Coral Gables Commissioners on Wednesday named Assistant City Manager Carmen Olazabal the interim chief of 
the city until they can find a permanent replacement for Pat Salerno, who resigned abruptly last week rather than face questions about lies he told the elected body.
And they also talked about choosing a recruiting firm to make a national search for the next city manager.
Olazabal got the temporary gig –with a surprisingly unanimous decision — after she told commissioners she had changed her mind and would not apply for the real job. Vice Mayor William “Bill” Kerdyk said it would be in the interest of continuity.
Kerdyk did not return several phone calls for comment, but I would have asked him what particularly did he want to keep continuity of? Continuity of lies and misrepresentation? Continuity of secrecy? Continuity of low morale?
And here Ladra thought the whole reason Salerno was sorta forced to resign last week was to move on to something better.
Days earlier, both Commissioners Pat Keon and Vince Lago had expressed an objection to Olazabal and a desire to 
bring in someone else. Keon suggeted former County Manager Merrett Stierheim, but that idea — which Ladra thought was a good one — did not seem to gain traction. Nobody nominated Dona Lubin Spain, the former assistant city manager now heading the Historic Preservation department after she was basically forced out of her City Hall office by Salerno himself, even though there was plenty of talk about bringing her back before the meeting started. Kerdyk said he had thought of a former assistant city manager, but determined that Olazabal — who was named assistant city manager last year — would provide more “continuity to this institution.”
Commissioner Frank “The Cuban Kerdyk” Quesada, who didn’t call Ladra back after repeated messages either, said he didn’t know who this Merrett Stierheim guy was, but that he was going to support Olazabal. Keon and Lago admitted to Ladra that they basically saw the other three votes going to Olazabal — and so they fell back into line.
“I saw the writing on the wall,” Keon said. “That decision was made. So my decision was ‘do I let it be a 3/2 vote or a 4/1 vote or do I make it unanimous?’ And after that, we have to work with her. At that point I thought it served everyone better to let her know we were willing to work with her.
“It doesn’t serve the city in any way to have internal turmoil over this decision,” she said.
Said Lago: “It’s time, as a city, that we move forward as one.”
Both said that Olazabal’s assurances that she would not apply for the permanent position is what tipped the scales.
“I wanted to make sure that the process was not tainted and that we didn’t push away good candidates because we had someone waiting in the wings,” Lago told Ladra.
Olazabal’s also raises a concern that Salerno will still be involved in the background, pulling the strings on his 
puppets, principally Mayor Jim Cason (more on that later). But, on the other side of that coin, Olazabal might be the only one that Salerno will talk to or cooperate with in the crucial future months of transition.
After all, the budget is due July 1. While everyone tells Ladra the finance director is more than capable of doing that by herself, Olazabal is also expected to sit at the bargaining table with several unions and negotiate new contracts. That is something she has never done before.
But why should anyone think that Salerno — who doesn’t play or work well with others and didn’t have an assistant in all the 18 years as city manager of Sunrise — will share information now? He’s pretty much kept Olazabal and everyone else in the dark. Even she admits that to some other City Hall insiders. “He didn’t bring me into the loop much,” is the gist her co-workers got.
And I guess where he did not share information, Salerno may have even given false information, such as the lie he was caught in, providing misrepresenting facts to the commission on the Ponce de Leon traffic information requested.
So what makes anyone think Olazabal can just pick up the phone and dial 1-800-PAT-HELP?
Keon said she has “no idea” what Kerdyk was talking about in terms of continuity.
“Pat didn’t really share a good deal with his staff. So as far as providing continuity, I don’t see that at all.”
Lago said that he was going to become much more involved, probably going to City Hall twice a day.
“The mayor and we as a commission are going to have to step in and take a bigger role in the day to day operations of the city,” he told Ladra.
Cason, who also did not return calls from Ladra, said the search for a permanent replacement for the most important position in the city — which begins officially at a special meeting Monday to consider recruiting companies and name a citizens advisory panel — should take between four to six months, so Olazabal will have some learning time. And maybe she will be good enough by then.
Because Ladra bets that, despite her public assurances that she had changed her mind and would not apply for the job permanently, Olazabal is considered. Because it always happens.
Lago said he would not tolerate that.
“That’s not going to work with me,” he said.
But he’s only vote. It may come down to 3/2 vote or a 4/1 vote and, you know, they are going to have to work with her.
Gables interim manager picked for continuity — of what? added by Ladra on
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