What's with Sweetwater and those free damn police cars?

Last week we left off with a set of documents we unearthed where the City of Sweetwater's then mayor, Jose "Pepe" Diaz, begged the City of South Miami for some of their old police cars.  While I can't understand why the hell Sweetwater would want to get cars from a place like South Miami, what makes the whole deal make sense is that at the time of the request, former City of South Miami police chief, Orlando Martinez de Castro then deputy director of public works in South Miami, was also working in some capacity at the City of Sweetwater so essentially he was giving the cars to himself.

With that said, one of our readers from way back chimed in yesterday on the topic of Sweetwater and their relentless pursuit of free cars...

Straw Buyer,

You need to also look at the City of Miami for the same scheme. Back in 2010, Mayor Regalado and Commissioner Gort were trying to donate Police cruisers to the City of Sweetwater. The former Purchasing Director objected to the donation and recommended that these vehicles be publicly auctioned off and if the City of Sweetwater were so interested they could do by participating and acquiring it through a competitive process. At that time, then City Manager Carlos Migoya publicly attacked the former Purchasing Director during the City Commission Meeting held on 2/25/10. If you get the minutes, you will see for yourself. They got rid of the Purchasing Director because he was too honest and ethical. This has been an on-going scheme of vehicles being donated and then sold for profit. Get the minutes and see for yourself.

Sincerely,

North Observer

No kidding?  Vehicles donated then sold for profit?  I wonder if that's the case over at Sweetwater?  After all, if they really wanted the cars for parts, like the North Observer said, why wouldn't they just buy them at auction rather than go begging for them and leave themselves wide open to ridicule and this kind of speculation?  Furthermore, the letter from our last post where then mayor of Sweetwater, Jose "Pepe" Diaz, asks for the cars for parts to keep their fleet of cars going makes no sense whatsoever as the labor cost of swapping the engines far outweighs what the cars are worth.  Also, one must consider what value a high mile drive train has coming out of a car that's been retired from a police department because of it's age and high miles?  

Somethings haywire here, we're sifting through loads of paperwork now looking for an answer, in the interim, tomorrow we'll take a look at how the mayor's race over in South Miami is shaping up.

Peeling back the layers of the onion...

As you can deduce from my infrequent posting lately, I've had my hands full with non blog related business.  In between juggling the responsibilities of real life, I've still managed to get my hands on some documents that show the incestuous relationship between the City of Sweetwater which as of late is constantly been in the news because of it's Mayor's arrest and the way the mayor's administration and family ran the city like a "criminal enterprise".  With that said, we've heard for years about Sweetwater's relationship with the City of South Miami's former police chief, Orlando Martinez de Castro, while we haven't found a smoking gun yet, we recently came upon a few documents that show just how tight they were.

Take a look at this letter from former Sweetwater mayor and now sitting county commissioner Jose "Pepe" Diaz to the then city manager of South Miami, Charles Scurr, where Diaz asks if the city has any police cars they can give to Sweetwater allegedly for "parts" to fix their ailing fleet of police cars...

That's all well and good, take a look at the date this request was written and faxed over by the mayor of Sweetwater...

The letter was written on January 6, 2000 and then somehow, just the day before, Orlando Martinez de Castro who was then the deputy director of Public Works for South Miami, just happened to send South Miami's city manager this list of "deadlined" vehicles...

What a coincidence?  Sweetwater needs some cars and it just so happens that the day before the request, Martinez de Castro furnishes South Miami with a list of cars that are just laying around?  Check the date...

I guess South Miami was so flush with funds that they could afford to give away cars?  NICE!  It's convenient that the city that they gave the cars away to for free is non other than the city of Sweetwater which gave de Castro a job in their police department after he was run out of the City of Miami PD on a rail.

I wonder where these cars that were gifted to Sweetwater ended up?