Miami Beach Mayor Elect Philip Levine has not even been sworn in yet, and already he is cleaning house at City Hall.
It’s natural that the staff in the mayor’s office and the losing incumbents’ offices would change. But the transition seems to be unnecessarily overreaching at least a little bit.
The first one on the hit list seems to be Alex Fernandez, aide to Commissioner Deede Weithorn, who the Levine filed an elections complaint against after the Miami Beach resident sent a letter out endorsing Commissioner Michael Gongora for the mayoral seat and the two incumbents for commissioner.
“My boss told me that Phil Levine wants me out,” Fernandez said, adding that he was asked to resign. Fernandez, who says this kind of political retaliation is one of the reasons his parents left Cuba, promised to stand his ground.
“I’m not resigning,” he told Ladra.
He told his boss the same thing in this email sent Friday, which I am posting in its entirety:
“Commissioner Weithorn:
Per our telephone conversation Wednesday night, please let me know as soon as you come to a determination regarding my employment with the City of Miami Beach.
I wish to reiterate that as I affirmed to you Wednesday night, I will not resign from my position as a result of Philip Levine stating to you that I am his “number one target” simply because I supported his opponent in my personal capacity as a citizen. This is simply retaliatory.
It was upsetting to hear from you that Mr. Levine has threatened to not let you speak during City Commission meetings should you not terminate my employment just because I chose to support another candidate for Mayor.
It is unfortunate that Mr. Levine is using his position as Mayor-elect in such a penalizing manner by threatening not to assign you to the Finance Committee, which you Chair, should you not terminate my employment. My personal political preferences should have no role in our professional relationship or in the manner in which you or Mr. Levine decide to conduct City business.
It was further upsetting to hear from you that Mr. Levine would “make my life impossible” should I continue working in the City of Miami Beach.
I have done nothing wrong for which to be terminated or for which to resign. Since my employment in your office we have maintained an excellent professional relationship, I have always stood up for your best interest, and my execution of duties on your behalf have been beyond those expected of an aide. I represent you well in the community and I have even loyally assisted you in fulfilling your commitments outside your service as Commissioner in the City of Miami Beach.
As you mentioned to me, this is a difficult decision for you to make and it is upsetting that you feel that Mr. Levine is “pushing” and “bullying” you into terminating me because of my political preference. You asked me Wednesday night if I would be “mad” at you for terminating my employment to which we both agreed that this is nothing other than a retaliatory issue in which Mr. Levine did not approve of me supporting his opponent.
Please let me know which direction you and Mr. Levine decide to proceed in.
Thank you,
Alex Fernandez
So, I guess Levine will have to fire Hernandez from his $50,000-a-year job. Or get Weithorn to. Word is that she is being pressured hard to let Fernandez go and she may have to if she wants to keep her chairmanship of the finance committee or have any voice at commission meetings.
Reached as she boarded a plane in Orlando, where she was attending a Florida League of Cities Conference, Weithorn told Ladra she did not want to comment on anything until she had a chance to speak with Levine herself this afternoon. Later, we spoke again and she told me the meeting at his office went well — even though she apparently felt the need to take an attorney with her. And, apparently, she is buckling.
“I think we understand each other better,” Weithorn told Ladra late Friday. “He’s going to let me hire my own aide.”
Levine still has to approve whoever she chooses. “But he told me he would not unreasonably hold up my position. As long as I come up with somebody…” she said, not finishing the sentence because how could one finish that sentence? “As long as I come up with somebody who likes him?” Or maybe she just realized that the mayor elect is now the Dictator of Miami Beach in charge of determining what is reasonable, just like he wants to determine who is a journalist and who is not.
“According to him, and I have to take him at his word, if he wants to promote congeniality and everyone working together on the floor, Alex can’t be a part of that,” Weithorn said. “He has the right to fire Alex whether I like it or not.”
Am I the only one who still believes it is good to have dissent in government?
But maybe not completely. Because she also sort of laid the ground rules for their relationship — which include no more sending the new Chief Of Staff, Alex Miranda, to deliver the mayor’s messages.
Asked if Levine had threatened to take her off the Finance Committee, Weithorn indicated that he had not directly.
“He made no such threats in person,” she told me. “And I told him I would no longer listen to his handlers.”
Still, I gotta wonder how long that’s gonna last.
Fernandez is not angry with Weithorn. In fact, he thinks she is another victim
“I only wrote that email so that people know on the record what he is doing to my boss,” he said, calling the commissioner a victim of bully tactics. “My loyalty will be to her until the end of my employment there.”
Which is looming.
Friday afternoon, Levine’s car and driver were spotted at City Hall, even though he is not in charge just yet.
“Apparently, the takeover starts today,” commented one city employee.
He may be right. Already, someone stripped the names of the three incumbents plus retiring Commissioner Jerry Libbin from the plaque in front of the city commission offices at City Hall. Even though they are the current electeds through the weekend and until the swearing-in at 11 a.m. Monday. Which seems a little distasteful.
Several city employees have already been told they had to leave their current positions. That would include, naturally, the former mayor’s secretary Frances Francis, Chief of Staff and former Miami-Dade mayoral candidate Gabrielle Redfern, office manager Luis Long and an aide.
Two of them will reportedly be replaced with Leonor Hernandez, who is now the aide for Commissioner Jonah Wolfson — one of Levine’s handlers — who had campaigned hard for the mayor elect, and with his campaign consultant and goon-in-training Alex Miranda (more on that later, ladies). Hernandez will be his office manager while Miranda his COS.
Also removed from their positions are the aide’s for losing incumbent Commissioners Michael Gongora and Jorge Exposito. It is natural that the newly electeds would want to bring in their own staff and not work with people who could still be, by all reasonable accounts, loyal to their opponents.
Several sources say that there are intentions to find at least some of these people a new job in a different city department. Ladra heard Expo’s secretary had an interview today. Long has already been hired in the Finance Department and Diana Santani, Gongora’s aide, is moving over to Capital Improvements.
But some of those same sources and others say that Levine has expressed, via Miranda, that he also wants to get rid of all the commission aides and replace them with his own hand-picked spies. My word. Not his.
Miami Beach spokeswoman Nannette Rodriguez said the mayor has purview over his office and the aides hired by the commissioners. In other words, he has the power to do it.
She said she did not know yet whose positions would switch and could not confirm if Hernandez was transferring or Miranda had started paperwork at Human Resources.
“This is a transition time and until all the chips fall we don’t know who will end up where,” one employee said.
Outgoing Commissioner Michael Gongora said Levine’s moves were equal par
ts political retaliation and strategy. Particularly when it comes to the commission aides.
“This would make all the aides loyal to him and no commissioner can gain a political stronghold,” Gongora said.
Outgoing Mayor Matti Bower is most upset about Francis, who was secretary in the mayor’s office through three administrations, dating back to former Mayor Neisen Kasdin‘s days.
“It is very sad what is happening,” Bower said. “I feel almost guilty. I have never, ever involved my staff in anything political. I knew I wasn’t going to be the mayor forever. To take it out on them is just terrible.
“I have never seen anything like this in the city,” Bower said.
Other city employees are also upset about how Francis has been treated and hope that she is retained in another position because she needs the health insurance. But Bower worries about the longterm.
“Maybe they are just moving them now to let them go within a few months,” she told Ladra.
Or maybe sooner, if they disagree with Dictator Levine.
Miami Beach: Natural transition or political retaliation? added by Ladra on
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