Union releases web video critical of administration
The Coral Gables Police Department is supposed to be a force 204 strong. But there are currently 37 vacancies as dozens of officers scatter to other departments for better wages and working conditions — creating a 20% shortage. In just the patrol division, the number shortage is 40%, union leaders say.
And more officers are leaving soon.
At least 28 officers have left in the last year and 15 more have applied to other departments, including one who leaves next week to Coral Springs Police, said Chris Challenger, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police, which posted a video on YouTube Monday that criticizes both the police chief and Mayor Vince Lago for lying to residents about the situation and letting the department flounder.
“The heart of any city beats within is police department,” the video begins. “Currently, The City Beautiful’s pulse is fading. The once robust and proud Coral Gables Police Department is now a shadow of its former self, grappling with low morale, inadequate pay and benefits and an exodus of its finest officers.”
The video posted Monday shows video footage of Lago and Chief Ed Hudak at a town hall meeting in 2022 and a 2023 commission meeting where both insisted that everything was just fine, even as then-candidate campaigned on the shortage. “Mayor Lago and Chief Hudak downplayed the claims, saying that only three officers had left and not the mass exodus that was reported.
“The Coral Gables Police Department is in a state of crisis,” the narrator says. “The early warnings were ignored, the problems downplayed and now we are facing the consequences.”
Neither Lago nor Hudak responded to calls and text messages from Political Cortadito.
Commissioner Ariel Fernandez, who Lago called a liar when he talked about the shortage during last year’s campaign, was also mentioned in the video. Sort of a nod because he was right.
“I have been raising my concerns with the number of police vacancies since my campaign” Fernandez said. “Vince Lago used a commission meeting last year to ‘prove’ I was making something out of nothing. A year later he has once again been proven wrong, and my concerns have been validated.
“As a commissioner, I addressed these concerns with the former city manager numerous times, asking that he look into the morale issue and that the contract negotiations be prioritized. They were not,” Fernandez told Ladra. “With a new city manager leading the city now, who has extensive experience in law enforcement, I am confident we will be able to address the morale issues within the department and complete a fair contract for our officers soon.”
The police union has been at odds with the city administration and leadership for months. Their contract expired in October. Negotiations began in August. The city’s offer in December was 19.8% raise over three years. Chief Ed Hudak — who called voters last year to help the mayor’s handpicked candidates — calls it the largest increase he’s ever seen. And he may very well be right. The problem is the police have gone so many years with zero or tiny two percent raises that they need 15% this year just to catch up to other departments, Challenger told Political Cortadito.
Read related: Gables Police Chief Ed Hudak calls, pressures voters in commission race
“We’ve been so low on the totem pole that that just brings us to almost even.” Officers are leaving, he said, because in 10 years somewhere else they can be making the same salary that it takes 20 years to make in the Gables. Challenger has been in the City Beautiful 20 years.
“The young people, they say, ‘Why am I going to stay here?'”
Miami-Dade Police and the Broward Sheriff’s Office have taken the most officers. One went to Palm Beach. One went to Miami Beach. Two went to city of Miami.
One officer didn’t even wait to get sworn in as a Gables officer. He went straight from the academy to Miami Springs and even had to pay the city back the $12,000 for the academy costs, Challenger said.
Add to the exodus the nine experienced officers who have retired, either early or not. Dispatchers have also left because the pay is better elsewhere.
And Lago and Hudak lie to residents and commissioners about the situation, Challenger said.
The five new police officers Lago promised last year are part of the 15 unfunded positions in the department. There are no new police officers. If Lago says that five more officers will be added next year, there will be 20 unfunded positions.
“Those 15 positions were supposed to be our new Downtown unit,” Challenger told Political Cortadito. The city is using specialized units — motor patrol, bike patrol, traffic investigators — to fill in and create a presence downtown. So they can say they have a Downtown unit.
“When someone says they don’t see any motor units at Gables High, it’s true. It’s because they’re downtown, for appearances,” Challenger said, referring to question that arose at the last meeting about the traffic enforcement and student safety at the school.
Read related: Coral Gables commission pay raise is red herring for Lying Vince Lago
The police overtime is through the roof, he added. The mayor might say the city makes it up in the saved salaries and benefits for the 37 officers who have fled, but that only means that some young officers are doubling up shifts, and then coming in the next day again, which could be dangerous, Challenger added.
Morale has never been lower. According to a morale survey done by the FOP last summer, 77% of the 143 rank and file officers who participated in the poll said they were extremely or moderately dissatisfied with pay and benefits. Only 17% said they felt the assignment/transfer/promotion process was fair and 72% said the communication between leadership and the officers was poor.
Only 14% of the 143 officers who voted — and 60% of those have been with the city 10 years or less, showing a drain of experience — said the department had an ethical culture that treated them fairly.
That’s one of the reasons why Commissioner Melissa Castro created the city’s morale committee at the last commission meeting, in March. “Almost every day of the week, an officer stops me to tell me what’s going on,” she told Ladra this week.
There is nothing on the agenda for next week’s meeting about the police shortage. Or there wasn’t on the original draft agenda. Castro said she asked for an item to be added and for the chief to respond.
”Enough is enough. If you pretend something is not happening you can’t fix it,” she said.
The morale committee has already met once and there are boxes being placed in all departments for comments, anonymous or not, to go to the committee. Castro also said that the IT department is working on have a web submission page where someone’s IP address is not tracked so employees can submit ideas or complaints anonymously.
Castro also wants to revisit the city’s extra payments to the pension fund, above what’s required because the mayor has been trying to fully fund it for years. It’s his “legacy.” That and the proposed mobility hub.
But is it really necessary to have it at 100%? Is everybody going to retire at the same time? At the end of fiscal 2023, the average funded ratio for public pension funds in the U.S. was reportedly 78.1%, up from 74.9% in fiscal 2022.
“If you can’t pay your light bill, are you going to make an extra payment on your mortgage,” Castro asks. “We’re 20% down on police. We need to make sure our house is in order.”
Castro doesn’t know if she has the votes of the other two amigos. Certainly Lago wouldn’t support her and Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson just follows his lead blindly. But the other two are possibles.
“I can’t be the only one thinking this way,” Castro said. “It’s embarrassing.”
Challenger said the argument about the unfunded liability is bogus and that the pension, which was once woefully underfunded, is now healthy and strong.
“We don’t need to be 100% funded. You are basically taking it away from the current employees.”
Maybe the city should take away some from Chief Hudak, who has had a 40% increase in his salary from 2018’s annual of $166,219 to the latest available figure of $233,237.
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How is it possible to have so many vacancies in the ritziest neighborhood in the United States?? This has to be fake. Can anyone verify that the department lost that many officers?
If this happens to be true, it’s definitely more than pay. There are some underlying issues that need to be looked into.
Ladra ,
I do not think personal attacks on each other as posters should be allowed unless directed at me .
I bring them upon myself and when every GF I have had has broken up with me while screaming ” I would not wish you on anyone ” and I actually removed the mirrors in my house as would start arguing with myself you know I do not mind it .
For others to go at it takes away fom the forum.
Carmen ,
”Over three decades, thousands of Florida police officers and prison guards were given a second chance. More than 500 were subsequently decertified after engaging in further misconduct, the Naples Daily News reported in an investigative piece by Devan Patel. The majority of the complaints against those officers were criminal in nature, but only a few were charged. Some experts say a problem in the hiring process is that applicants are not held to the higher standards and expectations of law enforcement.
To be hired as a law enforcement officer, Florida law requires agencies to ensure officers are of “good moral character.” What that constitutes is left to the discretion of the agency, said Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokesperson Greta Plessinger”
https://www.criminallegalnews.org/news/2021/jul/15/florida-police-accused-misconduct-given-second-chances/
Pepi Cancio we appreciate your interest in becoming a police officer. Your poor writing skills and lack of understanding of what is really going on inside the police dept would make you a great candidate for hire. Please submit your application online. We look forward to having you see the realities the police dept is facing. Welcome to the Transfer Portal!
Our police chief was arrested for a felony? How is he even an officer let alone, running our police force? This is insane, if true. I thought there is a rule that wouldn’t allow someone to get hired with a felony past. Someone please confirm! Hello Mayor?
Is anyone NOT talking about Lago?? He’s in charge! He is the one that was acting like a cry baby at the commission meeting begging to appoint Hudak as Chief over more the qualified. He is neck deep in real estate scandals right now and currently defending a recall. He is a typical Miami Dade politician scammer, liar, and sleazy snake.
Coral Gables standards not as high as one would think —
”Coral Gables police chief exchanged friendly texts with a suspect: a UM football coach”
The police chief of Coral Gables exchanged over a dozen text messages with a University of Miami football coach amid an investigation into allegations that the coach exposed himself to an employee on the school’s cleaning staff in 2022.
The text messages, an unusually close exchange between a police chief and the suspect in a criminal matter, show Police Chief Ed Hudak arranging a private meeting with the coach, who was at the time the suspect in a “lewd and lascivious offense” case, according to a police report.
The texts were revealed in a December report from the Baltimore Sun, which published an investigation into the coach, Joshua Gattis, who joined the University of Maryland football team as an offensive coordinator after he was fired from UM last year.
The messages between the chief and the coach spotlight the cozy, decades-long relationship between Hudak and the university — his alma mater — where he serves as a mentor and security adviser for the Miami Hurricanes, a role that includes traveling with the football team on chartered flights to away games. Hudak said he is not paid for his involvement with the university, which is the largest employer in Coral Gables.
https://news.yahoo.com/coral-gables-police-chief-exchanged-220555610.html
I know 4 gables female cops that talk, a lot. One is a sergeant and says Hudak is always coming on to her and another female in her squad. They both have been wanting to file complaints but know their career will be over. This guy is a PIG and not only gets protection from the corrupt mayor, but reading some of these stories, he is destroying our city. Meanwhile, he gets raises while his officers are some of the lowest paid in the county. I met him at the bakery next to the precinct and he gave me serious creeps. Somebody needs to expose him before he exposes him.
It’s time for a new Chief of Police. Hudak has done nothing positive for the police department. If you think otherwise, then please provide examples. The poor morale says it all. He’s not a leader; never has been. His motto, “Divide & Conquer.” The ones who do “follow” him are weak minded, uneducated, and fearful of him. Look at his “followers,” all useless and have done nothing in their careers. If you think otherwise, then please provide examples. It’s all about the facts.
#VONC2024
I would want to be a police officer in Coral Gables and I bet that there is tons of takers, dont believe all of this article, Makes no sense to say that a mayor or a police chief can’t or will not spend the money to maintain proper levels than to spend in overtime unless it benefits the current officers in the force, CG police does a great job. Only people that benefit in unions are the bad apples that cant get fired or the bosses.
The reason why HR, city staffers, and others do not dare speak up is because Hudak is known to aggressively go after anyone that dares complain against him. Just look at the history. Those that have, were fired within months. There is fear, big time to not cross his path and since Lago sleeps with him, even worse. Hudak was arrested for a felony in his early rookie days, which puts him as the only police chief in Florida with a criminal record. He still currently gets under the table money from UM which is unethical and a scam, has been under fed investigation for forging documents to fly on planes armed, and shows up at a female officers, woman only, pool party in his uniform using his police car while on duty because he couldn’t resist the urge to be a creep. When the manager tried to discipline him, she got fired. The union needs to vote him out or it will never happen.
This is yet another example of a very difficult but typical municipal issue that does not get easier to solve by screaming and blaming one another.
The issue of how to police a community is contentious in virtually every community. How many officers are enough? How should they be deployed? How much should they be paid?
While it is certainly fair that ordinary officers have organizational advocates in the form of police unions these unions are in their role as advocates not necessarily unbiased in their assessment of how to answer these challenging questions.
In my previous experience as an elected official in another city I never encountered a municipal union that did not advocate for more staff, higher compensation and better communication and morale. While I think these advocates have an important role in resolving staffing and compensation questions we should not forget that they are advocates and thus not unbiased.
Ed Hudak has destroyed the CGPD. First he hires a female from Bakersfield,California, for assistant chief, skipping over several worthy candidates within the department. He admits he made a mistake with it, and what does he do… hires another assistant chief from Miami Dade County. Skipping over Raul Pedroso, who is now the chief in Alexandria, Virginia. That’s to start. Ed has single handily ruined and separated the department for nothing more than the good of himself. He has been known to do this throughout his career just to get ahead of everyone. He has skipped supervisors who earned a promotion to help his buddies get promoted instead. He implemented a disastrous “downtown” unit which has all of the specialized units covering the district. Nobody is out anymore investigating traffic matters. He changed the patrol schedule several times because officers are leaving to other departments, because the officers don’t have a competitive schedule. Oh ya, he sat at the negotiation table and negotiated AGAINST the same troops he supposedly leads. Hahahaha ya sure!!! Discipline’s people different depending on who you are, not what you did. Blames the FOP for everything that has gone on over the last 1.5 years. I can keep going but I’ll stop since you citizens get the point.
If the Chief of Police is lying about these vacancy numbers and hasn’t produced results, then that is enough for an immediate termination. This is ridiculous and beyond concerning. The Gables police department has always been the premier dept in South Florida. To hear this is happening there is beyond concerning. The Chief and HR director should be terminated as soon as possible. Hopefully, the new City Manager takes immediate and swift action. If not, he needs to go too! This is unacceptable and speaks of the cesspool of corruption in Coral Gables. Hopefully, the City Commission starts removing these cancers. That Chief looks like a bag of rocks every time I see him getting coffee at Vicky’s Bakery. It’s no wonder the department has taken a turn for the worse. The Chief represents the police department. Get rid of him and get a chief that presents themself professionally and honorably. Pathetic! Sad day in Coral Gables.
Longtime resident who resides in cocoplum. This doesn’t surprise me one bit. I remember when Hudak spoke at an association meeting in cocoplum. From the start he rubbed me the wrong way. I saw right through him. He was asked questions and he was beating around the bush. Not answering what was asked. Then I see officers within cocoplum and they all say the same thing. He says one thing, but does another. I also hear through the grapevine that he has placed blame on the FOP instead of looking in the mirror. That’s was PSYCHOPATHS do. He and Vincent Lago both need to hit the road. Crime is up, officers are down, and Ed is hiding. Recipe for disaster.
None of this surprises me. Makes me rather sad. Lago and Hudak are playing off each other so they don’t look bad. A Public Safety Facade .. when you think it cant get any worse.. it does. Coral Gables need a fresh start.