Newly-elected Doral Councilman Pete Cabrera has not been on the job for a month even, 
and already he wants to fire City Clerk Barbara Herrera.
Is he a savvy professional businessman who knows when administrative changes need to be made?
Or is this, as some believe, the first salvo in a series of attempts to restructure key city departments, hiring cronies in the place of professional staff.
Or is it just a case of political payback?
A former council member who was termed out in 2012 — and lost that year’s mayoral election (eliminated in the first round) — Cabrera was sued by Herrera in 2009 for gender discrimination after what the clerk testified was a history of harassment and abuse of power. The city and the councilman settled in 2011, costing the taxpayers about $30,000, according to the agreement.
Now “Tio Pete” wants to terminate Herrera. He wanted to fire the city clerk at a special meeting this week. But he’ll have to wait until next week after he apparently failed to get a quorum.
Read related story: Joe Carollo fired amid heated shots at meeting
Cabrera — who served for eight years before coming back Nov. 4 in a win over former incumbent Councilwoman Bettina Rodriguez-Aguilera — sent Herrera an email (awkward!) Saturday, asking for her to call a special meeting at 4 p.m. Wednesday, right before the council’s zoning meeting, to discuss her termination.
But on Nov. 21, he wrote the city attorney to ask what the process to fire one of the three appointed charter officials. That means that in 16 days since being sworn-in Nov. 5, he determined that Herrera was such a bad clerk that she should lose her job without any remediation.
“For years while previously on the Council I observed the inefficiencies, tardiness to work, mistakes, oversights and the politics of the City Clerk on a routine basis and expressed my concerns over the years. I am extremely disappointed to observe that this behavior continues to occur on a regular basis,” Cabrera wrote in his email requesting a special meeting.
“Things such the agendas not being posted on a timely manner, errors in the agendas, incorrect backup information, untimely responses to records requests (or worse selective timing to when provide information based on the individual), disregard to City Attorney’s legal guidance on matters and much more,” he wrote, without offering details or documentation of these alleged incidents.
“It is crucial that at this time as we try to move forward towards a more positive, efficient, and transparent government that this type of behavior discontinue at our City,” he wrote in an email forwarded to the other council members. “As such 
I am requesting and hoping to have your support on this matter that I consider extremely important for our City.”
Sources at the city told Ladra that the allegations are simply untrue. Herrera is not perfect, they said, but she routinely performs her duties either satisfactorily or above expectations. Agendas are, indeed, posted online days before the meeting and Cabrera has not asked for a report on the turnaround time for the public records requests.
Seems more and more like a grudge to many observers. Even Herrera apparently does not believe this is about her job performance.
“I am certainly disappointed and surprised at the councilman’s request to terminate me,” she told Ladra. “It seems that his actions are retaliatory for the lawsuit I had once filed against him — something which I thought we put behind us to best serve the interests of the city we both serve.
“However, I have faith that my exemplary service and dedication to the city throughout the past nine and a half years will be a factor in the council’s decision,” she added.
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