Coral Gables Police Chief Ed Hudak and City Commissioner Vince Lago were 
the subjects of a secret internal investigation conducted by the former chief last year.
An audit of the Coral Gables Police Department’s internal affairs cases in the last several years shows that there was at least one unauthorized, rogue investigation into then-Major Hudak and his communications with city commissioners, particularly Lago.
The investigation was done by Lt. Rene Tastet at the request of then chief Dennis Weiner. He asked her in May 2011 to start looking into Hudak’s communications. Interestingly enough, that was around the same time that Lago publicly raised concerns about doctored numbers in relation with accidents on Ponce de Leon Boulevard since blamed on some palm tree placement issues that have been resolved. It led to the abrupt resignation of former City Manager Pat Salerno, who had been caught lying to his bosses, and ergo, the residents.
Read related story: Gables Manager Pat Salerno felled by lie to city commissioner
The rogue and illegal investigation became known after Tastet made a complaint to human resources, saying that she was moved out of Internal Affairs and put back on the road as the relief lieutenant. She said the reassignment was payback (read: retaliation) for her investigation of Hudak.
Um, wait, what? What investigation of Hudak?
Ooooops.
City Attorney Craig Leen asked attorney Israel Reyes, the former judge, to look into IA cases from 2011 to 2014, which is almost the entire length of Weiner’s rule.
There were a lot of things reviewed and recommendations made for how cases are tracked and documented, how and how long records are maintained and stored. But most of it is boring, technical stuff having to do with global case numbers and differing policies on keeping sustained complaint records longer than those for 
unsustained or unfounded complaints.
Without a doubt, the part about the secret investigation is the most, um, revealing.
In the report, Reyes states that he obtained a CD “with various files concerning Chief Hudak maintained in a file within the IA server.” Titled “IR-Hudak,” the file contained voice mail and text records for February through part of May 2014, including “numerous calls” with Lago. The file was last modified by Tastet with a document that said:
“At the request of Chief Weiner, I initiated an investigation of Major Hudak. Chief Weiner was concerned that Major Hudak was communicating with Commissioner’s via text during the last commission meeting, specifically Commissioner Vince Lago.
Chief Weiner advised me to contact IT and request a copy of Major Hudak’s city cell phone and text records. IT provided me with cell phone and text messaging records from February 2014 to May 2014. Some texts and numerous calls were made to Commissioner Lago during this time period. I provide Chief Weiner with copies of phone and text records. No further action was asked of me by Chief Weiner.”
Is there something wrong with that? I mean, shouldn’t our elected officials speak to our police chiefs, our managers, our public works directors with some frequency? Leen providded a binding pinion more than a year ago that states commissioners can speak with any city employee they choose to speak with and vice versa. This is part of the reason why Salerno was pushed out. Because he wanted everything to go through him so he could control the message and the information. Or disinformation.
Read related story: Gables Police Chief to step down; Ed Hudak could be top cop
“Part of the reason I issued the opinion is that commissioner were having trouble getting information because people wouldn’t talk to them,” Leen said. “It’s a matter of transparency and open government. Commissioners have to
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