Don’t ask, don’t tell! Coral Gables policy is golden silence

Don’t ask, don’t tell! Coral Gables policy is golden silence
  • Sumo

Shhhhh. The city of Coral Gables wants you to shut up.

If you’re a pesky citizen who asks too many questions, like North Gables activist and onetime commission candidate Ariel Fernandez, you get a weak ‘cease and desist’ letter from a fancy outside attorney (more on that later). If you’re an employee of the City Beautiful who talks to activists like Fernandez or city commissioners, giving them unfiltered information about city services or, maybe, police shortages or, um, theft of alarm fees, you could get fired.

And forget meetings in the afternoons so that more residents who have to work during the day can go and give commissioners their two cents on land use or development issues or the police shortages. Three of five commissioners have quashed that idea.

Maybe it should be called the City Bashful.

Information is so bottled up in Coral Gables that, as the Miami Herald just reported, there were no tweets or Facebook updates on the police department’s accounts during the recent shooting at the Village of Merrick Park. A policy change last year routes all tweets and Facebook posts through the red tape morass of the city manager’s office for approval — which sort of goes against the grain of the immediacy of police twitter alerts.

It seems that City Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark wants to control all the information getting out -bnd keep as much of it from getting out as possible. Even to commissioners, who were shocked to learn this month that a former employee had been arrested in March for stealing $85,000 from the city by diverting false alarm fee checks to her own bank account.

Swanson-Rivenbark also sent an email out earlier this month as “an important reminder to all department directors that each of you are to communicate to our office and to the city commission through your assigned assistant city manger with the exception of finance, internal audit and communications, which reports directly to me.

“The reporting encompasses all written and verbal communication,” she wrote, careful to say that they should, of course, provide information when asked. She doesn’t want to get accused of being a Pat Salerno (ooops, too late).

Read related story: Coral Gables picks Cathy Swanson as top administrator

“In the event that a city commissioner reaches out directly to you for information, please provide the information to them and inforn your assistant city manager so our office may be kept informed and ensure proper follow-through,” she wrote ominously. Define proper follow-through, Ladra says.

“This includes attendance at meetings involving a city commissioner,” the city manager continued.

So now department directors must also report on commissioners’ attenance at meetings? Like a chivato?

“The purpose of this established reporting structure is to ensure the highest level of efficiencies, coordination and timely implementation.” Swanson-Rivenbark wrote. But that seems like a stretch. The twitter policy certainly isn’t more efficient or timely. More likely, this ensures that commissioners are kept in the dark and the manager is the only one who really knows what is going on — including whatever any of the commissioners know or said.

And Ladra suspects that it is meant to have a chilling effect. When she says, “In the event that a city commissioner reaches out directly to you for information,” it sounds an awful lot like, “Yeah, right. What would they be doing going to you? We will suspect you went to them no matter what.”

Ladra wonders if the commissioners have noticed any sudden stopgap in information after the May 4 email where Swanson-Rivenbark also asks department directors to share the policy with staff and confirm receipt of the email “so I know each of you are aware of the appropriate protocol.”

So, it sounds like a gag order and smells like a gag order and walks and talks like a gag order, but the city manager calls it protocol.

Read related story: Gables City Attorney says ‘There can only be one police chief’

This email comes on the heels of a letter sent by an outside counsel to Ariel Fernandez after he sent a series of emails to Assistant City Manager Frank Fernandez (no relation) about the police shortages and public safety, copying Swanson-Rivenbark and other city employees and commissioners. The letter from former Miami-Dade Judge Israel Reyes tells Fernandez that his words are “potentially libelous” because he is making inaccurate assertions (more on that later). But most of the assertions that Fernandez made in his emails, even the ones cited in the Reyes letter — which is not a formal cease and desist but has the same threatening tone and intends to have the same chilling effect — was information provided to him, in most cases, by city employees. Some of it might have been inaccurate. But some of it was not (like the police chief being undermined by the city manager’s office). And there is no doubt in Ladra’s mind that this is the kind of thing Swanson-Rivenbark wants to nip in the bud. 

It’s also protocol for all city commission meetings to be held at 9 a.m. — and don’t expect that to change anytime soon to make them more accessible to more people. Commissioner Vince Lago asked the city clerk to poll his colleagues to see if they would be willing to begin meetings at 5 p.m. once a month, or every other meeting, to give more residents the opportunity to partipate in the democratic process through municipal government. But it got shot down by three of the voting members on the commission.

According to a May 15 memo from City Clerk Walter Foeman, two members of the commission opposed the 5 p.m. start time for the second meeting of the month. “Another member of the commission said she preferred meetings to start at  9 a.m.,” Foeman wrote, and we can assume that is Commissioner Pat Keon, the only she on the dais now. “Another commissioner said that both times worked for him; and the requesting party voted yes, to have the meetings begin at 5 p.m.”

Ladra’s sources say that newly elected Commissioner Mike Mena was the one who didn’t care one way or another and that Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli and Commissioner Frank Quesada were against it. Keon said it would be too hard on staff, who had to report the next day at 8 a.m. But a lot of other small cities have night meetings and it would definitely increase the number of people who could participate.

Ahhh. There it is, ladies and gents. Ladra cannot help but think that the true intention of not having meetings at 5 p.m. is to thwart participation. And it’s a pattern.

Because if you live or work in Coral Gables, the city administration and three of the electeds don’t want to hear from you.

So, shhhhhhh.

10 Responses to "Don’t ask, don’t tell! Coral Gables policy is golden silence"

  1. The iceberg has but one tip and when that tip melts down, the whole thing begins to crack into many pieces. You have no idea the crap that is going on in the City. Mailperson given a city car to travel back and forth to work in, so she can meet the Finance Director out of City limits and give her inter-department mail that she feels will be beneficial for the Director. Mail fraud, felonies in here somewhere. Commission – you ever wonder why certain folks in the upper echelon know before you in reference to city business? Your mail is being copied and read by others. Hush hush hush. Sickening crap is all that goes on, has been going on and will continue to go on.

    • We tried Jose, the Gables Neighbors United group tried to get the word out by outing certain mayoral and commissioner positions and promoting S.E.W. for the April election.Unfortunately, they lost. Either residents don’t care and/or didn’t turn out to vote. We will soon see how this apathy will affect every single one of us…maybe they will get out and vote next time…

  2. Anyone who Is not happy with what is going on should pick up the phone and contact the Commisioners, write emails, and of course go to the Commission meetings to express your discontent. There are more residents/taxpayers than elected officials! The commission needs to hear fro a lot of people, not just the few that show up to almost every meeting and speak up as needed.
    We, the people, should demand to be heard, without fear of retribution. No one should stand by quietly while our city becomes Like any other city in south Florida.
    May 30th may be the best time to attend The commission meeting and demand your rights.
    Please try to be there so you can see how the City Manager Is planning to reward Major Molina for violating my first amendment rights to free speech!

  3. I wish the Miami Herald would publish your article in full, but we know they will not.
    The residents of Coral Gables had their chance to make a real difference with the past election however the majority of the residents that voted where influenced by outside false information or not the whole truth to put it bluntly. We won’t go into the small percentage that did vote and the remaining that did not vote could have requested an absentee ballot.
    I believe Ariel Fernandez was not in favor of the group of neighbors that had a slate backing the following candidates, but I am sure that Ariel was receiving some false information and now can see what we knew would occur with the new Mayor and Commissioners.
    If Jeannett Slesnick, Marlin Ebert and Chip Withers were elected the Mayor and Commissioners would be meeting at 5:00 pm on the major issues that effected the residents so that residents could voice their opinion and the City Manager would not be able to control all the communications.
    Just watch out for the next 2 years and all that will be passed by the Mayor and Commissioners – we the residences are in TROUBLE!!!!!!

  4. Gables government doesn’t listen to its residents anyway (Flower Sculpture, Paseo project, unnecessary and $$$ change to 25 mph, …), so what the hell, keep the meetings at 9:00 and keep all communication hush-hush.

  5. Miami Dade Has It, It’s The CIU ( Cover it Up ), in reality is The COE The Commission on Ethics The One That Allows All The Conflict of Interest of Friends To Go Unnoticed . Like MIA Protocol For Family and Them The Reminder of We Control Your $ 2 Million Budget Remark !

  6. Is the letter sent to Mr. Ariel Fernandez going to be posted any time soon? I bet this subject might be discussed by the Commissioners in their May 30, 2017 meeting and it be nice to see what information was asked that made the City Manager have an outside attorney, instead of the City Attorney’s office, sent a letter to Mr. Ariel Fernandez. Appreciate you caring about what goes on in the City, just like in the “old” days.

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