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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Communicating with city officials isn’t in itself a “violation” but insubordination is…and that is exactly what Hudak was doing and has done his entire career. Feeding false information to a city commissioner, bribing a public relations expert named Freddy Balsera to launch a bogus campaign claiming the chief cooked the books and generally sucking up behind his boss to get him ousted is nothing but insubordination. The problem is the commissioners fall for his BS and drink the cool aid just like everyone else who doesn’t know Hudak for what he is- including Reyes. This is a guy who screwed up rape investigations and lost his detective assignment; was impeached as VP of the union by his own membership. Had city officials unarrested and covered up complaints against his cronies. Hudak has a longgggggg and ugly history and never should have been promoted past the rank of sergeant. When he made Major is the day the department fell apart and went downhill. And that promotion only happened because he sucked up to former chief Hammerschmidt- a loyal UM fan- with UM game tickets and but kissing all day long.
Hudak wins the support of rank and file by doing the same thing he does with Commissioners- cozy up to them, get them off the hook when they screw up and preach a bunch of BS that they fall for. It works.
Now the city has made yet another devastating mistake by “restructuring” and putting 2 people who are enemies in equal positions of “Chief”. What this does is split the department right down the middle with a faction on one side and another on the other side. Nothing will get accomplished, decisions will be undermined, games will be played, power struggles will never end, loyalties will grow stronger in 2 camps and the department will sink yet further into the dysfunctional place it has been for so long- thanks only to poor decision making thanks to a complete lack of leadership from the city.
Swanson will argue and justify her decision by saying that’s what Fernandez is here for. Problem is he is a complete tyrant and egotistical manager (aka non-leader) who operates just like Salerno did. Nobody respects him or can work under his management style. Commissioners: ask the city how many people have quit since he came in: one is Jason Gitzlaf- the most customer friendly and professional employee you could ask for and the other is Lonnie Hill- another true professional- both who left thanks to Fernandez. And more are on the way.
The ONLY thing that will fix CGPD is to start fresh. The department has become so toxic that nothing will repair it until you have new leadership across the top. The only thing that will get things back in order is to get rid of Hudak and Pedroso- and now Fernandez, and bring in true law enforcement professionals who care about the job and the department and the people that work here. Hudak and Pedroso only care about their titles- nothing more.
When Hammerschmidt was selected- a good chief- the city had formed a selection panel comprised of individual city residents, business experts and community leaders independent of the politics and out of the reach of CGPD/Hudak/and any other influencers.
It is time for a new direction and a resolution to the long and deep problems of CGPD. Put together an independent panel made up of local law enforcement veterans with a history of respect, well respected community leaders, business experts who know and demonstrate leadership and put a new management team in place. Then develop a leadership training program based on the expertise of programs like Chick-fil-A, The Ritz-Carlton or the IACPs leadership in police organizations training. Then we will be able to move forward and work with pride in a department that has fallen far from its former self.
On its face, this IA investigation seems to be a witch hunt. One must know deeper details as to why the investigation even started. I’m sure information will come out about what was collected. A source outside the department who knows both Lago and Hudak has said that the investigation was started due to an deal between both of them involving a trade of votes from the Commission by Lago in return for favorable deals from the County involving Lagos contractor family construction business. I urge everyone to not jump to conclusions. Let’s let the facts of the investigation play out. Hudak is connected to the County by marriage and Lago has influence in Coral Gables commission chamber. Lago brings his sock puppet, Quesada with him in the deal. I even heard that Quesada was caught cheating in Law School at FIU. A personal friend of his actually told me while having drinks at Blue Martini. Lago is shady and so is Hudak. I think there is an attempt by both of them to raise the stink level so high that people would turn away from this in hopes it does not go public. I’m considering doing a public records request so that I may inform myself. I urge everyone do the same. I also think the alias Ariel Fernandez is actually Jaime Edward Hudak