Eads's Greed

When the Coral Gables city manager leaves his post, he may be a very rich man

Comments (0) By Ted B. Kissell Thursday, Aug 24 2000

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He goes on to call for the resignation of the mayor and the other four city commissioners, the city manager and his two assistants, the city finance director, the nine members of the retirement board of trustees, the city attorney, the retirement board's attorney, the city clerk, and the retirement board's actuary. “Virtually every law in the books regarding retirement were [sic] blatantly violated,” Scanlan rants. “What a disgrace!”

Scanlan sent copies of the letter to the Miami-Dade County State Attorney's Office, the Grand Jury for Miami-Dade County, the governor's Office of the Inspector General, and the police chief of the City of Coral Gables.

Thanks to a questionable deal with the City of Coral Gables, Jack Eads is set to retire in style

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The lead investigator of the Office of the Inspector General sent Scanlan a letter in late July stating that he had forwarded Scanlan's complaints to the Miami-Dade County Commission on Ethics. Chief James Skinner of the Coral Gables Police Department also replied, noting that he had forwarded the original letter to the Public Corruption Unit of the State Attorney's Office and the local office of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Trudy Novicki, senior assistant state attorney, confirms that she received a copy of the letter and that she has assigned it to a staff member for “analysis.”

Elizabeth Hernandez, Coral Gables' city attorney, doesn't expect anything to come of Scanlan's screed. “We have a couple of retirees who keep bringing this issue back up,” she says wearily. She points out that only three city employees are directly hired by the city commission: the city manager, the city clerk, and the city attorney. Because they serve at the pleasure of the commission, the city has more latitude in negotiating compensation packages for the trio.

“I've reviewed the matter and everything is appropriate and correct,” Hernandez stresses, noting that her predecessor signed off on the deal at the time, and that the city's outside labor counsel recently reviewed and okayed it. “I have found no illegality with regard to the city manager,” she says.