As if we needed another reason for a complete overhaul of the county’s communications department, another top administrator in what amounts to our government’s in-house PR department was forced to resign recently after she was found to be using department resources for her personal business on county time, 
according to sources at County Hall.
Carol Higgins, an executive producer at Miami-Dade TV in the Communications Department, was allowed to quit last month rather than be accused of theft and fired. That not only means that the 15-year employee (she worked 5 years part time before that) will get a retirement based on her $100,600 salary, rather than a rap sheet. Instead of suspending anybody who knew about it, the county quietly ushered Higgins out in an effort to sweep everything under the rug so nobody notices that this bloated communications department is out of control and a waste of taxpayer dollars.
That’s how the county responds to these kinds of abuses.
This is the same department, 
after all, that produced that embarrassing Harlem Shake “motivational” video in 2013, which offended many county employees and residents with its stereotypes, promotion of alcohol during work hours, air humping and sexual innuendos. The same department from which Director Henri Sori — who was already asked to leave because of the video, according to sources — was forced to resign in April after hushed allegations of sexual harassment.
Read related story: ‘Harlem Shake’ video producer at Miami-Dade resigns
After Sori split, the name was changed from the Community Information and 
Outreach Department to the Communications Department and Inson Kim, a longtime aide to Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and consummate bureaucrat, was tapped to head it. Not because she was experienced in media relations or TV production, mind you. Simply because she wanted a director’s position and had paid her political dues. The new job and title came with a salary increase from $126,000 to $155,000.
The department is in charge of all the TV production for the county, from the self-serving infomercials on the Animal Services department or our water and sewer projects to interviews with commissioners and broadcasting live from the county commission and committee meetings. It also runs the 311 call center and “maintains” the county website (which, until recently, still listed a county manager). In 2013, Higgins was on the team that won a regional Emmy for their “The Most Interesting Pets In the World” video on adoptable shelter animals.
But is that really what we want to spend our tax dollars doing? Maybe we should make indie films, too! And do we really need 180 people to do that? And, in a county where each different department has their own public information specialist, do we really need to spend almost $20 million for what amounts to a propaganda department? The budget has increased by $4.5 million in only three years.
Okay, let’s take out the 311 center, which amounts for $12 million (and if there is waste in the rest of the department, there is likely waste there). Do we need to spend $9 million on the rest?
Apparently not. An employee told Channel 7 News that staffers spend “a lot of time just sitting around, watching TV, watching movies on their iPads, shopping online.” Another source confirmed to Political Cortadito that
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The County Governments in South Florida became relics of another century decades ago. They are solely patronage hangouts for corrupt lazy unemployables run by part time clowns with full times pay in miami n ft lauderdale county cesspools. Ever met a South Florida County Commissioner? Only at expensive fundraisers where they ignore the public n sit with lobbyists. Ull never go to a public event in South Florida if I can avoid it as dressed in a business suit or tux people either accuse me of being a lobbyist n attack me or think I’m a lobbyist n offer me money! Everything done by the County Governmnent in South Florda appears to be a sleazy fix – like Jonah Wolfson’s miami beach city commission
Let’s try to distract from the real issue by bashing the blog with many truths and some acceptable inaccuracies, which by the way, do not change the story.
Here are the facts:
*Stealing from taxpayers – this is a fact! When knowingly you allow employees to do outside work on county time, you are in fact stealing money from taxpayers.
When you overcharge other departments for services that were not provided, you are in fact stealing money (Parks, Port, Animal Services, Water and Sewer, Transit, Solid Waste) suckers – check your budgets, you’ve all been scammed!
When titles where created for special employees to bring up their salaries without any experience for those jobs, you are in fact stealing money.
When you sign timesheets for friends, sorry, I meant for employees who did not work the hours claimed, you are in fact stealing money.
When you take days off and don’t claim them as time off you are in fact stealing money.
Mr. Hernandez, you should have left the name of the department as CIAO, it was chosen for reason Chaos In An Office. And Teresita from the post above is right; many rats do go through the 29th floor, but for some reason they quickly disperse and end up back on the 25th.
I doubt Hernandez can fix this mess, a year in and nothing to show for. Hernandez, take your diaper off put your big-boy pants on. The Trio Encore continues… Audience, applause please!
To be continued…
I, too, disagree with Ladra on some of her postings but not this one. Nailed it Elaine!
To the investigative reader who oh so wanted to say “gotcha” – renters pays property taxes which are bundled into their rental payment. Duh.
Just for kicks, I decided to look up the definition of propaganda. Oxford defines it as information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a political cause or point of view. Next, I looked at the last few social media posts and press releases published by the county.
Ladra, you’re right! Though cleverly disguised as appeals to get people to adopt a pet from the pound, go to the library, donate to nonprofits, vote at the right precinct or get discounts on property taxes by paying early, those communications aren’t fooling anyone about their true motives.
So keep digging, Ladra — you and Mike. I’m sure you’ll both uncover something that will blow the lid off the whole operation.
Great work!
The comments are hysterical & must be from the disgruntled employees!!! HA
Ms. Ladra,
Yes some of your facts, as stated above to “someone beat me to it”, are correct as we’ve seen them published already-Highins “resigned”, last weeks news and the videos were last years news! Yes the department sounds to be in shambles but shouldn’t you be trashing Michael Hernandez? Whom you claim to be “the mayor’s very capable and diligent communications director, who really should be in charge of the department”-FACT: he run the department and OBVIOUS that he’s manipulating additional “resignations” to his favor. Funny how Voter’s Registration states what the Mayor has collected like if anyone cares-hmmmm a Michael alias maybe? Additionally, you have stated many facts but a publisher/journalist loses credibility when stating “Las malas lenguas say” and may be subjected to a Libel injunction-you should have rethought that one but heck you seem to be like my teenage grandchild and fear no consequences!!!
P.S. Here’s a fact you may have missed-this is the 305 filled with facades and crooks, “bienvenido a Miami”!!!!!
When I first read this article, one thing popped out at me–you were writing it as a frustrated tax payer. So, naturally, I looked you up to see whether you were really a concerned tax payer or just another journalist trying to climb the ladder of success by stepping on others. I didn’t know your identity since you go by the alias, Ladra, so I had to look you up.
I found no property records in your name, only Elaine Del Valle. So, I figured you’d either correct me or let it ride. Thank you.
While I appreciate you being so concerned about MY tax dollars, I don’t need you to speak for me. Especially if you’re going to do it in such a reckless manner. I’d only point out that in addition to representing yourself as a tax payer – which you are not, as it pertains to Miami-Dade County – you also inadvertently confessed that your “fact checking” was nothing more than “talking to seven sources,” which, for all you know, may have using you.
Good luck with your career in investigative journalism. I’m certain this post won’t make it past your moderation, but I guess we’ll see just how “fair” a journalist you really are.
You should really consider the consequences of your actions and whether Mike Hernandez is actually your friend.
Other members of my family own property but we all pay taxes. And I pay sales tax that also goes into the county budget at times. But it doesn’t matter. Journalists don’t have to be fleeing from a war-torn country to write on behalf of refugees. Your premise is astounding.
I know which sources are using me and which are not. And, surprise, newsrooms everywhere are full of journalists being used. As long as the information is true and relevant, there is no reason I can’t use someone using me.
Love, Ladra
So disappointing. This article reads like a high school vendetta letter, except that it lacks complete sentences.
But I won’t stoop to the author’s level or adopt her investigatory prowess. Instead, I’ll introduce you to the author, a self-titled writer, actress, comedian, and host, who has appeared in a beer commercial, among other advertisements: Elaine Del Valle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcP6331f0pc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwnyXoQfklw
https://vimeo.com/102459710
Professional journalist? Yes, at one point, she may have been. But the tone of this article, rife with speculation and conjecture, is more likely the work of someone with a hidden agenda, which will soon come to light.
This piece is tactless and ruthless. I used to enjoy this website, now I’m certain I’ll never come back. It’s clearly run by people with little regard for the consequences that may stem from an article of this nature. I really hope this article does not lead to the termination of an innocent employee – and just before the holidays, too.
I’ll close by reiterating what one other person keenly pointed to, which is the apparent allegiance to Mike Hernandez. For someone who, presumably, does not work for the County, her endorsement of Mr. Hernandez is suspect, to say the least.
Happy Holidays!
Hahaha! Maybe we should call you Whatever happened to fact checking?
That’s not me. Elaine del Valle is a beautiful, accomplished actress who lives in New York and probably has a far more glamorous life. I am Elaine de Valle. There is no l on the middle word.
And, unlike you, I double and triple checked my information, talking to seven sources, all of whom agreed on most if not all the information (some had more than others). You may not like what I write or how I write it but you can’t compare it to your complete fiction.
Love, Ladra (AKA Elaine de Valle, not del)
A CALL TO ACTION:
Carry blank voter’s registrations with you and distribute to the variety of Miami-Dade people you speak with during the day. Mayor Gimenez has gathered over $1 million dollars for his campaign in October 2015 alone. He’s going to blitz all media in 2016 to undermine Raquel Regalado’s credibility.
This mess at the County’s Communications Dept was almost quietly swept under the rug to keep Gimenez’s opposition from gaining any ammunition in the mayoral race.
A Person – this is the SECOND scandal – meaning that nothing was learned or changed after the first scandal. That shows intentional unethical and unprofessional behavior that lands at the feet of Michael Hernandez, as this is a department within his “portfolio.”
Here’s an idea for A Person – put 311 under the Library Dept., the Department that was nearly destroyed by Gimenez since 2011 out of ignorance, but that has had no scandals in the 40+ years of its existance. Tens of thousands of reference questions are answered by professional librarians. A 311 inquiry is a reference question.
Interesting. Mike Hernandez is the very capable and diligent communications director, according to you. Sounds like a little ass-kissing there, for someone who leaks stories to you, and frankly (and sadly) manipulates you to write about what he wants – which is self promotion for him.
Instead Kim, (who does have media and communications experience), is worthy of your slings and arrows, and you don’t even afford her a few months to fix a department that was totally screwed prior to her arrival, and which Mike has been supervising.
Just sayin’ girl…. make sure your boy Mike ain’t using you. A smooth operator he is, but he does have a reputation of using/abusing people on his careful and strategic climb to the top.
And I’d hate to see you be used – as I like your work.
Me thinks that “A person” is close to the 29th floor or lives there, we all know how many rats live in that area. I guess now Ms/Mr Kim will have to buy a new suit to fit the job ( maybe a monkey suit). She/he is well qualified to do any thing the big guy wants, and does not call him incompetent as he is called at home.That in itself is worth a lot to our Mayor, it is sad to know that he is a fool in others eyes, not in Ms/Mr Kim. We all are looking forward to Aug 2016, it might be a lucky year for the county ( from Alicia’s mouth to God ears )
Well, “A person” is certainly someone on staff at the County’s communications department. There’re a few positions for “reading ands responding” to blogs to clarifies miss information about the Mayor and departments. That operation has never gotten it together since they “asked” Debbie Hagar (not sure on last name spelling) – she tried to put metrics and real public information communications but that’s not what they wanted. Also, there’s a new brilliant idea where consolidation of information is being managed by each mega department, a new invention that for RER was created for Inson Kim, because yes, it was time to reward her for her loyalty not for her qualifications. But that wasn’t enough, within months she was then given the higher position and money. No position advertisement, no competitive process, no opportunities for career administrators.
The worst of this nepotism is happening at Water & Sewer, where incompentence and friendship with Lester Sola, as well as Mayor’s direct appointments are the only requirement; Customer Service Director, New Business Director and a whole list of cronies that has morale at lower levels than at any other time in the Department’s history. Can’t wait for August 2016!
Expenditures for “branding” and p.r. instead of fixing up the decaying infrastructure down here in Miami-Dade County are appalling. Too much. There are much more important issues here for residents.
For someone who was once a real journalist, you seem to have an inability to do any research and write factual information. Some general thoughts:
1. 2 people to run the county website?? Have you ever been on that site and seen the thousands of pages and documents on it? What a ridiculous, misguided idea that that a staff would not be needed to maintain a website. You obviously know nothing about web development, content management, design etc.
2. Kim’s resume is posted on that same website with her appointment memo. If I could look it up and find it, so can you. Have you bothered to read it? All the jobs listed have been in media, public relations, legislative affairs, etc. so what are your comments that she doesn’t any experience based on? I don’t know if she’s the perfect person for this job, but there’s nothing about her experience that makes me agree with your claims.
3. I don’t know of any department or company anywhere that has ever righted a ship in 4, 5 months, or even one year. If this has long been a troubled department, how exactly does one fix everything so quickly? I see a lot of criticisms in this piece but not one good or useful suggestion. You either have unrealistic expectations, no real knowledge of business management, or a personal axe to grind.
4. Overall this website is poorly written. You consistently (in most of your pieces) misspell people’s name and get department or organization names wrong. If you can’t correctly convey such basic information, why should anyone believe anything on this site? There is a lot of ranting and conjecture and supposing. But overblowing the issues, writing things heavy on insinuations and light on facts and sounding bitter all the time makes me conclude this site isn’t legitimate or reliable. Oh, I think I get it: this is a gossip site, not a news site.
5. My final conclusion is that if you really were once a real journalist, all credit must go to your editors.
Dear person, there are all kinds of journalists. I was once an impartial reporter. Now I am an opinionated watchdog who provides biased analysis. It is still legitimate reporting. Might not be how everyone sees it, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t the truth.
1. Not 2 people to RUN the county website. That is done by a server. But to upload new content? Sure. There’s not that much new content being uploaded daily. Okay, maybe three people. One person can do metrics too. Or you can get someone from IT to do it in ten minutes a day. Content management is not hard and, yes, actually, I’ve done it for several websites. I’ve done a lot of it. Where we aggregate and also provide original content. Believe it or not, there are many newsrooms that constantly update pages that have a staff smaller than this department.
2. Kim has been with Gimenez since he was the county commissioner in district 7, when I first met her, and maybe even at the city before that. She has as much media experience as most bureaucratic wonks. She was more of a legislative and policy aide in his office. This was definitely a political appointment. I spoke to 7 people in the writing of this story. Nobody would disagree with that premise.
3. You are right about one thing: I have no business management experience. But I have common sense. And this is just one example of a poorly managed system that is top heavy and talent thin. Maybe not fix everything, but there should be some recommendations already. Certainly the same people who are responsible for the Harlem Shake video shouldn’t be working personal jobs on county time.
4. I happen to like my style. So do tens of thousands of readers. I know it’s not for everybody. I don’t have THAT many misspellings but I also don’t have any editors, anyone backreading me. So, please, point them out and they will be fixed. It’s hard to catch your own mistakes. Hence the whole proofreading profession. That said, I think I get the important things right. The fact that you are nitpicking about typos proves it.
5. I was really once a journalist. It was the best times of my life. And all credit does, indeed, go to some of the best editors in the industry. I wouldn’t be who I am without them.
Love, Ladra
At the very least you do admit that you’re biased. There’s a saying: “Everyone is entitled to their own opinions but not everyone is entitled to their own facts.”
You can offer your advice and suggestions and base your opinion on what you’ve heard but you can’t just assume you would run a business better. You said it yourself, you have no business management experience. Regardless of whether or not the department runs efficiently or could use some improvement, please point out any department in any industry, public or private sector that doesn’t have some employees that slack. The problem is that you, like most other people, expect your tax payer dollars to go to robots instead of real people.
Yes, people shouldn’t abuse the privilege of a cafeteria downstairs and or waste their time, but guess what? In the real life corporate world, that happens all the time. So someone should be burned at the stake because they asked a secretary to grab them a coffee every now and then? Grow up.
Your need for public punishment also speaks to the awful character of this piece. If this were a legal system, you wouldn’t be able to be judge and jury based on a few allegations from a clearly disgruntled employee. Firing Higgins would mean that anyone accused of anything could be out of a job without a proper investigation.
Also, crying about how much other people get paid doesn’t make YOU more money. It makes you sound like a bitter child that can’t stand the fact that other people have an education and worked towards their goal. And FYI- $155K a year may be a lot to the poor people who are working jobs that only make them $40K but again, in the real world, that’s nothing for a position of leadership over a department. Stop making people compare apples to oranges.
Maybe you should spend less time investigating a department that is apparently a mess in transitioning and trying to pick up the pieces from their former administration and more time trying to find out why Michael Hernandez is so set on diverting your attention to this in the first place. Maybe because he’d like to gas this fire while putting out another, bigger fire? How sneaky!
Dear Beater, I have always admitted that this space is for analysis that is often partial, but not for sale, since it is swayed only by experience, data, historical knowledge, testimony, anecdotal evidence and the connection of dots that is sometimes lacking in mainstream media. But know one thing: Everyone is biased. If you don’t believe me, look at the Miami Herald today.
That said, facts are stubborn things. And some things cannot be disputed. Fact: That department is a mess. Fact: This is at least the third investigation in two years. Fact: Inson Kim is a political appointment. Fact: Carol Higgins was forced to resign after the allegations came forward, even though there is an investigation. Fact: There are problems that go beyond that as the department is run inefficiently and also like a propaganda arm. You may not like the colorful way I state the facts, but thems are the facts.
Also: Not just me, but any journalist or former journalist could do a better job informing and engaging the public than both Kim and Chammas are doing. And isn’t that their number one mission? Or is their number one mission to administrate? Yes, perhaps we do not have the administrative experience (all they have), but coming from the private sector, we know that doing freelance work on your boss’ time is not acceptable.
Nobody is crying about how much anybody makes. Heck, make half a million if you want, but be worth it. What I am crying about, what I will always cry and scream about, is throwing money away without getting the value you can from it. I am quite certain, call me biased all you want, that if they had opened it to a competitive process, they would have gotten a better candidate who would have done it for less. If police officers and firefighters can’t get a raise or cost of living increase, then the director of county “branding” shouldn’t get a $30,000 hike just for a gift job.
By the way, robots? Do you know who you are talking to? Public employees could not have a bigger friend in the media or blogosphere as I am a big defender of the unions — mostly because they are usually right.
By the way’s way, I spoke to 7 disgruntled employees for this story. Not one. Well, six disgruntled employees and a former who is still bitter. But it’s hard to find a non disgruntled employee at the county these days. And Michael Hernandez, as capable as he is at helping the mayor improve his numbers, cannot ‘handle’ me like he handled the Univision reporter on the Juan Zapata story. You should grow balls and sign your name to your ridiculous defensive assertions.
Are you saying this is not a legitimate story? I guess we will see in coming weeks if there are changes or more “resignations.”
Thanks for your support.
Love, Ladra
Michael Hernandez is too busy writing the “politically correct” script to keep Gimenez form speaking impromptu. His dedication for getting his boss re-elected trumps any attention towards the organization he really works for.