02-24-2012, 10:50 PM
Coral Gables may be the City Beautiful, but beautiful can’t really describe what’s going on at the swanky city’s police department.
dennis ****** commute coral gables police
The buzz among the boys and girls in blue is that rookie chief Dennis ******, almost a year on the job, has been unable to connect with his troops.
One reason: ****** hasn’t moved to Coral Gables — as he promised the city’s administration he’d do.
******, who was lured from the tiny Juno Beach Police Department, is commuting almost daily for three hours — on Coral Gables’ dime. His marital home is still in Juno Beach, in north Palm Beach County.
According to accounting kept by the Coral Gables’ administration, he has put 31,300 miles on his unmarked Crown Vic and used $5,391 in gas — courtesy the taxpayer. The itemized uses of his city-issued Sunpass fill 74 pages!
Oh, yes: City Manager Pat Salerno (who was told to leave the same position in Sunrise, or be fired) agreed to give the chief a $1,750-a-month housing allowance for his first seven months so that he could move.
Both Salerno and ****** refused to answer questions about their arrangement. But a source tells me ****** house-sits a Coral Gables mansion and occasionally spends the night.
Now, the icing on this deflating souffle: ****** has been called to active duty in the US Navy Reserve and heads to a military police posting in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on March 2. He’s expected to be out until January!
“I expected him and his family to transition to South Florida,” said Commissioner Ralph Cabrera. “I recently learned the chief is going into active duty. … I find all this highly unusual.”
****** was lured from the 20-member Juno Beach Police Department in March 2011 and makes $140,545 a year.
– This article first appeared in my column in the Miami Herald
dennis ****** commute coral gables police
The buzz among the boys and girls in blue is that rookie chief Dennis ******, almost a year on the job, has been unable to connect with his troops.
One reason: ****** hasn’t moved to Coral Gables — as he promised the city’s administration he’d do.
******, who was lured from the tiny Juno Beach Police Department, is commuting almost daily for three hours — on Coral Gables’ dime. His marital home is still in Juno Beach, in north Palm Beach County.
According to accounting kept by the Coral Gables’ administration, he has put 31,300 miles on his unmarked Crown Vic and used $5,391 in gas — courtesy the taxpayer. The itemized uses of his city-issued Sunpass fill 74 pages!
Oh, yes: City Manager Pat Salerno (who was told to leave the same position in Sunrise, or be fired) agreed to give the chief a $1,750-a-month housing allowance for his first seven months so that he could move.
Both Salerno and ****** refused to answer questions about their arrangement. But a source tells me ****** house-sits a Coral Gables mansion and occasionally spends the night.
Now, the icing on this deflating souffle: ****** has been called to active duty in the US Navy Reserve and heads to a military police posting in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on March 2. He’s expected to be out until January!
“I expected him and his family to transition to South Florida,” said Commissioner Ralph Cabrera. “I recently learned the chief is going into active duty. … I find all this highly unusual.”
****** was lured from the 20-member Juno Beach Police Department in March 2011 and makes $140,545 a year.
– This article first appeared in my column in the Miami Herald