City uses legal muscle to gag Coral Gables activist

The city of Coral Gables wants to silence a North Gables activist who asks too many questions, so it sent him a threatening “cease and desist” letter from an attorney who used to be a county judge.

Oh, and it cost taxpayers $5,000.

Ariel Fernandez, a vocal North Gables resident who ran for office two years ago, got a letter from former Miami-Dade Judge Israel Reyes — who is outside counsel for the city an on behalf of Assistant City Manager Frank Fernandez — that wasn’t necessarily an official cease and desist letter, perse, but obviously had the same function and intent. And that is to shut him up and shut him down.

“This correspondence is intended as an intervention tool to deescalate the hostilities toward Director Fernandez, while at the same time ensuring that your absolut First Amendment Constitutional right to petition your government so as not to deprive you of any access to city officials,” the letter states.

“The city welcomes and encourages your participation in the governance of the city of Coral Gables, as it does to all its residents. However, as you are aware, the First Amendment does not protect potentially libelous statements when made with reckless disregard as to the falsity of the statements or with knowledge that said statements are false.

“It is the city’s sincerest desire that you refrain from this type of conduct in the future,” Reyes said in the letter offering to set up a meeting with the assistant city manager to discuss the issues in person.

Ariel Fernandez is adamant about getting the answers in writing. “I’ve been at this for a year and a half and some of the questios have been answered but he always says ‘Let’s sit down and talk.’ He refuses to put the rest of the answers on paper. I don’t want to talk. I want written answers.”

Answers he still has not gotten.

Because rather than answer them, City Attorney Craig Leen says City Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark asked him to look into stopping the email barrage. Leen turned to Reyes, a respected attorney who has done a lot of work for the city as outside counsel. “I thought it was best to get someone independent,” Leen told Ladra, adding that the letter is not a violation of Fernandez’s first amendment rights.

“The constitution does not protect libelous speech,” Leen said, adding that “factually incorrect and damaging” remarks in emails the email, citing the words Reyes used “potentially libelous.”

And therein is the keyword, ladies and gents: Potentially. Which means not really. Which means that this little $5,175 exercise in futility was, in fact, something other than a legitimate legal maneuver. Like maybe a third-world strongman tactic to gag and intimidate an active and vocal citizen who has the electeds’ ears.

What’s more, it could be interpreted as witness tampering, seeing as how Ariel Fernandez was there at City Hall and took a picture of Gables Police Maj. Theresa Molina taking a picture of a resident’s cellphone while she was texting (more on the progress of that investigation later). It would be easy for a logical mind to connect these threats with that case and hear the words “shake down” whispered in your head.

“I feel intimidated,” Ariel Fernandez said. “They want me to stop raising the issue.”

The issue is the shortage in police officers, which at last count was at 22 or 23 or something — the highest number of vacancies the department has ever had. Frank Fernandez, director of public safety and the defacto police chief, has hired security guards and championed closed caption television and his idea of police recruiting is putting a old-timey sign on U.S. 1 saying “Police Officers Wanted.” He was brought to Coral Gables from the city of Hollywood by Swanson-Rivenark soon after she came back to the City Beautiful as top administrator in 2014 and has been a controversial figure since the beginning. Ariel Fernandez is certainly not the only one “trash talking” him.

In fact, nothing in those emails seems that far-fetched. Not that Frank Fernandez is undermining Police Chief Ed Hudak — especially since he originally tried to make him co-chief with someone else until the city attorney stopped him because the charter won’t allow it. Not that he’s trash-talked Hudak and urged others to trash-talk him. Not that he’s spying on residents like in Castro’s Cuba — not when we still don’t know what exactly happened with that police major who took a photo of the residents phone at City Hall (more on that later).

Not even the assumption that the city managers are colluding to keep information from the public. Know why? Because it’s happened before. We’re still traumatized by the ghost of Pat Salerno, the former city manager who resigned abruptly only after he was caught lying to commissioners about safety on Ponce de Leon Boulevard. Last week, several commissioners were shocked to learn that a former city employee had stolen $85.000 from false alarm fees without anybody noticing. So maybe Ariel’s statments — the ones that aren’t just a matter of opinion — aren’t that false, after all?

“Everything in there can be corroborated,” Ariel told Ladra about his emails. Even the one about Frank Fernandez telling a citizen to trash-talk the chief. He said he can name that citizen “if push comes to shove” and can prove every other allgation that he has made.

Sure, Ariel Fernandez can be pesky pain in the ass. His demanding emails may seem overwhelming all at once, but here’s the rub: his first email was rather friendly, telling Frank Fernandez that he was taking advantage of his “open door” policy and invitation to ask questions. And the second one was after he got no response — three weeks later. He got increasingly upset as he got ignored in what amounts to a political runaround. Y se puso un poco fresco. Ladra would have growled a little, too.

But here’s the most important part, he’s a resident. Ariel Fernandez is a taxpaying property owner. He is a voter. He has been the direct victim of crime in his neighborhood. He has every right and pre-requisite, if there were any, to ask questions of the city managers or any employee — and he deserves to have these very questions answered.

So do we.

Ariel Fernandez’s original 25 questions for Assistant City Manager Frank Fernandez:

How many vacancies do we currently have for uniformed Police officers?
Data-wise, what direct effect does each vacancy have on the number of committed crimes?
How many vacancies do we have for first responders in the Fire Department?
How many vacancies do we have for support personnel in the Police Department?
How many vacancies do we have for support personnel in the Fire Department?
To what factor or factors do you attribute these vacancies?
How many recruits do we have in the Police Academy?
When initiatives do you currently have in place in order to fill these vacancies?
By what date do you expect for all vacancies to be filled?
What steps will you take to increase interest and applicants for these vacancies?
In how many crimes have your Public Safety Aides intervened?
Are the Public Safety Aides properly trained to intervene in the event of a crime in progress?
Are the Public Safety Aides properly equipped to intervene in the event of a crime in progress?
What is your relationship with the representatives of the company providing CCTV for the City?
Do you/or have you ever had a personal relationship with any City vendor who is currently under contract for services to the Police or Fire Department? If so, who and what is the relationship?
The condition of the Public Safety building continues deteriorating. When we first met you told me this was your top priority. What is the status of the replacement of the Public Safety building?
Why was the company that was asked to prepare the RFP for the City also allowed to submit a bid? Isn’t this a conflict of interest?
We all know the immediate action taken by Chief Hudak following the incident at City Hall where Major Molina was spying on a resident. What actions have YOU taken to ensure the privacy of residents is not violated by Majors who directly answer to you and not Chief Hudak?
This incident has left a very bad impression of your ability to serve in your post. What assurances do you give residents who believe you are not fit to do your job?
How many private security guards are still patrolling our streets?
When can we expect actual certified Police officers to replace them?
How much (exactly) is this program costing the City?
Where is the funding coming from?
Who authorized for this funding to be used for this reason?
Due to the high amount, didn’t this requ.ire Commission approval?

It is important to note that the answers that did come, came from the city attorney’s office. The ones in bold are still unanswered.

But Ladra is working on it now.

Ariel Fernandez, Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark, Coral Gables, Frank Fernandez

City uses legal muscle to gag Coral Gables activist added by Ladra on May 24, 2017
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