Miami Beach Commissioner Ed Tobin, who has reportedly wanted to be a police 
officer since he was a child, will have to wait a little longer.
And Ricky Arriola, who was thought to be the mayor’s pick to replace Tobin and serve out the rest of his commission term (through November), will also have to sit back down. For now, anyway. Tobin could apply again — more successfully next time, now that he knows the answers — so that Arriola can run for commissioner 11 months from now as an “incumbent.”
Tobin withdrew his application from the city’s police department. But several sources tell Ladra he did that after he failed the board examination — an oral “board” exam in which rookie wannabes are asked routine policy and procedure questions. The controversy is all over the LEO Affairs website forum and two sources told me he failed on an ethics question, same as was reported by Bill Cooke, who writes Random Pixels.
Read related story on Random Pixels blog
Normally, a police applicant who fails the board exam — which was reinstated recently after having been suspended from the process for years — has to wait two years before he or she can reapply. But the mayor’s hand-picked top cop, Chief Dan Oates, apparently warned Tobin (who also happens to be one of his bosses) and the commissioner withdrew his application rather than suffer the embarrassment of public rejection.
That means he can apply again the next time the city opens the process up — which could be any day the chief decides to cut his commissioner pal another break.
Did anybody else who failed the board get that courtesy? Were they given the opportunity to withdraw their applications? Chief Oates did not return calls from Ladra about this, but I doubt he did. Which is exactly the reason that Tobin should never have been allowed to apply for the job while he was a sitting commissioner (read: the chief’s boss).
If it’s true, it is the second favor Tobin gets in his attempt to become a city cop. In October, his colleagues voted to waive the two-year waiting period required of electeds before they can apply to a city job.
Read related story: Miami Beach paves way for electeds to become employees
And didn’t they already know that Tobin had some questionable ethics judgement? It was only last year that a Miami Beach police major filed a complaint against Tobin — who Cooke calls “Mad Dog,” we assume, for his bubbly personality — because he used his elected office to try to get his friend, former Bal Harbour Police Chief Tom Hunker, the top cop job in the city.
The complaint was dismissed by the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust, but that is increasingly coming to mean absolutely nothing. They didn’t even check his cellphone records.
Anyway, while Tobin can apply for the police job again, like Ladra said, whenever a position becomes open, he could also apply for something else in the city. Tobin did tell the Miami Herald — which did not report on him failing the exam — that he had another idea, but he couldn’t talk about it.
Let’s take a guess. Inspector general? Or a newly created position we can call “Ethics Czar”?
Maybe the first thing he can investigate is whether Chief Oates violated any rules when he told him about failing the exam.
Ed Tobin withdraws cop application after failing oral exam added by Ladra on
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