Carlos Gimenez scolds police director: ‘Layoffs may not come’

Miami-Dade Police Director JD Patterson cancelled on Friday two mandatory meetings scheduled for next week for sworn and non sworn personnel on the list to be laid off because of budget constraints.

His boss, Mayor Carlos “Cry Wolf” Gimenez told him to in a memo that was pretty much like a typed spanking.

“After discussions with Mayor Carlos Gimenez and a memorandum from him, it is clear to me that the Miami-Dade County Human Resources Department should communicate on these issues, not the Miami-Dade Police Department,” Patterson wrote in a memo Friday to all the same people he had written to earlier in the week about the mandatory meetings.

“The mayors top priority is to work with the unions to secure agreements that could result in fewer layoffs and possibly no layoffs at all,” Patterson wrote, adding that the mayor said there could be 110 police officers laid off at the town hall meeting in Aventura Thursday. That’s good news since a day earlier, at the Facebook virtual town hall, he used a figure of 228.

“With Health Care redesign, that number will be zero,” Patterson wrote. “I want to personally apologize to each of you and your families for any undue confusion, frustration or heightened concern this may have caused.”

Really? Really?

So, after all the threats and hand-wringing… after putting this community on edge, Mayor “Cry Wolf” has found a way to keep all our officers on the force, after all? Could this just be another bait and switch? You know, so we can all wipe our brow and say at least we’re not firing anyone from our department which is already 300 officers short? Whew. We missed another bullet.

Riiiiiight. We knew this going in, didn’t we? I don’t know about you, but Ladra really isn’t surprised that the mayor and/or his administration is going to find an 11th hour solution that allows them to sweat the employees as long as possible. They are not going to let the commission come in and save the day by taking money away from him in some other department.

And they certainly don’t want the police director coming in and doing anything for those poor laid off folks who, wink wink, he never really intended to lay off. According to news reports leaking out Friday, the county is tapping into hotel tourist tax dollars to plug up the shortfall. Hey, isn’t that what Ladra suggested months ago?

But what this latest turn does indicate is a bit of a turf war between Patterson and Gimenez, whose memorandum — the one Patterson alluded to — basically scolds the Police Director for trying to do right by his troops in calling for meetings with 400 police employees.

“While I commend your proactive approach to this very serious situation, at this time such a briefing is premature at best and unnecessary at worst, given that there is no official list of layoffs and my administration is actively working to avoid this worst case scenario,” Gimenez wrote.

“As you are aware, the number of potential layoffs is very fluid and much lower than the total number of departmental personnel that was provided in the notice asking staff to attend the meeting. Further, my administration’s top priority is to work with our unions to secure agreemnts that could result in fewer layoffs and possibly no layoffs at all. Hour departmental letter has probably led to confusion and concern in your department,” Gimenez wrote, basically telling Patterson he over-reached.

Gimenez spokesman Michael Hernandez told Ladra Friday that the administration had lowered the number of potential layoffs from 228 to 100 — that’s more than a 50 percent reduction — even without the health care costs cuts. Where did they find the monies to save 128 police positions?

Hernandez could not immediately say.

“The number could be zero if the PBA agrees to healthcare redesign. Information on the health insurance plan proposal is available on the Miami Dade County website. Also, please note that the Mayor is no longer seeking an extension of “snap backs” that are due to employees on October 1.”

So, wait a minute! Gimenez, who says he is not a magician, suddenly found the money to save 128 police positions without keeping the concessions that he said were absolutely, positively necessary just a few weeks ago?

No wonder the Patterson memo was “premature.” It would be premature at any time, ever.

“The Mayor believes that the meeting called by Director Patterson was premature given that the number of potential layoffs is a constantly moving figure due to the fact that tax collections and reallocation of subsequently available funding is taking place,” Hernandez said. The Administration is certainly working to keeping all officers employed.

“Furthermore, the mayor prefers that should layoffs be necessary, the County’s Human Resource Department handle the process of providing information to affected employees. The department offers a variety of services to personnel who have lost jobs and is better equipped for this type of work.”

You could tell he doesn’t want Patterson involved in that process from the Gimenez memo.

“The Department of Human Resources is charged with helping our employees through any downsizing process and will be taking the lead in this effort. For these reasons, I am asking you to cancel this briefing and allow our Department of Human Resources to take the lead in informing and assisting potentially impacted employees as needed,” the mayor went on.

“Miami-Dade County takes potential layoffs very seriously and as such we do everything we can to mitigate the adverse impacts to our employees. Human Resources is well equipped to handle these instances and will meet with groups of employees to educate them on the process. The Department also offers assistance in skills such as resume writing, interview techniques and will schedule one-on-one meetings upon request,” the mayor wrote, and then called the Patterson’s department list bogus.

“If layoffs cannot be avoided, the Department of Human Resources will compile the correct list with assistance from operating departments and take into account a number of factors such as seniority, bumping rights, veteran preferences and other qualifying employment. Because an official list dos not exist at this time, any meeting to discuss staffing cuts will not be based on reality, but on hypotheticals.

“Again, as stated above, the number of potential layoffs is being reduced as my administration continues its work to limit or eliminate employee staffing reductions. Therefore, when a final number of layoffs throughout the county government is available, the Department of Human Resources will be contacting you to discuss the next appropriate steps. Please communicate with Human Resources on how best we can work together to help inform and assist potentially affected personnel.”

But the problem is that among those on the Patterson list of “hypotheticals” are the most recent recruits, at least 45 officers who have gone through the academy and initial training — at a cost of about $2.9 million to the county, according to union representatives (more on that later) — who can’t even look for other jobs because they signed agreements that they would stay with the county for two years.

So, while the city of Miami is looking to hire as many of the fired county cops as they can, these new recruits can’t apply.

Gimenez should fix that instead of getting into a pissing match with the police director over who gets to tell these folks they’ve been axed.

Carlos Gimenez, Miami-Dade budget, police cuts

Carlos Gimenez scolds police director: ‘Layoffs may not come’ added by Ladra on August 15, 2014
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