Candidate Ralph Rosado exaggerates ‘his’ police initiatives

Candidate Ralph Rosado exaggerates ‘his’ police initiatives
  • Sumo

Miami City Commission candidate Ralph Rosado sounds like an incumbent on the most recent mailer that arrived in some Miami voters’ homes Wednesday.

“Let’s talk about crime and it’s prevention,” it says on the front.

“I have worked to guarantee that our police department can count on the sufficient number of police officers to keep us protected and also prevent crimes before they are committed. That is why I spearheaded an initiative to hire 100 new officers,” it says on the back.

That may come as a surprise to the mayor and city commissioners.

“It’s a lie,” said Mayor Tomas Regalado.

“I know he is running and he wants to be elected but you can’t get into elected office through fraud. That’s an injustice to the voters,” Regalado said. “It’s also an insult to the administration and the commission who worked hard and had to make many hard decisions to get to this point,” the mayor told Ladra, adding that they are at more than 180 additional officers in the past two years.

Of course, Regalado is supporting another candidate in the District 4 race: Manolo Reyes, an economics teacher who used to work in the city’s and the Miami-Dade School Board’s budget offices. There are a couple of other candidates who have showed an intention to run for the seat vacated by Commissioner Francis Suarez‘s mayoral bid, but, so far anyway, this is really a contest between Rosado and Reyes, who is a perennial candidate — but at least he doesn’t jump from seat to seat (Rosado also ran for state rep) and exaggerate his laurels.

Last summer’s graduating Miami Police cadets

Because Rosado’s role in the police staffing increase was basically going to a budget hearing a couple of Septembers ago and urging the commission to hire more police officers. That’s it. He was the first of two speakers on that item. The second was pollster and radio show host (until last week) Fernand Amandi, whose home had been burglarized. It’s a  little disingenuous then to send a mailer where he basically takes credit — “spearheading” the initiative and all.

“I am not a commissioner and I have no power over the police department. But heck yeah, I was there for 11 hours and I met with people for days prior and I did the research,” Rosado told Ladra.

“Can I say only because I spoke did it happen? I can’t say that,” he admitted. “But if nobody brought it up, maybe it wouldn’t have happened.”

Really? Well then, I say don’t run for office. Just go to every meeting and speak on the issues we need action on. Because, most likely, the new hires would have happened anyway. The shortage had reached a boiling point. And Amandi spoke, too. Maybe it was his words that moved Commissioner Marc Sarnoff to make the motion.

In his email, Rosado also said that he “implemented a program that uses crime data with the goal of trying to prevent crimes before they happen and concentrate police work in the most dangerous areas. We can make our neighborhoods safer and I, as your future City Commissioner, will work harder than anyone to guarantee that we do.”

And that’s at least a little more truthful. But not entirely.

What he did was bring the FIT Zone program used in East Palo Alto, California, to the attention of the city commission, complete with a Power Point presentation on July 14 last year. The program takes data from the ShotSpotter gunshot detection system put in place in 2014 and finds public spaces near hot spots — a time and area where there is consistently a flurry of firearm activity — to then program fitness activities, targetting at risk kids and the people in the surrounding homes. Miami’s pilot program is on Monday nights with a basketball league and other activities at Overtown’s Reeves Park and it’s a huge success, Commissioner Suarez said.

“He did come up with the idea and the results have been incredible,” Suarez said. “He did discover it. He did study it, flying to Palo Alto to see how it worked there. And he convinced me to execute it here.”

So, why didn’t Rosado send a mail piece just on that? Why not be honest and include more details about the lives the program could be changing, which would be more powerful? Oh, wait, I know. Because Reeves Park is not in District 4. So it’s better to be vague. I would imagine that voters in District 4 who get this mailer could logically think the program benefits “our neighborhoods.” It doesn’t. And it won’t anytime soon. According to Commissioner Suarez, the next two hotspots under consideration for an expansion of the program are in Liberty City.

Kudos to Baby X because he represents the whole city and is not provincial. And kudos to Ralph for going out of his way to bring us FIT Zone.

But it doesn’t make it okay to exaggerate or misrepresent his role on campaign materials, which is what Rosado did with the two crime-fighting claims in this mailer. One’s an outright lie and the other is a half-truth.

15 Responses to "Candidate Ralph Rosado exaggerates ‘his’ police initiatives"

  1. Wow, seems a bit extreme to be so opposed to this candidate and with such little evidence. Are you being paid or compensated by the opposition or friends of the opposition in any way, shape or form? Are you friends with any of the characters involved?

  2. I recorded the Miami Police Chief setting that police lie. Can I be an incumbent too?

  3. I disagree with you (Ladra) about his exaggerating his role in the hiring of more police officers because I too was at the commission meetings and at meetings with other neighborhood associations. Ralph was certainly part of the organizing efforts and worked hard to make sure that Coconut Grove and other high tax-base neighborhoods weren’t the primary beneficiaries of additional police officers. He ensured his areas residents had a voice in the efforts. Hopefully they had more success than my district whose Commissioner seems to care little for the neighborhoods outside of his power base. I give Rosado credit for at least showing up, I can’t say that I ever saw Reyes at any meetings at all.

  4. Ladra,

    Marc Sarnoff is no longer a Commissioner. Did the senile Mayor Regalado give you bad information?

  5. Ralph Rosada does attend a lot of meetings. He needs to speak up more frequently. Police. So many police have been retiring and taking advantage of the City’s generous Defined Benefit Pension Plan that the City constantly needs to hire new officers.

  6. Hola, I’ll make this simple. I have been behind the scenes since ’13 for accountability and the hiring of professional individuals at Miami PD. It baffles me to see people taking credit for the work I have done. This is my passion and will continue to make the amazing changes.

    Best,

    Danny

  7. Manny,

    Bienvenido a Miami… an honest man can’t keep a job in our local bureaucracies… The Corrupt like to keep the Corrupt in government. Ralph has a radical idea that voters and citizens have power. He is constantly trying to get people involved and mobilized groups of citizens. Perhaps, I am jaded, but I am not sure that Good may triumph over Bad in this city?
    Ralph is a good boy. The question is whether a good boy deserves your vote or not… I know folks who vote against people because they think they are too nice for local government; they fear local government will corrupt them…

  8. Oh Lara, I always think you know the behind the scenes and then you publish an article like this… Ralph ( he should be Ralfael to cater to his district ) has been doing so much work behind the scenes for everyone.
    Regalado’s response is laughable.

    Rosado is dedicated, intelligent, and competent. Of course in Miami, we don’t really like the most qualified, less likely to cause a scandal candidates. Our current elected politicians probably couldn’t put together a PowerPoint on their own platforms, let alone do research and talk to folks…
    City leadership has been relying on Ralph for years. He has always been faithful like a good Catholic boy.

    • So Juno why did Ralph or Rafael get removed from City Manager from his last municipal gig, I have talked to several folks and all they think is that this guy Ralph can’t keep a job and wants to live off others. OH hold on what he is really good at is MUELA!!!

      But your right about not having smart elected officials in miami just look at Suarez and statement could not think of this on his own? Guess he is not Mayor material after all maybe Carollo should run.

  9. So after some time and multiple drinks are you telling me the Ralph was lobbying for a service or company without registering? Can we ask for Centurinos opinion!

    • Dear Manny, he says that he was not compensated for the presentation, that he made it as a member of the public, a private citizen interested in seeing positive change. While the jaded bitch in me is suspicious of that, the inner true believer wants to hold on to the faith that there are still people who do that and has to give him the benefit of the doubt.

      But let me know if you find out differently.

      Love, Ladra

  10. WTF! Alternative facts have arrived in Miami. If he’s already deploying such heavy loads of Bullshit now god save us if he where to get elected.

    • Alma his excuse will be a Russian conspiracy against him or a plot by Democrats for being such a strong Republican

  11. Wow this Ralph guy is a character did he create milk as well? If I would take. Reddit for every issue the county does that I have given the idea to Barreiro or Sosa I would be County Mayor!

    I just heard a shot! Oh wait it was Ralph’s Guayaba!!!

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