Audio By Carbonatix
We have it on good word that Carlos Hernandez is a 54-year-old who has graduated from college and spent ten years as either a commissioner or mayor for the city of Hialeah.
Wow, sounds like that guy has it together. He probably wouldn’t try to pull any juvenile stunts. I bet when that guy is faced with problems, he finds calm, rational ways to deal with them, you might think.
You’d be wrong.
The Hialeah mayor was hit with a $4,000 fine from the Miami-Dade Ethics Commission this year, and in response, he had operatives show up with 28 buckets filled with 400,000 pennies yesterday to pay the fine.
That sounds like the kind of juvenile shit a delusional brat like Justin Bieber might pull, you’re thinking.
Yes, you would be correct.
Centavo a centavo quiso pagar una multa el alcalde de Hialeah Carlos Hernández ¿Como termino todo? @Univision23 6pm pic.twitter.com/aFBZFh4Skw
— Jenny Padura (@JennyPadura) November 5, 2015
Hernandez was under investigation earlier this year for doing business with a Ponzi schemer named Luis Felipe Pérez. Hernandez made private loans of $180,000 to Pérez and then made huge interest payments of up to 36 percent. Hernandez wasn’t fined for that, but rather for lying to the public about the loans.
Hernandez long refused to cooperate with the ethics commission’s inquiry. He pleaded the Fifth more than 30 times when interviewed and refused to show up to his own hearing. So the panel hit him with a $3,000 fine, plus $1,000 for investigation costs.
Hernandez decided to get petty with pennies, and hence today’s attempt to pay the fine. The ethics commission refused the payment.
“They don’t want to take our money… cash,” Hernandez told the local Univision news station. “I paid it with American money, of the United States, and I have the right to do that.”
Indeed, the pennies ended up going back to Hialeah City Hall.
