, rice and the succulent fruit aren't a gourmet meal. Poor Tony Crapp Jr., the new city manager, has to deal with this mango mess.
HARD TO IGNORE
The chief says he hasn't ordered anyone to spy. It was a process server trying to hand a letter to Regalado, that's all. Whatever. But a series of police shootings in the black community has a lot of people calling for the chief's exit.
Exposito says he is just doing his job in trying times with fewer cops than his predecessor had. He points to programs he has implemented to get guns off Miami's streets even as he has cut overtime.
Sounds good to me, but those quick-draws in Overtown that resulted in deaths of not-so-nice guys whose crimes didn't fit the death penalty on the streets can't be ignored. The state attorney's office has the police investigators' reports for most of those deaths, and Exposito told me last week he's waiting on prosecutors to clear those cases. That would be nice, but knowing how long those types of prosecutorial investigations take, time is not on his side.
Dunn plans to ask the chief to resign at a commission meeting on Thursday. Good luck with that. The charter clearly states only the city manager can fire the chief -- and only for cause. Like I said, poor Tony Crapp. Rice, mango, anyone?
Dear Myriam Marquez, Please, please go to the Al Crespo blog, Investigate Miami Blog and learn to write a investigative story, your a sorry excuse for a Herald writer.
We the city employees are not upset at the taxpayers but the dirty politicians that continue to get kick backs and waist millions on personal projects. I drive past a BILLION dollar baseball stadium everyday while our pay is cut because politicians feel our lives are not worth much.
Drive over to N.W. 2nd Avenue and 12 St have one of those career criminals point a gun at you and ask yourself hmmm what should the police do?
BY MYRIAM MARQUEZ
MMARQUEZ@MIAMIHERALD.COM
The public servant is trying to deliver turkeys during the holidays but a mysterious SUV with dark tinted windows keeps popping up.
Or so this story of not-so-good cheer goes. I don't know if the cops are following Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado, his office's turkey-hauling outreach coordinator or Commissioner Richard P. Dunn II, as they all fear.
It's no secret, though, that the mayor and all five city commissioners who voted for a new, trimmed salary and pension structure for city workers have been hit with tough criticism by police and other public-sector unions.
At some city events like ribbon-cuttings, there have been union members protesting so loudly they have drowned out the mayor's speech, as happened last year at one event by the Miami River.
Such are the times.
THE REAL WORLD
Taxpayers are ticked off that property taxes are rising even as their home values have fallen. To the mayor's and the commission's credit, they did not raise the property tax rate like Miami-Dade has. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez and other county commissioners who backed his budget proposal are facing the voters' wrath.
But in the City of Miami, it's the workers who are upset. Welcome to the real world, voters respond. We've had salary cuts, furloughs and investment losses in our 401(k)s. So what's your problem?
It's ugly out there. Unemployment remains high -- 13.3 percent in Miami-Dade, almost four full points higher than the national rate. And Miami's rate is even higher. Expecting taxpayers to continue doling out perks for public employees in this sluggish economy is a fool's dream.
But in Miami, the mysterious SUV and the suspect car Regalado says he has caught outside his home -- the driver putting the pedal to the metal when the mayor has walked out to ask why -- well, that's a whole other novela.
The mayor and Dunn's tiff with Miami Police Chief Miguel Exposito over a spate of police shootings and botched corruption arrests -- and the chief's recent accusation that Regalado tried to interfere with police raids involving illegal gambling machines disguised as arcades -- is, well, what Cubans call un arroz con mango.
And believe me, rice and the succulent fruit aren't a gourmet meal. Poor Tony Crapp Jr., the new city manager, has to deal with this mango mess.
HARD TO IGNORE
The chief says he hasn't ordered anyone to spy. It was a process server trying to hand a letter to Regalado, that's all. Whatever. But a series of police shootings in the black community has a lot of people calling for the chief's exit.
Exposito says he is just doing his job in trying times with fewer cops than his predecessor had. He points to programs he has implemented to get guns off Miami's streets even as he has cut overtime.
Sounds good to me, but those quick-draws in Overtown that resulted in deaths of not-so-nice guys whose crimes didn't fit the death penalty on the streets can't be ignored. The state attorney's office has the police investigators' reports for most of those deaths, and Exposito told me last week he's waiting on prosecutors to clear those cases. That would be nice, but knowing how long those types of prosecutorial investigations take, time is not on his side.
Dunn plans to ask the chief to resign at a commission meeting on Thursday. Good luck with that. The charter clearly states only the city manager can fire the chief -- and only for cause. Like I said, poor Tony Crapp. Rice, mango, anyone?
Dear Myriam Marquez, Please, please go to the Al Crespo blog, Investigate Miami Blog and learn to write a investigative story, your a sorry excuse for a Herald writer.
We the city employees are not upset at the taxpayers but the dirty politicians that continue to get kick backs and waist millions on personal projects. I drive past a BILLION dollar baseball stadium everyday while our pay is cut because politicians feel our lives are not worth much.
Drive over to N.W. 2nd Avenue and 12 St have one of those career criminals point a gun at you and ask yourself hmmm what should the police do?