Major Rene Landa, ass kisser extraordinaire or ultimate smart ass?

Last week when we left off discussing the email that embattled City of South Miami police chief, Orlando Martinez de Castro, sent out basically apologizing for the mess that he created by steering city business to his wife's tag agency, we mentioned that were going to discuss City of South Miami's Major Rene Landa's response to the chief's email.  Before we get to Landa's email, let's take another look at the heart of the chief's email...

He goes on to spout some bullshit about me being a scumbag and how the Miami Herald reporter has an agenda and is "not their friend", whatever the hell that means.  From the email...

Less than two hours after the chief sends out this mea culpa email, Major Rene Landa responds with this gem...

Now on the first read this response makes the Major seem like the ultimate ass kisser but upon reading it a second time, there seems to be another dimension to this email, specifically this part...

Chief: I know your ethics and there is nothing for you to apologize for.

The way I read that is very simple, to me it says I know what you're all about and who you are and that you knowingly steered the city business to your wife's tag agency.  And that bit about the reporter, it's as clear as day, the chief gave him an order and he's going to follow it.  At least that's the way I see it, so rather than label Major Landa as an ass kisser  I think I'd say he's far smarter than the chief and that he's simply being sarcastic in his answer to the chief's apology email.

Major Rene Landa

Regardless of which way you see it, with the chief's days numbered, my sources tell me that at the very least Major Landa is going to be appointed acting chief during the search for a replacement and may even be selected as the current chief's permanent replacement.  I guess we'll have to wait and see what the next few weeks hold in store for the chief...

The ultimate irony, ICE freeing detainees because of budget cuts!

Literally just days after ICE deported former South Miami resident Warren Papove to his native Canada, they turn around and release all sorts of people they were detaining because of looming budget cuts!  From the Huffington Post article...

WASHINGTON -- Immigration and Customs Enforcement released some people from immigrant detention facilities across the country on Monday in response to looming federal budget cuts.
"In order to make the best use of our limited detention resources in the current fiscal climate and to manage our detention population under current congressionally mandated levels, ICE has directed field offices to review the detained population to ensure it is in line with available funding," agency spokeswoman Gillian Christensen said in a statement.
ICE and the Department of Homeland Security are analyzing spending as congressional inaction increases the likelihood of so-called budget sequestration -- across-the-board spending cuts that begin on March 1. Detaining immigrants is an expensive business, with an average daily cost of $122 to $164 per person, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Alternatives, including ankle bracelets and parole, are far cheaper.
Christensen declined to say how many undocumented immigrants were freed on Monday or to give their locations. She said they have been "placed on an appropriate, more cost-effective form of supervised release." ICE did not drop the cases against the individuals and will still deport them if ordered by an immigration judge, she said.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano foreshadowed the announcement earlier in the day at a press briefing. She said ICE "will be forced" under sequestration to reduce detention and removal of undocumented immigrants.
"All I can say is, look, we're doing our very best to minimize the impacts of sequester," Napolitano told reporters at the White House. "But there’s only so much I can do. I'm supposed to have 34,000 detention beds for immigration. How do I pay for those?"
Immigrant rights groups began buzzing Monday with reports from detention centers, where they said low-priority detainees had been released in large numbers. Activists have long called for ICE to release some detainees, either to allow them to stay in the United States or to keep them out of prison-like detention centers until they are deported. The rights groups have argued that the Obama administration has violated its stated principle of focusing on the most dangerous undocumented immigrants in favor of padding numbers by going after low-level offenders instead, as reported by USA Today earlier this month.
The Obama administration has repeatedly said it will apply more prosecutorial discretion to immigration, releasing immigrants deemed low-priority so it can focus resources on those who are potentially dangerous or otherwise a high priority. The administration also implemented the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that has so far allowed more than 150,000 undocumented young people -- often called Dreamers -- to stay in the United States, work legally and drive.
According to ICE, the administration has increased the proportion of criminal immigrants it has expelled, while setting a record for deportations overall.
Advocacy groups said they were pleased that ICE released some detained undocumented immigrants.
"The people being released today are people ICE could have released months -- or in some cases, years -- ago," Mohammad Abdollahi, a member of the Dreamer-led National Immigrant Youth Alliance, said in a statement. "If ICE adhered to its own policies, they would have. As the president continues to push for immigration reform, his record on deportations will only stand in greater contrast with the policies he has proposed."

Honestly folks, WTF!  Consider how many tens of thousands of dollars our government spent on the detention of Mr. Papove over the last eight or so months, needlessly I might add, is it any wonder they're going broke?!  To think, if Mr Papove's detention was delayed a few weeks, they may have released him!

A happy end to the Warren Papove story...

As we mentioned last week, former South Miami resident Warren Papove is finally back in his native Canada after being detained at the Krome Detention Center for seven and a half months.  Mr. Papove was kind enough to send us this message via email regarding his detention, the people that put him in Krome and his subsequent return to Canada...

Orlando Martinez de Castro must be proud. Fidel and Raul - not so much. my younger sister, Melissa  had an easier time leaving Cuba  she didn't get there until the 10th of February and was home free on the 18th. This was most fortunate for me because on the 19th when i was finally allowed to leave she was able to finish de Castro's job for him. After spending dozens of thousands of tax payers' dollars keeping me on ice for 7.5 months they were frugal enough to save $4oo for transportation for the last leg of my departure.  I was left at the Vancouver airport at 8:oo pm b.c. time with 65 cents and a bag of clothes that bob had left for me in July, they were July clothes. They wouldn't allow him to bring anything like, for instance, a jacket for me. They even denied a final visitation.  The information provided for 20 odd previous visits was suddenly insufficient. 
So, after flying to la and then to Vancouver that was it. Mr  Schoepp of the Canadian consulate had assured me that i would be sent to Edmonton ab. which is my original hometown.  Ice's Nunez also assured me the same. iI guess that's so i wouldn't resist although i had  willingly signed consent on Aug 9 after being denied access to a judge. I also signed again on Dec 17 after finally seeing a judge and asking him to order my removal.  This was because transcripts of a previous court hearing' which would have secured a Miami release were denied to me.  I don't know why anyone would resist release to anywhere after 7.5 months of unnecessary detention,but de Castro and his ice buddy Romon Bado have names to live up to. 
Luckily Luis had recently located my sister for me and lucky for me that the real Castros aren't as rabid about illegally holding Canadians as the wanna-be de Castro.  A lady at the Vancouver airport let me use her phone and my sister, having arrived home from Cuba late the night before, was awake and able to arrange a flight from Vancouver to Edmonton and pick me up from the airport 20 miles south of  the city at 12:30 am local time with my other younger sister and a jacket it was 10 degrees f.  
Note to the Canadian consulate--- lying about  destinations might be a necessary precaution' i suppose. lying about a Canadian based assistance  package might be necessary, i suppose, but i would suggest that including means for a phone call and a jacket be included for any Florida to Canada re;locations in the future, especially if they take place in February.  After having spent close to 100 thousand dollars on an unnecessarily long detention it would be wrong to saddle the tax;payers with the additional cost of a jacket.  Would any of them really opposed allowing bob to having brought me one as he tried to do?  Hey Castro I'd also respectfully like to suggest that as a courtesy to other otherwise law abiding, stadium subsidizing Canadians you do the math first. When acting on a future Newman mc kane tip, remember it takes 9 months to act on it and 7.5 months to execute. please time this for summertime arrivals if jackets aren't included in the equation.

What a mess.  At least Mr. Papove is now with his family, out of reach from the scumbags in South Miami that started this whole debacle.  Good luck to you Mr. Papove!

That pesky email again...

Someone sent us hidden camera footage of City of South Miami police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro reading yesterdays blog post...

Just kidding!  We left off yesterday discussing an email that the embattled City of South Miami police chief, Orlando Martinez de Castro sent out to former city manager Hector Mirabile, Major Rene Landa and Major Ana Baixauli where he apologized for the mess that he had created by sending city business over to his wife's tag agency, in his own words...

Hector, I am shame that I have put u and Ana in this ridiculous position.  It should have never happen.

Disregard the horrific spelling and grammar, the message is still the same, the chief is fessing up for creating this mess by sending the city business over to his wife's tag agency despite the fact that he's vehemently denied doing so both to the media, the ethics commission and his own police department.  What the chief's given us and the ethics commission now is as close as we're going to get to a smoking gun in this case.

Now, let's look at the rest of the email in it's entirety, as always click on the image to enlarge...

Honestly, is that the best the chief can do?  After apologizing for making the mess then he turns and attacks the Miami Herald reporter that wrote about my story then goes on to call me a con man and a scumbag.  Let's get something out of the way real quick, put yourself at ease fatman, I'm a scumbag, a fraudster, crook, conman and whatever else you want to call me.  Great, labeling me like that does nothing to dilute any of the things that you've done which are far worse that being a fraudster, crook or conman.  What makes you even worse than the criminals that you allegedly go after is that you engage in illegal and unethical behaviors while wearing the badge of a law enforcement officer who has sworn to uphold the laws and constitution of this country, that in my book makes you the worst kind of criminal.

While the chief and his cronies are trying to figure out how to spin their way out of the latest chapter of this mess, I'll leave you with this quote from the former governor of the great state of New York...

"Never talk when you can nod, and never nod when you can wink, and never write an e-mail because it's death.  You're giving prosecutors all the evidence we need."

Elliott Spitzer, interview with ABC news, circa 2006 as Attorney General of New York.

We'll be back Monday where we'll look at Major Landa's response to the chief's email and try to figure out whether he's the ultimate ass kisser or the wittiest and most sarcastic member of the South Miami police force.

Embattled City of South Miami Police Chief Orlando Martinez de Castro issues a mea culpa regarding the Airways Auto Tag agency scandal.

Just when things were getting a little boring regarding the embattled City of South Miami Police Chief, Orlando Martinez de Castro, and the mess he created by sending city business over to his wife's tag agency, we get an anonymous email that manages to stir the pot up again.  

Now before we go ahead and post up the email, think about the circumstances, I bust the city sending business over to the chief's wife's tag agency, a tag agency well outside the City of South Miami city limits.  According to my sources and the witnesses that I interviewed, the Chief routinely sent city business to his wife's tag agency, not only did he have people from the city travel ten or so miles to his wife's tag agency to transact business but according to several of the tag agency's ex employees, the chief would bring home tag work from the city and give it to his wife who would bring it back the following evening for the chief to bring back to the city.  All well and good, right?  As we now know, my version of events was good enough for not only the Miami Herald to pick up but it was credible enough that the Miami Dade County Ethics Commission went ahead and conducted an investigation into the matter and ultimately ended up charging the chief with four ethics violations.

Now, let's put the shoe on the other foot for a moment and look at things from the Chief's perspective.  According to the Chief, he had no idea that the city was taking business over to his wife's tag agency and in fact it was Major Ana Baixauli who approved and conducted these transactions without his knowledge.  Ok, for the sake of argument, let's be fair and say that the chief's explanation is plausible.  Now, if you were in the chief's position, how would you feel about this situation?  Think about it for a moment, some jerk with a blog on the last page of the internet outs some embarrassing business transactions between your employer and your wife's business, the Miami Herald picks up the story and further spreads this embarrassing story and all the while according to his explanation, he had nothing to do with the whole deal and even worse, the whole mess was orchestrated by one of his underlings, Major Baixauli, how would you feel if you were the chief?  I know if I was in his shoes, I'd be rip roaring mad, I'd of walked into the police department and ripped Major Baixauli a new asshole and held her responsible for what went down.  

Strangely enough, that's not what happened.  Instead of holding those that were allegedly accountable for this mess that was visited upon the chief, the chief goes ahead and sends out an email apologizing for the mess that he created, take a look at the email for yourselves...

Wait a minute!  WTF!

The chief's apologizing for sending business over to his wife's tag agency!  I thought it was Baixauli's fault?  What would the chief be apologizing if it wasn't his fault?  Why the hell isn't there an email or any kind of record for the chief reprimanding the Major?  LOL!

This is only the beginning of the email, we'll discuss the rest of the email tomorrow.  Till then, thanks again to the reader who sent me the email and as always, if you have something you'd like to send me anonymously, go to www.silentsender.com and fire away!

The Warren Papove saga comes to an end.

We've discussed the bizarre case of Mr. Warren Papove several times over the last year, a South Miami resident who was somehow detained for doing work without a permit but was then picked up by I.C.E. (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and was sitting at the Krome detention center for nearly seven months waiting to be deported back to his native Canada.  Unfortunately for Mr. Papove, he was collateral damage in the war between police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro and the folks in South Miami that are trying to oust him.  Despite the charges against Mr. Papove were dropped several months ago and the fact that he was supposed to be released, he remained in custody until just recently.  Last night, we got this email from one of our readers...

They sent him to Canada this morning with only a sweatshirt to keep him from freezing. Seven months ago I took to Krome a carry on bag with clothes in it, which they did not give him. They sent him to Vancouver, 1600 miles from his home, with no money, no clothes in the middle of a Canadian winter, Thank you Orlando Martinez de Castro, Ramon Bado and crew. You kept him far longer than any of the other Canadians who came and went through Krome in the 7 1/2 months he was there. You put him in the gay wing there. Your witch doctors treated his ailments...

Fuck.  Why in the hell would they send this man to Vancouver broke and penniless in the dead of winter?  Honestly, what the fuck kind of barbaric immigration system do we have here?  What happened to Warren was just wrong, wrong on so many levels that it can't be explained here, from the back room scheming by the South Miami Police that got him detained to the archaic legal records system that somehow was unable to find a single document or transcript to help get this poor man out of Krome.  I don't wish what happened to this man on my worst enemy, all I can say to those involved with putting this man in Krome and subsequently having him deported is that payback is going to be a bitch.

City of South Miami Swat team shuts down Sunset Place...

As the title states, last Friday the City of South Miami Swat team responded to the Shops at Sunset Place where they were told that there was a man carrying a rifle.  From the Miami New Times story...

Police Swarm Sunset Place Because a Man Had an Umbrella

By Kyle Munzenrieder
Published Fri., Feb. 15 2013 at 4:45 PM

Sunset Place, the South Miami open air shopping mall where teenage cliches go to die, was riled up today because a man was carrying an umbrella.

Dozens of police and a SWAT team swarmed the mall because they thought the umbrella-carrying man was in fact holding a rifle.

"It seemed like every single cop in Miami was right there," witness Kristina McGuire, 20, told NBC Miami.

"Miami police and SWAT team at Sunset Place! What's going on?" tweeted Alvaro Vega, according to The Miami Herald.

Managers called employees to inform them of the situation.

Meanwhile, students at the nearby University of Miami were warned at about 3:10 p.m. by the school's police department of the situation.

Of course, the fracas died down once authorities realized the guy was carrying an umbrella. It is rainy out today, after all.

"Nothing is going on," South Miami Major Ana Baixauli told The Herald in a bit of an understatement. "It was just a scare."

Considering all the crazy gunman shit that's been going on lately, it's hard to blame the South Miami PD for making this kind of mistake, on the other hand, I'm told that the PD has been practicing just such a scenario in this same mall over the last few months.  Taking that into account as well as the fact that chief Orlando Martinez de Castro purchased 50 M16's and had them converted into semi automatic rifles, it makes you wonder if this wasn't a simple case of a bunch of amped up cops that were all dressed up and ready with no place to go?  Also, why does a 30 member police department need 50 M16s to patrol a 2.5 square mile city?  Who knows.  I guess we should be thankful that the "gunman" was only carrying an umbrella, albiet one that allegedly had "a handle that could be mistaken for a firearm or some other kind of weapon" according to police.  The moral of this story?  DO NOT WALK INTO SOUTH MIAMI WITH AN UMBRELLA!

One can judge a man by the company he keeps.

So Greek playwright Euripides said.  If indeed that is true, then what can we say about the company embattled city of South Miami police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro keeps?  If indeed the person he copied in the email we discussed earlier this week was Camillo Padreda, then what does this say about the chief?  Before we get all philosophical, let's first look into Mr. Padreda's past, one of our readers was kind enough to forward us this transcript of a deposition that Mr Padreda gave back when he when he was a government witness against then Hialeah mayor Raul Martinez.  It's lengthy but worth the read and will make you wonder why the hell the chief is affiliated with this guy let alone let him hang around city hall.  Take a look and we'll discuss the highlights tomorrow...

  Camillo Padreda Testimony against Hialeah mayor Raul Martinez by   The Straw Buyer

Who is padcam@aol.com? The answer is in our comments section...

We left off last week with this lingering question, who is the person that City of South Miami Police Chief Orlando Martinez de Castro copying in an email from his city email account while soliciting business for his wife's insurance agency?  The chief carbon copied someone at "padcam@aol.com" in his email and we asked our readers who that email belonged to and we were given the answer in one of the comments on last Friday's post...

padcam = cam-pad = Camilo Padreda:
convicted felon, former president of Latin American Builders Assn., funded political campaigns & legal defense for Valerie Newman ("La Gorda"), tight personal friends with your chief.
Some old history:http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2003-01-30/news/a-friend-indeed/

Yikes!  Another reader goes on to say...

Why read the New Times article when when you can read Camilo's sworn testimony under cross examination of Raul Martinez's defense attorneys. Padreda copped a plea to falsifying a HUD financial statement so the Feds would not charge his daughter and under the plea he agreed to spill the beans on everybody. Padreda admitted to bribing County Commissioner Jorge Valdez, bribing City of Miami Commissioner Demetrio Perez (in Al Cardenas's office) missappropriating funds from Jefferson Savings Bank in Texas, hiding a 100K profit from a HUD property (Porta del Sol) in the form of a real estate commission, stiffing subcontractors out of 1.4M when he declared Bankruptcy, only to have his wife buy a 535K medical office weeks later, and falsifying a cost statement to HUD, His daughter was about to get indicted so Camilo copped a plea and agreed to sing on everybody including Raul Martinez so she wouldn't. This is the same "best friend of the (Miami) police who got Hector Mirabile promoted from Lieutennant to Major. Your hard earned tax dollars went to buy carpet from the Gibson Bethyl community center from his wife Janet Padreda's carpet company. Instead of installing padding for the weight room like what was budgeted, every big wig in the PD was getting their office measured for new carpet.

HUH?  What the hell is a law enforcement officer, let alone a chief of police doing copying this sort of unsavory fellow in emails sent from his city email address?!  Once again, from our comments section...

The answer to the question is the relationship between the OMG, CAMPAD and the acting manager goes back sometime.

I suppose "OMG" is the new moniker for Orlando Martinez de Castro, fair enough...

OMG joined LBA (despite not being a B) back when CamPad was boss and OMG was unemployed.

Nice.  Once again, I'll ask, if indeed padcam@aol.com is this Camillo Padreda character, why is the chief interacting with him while on city time let alone at all while in an official capacity?  And if this commenter is correct and this guys wife's carpet company is doing business with the city, his past certainly doesn't reflect well on anyone doing business with him or any of his affiliated companies.  We'll have to take a look at this carpet contract business and see what we can find.

The email that earned City of South Miami Police Chief Orlando Martinez de Castro one of his ethics charges...

After literally months of trying, I was finally able to get a copy of the email that earned embattled City of South Miami police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro one of the many charges from the Miami Dade County Ethics Commission.  From the Ethics Commission press release regarding the chief...

Airways is owned by Ileana Martinez de Castro, the police chief’s wife. She also owns Beck & Lo’s Insurance Agency, Inc. Last April, Chief de Castro used his city e-mail account to solicit business for his wife’s agency. The case will proceed to a public hearing.

That bit about the chief's wife owning the insurance agency isn't exactly correct as this document from Sunbiz shows...

  Orlando Martinez de Castro Insurance Agency by  

Based on what we see here, the chief himself is an officer of this insurance agency, regardless, let's take a look at that email...

  OMC Solicits Business by  

Now this email raises a few interesting points, first we clearly determine that the chief was sending these emails that had nothing to do with his job as police chief during business hours while he was being paid by the tax payers of the City of South Miami, specifically Wednesday April 6th at 4:19 pm.  The email is addressed to jrodriguez2813@comcast.net who I presume is someone named Jossie Rodriguez that's got something to do with the insurance business, as well as two others, the chief's wife and someone else that I was unable to identify whose email address is listed as "padcam@aol.com".  Any of our readers have any idea who this padcam email belongs to or why the chief copied this person on this email?  If you do, drop us a line.

So there you have it, granted this is just one email we found where the chief was conducting business that has nothing to do with the city on city time using his city email and city assets which is clearly a violation of his employment contract.  As I said yesterday, if a professional investigator was given the task of going through the last four or so years of the chief's emails and phone records I can only imagine how many other instances like this one they'd find.  The question again is why hasn't this been done yet?

Taking a closer look at embattled City of South Miami Police Chief Orlando Martinez de Castro's employment contract.

With all the noise around embattled City of South Miami police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro's pending ethics issues and his problems with the city commission, I think it's worthwhile to take a closer look at his employment contract.  We first posted his employment contract during our last discussion regarding the grievance the chief filed for having the parking and code enforcement departments taken away from him, this time, I'm particularly interested in section 1.2 of the contract which states...

1.2 Employee shall report to the City Manager. Employee hereby accepts such employment. During the Term of Employee's employment by City, Employee shall (a) devote substantially all of his full business time, abilities and attention exclusively to the diligent performance of his duties with City in a professional manner and in accordance with applicable law and (b) not engage in any other business activity, whether or not such activity is pursued for profit or advantage; provided, however, that Employee may engage in personal and/or passive investment and charitable activities and continue to operate Employee's security consulting business (OMC Consultants, Inc., a Florida corporation), so long as such activities do not materially interfere with the performance of his duties under this Agreement and do not result in a conflict of interest in regards to Employee's duties and obligations to the City. All non City related work will be done under the Employee's personal time and will not use any City asset during that time. The City shall not be held responsible or liable for any and all action taken by Employee during his activities for OMC Consultants, Inc. or other personal
engagements out of the scope of his employment.

Let's break that down:

Employee shall report to the City Manager.  

All good.

Employee hereby accepts such employment.  

Once again, all good here as well.

During the Term of Employee's employment by City, Employee shall (a) devote substantially all of his full business time, abilities and attention exclusively to the diligent performance of his duties with City in a professional manner and in accordance with applicable law and (b) not engage in any other business activity...

I don't know about this part as we have evidence that while we know the chief was on the job he was busy soliciting business for his wife's business.  From the ethics complaint...

The Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust (COE) today found probable cause that Chief Orlando Martinez de Castro violated South Miami’s “prohibition on transacting business with the city,” as well the County Conflict of Interest and Code of Ethics Ordinance’s “prohibition on exploitation of official position.”

While we know about the chief sending city business to his wife's tag agency, it's the second part regarding the conflict of interest and the "prohibition on exploitation of official business" that speaks directly to the clause in his employment contract.  It get's better, let's go back to the contract again...

...not engage in any other business activity, whether or not such activity is pursued for profit or advantage; provided, however, that Employee may engage in personal and/or passive investment and charitable activities and continue to operate Employee's security consulting business (OMC Consultants, Inc., a Florida corporation), so long as such activities do not materially interfere with the performance of his duties under this Agreement and do not result in a conflict of interest in regards to Employee's duties and obligations to the City.

Considering the evidence in the ethics complaint, this could be a bit of a problem.  The contract goes on to state...

All non City related work will be done under the Employee's personal time and will not use any City asset during that time. 

Again, from the ethics commission's press release...

Last April, Chief de Castro used his city e-mail account to solicit business for his wife’s agency.

WHOOPS!  Now remember, this isn't conjecture, it's fact, the chief used his city email address and the city's  "asset" to solicit business for his wife's insurance agency during business hours when he should have been working on city business.  That clearly puts the chief in violation of his employment contract and it least in my humble opinion gives the city grounds to fire him with cause as his contract requires.
 
Now, before the trolls come out of the woodwork and start leaving nasty comments, keep in mind that I'm one person who's done a cursory review of the chief's antics over the last couple of years.  With that said, look at the kind of crap we've uncovered that's put Martinez de Castro in the spot that he's in today.  I'm sure if a competent investigator and or law enforcement agency was put on the case they'd find much more of the same if not worse.  The question that we're left with now is why hasn't this been done yet and more importantly, why is Orlando Martinez de Castro still employed by the City of South Miami?
 

Embattled City of South Miami Police chief, Orlando Martinez de Castro, files a grievance against the City of South Miami!

That's right!  Our sources tell us that embattled City of South Miami Police Chief Orlando Martinez de Castro has filed a grievance against the city for taking the parking department away from him.  Why file a complaint against the city?  What's the big deal about the parking department?  Before we go any further, we have to examine the chief's employment contract, let's take a look...

  City of south Miami police chief orlando martinez de castro employment contract by  

Now, where in the contract does it say anything about the parking department being under the command and control of the city's police chief?  On the contrary, the original employment contract states...

shall not assume other duties and obligations as to other City functions and departments (including, but not limited to managing the general parking enforcement or information technology operations of the City),

So there's a specific exclusion in the original employment excluding the parking and IT department from the Chief's command and control.  The contract goes on to state...

except to the extent the parties mutually agree in writing to make such additional duties part of Employee'sobligations and further agree on additional compensation to be paid to Employee for performing those additional duties.

I have no knowledge of whether or not there was a written agreement to hand over these departments to the chief at a later date, but that point is irrelevant as far as I'm concerned.  Why?  Simple, the complaint the chief filed really has nothing to do with the parking department, but it has everything to do with the chief knowing that his days are numbered over at the City of South Miami.  By filing a grievance with the city, at least the way I interpret the contract, the chief will trigger an arbitration clause in his contract which in my opinion is a purely strategic move by the chief in case he gets fired.  Granted, this is pure conjecture on my part, but it seems to make sense.

We'll take a closer look at this contract tomorrow.