In his first real official act as the newly re-elected mayor of Hialeah — well, the second act, after the little childish banner towing plane snub — Carlos “Castro” Hernandez will promote a new city ordinance at tonight’s meeting that will prohibit naming city properties after a living person.
But make no bones about it — the end game is to strip City Hall of the name it now holds: Raul L. Martinez, for the former mayor and biggest pain in Hernandez’s, er, side.
The mayor says the ordinance has been in the works for months and that it has nothing to do with political retaliation against his enemies. But former Mayor Martinez says otherwise. He told Ladra late Monday night that another journalist had told him on Election Day that Hernandez had bragged about winning and then erasing Martinez’s name from front of the building he goes to work in every day.
“It’s for me. It’s about taking my name off the building,” Martinez said. “A local reporter called me on the day of the election to let me know what Carlos had said.”
Martinez would not give Ladra the name of her colleague that got this gem from Hernandez a week ago and has since inexplicably sat on it. He said he was giving the journalist time to come forward about the incident.
But it certainly is plausible. It is just Castro’s style to do something like this.
“He’s petty,” Martinez told me.
Pathetic might be a better word.
“This is an ordinance that has been in the works for months and has nothing to do with the elections,” Hernández told El Nuevo Herald. “People have been criticizing that in Hialeah public buildings and parks are named after living elected officials.”
Oh, yeah? What people? Or is it the voices in your head? Nobody else will ask the follow up question, so Ladra has to: Where exactly did you get the motivation for this? Can we talk to the supposedly irate residents who were outraged at this “abusive practice”?
Because, in Hialeah, there are exactly two properties named for living electeds: City Hall, baptized the Raul Martinez Government Center after he left office, and Roberto Casas Park, named for the former Democratic state senator who is one of Martinez’s oldest allies and who got $800,000 in state appropriations for the park that was later named for him.
And one of them is 82 years old.
Still, Hernández has the gall — and El Nuevo a total lack of it for failure to follow up — to call it the naming city properties after living electeds an “abusive practice” to promote politicians. Yeah, I know. Made me laugh, too. Wasn’t he one of the people who voted in 2006, as a commissioner, to name the building he works in after the then gone mayor, who is now his arch enemy? Why, yes, he was. Council Vice President Luis Gonzalez and Councilman Jose Caragol also voted in favor of the measure, which was under former Mayor Julio Robaina‘s administration. So did then Councilman, now State Rep. Eddy “Here Comes Hialeah” Gonzalez (R-Hialeah).
It was unknown Monday if Hernandez would intend to apply the ordinance retroactively — and, basically, strip the names from the entrance to City Hall and the signs at the park. But be sure that he can. Either he or any of his rubber-stamping Seguro Que Yes Council can propose to have the buildings renamed, in light of the intent of the new ordinance, for someone who is already dead. You know, like the dearly departed relatives of current or more recent electeds.
I’ll bet they already have a short list.
And be sure that it is right up Castro’s alley. After all, this is a man who has had the photos of Martinez and former Mayor Julio “The Other” Martinez removed from the wall on the third floor at City Hall where all the other city mayors are displayed.
Castro is trying to rewrite history.
Casas told El Nuevo Herald that he didn’t know what to expect from Hernández and called his proposal an act of revenge.
“This is political retaliation against those who disagree with him,” Casas is quoted as saying by Enrique Flor.
Duh.
“These kinds of proposals are laughable,” Casas said. “I wish the mayor success in his job, but he is wrong to plant more reprisals.”
Hernández, who never returns my phone calls, told El Nuevo it wasn’t about politics.
“There is no political revenge here. If that’s how they want to interpret it, fine,” Hernández said. “If their egos are going to be affected, that’s their problem. People have been saying it very clearly, not only in this city but in many places in the United States.”
Really? Really? What exactly have they been saying very clearly that makes this is so important that it becomes the first thing you need to do upon your re-election in a city with the highest unemployment in Florida?
Nobody else will ask the follow up question, so Ladra has to: Where exactly did you get the motivation for this? Let us talk to the supposedly irate residents who were outraged at this abusive practice.
Or, well, the second, anyway.
Hialeah ‘naming rights’ law aimed squarely at Raul Martinez added by Ladra on
View all posts by Ladra →