Sweetwater creates job for Hialeah councilwoman’s son

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With one hand, Sweetwater Mayor Jose Diaz fired a bunch of people to “clean house” and get rid of the cronies left over from the administration of former and disgraced Mayor Manny “Maraña” Maroño, who is now serving three years in the pen on federal public corruption charges.

With the other, Diaz hired Alexis Martinez, an inexperienced 20-something for a newly-created (read: unnecessary) position, human resources coordinator, to serve as a liaison between his office and the human resources department. Most likely because Diaz can’t stand to talk directly with Human Resources Director Joanna Rubio, the godmother of one of Maroño’s kids and went to high school with his wife, who won her job back via appeal after the mayor fired her last month. Rubio was reinstated June 2. Martinez, who applied May 22, started in the newly-created job last week.

But they’re really grooming Martinez for the mayor’s chief of staff position, which, last time we checked, could pay up to $150,000. Right now Martinez has a salary of $35,000 a year. Maybe it wasn’t more because the commission tied the mayor’s hands with a vote that capped the amount he could pay a new hire in his office, without their approval, at $40,000. This way, the mayor can skip their approval. Or maybe it was because it’s really a part time job — seeing as how Martinez is in college classes three days a week until 1 p.m.

Related story: 3 ‘clean house’ fired Sweetwater employees get jobs back

Martinez has no real qualifications for human resources coordinator — other than being the son of Hialeah Council President Isis “Gavelgirl” Garcia-Martinez, who is also BFFs with Absentee Ballot Queen Sasha Tirador, who is the one that is really running Sweetwater these days — she says she’s the $1-a-year government consultant — along with Marcos Villanueva, the police officer acting as COS temporarily (more on them later).

Vice Mayor Orlando Lopez, who is running against Diaz for mayor next year, said the mayor simply traded in one crony for another (my words, not his).

“The very same thing that Jose Diaz criticized of the previous administration of doing is what he is doing — he is hiring unqualified people and filling in positions with political favors,” Lopez told me.

Not so, said Villanueva. “I was impressed by the kid,” he told Ladra, adding that Martinez had volunteered for days in the mayor’s office so that Diaz could “assess” him. He said that Martinez has quickly learned to understand the city charter, employee rules and regulations and the municipal code.

“He didn’t just come off the street. He was here for several days volunteering as the mayor assessed him and so did I. He is more than capable,” Villaueva said, adding that it would be counterproductive for him to hire another crony because it would just make the mayor look bad.

“I cannot allow somebody who is not capable and will not contribute. He will contribute.”

But here’s another sign that it’s a political position and that Sweetwater really is turning into Hialeah, where officials invented he same position, “human resources coordinator,” for the girlfriend of the mayor’s chief of staff there. So there’s little doubt that Tirador, who runs the political machines for Gavelgirl and Mayor Carlos “Castro” Hernandez, imported that idea to Sweetwater for her mall gal pal’s kid.

“He’s going to coordinate between the mayor and the human resources department, so there aren’t any misunderstandings,” Tirador told Ladra Wednesday when asked about Martinez. “You don’t need to be a genius to do that.”

Good. Because according to the application with the city and the resumé he submitted, Martinez only has experience in sales and the management of what he called medicine programs, two different ones but at the same address in West Hialeah. That sounds an awful lot like a pill mill, which is something his mom has been accused of moonlighting for on numerous occasions.

“And also, we’ll have him do a bunch of other things as if he’s the chief of staff, so when Marcos leaves to go back to the police department, he can take over,” Tirador said.

Well, he’s not really qualified for that either — unless you count the three arrests he listed on his application: Two were for marijuana possession and one for DUI, on which he was convicted and served a six month probation. Is that maybe why Ladra hears he hasn’t peed in a cup for the required drug test?

But in Sweetwater, where the mayor fired someone who lied on their application about an arrest 14 years ago, it’s worse if you don’t bring it up.

Especially since the FBI is always right around the corner.

  Isis Garcia-Martinez, Mayor Jose Diaz, Sasha Tirador, Sweetwater