Is Hialeah ex Mayor Raul Martinez‘s name off the front of City Hall yet?
It’s been a couple of hours since the city Seguro Que Yes council voted 7-0 Tuesday on three resolutions by Mayor Carlos “Castro” 
Hernandez that strip the names of his political enemies from three city facilities: Raul L. Martinez Government Center, Roberto Casas Park, named for the former Florida Senator, and Angela Gardens, an 18-unit housing facility named in honor of Raul Martinez’s wife, Angela Martinez, by former Mayor Julio Robaina, no less.
Hernandez said the resolutions were a natural step to take after the city passed an ordinance in November that prohibits the naming of city-owned properties after living politicians or their relatives. But that’s BS coming from one of the guys who voted in 2006 to name the building after Raul in the first place. Councilmen Jose Caragol and Luis Gonzalez also voted for the 2006 dedication, but I guess they have since changed their minds.
Remember, Martinez never asked to have that building named after him.
Ladra doesn’t like naming anything — whether it be streets or sandwiches — after living pols. Especially since they still have time to go bad — if they’re not already — in our ripe climate for corruption. But once something is named, for example, after Former State Sen. Roberto Casas, the first Cuban-American in the state legislature who is now 81, I thinks it’s sorta best to leave it alone.
I mean, where is the public policy served by this?
The only one served here is Mayor Castro, who would rather reach out and symbolically slap his political enemies than actually lead. Despite having won his last two elections solidly, he can’t let go of the past (Casas supported Martinez’s mayoral bid in 2011) and so spends his time on political vendettas rather than the city’s real problems, like unemployment, traffic, illegal units and code enforcement and, um, I don’t know, election fraud.
You know, maybe this is why Hialeah ranked 10th among the worst run cities in the U.S., according to 24/7 Wall Street.
Ladra hears Castro nearly exploded when Irene Secada, whose family has lived in Hialeah since 1955 and through six mayors, brought that up. He called the publication racist. But Secada’s point was that his job was that the city’s job is to cite the people who built the illegal pool at the house in front of her home, not strip properties of the names of the mayors critics.
“It seems spiteful,” Secada told Ladra afterward. “It’s an abomination. It’s bad policy. And it sets a terrible precedent,” the political consultant said, adding that she had spoken to past and current electeds in several cities and Miami-Dade County and that none of them could ever remember something like this even being considered.
It’s shameful. It’s sad.
“It’s sadder when you see what’s going on in the city,” Raul Martinez told Ladra. “Streets not being cleaned. Elderly housing not being kept up.”
He wasn’t shocked that it passed, though he was a bit disappointed with Gonzalez and Caragol, who Martinez hired as spokesman for the police department when he was mayor. He was also a little surprised that Councilwoman Vivian “I’ll Notarize That” Muñoz did not ask for any discussion on it before the fixed vote.
“They are being led by a mental midget,” Raul Martinez said, adding that Casals-Muñoz — who certainly was chummy enough and reportedly secretly helping Martinez during the 2011 elections — had texted him holiday greetings telling him how much she respected him. “And then she does this.”
Ladra is particularly let down by Casals-Muñoz, who, despite her ties to Robaina’s shadow banking business, seemed to be growing a pair and letting her independence shine just a couple of years ago. She did not answer her phone when I called Tuesday night. I guess once a coward, always a coward.
It’s not like they can rewrite history by taking someone’s name off something. At the end of the day and after all of his faults and failed indictment, Martinez was still a better mayor to Hialeah than Castro could ever be, evidenced by this nonsense.
I guess Hernandez just doesn’t want any reminders around.
“This is communism at it’s worst,” said Julio “The Other” Martinez, who lost a bid to unseat Hernandez last November when the incumbent go 80 percent of the vote.
One would think Castro could win graciously. One would think wrong. Remember the banner plane on the day after the election? This idiot has the maturity of middle school bully on steroids.
In fact, I bet he the mayor has a ceremony to remove his nemesis’ name from the front of City Hall, which I bet is tomorrow.
And an after party.
Hialeah mayor strips political enemies’ names from landmarks added by Ladra on
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