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Recall Tomas Regalado

Nice guy, right?

Admittedly, that fund drive was 30 years ago. But in case you think Regalado has changed his tune, just last month he instructed Martinez, his new city manager, to waive the city's hiring freeze to bring on a rather curious "budget consultant."

Luis Zuniga doesn't have great financial credentials — but he's a hard-line Cuban activist and former member of Alpha 66, the paramilitary anti-Castro group accused of its own spate of bombings during the '70s wave of terror that swept through Miami.

Sounds like just the guy to solve the city's budget woes, right? Perhaps for more than $2,300 a month — the salary the mayor authorized — Zuniga can fashion a deficit-destroying pipe bomb.

10. Whistleblowers Cost Taxpayers

One consequence of being a terrible manager is that your organization tends to fall to pieces. (See: City of Miami, circa 2009 to present.) And, oh yeah, taxpayers end up footing the bill for all the lawsuits filed by wrongfully terminated underlings.

In just 20 months as mayor, Regalado has racked up two major suits by former top deputies; two more are likely to follow. Three say they were fired for whistleblowing, and another says he was canned in an act of political retaliation. All have cost the city big in legal fees — and could easily end up with big settlements paid out of your wallet.

Until April 2010, Ola Aluko, director of the Capital Improvements Program, did his job well without a lot of fuss. But on March 19, 2010, he says, he alerted Regalado that he'd discovered midlevel managers inflating a contract from $250,000 to $750,000.

What Aluko claims he didn't know is that the managers were well connected. So Regalado canned Aluko. "If the mayor wants to clean house... he's got the right to do that," Aluko told New Times. "What he can't do is fire a guy... who blows the whistle and embarrasses him."

Alex J. Martinez knows how he feels. The ex-deputy director of the General Services Administration was one of eight who were targets of a botched April 2010 "corruption probe."

Though authorities announced Martinez was "still at large," the bureaucrat was sitting at home with a stomachache, utterly baffled. He turned himself in the next day, but charges were quickly dropped. The real reason he was shamed on television, he says, is simple: He was the prime investigator behind one of Regalado's worst political scandals, the alleged abuse of his city-issued gas cards a decade ago. (Despite strong evidence that the then-commissioner's family was racking up big gas bills on city cards, he was never punished.)

Michael Boudreaux's case is more complex. The former city finance director's work with ex-CFO Larry Spring has become a central point in the SEC's investigation. After the director was fired in March 2010, Regalado claimed someone deleted or stole key files from Boudreaux's computer to stymie investigators.

In fact, Boudreaux argues, he was canned as a scapegoat. "They [tried to] punish, smear, and even concoct false allegations of criminal conduct against this dedicated city employee who dared to tell the truth," he writes in his suit.

Igwe, the fired auditor, meanwhile, tells New Times he has hired his own attorneys.

Regalado is barred from talking about ongoing lawsuits, and Aluko's and Boudreaux's cases are still open. (Martinez says he's preparing a lawsuit.)

But this much is certain: You're already paying to defend the mayor every day because of his own bad management. And unless you recall him now, you'll probably pay a lot more.

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27 comments
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Windmichael21
Windmichael21

the most corrupt town in miami dade is bay harbor islands-there has never been spanish commisioner there even though the town is 70 percent latino,let regalato be the chief in bay harbor islands and give him a banana.

Al Crespo
Al Crespo

Police and firefighters call for union votes to recall His Ignorance, Tomas Regalado.

loveboat2010
loveboat2010

Thanks to people like you this just may happen, a small but meaningful dent on the banana republic..

Fire 500 now
Fire 500 now

Tomas Regalado and Johnny Martinez need to reduce pay and benefits for all 4,200 employees immediately. Concurrently, they must fire 500. Reducing the headcount to 3,400 to 3,500 should have been done years ago.

Is Regalado too stupid to know what needs to be done? Is he surrounded by too many idiots?

Sleep walking chump
Sleep walking chump

City of Miami fires it's disgraced CFO Larry Spring. Rookie City Manager Tony Crappola leaves under a cloud taking huge severance checks on his way out the door.

Regalado sleep walks from one disaster to another.

City failing
City failing

Regalado is a bumbling fool. How about the Gucci wearing commissioner Marc Sarnoff? He demands the City pay a policeman to be his chauffeur. Then he gives raises to his cronies.

BeReal
BeReal

This article is a good but I can assure you it is only the surface. The city’s corruption is overwhelming and honestly scary enough to be in the movies. The layers of corruption, mismanagement, bad processes, and backroom deals (to name a few) are massive. Working at the city nowadays is like working in a hostile and violent environment. The corruption starts from as low as employees taking ineligible paid time off (PTO) spending thousands of taxpayers’ dollars to hiring friends and family into $100K+ roles. You point out some interesting names Victor Igwe, Priscilla Thompson, I suggest you get the story straight about Victor Igwe – the only real fact here is that he is African American. You may want to start with his contract; 45 Paid Vacation Day Per Year, Hundreds of accumulated vacation hours, thousands of accumulated Sick Hours, no different for Priscilla Thompson, Julie Brue, to mention a few. Sadly there are ā€œfewā€ good employees (keyword ā€œfewā€) and unfortunately their efforts are tarnished by the rest of the garbage. There’s no fixing the City of Miami – the culture of corruption is embedded well into its structure.

305soldier
305soldier

You guys had a chance to get him when he was taking gas from a city card for personal use. That was ten years ago, the monster has now grown into miilions in mismanagement and defrauding the taxpayers.

Mayor Corrupt?
Mayor Corrupt?

What's up with Regalado? He is a novice mayor with a low IQ and corrupt friends.

Regalado is a crook
Regalado is a crook

Tomas Regalado and his friends and campaign manager have been raping the taxpayers for years.

Anyone notice Regalado trying to give the Marine Stadium site to his buddy Manny Puch, the shyster lawyer?

Guest
Guest

None of that stuff yoiu mentioned can be pegged on Regal.

Mikeabo
Mikeabo

Only 5 pages this article is way to short

CHARTERREFORMNOW
CHARTERREFORMNOW

Small mind, just because the old County Mayor and the new County Mayor share the same first name, that does not make the new Mayor a "virtual carbon copy" of the old Mayor. Why don't you try researching the issue. If you did, you would find that the New Mayor was the Old Mayor's loudest critic on the County Commission, and not just recently, since 2004 when they were both elected. Really, comments like that really put into question your credibility, assuming you had any to begin with.

El_Bananero
El_Bananero

Regalado has never answered what he did with Torriente's briefcase. You did not mention that in your story.

305soldier
305soldier

Thank you for writing what the Propaganda Herald refuses to. Its a shame that we live in such a clueless city. A city that we allow these crooks to walk in and stuff their pockets with taxpayer money. Only 10 to 15% percent of the population here votes

How do these crooks get elected? pastellitos. Read the http://eyeonmiami.blogspot.com...local politician talks about voting scams.

Fcking incredible!!

Regalado bites
Regalado bites

Tomas Regalado has been a total failure as Mayor. The City must reduce pay and benefits to its 4,200 employees. In fact, Regalado must get new novice City Manager to fire over 500 employees with the worst attitudes.

Will Regaldo and Martinez be men and fire 500 slackers?Or will they be cowards?

Epw101
Epw101

Did you even read the article?? Employees are not even mentioned in the story.... Move on already... We were decimated last year to the turn of over 25% per employee....

Miamian
Miamian

This is only the tip of the iceberg. Insiders know how bad things really are and the bloggers are doing a pretty good job in uncovering all the dirt under Regalado's regime. Highly qualified staff are jumping ship or being laid off for not doing the dirty dealings asked of them. That will result in many lawsuits and cost taxpayers. The city is scrambling to find good talent in many department and the cronies are destroying the little good that existed. All of this will have long time repercussions to get the City to bounce back. Tim: Regalado is close to Braman, so in this case, Braman is not the man for the recall. If we wait on that, it will never happen. Braman needs Regalado to build his Kia dealership in Wynwood and who knows where else.

Nan1052
Nan1052

This is an example of why I'm so glad to no longer live in Miami (Mee-ah-mee)

Julian Munoz
Julian Munoz

Greed and corruption are an American pastime! The "me" culture is what helped construct the fable story of an American Dream.

Drake Mallard
Drake Mallard

welcome to the banana republic

nepotism that how you get a job in miamiĀ  just ask the city workers

"a college degree does not guarantee a job"

Nepotism in the workplace

Under Florida law, public officials are banned from "appointing, promoting, employing, advancing or advocating for appointment, employment, promotion, or advancement in or to a position in the agency in which he serves or over which he exercises jurisdiction or control any individual who is a relative." For example, if a municipal chairperson recommends or appoints his daughter for a clerical position in his office, then he is running afoul of Florida nepotism law

Under Florida law, the legal definition of what constitutes a relative for the purposes of nepotism in public employment is clearly defined. In fact, the law provides a laundry list of familial labels that constitute nepotism. These labels are "father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, first cousin, nephew, niece, husband, wife, father-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, stepfather, stepmother, stepson, stepdaughter, stepbrother, stepsister, half brother or half sister.

Jhonny Seafood
Jhonny Seafood

uhh if memory serves me correct Teele shot himself in the NEW TIMES lobby

Jose D. Duran
Jose D. Duran

Teele shot himself in the lobby of the Herald building after talking with DeFede over the phone, who taped the conversation without Teele's knowledge and was subsequently fired from the paper for doing so.

seep
seep

Memory does not serve you correct(ly).

DaGuerre
DaGuerre

Angel Zayon is 30 years old? Better check that.

 
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